Tri-Border Area History
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| Horacio Quiroga's book 'Los Mensú' |
Modern history of the Three-Country Area starts in the early 1800s with Argentine businessmen pioneering the setting up of yerba mate (Illex paraguayensis or Ilex paraguariensis) production camps (of a sort) and lumber exploitation. Four words and as many concepts have been shared by the three countries converging here: exploitation and slavery, yerba mate and lumber. In connection with these I would like to add another three: mensú, obraje and obrajero. They send us back to the former four. The Obraje was a huge tract of land measured into the hundreds of thousands of square kilometers that were normaly given out by the govenments so that groups could exploit lumber, yerba mate, furs, live animals and people in the name of development and improvement of life conditions and progress of the nations. All that done thanks to special methods of exploitation. "Obrajeros" were obraje owners or lords a few of them known to these days thanks to their infamous fame. (Obrajes were not a local invention. There were obrajes all over Latin American mainly in the textile fields*)
Just like what was seen in the rubber baron period in the Amazon, obraje owners used similar methodos to make people work for little or no pay. One of the trick was to forward money for newly hired workers so that they could acquire the food necessary for a certain period, tools (ax,knives, guns, bullets), tobacco, salt, sugar, kerosene or fat. Whatever the sum to be paid was, workers would work for the rest of their lives and never be able to finish payment. Obraje owners had strong men to keep an eye on would-be fugitives and they had no problem at all to kill those who tried escape. Like the Amazon where the infamous Peruvian Casa Arana's rubber baron killed thousands of Huitotu Indians, obraje lords used same methods. Payday, in many places, was normally the worker's last day.
Foz do Iguaçu (Brazil), Puerto Iguazu (Argenina),Hernandarias and Presidente Franco (Paraguay) sprang from different 'obrajes'. Hernadarias was the oldest. It was the seat of Industrial Paraguaya S.A. - a jungle holding covering 35% of the land of Eastern Paraguay. Foz do Iguaçu, officially founded as the Iguassu Military Colony in 1889, belonged, till Brazilian Imperial military arrived, to British and Argentine concerns the main one being the Fazenda Britania. When the Brazilian Imperial Forces arrived to what is being called today the Triple Border, over 300 people of different nationalities already lived on the no man's land. After foundation, the land around the colony was claimed by the military forces and served later as the land to be given over to the Municipality of Villa Iguassu and later Foz do Iguassu (written Foz do Iguaçu today).
On the Paraguayan side, small Puerto President Franco, today a city, was the home of a 'obraje'. The one that lasted longer than any other obraje on the Paraná River Coast. Being a Tri-National Obraje land, the Tri-Junction area was a specialized slave land where people have behaved like mensús even to this day. Mensú comes from "mensual" (monthly) in relation to payment. Workers were promissed monthly payments for their jungle lumber work and later yerba mate leaf collecting, preparing, drying, carrying, packaging and loading the final product into riverboats mostly owned by Buenos Aires companies
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| Horácio Quiroga's birthplace in Salto, Uruguay |
Horacio Quiroga, the Uruguayan-born writer who lived near what today is San Ignacio, a small city by the ruins of namesake Jesuit Ruins, used to call Posadas, the capital of the Province (then territory) the "regional Paris of the Paraná River". It was there that mensus were hired; received their advanced money and where most spent their money paying exorbitant prices for drink and sex. As soon as their money was finished most would then be put onboard ships and sent back to the obraje where they came from or sent to a new one under a new contract. Quiroga says that Posadas - present-day capital of the Province of Misiones was the Jerusalem and the Golgotha of their lives.
Modern-day Foz do Iguaçu was born from the efforts of the Brazilian Empire to bring Brazilian presence to the corner of the world where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay met. Of the three coutries only Argentina has a presence in the three-border area. The Yerba Mate barons, ship owners, commercial holdings, and an open direct access between the Guaira Falls Area and Buenos Aires. In 1889, Brazil estabished the Igassu Military Colony at the mouth of the Iguaçu River. For some the Colony faied to bring progress to the area. For others, the Colony did what it had to do.
The first peoples
The Guarani people are the original people of the Iguassu Falls Area which includes the three sides of the three-country, three-river area. Presently there are two main groups: the avá guarani and the mbyá guarani. The Guarani's originated in Amazonia, somewhere in the Madeira River Basin. From there they have spread all over Brazil and neighburing countries. When the Portuguese arrived in 1500, all tribes they encountered along the Brazilian Coast were guaranitic.
They spoke languages belonging to the Tupi-Guarani trunk. By what I see in the Three Border Area, I can say that Argentina has the best policy for the guarani people, Brazil is horrible denying any right to Guarani in the city and Paraguay, being a country where Guarani is spoken is the worst. From 1 to ten, ten being the best score, I give 6 to Argentina, 2 to Paraguay and Zero to Foz do Iguaçu. Which means that it is not a Guarani-friendly place. The Iguazu National Park, Argentina, recognizes the Guarani people as having special links to the area. They say it in the Interpretaion Area of the Visitors Center and have provided a covered space where the Guarani can exhibit and sell their handicrafts.
Colony Settlers
The Germans
Italians and Germans (Gauchos)
Arabs
Paraguayans
Argentineans
Chinese
Japanese
All-Brazilian Migration
New Migration
What is going on (new bridge, roads etc)
* Suggested reading on Obrajes:
Photo on top: Horácio's book Mensu - Spanish
The Cambridge Economic History of Latin America - the Colonial Era and the Short Nineteenth Century. You might want to see my Chronology of the Triple Border.
Modern-day Foz do Iguaçu was born from the efforts of the Brazilian Empire to bring Brazilian presence to the corner of the world where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay met. Of the three coutries only Argentina has a presence in the three-border area. The Yerba Mate barons, ship owners, commercial holdings, and an open direct access between the Guaira Falls Area and Buenos Aires. In 1889, Brazil estabished the Igassu Military Colony at the mouth of the Iguaçu River. For some the Colony faied to bring progress to the area. For others, the Colony did what it had to do.
Twenty three years after the colony foundation the colony passed to the hands of the State of Paraná under the administration of Guarapuava in 1912, same year that the Brazilian states of Paraná and Santa Catarina engaged in an internal Guerra do Contestado - the Contestado War. Over 20,000 people died. Two years later, in 1914, the city of Foz do Iguaçu was given autonomy from Guarapuava. In the same year World War I started in Europe. Peace only came in 1916 two years before the end of WWI. Part of the land where the Contestado War took place had been at the center of a 50-year long conflict between Argentina and Brazil called the Conflict of Palmas in Brazil and the Conflict of Misiones, in Argentina. The issue was solved thanks to a Abrital Verdict by US President Groover Cleveland.
The Iguassu Military Colony was not the only one in Brazil. All military colonies had as their goal to promote land occupation, open roads and bring communication infrastructure like telegraph, airstrips, hospitals and so on. Under land occupation, military colonies had the attribution of welcoming national and foreign workers interested in settling and producing in their areas.
The Iguassu Military Colony was not the only one in Brazil. All military colonies had as their goal to promote land occupation, open roads and bring communication infrastructure like telegraph, airstrips, hospitals and so on. Under land occupation, military colonies had the attribution of welcoming national and foreign workers interested in settling and producing in their areas.
That is how 1.008 hectars of land around Iguassu Falls was officialy handed over to a Spaniard called Jesús Val. That happened around the same time that Iguazu Falls was shown to the world at the Argentinean Stand at the Buffalo (NY) World Exposition of 1901. The same expo where the world saw Nicholas Tesla win the battle of the currents after successfully having brought electricity from Niagara Falls to the Exposition Ground. iguassu Falls made it to the pages of National Geographic in 1906.
The Spaniard Jesus Vals finally lost his property around Iguassu Falls in 1919 after a 4-year judicial battle against the State of Paraná. It all began in April 1916 when Alberto Santos Dumont paid a visit to the Iguazu Falls (Argentina) after having participated in the Internation Aviation Conference in Santiago, Chile representing the newly formed Aviation Association based in the USA.
Lots of things were happening in aviation. Santos Dumont made his way to Buenos Aires were he was met as a hero and international figure. After desimbarking in the port of Puerto Aguirre, rumors spread that someone big was in town. A man called Frederick Engle who owned a hotel in downtown, four-year old Foz do Iguassu - as it was written at the time, had gone to the port on the Argentinean side in he hope of fishing a guest or two for his hotel. This is how he heard about Santos Dumont being in town, for him, on the wrong side of the border. Mr. Engle decided to run back to the Brazilian side and go straight to the mayor, the first mayor of the new city, Mr. Jorge Schimmelpfeng in the hope to get the mayor's approval to officialy inviting the famous guest to the city.
The Spaniard Jesus Vals finally lost his property around Iguassu Falls in 1919 after a 4-year judicial battle against the State of Paraná. It all began in April 1916 when Alberto Santos Dumont paid a visit to the Iguazu Falls (Argentina) after having participated in the Internation Aviation Conference in Santiago, Chile representing the newly formed Aviation Association based in the USA.
Lots of things were happening in aviation. Santos Dumont made his way to Buenos Aires were he was met as a hero and international figure. After desimbarking in the port of Puerto Aguirre, rumors spread that someone big was in town. A man called Frederick Engle who owned a hotel in downtown, four-year old Foz do Iguassu - as it was written at the time, had gone to the port on the Argentinean side in he hope of fishing a guest or two for his hotel. This is how he heard about Santos Dumont being in town, for him, on the wrong side of the border. Mr. Engle decided to run back to the Brazilian side and go straight to the mayor, the first mayor of the new city, Mr. Jorge Schimmelpfeng in the hope to get the mayor's approval to officialy inviting the famous guest to the city.
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| Branch of the Hotel Brasil by the Falls where present-day Hotel das Cataratas is located (Iguaçu National Park Memory Project) |
Two days later Santos Dumont crossed the river and checked in at Frederick Engel's hotel. Engle's hotel had a Jungle Unit across from the Iguassu Falls, on the Jesús Val's land which he operated under some kind of arrangement. Dumont spent two nights in the junge hut. It was there and after being so marveled at the beauty of the place and so ashamed of the abandon he saw before his eyes, that he was told that the area around the falls was privately-owned. Santos Dumont travel plans changed right there: "This wonder can not be in the hands of an individual. I am going to Curitiba and talk to the President". And he did.
He traveled overland on horseback possibly with a small group of guides and a staff organized by the town's people. As a result of the Santos Dumont Emergency trip to the capital, three months later, President (Governor) Affonso Camargo signed the executive Desappropriation Decree declaring Jesus Val's land as "of public interest" for the establishment of a Park. That was step number one for the creation of the Iguassu National Park.
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| Paraná State President Affonso Camargo (left), Santos dumont (center), Lawyer Enéas Marques (right), boy in white is Alípio Camargo, the president's son |
The first peoples
The Guarani people are the original people of the Iguassu Falls Area which includes the three sides of the three-country, three-river area. Presently there are two main groups: the avá guarani and the mbyá guarani. The Guarani's originated in Amazonia, somewhere in the Madeira River Basin. From there they have spread all over Brazil and neighburing countries. When the Portuguese arrived in 1500, all tribes they encountered along the Brazilian Coast were guaranitic.
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| Tupi (violet), Tupi-Guarini (pink) languages areas and early probable areas (pink-grey). Based on data "Tupí Languages" & "Tupí-Guaraní Languages" in The Amazonian Languages, Dixon & Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (eds.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. p. 108 & p.126 / Wikipedia |
They spoke languages belonging to the Tupi-Guarani trunk. By what I see in the Three Border Area, I can say that Argentina has the best policy for the guarani people, Brazil is horrible denying any right to Guarani in the city and Paraguay, being a country where Guarani is spoken is the worst. From 1 to ten, ten being the best score, I give 6 to Argentina, 2 to Paraguay and Zero to Foz do Iguaçu. Which means that it is not a Guarani-friendly place. The Iguazu National Park, Argentina, recognizes the Guarani people as having special links to the area. They say it in the Interpretaion Area of the Visitors Center and have provided a covered space where the Guarani can exhibit and sell their handicrafts.
Colony Settlers
The Germans
Italians and Germans (Gauchos)
Arabs
Paraguayans
Argentineans
Chinese
Japanese
All-Brazilian Migration
New Migration
What is going on (new bridge, roads etc)
* Suggested reading on Obrajes:
Photo on top: Horácio's book Mensu - Spanish
The Cambridge Economic History of Latin America - the Colonial Era and the Short Nineteenth Century. You might want to see my Chronology of the Triple Border.
