Seringal de Miguel Ferrante: exploração do homem nos seringais da Amazônia

Abstract

MIGUEL FERRANTE’S SERINGAL: HUMAN EXPLOITATION IN AMAZONIAN RUBBER PLANTATION

The article explores the issue of violence and oppression suffered by rubber tappers in the Amazonian rubber plantations, as depicted in Miguel Ferrante’s novel Seringal. The novel is set in the Santa Rita rubber plantation in the interior of Acre, in the Brazilian Amazon, and reproduces the oppressed lives of rubber tappers who work for the owner referred to as the “colonel”. Always aiming at “profit and more profit”, he exploits and enslaves the “seringueiros”, taking violent actions against the poor workers. The novel also reveals the subhuman condition of the plantation women, who are subjected to rape and other violence. Thus, the women are more deeply colonized and exploited than the men. The author argues that violence against women and workers today reflects violence in rubber plantations in the 20th century. This claim finds support in studies by scholars such as Anibal Quijano (2005), a decolonial thinker who discusses colonization and racism; Frantz Fanon (1979), who wrote about the relation between colonization and violence; Samuel Benchimol (1992), who has researched the history of rubber plantations in the Amazon; and Cristina Wolf (2001) who has investigated cases of violence in rubber plantations in the state of Acre.