Tropas and Tropeiros in Southern Brazil: History, Memory and Heritage

Abstract

This article is the result of a dialogue between the authors based on a doctoral research in History, still in progress, which has as its central object the trajectory of a museological institution called Museu do Tropeiro (Museum of Tropeiro). This museum is located in the interior of Brazil, in the city of Castro (Paraná) and is dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of the history and memory of the mules’ trade in the southern region and its social and cultural implications in the municipality and the region. This was an activity that began in the colonial period; when the need arose to transport cargo and beef animals throughout the Brazilian territory. This practice can be evaluated as a global phenomenon since the use of animals was for a long time the main means of transportation for humanity. However, in southern Brazil, this activity has developed with the peculiarity of the significant commercialization of mules. These animals were transported from the region of the pampas to the city of Sorocaba, located today in the state of São Paulo, and then sold to be used elsewhere in the country as means of transportation for people and goods. In this way, long roads were built that made possible the integration of a part of the Brazilian territory that was far from the relatively known coast. The tropeiros (or muleteers), men who drove and traded these animals, had the need to stay overnight in certain places for their own rest and for the reestablishment of the tropas (or trains). One of the main stopping points was the Campos Gerais region in the current state of Paraná, propitious for its field vegetation, the region has as its oldest administrative organization the current municipality of Castro. In 1977, when the city conquered its public museum, it emerged as a thematic museum, the first in the country dedicated to the history of tropeira activity. However, researching the institution and the subject in question, it can be seen that later on other museums, memorials and collections are established in several places in the country. Therefore, this article deals with Brazilian historiography in relation to the subject and the construction of places of memory of the tropeiro in Brazil and its implications in relation to the resonances of cultural heritage taking Castro’s museum as a reference.