Refashioning the legacy of the bandit Lampião in Brazilian cordel literature

• In Event: New Perspectives on Brazilian Literature

Abstract

During the 1920s and 1930s, the bandit Lampião and his gang terrorized Northeast Brazil by laying siege to cities, exploiting rich landowners and commoners alike, and killing personal enemies (and those of his allies)—or anyone who provoked his anger. As a result, he eventually incurred the wrath of the Brazilian government and was ultimately killed in an ambush by federal troops after being betrayed by one of his own informants. Even so, and despite wide documentation of his cruelty in the press and the fact that many of the sertão dwellers feared him, Lampião’s legacy has undergone such a transformation that many see him as a Robin Hood figure.

Central to the evolution of Lampião’s legacy are lyrical pamphlets known as literatura de cordel, texts that originally recorded folk songs and legends but eventually became a source of news for Northeastern Brazilians who even listened to family members read the rhyming texts aloud. Though Lampião was the subject of a number of cordels while alive, the massive number of such stories published since his death bear witness to the shift in perception regarding the outlaw. Like processes of collective/social memories and oral histories, cordel pamphlets record different and even conflicting legacies of Lampião. I argue that these texts merge oral and written traditions as well as “official” and “popular” history and lore to mythologize Lampião and refashion his legacy as a larger-than-life figure who represents the ideal sertão dweller and serves as a touchstone for Northeastern culture.

Author

• Andrew F Milacci, Liberty University