Walking on Sand: Politics, Coexistence and Land Conflict in Salvador (Bahia, Brazil, 1945–1949)

Abstract

In 1949, the occupation of land in Caminho da Areia, an industrial suburb of the capital of Bahia, illustrated the politics of coexistence, through which the common Bahian people were able to express their choices and attitudes. In becoming squatters, workers publicly emerged from their anonymous and everyday lives. They were instantly perceived as a relevant social group with the ability for collective action by the Communists, who sought to assist them, and also by the Bahian Governor, Otávio Mangabeira, who promised his palace would always be open for pleas from the poor. While the Governor failed to welcome the squatters’ representatives, he managed to reinstate his paternalistic authority by granting the occupied land to the squatters and using his friends from the press to mediate the deal. The Brazilian Communist Party (PCB), however, which had backed the protests from the beginning, received a “pair of handcuffs” instead of a “pair of wedding rings” from the newly established Brazilian democracy, as Hélio da Costa so aptly described the situation.