Cangaço

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Cangaço is the name given to a form of "social banditry" in Nordeste of Brazil in late 19th and early 20th centuries. This region of Brazil is known for its aridness and hardships and in a form of reaction against the domination of the land owners, the government and the European colonizers, many men and women decided to become nomad bandits, roaming the sertões, looking for money, food, and revenge.

1 Origin of the word "Cangaço"
2 Lampião
3 Coiteiros
4 Volantes and Monkeys
5 Cangaceiro Style
6 Cangaceiro´s Weapons
7 Famous Cangaceiros
8 Cangaço in Cinema
9 See also

[edit] Origin of the word "Cangaço"

By 1834, the term cangaceiro was already used to refer to bands of poor peasants who walked around the northeastern deserts wearing leather suits and hats, carrying carbines, revolvers, shotguns and long narrow knives known as peixeiras.

Cangaceiro was a pejorative expression, such as jagunço, cabra, or bandoleiro, meaning a person who could not adapt itself to the litoraneous lifestyle imposed by a new society, formed by people descending from European colonizers.

By this time, these misfits divided themselves in basically two groups - the jagunços, mercenary rude hitman who worked for anyone who paid the best price, usually land owners who wanted to protect or expand their territorial limits and also deal with farm workers; and the cangaceiros, "social bandits" who were backed up by the poor people´s society, who fed them and protected them against the volantes of policemen sent by the government to stop them.

One of the most common reasons why young people joined the cangaço was to avenge the honor of the family. So it was the case of Jesuíno Brilhante, a famous cangaceiro from Rio Grande do Norte who helped the victims of the great draught of 1877 and died in a shoot-out with the police in Paraíba. Other famous cangaceiro, Sinhô Pereira, joined the cangaço to avenge the murder of his brother, Né Pereira, in the countryside of Pernambuco, in Serra Talhada.

[edit] Lampião

Lampião, the most famous bandit (turned into popular myth) of Brazilian Cangaço

The most famous cangaceiro of them all, the one who is often associated with the whole history of the cangaço, was a man called Virgolino Ferreira da Silva - better known as Lampião. He started when he was just a young lad, amongst vendetta plots of the Pereira and Nogueira-Carvalho families. When his parents were killed because of such struggle, some of his brothers ran away, but Antônio, Livino and Ezequiel followed Virgulino into the cangaço.

A mix of hero and bandit, Lampião became one of the most representative icons of Brazil. His face is still seen everywhere in Brazil, and he is often cited as a popular hero.

Wandering around Santa Brígida, in the state of Bahia, he met Maria Alia da Silva, Maria de Déia, wife of shoemaker Zé de Nenê. Later she would be better know as Mrs. Lampião, Maria Bonita.

Lampião was killed by the monkeys in 1938, in a region between the state limits of Bahia and Alagoas, when fink Pedro de Cândido gave away their location to the police. A massive offensive promoted a bloodshed, and the whole band was killed: Lampião, Maria Bonita, Luís Pedro, Caixa de Fósforo, Mergulhão, Cajarana, Diferente, Enedina, Ângelo Roque and Elétrico.

[edit] Coiteiros

Coiteiros were people who helped the cangaceiros, giving them shelter and food. They did it for many reasons - they could be relatives of a cangaceiro, friends, ex-neighbours, or simply had some interest on their power, or were afraid of them.

[edit] Volantes and Monkeys

The volantes were small troops - around 20 to 60 - of government soldiers sent to seek and destroy the cangaceiros. The cangaceiros often referred to them as "the monkeys", because of their brown suits and their willingness to obey their bosses. Some of them carried modern (back then) Hotchkiss machine guns, guns that the cangaceiros quickly learned to fear - but were always willing to steal for their own use.

[edit] Cangaceiro Style

The cangaceiros had very specific notions of how to behave and dress. First of all, most of them, even being rude murderers, knew how to sew pretty well. Living in the desert lands of the northeast of Brazil, they had to live in the middle of spiky dry bushes, so even though it was very hot during the day, cangaceiros preferred to wear leather clothes, covered up with all kinds of coloured ribbons and metal pieces.

They also used leather gloves with coins and other pieces of metal sewed to them, almost like an armour.

Because of the heat and the absence of water, and also because of some kind of secret desire to be fancy and rich, some cangaceiros - specially Lampião - loved to wear perfume. They often stole it from rich people´s houses, and used it in large quantities.

[edit] Cangaceiro´s Weapons

The cangaceiro´s weapons were mostly revolvers, shotguns, and the famous "pára belo". Belo was another slang for policeman - such as monkey - and the "belo stopper" was pretty much of a Winchester-like rifle.

They also made famous a narrow, long and very sharp knife called "peixeira" - a fish-striping knife, used mostly to torture victims or cut their throats off.