One of the most significant cultural currents in the mid- to late 19th century was an increasing interest in defining national characteristics as part of the development of nationalism. In the Czech lands this activity took the form of a conscious attempt to resurrect and institutionalize a language (Czech) that had ceased to exist as a formal language since the end of the Thirty Years’ War in the mid-17th century. In Finland the effort to define national identity took the form of a contrived epic, The Kalavela. In Brazil the most significant effort in this area was the publication in 1902 of a book that was not a re-created or re-expressed mythology, nor was it a novel in the strictest sense.
Rebellion in the Backlands by Brazilian author Euclides da Cunha (1866–1909) is a journalistic account of the siege and destruction of a millenarian religious community in Brazil’s northeast in 1897. It has been called the greatest prose work of Brazil and perhaps of Latin America and has most significantly been referred to as the Bible of Brazilian Nationality. Written by an engineer and former soldier acting as a journalist, it combines topographical, biological, climatological, and anthropological elements with a spare yet detailed description of a major military operation.
In its structure and tone Rebellion in the Backlands is a detailed and technical description of the geography and demography of the northeastern Brazilian backlands. Further, it dispassionately provides an account of the strategy, tactics, and logistics of the Brazilian army’s efforts to take control of the millenarian community of Canudos. The first part of the book, titled “The Backlands,” is divided into two sections, “The Land” and “Man.” Da Cunha describes the appearance and characteristics of the ground on which the campaign was fought. The geology, vegetation, and climate (to include the droughts that make this land so inhospitable) are described in detailed fashion, reflecting the scientific thinking of the day. The section on Man rings strangely to modern ears because, although it reflects the scientific thought of the late 19th century, it is informed by racist theories of mixed versus “pure” blood and the degeneracy of the local population. It is important to note, however, that da Cunha was not totally comfortable with this concept, for he alternately refers to the mixed population as “degenerate” then later as the backbone of Brazil. His ethnographical exposition is followed by a history of settlement in the Northeast that travels from the general to the very particular activities of Antonio Vicente Mendes Maciel, referred to as Antonio the Counselor.
Some readers may find this initial part difficult to read; they may not see the logic of such a thorough examination of the terrain and native population in a military account. By the time the reader encounters the narrative of the marches and skirmishes, however, an appreciation for the effects of the terrain on both the disposition of troops and the character and reactions of the participants becomes quite obvious.
For over 20 years Antonio had wandered as a spiritual teacher until 1893, when he founded a community at an abandoned, nearly inaccessible ranch named Canudos. In a short time this community of his followers grew to nearly 35,000. They were staunchly set against the local hierarchy of the Catholic Church and, what was most alarming, vocally opposed to the Brazilian republic that had come into existence in 1889. The second part of Rebellion in the Backlands describes how the Brazilian government mobilized and deployed its forces to eliminate the community.
By the late summer and autumn of 1896, Canudos represented a significant threat to religious and governmental order. Antonio and his settlement were also feared and hated by the local landowners because local workers, like medieval serfs 600 years before, were leaving their working arrangements to seek freedom as well as religious revelation. In addition, Canudos drew large numbers of frontier bandits. Thus criminal and subversive elements were seen to be gathering on one place.
The government response began in 1896 and concluded in October 1897. Thousands of Brazilian army troops were ultimately involved in the maneuvering, fighting, and eventual reduction of Canudos. It was not an easy campaign, however. Several attempts were mounted, many of them coming to grief due to a poor understanding of the region, the inherent difficulties of a terrain that favored defenders, and an opponent who was smarter and tougher than the trained military could comprehend until well into the siege.
When the siege and battles were over, the Brazilian army had completely devastated the village and killed all of the adult male inhabitants (the last four, two men, an old man, and a boy, were killed near a grave they had dug for themselves). Rebellion in the Backlands describes all this in spare and precise terms; it is stripped of superfluous adjectives and is in the style that one would expect of a man trained as an engineer and soldier. Observant, detailed, and dramatic but never melodramatic, da Cunha shows the horrors of the siege. At the conclusion of the ambushes, after the army had retreated, the backlanders would decapitate the dead, setting their heads up along the roads. Pieces of uniforms were placed on local bushes as decorations and a warning. Da Cunha describes these grim artifacts much as he describes the various forms of trees and shrubs in the fi rst part of the book. In another instance he tells the story of a boy taken with others from the village as the soldiers closed in. The boy looked humorous to the soldiers, a small boy with an oversize hat that covered most of his head. In one instance, when called to by the soldiers the boy raised his head, looked them in the eye, exposing a mouth that had been made wider by the track of a bullet. There is no overly dramatic narrative as one might expect in prose of that specific era. The murder of prisoners by soldiers cutting their heads off is similarly described in a clear, graphic, almost subdued fashion. Rebellion in the Backlands contains value judgments but there is nothing of a “j’accuse” nature present. Da Cunha accumulates his facts, lets you know what his opinion is, but you are left to draw conclusions based on the evidence presented.
The importance of this book in establishing a modern Brazilian identity is based on several factors. It was the first book to discuss Brazil’s interior in what were recognized as scientific terms. That this part of the nation was even discussed at all was extraordinary, but what truly set it apart was that it consisted of detailed observations and conclusions based on concrete observation.
Another element of identification was that da Cunha not only defines the people of the Northeast on their own but often uses contrasts with people from other parts of the country. By indirectly including all elements of the country in this comparison and definition, he indirectly but substantially defines all Brazilians in their variations.
The demise of the Canudos settlement did not result in an incorporation of the region or its population into the mainstream of Brazilian politics or culture. A local priest in the nearby town of Joazeiro, mentioned briefly in da Cunha’s book, retained influence among the population into the 1930s as a rallying point for opposition (although less so) to the republic. In the same period, bandits including the colorful Lampião (Lightning) roamed the area into the 1930s. Lampião, like Antonio, was legendary and, like the counselor, was eventually run to ground and beheaded, his head being widely displayed to prove that he existed no more.
The Canudos campaign has been the inspiration for many works. The siege is the basis for Mario Vargas Llosa’s War at the End of the World (1982).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cunha, Euclides da. Rebellion in the Backlands. Translated by Samuel Putman. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944.
Rabello, Sylvia. Euclides da Cunha. Rio de Janeiro: Editôra Civilização Brasileira, 1966.
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