The figure of the Cangaceiro is a traditional character in Brasilian culture. Cangaceiros were gangs of outlaws riding horses and attacking farms and villages, similar to the Mexican Bandidos.
Nowadays this figure is considered as the Brasilian Robin Hood and this denomination might have some historical truthfulness I believe.
Nowadays this figure is considered as the Brasilian Robin Hood and this denomination might have some historical truthfulness I believe.
The first known Cangaceiro was just a runaway slave trying to survive… and to fight back.
The most famous Cangaceiros were a couple named Lampiao and Maria Bonita. This last feminine figure inspired me those paintings I did in Brasil. Black female wearing the Cangaceiro hat and sometimes with the indigenous make up design evoking the energy of rebellion and revendication that was really tangible in those post Lula years I spent in the country…
Pledge to the famous Cangaceiro from the movie by Glauber Rocha « Black God, White Devil (Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol) » with Brazilian native designs and the blood shed…
Universidade Federal de Sergipe 2017, Brasil
Universidade Federal de Sergipe 2017, Brasil
In Brasil, Kilombos are villages which were founded in the time of slavery by slaves who had flown the masters and then recovered freedom (equivalent of marooning in english).
Here in the Kilombo de Açude home of my friend Danilo near Belo Horizonte I painted my Cangaceira on the wall of the common kitchen. Dona Merces the senior of the village pauses here before the wall.
Here in the Kilombo de Açude home of my friend Danilo near Belo Horizonte I painted my Cangaceira on the wall of the common kitchen. Dona Merces the senior of the village pauses here before the wall.
The old woman thought I was painting the devil on her house, she was mad at me for a while. Then she saw all this yellow color and she start smiling and tranquilized. In fact in the African religions, each divinity has a color and the yellow was the color of the goddess she worshiped.
You can see the rails in front of the house. Every day at sunset an immense freight train passes by just a few meters from the house and through the village, a hundred enormous wagons shaking the little paved street.
the day I was painting suddenly everybody ran into their houses closing the doors and windows. Desepearing in a second. I kept painting as if nothing and a few kids passed by armed to the teeth. One of them just looked at me, he was toying spinning his revolver around his finger like a cow boy and they walked away. Indeed the city of Cachoeira is divided by a river, each side being the territory of adverse gangs. That's why we could hear some gunshots at night. They wage a little war crossing on the other side at times for some expeditions.
