Para além do coronelismo : italianos e descendentes na administração dos poderes executivos da Região Colonial Italiana do Rio Grande do Sul (1924-1945)

Abstract

The traditional historiographical view on the political participation of the Italian immigrants in Rio Grande do Sul shows a lack of interest, refusal or even submission to the state ruling class. However, this population has always been present and active in regional political processes. This thesis aims to analyze the course of action taken by these immigrants and their descendants, the means they used and their ability to influence within the institutional power, in order to show that they did not lack neither were devoid of political purposes, which lead them to take over the leadership of the regional executive branches as of 1924. Based on the municipalities which today comprise Caxias do Sul, Bento Goncalves and Garibaldi, this study addresses the context of local development and the institutional forces that enabled them to come to power in key political positions in the region. Understanding this process, however, requires the demonstration that these immigrant populations were not only instruments whose political manipulations were used in favor of concentrating the power in the hands of a leading group only. Regional politics during the early decades of the twentieth century was not only a mere change in the political historiography of the period often identified as bureaucratic coronelismo. Different ways to understand, practice and participate in politics made up the mosaic that included economic, social and cultural elements in the local power game.