Spinolas from Caroba and the high dry Bahia way of life
This essay has it’s focus on my personal family-rescue, but also on exploring the way of life in the extremely dry of Brazilian Northeast, showing some of the people and places in the region of Caroba.
In just a few words, the Spinola family has its origin in the city of Genova, Italy. A part migrated to Portugal, Madeira Island and then to Brazil, right after our ‘discovery’ by Europeans. By the third generation here, around 1840, they bought a large piece of land in the high dried backlands of Bahia, which they named as ‘Caroba’. There they cultivated sugar cane and raised cattle with the help of slaves. The family mixed up with these slaves, increased growth, more houses were built and the land was being divided and diminished, and the difficulties of cultivation and creation were also increasing. Generations have passed and only around 1900 that my great-grandmother Benigna with some brothers and relatives moved to São Paulo lands therefore definitely changing the culture of later generations, the so much that here were born and raised in a completely different reality from the origins, including me.
Currently there are 14 Spinola’s houses in Caroba. I saw pictures of my ancestors, understood who they were, heard many stories and have seen, lived, felt and learned some of the values and culture that reference had slipped away from my family.
