FORWARD, SÃO PAULO!

The photographic documentation produced by the Secretariat of Agriculture, Commerce and Public Works of the São Paulo State constitutes an important visual register of the state government’s actions in the course of the First Republic (1889-1930). The collection, transferred to the CMU by the Agronomic Institute of Campinas in 1994, consists of 24 albums, with about 2.700 photographs, taken between 1896 ad 1925. The Secretariat of Agriculture used them both for the register of its actions and as an ideological and political instrument. Produced in a promotional context to attract foreign workers, appearing in several publishings and events, both in Brazil and abroad, these images helped to forge São Paulo’s image of a modern, enterprising and forward-looking State, more fitting with the socioeconomical development provided by the coffee culture, replacing the image of an outback, modest and isolated province. The idea behind this exposition is to approach, through photography, the economic, social, and political transformations that changed the face of São Paulo at the beginning of the Republic and helped to cement its image of engine-state of the Federation.

Among its atributions were issues concerning agriculture and livestock raising, commerce, services and public works in general, transportation, comunications, industrial activities, immigration and colonization, as well as land politics. Many analogous structures inherited from the imperial period were incorporated into it, such as the Immigrants Inn (1882), the Agronomic Institute of Campinas (1887), the Railways and Navigation Inspectorship (1896) and the Luiz Queiroz School of Agriculture (opened in 1901). The role played by the Secretary Carlos José de Arruda Botelho (1855-1947) stands out: he implanted several reforms in the organ, kept until 1927, when the Secretariat was divided into State Secretariat of Agricultural, Industrial and Commercial Affairs and State Secretariat of Traffic and Public Works Affairs, ushering a new phase in its history. This happened due to the rise in works and demands within the Secretariat’s sphere during Governor Fernando Costa’s tenure (1927-1930).

The government of São Paulo created the colonial nuclei in the second half of the 19th century, aiming to populate the land with an immigrant workforce. The settling of a worker could happen through the purchase of a lot, land leasing or even through the provision of services to the farms in the region. The first colonial nuclei were installed in the Province of São Paulo still during the Empire to supply the internal market with greengroceries and the larger farms with with arms in their periods of higher activity. The first experiences did not meet the expectations, among other reasons, due to the remoteness of the nuclei and the soil unsuited to the growing of cereals. With the slavery crisis, the colonial nuclei became an alternative workforce, with 16 nuclei installed in several regions of the state during the first decades of the Republic, adding to those created still during the Empire.

In the first decade of the 20th century, the migratory influx diminished. In order to reverse this situation, the Secretariat of Agriculture broadened its propaganda service abroad through publications at charge of the Information and Publicity Service, aiming to estimulate the immigrants to settle in the colonial nuclei. To illustrate said publications, the Secretariat chose the best photographers of the period, like Guilherme Gaensly (1843-1928), hired in 1906 to document the colonial nuclei in the regions of Campinas, Rio Claro and Araraquara.