Lima Barreto as a character from the newspaper Dom Quixote

Blanca Alaníz, Velos de color serie sobre el comercio nº 4, digitized analog photography, Mexico City, 2020
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By ALEXANDRE JULIETE ROSA*

Considerations about the life of the Brazilian writer and the image that was built over time.

The newspaper and its creator

Don Quixote, a weekly humorous newspaper, began circulating on May 16, 1917 and lasted until March 1926. Its creator and director was the journalist Manoel de Bastos Tigre, who was also a poet [published 16 books of poetry], chronicler, publicist, librarian , among many other activities he carried out.

Bastos Tigre was born on March 12, 1882, in the city of Recife, the son of a prosperous merchant in the region. At the age of 16 he was sent to Rio de Janeiro to study engineering at the Polytechnic School. He ended up falling in love with the city, “which he made his own”, as Marcelo Balaban put it, and ended up spending the rest of his life there: “He graduated as an engineer in 1906, but never got to practice his profession. He dedicated his life to literature, which he understood in a plural form, encompassing humorous poetry, journalism, advertising and theater. In addition to all these activities, he was also a librarian, a job he held for many years and which earned him the title of patron saint of librarians in Brazil.”[I]

The date of March 12, “librarian's day”, is a tribute to Bastos Tigre, who passed away on August 2, 1957. When he finished his Engineering course, Tigre had already immersed himself in Rio's literary bohemia, founded some newspapers and collaborated in others, like The avenue e Correio da Manhã. He frequented the “circles” of cafes and pastry shops. His father, worried about his son's mistakes, sent him to study electricity in the United States, which didn't do much good. It was in this country that the poet came into contact with Mervil Derwey, the creator of the Decimal Classification System. Returning to Brazil, Tigre participated in a librarian competition, being approved first to occupy a position in the library of the National Museum.[ii]

Another contact made in the United States that had a strong influence on Bastos Tigre's life was with advertising. The development that this dimension of merchandise had taken in the country Yankee left the poet captivated: “the Yankees, kings of reclame, announce everywhere, in all original and surprising ways and means; For example, a tombstone in the Bronx cemetery in New York reads this epitaph: 'Here lies Willian Brown, shoe dealer on West 28th Street. His inconsolable widow remains in the same house, in the same line of business.' There is no way to blame the inconsolable widow; The claim has no barriers, it does not stop in front of a tombstone: it goes beyond the tomb.”[iii]

At that time it was very common for men of letters, especially poets, to write advertisements. Many of them put their pen at the service of the “reclame”, as Olavo Bilac himself did: “Tigre began to explore this vein from 1913 onwards, when he began to write the advertising for the Brahma brewery, replacing [also poet] Emílio de Menezes. He [Tigre] became a true advertising professional and even opened what is considered the first professional office in the field in Brazil and was called 'Publicidades Bastos Tigre'. Some of your Slogans they became famous. He is the author of 'If it's Bayer, it's good', translated into many languages.”[iv]

Don Quixote It was one of the most important humorous newspapers in Rio during the first Republic. There was a veritable plethora of chroniclers, humorists and, mainly, caricaturists and designers. In the early years it counted on the collaboration of Humberto de Campos, Antônio Torres, Emílio de Menezes, Lima Barreto, Domingos Ribeiro Filho, among many others. In the drawing: Julião, Raul, Calixto, Bambino, Gil [Carlos Lenoir] – some immortal “pencil” names.

The periodical's main editorial hallmark was the irreverence that permeated the various genres: in the chronicles, poems, theatrical sketches, jokes, stories, drawings, caricatures and even in the classifieds and advertisements. There was also a certain critical stance in relation to political and social events, mainly involving political figures and personalities of the time. Don Quixote was the culmination point in the career of its creator: “The trajectory of Bastos Tigre, in the 1900s and 1910s, was marked by a plural performance, which gradually defined itself until reaching its peak between the years 1917, when he founded the magazine Don Quixote, and the beginning of the 1920s.”[v]

Lima and Tigre

The friendship between Lima Barreto and Bastos Tigre began when they were both engineering students at the Rio de Janeiro Polytechnic School. The future author of Policarpo Quaresma, According to Francisco de Assis Barbosa, he became friends with that loud and playful young man, with big mustaches, whose name was beginning to be seen even outside the School: “One was the antithesis of the other. Lima Barreto, quiet, tucked away in the corners of the corridors or holed up in the library, was known only to a few colleagues. Tiger, no. He got along with everyone. For any reason, he was called upon to give speeches. It was he who, overcoming his friend's shyness, ended up transforming Lima Barreto into a collaboratorThe Lantern, periodical of sciences, letters, arts, industries and sports.”[vi]

The two friends went on to create other humorous publications, The devil e Happy Fortnight, of which there is still no further news. What is certain is that Lima Barreto joined the Polytechnic “gang”, but not for long.

There was an abyss between Lima Barreto and her friends – the color of their skin.

It was mainly after entering college that Lima Barreto began to understand the systematic violence of racism. This is the case, among others, of a night in which Lima Barreto refused to jump over a wall to enter a theater without paying the ticket, together with his friends Nicolau Ciancio – who shared a guesthouse room with Lima – and Bastos Tigre, the latter, the mentor of the idea. The case was reported by Ciancio himself to Francisco de Assis Barbosa:

"- Why did not you come? [asks Nicolau Ciancio, after returning to the pension and finding Lima Barreto lying down and reading]. “– To avoid being arrested as a chicken thief!” [the student responds]. Ciancio pretends not to understand, to which Lima Barreto adds: “– Yes, a black man who jumps walls at night can only be a chicken thief!” Nicolau still tries to soften the situation: “– And we, don’t we jump?” The answer comes quickly: “– Ah! You white people were Polytechnic boys. They were academics. They made a student. But I? Poor me. A little black one. He was held by the police. He would be the one to be arrested.”[vii]

This event occurred more or less in 1902, 1903. It was a time when Lima Barreto suffered domestic misfortune, his father's 'madness', his abandonment of college and his entry into public service, as an amanuensis at the War Arsenal Secretariat. . Other factors led to a certain distance between Lima Barreto and Bastos Tigre, without, however, the camaraderie being broken.

Tigre increasingly solidified his position as a petty bourgeois. He started to attend other “circles”. Living with us chic from Rio de Janeiro. Participate in Botafogo soirees and very popular literary conferences. Lima Barreto remained on the outskirts, living with anarchists and simple people from the suburbs. And so the two careers were formed. In terms of literary production, Bastos Tigre represented the opposite of what Lima Barreto considered the writer's duty.

It is very likely, however, that Lima Barreto was invited by Bastos Tigre to collaborate on the Don Quixote. At that time, Lima Barreto had already published Memories of the Clerk Isaías Caminha [1909], Sad end of Policarpo Quaresma [1911, in serials, and 1915 in book], Numa and the Nymph [1915, in serials, and 1917 in a book], in addition to contributing to several newspapers and magazines, among them, Mask, one of the most renowned of the period. It was no longer an unknown name, once consecrated, and therefore envied and rejected.

Your first text on Don Quixote came out in the 1st edition. August 1917 and is entitled “The Defense of Mr. Coffee". This is a chronicle that ironizes the second coffee valorization policy [1917 to 1920], an instrument used by federal governments during the first Republic to rescue São Paulo farmers from bankruptcy.[viii]

Lima Barreto, character from Don Quixote

I managed to identify six chronicles published by Lima Barreto in Don Quixote. Of the six, four, apparently, do not appear in the collections that bring together the author's texts, both in volumes of chronicles and short stories.[ix]

Although the collaboration was not very intense, Lima Barreto's name was omnipresent in the newspaper's editions – until 1922, the year in which the writer passed away. It is not very easy to identify the type of relationship between Lima and the editors of the Don Quixote. There is no published correspondence between Lima Barreto and Bastos Tigre. There are few existing records.

One of these records is a letter from Domingos Ribeiro Filho, a writer who was an anarchist at the time, a friend of Lima Barreto and a colleague in a public office. Ribeiro Filho collaborated on the Don Quixote throughout 1918, but his texts differed from the newspaper's editorial line, mainly due to his anarchist and somewhat moralizing protest, sometimes going a bit macabre.[X]

 This is the point that appears in the letter: the fact that Ribeiro Filho feels “astonished at how people still publish me, a boycott and an unsubmissive”. Ribeiro considers himself a left No. Don Quixote, living under a “vague threat that is aggravated by my marked aversion to harmless jokes”. He writes that he tried, together with Bastos Tigre, to change the orientation of the newspaper, to give it “a combative aspect, an impetuous face and a spirit capable of striking head on.” All in vain, as Bastos Tigre was “the opposite of the apostle and a very current document of egocentric, utilitarian and opportunistic talent” and that “the rest of the Don Quixote It is done to nullify the bad effect of my maximalist outbursts (have you read it?)”.[xi]

These are harsh words that I don't know if Lima Barreto agreed with. In fact, the author of Isaias Caminha I didn't agree with the type of business that Bastos Tigre did with letters, nor with the type of literature that Ribeiro Filho wrote. He collaborated with the Don Quixote in the same way as for several other humorous periodicals – to supplement his income and get noticed. He committed his creative energy to the great works that made him one of the greatest of our letters. He himself had vented to his friend Antonio Noronha Santos, in a letter from 1908, that he found “this life of mine as a salaried scribe working on digs and jokes is quite ignoble! I’m trying to get rid of this infamous thing.”[xii]

What is certain is that, in addition to the chronicles he wrote in the editions of Don Quixote, Lima Barreto's name appeared as a kind of character in the newspaper. The humorous observations basically fell on two characteristics of Lima Barreto – his humble clothing and his alcoholism, signs of the writer's poverty and the very heavy burden he carried in life and which made him start drinking.

I reproduce some anecdotes:

“Lima Barreto, the elegant novelist, ordered a frock-coat suit from Alfaiataria Belchior Irmãos. It is suspected that he intends to present his candidacy to the Academy.”[xiii]

“The illustrious Mr. Nilo Peçanha. The modification was attributed to the lotion called 'Carapinhina', which has given excellent results on your hair. Paulo Barreto, Hermes Fontes and our companion Antônio Torres. The only negative certificates so far are from Dr. Juliano Moreira and novelist Lima Barreto.”[xiv] [the racist aspect of the joke is evident, as all the names mentioned were black men].

“The novelist Lima Barreto is another man of society who attracts attention. This does not happen to him, however, because of his slender appearance, but because of the help of the tailor, who works hard to make his clothes, which he is careful, however, to always have made according to the measurements of others.”[xv]

“Lima Barreto has just received one hundred thousand réis at Garnier, when the note slips out of his hand and lands in an unclean place.

- Money has no smell [Money doesn’t smell] – says the manager.

And Lima:

- Et l'auteur n'a pas d'argent [And the author has no money].

And he left with the 'copper'.”[xvi]

This small sample came from the “Elegâncias” column, which had the function, in Don Quixote, make a humorous parody of the famous “Binóculo” column, created by journalist and writer Figueiredo Pimentel, in the newspaper News Gazette. “Binoculars” was one of the prototypes of . famous “Social Columns” that spread across the press in the following decades.

Lima Barreto became a frequent figure in the “Elegâncias” column. There is no way of knowing what Lima thought of the jokes, he himself is a notorious jokester. It was the spirit of the time, at a time when literati, men of letters, had a social status that made them true celebrities. It is no coincidence that that period is also called the 'Republic of Letters'. As historian Isabel Lustosa observed: “The prestige of literati also means the prestige of their attitudes, almost always contaminated by irreverence. For them, the law of the spirit also applies. Even the most absurd, when taken with the approval of the spirit, lose their pernicious character to enrich the folklore that makes bohemians notable. No period in Brazilian history will equal the turn of the century as the golden age of jokes and irreverence.”[xvii]

Regarding his clothing, Lima Barreto himself made some considerations, as appears in one of his most poignant chronicles: “don't bother with my tawdry clothing, because it is my elegance and my pose. "[xviii]

It really seems like Lima Barreto liked to tease us chic from Rio de Janeiro: “when I come to Avenida [Avenida Central, now Rio Branco], especially on days when I'm dirty and bearded, I feel a great pleasure in comparing the refined refinements of the outfit, with my absolute relaxation…”[xx]

In a text from 1921, in which he recalls things from the past, we can see that the issue of clothing had been going on for a long time: “When, twenty years ago, I went to live in the suburbs, the train irritated me. The presumption, the pedantry, the arrogance with which my frayed and green clothes looked at me, shook my nerves and made me revolt. Today, however, the importance of these suburban tycoons makes me laugh.”[xx]

Seen from this angle, the mischief involving Lima Barreto and his clothing came, on the one hand, from the writer's financial difficulties, and on the other, from the assumption of this poverty transformed into a pose. It is worth noting that this shabby Lima Barreto about whom so much was said actually existed, but for a few moments – “mainly on days when I am dirty and bearded” – and was not, under any circumstances, a constant in his life. The ghastly image of the drunk and poorly dressed writer, falling through the gutters, emerged as a skewed, often malicious, excerpt from his biography that persists to this day.

Bastos Tigre himself, who lived with Lima Barreto for almost two decades, in a very special moment in which he rescued the writer's story, insists on that argument about the cachaçada and the worn-out clothes. Writing some memory chronicles in 1946, in a series entitled “Emilio de Menezes and the Bohemia of his time”, he grants three texts to the author of the Polycarp Quaresma. The first is the good old anecdote involving Lima Barreto and cachaça:

“It was rumored that Lima Barreto was complaining about his headquarters in a city in the northeast, in the middle of a drought.

– Imagine, he said to Armando Gonzaga, that one night in Apodi [mountainous region of Rio Grande do Norte], my thirst was so great that, in desperation, I reached for a bottle of nail polish that I discovered on a shelf.

– And did you drink the varnish?

– I drank, I mean, not the varnish itself. The varnish was deposited at the bottom of the bottle; I was very careful to swallow the alcohol that was on top.

– Amazing! Gonzaga exclaimed. But wasn't there a well, a small stream, a pond, something with water nearby?

– There was; but I was going there to think about taking a shower at that time!

(Let it be said in truth that Barreto has never been to the northeast…)”[xxx]

Another memory of Bastos Tigre, this one longer and 'personal', appeared in the December 12 edition of that same year. The friend recognizes, without placing himself among the promoters, that Lima Barreto's name had been systematically remembered through certain anecdotes: “those who have been concerned with the unique personality of the author of Isaias Caminha They got to know him through information and anecdotes, which were always related to the writer’s alcoholism.”[xxiii]

Tigre considers that the drunkenness in Lima Barreto’s life “was a consequence of his weak head and his state of permanent malnutrition.” Therefore, just one dose of parati “was enough to make him upset; a little more and there he is, stumbling, chewing his words, mixing his ideas; Remarkable fact to note: This mestizo without social education, frequenting the lower circles of society for many hours of the day, was incapable, even in the most acute period of drunkenness, of uttering any dirty word, any obscene expression. His cleanliness, his restraint in language were things that were always noticed and commented on by his companions.”

From there, one can already notice the 'sociological' distance between the two, in addition to the deeply rooted prejudice in the way Tigre refers to the popular classes. He also mentions “the sloppiness of his clothes”, which was something “incorrigible” about the writer: “Lima Barreto was absolutely careless in his appearance. toilette. If the clothes were stained by food or drink, little was done. Sometimes he slept with his clothes on and, in the morning and throughout the day, his rumpled clothes betrayed the hard and uncomfortable bed on which he rested.”

A man of rare friends, that Lima Barreto. According to Tigre, few were those who “dedicated real esteem to him, admiring his work and not being ashamed of his company, despite the disheveledness and precarious cleanliness of his tailored clothes… from others. Lima Barreto, in that beggar shell, was too proud to ask anyone for money. At most, he would ask those close to him for a few nickels for the tram”.

It is important to highlight that at the end of the article the memoirist makes a little effort to expand the information panel about the writer's life. To the tellers of suspicious anecdotes that involved Lima Barreto in a pitiful life, almost a catrumano, Tigre draws attention to the importance of “examining the series of complexes that influenced the poor novelist's mind to make him become confused, to create with the alcohol an artificial environment in which the ordeal of living would seem less painful to him: To begin with, color, which was a big, heavy stumbling block for him. Soon after, poverty adds the psychic inability to 'dig', to 'take' money. Added to this is the mentally ill father, whom his son's affection kept at home, transforming his humble home into a place of sadness and worries. Lima Barreto fled to the street, to the back of the suburban bar where he met the characters in his novels. Drunkenness (dipsomania, they called it after his death) was a bad thing for him and for Brazilian letters.”

O Don Quixote he took advantage as much as he could of this – always important to emphasize – troubled face of Lima Barreto's life. From the pages of the newspaper emerged the sediments that helped to mark the image of the dull and limp writer. Let us mention a few:

“Lima Barreto, the magnificent Lima Barreto from the 'Memoirs of the scribe Isaías Caminha' became a maximalist. Every day at the Press Association, he does meetings of propaganda, organizes soviets, distributes the fortune of Modesto Leal and Viscount de Moraes, undermines São Paulo, demoralizes the army, dissolves the navy and preaches the politics of soldiers and workers. A few days ago he was helping himself to a modest draft beer at the Rio Branco bar, when, looking at the glass they served him, where the liquid blonde reached just three fingers below the rim of the container, he shouted:

- How is that?

– Captain?

- No sir! Private! I'm a maximalist! I don't accept gallons!

The waiter, fearing the dynamite bomb, leveled the beer at the highest level.”[xxiii]

 “Mr. Minister of Agriculture is now keenly interested in discovering the best fishing process on the coasts of Brazil. The Doctor. Lima Barreto, from the Ministry of War, was to present a memorial to the Fisheries Inspectorate about fishing in Parati.”[xxv]

“Lima Barreto complained about the lack of water.

– And when you miss that, where do you go, Barreto?

- Straight to the bar… replied the novelist from Isaías Caminha.”[xxiv]

“– What are the biggest cities in the world? – they asked Lima Barreto.

And he, geographical:

– Geneva and Parati.”[xxv]

News was circulating in the newspapers at the time about a bill banning the sale of alcoholic beverages in bars, cafes and restaurants in Rio de Janeiro after 7pm. It was a full plate for the editors and designers of the Don Quixote.

On this subject we find pearls like this: “Debalde will use his magnificent talent in the fight to the death against bottles, Mr. Francisco Sá [Senator]. Mr. Raymundo de Miranda [Senator] will be the one to scream condemning all the water that birds don't drink; in the Chamber, let's not even talk; It would be difficult to enumerate how many abstemious legislators will uselessly tire the bofes by preaching the breaking of all empty… hulls. Such a measure beyond that would be counterproductive; Every persecution makes martyrs and martyrdom is always nice. The forbidden fruit is the most coveted; we would see 'Alcoholpathia' progress, prosper gloriously, the new science of healing, the only medicine that, according to Professor Amorim Júnior, could put an end to Lima Barreto's rheumatism.”[xxviii]

It's not just the scattered anecdotes that populate the newspaper's pages. Lima Barreto appeared as a true character in chronicles and other records, with his name almost always linked to alcohol. Appears in the famous series History of Brazil through the Confused Method, signed by Mendes Fradique, pseudonym of the Espírito Santo doctor José Madeira de Freitas.

Written in the best serial style, the series written by Mendes Fradique is a parody of textbooks on the history of Brazil, but it doesn't stop there. According to historian Isabel Lustosa, this humorous and satirical part of Madeira de Freitas' work constitutes a synthesis of an entire form of expression from that period, between the end of the 1930th century and the mid-XNUMXs, that is, the period of the first Republic : the carnivalization of history, society, politics, letters, personalities.

A History of Brazil through the Confused Method “obeys the chronology of historical facts traditionally followed by textbooks dedicated to primary schools. But this obedience to chronology is relative. Mendes Fradique actually works with two simultaneous beats. In a diachronic movement, the narrative follows the traditional model. However, in a synchronous movement, it makes this traditional story happen in a contemporary Brazil.”[xxviii]

This is how we learn of the departure of Cabral's fleet, “the technical part was entrusted to the Portuguese admiral Capistrano de Abreu, and the command of the fleet to Colonel Pedro Álvares Gouveia de Cabral, briosa officer, chief excavator of the Kingdom and former senator for the Amazon”[xxix]

The book requires very detailed knowledge of the history of Brazil, especially the 1910s. Cabral himself – the Portuguese –, as Isabel Lustosa suggests, appears intertwined with the figure of Colonel Antônio Clemente Ribeiro Bittencourt, who was governor of Amazonas between 1908 and 1913, nicknamed Pedro Álvares Cabral and accused of promoting drunken parties and orgies in the government palace. Capistrano de Abreu, in turn, was one of the most important Brazilian historians and was considered one of the most relevant figures among Brazilian intellectuals at the beginning of the XNUMXth century: “The result is a curious panel of society and its political and cultural elites of the First Republic, in the form of a puzzle or riddle, full of false clues.”[xxx]

This is the basic mechanism of Fradique Mendes' method: the 'official' history of Brazil diluted and intertwined in the author's contemporary time; all stitched together in a cynical and tomboyish humor, enhanced by the grotesque caricatures made by Madeira de Freitas himself. There is no type of gradation between historical times: “the trivialization of the characters occurs through their daily contact with the reality familiar to the reader and the author.”[xxxii]

In chapter 5 of the book ['The first cavações – Caramuru'], Mendes Fradique tells the story of a crew member who managed to survive a torpedo attack by one of the fleets sent from Portugal to Brazil. It was the beginning of colonization, one of the ships of the Portuguese fleet was torpedoed by a German submarine [reference to the German attacks that resulted in Brazil's entry into the First World War]. There was only one survivor left who, “after swimming eight days and nights, washed ashore, soaked, with an insurance company policy left over. On the beach he met Savage Landor, a smuggler and man of letters who, for some time now, had made a living on the coasts of Brazil.”[xxxi]

Savage Landor lived in a cave, where he kept the fruits of his machinations as a smuggler. He managed to scam the castaway, keeping the insurance policies and managing to escape at the exact moment the cave had been discovered by the indigenous police. The castaway was arrested and they discovered that he was none other than Caramuru himself [Diogo Alvares Correia], who reacted to the arrest and fired a shot at Dr. Ozório Duque, discoverer of the castaway's true identity. Caramuru missed the shot, or worse, hit the guinea fowl, which had made the entire crossing with Pedro Alvares Cabral: “The shot caused a real scandal among the indigenous people, and a commission of notables was appointed to explain the explosion. The investigation was opened. Searching Savage's cave, they found several bottles of whiskey, which Mr. Lima Barreto, member of the commission, concluded that it was an English edition of Parati.”[xxxii]

Lima Barreto also appears in the chapter on Independence, more precisely in the context of the so-called Lisbon Courts – so decisive for the rupture between colonial Brazil and Portugal: “Acts of rebellion against the Lisbon courts occurred with great frequency, and It was on a rainy afternoon that Mr. Lima Barreto organized the council of attorneys, responsible for finding a way to organize, as soon as possible, the personal independence of each person.”[xxxv]

His name continues to appear in several episodes of History, most often related to alcohol. As a last example, I mention the writer's presence in the chapter on the reign of D. Pedro I, a Fradique reinvention of the episode of the dissolution of the constituent, which occurred in November 1823, where other names appear contemporary to Mendes Fradique, such as Bastos Tigre , the actor Leopoldo Fróes, among others: “It was that same afternoon that Pedro I, Rotschild, entering Pascoal [famous confectionery in the 1910s], slightly touched, joined the guaraná circle, and as he didn't like this drink, because from the trepação [annoyance, teasing of others], he asked for a bottled broth with coconut water. He drank; Lima Barreto arrived: they drank. Cavalcanti [Lima Cavalcanti, João Barafunda] appeared, they continued drinking. At so many hours, Pascoal's stock was exhausted, d. Pedro, insatiable, dissolved the Constituent Assembly and drank.”[xxxiv]

In another unusual publication, Lima Barreto appears as medium in a séance; a chronicle full of braggadocio involving Senator Raymundo de Miranda, great enemy of drinking: “The memorable session of the week was, however, the one that took place in Mr. Raymundo de Miranda, in which, among other important people, Messrs. senators Adbias Neves, dr. Adoasto de Godoy, dr. Bastos Tigre, Dr. Luiz Edmundo, and, serving as 'medium', the novelist Lima Barreto.”[xxxiv]

The creativity of the editors of the Don Quixote had no limits. In the edition of March 9, 1921 we find the dramaturgy of a sainete [genre of short, popular, one-act, comic or satirical play] entitled “Grêmio Temperança” and signed by a certain Joachim Conceagá. The scene takes place “in an elegant club, at three o'clock on a beautiful dawn” and portrays a “memorable meeting chaired by Lima Barreto”, a meeting that had as its objective the founding of “Grêmio Temperança”, a joke, like several others that have already been shown, with the issue of drinking among intellectuals and which feature Lima Barreto as a central figure.[xxxviii]

Finishing this small sample that covers the five years in which Lima Barreto appeared as a character in the Sun quixote, let us quote the comics from the “De Zóio Aberto” section, from January 1922:

Pru talks about that, I remembered

From a singular idea,

If fashion gives you cachaça

For the ôtomóve to pick up,

The garage can be

To Brahma o ontonce the Paschoá,

If I blame Lima Barreto

In a subé of other places.[xxxviii]

There are other references to Lima Barreto's name that are not necessarily related to alcohol or the writer's ragged style. They are rare. One of them, a letter from the clerk Isaías Caminha addressed to Policarpo Quaresma, two of his main characters: “My dear Policarpo Quaresma. Let fools laugh at your unwavering patriotism. He who laughs last will laugh well. Brazil is the country of the future; it will develop through the strength of its farming, commerce and industry, whether pessimists like it or not. Even today, while shaking off my sorrows, enjoying the cigarette that Lima Barreto offered me, I came to the conclusion that it is not possible to compete with us when it comes to good cigarettes. Curious, I read the label: York – Marca Veado. Smoke it and recommend it to your friends. Always your affectionate; Isaiah, Clerk.”[xxxix]

But what really remained, for posterity, alongside recognition as one of the greatest writers we had, was his reputation as a drunkard and a ragamuffin. And, indeed, in those moments, Lima Barreto would go down to the gutter. He underwent some hospitalizations in psychiatric hospitals due to alcohol abuse, which he began consuming after the age of thirty.

At the end of his life he was almost completely destroyed by drinking. It was from this time that a meeting, or disagreement, between Lima Barreto and the young Sérgio Buarque de Holanda dates back to this time. The scene was narrated by the author himself. Brazil roots, when he participated in the doctoral committee of historian Nicolau Sevcenko. He described the incident in a letter to Francisco de Assis Barbosa: “Prof. Sérgio reported an incident, which he considered extremely unpleasant, that had once occurred between him and the writer [Lima Barreto]. While walking with his girlfriend, a very educated girl of high social status, he came across the man at an intersection on one of the streets close to Av. Rio Branco. Lima Barreto, he stated, was drunk and shirtless and addressed the two in a rude and inelegant manner, in a tone of defiance regarding their situation and disheveledness, which left them both vexed and embarrassed. The melancholic tone of the defendant's voice seemed to confirm that the mere recollection of the incident still aroused an uncomfortable feeling in him. However, he still emphasized that it was necessary to understand that this inelegance and clumsiness of the amanuensis were originally imposed on him by his own situation of penury and the real financial difficulties in which the author lived.”[xl]

A counterpoint

This ungoverned part of Lima Barreto's life was greatly valued, which included some critical episodes, such as psychiatric outbreaks triggered by excess alcohol and events such as this 'meeting' with Sérgio Buarque de Holanda. Added to this is the characteristic anecdote of bohemian and intellectual life in Rio de Janeiro in the first decades of the 1900s. On the other hand, it is possible to find very eloquent traces that Lima Barreto was not just the poorly dressed drunk who had moments of genius.

There is much evidence that Lima Barreto actively participated in the social circles of the Republic of Letters and not just in the “circles” of taverns and confectioneries. At the beginning of the 1910s, he took part in some trials, serving as a juror in the jury court, and was even chosen as president in one of them.[xi]

In August 1911, the creation of the “Academia d'A Imprensa”, also called “Academia dos Novos” or “Academia dos Dez”, was discussed, to rival the Brazilian Academy of Letters and open space for new values ​​in national literature. . This is an initiative by a group of intellectuals linked to the newspaper The press, who “had listed no less than three hundred names from the new generation, including Lima Barreto. These three hundred would elect the ten permanent members of the Academy. Each elected candidate could vote for three different names. Lima Barreto was interested in the election. At least, he was present at the investigation, as seen in the photograph, published on the first page of The press, on 12-8-1911”.[xliii]

The Academia dos Novos did not come to fruition and ended a few weeks after the kickoff. There were protests against the results of the competition for the election of the ten members of staff. And it all ended in a ridiculous sword duel between the literary criticThe press, José do Patrocínio Filho, and one of the failed candidates, consul Ferreira de Vasconcelos.

It is not very difficult to find Lima Barreto's name on several solemn occasions and alongside representative figures of the intellectuality of the period. Let's look at a small record from one of the main newspapers of the time: the father.

In this newspaper there was also a “social column”, where we found Lima Barreto participating, for example, in organizing the reception party for Olavo Bilac, who was returning from a trip to Europe. The tribute to the prince of poets was an initiative of members of the Brazilian Press Association, of which Lima Barreto was a member. The commissions were for Reception, Invitations and Party and among the many submissions the following were received: “Fontoura Xavier, Humberto Gottuzo, Sylvio Bevilaqua, José Oiticica, Lima Barreto…”.[xiii]

In June 1914, the Society of Men of Letters was founded, on the initiative of writer Oscar Lopes. It was yet another attempt to create an organization whose objective was to work for the professionalization of writers and the defense of intellectual activities. And there was Lima Barreto as one of the co-founders of the new institution.

From Oscar Lopes' inaugural speech I quote this passage: “Very few years ago the idea was floated by gentlemen. Costa Rego, Goulart de Andrade and Sebastião Sampaio. This was also not the first time that such a thing had been considered in Brazil: I suppose that, in 1890, the most prominent names from the different literary currents of the time managed to obtain a form of association, whose main purposes were, like the present ones, the defense of mental production. It is possible that there will be more initiatives. Mr. Lima Barreto, who a few days ago discovered the statutes of another, the oldest of all, kindly thought of offering them to me.”[xiv]

The meetings of the Society of Men of Letters took place in the luxurious building of the Commerce Newspaper and, on their solemn occasions, they counted on the fine flower of Rio society. One of its most popular activities was the “Literary Hour”, where poetry recitals took place on Saturday afternoons. It was at a “Literary Hour” event that a tragedy claimed the new group of writers: the murder of the poet Annibal Theóphilo by the writer and recently elected deputy Gilberto Amado. The crime took place on the afternoon of June 19, 1915 and became explosive news among the Rio population. Gilberto was arrested in the act after firing several shots that ended the poet's life. There was extensive coverage by the press, which reported the case frenziedly and daily, especially behind the scenes, both of the crime and the criminal process.[xlv]

Lima Barreto's name continues to appear on the pages ofthe father, as a participant and co-founder of guilds, societies, organizations, etc. It is the case, in January 1916, of the news about the founding of Centro Carioca: “The children of the Federal District will meet on the 20th of this month, at 14 pm, at the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios, in order to discuss the foundation of a charitable center, without political color. Messrs. Raul Pederneiras, Francisco Bittencourt Filho, José Mariano, Lima Barreto, Nicanor Nascimento joined and accepted the title of partners…”[xlv]

In July of that same year, the Paiz already reported on some events held by Centro Carioca: “On the 14th of this month, in the Praça da República park, a charming party will be organized by Centro Carioca, a new association that includes members such as Lima Barreto, Regulo Valderato, Raul Pederneiras, Dr. Carlos Magalhães, Olavo Bilac…”[xlv]

In the same “Vida Social”, another party organized by Centro Carioca, in September of that same year: “It will take place on the 17th of September, in Parque da Praça da República, with an attractive program, prepared by the members: Dr. Raul Pederneiras , Dr. Francisco Salema Garção Ribeiro, Amadeu de Beaurepaire Rohan, Dr. A. Peres Júnior, Lima Barreto, Dr. Paulo Frontin and others”.[xlviii]

More detailed research in other newspapers and magazines and a deeper look into the activities carried out by such associations could qualitatively enrich this aspect of Lima Barreto's life. I believe these small examples were enough to demonstrate that the writer did not live solely on cachaça and bars. On the other hand, there is the reinvigoration of research around the category of the autobiographical report, which shifts the protagonism from a self-centered and stable referentiality to multiple possibilities and strategies of self-figuration of a “self that writes”. Often there is not a single coincidence between a subject who narrates his life – in a diary, for example – and the person with flesh, blood, heart, brain and stomach who is in front of the blank sheet of paper.

What exists are strategies. For the “mulatto” writer at the beginning of the last century, on whom all sorts of scientific evidence that proved the inferiority of the mixture of races weighed, degeneration was already a given of nature; moral qualities and physical traits coincided: the darker the skin color, the more disgraced. It seems like things haven't changed much since then.

The centrality of a certain personality trait, a trait that is bequeathed to us through historical transmission, never exempt or impartial, depends on a context. Lima Barreto's biography is still inscribed in determinations and judgment categories dating back more than a century. Francisco de Assis Barbosa's efforts were unfortunately not continued. On the contrary. Some “new” biographies that emerged went back to the beginning of the 20th century, and when they tried to advance a little, they were nothing more than the musty effort of drawing conclusions about the writer's life from his work of fiction, appealing to the providential alter ego from the author.

I believe that there is a radical difference between introspective writing done by a white, bourgeois author, with its private dramas and contradictions, and the inclusion in this type of writing of pictures of the psychic life of a writer rooted in the experience of the historical trauma of slavery. The question was posed by Paul Gilroy: “How should discontinuous histories of diaspora resistance be thought of […] How have these histories been theorized by those who have experienced the consequences of racial domination?” [xlix]. The same movement that the Black Atlantic thinker saw in the work of Frederick Douglass is perhaps a good way to think about Lima's “autobiographical works”, which would express “in the most powerful way, a tradition of writing in which autobiography becomes an act or process of simultaneous self-creation and self-emancipation, whose presentation of a public persona it thus becomes a founding motif within the expressive culture of the African diaspora.”[l]

*Alexandre Juliete Rosa holds a master's degree in Brazilian literature from the Institute of Brazilian Studies at the University of São Paulo (IEB-USP).

Notes


[I] Marcelo Balaban. Snapshots of Rio Antigo – Bastos Tigre. Campinas: Mercado das Letras, 2003, p. 11.

[ii] Ditto, p. 17.

[iii] Bastos Tigre (D. Xiquote). “A Reclame”. Don Quixote. Rio de Janeiro, May 30, 1917, p. 11. In this link.

[iv] Marcelo Balaban. Op cit., p. 19.

[v] Ditto, p. 21.

[vi] Francisco de Assis Barbosa. The life of Lima Barreto. Belo Horizonte: Autêntica, 2017, p. 107.

[vii] Ditto, p. 116.

[viii] Lima Barreto. “Mr. Coffee". Don Quixote. Rio de Janeiro, August 1, 1917, p. 12. In this link.

The chronicle was collected by Assis Barbosa and published in the volume Things from the Jambon Kingdom – Vol. VIII of Complete Works of Lima Barreto. São Paulo: Brasiliense, 1956, pp. 94-6. Also present in All Chronicle, Vol. 1.

[ix] The chronicles were published in the 31/01/24 and 24/04/24 editions of the website The earth is round and can be accessed through this link and from this another link.

[X] See, for example, the chronicle “The Headless Duck”, from October 09, 1918. In this link.

[xi] Letter from Domingos Ribeiro Filho to Lima Barreto. No date, but probably from 1918. Available in Lima Barreto. Correspondence – Volume I. Complete Works of Lima Barreto, Vol. XVI. São Paulo: Brasiliense, 1956, p. 214-5.

[xii] Lima Barrett. Correspondence – Tomo I. Complete Works of Lima Barreto, Vol. XVI. São Paulo: Brasiliense, 1956, p. 35.

[xiii] Don Quixote. Elegance. Rio de Janeiro, August 22, 1917, p. 06. In this link.

[xiv] Don Quixote. Elegance. Rio de Janeiro, September 19, 1917, p. 06. In this link.

[xv] Don Quixote. Elegance. Rio de Janeiro, December 25, 1918, p. 31. In this link

[xvi] Don Quixote. Elegance. Rio de Janeiro, June 11, 1919, p. 06. In this link.

[xvii] Isabel Lustosa. Brazil by the Confused Method: humor and bohemia in Fradique Mendes. Rio de Janeiro: Bertand Brasil, 1993, p. 38 – 40.

[xviii] Lima Barreto. “Who will it be, after all?” ABC Rio de Janeiro, January 25, 1919, p. 13. In this link.

Chronicle collected by Lima Barreto himself for the volume trifles, published posthumously. Rio de Janeiro: Empresa de Romances Populares, 1923, pp. 81–85. Also present in All Chronicle, Vol. 1.

[xx] Lima Barreto. “Modern Dresses”. Mask. Rio de Janeiro, July 22, 1922, p. 32. In this link.

Collected in the collection marginalia – Vol. XII of Complete works, P. 89. In All Chronicle, Vol. II.

[xx] Lima Barreto. “The Suburban Train”. News Gazette. Rio de Janeiro, December 21, 1921, p. 02. In this link.

Chronicle collected by Assis Barbosa in the volume Fairs and Mafuás, pp. 241–46. In All Chronicle, Vol. II.

[xxx] Bastos Tigre. “Emilio de Menezes and the Bohemia of his time”. Let's read! Rio de Janeiro, October 3, 1946, p. 60. In this link.

The chronicle was collected by Marcelo Balaban, op., cit., p. 152.

[xxiii] Bastos Tigre. “Emílio de Menezes and the bohemia of his time”. Let's read! Rio de Janeiro, December 12, 1946, p. 35 and 63. In this link.

[xxiii] Don Quixote. Rio de Janeiro, March 27, 1918, p. 10. In this link.

[xxv] Don Quixote. Bulletin of the day.Rio de Janeiro, March 05, 1919, p. 10. In this link.

[xxiv] Don Quixote. Rio de Janeiro, October 08, 1919, p. 10. In this link.

[xxv] Don Quixote. Rio de Janeiro, November 12, 1919, p. 10. In this link.

[xxviii] João Any. The victory of the water paddles. Don Quixote. Rio de Janeiro, September 17, 1919. In this link.

[xxviii] Isabel Lustosa. Brazil by the Confused Method: humor and bohemia in Fradique Mendes. Rio de Janeiro: Bertand Brasil, 1993, p. 127.

[xxix] Mendes Fradique (José Madeira de Freitas). History of Brazil through the Confused Method. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2004, p. 63.

The original series was written throughout 1919, in the Don Quixote. In 1920 it was published as a book by Livraria e Editora Bento Ribeiro. In 1923 it was already in its fifth edition, with more than 15 thousand copies sold. From this link It is possible to access this edition of the work.

[xxx] Isabel Lustosa. "Introduction". In: History of Brazil through the Confused Method. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2004, p. 16.

[xxxii] Isabel Lustosa. Brazil through the Confused Method, P. 130.

[xxxi] Mendes Fradique. History of Brazil through the Confused Method, P. 94. (“Arnold Henry Savage Landor [1865 – 1924], son of English parents, born in Italy and educated in France, was in Brazil in the first decade of the XNUMXth century. Author of several travel books with fanciful accounts.” Isabel Lustosa, op. quoted, 295.)

[xxxii] Idem, p. 95. Through this link you can consult the original publication.

[xxxv] Ditto, p. 130.

[xxxiv] Ditto, p. 136.

[xxxiv] Don Quixote. Elegance. Rio de Janeiro, January 12, 1921, p. 12. In this link.

[xxxviii] Don Quixote. O Grêmio Temperança – sainete by Joachim Conceagá. Rio de Janeiro, March 9, 1921, p. 18 and 19. In this link.

[xxxviii] Joaquim da Serva Garvão. Open Zóio. Rio de Janeiro, January 11, 1922, p. 23. In this link.

[xxxix] Don Quixote. Rio de Janeiro, October 10, 1917, p. 21. In this link.

[xl] Nicolau Sevcenko's letter to Francisco de Assis Barbosa was discovered by researcher Denilson Botelho, whom I thank for sending the document in full. See the article “Lima Barreto is banned in the newspaper!”, from the link:

[xi] In this regard, see the chronicle “A dinner at the Jury”, published in October 1915 in the magazine Mask and the article “Uxoricides and Brazilian society”, published in Contemporary Magazine on March 1919.

[xliii] Francisco de Assis Barbosa. “Alcindo Guanabara – 1911”. In: Lima Barreto. Active and passive correspondence, 1st Volume. Complete Works of Lima Barreto – Vol. XVI. São Paulo: Brasiliense, 1956, p. 235. From this link You can see this very rare photo cited by Assis Barbosa, where Lima Barreto appears, in the background, following the election count:

[xiii] the father. Social life. Rio de Janeiro, June 25, 1913, p. 03. In this link.

[xiv] the father. Society of Men of Letters – Founding session. Rio de Janeiro, June 18, 1914, p. two. In this link.

[xlv] Starting this link you have access to the article “The murder of Annibal Theophilo: literary honor and conflicts between writers in Rio de Janeiro”, written by historian Marcelo Balaban, who reconstructs and interprets that entire episode.

[xlv] the father. Cariocas found a resistance center. Rio de Janeiro, January 16, 1916, p. 7. In this link.

[xlv] the father. Social life. Rio de Janeiro, July 07, 1916, p. 4. In this link.

[xlviii] the father. Social life. Rio de Janeiro, August 19, 1916, p. 4. In this link.

[xlix] Paul Gilroy: The black Atlantic. São Paulo, Editora 34, p. 83.

[l] Ditto, p. 151.


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