Os senhores do sertão: coronelismo e parentela em uma área periférica de Minas Gerais (1889-1930)

Abstract

This dissertation has as its main purpose analyze what we call the “coronelistas” relationships occurred up on north of Minas Gerais state, precisely in the city of Montes Claros, in the period of the Brazilian First Republic (1889-1930). Based on sources like newspapers, correspondences between local political leaders, chroniclers and oral testimonies, we analyzed the way the local power, mainly coming from de “coronels” and their large kin groups, was articulated to higher political spheres of the state and the nation. Based on the theoretical paradigms of Victor Nunes Leal and Maria Isaura Pereira de Queiroz, we studied the “coronelistas” relationships as results of the gradual degradation process of the traditional private power of the local leaders and the strengthening of the public power, at the same time. Is this research we considered, as well, the importance of kinship and friendship over the political coalition between local and regional factions of power. The existence of political fractures divided society in two different and rival kin groups like the “Chaves, Prates e Sá” against “Alves, Versiani e Veloso”. Daily, Montes Claros city was marked by strife and rivalry as a responsible factor for the emergence of a political culture marked by division, violence and disputes between groups. Another aspect highlighted by this dissertation was the mediation between the local factional leaders and the upper state elites, which was difficult, especially in times of acute national political crisis, like the period of the new Partido Republicano Mineiro, between 1906 and 1930.