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Mythic Origins: Caramuru and the Founding of Brazil

2000; Duke University Press; Volume: 80; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1215/00182168-80-4-783

1527-1900

Janaína Amado,

Caribbean and African Literature and Culture

The story of Diogo Alvares or “Caramuru,” one of Brazil’s first white inhabitants, is a recurring theme in Brazilian historiography, literature, and imagination. Probably from the town of Viana do Castelo in Minho, Portugal,1 it is suspected that Diogo Alvares arrived in a wrecked ship at the beginning of Portuguese colonization.2 He resided in Bahia for many years (between three and six decades), in sporadic contact with the Portuguese. During this period Diogo Alvares may have maintained relations with French corsairs who were on the Brazilian coast. He learned the languages and customs of the Indians and participated in local wars. According to some sources, he earned the respect of Indian chiefs,3 and evidence shows that he had children with either the “many indigenous women” attributed to him by certain chroniclers, or with Paraguaçu, the daughter of a great warrior and the Tupinambá chief in Bahia.4The narratives about Caramuru analyzed in this article illustrate how each story interweaves history and fiction. Regardless of the proportion, they all locate the Caramuru episode within the history of the Portuguese colonization of Brazil; what varies is the timing of the episode. My principal argument is that narratives about Caramuru can be considered to be Brazil’s myth of origin. The myth of Caramuru dramatizes some of the most fundamental historic and symbolic experiences of Brazil and Portugal.In order to contextualize the story of Caramuru, let me present the characteristic features of myths of origins. Myths “dramatize the world vision in a constellation of powerful metaphors” by expressing the fundamental experiences of a specific human group.5 They represent one of the possible ways for a community to reveal and share emotions, hopes, fears, and collective dreams, to delineate and resolve conflicts, to transmit and reelaborate experiences; consequently, myths exhibit an intimate relationship with the sacred. Myths group fundamental elements called “archetypes,” with which the majority of a group identifies.6Myths, like dreams, have a distinctive structure. They do not follow reason; instead, they symbolize a large number of events and emotions in a single scene, generally allowing for several versions.7 Myths are transformed more slowly than societies for three main reasons: (1) they revolve around few crystallized elements; (2) they operate on the symbolic level, diffused but protected from changes on the material level; and (3) they rearrange their internal elements, adapting them to new situations without losing their essential attributes. No person, group, or nation creates a myth based solely on the desire to do so. In order to exist, a myth must correspond to profound social needs.Often times myths are socially constructed because they represent a potential source of power. Many myths are consciously reinforced, attenuated, propagated, “aged,” or embellished because they benefit a particular social grouping, government, or nation. A group that identifies or is identified with a positive myth transfers the symbolic authority conferred by the myth and this determines who will or will not share this identity.Sometimes a myth transforms the birth of a group or nation through metaphor: “The myths of origin of the nation, in the original meaning of the term, are the result of its application to the collective, by an analogic extension of the biological process of the birth of an individual. … A child’s birth biologically supposes the existence of a mother, the act of a father (but not always his recognition) and generally the union of the parent couple… . The third case of the trope concerns the history of a symbolic parent couple that engenders a people. This creates for itself a double inhabitable space, in a concrete form (a territory) and in a symbolic form (a culture). This combination of lands and traditions is called parents’ heritage or patria.”8In Brazil’s myth of origin, Caramuru and Paraguaçu represent the symbolic parent couple; this explains why all narratives are replete with references to their many descendants. The couple also represented the many ways in which a colonial nation could resolve its challenges and become integrated “proudly” into the empire of which it was a part. Therefore all the narratives point to a continuity between Portugal and Brazil, and always refer to Brazil as part of Portugal. As “heir of the Tupinambá empire,” Paraguaçu not only converted to Christianity, but was chosen by God through her visions of our Lady; it is here that the sacred link, essential for a myth, is established. Diogo Alvares was the human bridge between two cultures; he carried a fish, a dragon, the sea, and fire in his sobriquet. From the interethnic and intercultural couple emerged a promising positive future for Brazil, expressed in the “gilded cities” and the “viceroys” of Paraguaçu’s vision.If the myth establishes the origin of Brazil, then it is important to ask, which Brazil? All the texts refer to a country that finds itself at a crossroads between a long and influential indigenous past and a present that is marked by the physical and cultural influence of white, European Catholics (who brought Africans with them). Every narrative highlights how Brazil’s future fundamentally depended on the interaction of all these different elements. In other words, it was this nation, surprised at the crossroads of history, that is expressed as a metaphor in the narratives of Caramuru.The texts, however, did not deal only with Brazil. Set in the sixteenth century, the texts also referred to Portugal, the Portuguese, and their project of consolidating the Portuguese empire. In fact, the plot of Caramuru was created by Portuguese authors and was, for a long time, disseminated by and among the Portuguese. Thus it was not surprising that after Brazil became independent, two Portuguese writers, João de Barros and Arthur D’Avila, revived the topic. The narratives about Caramuru, then, were also metaphors for Portugal. But which Portugal? The texts refer to a civilized Catholic nation united around a king, whose vassals went around the world with the glorious but extremely difficult mission of conquering, civilizing, and catechizing barbarians of all sorts. They (including Diogo Alvares) abandoned home and country, exposed themselves to dangers (there are two shipwrecks in the story), battled desperately to survive in the midst of the savage barbarians (some succumbed), but never abandoned their high mission, conferred by God and king, to evangelize and educate the world by extending the faith, culture, and arms of the Portuguese empire.The story of Caramuru deals with some of the most significant and cherished moments in the collective memory of the Portuguese and Brazilians, and was extremely important for the formation of the idea of a nation and thus strongly debated within history, literature, and popular culture.When the first Portuguese civil authorities, such as Grantee Francisco Pereira Coutinho, Governor General Tomé de Souza (in 1549), and Jesuit father Manuel da Nóbrega arrived in Bahia, Diogo Alvares assisted them by providing invaluable information about the region’s land and Indians and often served as lingoa (interpreter) and mediator with the Indians. His name, the services he provided to the Crown and to the church, and his offspring were applauded in the civil and religious correspondence sent from Bahia during this period. Tomé de Souza rewarded him with thanks and with recommendations to the king, and Manuel da Nóbrega, with whom he lived, praised him in more than one letter. Upon his death, Diogo left half of his terça to the Jesuit Order. After the start of systematic colonization, Caramuru lived as much in urban centers as among the Indians. All indications are that he died in Bahia; however, that date is uncertain and he may have died in 1557.9Few figures in Brazilian history have earned so many enduring references from such varied sources at such an early age. Since the sixteenth century the story of Diogo Alvares or Caramuru has been retold by chroniclers as well as civil and religious authorities. Since the seventeenth century it has been narrated also by historians, military officers, and dilettantes; since the eighteenth century learned poets have joined the list of narrators; in the nineteenth century the story received rigorous historical revision. In addition, the Restoration Party, which after the abdication of Dom Pedro I in 1831 called for his return to the Brazilian throne, became known as the “Caramurus”; since at least the beginning of the twentieth century, the subject has been taken up by popular poets, playwrights, textbook authors, novelists, and journalists.10 The story of Caramuru and Paraguaçu has been appropriated politically at various times for different purposes by creating narratives that interweave the history of two nations with imagination and desires. Although it has not been the subject of whole books, the theme continues to be relevant, and is mentioned in a variety of recent publications in Brazil and Portugal. Authors of narratives about Caramuru have been of various nationalities and their works have been published in Brazil, Portugal, France, and England.11Scenes of Diogo Alvares firing his weapon, his wedding to Paraguaçu in France, and the Indian maiden Moema throwing herself into the sea after her beloved Caramuru left for France were also favorite topics of Brazilian iconography since the sixteenth century. In Brazil, especially in Bahia, oral traditions were another important source of information about Diogo Alvares, and scholars collected or mentioned popular poetry and prose found around Bahia de Todos os Santos and in Cruz das Almas.12 In 1999 during the celebrations commemorating 450 years of the founding of the city of Salvador, public agencies chose to stage the arrival of Governor Martim Afonso de Souza and his entourage; in the play, staged on a beach in Salvador, the governor was received by the Indians and Caramuru.Lastly, the character of Caramuru became so popular in Brazil that during the 1950s he became the theme of a popular Carnival march, whose refrain repeated: “Caramuru / Uhuhuhuu / Caramuru / Uhuhuhuu / Son of fire / Grandson of thunder.” The story of Caramuru was sung, acted, and displayed on floats of the samba schools whose lyrics sang of related “historical events,” such as Brazil in the French courts, the discovery of Brazil, the settling of Brazil, and “the three races” that formed Brazil. And finally, when colored stars, mandalas, and gorgeous patterns light up Brazil’s skies, it also recalls our main character, in a way, because the most famous Brazilian fireworks factory is called, precisely, “Caramuru.”The story of Caramuru has moved easily from the realm of popular culture to centers of higher education; from prose to poetry; from oral tradition to written and pictorial forms; and from tradition to innovation. My objective is to highlight moments of the fascinating trajectory of the construction of collective memory concerning Caramuru, through an analysis of some of the most significant versions of the story that were published in either book or article form.With the exception of the few documents written by Portuguese civil and religious authorities who lived at the time of Diogo Alvares, the first narrative known to deal with the story of Caramuru was Gabriel Soares de Sousa’s Noticia do Brasil.13 Beginning in 1587 copies of his manuscript circulated throughout Europe. It is a detailed account, based on the direct observation of the author who lived in Brazil for many years and contains lengthy descriptions of the territory, resources, fauna, flora, indigenous peoples, and events from the early years of Portuguese colonization. In this priceless source of Brazilian history, Caramuru is a secondary figure, and he is referred to in only two passages in the entire book. The first reference appears in a story whose protagonist is the first donatory of Bahia, Francisco Pereira Coutinho, who, following several defeats with the Indians, sought refuge in Ilhéus. Recalled by the Indians, Pereira returned to Vila Velha, the settlement he had founded in Bahia, taking aboard one of his ships “Diogo Alvares, nicknamed Caramuru, great interpreter of the pagans.” The armada, however, was shipwrecked, with all aboard (including Coutinho) having perished at sea or been devoured by Indians. The only one to escape was “Diogo Alvares, with his good language skills.”14Gabriel Soares, however, did not disclose any additional information concerning Diogo Alvares’s childhood or his arrival in Brazil. He focused on Caramuru’s life as an interpreter among the Indians and settlers, and showed how his knowledge of the indigenous language saved his life, and enabled him to earn the support of the Portuguese authorities in order to pacify the Indians.15Simão de Vasconcellos’s Chronica da Companhia de Jesu do Estado do Brasil, published in Lisbon in 1663, was the first book to focus on the “brief notable story of the celebrated Diogo Alvares.”16 In four pages, inserted in the history of the first donatory in Bahia, Francisco Pereira Coutinho, the Jesuit stated that Diogo Alvares (he did not include the surname “Correia”) was born in Viana, of noble birth. Sometime after 1530 he embarked for either Brazil or India, but was shipwrecked off the coast of Bahia. He was taken captive with others who survived the sea and cannibalism and dedicated himself to salvaging the remains of the ship (among the items were powder and matchlocks). The Indians “were pleased with him and agreed among themselves to spare his life.” Having repaired the matchlock, he fired into the air and probably killed a wild animal or bird; this struck considerable fear among the Indians, who cried that he was a “man of fire who wanted to kill them.” He fought alongside those Indians against others, earning fame with his matchlock “throughout the hinterlands and was considered an extraordinary man … and here they gave him the name “the great Caramuru.” He made his home in Vila Velha, where he “had a large family and many wives … there were many sons and daughters, who in their time were the heads of noble generations.” He embarked for France on a nau loaded with brazilwood, taking with him “the most beloved of his women who was endowed with beauty, and she was the princess of those people … not without the envy of those who remained.”The couple was received by the kings of France and the woman was baptized as Catarina Alvares, to which her Brazilian name Paraguaçu was added; they were married. The kings of France did not allow Diogo to return to Portugal, but he was able to send news about Brazil and about the need to settle the country to King Dom João III. He and Catarina returned to America with two ships loaded with artillery, after promising to fill the French ships with brazilwood. Diogo prospered, becoming “owner of many slaves.” He assisted a Castillian nau that had foundered and later received a letter of thanks from Emperor Carlos V. During the incident of the shipwreck, Catarina asked Diogo “to search again for a woman who had come on the nau and was among the Indians because Catarina had seen her in a vision. Catarina asked that she be brought to her and that a house be made for her.” After many attempts “an image of our Lady that an Indian had found on the beach and thrown in the corner of a house” was found. Cata-rina identified it as the image in the vision and the image was given a house and was “honored with the title of our Lady of Grace, and enriched with many relics and indulgences, that were sent by the Pope,” passing into the care of the Benedictines. The sons and daughters “of these two pious followers of our Lady” were baptized by clergy, with several of the daughters marrying noblemen (their names are recorded) and “from this trunk descended many of the best and most noble families of Bahia”; “where we say that Francisco Pereira Coutinho [donatory of Bahia] was the first settler by land grant of the king and royal privilege; however, Diogo Alvares was the first settler by land grant of the native owners of the land and the people’s privilege.”All of the principal elements that would later characterize the many versions of the story of Caramuru were present in Simão de Vasconcellos’s version: the voyage from Portugal, the shipwreck, the shot fired in the air, the respect of the Indians, the name Caramuru, Paraguaçu’s love, the trip to France, the envy of the women who remained in Brazil, the baptism and the marriage, the return to Brazil, the shipwreck of the Spanish vessel, Paraguaçu’s vision, the descendants of Caramuru, his support of the Portuguese authorities in their relations with the Indians.17Simão de Vasconcellos’s narrative constitutes the kernel, the matrix, and the center of the plot of Caramuru.18 Since then no new facts or characters have been added to the story; however a number of changes were made by reordering the events in the story, emphasizing different passages and characters, targeting differing audiences, and altering the themes and uses of the story.It is interesting to note that in the seventeenth century, when the enduring kernel of the plot of Caramuru was established, there arose, for the first time, a dissident satirical version of the story. Its author was none other than the poet Gregório de Matos, the “Mouth of Hell,” who, with his customary talent and irony, employed the figure of Caramuru to satirize the aristocratic pretensions of the Bahian elite. The title of his poem is Aos principais da Bahia chamados de Caramurus (To the leaders of Bahia called Caramurus). According to the author, this mixed-blood elite—that fact is important—prided itself on being descendants of whites and identified themselves with their Portuguese ancestor Caramuru. It begins:There is nothing like seeing a PaiaiáVery proud of being a CaramuruDescended from the blood of ArmadilloWhose vulgar language is cobé pá.The female line is carimáMoqueca, pititinga and caruruPuba porridge, and cashew fruit wineStepping on a pestle from Piraguá.The male is a AricobéWhose daughter Cobé a white FatherSlept on the promontory of Passé.The white was a scoundrel who came hereShe was an Indian of the MaréCobé pá, Cobé Paí.19The poet ridiculed the Indian origins of these social leaders (although Paraguaçu was not mentioned in the poem), with their cashew fruit wines and their pestles, as well as their white heritage. In the poem, Caramuru is portrayed as a “scoundrel” and a shrewd sycophant. The original line of Matos’s interpretation was a precursor to the tone of the Modernists, particularly Mário de Andrade’s 1928 novel Macunaíma, but this interpretation did not predominate in the historical construction of Caramuru. On the contrary, Matos’s interpretation remained an isolated voice—a solitary cry of the poet’s conscience.Published in 1730, a new narrative about Caramuru was included in Sebastião da Rocha Pitta’s book História da América portugueza.20 Written in the Baroque style, Rocha Pitta described in detail the “most expressive deeds” of Portuguese colonization, as well as the country’s geography and resources. Following the custom of some books of this genre, it did not give sources, bibliography, or footnotes, nor was it concerned with confirming the veracity of what it asserted. The work of Rocha Pitta became a paradigm for the knowledge of Brazil’s his tory and the model for the country’s historical narrative, keeping Caramuru alive while updating the style and plot to suit the taste and concerns of the educated public of the time.Rocha Pitta set back the story of Caramuru by about 15 years, disconnecting it from the saga of Bahia’s first donatory and relating it to the exploratory expedition of Cristóvão Jacques.21 The narrative’s novel feature was that the protagonist was Paraguaçu, not Caramuru. The important historical role of this “notable matron,” daughter of the leader of the province of Bahia,” was immediately explained. She “was the instrument by which Bahia was dominated more easily”; “and it would be neglect,” explained the author, “to exclude from the drama such an essential figure.”22 Paraguaçu lived among her people until the shipwreck survivor Diogo Alvares arrived from Portugal. Her father gave Paraguaçu as a wife, to “Caramuruassu the Dragon who comes from the sea,” while other Indians were given to him as concubines. Paraguaçu “lived in this barbarous union for some time,” until receiving in France “in the most solemn act, with the assistance of many princes,” baptism, and afterward, being married. Back in Brazil “Catarina Alvares … as mistress of these heathens convinced them to accept the Portuguese yoke with less repugnance.” At the time of the Spanish shipwreck, she had the well-known vision, with the previously reported consequences. Catarina and Diogo left descendants who “made most noble families.” Rocha Pitta continues by narrating “the glorious arrival of the apostle St. Thomas announcing the Catholic doctrine, not only in Brazil, but in all of the Americas.”23Rocha Pitta repeated, with new embellishments, all of the events in the narrative woven by Padre Simão de Vasconcellos, whose work, by this time, had become rare.24 In doing so, he contributed to the dissemination of this plot, at a moment in which, already in competition with many other powerful memories, it perhaps ran the risk of being diluted by neglect. The prestige of Rocha Pitta’s work and the deference with which scholars treated it, conferred this historian’s authority on the tale of Paraguaçu and Caramuru, legitimizing it with the audience. In addition, by replacing the protagonists and bringing Paraguaçu-Catarina to the center of his tale, Rocha Pitta inaugurated a new way to celebrate Portuguese colonization and the ties linking Portugal and Brazil. It enhanced the role played by Brazilians in the colonization, beginning with those who, like Paraguaçu, were native Americans.In 1761 Antonio de Santa Maria Jaboatão published his Orbe serafico novo brasilico.25 The author explained that his objective was to write the history of the Franciscans in Brazil, a task undertaken, without success, by two other priests. Unlike Rocha Pitta, Jaboatão reveals his sources: the notes left by two predecessors and “papers scattered about the archives of the convents all over the Province and its Record Offices” to which he had access in the capacity of “companion and Secretary of the Provincial P.” Curiously, he confirms that because the sources had “so little to report … they served more to confuse the story than to guide and shed light on it.” The sources added “another serious difficulty” to the history he was writing, in which he intended to “understand not only the past, but also the present, the modern, and the old.” “The past is dangerous for lack of information, but commenting on the present is also risky, because it is venerated.”26Jaboatão asserted that the story of Caramuru was known “by the common people” and by “all the writers of these conquests.” But he also wrote it because Diogo Alvares Correia was the “first settler” of the land (having arrived, therefore, before the first donatory of Bahia), and also because Jaboatão discovered “an ancient manuscript … in the archive of the Convent in Bahia that … appears to be written by a person who lived, if not at the same time, then at very near the same time.”27 In the Orbe serafico, the Caramuru episode took place (just as Rocha Pitta had written) around 1516. In this version, the episode was not connected to the expedition of Cristóvão Jacques. Caramuru was presented instead as a Portuguese nobleman on his way to India, shipwrecked at the mouth of the Vermelho River in Bahia.28 One innovation in the account by Jaboatão concerned the date of Diogo’s voyage to France which, according to the author, could not have occurred during the reign of Henry II and Catarina of Medici, which only began in 1547. At that time Martim Afonso de Souza as well as Francisco Pereira had already been in Brazil and met Diogo after he had returned from France. Jaboatão’s position, based on a careful comparison of dates, was that the voyage must have taken place in 1524, during the reign of Francis I, after Paraguaçu had been baptized as “Catarina.”Jaboatão’s concept of history was quite different from that of Rocha Pitta’s, and it heralded a trend that came to dominate the historiography of Brazil in the late nineteenth century. Thus Jaboatão’s work presented a way of seeing and narrating the history of Caramuru that would crystallize in the country only two hundred years after its publications.Caramuru and his story gained new currency and popularity at the end of the eighteenth century when the Augustinian friar José de Santa Rita Durão, a Brazilian educated and residing in Portugal, published a long epic poem on the theme.29 Printed in Lisbon in 1781, his Caramuru earned a respectful but tepid reception by the critics. With time, it gained an audience and admirers, although a good deal of the later criticism has viewed the author as a merely accurate versifier, lacking much literary ability. He was seen above all as a pioneer who narrated an historical event, inspired in Brazilian history, largely centered on indigenous figures, transforming it into an epic: “It is the most Brazilian poem we have … the most Brazilian of all of our works,” wrote literary historians Sílvio Romero and João Ribeiro at the end of the nineteenth century. “Caramuru survives the test of time because of its historical importance,” later added the critic Afrânio Coutinho.30Caramuru was published in a number of editions and adaptations.The poem was constructed entirely around the epic of Caramuru, the “sea dragon” (Diogo was also called “son of thunder” by the Indians),31 Divided into 10 cantos, each with around 80 strophes, the poem followed the plot structure layed out by Simão de Vasconcellos and repeated by Rocha Pitta. It moved chronologically, beginning with the departure from Caramuru’s birthplace in Portugal and ending with his descendants. The episode of the gunshot was highlighted: Diogo was wearing an iron vest and helmet, holding in his hand a spear (removed from the ship), when he fired for the first time. The episode was repeated several times throughout the entire poem.32 Caramuru formed an excellent interethnic friendship with the “good and just” Indian Gupeva, and assisted him in combating the terrible cacique33 Jararaca. Much of the poem was dedicated to local wars in which Caramuru participated. Santa Rita Durão showed himself to be an ardent defender of monogamy. From the beginning, Caramuru possessed only one wife, Paraguaçu. The other women were only in love with him, among them “the poor Moema,” drowned when she threw herself into the sea with the others after Diogo departed for France with Paraguaçu.34 The vision that Paraguaçu had of our Lady was preceded by a dream in which she saw, and later described to others, several moments of the historical future of Brazil. Many other historical events appeared in the poem.But, being fiction, the narrative by Durão created characters. It was the first time, since the story was told, that Caramuru and Paraguaçu ceased to be references or descriptions and became human beings, with the right to individual physical characteristics, feelings, and an inner life. Diogo Alvares incorporated countless qualities, many of which were identified with the period, emblematic of a nobleman; he was aristocratic, fair, pious, brave, patriotic, handsome (the love object of almost all the “Brazilian maidens”), and civilized, not to mention tolerant, patient, and loving. These last essential attributes helped him to relate appropriately to the strange world where he was shipwrecked. The character’s name changes symbolized a constant transition among identities (the former name predating the experience, and the new name acquired while the events unfolded signified a veritable cultural transmutation. Mentioned at the start of the poem only by a Christian name, after the episode of the gunshot he is also called also “Caramuru,” the one who “denoted Brazil in his surname,” an epithet that became more frequent as the protagonist involved himself with the Indians.35 He reverted to Diogo in the episode of the voyage to France, and then upon choosing to return to Brazil, definitively became “Caramuru.” Only the last line of the poem again declared his Christian name, as well as his birthplace, in order to mark the continuity between his Brazilian adventure and his Portuguese origins: “Manda honrar na colônia lusitana / Diogo Alvares Correia, de Viana.”In the poem, did the name “Caramuru” bestow an Indian identity on Diogo? No. It meant possessing a group of attributes conferred by the Indians, being a creature who, although profoundly transformed by his experience with the Indians, possessed characteristics that were distinct from them, some of them avowedly superior, such as the power of fire. Caramuru was, thus, the hero capable of bringing white settlement, civilization, religion, language, and culture to America, by means of love, tolerance, respect, and experience. These qualities were reinforced or acquired in contact with the other civilization and, when necessary, also by means of war. Contact with alterity, many times painful and traumatic, profoundly transformed Diogo. The castaway, almost devoured by Indians, was forced to suffer, fall in love with a native, learn a foreign language with difficulty, adapt to strange customs, live many long decades far from his country, leave and return to Brazil in order to be transformed into Caramuru, the hybrid hero. Culturally a mestizo and founder of a biologically mixed-blood