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Italian Immigrants, Brazilian Football, and the Dilemma of National Identity*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2008

GREGG P. BOCKETTI
GREGG P. BOCKETTI
Affiliation:
Gregg P. Bocketti is Assistant Professor of History at Transylvania University. Email: gbocketti@transy.edu
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Abstract

This article considers the cultural adjustment of immigrants to Brazil through an analysis of the role that association football (soccer) played in identity formation in twentieth-century São Paulo. It focuses on the city's large Italian population, in particular the experiences of a leading club, the Società Sportiva Palestra Itália, and of the first generation of Brazilian footballers who migrated abroad in order to play football professionally, many of whom were Paulistas of Italian descent. It demonstrates that through football Italians obtained agency in negotiating the process by which they became Brazilian and found a means by which to preserve a sense of discrete ethnicity within São Paulo's multiethnic community.

Resumen:

Este artículo considera el ajuste cultural de los inmigrantes en Brasil a través de un análisis del papel que la asociación alrededor del Fútbol jugó en la formación identitaria en el São Paulo del siglo XX. Se centra en la mayor población italiana de la ciudad, en particular las experiencias de un club mayor, la Società Sportiva Palestra Itália, y en la primera generación de futbolistas brasileños que migraron con el fin de jugar fútbol profesionalmente, muchos de los cuales era paulistas de descendencia italiana. Esto demuestra que a través del fútbol los italianos no sólo ganaron agencia para negociar el proceso en el que se volvieron brasileños sino que encontraron un medio para preservar una sensación discreta de etnicidad al interior de la comunidad multiétnica de São Paulo.

Palabras clave: Brasil, Italia, inmigración, etnicidad, nacionalismo, fútbol

Resumo:

Este artigo considera os ajustes culturais feitos por imigrantes ao Brasil através de uma análise do papel do futebol na formação da identidade na São Paulo do século vinte. Ele concentra enfoca a grande população italiana da cidade, particularmente nas experiências de um dos principais clubes – o Società Sportiva Palestra Itália –, e na primeira geração de jogadores brasileiros que migraram ao exterior para jogar futebol profissionalmente, muitos dos quais eram paulistas de descendência italiana. Demonstra que através do futebol os italianos conseguiram representação na negociação do processo pelo qual se tornaram brasileiros e encontraram um meio pelo qual preservar um senso de etnicidade discreta no âmbito da comunidade multi-étnica de São Paulo.

Palavras-chave: Brasil, Itália, imigração, etnicidade, nacionalismo, futebol.

Keywords

BrazilItalyimmigrationethnicitynationalismfootballsoccer
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , May 2008 , pp. 275 - 302
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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References

1 See Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos, vol. 3, no. 8 (April 1988), a special issue on chain migration among Italians.

2 Especially important are Samuel L. Baily, Immigrants in the Lands of Promise: Italians in Buenos Aires and New York City, 1870–1914 (Ithaca, 1999); Fernando J. Devoto, Historia de los italianos en la Argentina (Buenos Aires, 2006); Fernando J. Devoto and Eduardo J. Míguez (eds.), Asociacionismo, trabajo e identidad étnica: los italianos en América Latina en una perspectiva comparada (Buenos Aires, 1992); Thomas H. Holloway, Immigrants on the Land: Coffee and Society in São Paulo, 1886–1934 (Chapel Hill, 1980); and two articles by Herbert, S. Klein, ‘The Social and Economic Integration of Portuguese Immigrants in Brazil in the Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries’, Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 23, no. 2 (1991), pp. 309–37Google Scholar, and ‘The Social and Economic Integration of Spanish Immigrants in Brazil’, Journal of Social History, vol. 25, no. 3 (1992), pp. 505–29.

3 See Mark D. Szuchman, Mobility and Integration in Urban Argentina: Córdoba in the Liberal Era (Austin, 1980); and Zuleika M. F. Alvim, Brava gente! Os italianos em São Paulo, 1870–1920 (São Paulo, 1986). See also two works by Jeffrey Lesser, Welcoming the Undesirables: Brazil and the Jewish Question (Berkeley, 1995), and Negotiating National Identity: Immigrants, Minorities, and the Struggle for Ethnicity in Brazil (Durham, 1999).

4 Important works on Italians in rural São Paulo include Holloway, Immigrants on the Land; and Verena, Stolcke and Michael, M. Hall, ‘The Introduction of Free Labour in São Paulo Coffee Plantations’, Journal of Peasant Studies, vol. 10, nos. 2/3 (1983), pp. 170–200.Google Scholar

5 One important work on popular culture is Mário Carelli, Carcamanos e comendadores: os italianos de São Paulo: da realidade à ficção (1919–1930) (São Paulo, 1985).

6 William H. Beezley, Judas at the Jockey Club and Other Episodes of Porfirian Mexico (2nd edition, Lincoln, 2004); and Leonardo Affonso de Miranda Pereira, Footballmania: uma história social de futebol em Rio de Janeiro, 1900–1938 (Rio de Janeiro, 2000).

7 José Sergio Leite Lopes, ‘The Brazilian Style and Its Dilemmas’, in Gary Armstrong and Richard Giulianotti (eds.), Football Cultures and Identities (London, 1999), pp. 86–99.

8 José Sergio, Leite Lopes, ‘Class, Ethnicity, and Color in the Making of Brazilian Football’, Daedalus, vol. 129, no. 2 (2000), pp. 239–70Google Scholar; Eduardo P. Archetti, Masculinities: Football, Polo and the Tango in Argentina (Oxford, 1999); Aldo Panfichi et al., Fútbol: identidad, violencia y racionalidad (Lima, 1994).

9 One exception is José Renato de Campos Aráujo, Imigração e futebol: o caso Palestra Itália (São Paulo, 2000). Scholars have begun to consider the migration of athletes, but most have focused on recent developments: see John Bale and Joseph Maguire (eds.), The Global Sports Arena: Athletic Talent Migration in an Interdependent World (London, 1994). The critical early years have received less attention: Pierre Lanfranchi and Matthew Taylor, Moving with the Ball: The Migration of Professional Footballers (Oxford, 2001) is an exception.

10 Pereira, Footballmania. On the history of football in Brazil, see also Waldenyr Caldas, O pontapé inicial: memória do futebol brasileiro (1894–1933) (São Paulo, 1990). Works in English include two articles by Robert, Levine, ‘Sport and Society: The Case of Brazilian Futebol’, Luso-Brazilian Review, vol. 17, no. 2 (1980), pp. 233–52Google Scholar, and ‘The Burden of Success: Futebol and Brazilian Society through the 1970s’, Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 14, no. 3 (1980), pp. 453–64; as well as the works of Leite Lopes cited in footnotes 7 and 8.

11 Pereira, Footballmania, pp. 21–102, describes the structure of and recruitment for these clubs.

12 Estatutos da Liga Metropolitana de Sports Athleticos (Rio de Janeiro, 1907), Appendix.

13 On the Anglophilia of Brazilian enthusiasts, see Darién J. Davis, ‘British Football with a Brazilian Beat: The Early History of a National Pastime (1894–1933)’, in Oliver Marshall (ed.), English-Speaking Communities in Latin America (New York, 2000), pp. 261–84.

14 As distinguished from labor preferences. As Hall points out, early preferences among landowners for German immigrants gave way to preferences for Italians when the latter proved ‘more easily managed than the German colonists’. Michael M. Hall, ‘The Origins of Mass Immigration to Brazil, 1871–1914’, unpubl. PhD diss., Columbia University, 1969, p. 88. See also the discussions in Holloway, ‘Immigrants on the Land’ and Carelli, ‘Carcamanos e Comendadores’.

15 ‘A famosa “equipe” Corinthians está no Rio’, Correio da Manhã (Rio de Janeiro), 23 Aug. 1910, Archive of the Fluminense Football Club; and ‘O Team Corinthians em S. Paulo’, O Estado de São Paulo (OESP), 28 Aug. 1913 and 3 Sept. 1910, Archive of the Club Athletico Paulistano (CAP).

16 Plínio José Labriola de Campos Negreiros, ‘Resistência e rendição: a gênese do Sport Club Corinthians Paulista e o futebol oficial em São Paulo, 1910–1916’, unpubl. M.A. thesis, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, 1992, pp. 136–45.

17 ‘Italia vs. Brasil’, OESP, 3 Aug. 1914, CAP.

18 ‘Os Italianos em S. Paulo’, OESP, 2 Aug. 1914, CAP. This and all subsequent translations are by the author.

19 ‘Foot-ball: Italianos vs. Brasileiros, O Match de Domingo no Velodromo’, Sportman, 6 Aug. 1914.

20 Vicente Ragognetti, quoted in Claudemir M. Barbosa, Album histórico da Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras (São Paulo, 1951), pp. 1–2.

21 Campos Araújo, Imigração e futebol, pp. 96–7.

22 Klein, ‘The Social and Economic Integration of Portuguese Immigrants’, Table 1, p. 316.

23 Ibid., Table 3, p. 320.

24 Holloway, Immigrants on the Land, pp. 37–8; and Michael M. Hall, ‘The Origins of Mass Immigration to Brazil, 1871–1914’, unpubl. PhD diss., Columbia University, 1969, pp. 81–115.

25 Alvim, Brava gente!, p. 118.

26 Holloway, Immigrants on the Land; Stolcke and Hall, ‘The Introduction of Free Labour’.

27 Brazil, Directoria Geral de Estátistica, Recenseamento do Brazil, realizado em 1 de Setembro de 1920, vol. IV, part 1a (Rio de Janeiro, 1926), pp. ix, 317.

28 Brazil, Recenseamento do Brazil, vol. IV, part 1a, pp. ix, 331; Baily, Immigrants in the Lands of Promise, p. 224.

29 Campos Araújo, Imigração e futebol, p. 12.

30 Lucy Maffei Hutter, Imigração italiana em São Paulo de 1902 a 1914. O processo imigratório (São Paulo, 1986), p. 152; Klein, ‘The Social and Economic Integration of Portuguese Immigrants’, Table 11, p. 330.

31 Hutter, Imigração italiana, p. 153.

32 Klein, ‘The Social and Economic Integration of Portuguese Immigrants’, Tables 13 and 14, pp. 332–3.

33 Angelo Trento, ‘Le associazoni italiane a Sao Paulo, 1878–1960’, in Devoto and Míguez (eds.), Asociacionismo, trabajo e identidad étnica, p. 32.

34 On Fanfulla, see Samuel, L. Baily, ‘The Role of Two Newspapers in the Assimilation of Italians in Buenos Aires and São Paulo, 1893–1913’, International Migration Review, vol. 12, no. 3 (Autumn 1973), pp. 321–40.Google Scholar

35 Other Italian clubs, with which Palestra Itália maintained regular contact, included Palestra Itália di S. Carlos, F.C. Italo, Juventus, Palestra Itália di Santos, and Palestra Itália – Ribeirão Preto. Ata: Reuniões Diretoria 18/4/1922 à 09/9/1924, Livro no. 05, Archive of the Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras (SEP). Campos Araújo cautions against assuming one uncomplicated Italian ethnicity among immigrants to Brazil during this period, as Italy was defined by myriad regional identities. However, he does stress the importance of Palestra Itália, writing, ‘This association, if not the first, was the one with the most success in the attempt to represent the Italians of the city of São Paulo, instilling the idea of Italianness in people who still did not consider themselves Italian’: Campos Araújo, Imigração e futebol, p. 135. Examination of club documents reveals no references to regional distinctions among Paulista Italians; that is, the directors of Palestra Itália imagined themselves as part of an Italian community.

36 Rubens Ribeiro, O caminho da bola: 100 anos de história da FPF, I Volume,1902–1952 (São Paulo, 2000), p. 151.

37 Ibid., p. 270.

38 Ibid., p. 420.

39 Meetings of the Directorate of Società Sportiva Palestra Itália (SSPI), 30 Sept. 1924, 20 July 1928, and 13 May 1932, Ata Diretoria 09/09/1924 à 11/02/1927, Livro 06, Atas Diretoria 11/02/1927 à 8/02/1929, Livro 07, Reunião Diretoria 08/03/1932 à 20/07/1934, Livro 09, SEP.

40 At least one observer expressed suspicion about the Italian bona fides of the club's players. According to ‘Chutador’, Palestra Itália had a policy of ‘hiding’ the ethnicity of its players, ‘nationalising them … Italian-ly [italicamente]!’ Thus ‘Navajas lost his father's name, as now he is Novelli, which is pure Italian.’ Certainly Chutador meant to lampoon the foibles of Palestra Itália's administrators, but he also revealed their commitment to advertising an exclusively Italian identity, for them a serious business: Chutador, ‘Pelotas e pelotaços’, A Plateia, 24 May 1934.

41 Trento, ‘Le associazoni italiane’, p. 33.

42 Antonio Carlos Morbio, Sempre Palmeiras (São Paulo, 2000), pp. 161–5.

43 Meeting of the Deliberative Council of SSPI, 4 March 1927, Atas. Conselho Deliberativo. 04/03/1927 a 14/03/1933, SEP.

44 ‘O Club Athletico Paulistano e o Palestra Itália encontram-se num match em beneficio da Cruz Vermelha Italiana e do Comitato Pro-Patria’, and ‘Matches em Beneficio’, OESP, 30 June 1915 and 19 March 1917, CAP; Meeting of the Directorate of SSPI, 20 Sept. 1929, Ata Reunião Diretoria 08/02/1929 à 18/03/1932, Livro 08, SEP; and ‘O presidente do Palestra e a victoria da Italia: (De um observador amadorista)’, Folha da Manhã, 6 June 1934. In the last piece, the club's president, Dante Delmanto, was ridiculed for his ‘double navel’, demonstrated in his celebration of the anniversary of Italy's entry into World War I.

45 Meetings of the Directorate of SSPI, 31 Aug. 1923, Ata: Reuniões Diretoria, Livro no. 05, 19 May 1926, Ata Diretoria, Livro 06; and 20 Sept. 1929, Ata Reunião Diretoria, Livro 08, SEP.

46 João Fábio Bertonha, O fascismo e os imigrantes italianos no Brasil (Porto Alegre, 2001), p. 158 fn. 198.

47 Ibid., and João Fábio Bertonha, Sob a sombre de Mussolini: Os italianos de São Paulo e a luta contra o fascismo, 1919–1945 (São Paulo, 1999). Bertonha shows that Italians in São Paulo were generally supportive of the Fascist regime, but that their support was less committed than many Fascists hoped it would be. The outlook of Palestra Itália fits this description.

48 The first manuscript in Portuguese is Atas Diretoria, Livro 07, SEP, dating from 1927. Italian continued to be used, if irregularly.

49 Pirelli sponsors the club and its logo appears on the team's shirt. The club had previously forged close ties to Parmalat, a relationship that foundered upon the company's bankruptcy in 2003.

50 For example, early in his career Filó played for the most elite of the city's clubs, the Club Athletico Paulistano.

51 Ribeiro, O caminho da bola, p. 332.

52 Scholars who have commented on this migration include Caldas, O pontapé inicial, pp. 201–3; and Tony Mason, Passion of the People? Football in South America (London, 1995), pp. 45–51. On the players' experience in Italy, see Lanfranchi and Taylor, Moving with the Ball, pp. 69–88; and Simon Martin, Football and Fascism: The National Game under Mussolini (Oxford, 2004), pp. 187–96.

53 ‘O Exodo de jogadores’, OESP, 10 July 1931.

54 The Fantoni brothers had played for two clubs called Palestra Itália, one the Paulista club, the other in Belo Horizonte.

55 ‘A volta do Amilcar ao Brasil’, Folha da Noite, 1 July 1931.

56 ‘Amilcar aprecia o nosso futebol’, Folha da Manhã, 2 July 1931; and ‘Não são bem exactas as informações que os jornaes têm divulgado sobre a ida de jogadores brasileiros á Italia’, Folha da Noite, 9 July 1931.

57 ‘O famoso Amilcar não veiu contratar nossos jogadores, mas concedeu uma entrevista que é a propaganda mais intelligente possivel do futebol italiano’, Folha da Manhã, 3 July 1931; ‘Não são bem exactas as informações’, Folha da Noite, 9 July 1931.

58 Ibid.

59 ‘Ultimas: A primeira colheira’, A Gazeta, 10 July 1931.

60 ‘Amilcar e os demais companheiros desmentem as declarações que lhes foram attribuidas: Um telegrama dos jogadores paulistas a “Gazeta”’, A Gazeta, 18 Sept. 1931.

61 Martin, Football and Fascism; Antonio Ghirelli, Storia del calcio in Italia (Torino, 1990); Robert S.C. Gordon and John London, ‘Italy 1934: Football and Fascism’, in Alan Tomlinson and Chris Young (eds.), National Identity and Global Sports Events: Culture, Politics and Spectacle in the Olympics and the Football World Cup (Albany, 2005), pp. 41–63.

62 Martin, Football and Fascism, p. 63.

63 Lanfranchi and Taylor employ the term rimpatriati in describing the South American Italians, as opposed to the term oriundi, a term for people of Italian descent. They point out that whereas some saw the players as oriundi, the regime, and footballing authorities with it, saw them as full-blooded Italians: Lanfranchi and Taylor, Moving with the Ball, p. 76.

64 On Italian attitudes toward the rimpatriati/oriundi, including dissenting views on their nationality, see Lanfranchi and Taylor, Moving with the Ball, pp. 72–88; Martin, Football and Fascism, pp. 190–6; Vittorio Pozzo, Campioni del Mondo: Quarant'anni di Storia del Calcio Italiano (Rome, 1960), pp. 395–8.

65 ‘Não são bem exactas as informações’, Folha da Manhã, 9 July 1931. Another player who cited the ethnic connection as an attraction was Vasco da Gama's Luiz Gervazoni, known as Itália. When asked if he would like to play in Italy, Gervazoni responded that he would, given the right financial inducements, and noted that his parents and wife were Italian. ‘O zagueiro Itália foi mesmo convidado para actuar na Itália’, Folha da Noite, 26 Aug. 1931.

66 The Lazio contracts were reported in ‘Os jogadores paulistas em caminho da Italia: Por occasião de sua passagem pelo Rio, a “Folha da Manhã” conseguiu entrevistal-os', Folha da Manhã, 12 July 1931; the figure of 300$000 réis is given by R. Castello, ‘O futebol exportador’, Folha da Manhã, 10 July 1931. These sums have been converted using the exchange rates for 1931 at www.measuringworth.com/exchangeglobal/

67 ‘Os Jogadores paulistas passaram pelo Rio, ao bordo do “Duillio”’, Folha da Manhã, 26 July 1931.

68 Ibid.

69 ‘Os jogadores paulistas em caminho da Italia’, Folha da Manhã, 12 July 1931.

70 Castello, ‘O futebol exportador’, Folha da Manhã, 10 July 1931; and ‘Signaes dos tempos’, OESP, 15 July 1931.

71 ‘O Exodo dos jogadores’, OESP, 10 July 1931.

72 ‘Ultimas: A primeira colheira’, A Gazeta, 10 July 1931.

73 Castello, ‘O futebol exportador’, Folha da Manhã, 10 July 1931.

74 ‘O Exodo dos jogadores’, OESP, 10 July 1931.

75 ‘Ultimas’, A Gazeta, 10 July 1931.

76 ‘Renegados! Ingratos!: Del Debbio, Amilcar, Ratto e Serafine declaram, em Roma, que são italianos e fazem questão de não ser brasileiros’, Jornal dos Sports, 26 Aug. 1931.

77 ‘Os Futebolistas brasileiros, contratados como profissionaes para a Italia, renegaram a sua patria’, Folha da Manhã, 27 Aug. 1931.

78 ‘Renegados! Ingratos!’, Jornal dos Sports, 26 Aug. 1931.

79 ‘Criticas e suggestões: Renegados!’, Jornal dos Sports, 26 Aug. 1931.

80 ‘Amilcar e Debbio, segundo um jornal italiano disseram que deixaram de ser brasileiros’, A Gazeta, 27 Aug. 1931.

81 ‘O pae de Amilcar visitou-nos hontem e disse-nos que não crê em tudo quanto se diz a respeito do seu filho que é um bom brasileiro como sempre foi correcto esportista’, A Gazeta, 29 Aug. 1931.

82 ‘Amilcar e os demais companheiros desmentem as declarações que lhes foram attribuidas’, A Gazeta, 18 Sept. 1931.

83 ‘O presidente do Palestra e a victoria da Italia’, A Folha da Manhã, 6 June 1934; ‘O Exodo de jogadores’, OESP, 10 July 1931.

84 Olympicus, ‘O ‘garoto’ partiu', A Gazeta, 24 July 1931.

85 ‘Associação Paulista de Esportes Athleticos’, OESP, 18 July 1931.

86 ‘Ministrinho e sua eliminação da APEA’, A Gazeta, 10 Sept. 1931.

87 ‘Como irá acabar a questão’, A Gazeta, 26 Sept. 1931.

88 Meeting of the Directorate of SSPI, 1 Aug. 1930, Ata Reunião Diretoria, Livro 08, SEP.

89 Meetings of the Directorate and Deliberative Council of SSPI, 10 July 1931, Ata Reunião Diretoria. Livro 08; 26 Dec. 1930 and 7 Feb. 1931, Atas. Conselho Deliberativo, SEP.

90 Extraordinary Meeting of the Joint Executive of SSPI, 26 Dec. 1930, Atas. Conselho Deliberativo, SEP.

91 In 1930, the club provided bonds to guarantee the employment of the players Salvador Loschiavo and Francisco Carrone by the Texaco company and Henrique Serafini by the Standard company. Meeting of the Directorate of SSPI, 13 June 1930, Ata Reunião Diretoria. Livro 08, SEP.

92 Meeting of the Joint Executive of SSPI, 10 July 1931, Atas. Conselho Deliberativo, SEP (my italics).

93 ‘Campeonato Mundial’, Diario Popular, 27 May 1934.

94 For example, Brazil's first World Cup team consisted almost exclusively of players based in Rio de Janeiro, owing to a dispute between the Rio-based organisers and the administrators of Paulista football.

95 ‘A derrota da nossa équipe em Genova e as manifestações que provocou’, Diario Popular, 28 May 1934; ‘O presidente do Palestra e a victoria da Italia’, Folha da Manhã, 6 June 1934.

96 ‘O povo apedrejou as sédes do Palestra Italia e da A.P.E.A.’, A Plateia, 28 May 1934.

97 ‘A derrota da nossa équipe’, Diario Popular, 28 May 1934.

98 ‘O povo apedrejou as sédes’, A Plateia, 28 May 1934.

99 ‘A derrota da nossa équipe’, Diario Popular, 28 May 1934

100 ‘O presidente do Palestra e a victoria da Italia’, Folha da Manhã, 6 June 1934.

101 A Gazeta Esportiva, 29 Feb. 1932. In Italy, the club earned the nickname ‘Brasilazio’: Lanfranchi and Taylor, Moving with the Ball, p. 82.

102 ‘Filó: Unico Craque do Brasil que teve a gloria de ser campeão do mundo’, Mundo Esportivo, 27 May 1948; and Pimento Netto, ‘Filó, Campeão do Mundo: O unico brasileiro que tem esse cartão de visita’, unknown newspaper, 14 Feb. 1949, Filó scrapbook, CAP.

103 Both joined Uruguayan clubs in 1933, Domingos signing for Nacional, Leônidas for Peñarol.

104 The change was legislated by the Vargas regime's Conselho Nacional de Esportes in Sept. 1942. Campos Araújo, Imigração e futebol, pp. 126–7.

105 Mário Filho, O negro no futebol brasileiro, second ed. (Rio de Janeiro, 1964), p. 245.

106 Ibid.