Entrevero No Pão: Chaos in Bread

In the southernmost state of Brazil, called Rio Grande do Sul, the highlands of the Brazilian plateau give way to the Pampas, the low wide fertile grassland area that it shares with Uruguay and Argentina. It is an area culturally distinct from the rest of Brazil, for much of its history populated only indigenous Guarani people and migratory cattlemen known as Gauchos–the cowboys of South America. We read about the gaucho culture of Rio Grande do Sul a bit previously on the Tribunal, while covering a regional sandwich specialty known as Farroupilha, roughly translated as Ragamuffin. The Farroupilhas were a separatist movement in the 19th Century who launched the Ragamuffin War, a Gaucho-led republican uprising against the Empire of Brazil that is still celebrated there every September. And though there are many different contributors to the unique culture of Rio Grande do Sul–there is German influence, including municipalities where Franconian-descended Hunsrik is considered a second…