Rubber Soldier

This photographic project wants to be a tribute to a tragic and painful story that involved more of 50.000 Brazilian men during the Second World War. In 1942, after that Japanese army had invaded Malaysia and blocked the rubber supply to the Allies, the role of Brazil as a latex producer became fundamental. In march of the same year President Getulio Vargas signed the "Washington Agreements" with the United States. Financed with the capitals of North American businessman, a special investment fund was created, with the aim of subsidizing the big operation that was later called " The Rubber War ". Vargas launched a big campaign to enlist new workers to send to Amazon. The campaign was particularly compulsive in the north-east area which was the poorest of the country and where a terrible drought had just struck. About 54.000 men were enlisted, mostly from the northeast, and they became known as the "Rubber soldiers". After extremely long and exhausting trips, the soldiers reached their destinations only to find that the reality was far from what the propaganda had promised. What were supposed to be plantations were in fact only large areas of virgin rain forest, since the rubber tree (Hevea Brasiliensis) only grows spontaneously there, and the soldiers had to settle and try to survive in this unknown and inhospitable habitat. In this segregated conditions they were also forced to buy all they needed from the local shops that belonged to the landowners themselves, running up debts that they were never able to repay with their small income.
At the end of the war the Government didn't even keep its promise to bring the soldiers home and the few that succeeded in returning, had to do so with their own means. The others were soon forgotten and abandoned in the hands of the landowners and their armed thugs. They were trapped in a feudal system of exploitation and slavery which was constantly fueled by their debts, their ignorance and with scams. Almost half of the Rubber's Soldiers died during the war due to accidents, epidemics and tropical diseases. That is an impressive number, considering that of the 20.000 brazilians sent to fight in Italy, only 545 never came back. For decades the Brazilian Government has been indifferent to the Rubber's Soldiers ordeal, and it was only in the 1988 Constitution that their right to a pension (the equivalent of 2 minimum wages) was recognized. Now they are fighting to get this amount to be more in line with the pension which was allowed to the ex-soldiers sent to Italy during the same time, and that is the equivalent of 7 minimum wages. I strongly hope that these photographs can bring back some attention to their 60 years old battle for their rights. I decided to photograph them in the forest with the conviction that this majestic background would give a sense of pride to these brave old men, anonymous and silent heroes who never stopped loving life in spite of the defeats, the tricks and the delusions they have been through. Being surrounded by a known and reassuring habitat, they let their emotional memories take over, giving me a chance to see their most secret and intimate part of their souls. They did not tell me, just suggested it, in that invisible code of posture, gesture and looks. Helped by the evocative strenght of the place, they showed me their inner landscape, that place in their conscience where the sound of the soul and the sound of the forest become one.