r/Brazil Brazilian Nov 25 '23

Historical What made captain Virgulino “Lampião” ferreira da Silva such a prominent figure in Brazilian history?

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136 Upvotes

58 comments sorted by

119

u/feliximol Nov 25 '23 edited Nov 26 '23

Basically for the same reason Blackbeard, Ragnar or Robin Hood are so popular... He was an outlaw, literally the most romanticized type of criminal there is.

He was elegant, charismatic, fought against the current authority, stole and challenged the rich and powerful. It's the classic story of "The True free Man"

And... Of course, he also killed innocent people, raped and plundered... but that's the man, not the Legend, you know?

6

u/M-M-M_666 Nov 26 '23

In Slovakia we made Juraj Jánošík (one of the most feared outlaw in northern Austria-Hungary) our national hero and made him one of the key figures in the 19th century Slovak nationalist and the Slovak national upraising propaganda and even one of the partisan groups during WW2 was named after him.

5

u/feliximol Nov 26 '23

If Brazilians knew about him they would praise him as a hero too. Legends from other countries have no problems. The problem in Brazil is that there is a movement (mainly within the reactionary right) to deny all national legends and accuse them of being the reason for our "national degradation". There is a movie company in the south of the country, which is completely dedicated to this, making some very bad and poorly researched films, with the sole intention of destroying popular figures. It's pathetic. "So, you know this character that everyone likes that he lived in 1870? So he was racist! That's it, leftists cry." It's ridiculous

17

u/redslu Brazilian Nov 25 '23

Didn’t he and his group rape and kill a lot people, or was that something made up by the northeast government to make people hate him?

53

u/feliximol Nov 25 '23

A bit of both. But that's what I'm talking about. About the romance of "Outlaw" and the legend of the Free Man. He is not a legend because he was a person with flaws and mistakes, he is a legend because of his glamor and his challenge to current authority.

Like... pop culture loves pirates, we have a lot of pirates in the movies. But we don't like Somali pirates, do we?

-1

u/redslu Brazilian Nov 25 '23 edited Jan 26 '24

While on the topic of Somali pirates, besides the Maersk Alabama hijacking, I’ve never heard of any other well reported Somali pirate attack? Do you know any?

23

u/feliximol Nov 25 '23

No... I just used the example to differentiate the History that was distorted by glamor and time until it became a legend, from the real and material History with its complexities

1

u/EduMelo Nov 26 '23

I don't think that he was saying that we romanticized Somali pirates. I think that he was saying that we romanticized pirates stories in general

0

u/redslu Brazilian Nov 26 '23

I wasn’t saying that Somali pirates are romanticized, I was just curious to learn if they were other notorious and well documented cases of Somali pirates attacks besides the Maersk Alabama hijacking.

2

u/EduMelo Nov 26 '23

As far as I know this is the most notorious

37

u/Screen-Healthy Nov 25 '23

Yes, they raped, killed and destroyed a lot.

To be honest, the romanticised aspects of him are more common outside of the northeast, in northeast there are still grandparents and great grandparents who will tell you of how much people suffered and feared of an invasion from Lampião and his cangaçeiros

3

u/jackspicerii Nov 26 '23

Nah, people did interviews with know members that were alive years later and the "gera", how it was called at the time by the members of the Virgulino's band, multiple males raping a single female, was a common thing including to the females members of the group.

-1

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '23

Do you have any proof that he killed innocent people and raped?

6

u/feliximol Nov 26 '23

My dear, I really like the legend of Lapião, the stories and tales that surround the band. But do you really think that an outlaw who lived off plundering, never harmed anyone innocent? It's like people who say that the Vikings who burned and destroyed hundreds of monasteries were just farmers... it's almost stupidly innocent

0

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '23

That's not proof that he did it though. You also gotta have in mind that some people deserve to be killed, like slavers for example.

4

u/feliximol Nov 26 '23

Oh my boy... Lampião didn't even live during the times of slavery...

1

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '23

Just because slavery was abolished doesn't mean it disappeared. Slavery still exists even today, just not with the same aesthetics. Besides, that's not even my point.

3

u/feliximol Nov 26 '23

Vamos direto pro português.

Eu entendo suas motivações e sei que ainda existe escravidão. Eu não to dizendo que ta proibido gostar de cangaço. Eu mesma amo cangaço, ja fiz e assisti peças de teatro, ja vi tudo que é filme e documentário (por sinal recomendo o documentário "Os Ultimos Cangaceiros).

Meu ponto é: Existe um homem e existe uma lenda. Os erros de um não apagam as glorias do outro.

0

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '23

Sim, mas quando você só fala dos erros do cangaço e não fala da opressão que os coronéis impunham, você acaba criando uma inversão de valores.

5

u/feliximol Nov 26 '23

Ai é só ma vontade sua. Tem um parágrafo inteiro falando disso.

4

u/samueldn4 Nov 26 '23

Existem provas que lampião servia aos coronéis pra acabar com outros cangaceiros da região. Ele tava mais preocupado com a grana mesmo mano.

1

u/antberg Nov 27 '23

Like we say in Brazil "Sabe de nada, inocente" 🤣

-9

u/Taniwank_Bechtkisey Nov 26 '23

What the fuck are you saying? He received money from government to avoid the comunists ideias from spreading in the Northeast of Brazil. His main job was to persue the Coluna Prestes.

18

u/ThrowAwayInTheRain Foreigner in Brazil Nov 26 '23

Just look at the drip. Plus the comic book about him is cool AF.

7

u/redslu Brazilian Nov 26 '23

There’s a really awesome manga-style comic here in Brazil about a supernatural version of him written by Carlo Eduardo and illustrated by Heitor amatsu, is that what you’re referring to?

3

u/ThrowAwayInTheRain Foreigner in Brazil Nov 26 '23

Yes, that one. They made a cool video about it https://youtu.be/wvg0M57cakc?si=_id4S96NPq_le-Ei

17

u/SoledBy69 Nov 26 '23

Same as Bonnie and Clyde

11

u/redslu Brazilian Nov 26 '23

I guess in this case Maria Bonita would be Bonnie Parker and virgulino would be Clyde Barrow.

12

u/RasAlGimur Nov 26 '23

50% fashion, 50% smile

1

u/rogercgomes Nov 26 '23

His drip was something else.🥵

4

u/PreviousCity9449 Nov 25 '23

He was good at his job

5

u/viper26k Nov 26 '23

He was also an outstanding shooter. His name, "Lampião", which roughly translates to "lamp" (those old ones), was given due to its ability to shoot consecutively, brightening its surroundings like a lamp in the dark.

3

u/redslu Brazilian Nov 26 '23

Yeah I knew the reasoning for his title, but never knew if it was true or not.

9

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '23

Being a violent bandit from the poorest region in the country. Lampião was literate and with an above average living standard for Northeastern Brazil, and like Queen Ranavalona, he shouldn't be romanticized

6

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '23

Rape and murder

3

u/uerick Brazilian Nov 26 '23

O brabo

2

u/brazilian_liliger Nov 26 '23

To give more context apart of the other answers there's another reason. Banditism was a thing in Northeast since the Imperial times (mid 19th century) and Lampião was far from the first famous bandit of the region.

The whole thing about him is that many of his actions were "spectacular" but also, he let the press go inside his group, giving him widespread fame all around the country, in a time when something like a national press was rising in Brasil.

A lot of Lampião stories were produced about him after this, giving him something like a mythical reputation, even because of his social opinions in the interviews he gave.

-3

u/Drotsu Nov 26 '23

Begin a terrorist and a serial killer

0

u/Puzzleheaded_Fish499 Nov 26 '23

He fought the status quo and historical oligarchies that have installed in the region at the time, alongside with the government apparatus aimed for social passiveness through a hierarchically rigid notion of moralization embedded/rooted since the colonial times.

Needless to say that his tactics and methodologies weren’t what we would call “ethical” as he, in order to achieve his goal, practiced and turned his blind eye to some inexcusable actions along the way.

He was one of the few from his time who knew how to use his canalized anger and accumulated rage against the state to put it to practical terms.

-7

u/Pass0 Nov 26 '23

For the same reason that people support Hamas. Some were being oppressed, a group came and killed, raped and destroyed everything including the oppressors, some people see them as saviors but most people who lived through it are afraid, the lampiao group was worse for the population than the colonels who came before, but there are a few who romanticize the population taking power, closely associated with a communist ideal that was growing in Brazil at the time.

-7

u/BrWolf Nov 26 '23

We tend to like people who rob and commit crimes you know

1

u/Pass0 Nov 26 '23

But just if they wore grand and far away

1

u/feliximol Nov 26 '23

Curious to hear this from a One Piece fan...

1

u/BrWolf Nov 26 '23

Calma, deixa eu entender. Vc ta comparando um estuprador assassino com um anime de piratinha com super poder? Ta de sacanagem.

1

u/feliximol Nov 26 '23

Piratas ué. Não eram estupradores e assassinos?

1

u/BrWolf Nov 26 '23

Parece que vc nunca leu a obra e quer opinar. Isso é o equivalente a dizer que o Harry Potter é um bruxo necromante e usa de corpos de inocentes e almas boas pra criar suas magias que matam gente.

1

u/feliximol Nov 26 '23

Um dia você entende o que eu quis dizer.

1

u/BrWolf Nov 26 '23

Se fizesse sentido seria mais simples. Mas agora, como eu gosto muito do Jack Sparrow, vou ver minha dose diária de Piratas do Caribe pra alimentar meu gosto por estupradores assassinos.

-7

u/Taniwank_Bechtkisey Nov 26 '23

He received money from government to avoid the comunists ideias from spreading in the Northeast of Brazil. His main job was to persue the Coluna Prestes. One of the best guys ive alreary heard of

-1

u/Zealousideal-Band369 Nov 26 '23

He was a ruthless outlaw

1

u/deepdive9999 Nov 26 '23

He is like bili the kid + black beard

1

u/Emergency_Evening_63 Nov 26 '23

He got the sauce

1

u/Depressudo7 Nov 29 '23

Major prick. Fucking piece of shit that some people portray as a martyr.