sense that Cunha was trying to show that these backlanders were a different race from the other Brazilians who knew nothin about them. This ignorance an arrogance led to the eventual de struction of Canudos. The elit saw the proclamation of the Re public in 1889 and the separa tion of the church and state a progressive steps but to th backlanders they were crime against religion. The new state used a steam roller to crack a nut but the stea roller was a slow lumbering efficient instrument and the n t had a harder shell than expecte The final victory was hollow an even today the wounds have n healed. As a captured Celt' c warrior is said to have said of a defeat by the Romans: "Th y types, the white man, the black man, the create a wilderness and call it peace." cafuso (mixture of Indian and black), and What a pity Cunha is not around o the mulatto, with all graduations of coloring. There was a contrast here; the write about today's Brazil and the pre istrong and integral race thus reduced, dential campaign because he would fi d within this square, to the indefinable and that much of the same social misund pusillanimous mestizos, wholly broken standing is still around. The current pre 1dential campaign shows the same divi e by the struggle." If Personally, I see more irony than "rac- between the "elite" and the "forgotte St ism" there. Cunha then goes on to de- Brazilians, the backlanders of the 2 scribe how the "integral" Brazilians were century. The "elite" live around or n ar tortured and murdered by the vengeful the coast in pig cities like Rio, Sfto Pa lo troops. For a military man like Cunha the and Recife, or in rich inland agricultu al connivance of the officers in this butch- areas like Minas Gerais, Parana or M to ery was as bad as the slaughter itself. One Grosso. The forgotten Brazilians live in of the last sub-headings is a tribute to the backlanders and rebuke to the military — backland areas of the Northeast or ii e "Canudos did not Surrender". There can vast territories of the Amazon. Loo at be few sadder scenes in literature than the itineraries of the presidential can this description. "Canudos did not sur- dates and see how often they visit pla es render. The only case of its kind in his- like Rond6nia and Acre. Their stomp ng tory, it held out to the last man. Con- grounds are the familiar pattern of he quered inch by inch in the literal meaning southern states of SAo Paulo, Rio, Mi as of the words, it fell on October 5, towards Gerais, Parana., etc. plus some impo nt dusk—when its last defenders fell, dying Northeastern states. Token visits wil be every man of them. There were only four made to more isolated spots, but as son of them left: an old man, two other full- as possible the candidates are bac in grown men, and a child, facing a furi- familiar areas. At the same time, these "forgott n" ously raging army of 5,000 soldiers." Brazilians are n'ot only to be foun in Although Cunha makes it clear that he is on the side of the government— isolated areas. Millions of them liv in referring to "our" troops and the "en- the urban centers, generally in fav 'las emy"—his candid description of mili- (shantytowns). Thesefavelas areas" u cc" tary blunders and atrocities may have of officialdom as Canudos was over 100 ended up costing him his life. He was years ago. Whereas Canudos was i the shot dead by an army officer in Rio in hands of a religious fanatic, the fav las are governed by criminals who ex bit 1909 at the age of 43. One of the points he makes in the the residents by turning their chil ren book is that the Brazilian elite, by which into drug addicts, and rob and kill at ill. The criminals are well organize and he meant those who lived in the popuimpossible to eradicate. The gang I adlated coastal regions, had nothing in common with the backlanders. It is in this ers become role models for the yo ng. BRAZZIL - OCTOBER 2002
Every so often the police or the military carry out highly-publicized large-scale operations to capture leaders. We saw an example recently in Rio's Roc inhafave/a when around 1,000 members of the security forces tracked down Elias Maluco (Crazy Elias) the leading suspect in the case of a journalist, Tim Lopes, who was kidnapped and brutally murdered while covering a story in the favela. The PT state government wasted no time in claiming the glory for this arrest but it is difficult to see anything to glory in. The arrest or death of individual gangsters will not end the control the gangs have over millions of people. Not only are local people frightened but also so is society as a whole, including the police. Recently all the shops and banks in a large part of northern Rio obeyed a demand by drug traffickers to close as a sign of respect for a gang leader who had been killed in prison. During the funeral, TV journalists and police cameramen obeyed warnings not to film the event. No matter who becomes president the gang leaders will continue to thrive. This is because, unlike the rebels at Canudos, they pose no threat to the political structure. In fact the gangs thrive on corruption within the police and among politicians. This means that for the unfortunate favela dwellers, no expeditionary force will march in one day and root the gangsters out. During the two decades (1964 to 1985) in which the military ruled Brazil, the security forces stamped out any armed political resistance yet after almost two decades of democracy they are incapable of stamping out blatant criminal rebellion. ' The site of the Estado de SAo Paulo newspaper has a special section — in Portuguese dealing with the 100th anniversary of the books' publication — www.estadao.com.br/sertoes/ 'Rebellion in the Backlands, University of Chicago Press, 1944 John Fitzpatrick is a Scottish journalist who first visited Brazil in 1987 and has lived in Sao Paulo since 1995. He writes on politics and finance and runs his own company, Celtic Comunicacaes www.celt.com.br, which specializes in editorial and translation services for Brazilian and foreign clients. You can reach him at ifAcelt.com.br This article was originally published in I nfobrazil, which can be read at www.infobrazil.com
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