An issue of Polska magazine devoted to Polish emigrants in Brazil. The beginnings of Polish emigration, dating back to K. Arciszewski, are mentioned, as well as the great waves of Poles who arrived during, among others, the Great Emigration. It also mentions the most important Polish settlers and artists who became part of Brazil's civic fabric. The text is illustrated with examples of monuments, people's houses or Polish-Brazilian schools (Source: "Polska", Warsaw 1937, R: 3, no. 18, after: Jagiellonian Digital Library).

A modernised reading of the text

Poles in Brazil.

Our ties with Brazil do not date back to today or yesterday, but to the beginning of the 17th century, when Krzysztof Arciszewski left his homeland, enlisted under the Dutch banner, and from 1629 to 1639, as admiral and commander in chief of the Dutch army, defeated the Spanish and Portuguese armies in Brazil at Araaial, Bahia, Olinda and Pernambuco. Polish exiles became famous. The first wave of Poles arrived in Brazil in 1828, but on German ships and as German citizens.

After 1831, Andrzej Przewodowski, a Polish engineer, emigrated from his homeland and settled in Brazil, in the state of Bahia, where he built several monumental buildings and made a name for himself in the heroic struggle against Paraguay. In 1875, Florestan Rozwadowski's book was published in Brazil. "Government and Colonisation, or Considerations on Brazil and the Importation of Foreigners"; in this book, the author discusses the possibilities of bringing Poles to Brazil. Rozwadowski was a participant in the Hungarian uprising of 1848, and was later a major in Brazilian engineering; he was the first to take a topographic picture of the unexplored wilderness and virgin forests of the Amazon basin.

In 1863, he left Brazil to give his sabre to the Fatherland as a soldier. At the end of the 19th century, we meet Babinski in Brazil, who was the first to draw up a geological map of Brazil, and he became famous in Peru for draining silver mines. Another well-known name is that of the colonist Bodziak, who in 1892-1897 commanded a regiment of Polish insurgents during the Brazilian revolution. We also know the names of the Polish engineers who rendered a great deal of service to Brazil, building not only houses or factories and roads, but also large, sometimes unforgettable buildings.

The famous railway from Santos to São Paulo was built by Polish engineers Rymkiewicz and Brodowski. The front of the Federal Congress building was decorated by Żak, who is the author of the famous sculpture 'Sower', a monument donated to Paraná by Polish settlers. It is also known that the artist-sculptor Landowski is the author of the idea of erecting a statue of Christ on the summit of Corcovado above Rio de Janeiro. The giant port on the Amazon was built by the engineer Rymkiewicz. There is also a long list of scholars who have rendered great services to Brazil through their research, which sometimes lasted for decades, and through dangerous voyages of exploration.

Suffice it to say that a monograph on diseases of orange trees, the fruit of which is one of the staples of Brazil's overseas trade, was compiled by Polish botanist Dr Wincenty Siemaszko. Prof. Józef Siemiradzki, an excellent geologist and geographer, corrected many errors in maps of Brazil. And names such as Aleksy Kurtius, Tadeusz Chrostowski, Prof Szymanski or Dr Kossobudzki, who is one of the founders of the University of Curitiba, are widely known. In general, there is a long list of names of Poles who have directly or indirectly contributed to Brazil. Polish settlement in Brazil is closely linked to the figure of Edmund Sebastian Woś-Saporski; Parana owes the initiation of Polish settlement to his initiative, strength of will, perseverance and courage.

Since when did they settle? Woś-Saporski arrived in Brazil in 1867, on the sailing ship Emma in the old Paraná port of Paranagua. He stops there only in passing, on his way to Montevideo. He likes the port and the coastal mountains very much, and learns that inland, on the vast plateaus, the climate is mild, similar to Europe. He continues on to Montevideo, but after only a year he aims north towards the Parana, unable to forget what he was told about it a year ago. On the way, he stops in Santa Catharina, in the German colony of Blumenau, where he conferes with the local Polish parish priest, Father Zieliński.

The result of these discussions was a plan to bring Poles from the partitioned territories and settle them in Paraná. In 1869 he applied to the Imperial Government in Rio de Janeiro, where Fr Zieliński had a protector in the Emperor D. Pedro himself. Pedro himself. Before the reply arrives, the two activists learn that a transport of emigrant Poles from Upper Silesia has arrived in the port of Itajahy on the ship "Victoria", whom the German commission, already abandoned by the German colony of Brusque, wanted to settle in the mountainous area.

Saporski secretly sneaks up to them through the wilderness, at night, and persuades them to apply to the emperor for permission to resettle in Paraná. He takes the application himself, wanders for months to Rio de Janeiro, and with the help of Father Zieliński obtains an audience with the emperor and permission, which is obviously not to the liking of the Brusque colonial government. It was quite a long time ago, when there was little room for manoeuvre in the fight against "competitors", and Saporski and Zieliński felt it on their skin soon after their return from Rio.

Paid thugs attack Saporski and Fr Zieliński. The two activists defend themselves bravely, but relations are such that both soon see no other option but to disappear from the Santa Catharina area. They flee to Parana. Some time later comes the written imperial permission to resettle the Polish colonists from Brusque to Parana. Victory! In 1871, the "Camera Municipal", in spite of the protests of the German colonial government of Brusque, which wanted to keep the Polish colonists as slaves on its lands, granted, in accordance with the imperial permission, the first lands for the Polish colonists in Parana near Curityba, in the village of "Pilarsinho".

It is a symbolic name, because it means "pilgrimage" in Polish. The Polish colonists, liberated by Saporski from the German colony of Brusque, numbering 32 families consisting of 164 people, ended their arduous pilgrimage in this area. This small community laid the foundations of Polish settlement in Brazil. Since then, more and more has been said about Brazil among the Polish peasantry under all three partitions. But it is especially about Paraná, where the climate is bearable for a Pole and where the state authorities, with the then President Frederick Abranchez, have been sympathetic to our emigrants.

So at first small, then larger and larger transports of our emigrants came from Upper Silesia, then Prussia, then the former Congress Kingdom, and finally Lesser Poland. Slowly, Polish settlements are springing up around Curityby, and having established themselves, they are starting to radiate into the country, cutting through roads, clearing and burning virgin forests, taking land for farming. They went as far as the Serra da Esperança and beyond, reached the Rio Iguasu, founded the colony of Cruz Machado; they broke through the roads to Prudentopolis and as far as Guarapuava; they settled in the steppe areas around Ponta Grossa, followed the river Tibagy and went as far north as Reserva; they crossed the Rio Yapo and along the Serra dos Agudos they went as far north as Thomasina.

Years go by and a threefold wave of "Brazilian fever" sweeps through, carrying tens of thousands of Polish peasants not only to Paraná, but also to other states: Santa Catharina, Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo, and its waste also reaches the capital Rio de Janeiro itself and splashes in small drops all over Brazil. According to records, 8,000 Poles arrived in Brazil by 1889. From 1889 to 1894, 62,786 people arrived; from 1895 to 1900, 6,600 Poles and 17,545 Ruthenians; from 1900 to 1914, 24,730 Poles and 14,550 Ruthenians.

According to the available data, a total of 102 096 Poles and 32 095 Ruthenians had arrived in Brazil by 1920. It should be stressed that this total is based on "dates in our possession", and we do not know how many of us were there according to data we do not have and cannot obtain today. How many immigrated after the war? After the Great War, Polish immigration to Brazil, intermittent as it was, revived as soon as the Republic had established its borders and its soldiers, having laid down their arms, returned to the plough. The post-war crisis, which could not fail to affect Polish emigration.

By organising its political and economic life, Poland also managed to frame its exile affairs. Brazil, for its part, also had to regulate the question of immigration and, after some internal reorganisation, established so-called immigration "quotas", calculated for all countries at 2% of the sum that had arrived in Brazil from a given country in the previous fifty years. For the countries whose independence was restored by the Treaty of Versailles, these quotas were set in such a way that the amount of immigrants arriving each year was marked. For Poland, a sum of 100,000 people was marked as the basic quota and this 2% is calculated from this sum.

The result is that, for example, for 1937 a "quota" was set at 2,035 people, not including children under the age of fourteen.
Again, "according to the available data", we can say that 37,000 people have arrived in Brazil from Poland since 1922. However, how many Poles are in this number, and how many Ruthenians, Jews or other national minorities, it is difficult to say at the moment. According to the authoritative opinion of local social activists, there are 250 000 Poles in Brazil alone, spread mainly across the states: Parana, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catharina, São Paulo.

There are also Polish families in other states, scattered in smaller or larger numbers, and even in the state of Espírito Santo, in the Águia Branca 'White Eagle' colony, we have 140 families. Here and there one hears of a few or a dozen or so settlements deep in the virgin forests of the states of Matto Grosso or Goyaz, and it is also known that Poles are to be found on the Amazon River, but these are just the remnants of large waves, from a time when no statistics were kept. Brazil needs emigration. Brazil today is virtually the only immigration country not only allowing immigration, but above all needing it.

It covers an area of 8,511,189 km² and, with 6,600 km of coastline, has, by the most optimistic calculation, a population of 44 million, with approximately 18 inhabitants per km² in the northern part (Bahia, Pernambuco, Ceará, Alagoas and Parahyba).

In the central part (Espírito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Minas Geraes), where only half of the area is populated and the rest is completely or almost completely uninhabited, there are approximately 30 inhabitants per km². In the southern part, comprising the states: Parana, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catharina, falls between 4 and 33 people per km², bearing in mind that, while the state of Rio Grande is inhabited almost throughout its area, Parana and Santa Catharina have half of their space uninhabited.

The rest of the Brazilian states, such as Amazonas, Matto Grosso, Goyaz, Acre Territory, Maranhão and others, covered by virgin forests, often covering more than a million km² of space and having both 0.6 and 0.2 inhabitants per km², should be treated quite differently. Having looked at the state of Brazil's population, we understand that this issue must be a serious concern for any government of this huge country.

The aforementioned Florestan Rozwadowski, one of the first Polish émigrés to fall in love with the country of the Southern Cross with all his soul, already understood this issue and the difficulty it posed. The people at the helm of Brazil's government today, who are constantly calling for the hands that are needed in a state as industrialised as São Paulo in the first place, and one as thoroughly agricultural as Rio Grande do Sul, also understand. Over the centuries, however, in addition to the pure question of population, there have been other questions which seem to be of secondary importance, but which, in the current stage of consolidation of the Brazilian nation and in relation to the currents blowing from Europe, are of primary importance.

The issue at stake here is of unprecedented importance for Brazil and will determine its future, namely the creation of a unified nation. This is a very difficult and far-reaching issue, so for the time being Brazil's aim is to ensure that during the period of the nation's crystallisation, its blood is composed of elements that will benefit and not harm it. This is the source of laws of one kind or another restricting immigration, this is the source of the opposition in very wide circles to Japanese immigration, etc. etc.

The strongest emphasis at the moment is being placed by the ruling spheres on the entry into Brazil of farmers, whose task is to acquire as much space as possible for farming, and as few as possible of merchants or people of other liberal professions, who would not only take trade out of the hands of the natives (often already acclimatised immigrants), but could also create a certain layer of intelligence alien to the Brazilian spirit. In addition, it is also a matter of not depriving the broad working classes of jobs by the multitude of unemployed who have come from other countries.

Population in Brazil is a huge issue that will be a serious concern for the governments of the United States of Brazil for many generations to come. The Polish element - desirable. As mentioned above, the number of Poles living in Brazil must be estimated at least at 250 000, with the vast majority in Paraná, and larger concentrations in Santa Catharina and Rio Grande do Sul. There are also small groups in the state capitals, such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

While in the above-mentioned states the Poles are exclusively agricultural, in the larger cities they mostly work in factories as excellent workers, mostly skilled, some have their own workshops as good craftsmen and even here and there own larger shops or even department stores. The Polish settler, the farmer, is held in high esteem in Brazil both by the authorities and society. It goes without saying that the Polish farmer is best known in those states where we have the most of them. For example, the current governor of Paraná, Manoel Ribas, does not have enough words of praise for the Polish pioneer, who won such large areas of land for agricultural culture, fighting victoriously against the inexorable wilderness.

Governor Ribas's affection for the Poles is evidenced, for example, by this fact: the Polish colonists of Cruz Machado, a formerly poor colony, set about cultivating flax very intensively and, with good results after three years' work, organised an exhibition of flax products. The Governor ordered the exhibition to be moved to Curitiba, accepted its patronage and, for propaganda purposes, ordered two garments to be made from Polish linen. When he cut the ribbon on the opening day of the exhibition in Curitiba, he did so wearing clothes made from the canvas of a Polish colonist.

From the cultural life of Brazilian Polonia.

The rather rare arrivals of our great artists, such as Paderewski, Rubinstein, Koczalski, Friedman, Kochanski, Didur and others, contribute to the revival of Polish cultural life in Rio de Janeiro. For several years the well-known Polish artist Janina Czaplińska performed on Brazilian opera and operetta stages. Exhibitions by Polish painters, such as Lechowski, who has been in Brazil for nine years, Tadeusz Styka and, more recently, Helena Teodorowicz-Karpowska, are always very popular.

Visits by our scientists, such as the ophthalmologist Prof. Szymański, zoologists Sztolcman, Janecki and Ruszkowski, anthropologist Stołwa, surgeons Jachimowicz and Jurasz, and bacteriologist Bujwid, who is visiting Brazil for the third time, arouse keen interest not only in the Polish colony, but also in Brazilian scientific circles, which hold Polish science in high regard.

Socio-cultural life in Paraná, and especially in Curitiba, is much more vibrant, which is explained by the strength of the Polish community in the state capital, which has the largest Polish settlement and the oldest one, and which is slowly beginning to form its own Paraná-born intelligentsia. Besides, it is much easier for such a centre to play a role in a city six times smaller than Curitiba. The Poles in Curitiba have three periodicals, which - like all Polish organisations and institutions in exile - have gone through different turns and changed their names several times. Currently, there is "Gazeta Polska", "Lud" and "Polska Prawda w Brazylii", of which "Lud" comes out twice a week, the other two only once a week. There are over 200 Polish societies throughout Brazil, and over 40 in Curitiba alone.

A tremendous achievement for us in Paraná.

It should be stated at once that the Poles in Paraná are an overwhelming element in the field of agriculture. In Paraná, Poles have acquired more than 800 000 hectares of land for farming, simply by tearing up the local forests. In the last decade, of course, this figure has increased by no less than 100,000 hectares, according to the Paraná people. Altogether, therefore, Poles would be in possession of 900 000 ha. As we can thus see, Poles occupy more than 15% of the total area of Paranese land, inhabited and exploited in any way.

If to these 900,000 hectares owned in Paraná we add the other half of the land owned by Poles in Santa Catharina and Rio Grande do Sul, we arrive at the very serious figure of 1,800,000 hectares, or 18,000 km² - an area equivalent to twice the size of the Bialystok Province.

However, it is not only the area that is important in this matter. Perhaps even more important is what is called agricultural culture - the introduction of European cereals: wheat, rye, potatoes, calabrese; the cutting of thousands of kilometres of roads; the building of hundreds of schools, which are also attended by Brazilians. It is also to the credit of the Polish peasant that the "caboclo" has learned to eat bread, which it did not know in the past, that it has seen the Polish plough at work, and that it is now starting to look with admiration at the fertilisation of the land, often with artificial fertilisers, because for the last 50 years the "dewy" land has refused to give birth in some areas.

Trade and commerce are also linked to the cultivation of the land and living on it, both to buy the settlers' produce and to supply them with the things they need. The fact that Poles, formerly owning at most larger or smaller "vendas", have for some time now begun to engage in wholesale trade also plays an important role. We have a few of them in Curitiba, Ponta Grossa, there are some "bigger" merchants even in São Paulo, and even in Rio de Janeiro. However, their numbers are negligible, although in Paraná, for example, they would have plenty of room for manoeuvre, as the Polish "wendziarz" is happy to take goods from a Polish wholesaler.

In recent times, something has begun to be done in this direction, but it is still not enough for this "wholesaling" to play a serious role in promoting, even in Paraná, goods imported from Poland. The wholesalers are still in German, Italian and Portuguese hands.

With 21 United States of Brazil, Brazil is a country with a great future, and Polish emigration in the future of this country will undoubtedly exert its positive influence even more than in the past and contribute to the proper development of Polish-Brazilian economic relations.