Um nordeste em São Paulo: Trabalhadores migrantes em São Miguel Paulista (1945–66) (review)

Could we make sense of national socio-political developments by focusing on the experiences of a local community? The investigation presented in Um nordeste em São Paulo offers a remarkable account and points toward an affirmative response to this query. In his innovative work, Paulo Fontes presents an extremely clear and well-researched analysis of how the poor neighborhood of São Miguel Paulista, in the eastern section of the city of São Paulo, was transformed by, and conversely helped shape, a series of transformative dynamics taking place in the Brazil in the middle of the twentieth century. These included an accelerated process of industrialization in the center-south, a massive internal migratory flux from the northeastern region, disorganized urban growth, and the incorporation of the urban masses in the political arena. Moreover, the book provides a nuanced examination of the main urban, socio-cultural, and political trends taking place during the period from the perspective of some of its most important, but usually neglected, participants.

Um nordeste em São Paulo is structured into five main chapters. The first one focuses on the migratory process from the northeast to the city of São Paulo. The author shows that the place of origin of the overwhelming majority of inhabitants of São Miguel served as the basis for establishing new social networks which proved essential in maneuvering in the new urban milieu. Similarly, their local affiliations were instrumental in advancing their demands for better standards of living and in redefining their own identity within the broader debates on national vs. regional identities taking place in Brazil. In fact, despite entrenched economic disparity and discrimination, Fontes convincingly shows that important segments of the rural migrants from the northeast – who increasingly would be collectively labeled as nordestinos – would be highly creative in reconstructing their regional identity into a positive urban image, that of industrial workers.

Chapter two recounts in detail the history of São Miguel as an industrial neighborhood constructed largely around one major factory (the industrial giant called Nitro Química). The case study uncovers how local social networks operated within such a uniquely homogenous context. Chapter three builds upon the previous one by focusing on the experiences of local residents outside the workplace and it is where Fontes makes his most innovative contributions for the new historiography on industrial labor in Brazil. In this section, the author scrutinizes several aspects of what would amount to an effective worker's ethos composed of elements ranging from leisure activities to socio-political engagements. Along these lines, the author argues that São Miguelinos creatively devised a vast number of social organizations, such as athletic, social, and cultural clubs, as well as assertive trade unions and branches of various political parties, all of which would play major role in constructing a positive identity for their community and for themselves. Chapters four and five complement the earlier ones by focusing more explicitly on how local networks would also perform a political role given the increasing numbers of local members who became involved in political events ranging from grass-root political mobilization and large cross-sectional industrial stoppages, to party-sponsored electoral activities.

While inspired by a prolific line of works on factory-centered communities, Fontes nonetheless moves beyond traditionally held conceptions arguing that local dynamics of labor mobilization in such localities were a direct consequence of residential proximity to the workplace. Alternatively, the author shows that, despite the importance of the giant local factory for a series of neighborhood dynamics in São Miguel, nothing in the way the community was organized was pre-determined but rather derived from the creation of a vast array of social organizations among local residents. Moreover, Fontes demonstrates that local events in São Miguel interfaced closely with broader socio-political trends taking place elsewhere in the city as well in the country...