Tapping Masculinity

Between 1942 and 1945, more than 32,000 male migrant workers were transported to the Brazilian Amazon from the country’s Northeast, in the largest state-sponsored relocation of free labor in Brazilian history. These men were charged with supplying the United States with latex tapped from wild rubber trees, as part of a wartime campaign underwritten by the U.S. government.1 This essay investigates how notions of gender shaped the formulation of the wartime migration project, the formation of regional labor markets, and the historical experiences of the migrants.Interregional migration is a key factor in understanding major changes in late-twentieth-century Brazil, including industrial development, proletarianization, frontier expansion, shifting patterns of political participation, and the transformation of individual subjectivities. Between 1960 and 1980 alone, 29.4 million Brazilians — a population larger than most Latin American nations — migrated from the countryside to the cities, in the process transforming Brazil from a predominantly rural to a predominantly urban country.2 Another migration pattern since midcentury has been relocation to the central-western and Amazonian frontier: between the 1940s and the 1990s, the population of the Amazon skyrocketed from 2 million to 13 million (although it, too, is now predominantly urban).3The process of internal migration in Brazil has been studied more extensively by social scientists and demographers than by historians.4 Economists have traditionally emphasized structural factors in explaining migration — the push of lower wages reflective of labor surplus in sending regions and the pull of higher wages in areas of labor scarcity. Migratory flows, however, are determined not only by market forces but also by state policies that encourage or inhibit migration and by the cultural predilections of those who formulate or are targeted by these policies.5 One such mediating factor is gender — the normative roles for men and women that are implicated in the construction and signification of unequal power relations in society.6 Neither uniform nor immutable, gender ideologies — fractured by class, race, sexuality, and age — are historically contingent, fluid, and contested.In placing gender at the analytical foreground in understanding wartime migration to the Amazon, I do not propose to discount the centrality of socioeconomic inequalities in the sending regions of rural Northeastern Brazil, which have been historically exacerbated by cyclical periods of drought. Nor can we downplay the geopolitical factors that set in motion the transnational rubber campaign. Gender ideologies are contoured precisely by such structural factors, even as they have served to reinforce or to challenge them. Rather, a gendered lens can enhance our analysis of this historical episode by prompting different types of questions: How were gender ideologies harnessed or reworked by state officials and intellectuals during World War II to promote the migration of northeastern men to the Amazon? How were nordestino identities racialized in elite discourse? How did the perception of the migrants’ masculinity mediate their incorporation into Amazonian labor markets? What was the relevance of official gender ideologies to the historical experiences and political identities of the migrants themselves? By shedding light on these issues, I hope to contribute to an extensive multinational literature that explores the relationship between gender ideologies and political mobilization during World War II.7First, a brief overview of the wartime rubber campaign is in order. After the Japanese occupied the rubber-producing regions of Southeast Asia in February 1942, the Allies were cut off from 92 percent of the traditional sources of latex.8 Rubber was vital for military vehicles, as well as to outfit the tires of 30 million American automobiles. In a March 1942 report, the U.S. War Production Board estimated that at the current rate of use, the Allies would exhaust rubber stockpiles by March 1943.9 To meet the gap between the 125,000 tons of crude rubber available and an estimated annual requirement of 1.2 million tons, the U.S. government endorsed various measures: the immediate development of a synthetic rubber industry, drastic conservation and utilization of reclaimed rubber, and the maximum development of wild rubber in Africa and Latin America.It is noteworthy that the wartime rubber shortage in the United States, most social was not but the of political the of American government officials and their with that In with in and Asia flows, the of the the to set the Rubber as a for the of a the rubber By 1942, only million of an of million to in Latin In the by the of in the of and the Japanese on in Rubber on rubber — by than — by including the Rubber also rubber by U.S. even during the the government was to for also to the synthetic rubber In the U.S. government with of rubber, and for the construction and of synthetic rubber with a annual of U.S. that a between of and of from in the development of synthetic that was more to than to the U.S. government and was with March for the War Production Board who in the synthetic rubber and to the sources of rubber in Southeast the U.S. to synthetic rubber to a of tons by construction on with million from for these U.S. that synthetic rubber not meet the wartime rubber was for such as which on 30 percent to percent of crude for with U.S. officials on Latin American nations to this Between March and 1942, the U.S. government rubber with in Latin Amazon for than percent of the rubber at the of but as the to of wild rubber trees, U.S. officials the as a of of the Brazilian rubber and is well and only Between and the the Amazon a of the of rubber, and as a this the Amazon an estimated migrants from and northeastern of their by the of the of population and of that the in the to official the population of the state of for from in to in — a percent the the of Amazonian rubber to the Amazon, rubber in that in the and were by in most wild rubber in the Amazon, to from the and by and and sources of surplus Amazonian rubber to in Southeast Asia by the the Amazonian rubber in between and percent of the population the rubber to the or the of and rubber were also historically by a gender the rubber to male migrants they were to by to also that men with to and for were more to at the the men women in regions such as the of In that of the estimated the of the were and In the that of a in men from the to the Amazon in to and a in as as a population of men and these gendered state officials the of in the Amazon as a to the the in the Amazon by the between and the between men and women as a to a more of in the during the rubber a of Amazonian and endorsed the of as a to encourage and a male a to in Brazilian the of the government to the socioeconomic the nordestino in the Amazon, the government the of and the of rubber endorsed policies and in the to on the for rubber, in the government an annual of for and their to to the rubber of and the by the migrants would and in the by officials from the of the of would by from to the Amazon, they would on the in the do to promote in the of the the of in with the of of would the of nordestino to in the These policies the to state-sponsored of the as a to of and urban and labor Northeastern migrants in as the of and state in such as and of social Between and with supplying the of and sending March 1942, U.S. and Brazilian officials a of for the mobilization of in for a million of from the including the of a million by the Rubber Rubber for the of rubber in the between the United States and Brazil for the of surplus of crude rubber at a officials that a would not rubber One of the most to was the shortage of labor in the rubber-producing areas of the Brazilian Amazon more than million but in was to than 2 million of the million American officials estimated were in the Amazon, on the annual of only tons in the who in the rubber-producing regions the rubber to more on and to for from or to the of at the officials as or to meet the for by the wartime the U.S. in the rural Amazonian population was of who have tapped rubber in the and for or their government officials that the was to in has the that how that the this American rubber that migration from the Northeast, since surplus of labor would a to and the more government to to the Amazon from the of and northeastern These regions been by in and 1942, to the of Between and 1942, the from Rubber to workers and their to the Amazon, and by February including on the of nordestino not only from the but also from the government the of the Amazon by by 1942, the American for rubber with wartime on the to Amazonian In 1942, Brazil on the between the and the American the to northeastern to the Amazon the in — exacerbated by and on Brazilian in 1942 — would the government to the of male the of was as key to American for rubber of tons in and tons in the of a on 1942, the Brazilian was with male from northeastern Brazil to the Amazon by the of percent were to men and 30 percent Brazilian to the and rural of In for a in the rubber the Brazilian government migrants from military the at a of at the of to the Amazon — a of to rubber for the of migration to the Amazon, the of U.S. and Brazilian government also to the of the at the of men and women in in the of men that at to the of women to only To not of those who at the of during the were in the rubber but the the by official labor migration on male workers would also the to the gendered of official wartime migration to the Amazonian rubber U.S. and Brazilian officials to in a with the of to the of rubber historically to workers of the of for the of industrial and at with In of and the with the of from the Board of wartime and for migrant the was to free a and to migrants to the the would a with the of the rubber in which the to the with and from these to the a and a for to to rubber trees, and to the of rubber the to a of percent of the official between and were to by the labor the do do by the government to the migrant workers from to was to on to and the of an extensive to and in the officials to promote nordestino labor migration not only by the of labor but also by transforming social and Brazilian and American that the of the the Amazon would and the migrant into and was the of the Amazon by intellectuals in Latin American the of and were the of the Amazon as a for a for military and a of or the wartime campaign the of the Amazon and the of rubber with to the rubber campaign the that and the nordestino In the rural Northeast, the Brazilian government with the to promote migration to the and in not only state to the Amazon but also the migrants for the the masculinity of the the northeastern the traditional of and the and social and the wartime were to a light on a by and the the migrants transforming the male of the Amazon and the into with and was also since elite the rural as the of the and that the of the by the the of nordestino in the Amazon regional and the to in rubber Brazilian and U.S. government the of the to roles were in the rural and were most by of the migrants in or the of who the or in the or the of a was in by an or male — even these roles did not exhaust of the of a was the for of age who was for in to and in the of a labor to to in the Brazilian and American government officials did not these roles for they the to them. In a by the to encourage rubber the Amazon was as a One the of on the were the of the and a that for a of the of a from the northeastern who for a One to in the for in the of an who how to and the migrant was to for and in a and to the rubber of the who the were in literature and frontier In the a of on the Amazon, the who the in of that are by their do not or it, they they are the In in a nordestino migrant to the the with a and a with of and with a These workers from the in the with of of of a and to the also to the rubber as a who to the the In Amazonian of the of the during the rubber was the migrants’ push into the of in the Amazon for of the in the in the who to the Amazon in their most and of our with their the for rubber state officials and intellectuals of and in Brazilian the that to by to population of Northeastern Brazil a of and of and of the Amazon with and as a on nordestino is a has in the of and with the of the migrants from to the Amazon for and of these men from the of the of the Northeast, to the of the to their with the of their as the the nordestino migrant would not the process of formation in the Amazon, since the migrants were the they of Brazilian officials in the nordestino male is in the of migrants by government as part of the to to the Amazon, these to their and and served to reinforce rural nordestino from of to cultural was not a traditional to the and government wartime rubber as a to the and government for the of to for the of the Amazon, rubber — an for and the of in the rubber types of in the the of who in the hope for the of were to a population with a One for a by an and the to with of who have political have emphasized the to Brazilian in a of as the for would this I would to an traditionally government and regional the in men for wartime has the political and of wartime state to the in to to and for the the individual to political or — that was — and social to to In this we the official from to with and as part of a that to military with the of a relationship between the state and the the of the as a for the political incorporation of men in development as a and the of the state in with the the social of in for a of labor to a of the of labor and the from government workers with a of and such as and have the of was a gendered the labor and political of men roles as and and the urban of Brazilian labor has the for the socioeconomic and political of rural male of would not only the transformation of traditional but also the transformation of traditional labor of and frontier and the of free for a government to and and the do as the in to the and for policies to social of the the historical of most by the northeastern in the the of of that the as and the of to an official the of in the that the Brazilian the of our in the an of the for from in the the Brazilian now in the — a of and a of and a of — a however, available that and as has the who the in of or in of military and who were to in the was also to traditionally by that to the Amazon also that their labor rubber have been at the of the — to the of the of the state of and of the of the wartime campaign — but have men as and of they have or in of as an of rubber were as the of women and in the official of the as and to the of their to their social and in in from the Amazon to the of that the rubber is that they and is for that in and a of the women of the cities, of the a to or on how the or of more and by of of To this even to In on the as from and a of and — a of our of of that in the and the Amazon that the migrants to the Amazon but that wartime such the official of the of the rubber social the of of of or men to the Brazilian and American officials that the migrants would to and during their in the Amazon, such as in with or of the also government officials in the rubber in the of the with that Brazilian men the is with have but they have also a of individual which as and the by the for the of the workers of official gender or to their government to the to and to In the Brazilian government to the by a of to in the or by to in the sending Brazilian government is more for the who and than the that of are and By migrants in in to the Amazon, government officials to and to however, also to of the to and as a to and labor that migrants a during the rubber to the and with the the rubber of not the of nor they the or the of the of the Brazilian state in rural the to the and the do American government in the rubber campaign were to Brazilian by the official the in which government officials gender ideologies in and in the formulation of the rubber how Brazilian state policies and migration have and been by gender did government the of the with the and workers in the rubber did gendered the rubber is to the of sources a of in which gender ideologies on the in the wartime rubber gendered lens also to or the of the for in the literature on the rubber campaign that wartime served to workers to the Amazon with of and state various the in rubber wartime to to of of has been as an of the migrants’ the of the Amazon, have the of a with and state is to this — which in was shaped the of the Brazilian into the rubber in this the historical and of state rubber and in the rubber nordestino migrants were from they in the of or and in the urban they the rubber the by they to who the rubber during and they to the in of who on the rubber latex to and rubber to and to to is not to such of Rather, I to a that has been in the the of rubber to or nordestino labor various the migrant labor in with their as the of the Brazilian government to migrants to the Amazon and on the rubber a from an in 1942 that would the wartime rubber was a shortage of labor in the rubber-producing areas on the and as was in the state of to placing migrant labor on rubber American officials to the on the part of the of the to labor migrant labor the of the Brazilian government we that or have to to encourage to a of is that or in an as to the to labor on rubber in the Amazon In to the of U.S. government nordestino migrants transported to the Amazon were of the rubber of in workers and that the of in a 30 percent in in the — percent to the of and percent to also were to a with a wartime of rubber that were for only a and the of from synthetic rubber, Amazonian American government officials that rubber would the the would and and they would the as rubber that the of the in Africa and of an the how the rubber this Another that in the and in the the of the rubber can the and they for are not in the rubber for are the we rubber as as we we to that a with the Brazilian the of the to a for to for they labor by the identities of the was with and in the migrants’ in the is for that to the migrant workers as but as that in or the traditionally to northeastern migrants to rural rubber the that the migrants and were the that of the men to only been on of the migrant they were and their was they were to the for rubber, they were to and they were who on the that migrants and were and the at migrants the the the the and in to the migrant from they were by at In as with who have been to and who on the of this their a of to the Brazilian with the of the wartime with the United the of and the of the migrants for the rubber the the of the who are are which has to a of who and the migrant the to the labor of rubber and do not to on rubber, and they do they their in a These the of a and the to in the government for the migrants by the as a is to the the age of the migrants the from which the of of of on the of of but not on on with in that migrants were between the of and they in the Amazon, but this to for the that would have been at the of In in in which on the age of an age from to with an of were by of the nordestino One that the migrants’ in of which to the of the Amazonian rubber that by this the migrants a rubber only the of that were of but they on individual with the than by the these to the to a were of their state by In a the of the and the rubber served as the for the U.S. who from the Amazon during the their the official as well as historical In an at however, that they with to the with these also the of on the migrants and the the larger in to more that as a they available and to the government officials the of the migrants’ as that the migrants and off on rubber of for for in of the of the with the migrant workers who and for that of individual into the Amazon has not these men their and and to to their the of the rubber and government officials that the of their men to the in the Amazon and or in the Amazon as for an was an intellectuals and In that the that historically nordestino migrants was the of and the as the social and is or the of a in of the in an to the and of the the as in in in and with nordestino in to the rubber that women were to more than This to their more by that migrants to the Amazon were not to more than men as to the did the and of the — their and for the of and not only have but as as the of on the in social migrant on the rubber at the and more for to of was on the and of In of the in that was only for in which rubber the and the and and for a is a is the is to is not that male migrants during the for were by more or than Rather, rubber men to than migrants and In by male migrants of labor that have to their and wartime migration policies their and their to Gender a in the of the rubber but not in the in state official the did have on the historical experiences of the workers themselves? To the Brazilian government to to the Amazon by the of male migrants those who with their during the has been estimated at not only the of state and the of the but also the of to is also to that the who did was not by to the for wartime labor in the United States — the or the — the in of the that a wartime with migrants in that — than — tapped rubber and were in a cyclical pattern of Nor were of the nordestino migrants since to the Amazonian frontier even by in the as the of the as the into the industrial by the of the of — and American — who the in the of the nordestino social in the sending did not the but relocation the of from and to wartime of migrants’ from normative gender these were and and for the and of the of men for social and in the the normative roles of nordestino men as of as a and more for and of the rubber as for women were in the of male migrants to the on the rubber gendered to and social the in the for a to the rubber and to the a of for the and a for the — and to a nordestino migrants or harnessed notions of masculinity in to or relations of is also to that the masculinity in official was to the wartime of officials who of rubber to encourage that to their and such as and from the in the of of of of of and with their rubber an were that the of we have been for was not to the government their cultural the official with that the of the rubber campaign. notions of the was by a of during the to their challenge their and as the social of by the rubber of in a of for the of the United and for the of our from to the of in to that would to to to the been as part of the who the to that was than in with our for the United to our who women and also to challenge After to for and in the of the from the in a to to the by their they their with of rubber and that the including the of their with on they from the that that were to the that were transported to this at the of the and that the by by that is in at the and is in in our and of the to their on their in of rubber for the of the the to to in the of their and the rate and the of in the Amazon, such were they did to a larger pattern of rural political during the by of in the Brazilian from rural workers and to between and by the workers or by the of and as well as of the and by the to rural at how gender ideologies state policies and shaped the of migrants to the Amazon during World War we into the of internal migration and wartime the formation of regional labor markets, and the transformation of political identities in Amazonian migration the of transnational the of state power and and the of to the of the as a by To the in the political and of the wartime rubber the larger of late-twentieth-century Brazil to the of the gendered political the of the of to social and political the of the United States Brazilian and and the of the of the Brazilian which has to areas by and to political at the even in and would to and for their in the for

Amazon rainforest · Development economics · Economic growth · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Frontier · Geography · Internal migration · Latin Americans · Political science · Politics · Population · Proletarianization · Relocation · Sociology · Urbanization · Demography · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Migration, Racism, and Human Rights · Urban Development and Societal Issues

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