Cangaço

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History of Brazil

Indigenous peoples

Cangaço is the name given to a form of "social banditry" in the 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 nomadic bandits, roaming the sertões, seeking money, food, and revenge.

1 Origin of the word
2 Lampião
3 Coiteiros
4 Volantes and monkeys
5 Cangaceiro style
6 Cangaceiro weapons
7 Famous cangaceiros
8 The Cangaço in film
9 See also

[edit] Origin of the word

By 1834, the term "cangaceiro" was already used to refer to bands of poor peasants who inhabited the northeastern deserts, wearing leather clothing 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 himself to the coastal lifestyle imposed by a new society, formed by people descending from European colonizers.

By this time, these misfits divided themselves into basically two groups – the jagunços, mercenary rude hitman who worked for anyone paying the hightest 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 supported by the poor, 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 family honor. This 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 who died in a shoot-out with the police in Paraíba. Another famous cangaceiro, Sinhô Pereira, joined the cangaço in order to avenge the murder of his brother, Né Pereira, in the countryside of Pernambuco, in Serra Talhada.

[edit] Lampião

Main article: Lampião

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".^{[neutrality disputed]} He began when he was just a boy, amongst vendetta plots of the Pereira and Nogueira-Carvalho families. When his parents were killed because of these disputes, some of his brothers ran away, but Antônio, Livino, and Ezequiel followed Virgulino into the cangaço.

A mixture 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.^{[citation needed]}

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 known as Mrs. Lampião, Maria Bonita.

Lampião was killed by the police in 1938,^{[citation needed]} in a region between the state limits of Bahia and Alagoas, when an informer, Pedro de Cândido gave away their location to the police. A massive offensive led to 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 this for many reasons – they could be relatives of a cangaceiro, friends, ex-neighbours, or simply had some interest in their power, or they were afraid of them.

[edit] Volantes and monkeys

The volantes were small bands of troops – around 20 to 60 – of government soldiers sent to seek out and destroy the cangaceiros. The cangaceiros often referred to them as "monkeys", because of their brown uniforms and their willingness to obey their bosses. Some of them carried modern (back then) Hotchkiss machine guns, weapons 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 quite well. Living in the desert lands of the northeast of Brazil, they had to survive amidst spiky dry bushes. Despite the heat during the day, the cangaceiros preferred to wear leather clothing, embellished 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 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 – especially Lampião – wore french perfume. They often stole it from rich people's houses, and used it in large quantities.

[edit] Cangaceiro weapons

The weapons of the Cangaceiros were mostly revolvers, shotguns, and the famous "pára belo". It is claimed that like macaco (monkey), belo (beautiful) was another slang term for the policemen. Hence, pistols and Winchester-like rifles were called "pára belo" (belo stopper). However, the name seems to be actually a derivation of the Latin expression Parabellum, which means "prepare for war" and was used to refer to firearm cartridges produced by the German arms maker DWM or to related firearms.

They also made famous a thin, long, and very sharp knife called a "peixeira", a fish-cleaning knife, used mostly to torture or cut the throats of their victims.

[edit] Famous cangaceiros

Lampião, Cabeleira, Adolfo Meia-Noite, Antônio Silvino, Jesuíno Brilhante, Lucas da Feira, Sinhô Pereira, and Diogo da Rocha Figueira aka "Dioguinho" (in São Paulo).