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{Brazil's Perspective}

This book was written and published in 1958, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This country is located in South America, with Portuguese as its official language, and predominantly Roman Catholic with a few Indigenous beliefs and African cults. These religions mixed due to past colonization processes, mostly in some regions where there was a larger population of people that were brought from Africa during a period of slavery. These people make part of the Brazilian population, adding to the European immigrants that joined First Nations - the first to inhabit this region. The union of various ethnicities particularly Indigenous, Caucasians and Africans, is what constitutes the Brazilian population; one with a mixed ethnicity, unique characteristics and a hybrid culture.

Brazil was going through many mutations in its social, economic and political structure at the beginning of the XX century.

Among its national changes, these are the most impactful ones:

  • Shifting from an agrarian to an industrial stage (industrialization);  
  • Increased immigration; 
  • Urbanization that resulted from political and military agitations;
  • Economic crisis.

The old system of production integrated colonialistic systems and these changes came to substitute those systems with rising industrial zones and cities. Coffee beans – the key element in the old political and economic order  - lost its significance. The middle class was increasing and looking to make part of political matters.

The decade of 30 was the most turbulent one in Brazil. In 1930 Getúlio Vargas is elected with the help of the industrial middle class of that time. Getulio’s government was ruled by populist ideals, and pursued communists, shutting down political parties and censoring media and communication. In 1936 several members of the Communist Party are arrested, including Jorge Amado. Due to this political and social context, literature goes through a new phase of writing and understanding of the world. That phase was known as the “Segunda Geração Moderna” ("Second Generation of Modernism") or “Geração de 30” ("'30s Generation").  Most art forms were now looking to depict an accurate image of the Brazilian person and culture while exposing its realities and social aspects. 

Due to the dictatorship installed by Vargas, for more than 10 years we see intense political activity that tortures prisoners and those of the Communist Party which leads to the repression of Amado's publishings.

In 1933, Amado has many copies of his second book Cacau (Cocoa) captured and forbidden in Brazil. In 1936 he is arrested and in 1937, he publishes Capitães da Areia (Captains of the Sands) which is again captured and not only censored but repressed on a different level.

This is the year where 1694 of his books were incinerated at the public plaza. In November of 1937, at Praca Cayru in Salvador, many people came to watch in complete horror and confusion the event that was taking place. In the center of the plaza, a large firepit burnt 1827 books considered propaganda of the “Credo Vermelho” (“Red Creed”) as Communist supports were called by the military people of Getulio - a censorship force under his command - that had in previous days visited all the bookstores in the city and collected as many copies as possible. Among the books that turned into ashes in that afternoon, 1694  - more than 90% - were from Jorge Amado. The biggest quantity belonging to the most recent published book, Captains of the Sand.

Amado, of only 25 years at the time, had already a reputation for writing about socially strong themes. Amado identified himself as a proud communist and used to add subversive elements in his works. He exposed the flaws of capitalism, labour exploration and the fight within social classes, all through modern prose which he also used to exalt the sensuality of Bahia’s peoples, their beliefs, traditions, folklore and popular culture.

Later after the end of Getulio government, in 1954, Amado publishes Subterraneos da Liberdade (The Bowels of Liberty)  which context is about the previous dictatorship with its political persecution, social injustice. Amado comes back to Brazil in 1956 where he writes Gabriela in a triumphal beginning of what is considered now as his second phase of written work.

The themes he uses in his writings would become very important for the generation that suffered the following dictatorship of 1964 to 1985. His narratives unveiled the true mechanisms of Brazil’s history  - those concealed by the country’s “official” culture.

Sources

  • Lucas de Melo Bonez, "Uma análise sociológica em Gabriela Cravo e Canela : a política do Brasil no início do século XX"(A sociologic analysis of Gabriela Clove and Cinnamon: the politics of Brazil in the beginning of the century XX), Revista Prâksis, 2(2005):60-6,accessed 19th November, 2020 https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=525552613010

  • Sônia Regina de Araújo Caldas, Gabriela, bahiana de todas as cores: as imagens das capas e suas influências culturais (Gabriela from a colourful Bahia: the colours of its covers and cultural influences), SciELO – EDUFBA Online(2009), accessed 14th November, 2020, https://archive.org/details/9788523209339/page/n7/mode/2up

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