Introduction

The conquest of Ceuta in 1415 is considered to be the starting point of the Portuguese diaspora around the world. Given the wide chronological and geographical range of this dispersion, Godinho (1978: 5–32) states that emigration is one of the structural marks of Portuguese history.

From a theoretical point of view, it is important to distinguish between two concepts: “spontaneous emigration” (personal, uncontrolled initiative) and “contracted or directed emigration” (part of a project to occupy space by the political power in effect). In the latter situation, the migratory phenomenon is essentially marked by the movement of families (couples)—married men and women accompanied by their children—with a certain percentage balance between the number of people of each sex, who are mainly going to work in agriculture. For this reason, they mostly have agricultural know-how and are heading for a rural area that has been previously designated by the ruling political power, which wants to occupy a certain geographical area. As a general rule, these particularities make this type of migration definitive, with a very small number of returnees; they are therefore not mentioned in social memory.

On the other hand, a significant proportion of spontaneous emigration is not permanent, which means that there are returnees. These migrants dedicate themselves to activities in which they already have expertise, and they tend to be heading for an urban area. They give rise to the concept of “Brazilian,” which at the time meant a Portuguese emigrant to Brazil who had become rich.

Various authors have studied Portuguese emigration over the years. At first, macro approaches predominated (Ferreira 1976; Serrão 1974), with special emphasis on Portuguese emigration from the mid-nineteenth century.

Based on passport applications filed in the Oporto District Archives, Alves (1994), using microanalytical methodology, began a new phase in the study of Portuguese emigration to Brazil, paying particular attention to the return of emigrants. “Between 1836 and 1899 there was a clear evolution in the geography of these destinations, although Rio de Janeiro always absorbed the majority of emigrants (...). At the end of the [nineteenth] century, competition for Rio de Janeiro (55%) also came from Pará, with renewed strength (17%) and São Paulo (10%)” (Alves 1994, 242–4).

Immigration to Pará [State] has also been studied by, among others, Carvalho (2011) and Cancela (2009, 149–161). Based on microanalytical methodology, in this article I will try to describe some of the particularities that characterized Portuguese emigration to the Amazon (Brazil) in the period from 1887 to 1910, originating from two districts in the interior of Portugal: Castelo Branco and Vila Real.

Material and methods

The source materials used in this paper were the passport applications filed in the district archives of Castelo Branco and Vila Real. From a methodological point of view, the aim was to carry out a longitudinal microanalysis; in other words, to find out whether migrants applied for passports more than once during the period concerned, in order to retrace, as far as possible, the migrant’s journey. To do this, we created a grid sorted alphabetically and chronologically by applicant name and included the variables listed in the passport applications: parents, place of birth, age, marital status, occupation, and any other observations that we felt were relevant in order to understand “who” emigrated.

The use of microanalytical techniques allows us to see the world from the viewpoint of the individual who emigrates. Using microanalysis makes it possible to “complete the overview of macrostructural analysis and be able to uncover local dynamics and regional variations; longitudinal analysis or life histories; analysis of the individual from the family perspective; and the importance of intermediate factors” (García Abad 2005, 64).

This approach allowed us to find instances of several applications made by the same person, which, from a statistical perspective, distorts the results. Therefore, to avoid repeating data, in our calculations we will use only the information contained in the earliest application (first reference) that we found for the various migrants.

Table 1 provides a better understanding of the data on repeated applications.

The data presented shows that the universe of analysis is 332 applications in the case of the Castelo Branco district, and 1,481 in the case of Vila Real; this means that in Vila Real, 16.47% of the applications were made by applicants who had applied for a passport previously, while in Castelo Branco these types of applications constituted 7.78%. These figures allow us to envision that emigration was marked by a certain dynamic of going back and forth (pendular dynamics) between Portugal and Brazil. In a study of Portuguese emigration through passport applications at the civil government of Lisbon, we found that 11.6% of the passport applications were repeat applications (Cosme 2015, 3).

Historical context

In order to gain a better understanding of migration dynamics, we will present the districts/counties where these migrants came from and give a brief demographic picture of those areas. In both districts, some of the municipalities border Spain; examples include Montalegre and Chaves in Vila Real, and Penamacor and Idanha-a-Nova in Castelo Branco. For a better understanding of the size and demographic evolution of the different municipalities, we provide a list of their inhabitants in Table 2 and Table 3.

The data above show that between 1878 and 1911, the population increased in both districts overall. Another visible finding is that on the one hand, the population increased in all the municipalities of the Castelo Branco district during this period. On the other hand, in several municipalities of the Vila Real district, population figures fell from one census to the next. To give some examples, we can mention the municipalities of Alijó, Sabrosa, and Santa Marta de Penaguião, where the population in 1911 was lower than it was in 1900, and Chaves, Mesão Frio, and Valpaços, where the population in 1900 was lower than it was in 1890.

From a demographic perspective, a population shrinks when it has a negative physiological balance (the difference between numbers of births and numbers of deaths) and/or a negative migratory balance (the difference between inflows and outflows). We believe that the most plausible explanation for these differences lies in the emigration of residents.

Let’s now briefly characterize the destination: the Amazon. The year 1840 would be a decisive one for the Amazon region, with the discovery of the rubber vulcanization process by Charles Goodyear. For this reason, the 1850s would be a pivotal decade of great significance, as the decade marked the transition from a regional economy characterized by the exploitation of the “hinterland drugs,” livestock, and timber, which was dependent on slave and indigenous labor, to an economy based on the extraction and exploitation of latex. In the first phase, Pará’s manufacturing sector developed, producing rubber shoes for export to the United States of America, while in the second phase, with the invention of the pneumatic tire, the export of rubber, facilitated by steam navigation, introduced in 1853, generated an exceptional spurt of development in this region. This new surge had its golden age between 1870 and 1910 (Sarges 2010, 91–9).

At the same time as the Amazon was undergoing this boom in economic development, the constraints and abolitionist dynamics of slavery were taking hold in this South American region. In a very schematic way, we remember that from March 13, 1827, Brazilian ships were no longer allowed to ship slaves off the coast of Africa. The Lei do Ventre Livre (Free Womb Act) of September 28, 1871, determined that children born to slave mothers would already be free. In 1879, Senator Joaquim Nabuco was elected, and in 1880 he founded the Brazilian Society Against Slavery. In 1884, slaves in several municipalities began to be freed. The Saraiva-Cotegipe Act, dated September 28, 1885, established the freedom of all slaves over the age of 65, and the abolition of slavery came with the publication of the Golden Act on May 13, 1888.

Thus, to meet the need for labor, people emigrated from Europe, and from Portugal in particular. It was in this economic and sociological context that Pará emerged as a highly attractive area for the Portuguese.

Residence of migrants by municipality

In order to better systematize the data, we now outline the municipalities of residence mentioned in the passport applications.

The data shown in Table 8 and Table 9 is quite clear about the origin of the migrants. As far as male emigrants from the Castelo Branco district are concerned, the most quantitatively significant municipalities in relation to Pará were Sertã, Covilhã, Proença-a-Nova, and Oleiros. These are also the municipalities with the highest number of residents going to Manaus, with the exception of Proença-a-Nova. A somewhat similar dynamic was found in the applications made to the civil government of Lisbon by migrants destined for Pará; in this case, the municipalities in the Castelo Branco district with the highest representation were Oleiros, Vila de Rei, and Sertã, with the figures highest in the parishes of Cernache do Bonjardim and Pedrógão Pequeno in the latter municipality (ibid., 9).

With regard to emigration from the Vila Real district, the municipalities of Alijó, Vila Pouca de Aguiar, Chaves, Vila Real, and Sabrosa had the highest numbers of passport applications. These same municipalities, with the addition of Peso da Régua, also recorded a high number of passport applications for Manaus. In the case of women emigrating to Pará, the figures for Alijó, Sabrosa, Chaves, and Vila Pouca de Aguiar should be highlighted, and for Manaus, the municipalities of Chaves, Alijó, and Peso da Régua deserve special mention. It should also be noted that a very significant number of people applied to the civil government of Vila Real for a passport, most of whom lived in the city and district of Porto.

Continuous or “anthill” emigration

“A migratory journey (or migratory itinerary) is the set of steps, actions or situations taken or experienced by a migrant individual that are relevant to the process in which they are involved.”⁵ Within this journey, the phase in which the intention to leave materializes and the preparations for departure are made are extremely important. In this phase, the intention to leave materializes by means of taking concrete steps, such as obtaining documents (a passport and a transport permit, among others).

According to the theoretical model, in the migratory journey, after arriving in the country of destination, the first installation takes place, which is followed by insertion, and then by the decision to return to the country of origin or settle permanently. However, the methodology used in this research allows us to provide some information of a microanalytical nature that confirms the existence of a continuous or “anthill”⁶ migration dynamic, which means that this dynamic was not always based on a simple journey between the place of origin and the destination, but could involve the existence of constant journeying between these two places.

Once the migrants had arrived in Brazil, a very significant proportion of them moved on a commuting pattern, meaning that they went to Portugal and back several times. They did this not only to take care of business but also to consort or introduce members of their families.

We are dealing with a plurality of actions integrated into a single desire to migrate. As mentioned previously, we classify this migratory practice as continuous emigration, since the option is neither to settle nor to return, but to move with some regularity between the place of origin and the place of destination. To better document this idea, here are four examples.

Originating in the district of Vila Real

1. João Casimiro, resident of Almorfe (Moreiras) in the municipality of Chaves, married, traveled to Pará twelve times⁷.
2. João Guedes Coutinho, resident of Santa Quitéria (Fontes) in the municipality of Santa Marta de Penaguião, single, clerk/commercial employee, went to Manaus five times between March 26, 1897, and January 13, 1905.
3. Carminda Rodrigues Borges, resident of Vila Boa (Fontela) in the municipality of Peso da Régua, married, business owner, went to Manaus twice⁸.

Originating in the district of Castelo Branco

1. António de Oliveira, born and residing in Barco, Covilhã, has two passport application records: one dated August 16, 1898, and the other dated December 20, 1902. On the 1898 application, there is a note stating that this is the second time he is going to Pará and that he now intends to dedicate himself to agriculture. This means that the 1902 registration corresponds to a third trip.

In the examples we have just given, we can see that in terms of the migration process, there is a repetition of journeys, integrated into a dynamic of mobility between Portugal and the Amazon. It was this specificity that led us to use the “anthill emigration” metaphor as the one that best defines this process.

This constant migratory dynamic between Portugal and the Amazon facilitated the mobility of those who wanted to go to the other side of the Atlantic for the first time. To better document this assertion, here are just two examples.

1. On December 10, 1908, Guilherme Cardoso, aged forty, married, and from Pegarinhos in the municipality of Alijó, applied for a passport for the third time in Vila Real. On the same day and in the same district capital, Jerónimo Moreira Gião, aged forty-eight, a widower from Pegarinhos (Alijó), also applied for a passport. Two days later, on December 12, 1908, at the civil government of Vila Real, Manuel Paixão (aged ten) and Julieta (aged twenty-one), both single and born and living in Pegarinhos (Alijó), applied for their first passports to Pará.
2. On November 20, 1908, Bríseda Ribeiro, a twenty-year-old single seamstress from Canhedo-Adoufe (Vila Real), applied for a passport to Manaus for the second time. On December 1, 1908, António Benigno (aged twenty-three and single) and Francisco Álvares Ferreira (aged twenty-six and married), both born and living in Canhedo-Adoufe (Vila Real), took their turns to apply for passports to Manaus.

If we take into account the chronology of the applications, the places of birth, places of residence and perhaps the family ties, we can easily see that mobility took place collectively and with solidarity, because traveling with someone else who had made the same trip before was much safer and more comfortable. As already mentioned, we consider that micro-factors are valuable in explaining these migratory dynamics, because we believe that structural factors are the necessary cause and micro-mechanisms are the sufficient cause (Garcia Abad 2002, 23–4), which, in our opinion, is clearly visible here.

Emigration in “two steps”

The microanalytical methodology allows the various databases to be interconnected. Thus, by cross-referencing the names of those born/residing in the district of Castelo Branco and of Vila Real with other data, we were able to identify six applicants from Castelo Branco and one from Vila Real who had already applied for their passport in the Civil District of Lisbon. The distance to and consequent attractiveness of the Portuguese capital certainly had a greater impact on the residents of Castelo Branco, which is much closer to Lisbon, than it did on Vila Real. Given the interesting nature of these cases, we share them here.

Originating in the district of Castelo Branco

1. Adrião Madeira Gonçalves, from Oleiros, had already applied for a passport to Pará in Lisbon on November 22, 1888. On May 6, 1891, the Portuguese Consulate in Pará renewed his visa. He then applied for a new passport in Lisbon on July 29, 1891, using the address of 13 Rua de S. Nicolau and giving his marital status as married, stating his occupation as a merchant, and claiming that he wished to continue doing business in Brazil. We found him applying for a new passport in Castelo Branco on November 5, 1897, stating that he wanted to go to Pará for the third time.
2. António da Silva Leitão, a native of Nesperal in the municipality of Sertã, was twelve years old and lived at 18 Largo do Chafariz de Dentro in Lisbon, where he was employed in commerce. On June 23, 1891, he applied for a passport to Pará with the intention of going to work there. On July 30, 1903, and July 13, 1910, he again applied for a passport to Pará, but then in Castelo Branco.
3. António Domingues da Silva, married, was born in Casal de Gafos in the municipality of Sertã, and lived at 48 Rua da Madalena in Lisbon. In this city, on April 13, 1895, he applied for a passport to Pará, claiming that he wanted to join his brother. On August 29, 1896, he applied for a new passport in Castelo Branco, in which he stated that he was going to trade and that he was emigrating for the second time.
4. Januário da Silva Mata, born in Cernache do Bonjardim in the municipality of Sertã, was twenty-two years old, employed in commerce, and resided at the Hotel Duas Nações in Lisbon when he applied for a passport to Pará on June 25, 1890. Attached to his application was a passport to Manaus that had been issued by the civil government of Lisbon on November 21, 1884, on the back of which there was a visa granted in Manaus on December 24, 1884, and a visa issued by the Consulate of Portugal in Pará dated June 15, 1889, for the purpose of going to Portugal. On March 8, 1898, he applied for a passport in Castelo Branco, stating that he wished to go to Pará for a third time to engage in commerce, taking his wife with him.
5. Januário Rodrigues da Silva, born in Cernache do Bonjardim in the municipality of Sertã, was thirteen years old, worked as a clerk, and lived at 50 Travessa de Santa Ana in Lisbon when, on April 19, 1895, he applied for a passport to Pará to engage in commerce. On September 21, 1903, he applied for a passport in Castelo Branco for Pará, reporting that he was employed in commerce.
6. On August 8, 1895, José Henriques Alves Froes, a merchant, applied to the civil government in Lisbon for a passport to go to Pará. Attached to this application was a passport issued by the Consulate of Portugal in Pará dated March 16, 1895, for the purpose of going to Portugal. On October 20, 1900, he applied again for a passport for Pará. Attached to this application was a passport issued by the civil government of Lisbon on August 18, 1897, in which José claimed that he lived in Pará. On the back of this passport there was a visa from the Portuguese Consulate in Pará dated March 29, 1899, authorizing him to go to Portugal. On February 25, 1905, he applied to the civil government of Castelo Branco for a new passport to Pará.

Originating in the district of Vila Real

1. Nuno Pereira de Oliveira, a native of Ervededo in the municipality of Chaves, residing at 183 Rua dos Corrieiros in Lisbon, applied for a passport to Pará at the civil government of Lisbon on March 18, 1900. The application stated that he lived in Pará and had been in Lisbon for six months. He was bringing his wife (a native of Pará), his sister-in-law, and a maid, who was a native of Ervededo. In Vila Real on December 31, 1905, he applied for a passport to Pará. The application states that this was his third trip to Pará and that he was taking his siblings Germano and Serafina with him. On the same date, December 31, 1905, eleven-year-old António da Silva Oliveira from Ervededo (Chaves) also applied for a passport in Vila Real.

In view of the examples we have just given, it is clear that this mobility can be considered a “two-step emigration,” and it can be concluded that the city of Lisbon was an important point in the migratory dynamics of some of the residents of the two districts studied, not only in terms of making the decision to emigrate and implementing the measures that made this option feasible but also in terms of socio-professional learning. Certainly, the social learning they acquired in Lisbon and the contacts they had with migrants over a long period helped them to structure their choice to emigrate.

In conclusion: Looking for an emigrant profile

The majority of migrants were men; the unmarried group predominated, both male and female in the 20–29 age group, with special emphasis on the 20–24 age group. It was an emigration strongly marked by the influence of networks or chains in the migratory process, i.e. most of the time, migrants were accompanied by others who had already made the same journey and to whom they were linked by ties of origin, residence (parish or municipality), or kinship. This group mobility has traces of solidarity and, therefore, a degree of security. This specificity influenced the characterization of this mobility as an “anthill” or continuous mobility, where journeys were made with some regularity between the place of origin and destination.

In many cases, it was a “two-step emigration,” meaning that the migrants first left their homeland for Lisbon, from where, after some time and already equipped with some knowledge of another profession, especially that of a sales clerk, they then decided to head for the Amazon.

The majority were leaving to work in agriculture and commerce, as well as to be barbers, tailors, or carpenters, while the women, especially those who were unmarried, were going to work as seamstresses or maids.

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