Chains of Gold

Front matter

STUDIES IN GLOBAL SOCIAL HISTORY

== CHAINS OF GOLD ^ PORTUGUESE MIGRATION TO ARGENTINA IN TRANSATLANTIC PERSPECTIVE Mi

MARCELO J, BORGES

Contents

Chapter One Maria vai com as outras (Monkey See, l'ho c Bb) Approach: iiie oe eet tee ee e n etia Chapter Two Migration in Context: Society, Economy, and The Land and Its. USES: acere idet nica saia ar ERIS Population and Space |... sse ECONOMY: (aedes eere nat n EPA TRES Social Groups «sci a e oia EUR Doméstic:GroupS* 2:225 dere eee een tete usa unas Migration as a Family Strategy caida eei Demography and Emigration siii (eire MV —————M—

Chapter Three Regional Patterns of Migration: A Systems Pino i pda AA SAS Migration Systems aaa unas EE Gibraltat: is Southern Spain and Alentejo viii din Causes, Continuities, and Changes |... s vi CONTENTS

Chapter Four Chains of Gold: Migratory Networks in Oil Camps and Suburban Gardens: Portuguese Migrants in Villa Elisa: From Bourgeois Retreat to Family A PT Comodoro- Rivadavia «eed ton aa qua Villa Elisa testes ar a Re RN Ud COBECTUSIOH: in A Qa Rue en ons EINE

Chapter One

The turn of the twentieth century witnessed a major increase in the departure of Portuguese migrants. Scarcely a new phenomenon, Portuguese transatlantic migration gained new momentum as a part of a worldwide expansion in geographic mobility fueled by sociodemographic forces, the internationalization of labor markets, and new developments in maritime transportation. In the Algarve, Portugal's southernmost region, migration became the chosen path of growing numbers of working men, resulting in levels of transatlantic departures never seen before.' The new upward trend attracted the attention of contemporary observers and was widely discussed in the regional press. Newspapers published regular accounts of the high number of overseas migrants and discussed—often with alarm—its effect on the population and economy of the region. “If this growing trend of emigration of Algarvians continues, our province will become depopulated in a short time,” cautioned a regional newspaper in 1909.? Many contemporary Observers considered the increase in overseas migration as another manifestation of Portugal's perennial political and economic crises, and as a clear symptom of its structural problems. Others explained it by turning to pathological metaphors, such as the spread of ‘migration fever, or by resorting to traditional images that evoked primordial attributes, such as those of adventurous and fortune-seeking Portuguese. "The fever of emigration that carries so many of our compatriots to the Americas looking for gold is growing)” reported a front-page newspaper article in 1912. "America is for them the land of riches, and they go following their adventurous spirit?

! Joel Serrão, A emigração portuguesa: Sondagem histórica, 4th ed. (Lisbon: Livros Horizonte, 1982), 29-37; João Evangelista, Um século de população portuguesa, 1864-1960 (Lisbon: Instituto Nacional de Estatística-Centro de Estudos Demográficos, 1971), 91-2, 94, 109, 114.

2 O Distrito de Faro, Apr. 8, 1909.

> Ecos do Sul, Oct. 26, 1912. Newspapers made regular use of the image of a ‘fever’ of emigration spreading throughout the region to refer to the growth in transatlantic departures in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In 1890, the newspaper

© MARCELO J. BORGES, 2009 | DOI:10.1163/9789047429920 002 This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

Along with its rapid growth among the rural population, another distinctive aspect of Algarvian overseas migration highlighted by the regional press at the turn of the twentieth century was its manifest preference for Argentina. In effect, this feature represented a clear departure from the prevailing pattern of Portuguese transatlantic migration. Portugal was one of the countries with the highest rates of emigration in Europe, ranking second only to Ireland at the end of the nineteenth century, and just behind Italy and Scotland at the eve of World War I in emigrants per one thousand inhabitants.* In several regions, a culture of migration developed and emigration became one of the few trusted paths to social mobility in the eyes of the working classes. Most Portuguese migrants left for Brazil, Portugals former colony. This movement was facilitated by several centuries of contact, an established tradition of migration, labor opportunities for European migrants, and the development of commercial and financial links that included a fluid network of transportation. This was not the case, however, for Algarvian migrants, the majority of whom, as geographer Mariano Feio observed in the 1940s, did not share with other Portuguese migrants “the mirage of Brazil? In 1912, for instance, at the peak of transatlantic migrations, 9 out of 10 migrants from continental Portugal departed for Brazil; in contrast, 8 out of 10 Algarvian migrants chose Argentina as their destination.

O Porvir, from Olhão, used it to explain the existence of an important "stream" from the counties of Faro and Olháo to Argentina. The "greed" produced by the return of successful migrants on those who stayed behind, caused the spread of *migration fever" (Mar. 9, 1890). For other examples of the use of this image to explain the increase in migration see, among others, O Progresso do Sul, June 12, 1892; O Algarve (Faro), Jan. 14, 1912; O Provinciano, Sept. 19, 1920. The same metaphor was used throughout Portugal and much of Europe. José Moya argues that its wide use in different countries denotes its usefulness to explain migration's geographic diffusion. See José Moya, Cousins and Strangers: Spanish Immigrants in Buenos Aires, 1850-1930 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 95-117. See also Domingos Caeiro, “ À cata da fortuna: A emigração portuguesa na imprensa periódica, nos princípios do novecentos” in Olhares lusos e brasileiros, ed. Maria Beatriz Rocha-Trindade and Maria Christina Siqueira de Souza Campos (São Paulo: Usina do Livro, 2003), 13-46.

* Dudley Baines, Emigration from Europe, 1815-1930 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 4.

5 Mariano Feio, Le Bas Alentejo et l'Algarve: Livret-guide de lexcursion E: Congrés International de Géographie Lisbonne 1949 (Lisbon: Union Géographique Internationale, 1949), 113.

6 Portugal, Ministério das Finanças, Direcção Geral da Estatística, Emigração Portuguesa: Ano de 1912 (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional, 1913), 4-5.

How did contemporary observers explain that, in marked contrast with the rest of Portugal, most Algarvian migrants went, in the words of a regional newspaper, “almost exclusively to the great Argentine Republic”?” For some observers, the prevalence of this practice among Algarvian migrants could only be the result of irrational or even pathological behavior. (Partly, this view denoted a general urban condescension— represented by newspaper writers—about the rural folk, who constituted the large majority of migrants.) Thus, a columnist from the newspaper O Sul evaluated this choice of destination in the following terms:

Most, if not nearly all, Algarvian migrants leave for the Argentine Republic where the weather is benign but where they encounter the competition of Germans and Italians.... We say it here very clearly: it is a mistake to think that it is possible to find over there the wealth and happiness that one cannot find here, if one goes as if on an adventure and without preparation.

Another writer, from the newspaper O Heraldo, chose an ironic tone and images of a behavioral illness to explain migrants’ preference:

It is worth noting that the Algarve alone represents two fifths of [Portuguese] emigration to Argentina! One may ask, why do our emigrants go to those regions? We do not know. Contagion seems to prevail among many of them, which is like saying—in plain Portuguese— Maria vai com as outras [which translates as Maria goes with the others—the Portuguese equivalent of ‘Monkey see, monkey do']?

Not all the commentaries that appeared in the regional press, however, had the same condescending tone. Other observers considered labor migration as a valid option among the possibilities available to the working population of the Algarve and as a way to cope with limited economic opportunities at home. Instead of the result of irrational behavior or mere imitation, this alternative view portrayed transatlantic migration in general, and Algarvian migration to Argentina in particular, as a labor strategy based on a careful weighing of options and the development of tactics to take advantage of favorable conditions in overseas labor markets. In this vein, a front-page article discussing the growth of emigration published in 1912 by O Distrito de Faro read:

7 O Porvir, Sept. 8, 1889. * O Sul, Sept. 29, 1912. ? O Heraldo (Tavira), Nov. 9, 1912.

The Algarvian worker cannot withstand inconveniences... when he does not have a job or earn well, he emigrates; and since in Argentina he has relatives and friends, he leaves with the greatest of confidences, and our fields continue to loose population.... Rural workers would only stay if they give them approximately what they earn in the Rio de la Plata. That is impossible!

In another article published later that year, O Distrito de Faro interpreted the preference of Algarvian migrants for particular destinations in similar terms:

With the existence of small communities of Portuguese workers settled overseas, for these people [migrants] life is increasingly easier, even more enjoyable. Everyone has a guaranteed place. Since they already have relatives and friends abroad, they already know what they are going to be doing.!º

In this way, the newspaper commentator identified two crucial driving forces of transatlantic labor migration: availability of information and assistance among kin and fellow villagers. Both were key components of migratory networks that developed during the last quarter of the nineteenth century and linked the Algarve and Argentina for over seven decades.

Algarvian migration to Argentina emerged in the context of a long regional migratory tradition and as part of broader systems of labor migration that included overlapping circuits of internal, medium-distance, and international migration. The existence of labor opportunities across the Atlantic, in combination with networks of contact that facilitated mobility, created favorable conditions for Algarvian migrants in Argentina. Social networks connected individuals, families, and villages to systems of migration. By the turn of the twentieth century, migrants had established communities in Argentina that sustained a regular flow of labor migrants and their families. More significantly, during that time Argentina became the leading overseas destination for Algarvian migrants and, in Argentina, Algarvians became the largest regional group among the Portuguese. Hence, when “Maria decided to 'go with the others; it was not as a consequence of irrational imitation or contagion, but the result of a labor strategy that contributed to minimize uncertainties and maximize possible benefits.

1 O Distrito de Faro, Mar. 21, 1912 and Oct. 3, 1912. The second article was reproduced in other regional newspapers in the same month (for example, in Ecos do Sul).

This book examines the social, economic, and cultural contexts in which this strategy developed, the experiences of those who pursued it, and the multiple paths followed by migrants as they settled in different destinations. By taking the less explored ‘south to south’ perspective (southern Europe and South America), it seeks to illuminate larger questions about transatlantic labor migrations, namely how rural Europeans became transnational workers and contributed to creating diverse immigrant communities in the Americas.

PORTUGUESE MIGRATION IN ARGENTINA

In Argentina, Portuguese migrants were part of a multiethnic influx of laborers that began arriving in large numbers during the last quarter of the nineteenth century attracted by the possibilities of work and settlement, and encouraged by migratory policies devised to attract European labor and population. Argentina became one of the largest immigrant destinations during the heyday of mass transatlantic migrations, second only to the United States, but with a greater impact on its sociodemographic growth. As a result of this influx, its population almost quintupled from the late 1860s to the beginning of World War I. By 1914, foreign-born residents accounted for a third of the country's population—a proportion unmatched by any other contemporary immigrant destination. The presence of Portuguese migrants predates this period of mass migrations, going back to colonial times; but there were more changes than continuities in this multi-secular movement, especially regarding its sociodemographic and regional composition. It is possible to distinguish two phases in Portuguese immigration in Argentina, each with distinctive socioeconomic, demographic, and regional characteristics. The arrival of growing numbers of Algarvians in the late 1800s signaled the beginning of a new type of immigration and marked the transition between the two phases.

The first phase of Portuguese migration to Argentina began during the early years of Spanish colonization, developed fully during the

1 Walter Nugent, Crossings: The Great Transatlantic Migrations, 1870-1914 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992), 16-21; Dirk Hoerder, Cultures in Contact: World Migrations in the Second Millennium (Durham: Duke University Press, 2002), chap. 14; Fernando Devoto, Historia de la inmigración en la Argentina (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 2003).

seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and continued at a slower pace until the mid-nineteenth century. In spite of continuing restrictions by the Spanish crown to the movement of foreigners into its colonies, Portuguese migrants were a significant presence in many Spanish-American cities, and the commercial center of Buenos Aires was no exception.” In fact, the Portuguese formed the largest group among foreigners of non-Spanish origin.? In the seventeenth century, most Portuguese migrants were artisans and rural producers in the hinterland of Buenos Aires, in many cases combining both activities. Imperial rivalries between the Spanish and Portuguese crowns, exacerbated by religious orthodoxy, made the Portuguese the object of suspicion and discrimination. Colonial authorities believed many Portuguese migrants to be New Christians of Jewish origin and accused them of being Crypto- Jews. Despite the obstacles created by a hostile environment, many of these migrants and their descendants became part of the middle and upper echelons of local society—buying land, acting in politics, and marrying daughters of the local elite. For some scholars, the Portuguese constituted the earliest example of successful integration of migrants in what was to become Argentina.”

The transformation of Buenos Aires into the capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata and the growth of its port in the emerging Atlantic economy created new opportunities for Portuguese migrants during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Periodic acts of discrimination continued as the Bourbon administration created new regulations that sought to enforce the traditional principle of exclusion of foreigners

? Louisa Schell Hoberman, *Merchants in Seventeenth-Century Mexico: A Preliminary Portrait Hispanic American Historical Review 57, 3 (Aug. 1977): 479-503; James Lockhart, Spanish Peru, 1532-1560: A Social History (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1968), chap. 7; Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert, A Nation Upon the Ocean Sea: Portugals Atlantic Diaspora and the Crisis of the Spanish Empire, 1492-1640 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).

? R. de Lafuente Machain, Los portugueses en Buenos Aires, siglo XVII (Madrid: Tipografía de Archivos, 1931); Carlos Lemonde de Macedo, Presencia e integración portuguesa en el Río de la Plata (Santiago de Chile: Nascimento, 1961); Boleslao Lewin, “Los portugueses en Buenos Aires en el período colonial” in VI Congreso Internacional de Historia de América, vol. 4 (Buenos Aires: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1980), 47-62; Eduardo Saguier, “The Social Impact of a Middleman Minority in a Divided Host Society: The Case of the Portuguese in Early Seventeenth-Century Buenos Aires; Hispanic American Historical Review 65, 3 (Aug. 1985): 467-91; Emir Reitano, “Los portugueses del Buenos Aires tardocolonial: Inmigración, sociedad, familia, vida cotidiana y religión” (Ph.D. diss., Universidad Nacional de La Plata, 2005).

4 Lewin, “Los portugueses en Buenos Aires”; and especially Saguier, “The Social Impact of a Middleman Minority”

MARIA VAI COM AS OUTRAS (MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO) Z:

from Spanish territories. The local population denounced the negative effects of these measures because many Portuguese migrants were engaged in activities considered essential for the economic well-being of the city. As a result, expulsion edicts and other restrictive measures were rarely fully enforced. The Portuguese formed a socially diverse, multiclass group, including a significant sector of merchants of considerable means who had integrated themselves successfully into the established commercial and landowning families, as well as a more modest sector of migrants composed of artisans, maritime workers, manual laborers, store owners, and farmers.'* Portuguese migrants continued arriving after the advent of independence in Argentina in the 1810s, albeit at a slower pace. In 1816, the Portuguese were still the second largest foreign group after the Spaniards. During the following decades, however, their relative importance decreased, especially with the growth of transatlantic labor migrations during the second half of the nineteenth century, numerically dominated by Italian and Spanish migrants.'*

The Portuguese community of mid-nineteenth century Buenos Aires was the result of this long-term presence. There were important continuities in the occupational and demographic characteristics of the Portuguese population of Buenos Aires of the late colonial period and the first half of the nineteenth century." For example, during the early nineteenth century, most Portuguese migrants were port and maritime laborers, artisans, merchants, and farmers. Even though the relative importance of some occupations fluctuated over the years, the

5 Reitano, “Los portugueses del Buenos Aires tardocolonial” 55-60, 76-7, 100-5, 107-11, 124-7.

16 César García Belsunce, ed., Buenos Aires, su gente, 1800-1830 (Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1976); Devoto, Historia de la inmigración, chap. 5; Reitano, "Los portugueses del Buenos Aires tardocolonial;" 80-3.

7 [ have studied the evolution of the Portuguese immigrant community in Buenos Aires during the second half of the nineteenth century based on the analysis of the manuscript returns of the 1855, 1869, and 1895 censuses—the only original returns that have survived the vicissitudes of Argentine archival preservation practices—and presented the results of this research in the following publications: "Los portugueses en Buenos Aires a mediados del siglo XIX: Una aproximación socio-demográfica,” Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos 4, 12 (Aug. 1989): 353-82; "Características residenciales de los inmigrantes portugueses en Buenos Aires en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX” Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos 6, 18 (Aug. 1991): 223-47; "Portugueses en Buenos Aires en el siglo XIX: Características y evolución de una comunidad multisecular” in Emigração/Imigração em Portugal: Actas do Colóquio Internacional sobre Emigração e Imigração em Portugal (séc. XIX-XX) ed. Maria Beatriz Nizza da Silva et al. (Lisbon: Editorial Fragmentos, 1993), 308-22. The discussion that follows is based on these sources.

Table 1.1: Regional Origins of Portuguese Migrants in Argentina

(Percentages) Place of origin Colonial Times — Mid-19th 20th Century (17th century) Century (1930s-1960s) (1855) Buenos Aires Buenos Aires Buenos Aires Argentina

Sources: Lafuente Machain, Los portugueses en Buenos Aires; Borges, "Portugueses en Buenos Aires en el siglo XIX”; Registros consulares, Archivo del Consulado de Portugal en Buenos Aires. The surviving consular registration records cover mostly the 1940s and 1950s (75 percent of the migrants registered between 1941 and 1959). Most migrants arrived after 1930 (70 percent). For this sample, I have considered the registrations of migrants whose first name starts with the letter M.

general profile changed little during the first half of the century. By the mid-1800s, sailors and maritime laborers, artisans, and merchants and commercial workers formed two-thirds of the active population. The most important change was a steady decline in the number of farm workers that followed the growth of Buenos Aires as an urban center. Continuities were also apparent in other characteristics of the Portuguese migrant community in Buenos Aires, most notably in their regional origins. The majority of the Portuguese migrants during the colonial and early independent years were from the cities of Porto and Lisbon, from traditional places of emigration in the Minho, such as Viana do Castelo and Braga, and from the Atlantic Islands, mainly the Azores. By mid-nineteenth century, Lisbon and Porto concentrated its predominance among the places of origin of Portuguese migrants while the proportion of migrants from the archipelago of Azores and the northern region of Minho declined (Table 1.1).

The last quarter of the nineteenth century marked the beginning of a new phase of Portuguese migration. This change becomes clear when comparing the profiles of Portuguese migrants in the 1855 and 1895 censuses. Whereas the former showed a long-settled community whose sociodemographic characteristics resembled those of the late colonial years, the latter suggested more recent arrivals and the presence of a younger population of labor migrants as well as a growing presence of women and families. In 1855, migrant men represented over 95 percent of the Portuguese community, their average age was 41.5 years, and a third of them had been living in Buenos Aires for more than two decades. In contrast, by 1895, the proportion of men dropped to 75 percent and their average age to 34.6 years. In addition, two-thirds of all Portuguese migrants lived with other countrymen, indicating the presence of groups of migrant laborers and families. Regarding their occupational profile, there was a slight increase in the proportion of day laborers and non qualified workers, and a considerable growth in the number of cart-drivers and porters. Consular reports confirm the growth of Portuguese migrants who worked in transportation at the turn of the twentieth century. In 1907, the Portuguese Consul identified over twenty important Portuguese cart-drivers and reported the existence of “many more who are occupied in that service, having each a few carts, in general one, two, or three.”* Unlike the long-term or permanent migration of earlier times, this new phase was characterized by a predominance of temporary labor migrants. Consular reports presented the migratory pattern of Portuguese migrants as a labor strategy aimed at saving money to improve their standing at home, primarily through the purchase of land. In 1886, the Portuguese ambassador commented that many migrants “have acquired some capital and, after they went back to invest it in their country, they came back here [again]? And a decade later, the Consul wrote: “The main aspiration of this people is to save some money to buy small plots of land in their homeland. Since April, I have signed seven deeds and thirteen public proxies for Portugal”?

15 Commercial Report of Consul Constancio Roque da Costa, Buenos Aires, May 8, 1907, Caixa 501, Consular Correspondence, AMNE. See also Annual Report of Consul Constancio Roque da Costa, Buenos Aires, Mar. 25, 1901, Caixa 500, Consular Correspondence, AMNE; Letter of Ambassador João de Souza Lobo, Buenos Aires, July 17, 1886, Caixa 44, Correspondence of the Portuguese Legation, AMNE.

? Lobo, Letter, July 17, 1886.

? Costa, Annual Report, Feb. 1, 1900.

Table 1.2: Portuguese Immigration in Argentina by Decade, 1857-1959

Period Immigrants (1) Total travelers (2) Arrival Departures Net Arrival Departures Net

(1) For Argentine statistics, ‘immigrants’ were all second- and third-class passengers arriving in the port of Buenos Aires from overseas. 1 have estimated the figures for the years 1928-31, 1934 (arrivals only), 1935, and 1958-9 as a percentage of the total number of Portuguese travelers for those years.

(2) These figures include all Portuguese travelers regardless of their passenger class and the way of arrival or departure (sea, river, land, air).

Sources: Dirección General de Inmigración, Resumen estadístico del movimiento migratorio en la República Argentina, 1857-1924 (Buenos Aires: Ministerio de Agricultura de la Nación, 1925); Ministerio de Agricultura, Memoria correspondiente al ejercicio de 1926 (Buenos Aires: Talleres Gráficos del Ministerio de Agricultura, 1927); idem, Memoria correspondiente al ejercicio de 1927 presentada al Congreso de la Nación (Buenos Aires: Talleres Gráficos del Ministerio de Agricultura, 1928); idem, Memoria de Inmigración, Año 1937 (Buenos Aires: Talleres Gráficos del Ministerio de Agricultura, 1940); Dirección General de Inmigración, “Resumen estadístico del quinquenio 1923-1927” (Biblioteca de la Dirección Nacional de Migraciones [hereafter Biblioteca DNM], Buenos Aires, mimeographed); idem, “Memoria, 1932, 1934, 1936 (Biblioteca DNM, mimeographed); Dirección Nacional de Migraciones, “Memoria,” 1938, 1939-43, 1955-9” (Biblioteca DNM, mimeographed); idem, “Memorias y Estadísticas del movimiento migratorio, 1944-54; idem, “Cuadros inéditos: entradas, salidas y saldos, 1945-1976”; idem, “Entradas, salidas y saldos de extranjeros, 1875-1973” (Biblioteca DNM, mimeographed).

Portuguese migration to Argentina climaxed during the first three decades of the twentieth century. Approximately 80,000 Portuguese arrived in Argentina from 1857 to 1959, 56 percent of whom stayed in the country (Table 1.2). Almost two-thirds arrived between 1907 and 1931, and more than 51 percent between 1910 and 1929. A comparison between Argentine and Portuguese statistics shows a similar evolution, but it reveals that Portuguese agencies undercounted more than a quarter of the departures to Argentina.” Initially a movement of temporary male labor migration, the second phase soon became a complex flow that included family migration and settlement.

Regional Flows and Local Networks

One of the most distinctive characteristics of this second phase was a remarkable change in migrants regional composition, as traditional areas of origin of Portuguese migration to Argentina were replaced by new ones (Table 1.1). Whereas the 1855 census registered only two Algarvian migrants in Buenos Aires, most Portuguese migrants whose place of birth was registered in the 1895 census were from the Algarve.? Contemporary observers took note of this change in migration patterns, as illustrated by regular references to Algarvian migrants in the reports sent by the Portuguese officials in Buenos Aires. "Ihe majority [of Portuguese migrants] are workers, in general from the Algarve, whose exemplary behavior, love of work, and valuable economic spirit deserve all our praise) stated one report; and another report described Algarvian migrants in Buenos Aires as “peaceful and honest working people who are able to find an occupation easily”?

Algarvian migrants remained the largest regional group among the Portuguese in Argentina from the late nineteenth century until the early 1960s, when Portuguese migration to Argentina declined; they were followed by migrants from the northern interior district of Guarda, in

? Portugal, Ministério das Finanças, Direcção Geral de Estatística, Estatística Demográfica, Movimento da População, 1914-21 (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional, 1917-24); idem, Anuário Estatístico, 1921, 1923-4, 1926-37 (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional, 1925-38); Portugal, Instituto Nacional de Estatística, Anuário Estatístico, 1938-51 (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional, 1940-52); Portugal, Instituto Nacional de Estatistica, Anuario Demográfico, 1952-9 (Lisbon: INE, 1952-60). For Argentine figures, see Table 1.2. The disparity in migration statistics suggests the importance of clandestine migration and departures from points in the Iberian Peninsula that were not as controlled by authorities, mainly Gibraltar. Likewise, since immigration statistics registered mainly the arrivals in the port of Buenos Aires from overseas, Argentine statistics did not fully account for the total number of migrants. Re-migration of Portuguese from other countries, especially from Brazil, and river crossings from the port of Montevideo were not strictly monitored by the authorities.

? Since information on town or province of birth was not required, 1895 census takers only recorded the information in 5 percent of the cases.

? Annual Report of Consul Constancio Roque da Costa, Buenos Aires, Feb. 1, 1900, Caixa 500, Consular Correspondence, AMNE; and Annual Report of Consul E Mendes Gongalves, Buenos Aires, Dec. 31, 1888, Caixa 498, Consular Correspondence, AMNE.

the region of Beira Alta—both regions with little or no participation in the early phase. In the 1910s and 1920s, during the heyday of migration to Argentina, Faro and Guarda accounted for around 70 percent of Portuguese migrants, while few other districts surpassed the 5 percent mark (Table 1.1). The main difference between these regional flows lay in their relative importance in the context of the total emigration from each district. Argentina was the main destination in the case of the Algarve, but its share was not as significant in the case of Guarda. In average, during the first six decades of the twentieth century, more than half of the Algarvian migrants went to Argentina compared to 14 percent of the migrants from Guarda.”

The importance of regional origins notwithstanding, the key to explaining the nature of Portuguese migration to Argentina during the period of mass migration is to be found at the micro level. Far from generalized at the regional level, migration was a selective phenomenon based on local patterns of geographic mobility. The map of Portuguese migration to Argentina resembles a night sky with a few bright constellations on the south, east, and northwest. Most migrants originated in a small number of counties on the center-east of the Algarve and in the eastern interior of the Beira, joined later by a few counties in the northwestern region of Minho. Indeed, the majority of migrants came from only a handful of counties: out of 306 counties that existed in Portugal in the early twentieth century, only 10 accounted for two-thirds of all migrants to Argentina in the 1910s and 1920s; and, even though there were a few more counties on the top from the 1930s through the 1960s, the concentration remained very high, with two-thirds of all migrants coming from only 14 counties, 10 of which accounted for more than half. The share of migrants from some counties is especially noteworthy. Approximately 14 percent of all migrants to Argentina originated in the county of Loulé, in the Algarve, and migrants from the nearby counties of Faro, Olháo, Sáo Brás de Alportel, and Tavira represented between a third (early decades) and 18 percent (later decades) of the total. In the interior district of Guarda, the counties of Sabugal (in the earlier part of the century) and Seia (from the 1930s to the 1960s) were the birthplace of close to 9 percent of all migrants to Argentina, followed by the counties of Guarda and Almeida. Whereas the overwhelming number of migrants in the earlier part of the century hailed from counties in

24 For sources, see note 21.

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Map 1.1: Portugal by Districts

Table 1.3: Portuguese Emigration to Argentina by Districts of Origin, 1914-55 (Percentages)

District 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s Average

Total published emigration from Portugal to Argentina between 1914 and 1955 was 40,517. The total number of migrants, however, was higher. There is no information for 1943. In addition, published statistics were based on information on passport requests submitted by the civil governments of each district and there is no information from Guarda between 1923 and 1924, and from Viana do Castelo from 1923 to 1928. Regarding the distribution of emigration by district of origin and destination, there are no data for 1922-4 or 1936-40.