One of the largest waves of emigration to leave Polish soil took place in the early 1890s. Its destination was Latin America, and Brazil in particular. It was mainly the rural population who set off across the ocean at that time; in the hope of a better future, they undertook the task of cultivating the often hostile terrain there. Their contribution to Brazilian culture is commemorated by the Sower monument, erected in Curitiba in 1925.

The Sower Monument
Located in the city centre (in Eufrásio Correia Square), the monument is the work of Jan Żak, a sculptor who settled in Brazil. Placed on a high plinth, the figure depicts a Polish peasant, barefoot and shirtless, walking across a field with a handful of grain in his hand. The immediate reason for commissioning the monument was to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Brazil’s independence. This is indicated by a bronze plaque, inscribed in Portuguese and Polish, mounted on the plinth. In its upper part are the coat of arms of Brazil and the Polish eagle, and below them the following inscription: ‘To Brazil, in commemoration of the first century of independence – Polish Colony’. At the same time, the monument symbolises the thousands of anonymous Polish settlers who undertook the arduous task of cultivating the Brazilian land, as well as their gratitude towards their new homeland.

The unveiling ceremony
The sculpture’s unveiling ceremony took place on 15 February 1925 and was attended by numerous representatives of the local authorities, including a representative of the Governor of the State of Paraná and the Prefect of Curitiba, as well as local Polish organisations and the Polish Consulate. A few days later, the event was reported in *Gazeta Polska w Brazylii*, which quoted the speech by the Prefect of Curitiba: “Continuing to express his particular delight that this extraordinary honour had fallen to Curitiba, and that this monument would always be one of the city’s most beautiful adornments, he raised a cheer in honour of our Republic of Poland. The orchestra then played the Polish national anthem, whilst the officers saluted. It was perhaps one of the most beautiful moments of the ceremony, given the beauty of the harmony between two nations which do not fight one another, but love and respect one another.”

João Zaco Paraná, also known as Jan Żak
The sculptor of the Sower monument – Jan Żak (1884–1961) – emigrated from Poland with his parents in 1896. The family of the future artist, who was born in Brzeżany, travelled to Brazil, where they settled in the newly established Dorizon colony in the state of Paraná. Jan Żak showed an interest in art from a very young age. In Curitiba, he attended the School of Arts and Crafts, and subsequently, thanks to a scholarship awarded by the authorities of Paraná, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro. He later also studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels. He returned to Brazil in 1921 – just as a committee to build a Polish monument was being formed in Curitiba. The task of creating the monument was commissioned to Jan Żak, for whom this was his first project on such a large scale. The Sower monument brought the artist recognition and fame throughout Paraná, and even in Rio de Janeiro, from where job offers soon began to pour in.

In 1923, Jan Żak took Brazilian citizenship. As a token of gratitude to the state where he had grown up, he began using the nickname ‘João Zaco Paraná’, by which he is still known in Brazil today. In 1940, he became a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro, where he worked for over 20 years. In addition to the monument described here, he created numerous busts, statues and sculptural groups located in many cities across the country.

The sculptor died on 17 June 1961 and was buried at Caju Cemetery in Rio de Janeiro.

‘Brazilian Fever’
Although Polish immigrants had arrived in Brazil earlier, the period of their greatest influx dates back to the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. This was an economic migration, consisting mainly of peasants who, faced with overpopulation and the backwardness of the Polish countryside, set off across the ocean in search of a better life. During this period, Brazil was the second most popular destination after the United States. It is estimated that by the outbreak of the First World War, around 115,000 emigrants from Polish lands had arrived in Brazil (a proportion of whom were Ukrainians from Eastern Galicia). The policies of the host countries played a major role here, as they sought settlers in Europe who were determined to develop the least populated areas of their countries. Poles mainly settled in southern Brazil – in the states of Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul and Paraná, where the climatic and geological conditions were quite different from those they were familiar with in their homeland. On arrival, they found unspoilt, forest-covered land, which they developed on their own, building wooden houses modelled on those they had lived in back in Poland. Over time, the largest concentration of Polish immigrants developed around the capital of the state of Paraná – Curitiba. A network of Polish settlements (known as ‘Nowa Polonia’) sprang up there, including Abranches and Orleans, whose social life was organised around newly formed associations and the press. As early as 1890, the oldest Polish community organisation in Brazil – the Tadeusz Kościuszko Polish Society – was established in Curitiba, and from 1892 the ‘Gazeta Polska w Brazylii’ was published there. An interesting fact is that in the years following the Second World War, the magazine *Siewca* was also briefly established, with its publication undertaken by Józef Wolański, a former typesetter at *Gazeta Polska*. This newspaper, small in format and with a low print run, took its name from the monument sculpted by Jan Żak.