"The São Vicente ranch that specially belongs to the people of São Miguel"

Guarani strategies in the disputes for their mission territories (Rio Grande de São Pedro, 1828-1832)

Abstract

This article aims to understand the strategies developed by the Guarani people in the disputes over the São Vicente ranch, a property of the former Missionary People of São Miguel, between 1828 and 1832, in Rio Grande de São Pedro, current state of Rio Grande do Sul. To this end, the Declaration of Land Sale of São Vicente and correspondence sent by Lieutenant Colonel Manuel da Silva Pereira do Lago were analyzed. He held administrative positions at the Mission Frontier in the 1820s and 1830s. It was possible to identify that the local state authorities used arguments that ranged between the guardianship and the invisibilization of the Indigenous people living in the region as a way to appropriate their territory. In response, the Guarani of the São Miguel People devised various mechanisms to defend their right to their lands, adapting their approaches based on their social positions within that reality and each political context that emerged over time. Thus, they became protagonists in the struggle for possession of the São Vicente ranch, in a context marked by instability and violence from Luso-Brazilian administrators, as well as by the increasing encroachment of these actors on the territories and assets of the former Missionary Peoples, incorporated into Rio Grande de São Pedro in 1801.