Arquivo

The year is 1929. Modernity is in the air for Brazilian society: electricity, spoken movies, the telegraph, aircraft. In the south of the country, mainly in Santa Catarina, it is important to find an answer to serious problems in national integrity. There is no access to the far reaches of the West. Argentina is in expansion, encroaching into Brazil, with an offer of political, administrative and social organization. The territory is seething with remanescents from the Wars of Contest, the Prestes Column, and with those who absconded from Argentina. Bandits and impunity are rife on the Rio Grande do Sul frontiers. Wild, dense jungle is shelter to all without distinction. There are countless problems to be solved. In April, 1929, an expedition including the highest échelons in the government was formed to raise the Santa Catarina and Brazilian flags in the extreme southwest of the country. The members of the excursion depart for a crusade unequalled, dangerous and prolific in encounters and descriptions, as narrated in the book Aos Espanhóis Confinantes, by Othon D`Eça and now illustrated as fiction in the film Into the Spanish West.