Cláudia City Colonization, Mato Grosso, Brazil, based on its Residents’ Testimonials

Abstract

This study analyzed the settlement process of Cláudia city, Mato Grosso state – Brazil, between the years 1978 and 1988, based on its residents’ testimonials. The selected time period is due to the fact that in 1978 there was the foundation of the city and, in 1988, is created Cláudia Municipal. During this period there is the colonization process, with the settlers’ arrival from the Southern Region, with the economic attempts of production in the land, in agriculture, in the cattle raising, and with the vegetal extractivism made by the loggers. The school assumes an important role in this period, being its existence imperative for the settler’s settlement in the place, since the migrant families were constituted with children in the school age. The political-emancipatory process between the years 1986 and 1988 had as objective to convince the population from Cláudia that the political elevation to Municipality was viable. The colonization of uninhabited or sparsely populated land was part of a Federal Government Project that encouraged private settlers to settle on Midwest lands. Among these, was the “SINOP S.A. Settler”, owner of the region called Gleba Celeste, in which was Cláudia city.