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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2022
In the open-air markets of Northeast Brazil, folk poets still sell the stories in verse called folhetos or literatura de cordel, which came to Brazil from Portugal almost five centuries ago. Until only about a hundred years ago, most cordel stories found in the Northeast originated either in Portugal or Rio de Janeiro. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, however, Northeastern poets began publishing large numbers of booklets with a distinctly regional flavor. These authors would then suspend their verses along strings for display in local marketplaces, chanting one or another story out loud in an effort to attract potential customers. Although the tales were known to rich and poor alike, the great majority of the poet's customers were always associated with subsistence agriculture. These persons, who were often illiterate, might choose a story on the basis of the poet's oral presentation or an appealing cover illustration. They would then take home their purchases to a friend or relative who would read aloud the tale for the group.
I am grateful to the Tinker Foundation for supporting my research in Brazil and in Stanford, California, during 1977–79.
1. Although many scholars refer to Iberian stories in verse as literatura de cordel, I have followed a number of Brazilian writers in my use of “the” before the noun. This is because I am referring to the cordel tradition rather than the actual pamphlets.
There is an extensive bibliography on the Brazilian pamphlet literature. For a general introduction, see Átila de Almeida and José Alves Sobrinho, Dicionário Bio-Bibliográfico de Repentistas e Poetas de Bancada, 2 vols. (João Pessoa/Campina Grande: Editora Universitária/Centro de Ciências e Tecnologia, 1978); Sebastião Nunes Batista, Antologia da Literatura de Cordel (Natal: Fundação José Augusto, 1977); Luís da Câmara Cascudo, Vaqueiros e Cantadores (Pôrto Alegre: Editorial Globo, 1939); Mark J. Curran, Literatura de Cordel (Recife: Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 1973); Manuel Florentino Duarte et al., Literatura de Cordel: Antologia, 2 vols. (São Paulo: Global, 1976); Literatura Popular em Verso: Antologia, 1–4, Catálogo, Estudos (Rio de Janeiro: MEC/Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa et al., 1962–1977); and Liêdo Maranhão de Souza, Classificação Popular da Literatura de Cordel (Petrópolis: Vozes, 1976). An overview in English is provided by Candace Slater, Stories on a String: The Brazilian Literatura de Cordel (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981).
2. For a definition of the modinha and further bibliographical indications see Gerard Béhague, The Beginnings of Musical Nationalism in Brazil (Detroit: Information Coordinators, 1971), pp. 32–33.
3. For a useful intoduction to the work of Catulo da Paixão Cearense see Eno Theodoro Wanke, A Trova Popular: Folclore da Quadra Setessilábica, Sua Descoberta, História e Penetração nos Povos de Línguas Ibéricas (Rio de Janeiro: Pongetti, 1974), pp. 224–26. See also the bibliographical summary in Ary Vasoncelos, Panorama da Música Popular Brasileira (São Paulo: Martins, 1964), pp. 119–21.
4. At least a half-dozen different sorts of short verse compositions are evident in the pamphlet stories by Leandro Gomes de Barros reproduced in Literatura Popular em Verso: Antologia, vol. 2 (Rio de Janeiro and Campina Grande: MEC/Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa/Fundação Universidade Regional do Nordeste, 1976).
5. Today, almost every radio station in the Northeast offers at least one daily cantador radio program. In Campina Grande, Paraíba, for instance, Radio Borborema/Cariri broadcasts two half-hour radio programs, “Cariri” and “Retalho do Sertão,” every day except Sunday. The station's competitor, Radio Caturité, broadcasts “Os Bambas da Viola” from 5:30 to 6:00 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Cantadores, who may or may not be paid for their services, vie for broadcast contracts because the publicity that these shows generate proves invaluable to their careers. The programs' listeners are generally subsistence farmers and blue-collar workers who send in a stream of requests for their favorite songs as well as for improvised verse.
6. It is common to find six or seven versions of the same song, all slightly different. This phenomenon reflects not only peculiarities in the songwriting process but also widespread pirating on the part of cordel publishers.
7. The relationship between cantadores and cordel authors is extremely complex. It has not been adequately treated to date and deserves a full-length study. It is worth simply noting at this point that cordel literature, like canções, owes a great deal to oral, improvisational poetry. Many now-classic works on the cordel deal with both cordel authors and cantadores. See, for instance, Cascudo's Vaqueiros e Cantadores, and Francisco das Chagas Batista, Cantadores e Poetas Populares (João Pessoa: F. C. Batista Irmãos, 1929).
8. It is difficult to discern any major difference between a “poem” and a “song.” There are, for instance, a large number of both “songs” and “poems” devoted to love and cowboy themes. Because the majority of these compositions are written in the standard six-line stanzas called sextilhas, found both in cordel stories and in cantador poetry, it is usually impossible to tell whether a given text is a “song” or a “poem,” unless it is so labeled. Songwriters themselves customarily use the term “canção” to refer to both types of composition.
9. There is a difference, to be sure, between the actual cantador (singer) who is the author of the song, and the first-person voice or persona who speaks within the text. I will refer to the persona as the singer, and the actual singer/author as the cantador.
10. These asymmetrical, or patron-client, relationships are discussed in detail by a number of social scientists. For a general view, see Structure and Process in Latin America: Patronage, Clientage and Power Systems, ed. Arnold Strickon and Sidney Greenfield (Albuquerque, N.M.: University of New Mexico Press, 1972). For a discussion of both horizontal and vertical contract relationships within a specifically Brazilian context, see Shepard Forman, The Brazilian Peasantry (New York: Columbia University Press, 1975) and Allen Johnson, Sharecroppers of the Sertão (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972).
11. Roberto da Matta, “Você Sabe com Quem Está Falando?: Um Ensaio sobre a Distinção entre Indivíduo e Pessoa no Brasil,” in Carnavais, Malandros e Herois: Para uma Sociologia do Dilema Brasileiro (Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 1979), pp. 139–93.
12. Matta, “Você Sabe,” p. 175. The author cites related work by Dumont, Mauss, Viveiros de Castro and Benzaquém de Araújo.
13. The reader should note that the number of titles in each category does not necessarily represent that category's popularity. Some vendors, for instance, may sell more cowboy songs than love songs, even though they carry a large assortment of the latter. Furthermore, although I counted only thirteen songs about São Paulo and thirteen about current events, the small number of existing titles tend to sell extremely well. Songs about São Paulo are particularly interesting given the real problem of internal migration, which they document in sentimental fashion. Although essentially enumerative farewells or despedidas, these compositions often contain elements of a rudimentary plot and are imbued, unlike the traditional despedida, with an unmistakable air of protest. For a discussion of this type of song, see Candace Slater, “Setting Out for São Paulo: Internal Migration as a Theme in Brazilian Popular Literature,” New Scholar (in press).
14. João Alexandre Sobrinho; interview, Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará; 9 April 1978.
15. Only one of the 79 love songs collected in the Recife market contains self-recriminations. It is “Canção Menina de 12 Anos” [Song about the twelve-year-old girl] by Raimundo Alves. In this song the singer berates himself for snubbing a now-beautiful young woman when she was younger.
16. Only the author and title are given for each of the following. This is because no other information is available for most canções. Songs, unlike cordel stories, seldom if ever make reference to a publisher or date of publication. This text and the others cited in this paper have been reproduced without introducing changes in grammar or spelling. All English translations are my own.
17. For a discussion of the vaquejada see Luís da Câmara Cascudo, A Vaquejada Nordestina e Sua Origem (Recife: Imprensa Universitária, 1966).
18. The cowman's diminishing role may of course have the opposite effect of causing the author to romanticize a passing way of life. As in the case of the Texas cowboy, the Northeastern vaqueiro may become a symbol of a supposedly idyllic past.
19. This concept of love is related to a wider concept of “limited good,” generally associated with peasant societies. See George Foster, “Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good,” American Anthropologist 67 (1965):293–315.
20. This sort of physical violence is, of course, not limited to literature, but can be found in the crime pages of virtually any Brazilian newspaper. For an understanding of the sexual roles underlying these crimes of passion, see Female and Male in Latin America: Essays, ed. Ann Pescatello (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1973).
21. This song is particularly interesting because although the concept of the birthday party is decidedly modern—many backlands inhabitants remain ignorant of the year, let alone the day, in which they were born—the song contains a number of highly traditional elements. The lettered shields worn by the ranchers is, for instance, a medieval device frequently found in cordel literature. Then, too, the author has chosen to name his protagonist João da França, thereby recalling an Iberian ballad of the same name.
22. The words are those of cordel author Joel Borges (interview: Bezerros, Pernambuco; 20 January 1978).
23. Although the text “Carmelita e o Vaqueiro” has no indication of author, the song is actually an expanded version of another song by João Alexandre Sobrinho entitled “Vaquejada no Sertão” [Backlands roundup]. The anonymous author has inserted this original description of a roundup into a cordel-like frame. (João Alexandre Sobrinho, personal letter: Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará; 2 December 1979.)
24. See Alice Mitika Koshiyama, Análise de Contéudo da Literatura de Cordel: Presença de Valores Religiosos (São Paulo: Universidade de São Paulo, Escola de Comunicações e Artes, 1972).
25. Of sixty-two cordel authors interviewed during 1977–78, I did not find a single one who actually liked the canção as much as the cordel story. Only a half-dozen writers, however, had not experimented at some time with the form. Cantadores who regularly author both canções and cordel stories include Guriatã do Norte, João Alexandre Sobrinho, and Pedro Bandeira. As for cordel authors who turn out canções with a fair degree of regularity, one might mention José Francisco Borges, José Costa Leite, and José Francisco Soares.
26. For instance, virtually all of the cordel songs by cordel author José Costa Leite utilize tunes well known to radio listeners. See, for instance, his “Dicionário do Beijo, Música: Ultima Carta” [Dictionary of the kiss, to be sung to the tune of “The Last Letter”]; “Saudades do Meu Amor, Música: Partida Saudosa” [Longing for my love, to be sung to the tune of “Sad Farewell”]; and “Estou Longe de Você, Música: Longe de Ti” [I am far from you, to be sung to the tune of “Far from You”].
27. Francisco de Souza Campos, interview: São Lourenço da Mata, Pernambuco; 1 March 1978.
28. Joel Borges, interview: Sítio Cruzeiro, Pernambuco; 4 April 1978.
29. Olegário Fernandes, interview: Caruaru, Pernambuco; 17 March 1978.
30. Manuel d'Almeida Filho, interview: Aracaju, Sergipe; 7 June 1978.
31. Manuel d'Almeida.
32. José de Souza Campos, interview: Condado, Pernambuco; 18 February 1978.
33. Manuel Camilo dos Santos, interview: Campina Grande, Paraíba; 6 March 1978.
34. Antônio da Mulatinha, interview: Campina Grande, Paraíba; 9 March 1978. The poet's sales record (twice as many songs as stories) is not typical. It is worth noting that although he has written some thirty cordel stories, fellow writers tend to regard him more as a cantador than as a cordel author.
35. José Costa Leite, interview: Condado, Pernambuco; 18 February 1978.
36. Manuel Camilo dos Santos explains that autobiographies are “something that the poet writes because he feels like it, without hope of people buying; in fact, I usually give away a copy free when I sell another story.”
37. Olegário Fernandes, interview: Caruaru, Pernambuco; 14 January 1978.
38. Antônio Caetano de Souza, interview: Recife, Pernambuco; 27 February 1978.
39. The association between cordel literature, astrological almanacs, and herbal medicines is traditional and can be found as well in medieval Europe. All three products are designed to counsel and/or to cure. The addition of other sundries is a recent innovation.
40. Antonio Curió, interview: Rio de Janeiro; 17 December 1978.
41. Quantifiable data regarding Northeastern cordel and canção buyers is not easy to obtain. In Rio de Janeiro, I was able to interview two hundred cordel buyers in the São Cristóvão Fair and the Largo do Machado, using a more or less standard list of questions and a tape recorder. (See Slater, “Joe Bumpkin in the Wilds of Rio de Janeiro,” Journal of Latin American Lore 6, 1 (1980):5–53.) The questionnaire approach, however, proved impossible in Northeastern marketplaces. This was partly because changes in the traditional market structure have made the weekly fair less important, with the result that customers are less apt to congregate at one time and one place. Even more important, however, I found that people were either intimidated, or else fascinated, by the tape recorder to the point that they forgot all else. Furthermore, whereas the somewhat more sophisticated Rio buyer assumed that I must be “another one of those reporters,” and therefore had the kindness to humor what they perceived as my eccentricities, Northeasterners were simply not interested in answering a list of questions. Although I talked at length to several hundred individuals in Northeastern marketplaces, I found that I had to rely on extended conversations which I later summarized on paper. This approach, while cumbersome, yielded great quantities of information which proved invaluable to my study of the literatura de cordel. In Recife I was actually able to assist in the sale of cordel stories, thanks to the good will of poet José de Souza Campos.
42. All speakers, unless otherwise noted, are male.
43. For a discussion of the term “matuto” see Slater, “Joe Bumpkin,” pp. 7–10.
44. For photographs of lambe-lambe photographers and other personages who frequent the Recife market see Liêdo Maranhão de Souza, O Mercado, Sua Praça e a Cultura Popular do Nordeste (Recife: Prefeitura Municipal do Recife, Secretaria de Educação e Cultura, 1977).
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