Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
surrounds it the owner seeks out a seasoned
mateiro
—backwoodsman—to whom he entrusts the task
of dividing and evaluating the holding.
The
mateiro
plunges, without even a compass, into the forested labyrinth with confidence formed
of a rare and surprising topographical instinct. He explores, in all senses of the word, the stretch
of forest to be exploited; he notes the slopes, absorbs the complex physiography, ranging from the
floodedforests(the
igapós
)totheterrafirmaforests,abovethefloods,anddecideswherehewilltrace
out future
varadouros
; he rigorously reviews the
estradas
. And in the same exploration, without the
encumbrances of transcribing complicated field notes, he chooses all the places on the creeks where
the little shacks of the workers should be placed.
Once this general examination is through, he calls on his two indispensable assistants—the
toqueiro
, or marker, and the
piquiero
, or trailblazer—and they quickly raise a temporary lean-to, a
papiri
, with long fronds of the Jarina palms, and then put their shoulders to the task.
The process is invariable—the
mateiro
proceeds ahead and signals the first rubber tree, which he
homes in on as soon as he leaves the hut. This will be the trailhead of the
estrada
. There the blazer,
woodsman,andmarkergathertogether.The
mateiro
continuesonaloneuntilhefindsthesecondtree,
ordinarily not so distant—about 50 meters. With a special cry, he then informs the
toqueiro
, who
moves toward him and the new tree, while the blazer accompanies him step by step with his machete
and clears a rough path that prefigures the final rubber trail. The marker helps for a time by helping
to clear the path, as long as another shout from the woodsman doesn't yet summon them to a third
tree. And so it goes to the most distant part—the
volta da estrada
or return point of the trail. From
there, using the same method, they return through various detours, going from rubber tree to rubber
tree, closing the irregular curve, which ends at the point of departure.
They normally finish this work in three days and the
estrada
is roughly opened. Departing once
againfromthesameplaceandadheringtothissamesystem,theyopenyetanother
estrada
,centraliz-
ing all the paths onthe same trailhead, near the hovel that will eventually center the
barracão
ortrad-
ing post. The
mateiro
then seeks out the next area, intelligently chosen, and proceeds with the same
operation until the entire holding has been crisscrossed with paths and the estate subdivided. There,
tethered by the tracks to the main trading post raised on the edge of the river, one sees the shacks and
rubber trails surrounding it, contorted like the tentacles of an immense octopus.
27
Thisistheimage,monstrousandexpressive,ofthetormentedsocietythatthrashesinthoseforests.
The bold Cearense arrives there with an unbridled optimism for fortune. After a brief apprenticeship
that corresponds to the circuits of the rubber trees, he passes from “wild” to “tame”: what this means
is to pass from the illusions that first dazzled him to the total apathy of one defeated by an inexorable
reality. He builds a hut of
paxuiba
palm at the inlet of a picturesque creek, or perhaps in a clearing
hacked from the menacing forest. Far from the baronial trading post where the
seringalista
—estate
owner—resides in permanent opulence and complete parasitism, the tapper has the premonition that
he will never free himself from the
estradas
that embrace him, on which he will trudge the rest of his
life, coming and going in the endless, numbing, monstrous cycle of his exhausting and sterile trek.
This fearsome octopus, like its pelagic miniature, is insatiable, served by many constraining rings
or
voltas
. It lets go only when the
seringueiro
, bereft of all illusions, has had all hopes stripped away
onebyone—whenoneday,inoneofthetentacles,therepulsive,malaria-riddencorpseisdiscovered,
completely forsaken.
Genealogies of the
Estrada
: Discipline and Punish in the
Seringal
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