Beyond the Battle Flag of the Confederacy: A Study of Racial Attitudes among Confederate Descendents in Santa Barbara D'Oeste, Brazil
Abstract
In order to discern the meaning of the Confederate symbol in Brazilian
society, analysis of the racial values of the "Confederados" is imperative.
There is a clear linkage between the racial views of the older generation of
descendents with an older southern perspective .of race. Racial prejudice is
easier to track in the older generations because the elder descendents have
inherited racist language and stereotypes that they express overtly. They have
not even attempted to accept Gilberta Freye's theory of a "racial democracy".
The "Confederado" community in the San'ta Barbara D'Oeste region was so
isolated and concerned with its own-purity that it took a while before its
passionate racial views were influenced by the Brazilian perspective. Since
the community has been forced to integrate into Brazilian society and move
from isolated rural areas to urban areas, the younger generations have had to
adopt mainstream racial attitudes because they have contact with a more
diverse society.
The format designed to explore racial attitudes among these descendent
families includes interviews. Since there was not enough time to survey the
entire descendent community, a case study was performed that examined the
only three families living in the city of Santa Barbara D'Oeste that have three
complete generations that are of age to comment reasonably on their racial
views. The neighboring city of Americana has fewer existing Confederate
descendents than Santa Barbara D'Oeste even though its name deceptively
leads one to believe that it is the center of the migration. Also, Santa Barbara
D'Oeste is slightly smaller than Americana and much easier to navigate. It
has a Immigration Museum with an impressive exhibition of Confederate
artifacts, and an archive that primarily contains records of business
transactions and some personal letters of the "Confederados." Santa Barbara
was an ideal climate in which to study the contemporary racial attitudes of
the descendents.