2. A difficult place for a human being

In the Amazon forest the indigenous develop a system in tune with their surroundings but without large populations. This is due to the climate, the lack of fertile soil without flooding, the difficulties of transport and communication, the proliferation of illnesses and dangerous animals and the impossibility of creating an economy above that of mere survival.

A. Rubber cycles

Economics changed this equilibrium: when the forest become an economic interest there was a growth in population; this occurred only in two periods, coinciding with the commercialization of natural rubber: that of 1879 to 1912 and that of 1942 to 1945. This was barely thirty-five years after the birth of growth in the Brazilian amazon, and of its three largest cities (Belém do Pará, Manaus and Porto Velho), along with the buying of Acre, previously Bolivian territory. The Augustinian Recollects were obliged to do something and were indirectly affected by these rubber cycles and also came to the Amazon and Pará; today they continue as missionaries there and members of the Order are Bishops of Rio Branco, Labrea, Marajo and Cametá, dioceses and Amazonian prelatures.

Latex comes from the Hevea Brasiliensis tree, which when cut produces a white liquid to come out with 35% hydrocarbons. In their natural form they do not form “colonies” or forests, but rather unities separated by large distances. When it is collected, the liquid cannot get wet; it is a race against the clock from tree to tree in the middle of the most enclosed forest. The profit was for only a few who obtained the rights for transaction, selling and processing, whilst many thousands died in the forest.

In 1912 the English started their industrial plantations of Hévea in Malasia and Ceilán from Brazilian seeds. The extraction system in the Amazon was ruined, but the people were already there and thousands of people were abandoned to their fate in the forest. In this abrupt way ended the first rubber cycle, until the Second World War when Brazilian rubber became again necessary. The Japanese have 97% of the worldwide production and in May 1941 the United States signed the Washington Agreements with Brazil, an extraction operation of 45,000 tonnes of latex from the Brazilian Amazon.

54,000 people joined the 35,000 who were still there from the previous migration in order to be “rubber soldiers”. At the end on the war in 1945, together with the methods of synthesis for hydrocarbons, in the space of three years the dream became a nightmare. Apart from those taken by malaria, yellow fever, hepatitis or forest animals, those who did not die ended up as slaves of their debts. Only 6,000 managed to return to their places of origin.

B. Slaves of circumstances

In the 1950’s, the current region of the municipality of Tapaua was occupied by small populations of between five and thirty families along the Purus in the “seringales”, zones where the hevea tree was abundant. Along with the rubber they extracted products like chestnuts, serbas (small red pears), and wood, as well as doing hunting and fishing. Agriculture was reduced to what could be eaten, which was not even achieved: 70% of the flour of mandioca (like yucca), a basic food, was imported from the capital Manaus.

The economic system of the rubber cycles was that of the “boss” or the “colonel”. A select few of owners or tenants had control of their workers, or “faithful”, who collected the products. The bosses provided what was necessary in order to live and work, including food, medicines, toilets…

The commercial exchange between the boss and the faithful was taken note of in books. Money was not used; it was a barter economy. Many bosses of the area were in turn “faithful” of the big owning companies of the boats, which on arrival brought food and on the way back collected the products from the forest. The “faithful” were always in debt for products of great necessity (sugar, mandioca flour), which were provided at a price twenty times that of the market whilst what was extracted from the forest received paltry sums.

The dispersed populations economically and civically depend on their bosses; for they did not exist for the State. There was no education, healthcare, justice, or communication… Old age often ended in misery and loneliness: many families abandoned the old and the sick, which could not extract anything from the jungle and were an unsupportable burden in their eyes.

Religious celebrations were the only free time that existed, and brought together people from the small nearby rubber plantations. It was a moment of socialization in which many couples met and started families. For the rest of the year they could go months without seeing other people apart from their families. This produced changes which increased the percentage of problems compared with other societies, producing child abuse within the family and the exploitation of women.

C. The creation of new municipalities and system changes

The foundation of new municipalities came in part to mitigate this situation. Funds arrived from the federal government, cities were built (like Tapaua) with a more urban environment and with basic social services. A lot of families left behind this almost feudal system to emigrate to these new centres.

In the 1960’s there was a rebirth in the economy of extraction, in this case with wood. The consequences have lasted up to the present, leaving a greater part of the Purus and of its tributaries with some species of great value almost extinct: samauma, jacaranda, cedar, mogno, louro…

A curious case is that of the andiroba. For years it was cut in order to transport by river other more noble woods which did not easily float, for bound to andirobas they could be transported with ease. In this way they became practically extinct in Tapaua. Today andiroba oil is one of the most sought after by medical and cosmetic companies; when this demand arrived on the market there were no andiroba left in Tapaua, but if they had been kept in reserve in would have brought a practical solution for the local economy.

In the 1980’s the federal government offered cheap credits with the intention of restarting the business with organized rubber plantations. It was money which was lost, because the microcyclus fungus destroyed everything.

D. A new city for a new municipality

The small community of Boca de Ipixuna (some fifteen families) was chosen to be the municipal headquarters and came to be called Tapaua, for by law the Capital has to have the same name as the municipality.

On the 5th of June 1956 they started the deforestation of the area. The advantage was the great expanse of “solid earth” which never flooded; but against this was the closeness of the indigenous peoples. If fully recognized they would restrict its growth, as well as pertaining the rubber trees, chestnuts and serba; the great producers of riches.

The didn´t manage at first to attract new inhabitants, who preferred to continue in their communities where there were greater possibilities of extraction work. For only eleven families moved to the new city in the first two years of its existence.

Together with the construction of the first public service buildings there was an attempt to unite by land the new Tapaua with Acara Lake, in the Madeira valley. This is 71,6 miles in a straight line. Years later, with the opening of the BR310 between Manaus and Porto Velho, things were reduced to a branch of 52.8 miles from the federal route to the city. But they never built more than the first twelve kilometres. The access to Tapaua continues to be exclusively by river and by air.

They had indicated a space for a Catholic chapel, dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, close to where today is found the main Church of Saint Rita. The religious from Canutama started to use this chapel in their visits, and the local Catholic community was organized for the first time.

They gave the name of “Monsignor Ignacio” to the great central main square in reference to the Augustinian Recollect Ignacio Martinez, Bishop of the prelature of Labrea between 1930 and 1942 who died of a fever during one of the desobrigas (lengthy voyages or visits) in the Tapaua region. It would be changed later for the name of Thomas de Lima, and today is the Main square of Raymundo Andrade.

The first years of the municipality were especially hard. The first mayor chosen in the ballot, Daniel Albuquerque, defined in this way the situation at the beginning of the 1960’s (this was before the arrival of the Recollect religious to stay in Tapaua and five years before the founding of the parish):

“The municipal headquarters is built in greater part by straw huts for an extremely poor population, paths between the grasses are called avenues or streets; there are dispirited people without any help; public functionaries who receive less than the minimum wage; electricity services close to collapse; great erosion in the ravines which threaten the very same city and police who are demoralized and who demoralize with the vice of extorting money from the people”.

NEXT PAGE: 3. The Parish of Saint Rita’s is born

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