Notes on Research Project: Brazil  —   July to October, 1981

My novel is historical and a major part of my work can be accomplished through a study of published sources. No matter how assiduously this is undertaken, such bookwork cannot offer on location observation with its inestimable value in bringing comprehension and adding reality to your perspective. The following notes, more or less in line with my envisaged chapter structure, indicate the kind of material and experience I am seeking.

Creative people are not supposed to be as formal as this, but with so vast a project in mind I have to adopt some kind of organized strategy for the research stage or I'll never put it all together.

1. Rain forest

I want to describe, in detail, a single acre — "God's Little Acre," in a way — before mankind's arrival. I need to speak with experts at a forest research station (outside Belém?), who can explain, in simplest terms, the symbiosis of the forest, its creation and the miraculous web of life that ensures its survival. I need a geologist to outline the creation of the Amazon basin and the forces that shaped the sub-continent as we know it today. A zoologist to tell me about the animal life of the virgin forest. And a sociologist who can expound on "man and the forest," the forest's effect on man over the centuries, both indigenous and immigrant. (Charles Wagley, An Introduction to Brazil, has some pertinent remarks on this theme.)

I'm keen to keep the forest in perspective, but do see it as an important link to a non-Brazilian's understanding of the country. The perspective a Brazilian would like to see should come to a reader of a book such as mine as the full extent of Brazil's story unfolds. It will become clear that the cliche image of jungle and river and little else is erroneous.

2. The Indians

I am aware that visits to Indian groups are difficult to arrange and my feeling is that while observation of an Amerindian settlement would be valuable, I can sympathize with serious-minded anthropologists having to contend with 'visitors'. Again, there is a wealth of published material on Indian culture and I'm capable of drawing my inspiration from this. However, it would be valuable to talk with an expert on the Tupinamba and Tupiniquin groups in the vicinity of the littoral at the time of Cabral's landfall. And to visit a worthwhile museum or other institute that exhibits their artifacts and depicts their lifestyle.

I have well in mind a story built around the main group that Cabral encounters and the gaps in my knowledge are the kind that can be filled during some intensive sessions with someone who knows the early history and has a sympathy for the first inhabitants of Brazil. On Cabral's landfall, I would like to visit Porto Seguro and environs, possibly get out to sea on a boat and imagine the rest for myself.

What I also find of great value in trying to recapture these early historical stages are collections of old prints, etchings etc. That solitary, forgotten artist can often bring more lucidity than a pile of text!

3. The Portuguese

Seen in the first quarter of the 16th century, this section has been researched in Lisbon and emphasizes the Portuguese empire in the East and early attempts at settling Brazil.

However, it is here that I show the first of my two major fictional families — the Cavalcantis in the captaincy of Duarte Coelho in Pernambuco.

This leads to one of my most crucial research projects: The Cavalcanti sugar plantation, (near Olinda?) is seen throughout my book, from 1534 to the present, from initial pioneer tract to "Big House" of the 18th century, to usina, and to independent plantation of the 1970's successfully thwarting a multinational agribusiness takeover bid.

I am interested in every aspect of such a plantation from the simplest detail such as how sugar grows to the social life and values of the plantation itself and its relationship with the surrounding community. I'd look for details as prosaic as the equipment in an 18th century kitchen, the schooling of the owner's children, local festivals, customs etc.

I have, of course, read Gilberto Freyre's works, and anything else I have been able to lay my hands on but this cannot replace an opportunity of visiting a plantation and gaining a real insight into its past and present.

4. The Jesuits

It will be essential for me to meet with Jesuit historians to talk about the early history of the Company in Brazil and get a clear picture of their relations with the Indians and settlers. If anything remotely like a reduction — present day mission station? — exists, I would like to visit it. But I am more interested here in "matters of the soul;" I have a great feeling for those early preachers engaged on so daunting and lonely a mission in the New World and intend to devote a chapter to them. I need to know what it was really like. What manner of men, what motivation brought the courage that led Nobrega and Anchieta to assume so formidable a task?

I would also like to have the settler opinion from a qualified source: the reaction to the fathers, the reductions etc. (For this and later sections a visit to the Missiones area, might be valuable.)

Since I have always lived in a Protestant-orientated society, I would welcome meetings with Catholic churchmen on the importance of religious values in a society such as Brazil, in its formative and growth stages. I would like to comprehend the role and importance of the priest in a small community by observing rather than talking about it.

5. The Bandeirantes

I'll first deal with São Paulo through the early Paulista settlement and the Jesuit reduction; later, as home base for the bandeirantes. Here, Bernardo da Silva's clan, the second major fictional family of the book emerges and will be seen in conjunction with the Cavalcantis from this point onwards. Besides the bandeirante era (I concentrate on 1628-1681,) subsequent chapters will see the da Silvas involved in the gold mines to the north and, finally, in the days of the Empire, established on a coffee fazenda. They later head up a large corporation in São Paulo interested in, among other things, road construction in Amazonia.

As with the sugar plantation, I need to spend a brief but intensive period on a classic coffee fazenda.

On my draft itinerary I have in mind a visit to the headwaters of the São Francisco/Doce rivers, the area roamed over so many years by Fernao Dias Paes Leme, on whom I lean strongly for characterization of my bandeirante patriarch.

With the bandeirantes, I specially want to get a picture of their lifestyle that goes beyond the much-publicized bandeiras — family life, day-to-day existence, community structure, relationship with authority, 'peaceful' pursuits of work, industry etc.

I'll be writing about one of the greatest bandeiras of all, that of Raposo Tavares from São Paulo to the Madeira and Amazon. I obviously don't plan to follow his exact route but will pick up glimpses of it through travel and research for other sections of the book.

6. The Planters

The Cavalcanti sugar plantation is seen over four centuries and requires detailed research. Here, too, I'm interested in the slave market at Recife; the arrival, sale and life of the slaves.

For this section, I want to visit the backlands of the northeast, the classic sertão. I'll also need to have touched base with Ouro Preto, and the mining era museums etc. Bahia (Salvador) is seen briefly, with particular reference to the Jesuits and the Misericordia.

As my research priorities indicate I am, in the main, staying away from major cities. The localities I'm interested in offer an attainable framework for a non-Brazilian writer: to attempt anything in detail about the big cities is asking for trouble. There will, of course, be brief forays toward them as with Carnival in Rio.

7. Empire

The da Silva fazenda looms large during this period - a fazenda prosperous enough to have Emperor Dom Pedro II pay a visit to it.

Two major research areas here are the Paraguayan War and the Abolition of Slavery. As I stress throughout these notes, while some of my time can be given over to interviews I plan this as a field trip - It will be better for me to visit some of the battle sites of the war with an enthusiastic military historian than to examine uniforms, weapons of the era in a museum.

8. Foreigners and Fanatics

For this section, I need to visit the site of Canudos. I've read Euclides da Cunha several times, as well as other references to this tragic episode but beyond the "facts," it is important for me to simply walk the ground upon which Conselheiro and his people fought and died. Perhaps to seek out backlands villages untouched by time that are reminiscent of the era.

My next interest lies in the Madeira-Mamoré railroad. A brief visit to Manaus could profitably be followed by a river trip down to Porto Velho and environs of the railroad project. Here, too, I want to deal with Roosevelt's 'River of Doubt' expedition. Clearly, time will not allow me much prospect of a close examination of the terrain traversed. More important will be knowledge of Colonel Rondon and the Indian Protection Service.

9. The Modern Era

Among my interests are the USAF base at Recife, Brasília, the Trans-Amazonia highway and a model private colonization scheme such as Alta Floresta near Aripuana. I want to get a proper understanding of developmental challenges in the Northeast, both historical and contemporary, and a contrasting view of the spectacular boom in São Paulo and its environs.

I have no preconceptions about how to approach the modern section of this novel save an underlying sense of optimism about Brazil and a willingness to listen and learn.

These notes give an indication of my broad research requirements on a field trip through Brazil.

Noticeably absent is any reference to emotive and spiritual values — the intangible "something" that will go toward an understanding of Brazil as a nation and Brazilians as a people. This can only come after many weeks of contact with Brazilians, from the impressions they leave and the suggestions they are more than likely to make to a stranger seeking to find out what is Brazil.

(2) Notes on Research Project: Brazil  —   July to October, 1981

“While I am aware that the role of the rain forest in Brazilian history should not be over-emphasized, I want to open the book with a succinct evocation of the lifecycle of an acre of virgin rain forest; its creation and existence before the advent of mankind.

“The first dwellers in the forest, the Indians, are seen in the period 1492-1500, eight years leading up to the arrival of Cabral's fleet. Emphasis is placed on the Tupi-Guarani branch and, in particular, a Tupinamba and a Tupiniquin group. While a novelistic technique carries the story forward, I am equally concerned with a sympathetic account of their lifestyle and its value-role in the formation of Brazilian society.

“After showing Cabral's landfall, my focus turns to the Portuguese trading empire in the East, stressing Goa and Ormuz, in the period 1506 — 1516 to give the reader a concept of the men who first settled Brazil and their heritage. With Cabral's fleet at Ormuz and Goa and, later, in the Pernambuco captaincy of Duarte Coelho, the 'novel' as opposed to the 'history' is advanced through the experience of members of the Cavalcanti family, one of two major fictional families who people my book. The first Brazilian episode is drawn against a background of pioneer settlement, sugar plantation, settler-Indian relations and Franco-Portuguese conflict along the coast.

“The arrival at Bahia (Salvador) in 1549 of Padre Inácio Cavalcanti in the company of Tomé de Sousa, first governor-general, opens the next epoch in Brazilian history. I deal with this through the Jesuit Cavalcanti, again, a fictional character though some might say he was inspired by the life of Anchieta. I see Inácio as a tragic visionary caught amid the conflicts that arise between those who seek the soul of the Indian and those who want his body.

“The historical setting for Inácio's story (1543 - 1586) encompasses the early missionary-Indian contacts, the controversy over Indian enslavement, the reductions. It also sees the advent of Bernardo da Silva, patriarch of the second major fictional family. Silva is a Paulista whose son, Amador, features as one of the great bandeirantes.

“This chapter which spans sixty years will portray the saga of the Brazilian pathfinders in much the same spirit as the trailblazing pioneers of the American West. I find the records of these backlands conquerors as stirring, if not more so, than their north American counterparts. Nothing I've thus far read, which attempts to place their story before the north American reader, does them justice. This, of course, does not excuse their excesses in their raids on the reductions but just as must be the case with other pioneering groups, there is a constant need to examine the bandeirantes within the limits of their own time and perspectives.

“The latter chapter, too, touches on the Dutch occupation of the northeast and the drawing together of various elements of the nascent Brazilian nation in their resistance to the invaders.

“While I appreciate that approaching the Brazilian story on a north-south axis has been somewhat overdone, there seems justification for repeating it this once more. Thus, I have the 'south', São Paulo, represented in the story of the Silva family and the 'north' with the Cavalcantis. Later sections of the book will bring into perspective the importance of the western lands, in a more appropriate end timely frame.

“After the formidable bandeirante saga, I want to follow a slower pace through the next chapter with 'The Planters,' the story of the Cavalcanti plantation and its people from 1720 - 1792. I am most concerned here with the developing social values, the question of slavery, the Pombal era, the stirrings of nationalism through the Tiradentes episode. For much of this section, the Cavalcanti estate is ably run by the widow, Dona Domitila Cavalcanti, an unusual figure in those days but one which will afford a special insight into the role of women in 18th century Brazil.

“I see value in using such contrasting personalities for underlining certain points, just as it is the Cavalcanti plantation priest, Father Viana, who reaches toward an understanding of the problems of over speculative agriculture.

“As the story of Brazil unfolds, my next chapter, spanning 1864 - 1889, moves to the prospering coffee fazenda of the Silva family near São Paulo. It rests on two major events: War of the Triple Alliance and the Abolition of Slavery. Both are seen against the backdrop of Brazil as an independent empire, with Dom Pedro II featuring throughout.

“Moving toward the present century, I tell the story of Vicente Cavalcanti, who is closely involved with three historical figures: Conselheiro, Rondon and Roosevelt. Shifting from the sertão the Amazon area, Vicente's saga covers Canudos, the Madeira-Mamoré railroad's construction, with asides on the rubber boom and the Rondon-Roosevelt 'River of Doubt' expedition by which time Vicente is a member of the Indian Protection Service.

“The period 1945-1975 will see the Cavalcanti-Silva families united in marriage and fortune, through incidents that unfolded during the days of the Empire. Major events to be used for this section include Brazil's little-known but important contribution to World War II with emphasis on the U.S. base at Recife; the fears of insurrection in the North-East in later decades, Brasília's birth, the development of the Trans-Amazonia highway. Through this section I intend to show the unity and diversity of Brazil, the tremendous challenges facing the second largest nation in the Western hemisphere, the search to define its relationship with the United States, the fears and hopes of its people.

“Conclusions, of course, can only lie at the end of a great deal of work and research and thought, but I envisage a final chapter of hope and celebration, written around the Rio Carnival and a model colonization scheme in the Amazon area.”

I could not have accomplished Brazil without the help of numerous Brazilians on my long journey, including José Honôrio Rodrigues; Gilberto Freyre; Fernando Freyre; Antonio Fantinanto Neto; Max Justo Guedes; Eduardo Matarazzo Suplicy; Luiz Hafers; Edson Nery da Fonseca; Aluysio Magalhães: Vladimir Murtinho; Roberto Motta; Oswaldo Lima Filho; José Antonio Gonçalves de Mello; Fernando Antonio Novaes; Carlos Rizzini; Anna Amelia Viêra Nascimento; Antonietta de Aguiar Nunes; Amalia Correa; Christina Mattos; Eduardo Borcacov. Plus countless Brazilians I met along the way, like “Black Jimi” Carvalho, who showed me a tough side of Recife I would never have seen without his guidance.

It was sheer luck that the day after landing at Salvador, Bahia, I met Professor Antonietta de Aguiar Nunes, a brilliant and passionate student of Brazilian life and history. A scheduled appointment with another source at the Salvador tourist office was cancelled and Professor Nunes introduced to me instead. Over the four months I was in Antonietta's country, she offered me every assistance in sharing her contacts in different cities, exhaustively debating issues both topical and historic, foreshadowing my visits to locales I was researching with advance notes on where I should go and what I should see. Antonietta's letters were sent to me post restante along my route, a precarious business at best but often her invaluable guides were waiting for me in the far corners of Brazil. A few examples:

July 12, Porto Seguro: “Porto Seguro is a city of two levels. To see Monte Pascoal, climb the tower of the Church of Nossa Senhora de Pena (patron saint of Porto Seguro) in the upper town. Here, too, are the Casa da Camara e Cadeia; the ancient Colegio dos Jesuitas and Church of São Benedito. People say there was a tunnel from the Jesuit church to a farm called Fazenda do Tanque.

Brazil was discovered at baia Cabrália — there's a controversy, people from Porto Seguro insist it was there, but it's now proved that it was at baia Cabrália. Coroa Vermelha island, where the first mass was celebrated, divides the region: from the north we have the calm bay of Cabrália and from the south, the Boqueirão of the French. The French invaded Santa Cruz in the second half of the XVII century.”

11 August, Recife: “It was interesting reading about the contact you had with Black Jimi. We can discuss the term 'abandonados' that you use in a wider sense than we do in Brasil. It's not true at all that we don't have race prejudice. How many generals, admirals, even bishops in Brasil are black? Or even mulatto? Bishops? Perhaps a few but generals and admirals, none. Our 'apartheid' is disguised. The problem however seems to me to be more of social prejudice than a racial one.”

29 August, Cuiabá,: “Gilberto Freyre's Luso-Tropicalism, or better, Hispano-Tropicalism, seems to me to be the wiser way to 'conquer' any land. You have to adapt yourself not only to the land and the climate but also to the culture of the people who live there. All Bahianos of the Reconcavo region, no matter the color of their skin, are half-white and half-black, half Catholic and half 'candomblezeiro.' Homo Brasilienensis truly exists, as you will find traveling thousands of kilometers around our big country. We are not Europeans, we are not only Americans, we are all of this, and also Africans in a lot of things, more in some aspects than in others.

Talking about relations between man and the land, I don't think you can compare Brasil to Siberia; the dimensions are big but we have no uniformity at all: Amazon region is one thing, the caatingas of the North-East and the cerrado of central Brasil are quite different, and so the littoral with the zona da mata and massapé, so good for agriculture! And the southern regions, another different reality - Our unity was historically a fruit of political expediency.

It seems to me that the main key to understand Brasil is to admit its variety, not the homogeneity that does not exist. It looks to me like the Portuguese furniture called contador: a big cabinet with many compartments, all joined together as one piece, but each with its own key."

Ouro Preto, October 2: "Now you're at the center of Brasil in the 18th century! The old way to reach Minas Gerais came from São Paulo following the River Paraiba, the Dutra road nowadays, and then across the mountain range of Mantiqueira. Afterwards the Caminho Novo connected the mining region with the Port of Rio de Janeiro. These routes were heavily guarded to avoid the theft of gold. Because of the mountains, the small cities were isolated and adopted a regional barroco style in the construction of their churches. You can see the most important works of Aleijadinho at the Church of São Francisco de Assis in Ouro Preto."

Salvador, October 8: "I find it excellent that your northern family will be the most important. As you have seen Bahia and the North-North-East is considered by everybody as more representative of Brasil than the south. What exists here really characterizes Brasil, setting it apart from other countries.

Fernando's quizzical remark about 'who are the Brazilians?' is something that could only be made by a Paulista. In any other region of Brasil, we would know who we are. However, I find your attempts to answer this very reasonable, and also the observation that the immigrants' strong influence 'slowed down the process of integrating a Brazilian identity.' I think it is a very good idea to have the da Silva group influenced by the immigrant wave and exhibiting its lifestyle, opinions etc. This will make a non-Brasilian understand better the contrast between São Paulo and the rest of the country.

Your northern family could be a Coelho, a Cavalcanti, an Albuquerque, there are several other old Christian names and of real Portuguese noble origin. And, of course, you can keep your friends, Nicolau, Vicente, Inácio!”