- Lampião
Lampião ("Oil Lamp" in Portuguese) was the
nickname of "Captain" Virgulino Ferreira da Silva, the most famous leader of aCangaço band (marauder s andoutlaw s who terrorized theBrazil ian Northeast in the 1920s and 1930s).Biography
Virgulino was born in
June 7 1897 in the village ofSerra Talhada , in thesemi-arid backlands ("sertão") of the state ofPernambuco , as the third child of José Ferreira da Silva and Maria Lopes, a humble family of peasants. Until 21 years old, he was a hard-working leathercraft artisan (he was also literate and used reading glasses -- both quite unusual features for the rough and poor region where he lived). He lived with his family in a deadly feud with other local families until his father was killed in a confrontation with the police in 1919. Virgulino sought vengeance and proved to be extremely violent in doing so. He became an outlaw and was incessantly pursued by thepolice (whom he called "macacos" or monkeys). In the next 19 years, with his small band of "cangaceiros" (men of cangaço) which was never larger than about 50 heavily armed men on horses wearing leather outfits including hats, jackets, and trousers to protect them from the thorns of thecaatinga (dry shrubs andbrushwood typical of the dry hinterland of Brazil's Northeast), sandals, and ammunition belts. Their weapons were mostly stolen from the police and paramilitary units and consisted ofMauser militaryrifles and a variety of smaller firearms includingWinchester rifle s,revolvers and the prized Mauser semi-automatic pistol. Lampião used to attack small cities and farms in seven states, kill people and cattle, take hostages for ransom, torture, fire-brand, maim, rape, and ransack. He was joined in 1930 by his girlfriend, Maria Déa, nicknamed Maria Bonita, who, like other women in the band, dressed like cangaceiros and participated in many of their actions. They had a daughter in 1932.Death
Finally, on
July 28 1938 , Lampião and his band were betrayed by one of his supporters and were ambushed in one of his hideouts, the Angico farm, in the state ofSergipe , by a police troop armed withmachine guns . In a quick battle, Lampião, Maria Bonita and 9 of his troops were killed. Their heads were cut and sent off to Salvador, the capitol ofBahia , for examination by specialists at the State Forensic Institute, and later, for public exhibition, and only after 1971 the families of Lampião and Maria Bonita were able to reclaim the preserved heads to finally bury them.Folk hero
Thus started the legend of Lampião and Maria Bonita, who became subjects of innumerable folk stories, books, popular pamphlets (
cordel literature ), songs, movies, and a number of TVsoap opera s, with all the elements ofdrama , passion, and violence typical of "Far West" stories. By many, he was considered afolk hero , a kind ofRobin Hood and the head of apeasant revolt against the all-dominant, feudal farmers of the region (the so-called "coronels"). The fact remains that he was the most notorious of the many rural bandits (in his own admission) that infested the poor hinterland of Northeast Brazil.References
*cite book |title=The Bandit King: Lampião of Brazil |last=Chandler |first=Billy Jaynes |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=1984 |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |location= |isbn=978-0890961940 |pages=288
External links
* [http://www.brazilbrazil.com/lampiao.html Lampião, the great hero of Brazilian folklore]
* [http://www.infonet.com.br/lampiao Lampião, official site in Portuguese, maintained by his granddaughter, Vera Ferreira]
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