Caxangá mill is located in the municipality of Ribeirão, on the right bank of the Amaragi River, and it was founded by the planters Arthur de Siqueira Cavalcanti and the brothers Ethelmino and Antônio Bastos.
It was created by decree of December 12, 1894, incorporating the Caxangá, Lage, Caeté and Tolerância mills, grinding for the first time in 1895.
In 1904, after almost ten years of activities, Colonel Arthur de Siqueira Cavalcanti dissolved the partnership and Hisbelo Barbosa da Silva left the partnership, selling his shares to Manoel Colaço Dias. For some time, the company that managed the plant was called Colaço, Siqueira & Bastos.
In 1929, the plant had 15 agricultural properties, 48 kilometers of railway and was capable of processing 600 tons of cane in 22 hours.
During the milling season, there were around 300 workers at the factory. It had a large village, insurance and medical assistance for the workers and maintained a school with an average annual attendance of 30 students.
Manoel Colaço Dias was the owner of the Caxangá mill until the end of the 1940s, when it was transferred to José Lopes de Siqueira Santos.
About 18 years later, José Lopes sold it to Júlio Maranhão and later, due to a crisis, the plant was expropriated by the Instituto do Açúcar e do Álcool - IAA (1964). Four months after the expropriation, there was an intervention by the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra), which assumed responsibility for its administration.
The Caxangá mill was part of the first reforma agrária (agrarian reform) in Brazil, absorbing more than 50% of the landowners’sugarcane of the Cooperativa Integral de Reforma Agrária - Cira, by the time it was managed by Incra.
It was deactivated and its machines became a distillery in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul.
Recife, August 7, 2003.
sources consulted
ANDRADE, Manuel Correia de. História das usinas de açúcar de Pernambuco. Recife: FJN. Ed. Massangana, 1989. 114 p. (República, v.1)
GONÇALVES & SILVA. O assucar e o algodão em Pernambuco. Recife: [s.n.], 1929. 90 p.
MOURA, Severino. Senhores de engenho e usineiros, a nobreza de Pernambuco. Recife: Fiam, CEHM, Sindaçúcar, 1998. 320 p. (Tempo municipal, 17).
how to quote this text
GASPAR, Lúcia. Caxangá mill. In: PESQUISA Escolar. Recife: Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, 2003. Available from: https://pesquisaescolar.fundaj.gov.br/pt-br/artigo/usina-caxanga/. Access on: Month. day, year. (Ex.: Aug. 6, 2009.)