Augusto Ivan de Freitas Pinheiro and Eliane Canedo
Research and contributions: Cristiane Titoneli
Twilight of the port
With two world wars, social clashes, technological transformations, economic challenges, cultural advances and behavioral shifts, the XX century with also a time of sweeping urban changes.
For example, World War I triggered a sharp drop in coffee exports, which were still the mainspring of the Brazilian economy. On the other hand, funds that were once remitted abroad – payments for imports, spending on international jaunts by the wealthy, and savings sent back to their homelands by immigrants – could no longer leave the country, and were instead channeled to financing new businesses or expanding current operations. This process was particularly noteworthy in Rio de Janeiro, with the largest industrial park in Brazil.
In 1914, Bunge & Born, a Dutch multinational operating in Brazil since September 30, 1905, (...) acquired the S. A. Moinho Fluminense company and took the control of its production (...). During the early 1920s, it continued to invest in upgrading its facilities and equipment (...). But in 1923, with renovations of the Moinho Fluminense mill complete, the company was barely able to keep pace with demand, despite operating at its maximum grinding capacity (...).38
By the end of the war, Brazil’s economic framework had changed completely, as a far more powerful and close-linked industrial middle-class appeared. However, its economy once again returned to dependence on its agricultural exports sector, particularly coffee, which accounted for some 70% of Brazilian exports.
There was no denying the power of its coffee barons. However, their influence on the State was challenged through fierce skirmishes with not only the new industrial middle class, but also the proletarian masses, now organized into trade unions.
Despite calls for strikes, coups d’état and military forays, industries thrived, even with no State support. No longer clustered in the outskirts of the nation’s capital, they were spreading through its outlying suburbs and into towns alongside the highway running between Rio and São Paulo, which was emerging as a major new industrial hub: “a point of convergence for several railroads and highways (...) the town (Barra Mansa) welcomed the arrival of the first large factories and industries in the food sector (...). In 1932, the Indústria Moinho Fluminense S.A. was set up to grind wheat flour, and in 1937, the Cia. Industrial Comercial Brasileira de Produtos Alimentares (Nestlé).”38
Initially, the “growth of Rio de Janeiro was underpinned by federal government taxes, with export and import levies charged on goods shipped through its Port. Added to this was surplus capital from coffee plantations in the Baixada Fluminense lowlands and the Vale do Paraíba valley, which were allocated to industry.”39
However, Rio began to fall behind São Paulo from the 1920s onwards, with characteristics more favorable to industrial expansion. “The coffee trade drew a large cluster of banks to the São Paulo State capital, setting up a stock market. In parallel, training centers were set up for workers flowing steadily into the city, consisting mainly of foreign immigrants.”40
The contest with São Paulo was gradually lost during the 1930s, when Brazil’s economic powerhouse finally changed its address, with strong impacts on Port activities in Rio.
Furthermore, the conditions for accessing the Port became steadily more chaotic, surrounded and stifled by other urban activities, choked by permanent traffic jams. This situation was worsened by Brazil’s industrial policy of assigning top priority to the automobile sector, which was located mainly in São Paulo at that time.
No less important in this context of successive losses for the city, the nation’s capital was transferred to Brasília in 1960, with Guanabara State merged into Rio de Janeiro State a few years later, in 1975. As its Port activities waned in parallel to the city’s loss of status, a red-light zone sprang up in the streets around the Praça Mauá plaza, where bars, nightclubs and brothels were packed with dockers and seamen of all nationalities.
This was the time when the image of the typical Rio rascal became popular. Imbued with a certain romanticism, the malandro carioca was immortalized in samba lyrics and even movies, like Walt Disney’s roguish Rio parrot, Zé Carioca. According to the stereotype, a Rio malandro would wear a straw boater, white shoes, and a black and white striped shirt, with a flick-knife in his jacket pocket. Bohemian in his habits, he would scratch a living from petty crimes, scorning work as a regular lifestyle and enjoying samba singalongs; sentimental and gallant, he was an outstanding lover.
The most famous malandro in the Docklands was undoubtedly Manuel da Silva Abreu. Nicknamed Joe the Wharf Baron (Zica, o Barão do Cais), this reprobate was admired for his knavery, courage and daring, spending time at the Flórida Bar, a favorite watering-hole for Rádio Nacional performers and directors.
Kerchief at my neck
Flick-knife in my pocket
I strut by
I provoke and challenge
I am proud
Of being such a scoundrel.
I know what they say
About my behavior.
I see people who work
Walking in poverty
I am a scoundrel
Because that’s w hat I wanted.
I remember, it was a child
Singing a samba song. 41
During the 1950s and 1960s, proposals were put forward with striking effects on the old Docklands neighborhoods. A start was made on implementing large-scale projects, particularly expressways designed to improve traffic flows in the areas north and south of this region. No longer would be necessary to drive through the downtown area, as alternative routes would detour around its crammed streets.
The idea was to connect the Aterro do Flamengo landfill park to the Avenida Brasil and then to the Ponte Rio-Niterói Bridge; and then build viaducts linking Laranjeiras to Santo Cristo and São Cristóvão (Lilac Line); and Lagoa to Rio Comprido (Red Line).
The Docklands shoreline was already viewed as a downmarket area, the backside of the city that was out of date and obsolescent, particularly when compared to upmarket areas in the Centro, on either side of the two broad avenues running from the central business district: Avenida Rio Branco and Avenida Presidente Vargas.
It was thus no wonder that this region – viewed as derelict and unimportant – was selected as the site for this huge road network. This developed into the idea of a complex of elevated highways, known as the Avenida Perimetral.
Praça Mauá,
an ugly square of ill repute
Women at dawn
That’s no place for fools
Praça Mauá
In crowded cabs from the suburbs
A common place that disturbs
on thirty days of the month
If some day
I run this city
It will be a square of nostalgia
Of farewell, of feelings
Praça Mauá
The name brings to mind
A sob, a hot kiss
and a white handkerchief in the hand. 42
II. In the background, the Aeroporto Santos Dumont shuttle airport runway with the old Municipal Market nearby, demolished to make way for the Perimetral viaduct, which was still under construction when this photograph was taken in 1962. PERMANENT COLLECTION, CENTRO DE MEMÓRIA BUNGE HERITAGE CENTER.