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ABSTRACT: In the first decades of the twentieth century, Latin American intellectuals and artists articulated new forms of national identity that responded to the peculiar modernization of the region. These new articulations offered possibilities but also imposed limits that reached a crisis in 1968 in Brazil and in Mexico, when the process of modernization in the two countries reached a point of inflection. In the contrasting images of the Homem Cordial as the symbol of the Brazilian insistence on smooth transitions and of the revolution as the awakening of Mexico from the long slumber of the formalistic liberalism of the nineteenth century lie two faces of this national identity, and this paper examines their potentials and their weaknesses.
KEYWORDS: Latin America, national identity, modernization, Alfonso Reyes, Ribeiro Couto, Sérgio Buarque de Holand

Moreira, Paulo

English

National Identity in Brazil and Mexico in the Twentieth Century

Monteiro, George

Sobre "Eu sou uma antologia: 136 autoresfictfcios". Fernando Pessoa.

Resumo: Este ensaio cruza a poesia de Vasco Graça Moura (VGM) com algumas das aporias que definem a configuração museológica da contemporaneidade, aspecto particularmente relevante num autor filiado na tradição culturalista da poesia portuguesa de Novecentos. A cena do museu na obra de VGM oscila entre a visitação individual, marca da sua origem setecentista, e a saturação turística atual. Recorrendo ao poema intitulado “morte de paolo e francesca na livraria do louvre” procuro sobretudo mostrar como, apesar do comércio acelerado da cultura, o processo de esteticização posto em marcha pelo museu na modernidade aprisiona a poesia do autor, sujeitando toda a sua referencialidade à condição museológica

Oliveira, Fernando Matos

Poesia e museologia em Vasco Graga MouraFernando Matos OliveiraResumo. Este ensaio cruza a poesia de Vasco Gra(ja Moura (VGM) comalgumas das aporias que definem a configura^ao museologica dacontemporaneidade, aspecto particularmente relevante num autor filiadona tradi^ao cidtumlista da poesia portuguesa de Novecentos. A cena domuseu na obra de VGM oscila entre a visitagao individual, marca da suaorigem setecentista, e a saturagao turistica actual. Recorrendo ao poemaintitulado “morte de paolo e Francesca na livraria do louvre” procurosobretLido mostrar como, apesar do comercio acelerado da cultura, oprocesso de esteticiza^ao posto em marcha pelo museu na modernidadeaprisiona a poesia do autor, sujeitando toda a sua reterencialidade acondi(;ao museologica.Criatura emblematica da modernidade, o museu e hoje uma institui^aoflorescente entre as denominadas industrias da memoria. Aquelaracionaliza(;ao que o universalismo de Setecentos come^ou por anunciar comas CLiriosidades da Wimderkammer tern sofrido notaveis transfiguraqoes nestapassagem para o terceiro milenio. A narrativa historica que sustenta o museufez-se com os mesmos argumentos do progresso que levou o Renascimenio aomundo pos-industrial. O museu nasceu de identica vertigem temporal, daLirbaniza^ao, da ‘desloca^ao’ do sujeito, enbm, da compressao espacial a quea modernidade vem submetendo o planeta por todo o lado (Walsh). O museurepresenta tao-s6 a institucionalizaqao do passado que o presente renegaPortuguese Literary & Cultural Studies 7 (2008): 185-92.© University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.186 PORTUGUESE LITERARY & CULTURAL STUDIES 7como resto, especie de iridemnizaq:ao por perdas e danos. Mas a ressonanciahistorica do miiseu concentra ainda Lima outra narrativa: a da constitui^aoautonoma dos objectos artisticos. Nao por acaso, a estetica nasce ao mesmotempo que o museu moderno, por meados do seciilo XVIII, tornando-se esteo local por excelencia da contempla^ao sensiVel—embora cada vez menos“desinteressada,” ate mesmo quanto a benevolencia dos sens propositospublicos. O museu esta, pois, especialmente habilitado para despir osobjectos da sua contingencia historica, tornando-os aptos para o sequestroestetico. A tinica contingencia que os define e a autoridade do lugar e a logicada simboiiza^ao que Ihes atribui as propriedades de obra de arte.O que aqui pretendo analisar e simplesmente o modo como a poesia deVasco Gra^a Moura (VGM) oscila entre a visita^ao individual do museu,herdeira do sen instante original, e a visita^ao colectiva que pauta a suasatLira^ao tun'stica em tempos mais recentes. Para tanto, e sem descurar anatureza museologica que envolve todo o projecto poetico de VGM, limito-me sobretudo a extrair algumas implica^oes de uns quantos poemas que nasua obra expllcitamente convocam a ida ao museu.A perturbagao da visita a casa da Arte pode, pois, comegar por uns“magotes excitados” que se atravessam entre a pessoa do poeta e acontemplagao de ticiano, titulo do primeiro poema. Apesar do protesto, devenotar-se que a visita e aqui ja feita sob a influencia protocolar da promenadea dois. Enquanto lugar de afectividades, o museu do poeta permite-lhe assima entrada de mao dada com a mulher. No entanto, o constrangimento dacircLila^ao por entre a muita “gente a mais” manifesta-se num certo“desespero”:eu desespero nos museus: ha sempregente a mais e quadros realmentebons a menos. mas nos melhores ha sempreLima miraculosa descoberta. passeandono louvre, uma vez, de maos dadas, e a custoatravessando magotes excitados de turistas,disse a minha mulher que estava ali, a nossaIrente, uma prova na pintura italianado seculo XVI, a evidencia de que soA REPERTOIRE OF CONTEMPORARY PORTUGUESE POETRY 187o riciano se importava com as miilheresde mancira ostensiva e radical (...). {Poesias 149)Como se ve, o “desespero” perante as massas vai a par de certasdiscrimina^oes c]ualirativas c|ue recusam a inHa^ao turistico-comercial daobjectLialidade museologica. Dai a necessidade de um proceciimentodistintivo do visitante culto, preocupado apenas com ‘quadros realmentehons.” Os “bons” sao-no tanto por deliberagao critica do espectador comopela SLia especial aptidao sensiVel. Submetidos ao olhar do visitante, apenascertos quadros se propoem inesgotaveis, resistentes ao esgotamentoprovocado pelo interminavel circulo hermeneutico. Deste modo, os quadros“bons” sao aqueles que permitem “uma miractilosa descoberta,” isto e, sao osjque aguentam o investimento auratico que se apodera do olhar no momentoIda contemplate) da arte, sendo esta “realmente” boa.O momento auratico do visitante tern como pre-condito o encontroi individual do sujeito com a obra. So no sossego deste encontro se permite at subjectivato do objecto e a mobilizato da imagina^ao que o actointerpretativo pede. As condi^oes desta percepto vem sendo cada vez maisinsListentaveis no museu-espectaculo da actualidade. O museu ideal de VGMseria, por isso mesmo, aquele que concentrasse a diversidade e a riquezapatrimonial dos grandes museus piiblicos com a circula^ao restrita dascolectes privadas. A intimidade da Kimstkammer seria algo proximo de talsituato. E sob estas condi^oes ideais—onde o burgues se reconcilia com oi mundo atraves da arte—que a poesia de VGM tern preferencialmentevisitado o museu, dando absoluta primazia as obras “realmente” boas. Entreestas contam-se, nattiralmente, os grandes mestres da pintura, desde que fieisa “miniicia da transcri^ao do real” anunciada com os primitivos flamengos(271). Neste Museu Imaginario entram tambem obras musicais, de Schuberta Mozart, desde que um mVel acima do “choque pedagogico” provocado porMick Jagger, significativamente associado a uma experiencia biografica noNovo Mundo:“voce nao sabe quern e mick jagger?” disse elisaibyington travando o carro a fundo de talI modo que estive a ponto de aprenderpor choque pedagogico quern era o dito[ no para-brisas. o mundoFERNANDOMATOSOLIVEIRAPORTUGUESE LITERARY & CULTURAL STUDIES 7das onze da noite em copacabanaia desabando sobre mim, arranha-ceus e tudo,morros inclusive, eu nao sabiado papel qiie para elisa, digo, para a historiada civiliza^ao rinha rido o mick.“por onde que voce andou?” fiquei enver-gonhadissimo, porque era confessavel (...). [Poemas 2^5)Confrontado com a imisica de Jagger, no que diz respeito a politica dogosto, o poeta tende a situar-se deliberadamente numa epoca bem mais an-tiga, por exemplo, “entre o machado / de bronze e a roda de bar” {Poemas285). No seu caso, o mais que pode acontecer em materia de revolu^oesartisticas e a admissao da fotografia ao altar da contempla^ao estetica. E queo museu, como colec^ao, e um somatorio de objectos e comentarios sobreos mesmos, pelo que a arte contemporanea se ve condicionada no acesso aoespa^o museologico, muito particularmente ao de VGM. Como escreve Jean-Louis Deotte a proposito das palavras de Walter Benjamin sobre ocoleccionismo, “I’histoire de I’art sera done constitutive de Tart, puisque letemps est le grand artist. Les oeuvres, pouvant etre consideres comme letemps mis par la ‘source’ lumineuse pour nous parvenir, seront indissociablesde la temporalite de la reception, de la multiplicite des accueils de I’oevre”(Deotte 1 1).O poema que melhor explicita as aporias do estado museologico nacontemporaneidade e contudo o que se intitula morte de paolo e francesca nalivraria do louvre {Poesias 299-302). O titulo e por si so um programadiversamente cifrado. Esta livraria—convem distingui-la da bibliotecacomum—leva mais longe o virtuosismo das tecnologias da reprodu^ao, poisexagera a estiliza^ao que no interior do museu ja vinha dificultando o confrontodirecto com as coisas. Esta mesma estiliza(;ao, alias, pode ler-se comoespectacLilariza^ao do objecto, que assim quase dispensa a interpreta(;ao. Ovisitante quase so precisa de dizer que esteve la; a presenq:a do objecto foi-lhetornada presente de modo gratuito. As lampadas que fazem os efeitos de luz nointerior do museu, como simula^ao auratica, estao na livraria do poema tambemnumas “lampadas / que as vezes espelhavam.” O museu turfstico tende nestescasos para um passeio pelas montras. Os “magotes de turistas” que tambem aquiaparecem no inicio do texto sao agora clientes de um museu reificado. Porexperiencia pessoiil, sabemos que este comercializa o passado a custa de umaA REPERTOIRE OF CONTEMPORARY PORTUGUESE POETRY 189parafernalia de efcitos qiie vao do livro ao recuerdo. Qiiando os protagonistas dopoema entram na “piramide,” no verso de abertiira, o lugar tem com aspiramides do Egipto uma semelhan^a meramente formal. No poema de VCiMestamos no Louvre, tendo Paolo e Francesca de descer, como todos os turistas,“pela escada rolante.”A deslocac^ao do museu para a livraria deste e, pois, um movimento queduplica a emancipa^ao do material historico para alem de qualquervestigio contingente. A livraria do museu e, digamos assim, um museu emsegundo grau. Esta tiltima radicalizou precisamente a componente criticacom que a modernidade havia instaurado a ordem do museu, exibindoagora nao ja o objecto, mas apenas o comentario em livro ou, entao, ja soa imagem dele. Nos termos de Platao, a livraria do museu exibiria sombrasde sombras ou, na terminologia poetica de VGM, “imagens do mundo dasimagens” {Poesias 299). Estas imagens surgem como pe^as de um“labirinto” que, na acumula^ao da livraria, se apresenta como cadinhotemporal. A livraria do museu nao reproduz sequer a narrativa espacial quea disposi^ao do museu ainda permite. E pela desloca<;ao fisica dos amantesque as coisas se vao pelo menos “combinando.” Esta combinagao e umanarrativa didactica que, na verdade, vem das Luzes anteriores a ilumina^aoelectrica:(...) sobre as mesascintilavam retratos e paisagens,estatuas e objectos e animais,deuses da grecia, totems da Oceania,mascaras africanas, bronzes da asia,lavores medievais, marfins e flores,as imagens do mundo das imagensque se iam combinando nos sens olhose percorrendo os tempos Ihes traziamgenre da renascen^a e maneiristas,explosoes do barroco, impressionismos,cubistas e vanguardas (...). {Poesias 299)FERNANDOMATOSOLIVEIRA190 PORTUGUESE LITERARY & CULTURAL STUDIES 7Perante a disposi^ao dos materiais na livraria, I^aolo e Francesca ensaiamdiversas vezes a narra^ao do caos. A indecisao dos amantes ao circularem nalivraria vem-lhes de um estado de deriva, bem compreensiVel nos mortos-vivos. For “quererem e nao quererem,” acabam por bear sem saber “seqiieriam encontrar alguma coisa.” A “perdiqiao” de ambos no espa^o dalivraria hiz-se precisamente num movimento entre o caos e a ordem. O desejode ordena^ao e iima necessidade afim a que emana do caos da memoria queconfronta todo o coleccionador apaixonado. O caos diz-se com “labirinto,”“dtibia fronteira,” “metamorfoses,” “mudan^as,” “sombras,” “gestosincompletos.” A ordem prefere a delibera^ao verbal, com organizar, inquirir,entender, apropriar, soletrar, reler, perguntar.Mas o problema maior levanta-se quanto a ontologia dos protagonistasdesta ida a livraria do Louvre. Paolo e Francesca entrain na livraria pela escritado poeta, na qualidade de fugitivos dantescos, vindos directamente doCirculo Segundo do “Inferno,” tal como e descrito nA Divina Comedia. Asua aventura e narrada no condicional, como sobrevivencia hipotetica amorte que o livro de Dante sancionara. Em rigor, os amantes de Dantechegam a livraria do museu ja na condi<;ao de objectos museologicos. Apesardisso, e este e o punctum do poema, VGM insiste num exercicio que poe aprova a mortalidade dos amantes, marcando-lhes um encontro suplementarcom a vida. A vida aparece neste encontro derradeiro como uma promessa ouesbo^o que apenas se insinua por entre a acumula^ao mortuaria da livraria. Ocaminho em direcijao a vida, para fora do “labirinto” desse passado—umpassado que era tambem o deles, pois o labirinto era o “das suas propriasvoltas dentro dele”—e um trajecto que Ihes exige um abrandamento(inteligiVel) dos tantos “livros e mais livros” que se mostram nas estantes.Recorde-se que estamos em pleno centro da agita^ao do museu-espectaculo.Dai que a coisa se fa^a por tentativas, vagarosas: “tentar devagar apropriar-se”;“a pouco e pouco haviam as sombras de ir-se dissipando”; “talvez (...)entrando aos poucos numa liquida ternura”; “talvez entre as palavras”;“devagar, mais devagar / ainda do que antes.” Estas, enfim, algumas formasde irem “soletrando as silabas da vida” ou de viverem minimamente as“particulas do dia,” “momento a momento.” A ter existido, a positividade da“liquida ternura” ter-se-ia espalhado “sem palavras,” quer dizer, sem amedia^ao das letras. O impulso vital manifestar-se-ia sensivelmente, pelas“pontas dos dedos” ou, “feita aroma,” como “balsamo”:A REPERTOIRE OF CONTEMPORARY PORTUGUESE POETRY 191(...) e a luz dariaLima voz aos contornos afagadosda melodia a desprender-se delamima gavinha leve, niima curva,talvez entre as palavras, ou talveza esgueirar-se das palpebras, entrandoaos poLicos niima liquida ternura,aos poLicos capturada pelas pontasdos dedos, devagar, mais devagar,ainda do que dantes, feita aroma,ou balsamo ou concentricas ondinhasdo sossego a espalhar-se sem palavras,mas soletrando as si'labas da vida (...). {Poesias 301)Apesar de reiteradas tentativas, a vida entrevista pelos amantes foi “brevealegria.” O fracasso do esfor(;o resulta sobretudo da impossibilidade de opoeta VGM salvar a vida de ambos pela re-escrita de Dante. Esta diferen^arevela-se, mais adiante, no facto de a alegria (a vida) se consumir “nos gestos,”enquanto “os ditos” (os livros) so podem aspirar a fabricaq:ao de “cinza”;(...) e lembrou-lhes um verso de repente:“a boca me beijou todo a rremer,”e sem ser bem assim, era isso mesmoe o seu deslumbramento por receiofoi so breve alegria, ardeu nos gestos,e houve amargura e cinza nos sens ditospor quererem e nao quererem. Regressaramao livro a que pertencem. e morreram. {Poesias 5^1 -02)Este final supoe a certeza da morte e, mais ainda, a certeza da perteii9a dosamantes ao livro a que “regressaram.” A gramatica impoe-lhes finalmente aFERNANDOMATOSOLIVEIRA192 PORTUGUESE LITERARY & CULTURAL STUDIES 7certeza de um “pertencem.” O circulo museologico acaba assim por se fecharcompletamente. Entre a visitaq:ao da livraria e a re-escrita, VGM jamaisabandona o niLiseii, pois a morte de Paolo Malatesta e de Francesca de Riminiteve como causa imediata, ja em Dante, a leitura de um livro com osromances da l avola Redonda. A letra de VGM tomou um caso cuja origemse perde nas paginas dos livros. O proprio amor proposto pela “ternuraliquida” se revela simultaneamente dadiva e fic9ao museologica, resultado dopoder e da autoridade interpretativa do visitante compulsivo que e VGM, Fe-lo, diga-se, sabendo que nas palavras de Francesca de Rimini o livro/museutambem testemunha a mortalidade:Quando lemos do desejado risoa ser beijado por tao grande amante,e este, que de mim seja indiviso,a boca me beijou todo anelante.Galeoto foi o livro e quern o disse:Nesse dia nao lemos adiante. (Dante 63-65)Obras CitadasDante Alighieri. Divina Comedia. Trans. Vasco Gra^a Moura. Lisboa: Ci'rculo de Leitores, 1995.Deotte, Jean-Louis. Le musee, I’origine de I’esthetique. Paris: Editions L’Harmattan, 1993.Karp, Ivan; Lavine, Steven D. Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics ofMuseum Display.Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991.Moura, Vasco Gra^a. Poemas Escolhidos. Lisboa: Bertrand, 1996.. Poesias 1997/2000. Lisboa: Quetzal, 2000.Walsh, Kevin. The Representation of the Past. Museums and the Heritage in the Post-ModernWorld. New York: Routledge, 1997.Fernando Matos Oliveira e Docente da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra.Vem publicando artigos sobre literattira e teatro em diversas revistas. E atitor dos livros ODestino da Mimese e a Voz do Palco: O Teatro Portuguh Moderno ( 1 997) e Teatralidades: 12Percursos pelo Territorio do Espectdcido (2003). Editou uma Antologia Poetica de AntonioPedro (1998), um volume com o Teatro— Odio de Raga e O Cedro Vermelho, de Gomes deAmorim (2000, em colabora^ao com Maria Aparecida Ribeiro) e os Escritos sobre Teatro,de Antonio Pedro (2001). E-mail: fmatos@ci.uc.pt

Poesia e museologia em Vasco Graça Moura

Galvão, Walnice Nogueira

Rebellion in the Backlands:Landscape with FiguresWalnice Nogueira GalvaoTranslated by Paulo Henriques BrittoBrazil’s historical situation in the period immediately preceding the writingof Os Sertoes1 informs the very conception of the book. The Republic wasproclaimed in 1889, one year after the abolition of slavery, and the early yearsof the republican period were marked by a number of more or less serious andprotracted insurrections, as well as small local uprisings. It took some time forthe new regime to consolidate and begin to function properly. The CanudosWar, which took place in the hinterland of Bahia in 1896-1897, is just oneamong the various revolts that punctuated the period of transition. Os Sertoesis a chronicle of this historical event, to which the author was an eyewitness.*Euclides da Cunha first came into contact with his subject matter whenhe was sent to Bahia by the daily O Estado de Sao Paulo as a specialcorrespondent to cover the Canudos War. The series of reports he sent fromthe battlefield made him famous. But his journalistic writings now interest usmostly because they can be read as the origins of Os Sertoes.The tremendous impact of the war made it a turning point in the historyof the Brazilian press: for the first time ever in the country, a large number ofnewspapers sent reporters to the scene of the events themselves. Throughoutthe duration of the war, the major dailies of Rio, Sao Paulo and Bahia kept aspecial column—simply titled “Canudos” in most of them—that wasexclusively dedicated to the topic. Everything and anything related toCanudos was published: outright fabrications, dogmatic statements by partystalwarts, forged documents, faked letters. All these publications had thepurpose of reinforcing the idea of an imminent restoration of monarchy. The150 PORTUGUESE LITERARY & CULTURAL STUDIES 4/5importance of the press in this context cannot be underestimated: at a timewhen audiovisual resources had not yet been invented, the newspaper was themass medium par excellence.*Returning from the war, Euclides da Cunha dedicated himself to the taskof amassing a broad range of knowledge in order to work on his book, whichwas published only five years later, in 1902 . It was met with overwhelmingpraise. Like a majestic portico, the opening section of Os Sertoes, entitled“The Land,” provides a splendid description of the spatial context of the war.The author describes the region of Canudos from three points of view—the topographic, the geological and the meteorological—in a passionatelanguage that creates imposing natural vistas. Rivers rush onward, waterfallscascade; the land itself appears to mimic the flow of the rivers in thecontortions of its features and the clashes between the different geologicallayers that underlie it. It is an extraordinary landscape, which seems to beman-made on a monumental scale, reminding one of colossal menhirs or theruins of a cyclopean colosseum.All of this, however, is seen from a great distance, providing a sort ofGod’s-eye view of an immemorial desert, parched by an unforgiving sun. Thecosmic forces themselves can only be referred to by means of antitheses.To convey to the reader a sense of the unfamiliarity of the sertao, theauthor relies on shock tactics: he presents a soldier who seems to be asleep,only to disclose that in fact he has been dead for months, his intact bodyhaving been naturally mummified by the dry air.The scourge of chronic droughts is analyzed at length; a number ofexplanations are proposed for their occurrence, ranging from the influence ofsunspots to the region’s peculiar wind patterns. Later on, the author willmove on from hypotheses to actual proposals for solutions.The vegetation of the caatinga must face two unfavorable conditions: thearidity of the land and the heat of the sun. Thus, its adaptive mutations allinvolve protection against death caused by a lack of water or by overexposureto the sun. The defensive strategies are varied: some plants turn into dwarfsin order to expose as little surface as possible to the harshness of the elements;other species bury themselves so that only a small portion of them appearsabove ground; yet others join together to form social plants, developingcommon roots that retain a maximum of water and topsoil, in addition toreinforcing mutual security.BRAZIL 2001 SPRING/FALL 2000 151Euclides da Cunha concludes that the sertao environment of Canudos isunique, since its characteristics do not coincide exactly with any pre-existingcategory, emphasizing that “nature here rejoices in a play of antitheses”(Chap. V).*Having examined the physical environment, the author proceeds toanalyze the ethnic groups of the region. He believes that the fundamental andmost complex question in the study of Brazil’s population is the issue ofmiscegenation, a thorny issue that engaged the attention of all the nation’sintellectuals of the time. The mixture of races had given rise to the sertanejo,a racial type with unique physical and spiritual characteristics inherited fromthe three ethnic groups from which it originated. These characteristics,Euclides da Cunha believed, had advantages as well as disadvantages. Theirpositive qualities were adaptability to a hostile environment, resistance and astoic attitude. The handicaps were religious fanaticism, superstitiousness, aprecarious psychological balance and a marked backwardness in relation tothe progress of civilization.The deterministic reasoning applied to the analyses of the physicalenvironment and ethnic components is also applied to the examination ofthe personality of Antonio Vicente Mendes Maciel, the Pilgrim, also knownas Antonio Conselheiro. Euclides da Cunha sees him as a synthesis of thehistorical process that resulted from the different populations that settled theland, shaped by miscegenation and isolation.The author’s diagnosis of Antonio Conselheiro is contradictory: thereader realizes that Cunha hesitates between admiring his greatness andbranding him “a very sick man” suffering from paranoia. This leader of men,who concentrates in his person “the obscurantism of three separate races,”“grew in stature until he was projected into History” (Chap. IV).Antonio Conselheiro, a mystical Catholic leader, wandered through thesertao accompanied by his followers, leading a life of penitence, preaching andpresiding over the building and rebuilding of churches, cemeteries and dams.He lived this way for thirty years with his following growing continuously.In an attempt to elucidate the origins of the Canudos War, Cunha showshow the advent of the Republic brought about changes that disturbed theconselheiristas-. new taxes, the separation of church and state, religiousfreedom and civil marriage, which was felt to be a flagrant rejection of aCatholic sacrament.WALNICENOGUEIRAGALVAOPORTUGUESE LITERARY & CULTURAL STUDIES 4/5Shunned by all, around 1893 the pilgrims finally found refuge in theruins of an abandoned farm known as Canudos, deep in the hinterland ofBahia. Gradually they erected the wattle houses that were constituted by whatCunha referred to as the oxymoronic “mud-walled Troy” (Chap. II).There is no wood in the sertao, where the typical vegetation, the caatinga,is a stunted growth of gnarled brush, twigs and cacti. The people of Canudoshad, therefore, bought a certain amount of planks for the New Church theywere building. The purchase was made, and paid for in advance, in the cityof Juazeiro. But the goods were not delivered, and Conselheiro’s followersmarched unarmed toward Juazeiro, singing religious hymns. They were metby an ambush of state troopers whom the local authorities in Uaua hadsummoned. The soldiers decimated them but were then forced to retreat.In January 1897, a new offensive was mounted with more and betterequipped soldiers. Once again, the government forces were defeated.The third expedition was to be commanded by Colonel Moreira Cesar,who had recently crushed another insurrection in the South. His method ofrepression there had been so violent that he had earned the nickname“Cutthroat.” After the two earlier losses, Canudos was now perceived as anational threat that was too serious to be left to the responsibility of statetroops. A major attack was prepared, with federal troops convoked from allover the country and with modern weaponry that included cannon,accompanied by a nationwide campaign to win over public opinion.Excitement was in the air, the buzz of patriotic demagoguery; some began tosuggest that the events in the remote sertao indicated an attempt to restorethe monarchy.The whole nation was watching when the third expedition gathered inSalvador and departed for Canudos. The government forces attacked thesettlement; however, a few hours later, having suffered heavy losses, includingthat of their commander, they fled in retreat. In order to run faster, soldiersabandoned their weapons and ammunition—collected and treasured by therebels—and even parts of their uniforms, such as jackets and boots.Euclides describes in vivid imagery the uproar that followed the thirddefeat. In Rio and Sao Paulo, the country’s largest cities, there weredemonstrations in the streets that culminated in riots; the crowd’s fury turnedagainst the most obvious targets—the few remaining monarchist newspapers.Four newspaper offices were destroyed, and the owner of one of them waslynched. There was a general demand that the threat to the newbornBRAZIL 2001 SPRING/FALL 2000 153Republic be quashed. Students signed a petition calling for theextermination of the followers of the “degenerate.” Congress spoke ofnothing else. The press described the defeat as a national disaster,disseminating a sense of insecurity and alarm throughout the country,publishing false information and forged letters, and speaking of domesticand even international conspiracies.A fourth expedition was planned, this headed by an even higher-rankingofficer than the previous one: the commander was to be General Artur Oscarde Andrade Guimaraes, assisted by four other generals. The expedition evenincluded a marshal, for the Minister of War, Marshal Machado Bittencourt,went to Canudos with his entire general staff, effectively moving his ministryto the theater of operations. Troops were mobilized around the country. Itwas as a member of this expedition, in the double position of reporter andaide to the Minister’s general staff, that Euclides da Cunha became aneyewitness of the war.The fourth expedition headed for Canudos in June 1 897. The rebel townwas entirely surrounded so that no reinforcements or support parties could reachit. Most of all, the siege deprived the town of water, a precious commodity inthe drought-ridden caatinga, laboriously fetched by the townspeople from waterholes dug in the dry bed of the Vaza-Barris, a seasonal stream.Meanwhile, the people of Canudos, who previously had possessed nomore than a few ancient muzzle-loading firearms such as harquebuses andblunderbusses, now owned some of the most advanced weapons of thetime—including highly valued repeating rifles like the Austrian Mannlicherand the Belgian Comblains—which had been discarded during the rout ofthe third expedition.As the siege began to have an effect and some sectors of Canudos fell intogovernment hands, the obstinate resistance of the rebels began to defyunderstanding and to be seen as something of an enigma. A few days beforethe end, a surrender was negotiated. However, to the chagrin of the army, theonly insurrectionists who actually surrendered were about three hundredwomen, who had been reduced to walking skeletons by extreme hunger,accompanied by their children and a few old men; freed of this dead weight,the resistance became even more intense. Finally, after several days of heavybombing, including the unprecedented use of a sort of improvised napalm(gasoline was poured on houses that were still occupied and ignited withthrown sticks of dynamite), Canudos was silenced on October 5, 1897,WALNICENOGUEIRAGALVAO154 PORTUGUESE LITERARY & CULTURAL STUDIES 4/5without having surrendered. Of the final four resisters, whose burned bodieswere found in a pit on the central square surrounded by churches, one wasan old man and the other a young boy.According to the army’s official report, there were 5,200 houses in thesettlement. If we estimate conservatively that there were five people living ineach house—in the sertao the figure was usually higher—the population ofthe rebel town was 26,000. This would have meant that Canudos was thesecond largest city in Bahia. (At the time, Sao Paulo had no more than200,000 inhabitants.) Antonio Conselheiro had died a few days before thefinal collapse of the resistance; his body was exhumed and beheaded, and thehead was taken to the Bahia Faculty of Medicine for an autopsy. The purposewas to discover what had been wrong with him. According to CesareLombroso’s theories, widely accepted at the time, measurements of the skulland dissection of the brain might provide an answer. Unfortunately, however,the results of the studies proved inconclusive.This, in short, is the tragic plot of Os Sertoes.*After a war that turned out to have been an inglorious massacre ofdestitute wretches, it became clear that there had been no conspiracy; thedesperately poor peasants had had no connection whatsoever with realmonarchists—white, upper-class urbanites, who were horrified at the verythought of associating with such a “riffraff” of “fanatics”—and had enjoyedno logistical support from anyone in Brazil or abroad.Public opinion then underwent a striking about-face; the war began to beseen as a regrettable massacre of brave Brazilians engaged in a fratricidalstruggle. In addition, it was no longer a secret that the army’s conduct hadbeen far from irreproachable. A few war correspondents had already disclosedthat it had been common practice—approved by the commanders—to tie upprisoners and behead them in public.Another important consequence of the Canudos War, the importance ofwhich should not be underestimated, is the fact that it completed thesolidification of the republican regime and finally exorcised the specter ofmonarchical restoration. On the basis of contemporary witnesses, it seemsclear now that public opinion had been manipulated and that the “rebels” inCanudos were the scapegoats of this process. They were forced into the roleof an internal enemy of the nation, an enemy that had to be faced in acommon effort that promoted national unity.BRAZIL 2001 SPRING/FALL 2000 155*The transformation of the newspaper stories into book form required fiveyears ofwork and intense ambition. The body of information contained in thereports was unified by a naturalist style, the dominant trend in Brazilianliterature at the time, with additional Parnassian touches in the evocation ofthe landscape. The typically Naturalist combination of impersonal descriptionand genetic concern—in the widest sense of “genetic”—is here put to use tochronicle a war in which the dramatic genre is necessarily concentrated.However, as if by means of a process of contamination, the first andsecond sections, concerning the land and the people, are also treateddramatically. In the first, the components of nature are anthropomorphizedand endowed with feelings and even purpose. In the second, the centraltheme is the fierce clash between three races in a struggle for hegemony. But,as often occurs in Naturalist works, at each moment ideas and theories areadvanced and acquire individual voices of their own. Determinism,scientism, evolutionism, the notion of the ineluctable linearity of progress,heredity, all play major roles in the narrative. The polyphonic character of thebook as a whole is the first element of its composition that should beunderscored.The second element is intertextuality. Throughout Os Sertoes, a variety oftexts and authors are quoted and discussed and provide the book with anencyclopedic texture. In the section titled “The Rebellion,” the author reliesnot only on his own dispatches and notebooks but also on news stories byother correspondents, the army’s orders of the day, and government reports.The opening section, “The Land,” draws on geology, meteorology, botany,zoology, physics and chemistry. In “Man,” the most polemic part of the bookand rife with conjectures of all kinds, Euclides da Cunha reviews works onethnology, the history of Brazilian colonization, folklore, psychiatry,neurology and sociology.The coexistence of polyphony with intertextuality, complementing eachother without coming into conflict, poses the obvious problem of having todeal with an excessive body of knowledge and results in a succession ofdiscordant paraphrases. Unable to reach a synthesis, or even a number ofpartial syntheses, the text advances through all kinds of antitheses, whichoften amount to oxymorons—thus Canudos is a “mud-walled Troy,” and thesertanejo, the inhabitant of the sertao, is a “Hercules-Quasimodo”—and aseries of contradictions.WALNICENOGUEIRAGALVAO156 PORTUGUESE LITERARY & CULTURAL STUDIES 4/5These are, in general terms, the complex issues surrounding thecomposition of Os Sertoes. The complexity of the subject matter is dealt within the text by means such as polyphony and intertextuality that are in no waysimplistic or linear. To confer unity on his material, the author relies on aneschatological view borrowed from the millenialists and messianists whogathered in Canudos, their Promised Land; they were waiting, prayingconstantly for the salvation of their souls and the Final Judgment that the endof the century heralded. By so doing, Cunha shows how it is possible, by ademonic inversion of the Biblical imagery of a Salvationist myth, to get aglimpse of the insurrectionists’ own viewpoint. Their world had becomedisenchanted. “Belo Monte”—“Mount Beautiful,” as they had renamed thetown, their New Jerusalem—had been changed into its opposite: Hell. Theriver of the City of God, the river of eternal life, was embodied in the dry bedof the Vaza-Barris. The gold walls promised to the just are made of mud andtwigs. The luxuriant vegetation of the Garden of Delights they long fordecays into the dry and bare caatinga. And so on.In this way, through mimesis of the great syntagmatic narrative of theBible, which begins with Genesis and ends with the Apocalypse, Os Sertoescovers the full span of the story of Canudos, from the foundation of the townto its destruction by fire, in accordance with Biblical prophecy.Notes1 Are quotes are taken from Samuel Putnam’s translation Rebellion in the Backlands.(Translators note)Works CitedCunha, Euclides da. Rebellion in the Backlands. 1902. Trans. Samuel Putnam. New York:Knopf, 1952.

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National Identity in Brazil and Mexico in the Twentieth Century

Sobre "Eu sou uma antologia: 136 autoresfictfcios". Fernando Pessoa.

Poesia e museologia em Vasco Graça Moura

"Rebellion in the Backlands": Landscape with Figures

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