The Amazon's Greatest Generation? A Forgotten History of World War II

Lourenço Canário da Silva never fought in World War II, but he was one of the unsung footsoldiers who contributed to the Allied victory. A poor laborer from the northeastern state of Ceará, Da Silva and some 34,000 other Brazilians were recruited to tap rubber in the Amazon forest between 1943 and 1945. The bounty from the “Battle for Rubber,” as the government of then-President Getúlio Vargas called the U.S.-subsidized effort, was used to make tires and other necessities for Allied armies. “I won a ticket from Getúlio Vargas and in return I gave my life,” Da Silva recalled decades later...

Read this article on the Americas Quarterly website. | Subscribe to AQ.