Reuters ran an article recently about Northeastern Brazil's cultural tradition of Literatura de Cordel, or "string" literature and it's very encouraging to see that there are people dedicated to preserving this tradition:
The genre was most popular in the 1920s to the 1960s. Now academic interest in the "Literatura de Cordel" (string literature in Portuguese) is probably stronger than among common Brazilians. Still, authors say many people in Brazil's poor, arid northeast still buy the booklets, with anything from yesterday's news to the legends of old in them."Often they buy one to read out loud to fellow peasants who cannot read," said Goncalo Ferreira da Silva, 65, an author and president of the academy, who lives in Rio but comes from the small town of Ipu in northeastern Ceara state.
"People still get excited during such readings to the point that at times someone takes out a knife and shouts: 'Oh, I'd really kill this bandit if he were here right now!"' da Silva said, passionately waving an imaginary knife in the air.
The literature, which got its name from the strings on which vendors hang the booklets at popular fairs, often focuses on the 1920-1940's "Cangaco" rural banditry in the impoverished northeast, its ruthless yet revered leader Lampiao and his outlaw wife Maria Bonita.
Jose Pacheco's "Lampiao's Arrival in Hell," in which the Devil turns away the bandit who retaliates by inflicting major damage on Hell, is one of the classics of string literature. On the paper cover, illustrated with wood block stencil prints typical of the genre, Lampiao aims his rifle at devils.
Lampião is an extraordinarily popular figure in the culture of Brazil's Northeast. Many still believe that he is alive having escaped to the south of Minas Gerais. I couldn't imagine him surviving a winter there after living all his life in the heat of Pernambuco's sertão . . .
Despite it's often brutal poverty, the Northeast of Brazil is a fascinating place. The beaches are exquisite, the food is delicious, the various types of music are eminently danceable and the colonial cities such as Olinda are simply lovely. While I would never claim that any one place in Brazil represents "the Real Brazil, if you go to Brazil and don't see the Northeast, you're only depriving yourself.
Heh...I'll have to ficar de olho for some of those...we are hoping to get up to Salvador and Praia do Forte in October (although Salvador is pretty far from the sertão, I gather).
We haven't made Parati yet, but plan to. I am working about half-way between Rio and Petropolis, so it's pretty certain we'll get up there some time as well.
The real pilgrimage for me would be to go out to the Os Sertões country and see that old church - I have a picture of it that shows it out of water, but I gather that is dependent on the season and the rainfall.
Posted by: bandiera | September 18, 2003 at 07:53 AM