XVII Congress of the Brazilian Studies Association

Apulco de Castro: Radical Afro-Brazilian Republicanism in the 1880s

• In Event: Pioneering Afro-Brazilian Thinkers and their Contemporary Legacies

Abstract

Apulco de Castro was an Afro-Brazilian typesetter from Salvador who moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1876. Soon Apulco de Castro bought his own printing press and started editing, printing, and distributing his own tabloid named Corsário, which consisted of four pages filled with scandal and satire. A self-declared champion of the working class and a radical republican, Apulco de Castro used his paper first and foremost to castigate the imperial elites, from corrupt police officers all the way to the emperor himself, nicknamed “Pedro Banana.” Soon Corsário was selling 20,000 copies three times a week but also started suffering harassment mainly from securities forces in Rio. Unaffected by acts of vandalism against his print shop and several death threats, Apulco de Castro kept his indomitable newspaper fully active until a very tragic end. On October 23, 1883, Apulco de Castro got lynched in broad daylight in front of the police station by a mob led by Dom Pedro’s personal guard. The police vetoed a public investigation of the events. My paper will focus on Apulco de Castro’s unique articulation of radical republicanism, abolitionism, satire, scandal, and melodrama.

Author

• Paulo da Luz Moreira, University of Oklahoma