Unusual visitors – Antonio Fernando Araújo Sá’s (UFS) review of “Memórias de Lampião em Limoeiro”, by Raimundo da Silva Araújo Júnior
Lampião em Limoeiro-CE (13/10/1924) | Foto: Francisco Ribeiro/Alex Chaves Monteiro
Abstract: Memórias de Lampião em Limoeiro, by Raimundo da Silva Araújo Júnior, describes reminiscences about Lampião’s passage through the city of Limoeiro, State of Ceará. The author ambiguously narrates the figure of Lampião, highlighting local characters and the relationship of the city with the cangaço, addressing the complexity of local memory and power.
Keywords: Lampião, Limoeiro-CE, Cangaço, Memory.
At the 32nd National History Symposium, held in July 2023, in the city of São Luís do Maranhão, the young historian Renan Brito offered me the book by Raimundo da Silva Araújo Júnior, Memórias de Lampião em Limoeiro (2022), one of the Sources of his master’s dissertation, under development, about the history of the memory of cangaço in Limoeiro do Norte (CE). After sleeping on the bookcase, I decided to read and comment on the book, which resembles the memorialistic literature of the cangaço, throughout the twentieth and early twenties of the 21st century.
The memorial brands of the Lampião passage through cities have been research on the battles of the memory of cangaço, since the 1990s, when the dispute between the northeastern municipalities in the geography of cangaço, with the construction and preservation of places of Memory, material and/or symbolic, in cities such as Serra Talhada and Triunfo (PE), Juazeiro do Norte (CE), Poço Redondo (SE), Paulo Afonso (BA) and Piranhas (AL) (Sá, 2011). The book in question employs classic resources from the cangaceiro memorialistic. They were consulted in interviews and books, as in the reports of Custódio Saraiva de Menezes and Franklin Gondim Chaves, as well as in the books Limoeiro in Photos & Facts (1977), by Maria Lenira das Dores Vidal Freitas and Maria Lenira de Oliveira, Ribeira do Rio das Onça (1997), by Lauro de Oliveira Lima, and Lampião in Limoeiro do Norte (CE) (2002), by Antonio Nunes Malveira. In addition to these records, oral and digital sources were important for the composition of the memorialist’s narrative, marked by the memories of several families about the passage of Lampião (p. 7).
Dedicated to the author’s father, the book builds an ambiguous image of Virgulino Ferreira da Silva, sometimes treating him as a “great military, intelligent strategist and an excellent shooter,” sometimes “evil cangaceiro” and “great reputation as evidence”. In the narrative, three of the local characters stand out. Anísio Batista dos Santos, a farmer considered the “main link in the fateful peaceful outcome between the Limoeirenses authorities and Virgulino’s ‘goats’ group, the Lampião”. Custódio Saraiva de Menezes, farmer and judge of peace at the time, who became political leadership in the city, for “serenity and diplomacy”. Finally, Father Vital Gurgel Guedes, who was “a angry defender of Limoeiro, in the outcome of the passage of Lampião and his cangaceiros” in the city (p. 23, 63, 84, 28, 32 and 36).
These characters, each in their own way, were important so that the city did not suffer from the passage of King of Cangaço, after the failure of the attack on Mossoró, in Rio Grande do Norte, on June 13, 1927, when it fell in combat The cangaceiro bracket, Jararaca was imprisoned and then buried alive, and shot golden boy. In the escape, in the Chapada do Apodi, the latter was sacrificed on request, on June 14, 1927, in Lagoa do Rocha and whose grave was photographed by the memorialist (p. 53).
The sources consulted by the memorialist highlighted the proactive attitude of peace judge Custódio Menezes who, on the verge of the arrival of the Lampião pack, without government and police support, managed to evacuate the population to the countryside, which “hesitated between dread and the curiosity”. Thus, under the direction of Anísio Batista, Lampião entered the city, being received by the judge of peace, as mayor, because he was traveling, and the priest. The meeting was friendly. The gang posed for photography and then they were served dinner at the Lucas Hotel, at the Largo of the Mother Church (p. 72).
The photograph taken by Francisco Ribeiro de Castro, or Chico Ribeiro, in the city served as an instrument for Lampião, “propaganding that was still strong”, with a combat capacity, as recorded in the image of armed cangaceiros reproduced on page 102. Note that This photograph appears in the book organized by Élise Jasmin, Cangaceiros (2006: p. 39 and 127), as by José Olavo, in June 1927, being part of the Frederico Pernambucano de Mello collection in the city of Recife. Thus, the memorialist restored the authorship of the famous image of armed and assembled cangaceiros.
According to the author, the fear was cooling and curiosity increasing during the visit of the “Sertão Emperor”. Some young people from the city risk to meet him or even join the group of bandits, as was the case of Antonio Felipe de Santiago, Firmino Aureliano and João Rato (João Alexandre Neto). The vicar of Morada Nova, Father Manoel Lucena, also shared a moment with Lampião, who offered him a rifle, later cursing him for the loss of the weapon (p. 91 and 92).
During the visit, the head of the cangaceiros took the shape with Raimundo Felipe de Santiago and his commanders, dental treatment with Dr. Manuel Trajano. Even with the city’s cordiality, however, Lampião did not fail to demand a rescue of fifteen contos de réis, which resulted in a less than two contos (p. 89 and 99).
At the telegraph station, the telegraph assistant received a message from Russians about the arrival of a large contingent from Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte, under the leadership of Major Moisés Leite de Figueiredo, commander of the operation, with Captain Clementino José Furtado, The Quelé, former hungry. Faced with the possibility of confrontation, Custódio Saraiva used his famous diplomacy, convincing the cangaceiros to retreat from the city, led by Anísio Batista, by the villages of the countryside.
Shortly after the gang is removed, the contingent of eight hundred and fifteen squares arrived in the urban area, entering violently, as usual. Received by Custódio Saraiva de Menezes, who served them cheese with rapadura, bread and cookies. Shortly thereafter, they left the lamp of Lampião, facing the Serra da Micaela. On the one hand, the cangaceiros billed; on the other, the police forces closing the siege. After intense Marines, the cangaceiro chief managed to break the siege, heading to Cariri Paraibano, where Massilon Leite, drip fire and some cangaceiros separated from the group (p. 139).
Performing small withdrawals, this new pack was intended to return to Limoeiro to kidnap a large farmer of the region, whose information brought dread and panic in the city. Now a group of citizens has been formed to resist the invasion of the pack, entrenched by various parts of the city. The photograph, posted to page 150, shows the defenders of Limoeiro, in Independence Square. However, the confrontation did not “occur as a result of the permanence of gangsmen, only near the city” (p. 145).
Certainly, Lampião’s memories in the city of Ceará refers to the memorial disputes of local politics, as memory and local power are important for the consolidation of leaders linked to traditional political families, such as Chaves and Oliveira Lima. However, the proximity to the city of Mossoró (RN) brings interpeairs in the memorial production in Limoeiro do Norte (CE), especially because of the anti-spymon memory of the first, due to being Lampião’s greatest defeat in the clashes of cangaço.
How to face this memory of bravery of the city’s inhabitants and the leadership of its mayor in coping with cangaceiros? If you could not follow a “steering wheel” and anti-cries, present in the books and testimonials of the old flyers and their descendants, how to build a narrative worthy of being remembered?
The solution found by political groups was to shape a narrative around a “peaceful bravery” in response to the lack of “peaceful bravery and the fearless attitude in cordially treating an experienced and strategist enemy, stronger in number of weapons and combatants” ( p. 7). This is how Custódio Saraiva de Menezes built an image of serene and negotiator, which resulted in a political career as mayor during the Estado Novo, constituting the discursive matrix of the memory of the whole city, in whose centenary of foundation in 1997, reiterated his memorialistic hegemony (p. 32).
In contemporary, lampic memories go beyond memorialist writings, as we see the assembly of a “memory industry” of cangaço, in which, most of the time, university historiography is on the fringes of the process, being produced by companies aimed at the Cultural tourism, with the organization of seminars and expeditions to places where Lampião passed, but also by youtubers, who build narratives without paying attention to the differences between history and memory.
Therefore, the distinction defended by professional historiography is necessary, because, as Paul Connerton (1999: p. 16) stated, historical reconstruction is necessary even when social memory preserves the direct witness of an event, as it is up to the historian questioning the testimony not to doubt the account, but because if it does not do so, it will be waiving its autonomy as a historian of office, with the methods of disciplinary knowledge, and the fundamental independence with social memory to claim the right to decide by SI.
References
CONNERTON, Paul. Como as sociedades recordam. 2ª edição. Oeiras, Celta, 1999.
SÁ, Antônio Fernando de Araújo. O Cangaço nas Batalhas da Memória. Recife: Editora Universitária/UFPE, 2011.
ARAÚJO JÚNIOR, Raimundo da Silva. Memórias de Lampião em Limoeiro. 3ed. Limoeiro do Norte: Raízes Editora, 2022.
Summary of Memórias de Lampião em Limoeiro
O nascimento do cangaço
Virgulino Ferreira da Silva
Anisio Batista dos Santos
Custódio Saraiva de Menezes
Monsenhor Vital Gurgel Guedes
A derrota em Mossoró
O bando de Lampião em retirada
A novidade da vinda de Lampião
A pacífica entrada em Limoeiro
A retirada do bando
No caminho de Lampião o povoado da zona rural
A entrada dos soldados
O retorno do bando a Limoeiro
O desfecho final do cangaço
Referências bibliográficas
Reviewer
Antônio Fernando de Araújo Sá is a PHG in History from the Universidade de Brasília (UnB), professor at the Department of History and Master in History at the Universidade Federal de Sergipe and editor of Ponta de Lança– Revista Eletrônica de História, Memória & Cultura. He published, among other titles, Rio Sem História? Leituras sobre o Rio São Francisco (2018) and Entre sertões e representações: ensaios e estudos (2021). ID LATTES: http://lattes.cnpq.br/4761668150681726; ID ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6496-4456; E-mail: [email protected].
To cite to review
ARAÚJO JÚNIOR, Raimundo da Silva. Memórias de Lampião em Limoeiro. 3ed. Limoeiro do Norte: Raízes Editora, 2022. 171p. Review by: SÁ, Antônio Fernando de Araújo. Unusual visitors. Crítica Historiográfica. Natal, v.3, n.13, Sep/Oct, 2023. Available at <https://www.criticahistoriografica.com.br/en/unusual-visitors-antonio-fernando-araujo-sas-ufs-review-of-memorias-de-lampiao-em-limoeiro-by-raimundo-da-silva-araujo-junior/>.
Unusual visitors – Antonio Fernando Araújo Sá’s (UFS) review of “Memórias de Lampião em Limoeiro”, by Raimundo da Silva Araújo Júnior
31 October 2023
Lampião em Limoeiro-CE (13/10/1924) | Foto: Francisco Ribeiro/Alex Chaves Monteiro
Abstract: Memórias de Lampião em Limoeiro, by Raimundo da Silva Araújo Júnior, describes reminiscences about Lampião’s passage through the city of Limoeiro, State of Ceará. The author ambiguously narrates the figure of Lampião, highlighting local characters and the relationship of the city with the cangaço, addressing the complexity of local memory and power.
Keywords: Lampião, Limoeiro-CE, Cangaço, Memory.
At the 32nd National History Symposium, held in July 2023, in the city of São Luís do Maranhão, the young historian Renan Brito offered me the book by Raimundo da Silva Araújo Júnior, Memórias de Lampião em Limoeiro (2022), one of the Sources of his master’s dissertation, under development, about the history of the memory of cangaço in Limoeiro do Norte (CE). After sleeping on the bookcase, I decided to read and comment on the book, which resembles the memorialistic literature of the cangaço, throughout the twentieth and early twenties of the 21st century.
The memorial brands of the Lampião passage through cities have been research on the battles of the memory of cangaço, since the 1990s, when the dispute between the northeastern municipalities in the geography of cangaço, with the construction and preservation of places of Memory, material and/or symbolic, in cities such as Serra Talhada and Triunfo (PE), Juazeiro do Norte (CE), Poço Redondo (SE), Paulo Afonso (BA) and Piranhas (AL) (Sá, 2011). The book in question employs classic resources from the cangaceiro memorialistic. They were consulted in interviews and books, as in the reports of Custódio Saraiva de Menezes and Franklin Gondim Chaves, as well as in the books Limoeiro in Photos & Facts (1977), by Maria Lenira das Dores Vidal Freitas and Maria Lenira de Oliveira, Ribeira do Rio das Onça (1997), by Lauro de Oliveira Lima, and Lampião in Limoeiro do Norte (CE) (2002), by Antonio Nunes Malveira. In addition to these records, oral and digital sources were important for the composition of the memorialist’s narrative, marked by the memories of several families about the passage of Lampião (p. 7).
Dedicated to the author’s father, the book builds an ambiguous image of Virgulino Ferreira da Silva, sometimes treating him as a “great military, intelligent strategist and an excellent shooter,” sometimes “evil cangaceiro” and “great reputation as evidence”. In the narrative, three of the local characters stand out. Anísio Batista dos Santos, a farmer considered the “main link in the fateful peaceful outcome between the Limoeirenses authorities and Virgulino’s ‘goats’ group, the Lampião”. Custódio Saraiva de Menezes, farmer and judge of peace at the time, who became political leadership in the city, for “serenity and diplomacy”. Finally, Father Vital Gurgel Guedes, who was “a angry defender of Limoeiro, in the outcome of the passage of Lampião and his cangaceiros” in the city (p. 23, 63, 84, 28, 32 and 36).
These characters, each in their own way, were important so that the city did not suffer from the passage of King of Cangaço, after the failure of the attack on Mossoró, in Rio Grande do Norte, on June 13, 1927, when it fell in combat The cangaceiro bracket, Jararaca was imprisoned and then buried alive, and shot golden boy. In the escape, in the Chapada do Apodi, the latter was sacrificed on request, on June 14, 1927, in Lagoa do Rocha and whose grave was photographed by the memorialist (p. 53).
The sources consulted by the memorialist highlighted the proactive attitude of peace judge Custódio Menezes who, on the verge of the arrival of the Lampião pack, without government and police support, managed to evacuate the population to the countryside, which “hesitated between dread and the curiosity”. Thus, under the direction of Anísio Batista, Lampião entered the city, being received by the judge of peace, as mayor, because he was traveling, and the priest. The meeting was friendly. The gang posed for photography and then they were served dinner at the Lucas Hotel, at the Largo of the Mother Church (p. 72).
The photograph taken by Francisco Ribeiro de Castro, or Chico Ribeiro, in the city served as an instrument for Lampião, “propaganding that was still strong”, with a combat capacity, as recorded in the image of armed cangaceiros reproduced on page 102. Note that This photograph appears in the book organized by Élise Jasmin, Cangaceiros (2006: p. 39 and 127), as by José Olavo, in June 1927, being part of the Frederico Pernambucano de Mello collection in the city of Recife. Thus, the memorialist restored the authorship of the famous image of armed and assembled cangaceiros.
According to the author, the fear was cooling and curiosity increasing during the visit of the “Sertão Emperor”. Some young people from the city risk to meet him or even join the group of bandits, as was the case of Antonio Felipe de Santiago, Firmino Aureliano and João Rato (João Alexandre Neto). The vicar of Morada Nova, Father Manoel Lucena, also shared a moment with Lampião, who offered him a rifle, later cursing him for the loss of the weapon (p. 91 and 92).
During the visit, the head of the cangaceiros took the shape with Raimundo Felipe de Santiago and his commanders, dental treatment with Dr. Manuel Trajano. Even with the city’s cordiality, however, Lampião did not fail to demand a rescue of fifteen contos de réis, which resulted in a less than two contos (p. 89 and 99).
At the telegraph station, the telegraph assistant received a message from Russians about the arrival of a large contingent from Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte, under the leadership of Major Moisés Leite de Figueiredo, commander of the operation, with Captain Clementino José Furtado, The Quelé, former hungry. Faced with the possibility of confrontation, Custódio Saraiva used his famous diplomacy, convincing the cangaceiros to retreat from the city, led by Anísio Batista, by the villages of the countryside.
Shortly after the gang is removed, the contingent of eight hundred and fifteen squares arrived in the urban area, entering violently, as usual. Received by Custódio Saraiva de Menezes, who served them cheese with rapadura, bread and cookies. Shortly thereafter, they left the lamp of Lampião, facing the Serra da Micaela. On the one hand, the cangaceiros billed; on the other, the police forces closing the siege. After intense Marines, the cangaceiro chief managed to break the siege, heading to Cariri Paraibano, where Massilon Leite, drip fire and some cangaceiros separated from the group (p. 139).
Performing small withdrawals, this new pack was intended to return to Limoeiro to kidnap a large farmer of the region, whose information brought dread and panic in the city. Now a group of citizens has been formed to resist the invasion of the pack, entrenched by various parts of the city. The photograph, posted to page 150, shows the defenders of Limoeiro, in Independence Square. However, the confrontation did not “occur as a result of the permanence of gangsmen, only near the city” (p. 145).
Certainly, Lampião’s memories in the city of Ceará refers to the memorial disputes of local politics, as memory and local power are important for the consolidation of leaders linked to traditional political families, such as Chaves and Oliveira Lima. However, the proximity to the city of Mossoró (RN) brings interpeairs in the memorial production in Limoeiro do Norte (CE), especially because of the anti-spymon memory of the first, due to being Lampião’s greatest defeat in the clashes of cangaço.
How to face this memory of bravery of the city’s inhabitants and the leadership of its mayor in coping with cangaceiros? If you could not follow a “steering wheel” and anti-cries, present in the books and testimonials of the old flyers and their descendants, how to build a narrative worthy of being remembered?
The solution found by political groups was to shape a narrative around a “peaceful bravery” in response to the lack of “peaceful bravery and the fearless attitude in cordially treating an experienced and strategist enemy, stronger in number of weapons and combatants” ( p. 7). This is how Custódio Saraiva de Menezes built an image of serene and negotiator, which resulted in a political career as mayor during the Estado Novo, constituting the discursive matrix of the memory of the whole city, in whose centenary of foundation in 1997, reiterated his memorialistic hegemony (p. 32).
In contemporary, lampic memories go beyond memorialist writings, as we see the assembly of a “memory industry” of cangaço, in which, most of the time, university historiography is on the fringes of the process, being produced by companies aimed at the Cultural tourism, with the organization of seminars and expeditions to places where Lampião passed, but also by youtubers, who build narratives without paying attention to the differences between history and memory.
Therefore, the distinction defended by professional historiography is necessary, because, as Paul Connerton (1999: p. 16) stated, historical reconstruction is necessary even when social memory preserves the direct witness of an event, as it is up to the historian questioning the testimony not to doubt the account, but because if it does not do so, it will be waiving its autonomy as a historian of office, with the methods of disciplinary knowledge, and the fundamental independence with social memory to claim the right to decide by SI.
References
CONNERTON, Paul. Como as sociedades recordam. 2ª edição. Oeiras, Celta, 1999.
SÁ, Antônio Fernando de Araújo. O Cangaço nas Batalhas da Memória. Recife: Editora Universitária/UFPE, 2011.
ARAÚJO JÚNIOR, Raimundo da Silva. Memórias de Lampião em Limoeiro. 3ed. Limoeiro do Norte: Raízes Editora, 2022.
Summary of Memórias de Lampião em Limoeiro
O nascimento do cangaço
Virgulino Ferreira da Silva
Anisio Batista dos Santos
Custódio Saraiva de Menezes
Monsenhor Vital Gurgel Guedes
A derrota em Mossoró
O bando de Lampião em retirada
A novidade da vinda de Lampião
A pacífica entrada em Limoeiro
A retirada do bando
No caminho de Lampião o povoado da zona rural
A entrada dos soldados
O retorno do bando a Limoeiro
O desfecho final do cangaço
Referências bibliográficas
Reviewer
Antônio Fernando de Araújo Sá is a PHG in History from the Universidade de Brasília (UnB), professor at the Department of History and Master in History at the Universidade Federal de Sergipe and editor of Ponta de Lança– Revista Eletrônica de História, Memória & Cultura. He published, among other titles, Rio Sem História? Leituras sobre o Rio São Francisco (2018) and Entre sertões e representações: ensaios e estudos (2021). ID LATTES: http://lattes.cnpq.br/4761668150681726; ID ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6496-4456; E-mail: [email protected].
To cite to review
ARAÚJO JÚNIOR, Raimundo da Silva. Memórias de Lampião em Limoeiro. 3ed. Limoeiro do Norte: Raízes Editora, 2022. 171p. Review by: SÁ, Antônio Fernando de Araújo. Unusual visitors. Crítica Historiográfica. Natal, v.3, n.13, Sep/Oct, 2023. Available at <https://www.criticahistoriografica.com.br/en/unusual-visitors-antonio-fernando-araujo-sas-ufs-review-of-memorias-de-lampiao-em-limoeiro-by-raimundo-da-silva-araujo-junior/>.
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Antônio Fernando de Araújo Sá is a PHG in History from the Universidade de Brasília (UnB), professor at the Department of History and Master in History at the Universidade Federal de Sergipe and editor of Ponta de Lança– Revista Eletrônica de História, Memória & Cultura. He published, among other titles, Rio Sem História? Leituras sobre o Rio São Francisco (2018) and Entre sertões e representações: ensaios e estudos (2021). ID LATTES: http://lattes.cnpq.br/4761668150681726; ID ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6496-4456; E-mail: [email protected].
