The article discusses the formation of an elite within early twentieth-century Amazon society. It explores the group’s unique social origins, its strategies for obtaining recognition, and its transformations. Special attention is focused on individuals who, because of their actions, interests, and expectations, stood out in the arenas of political, administrative, intellectual, and economic activities from the mid-nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries. At the turn of the century, rubber (then monopolized by production in the Amazon) ranked second among Brazilian exports, ensuring great visibility for the region’s elite - whose emblem was the Teatro Amazonas.
Amazon; Manaus; rubber; urban elite; shaping; representation of self