In 1903, a French tourist did not recommend the charming but sad city of Rio de Janeiro.
Postcard sent by a French tourist from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
In French.
14 cm x 9.2 cm.
Rio de Janeiro, February 28, 1903.
Good condition of conservation.
Unique piece.
Never come to Rio de Janeiro, it is a very beautiful, charming but sad and hot country.
In the late 1800s, there was a significant increase in poverty in the center of Rio de Janeiro, with a serious housing crisis. Despite having beautiful private buildings and public monuments, the Brazilian capital lacked basic infrastructure (water, sewage, garbage collection) and had an international reputation as a dirty tropical port. Violent epidemics of yellow fever, smallpox and cholera were multiplying: between 1897 and 1906, thousands of European immigrants died of yellow fever in Rio de Janeiro.
In 1902, the new President of Brazil decided to modernize the city and gave carte blanche to the mayor of the city, Pereira Passos, and the Director General of Public Health, the renowned Professor Oswaldo Cruz. Hundreds of old buildings were destroyed and replaced by large avenues, gardens, high-end homes and industries. Thousands of poor people had to move to the outskirts of the city. Brigades entered homes to exterminate yellow fever mosquitoes and kill rats, distributing poison and imposing strict waste management. However, these campaigns were not well received by the people of Rio, who revolted, for example in 1904, with the famous Vaccine Revolt.
As a French tourist reports in this postcard to a Parisian nurse, Rio de Janeiro in 1903 was already facing enormous social difficulties, despite its natural and cultural charms: a reality that is still very much present today.
