Cangaço is the name given to the armed movement of northeastern nomads that had its heyday between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. The cangaço was marked by the intensity of violent and cruel crimes in Northeast Brazil, driven mainly by revenge, revolt and land dispute.
Made up of sertanejos, jagunços, employees of large estates, thugs and gunmen, the cangaço groups spread terror and fear wherever they went. You cangaceiros - name given to the members of these groups - they were considered the most dangerous bandits in the Brazilian hinterland.
The figure of the cangaceiro was characterized as that of a man from the hinterland who wore leather clothes with various ornaments, a wide-brimmed hat, daggers and firearms hanging from his waist. In fact, the term "cangaço" originally came from the word "yoke", name given to a piece of wood used in animals to transport utensils. Thus, the word "cangaceiro" alludes to canga, due to the large amount of objects and weapons that these wandering bandits carried.
During the first years of the Oligarchic Republic, the power of the cangaço in northeastern Brazil was immense. The cruelty during the attacks aroused the fear of the state police, who needed reinforcements from the military police in an attempt to stop the cangaceiros. Due to the bravery and audacity of these bandits, they were often seen as heroes among the population of small towns and villages in the sertão, which faced the neglect of the authorities and lived in extreme poverty.
There were three main categories of cangaço groups in the sertão: o defensive, which operated at the service of large landowners, with the objective of defending land properties from invasion by Indians and other enemies; O political, who defended the interests of the large local farmers and received, as a result, a certain "protection" from the authorities; and the independent, which had characteristics of banditry, that is, they were the feared cangaceiros who robbed travelers, raped women defenseless, they killed and ransacked entire cities, attacked government leaders, farmers and other people with large possessions.
The cangaceiros lived in the region of caatinga, being expert experts in this type of vegetation, which facilitated their escape from the authorities who were always chasing these bandits. The cangaço men worked in cities in the states of Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia.
Learn more about the meaning of Caatinga.
Stories about cangaço perpetuated by the Brazilian popular imagination, creating an image heroic of the cangaceiros, who were represented through art, theater, cinema, music and literature.
THE literature of twine, typical in the northeast, had life and struggle in cangaço as one of the most recurrent themes.
Learn more about the meaning of twine.
Lampião, the king of Cangaço
Virgulino Ferreira da Silva, better known as Lamp, was the most famous cangaceiro in the history of the Brazilian hinterland. His bold and cruel actions made him feared throughout the Northeast, where he was also called King of Cangaço or Lord of the Sertão.
Lampião was born in the hinterland of Pernambuco and was the son of a very poor family. The story tells that the origin of Lampião's life in the cangaço was because of the revolt he felt due to condition of extreme poverty, the loss of family property and the murder of her father by police.
Lampião was a partner of Maria Gomes de Oliveira, aka beautiful Maria, considered the first woman to be part of a banditry.
Lampião, Maria Bonita and several cangaceiros from their group were murdered in an ambush in June 1938. decapitated and their heads scattered over several cities in the interior of the northeast, as a way to drive away the cangaceiros remnants.