State and Environment in Guanabara Bay, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, 1875-1975
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‘THE BAY OF ALL BEAUTIES’: STATE AND ENVIRONMENT IN GUANABARA BAY, RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL, 1875-1975 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND THE COMMITTEE ON GRADUATE STUDIES OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Lise Fernanda Sedrez November 2004 © Copyright by Lise F. Sedrez 2004 All Rights Reserved ii I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Zephyr Frank (Principal Advisor) I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Richard White I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Thomas Holloway Approved for the University Committee on Graduate Studies. iii THE BAY OF ALL BEAUTIES Talk not of Bahia de Todos os Santos--the Bay of All Saints; for though that be a glorious haven, yet Rio is the Bay of all Rivers—the Bay of all Delights—the Bay of all Beauties. From circumjacent hill-sides, untiring summer hangs perpetually in terraces of vivid verdure; and, embossed with old mosses, convent and castle nestle in valley and glen.” Herman Melville, White Jacket iv Abstract This dissertation is a history of Guanabara Bay, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and of the institutions that managed its environment between 1875 and 1975. It illustrates the birth of environmental agencies in Brazil, and how administrative, scientific and military institutions resisted or integrated environmental concepts into their activities. It explores the interplay of the urban environment and the natural environment in Guanabara Bay against a continuously shifting political and legal background. Regime change, international pressure, personal networks and demographic growth add to the complexity of this century-long investigation of one of the most celebrated landscapes of Latin America. The dissertation contributes to the development of environmental history in Latin America by combining an environmental approach with more traditional concepts of urban history and history of technology. By focusing on the practices that defined environmental management— transformation, monitoring, regulation and law enforcement—I identify four institutions closely connected to changes in Guanabara Bay: municipal administration, the Navy, the Hydrobiology Station belonging to Oswaldo Cruz Institute and the Institute of Sanitary Engineering. These institutions shared a preference for top-down intervention, taking little account of the preferences of a growing human population that was as much a part of Guanabara Bay as the shoreline and the waters. Nevertheless, in spite of these limitations, this knit together an evolving concept and practice of environmental management. Chronologically, the chapters overlap rather than succeed each other; diachronically, they delineate a network of individuals who interacted with each other, even when their institutions failed to do so. v Acknowledgements My first thanks go to a person who is no longer here—my first advisor, John Wirth. His kindness, enthusiasm, and support made all the difference in my academic career. John and his wife, Nancy Meem Wirth, kindly extended their friendship to Roberto and I —a treasured friendship for which I will be forever grateful. John was amazing for the breadth of his intellectual curiosity. From our meeting in 1997 until some weeks before his untimely death, John Wirth’s conversations and emails were rich and stimulating, ranging from current Brazilian politics to medieval philosophy. John was a mentor in the fullest sense of the word, and I am very fortunate for having known him. Some people are lucky enough to have one exceptional advisor. I have had two. Zephyr Frank helped me to overcome the grief of John’s passing and get back to work. He had always been overwhelmingly generous with graduate students—but it was only after he became my advisor that I realized how committed he was to training, supporting and encouraging his students. He never gave up on me—not even when I would perfect advisor-dodging to an art. He read my terrible drafts from one day to another, he edited my grammar disasters without a complaint—even when I once mistakenly gave him a 60 page draft that I had forgotten to spell-check. He met with me during weekends, and during his free time, spending hours at a time working painstakingly through page after page of my drafts—and he did this while he was restructuring the field of Latin American History in our department and writing his first book. I am very, very, proud of being Zephyr Frank’s first advisee to graduate. My thanks also go to Richard White and Thomas Holloway, the other two members of my dissertation committee. They went well beyond their duty in helping me vi with this dissertation, reading and copiously commenting on earlier drafts. I have benefited enormously from their exquisite skill in crafting histories—and making them matter. Richard White gave me the cruelest (and most effective) advice for improving my writing: to cut out precisely those passages of which I was most proud. It never ceases to astonish me that one of the best environmental historians in American academia would follow me into the sewage and mangroves of Guanabara Bay. Likewise, Thomas Holloway generously shared with me his vast knowledge of the Brazilian state; he questioned my arguments, corrected huge translation mistakes, suggested new sources, reorganized chapters, and encouraged me to be bold and rigorous in my analyses. Of the immense debt I owe to Tom Holloway, however, what I will remember most is his spirited explanation of what “moonlighting” was and how it did not apply to Vargas’ bureaucratic reform. I consider my dissertation group to be my second set of advisors. Their work was different, but no less important or precious to me than the work of my official dissertation readers. Shelley Lee, Matt Booker, Carol Pal and Rachel Jean-Baptiste helped me through the grueling process of writing, cutting, editing and rewriting drafts in the last two years. Meanwhile, they taught me much about intellectual networks, African history, race in Asian communities, productivity in San Francisco bay and committed friendship. We wrote application letters together, partied together, and cursed clueless interviewers together—it is a unique bond that will last forever. I would never have made it without them. I also wish to thank the other members of my academic community at Stanford, particularly Paula Findlen, Carolyn Lougee Chappell, Richard Roberts and Stephen vii Haber. I am grateful to my graduate student colleagues, including the members of the Bay Area Environmental History Reading Group, the Stanford Environmental History Reading Group, and the Ports in History reading group. I am deeply grateful to my fellow Latin Americanist graduate students, Ian Read, Kari Zimmerman, Aldo Musacchio, Heather Flynn, Martin Valadez, Moramay López-Alonso, Iñigo Garcia-Bryce, Marcelo Bucheli, and Gustavo del Angel, for creating a very supportive environment during a difficult period for our field. The encouragement of other colleagues and friends over the years has been invaluable and they deserve my heartfelt thanks: Rachel St. John, Sara Pritchard, David Holland, Alison Bidwell, Michelle Campos, Shira Robinson, Rod Wilson, Jared Farmer, John Broich and many others. Anthony Maine Jean Baptiste edited one of the later drafts—I salute his bravery—but he shall be absolved from the final product. Outside the Stanford community, I shared many tears and laughs over this dissertation with Herb Klein, John Opie, and Renata Andrade, and with so many friends and role-models at the American Society for Environmental History: Stuart McCook, Angus Wright, Don Hughes, Don Worster, Jim McNeill, Kate Christen and Mark Stoll. And how could I have finished it without the great suggestions from the H-Environment and H-LATAM electronic lists? The Brazilian Student Association at Stanford made these years in California very special, very lively and very enriching. In particular, I thank Deborah Schechtman, Kiko Aumond, Leda Beck and Paulo Oliveira, Wanderley and Octavia Liu, Abhijit Sawant and Sonja, Fabiane and Luis Dib, Marlene and Wolf Kandek for all the good laughs and viii caipirinhas. Maurizio Battaglia and Anna Fernandez are our family away from home, and no words can possibly thank them for all their love and support. The History Department at Stanford University—and particularly the chair, Carolyn Lougee-Chappell—funded my research for five years and fostered a great, nurturing environmental for young scholars. The Joseph Lieberman Family honored me with the Lieberman Fellowship for promising young professors, and I very much hope to fulfill that promise. The Center for Latin American Studies at Casa Bolivar partially funded my field research and provided a basis for discussion on environmental history of Latin America. The Bechtel International Center made my stay in the United States as smooth as possible, even in moments of great turmoil. To all these institutions and their incredible staff, my deep gratitude. My debt is not confined to one single country. In Brazil, my friends José Augusto Pádua, José Augusto Drummond, Ana Lucia Vahia de Abreu, Maria Pace Chiavari, Samyra Crespo and Vera Pinheiro helped me with bibliographic suggestions, access to libraries, and priceless phone numbers from their personal networks for interviews. I owe special thanks to many, many people in the Brazilian Navy, in the Arquivo Nacional, and the Arquivo da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro. In particular, the professionals at the Arquivo do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, the Fundação Casa Oswaldo Cruz, the Instituto Histórico- Geográfico Brasileiro, the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística and the Serviço de Documentação da Marinha were extremely cooperative and tireless.