The story of a late 19th century Calabrian bandit gang in the municipality of São Carlos, in western São Paulo state, allows us to investigate why Italian banditry was rare in Brazil. The bandits depended on a support network among Calabrians, and imposed silence on other Italians by either intimidation or distrust on Brazilian authorities. A devastating yellow fever epidemic, which drove away much of the local elite and seriously weakened the police force, helped the gang to enjoy a few years of impunity. The mixture of immigrant Italians from various regional origins is insufficient to explain the relative absence of banditry and organized crime among Italians in Brazil. Two issues were decisive to do so then, on the contrary of what happened in Calabria and the United States: the lack of Brazilian elites willing to protect immigrant bandits and the difficulty in corrupting local authorities, especially the police.
Bandits; Organized crime; Immigration; Italians; Calabria
