Nós, o outro e os outros: a constituição multiétnica capixaba no caldeirão cultural do Espírito Santo, Brasil

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the multiethnic constitution of Espírito Santo starting from the report book Encontro das Raças, published in 1997 by the journalist Rogério Medeiros. The book presents interviews with narratives of European immigrants and descendants – Pomeranians, Dutch, Italians, Polish, German, Tyrolean, and Swiss. During its historical, socio-cultural and demographic constitution, Espírito Santo also counted with the participation of Syrian and Lebanese immigrants – in the 19th and early 20th centuries – and Asians, as well as national migrants. Medeiros also discusses and presents narratives of the descendants of Africans, Indians and Portuguese who constitute the first matrix of miscegenation of the capixaba people. The purpose of the present study is to reflect on this relationship that Medeiros calls the “Meeting of the Races” from a perspective of the sense of belonging and power relations established between these various ethnic groups settled in the state from 1847, when the government of the province sought alternatives to transform Espírito Santo economically and initiated, through political actions, the process of installing European immigrants in its lands.