Kasperavičiūtė, Vitalija

Emigration from the Republic of Lithuania in the period from 1918 to 1940 was influenced by many social factors. Lithuanians began to stream to South America after the First World War, mostly in the 3rd decade of the 20th c., when the USA had established quotas for emigrants. Lithuanians in Brazil formed one of the biggest communities in South America, comparable to those in North America. The Lithuanian government contemplated plans to create “another Lithuania” in Brazil. Professor Kazys Pakštas was the first person to champion the idea of colonization, and he had a vision of “another Lithuania”. Life for Lithuanian emigrants in Brazil was hard enough. Deceptive practices of emigration bureaus and the politics of the government of Brazil attracted the biggest number of Lithuanian emigrants from 1926 to 1930. They had to adjust to an unusual climate, do very hard work, and they had no rights whatsoever. Although their life in Brazil was complicated, they still managed to establish various organizations, societies, schools, and libraries for their children, with some support from the Lithuanian government.

A document found in the Lithuanian Central State Archive's Foreign Ministry section entitled "Secret meeting of January 10, 1940, on Lithuanian-American matters" throws light on problems then existing in the Lithuanian community of North America. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the current situation of North American Lithuanian life; to get a handle on problems associated with the Lithuanian emigrants' loss of national identity; and to look for ways to induce the emigrants to return to Lithuania in the hope that they would bring back their accumulated capital as well. The crucial fact emphasized at the meeting was that the Lithuanians living in North America were nearing the brink of complete de-Lithuanianization, and that this was one of the most important reasons why the government had to pay more attention to solving this problem.