Maragato (Brazil)
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Maragato is a name given in Brazil to the southerners who initiated the Federalist Revolution (1893-1895) in protest against the federal government. The conflict affected the entire southern region of the country.
In the state of Rio Grande do Sul the movement was represented by Silveira Martins.
They wore red neckerchiefs for identification, symbolizing their opposition.
The term used to have a pejorative connotation attributed by loyalists to the rebels that were led by Gaspar da Silveira Martins, one of the most prominent politicians by the end of the monarchy and eminent commander, and the strategist caudillo, Gumercindo Saraiva, who left exile in Uruguay and entered Rio Grande do Sul at the head of an army wearing red neckerchiefs.[1]
The name Maragato (originally pejorative, then embraced by the rebels themselves) came from the fact that their leaders had been in exile in a region of Uruguay heavily populated by emigrants from La Maragatería in Spain,[2] trying to demeaning the rebels as foreign federalists. [3]
