CRUZ DAS almas: a BRAZILIAN VILLAGE^ — PIERSON 



199 



there at the jail.' Can you imagine that? A man 

 who earns his living keeping the peace comes to a 

 village like ours and he talks like that, making 

 light of everji^hing and everyone and then not 

 doing his duty when it's pointed out to him." 

 "Yes, he was no good," another villager agreed. 

 "We once had a sordado sent here," he added, "who 

 liked it so well, he spent his whole life in the 

 village." 



The soJdado Gilberto succeeded Vicente. He 

 brought with him to the village his wife and 

 seven children. He was a modest and unassuming 

 man and as such quite acceptable to the villagers. 

 He and his familj-, however, were Protestants in 

 an almost entirely Catholic community. They had 

 formerly lived in the city of Sao Paulo and felt 

 out of place in the village. The soldado was once 

 heard to remark that he had never seen "so cai- 

 flra''' ^^ a people. The family remained some- 

 what aloof from their neighbors. Thej' partici- 

 pated in none of the customary public gatherings, 

 either religious or secular. They felt unaccepted 

 and increasingly ill at ease. Although in no way 

 actually repelled or even threatened with expul- 

 sion, as was the soldado Vicente, Gilberto, after a 

 few months in the village, sought and obtained a 

 transfer to a post in another community. 



The man whom villagers refer to as "the phar- 

 macist," came to the village with a small supply 

 of drugs and patent medicines. A villager 

 recalled : 



He lived right next door to me in Nha Benta's house. 

 No one liked him. He went around acting so superior. 

 He was a rude fellow and full of complaints about every- 

 thing. Once he wanted to borrow some sugar of me ; I 

 was glad to let him have it. The sugar was coarse but 

 it was all I had, and it was good. A few days later he 

 sent some sugar in return ; it was "sugar of the first 

 quality." "That's the way it is !" he said. "Here in the 

 village, people lend you common, ordinary things and then 

 you have to pay them back with first-grade stuff. He was 

 always saying nasty things like that. He didn't know 

 what every caipira knows: that to keep people from dis- 

 liking you, you must learn to get along with them. He 

 ended up by leaving here. 



Eenato came to the village from Rio Grande do 

 Norte. He was soon known and referred to in the 

 community as "the Riograndense." Wlien he had 

 been in the village a few months, he was attending, 

 one day, a religious festival. Geraldo, a young 



'" See Caipira versus CidadSo, p. 107. 



man in the village, considerably under the influ- 

 ence of pinga, had purchased a small trinket of a 

 traveling peddler and had refused to pay for it. 

 The peddler was from the northern State of Per- 

 nambuco. Eenato, feeling an affinity with the 

 peddler by reason of the fact that he also was from 

 a northern State, intervened in the matter. At 

 the time, he also was considerably under the in- 

 fluence of pinga. Grasping the shirt of the young 

 man, he began to shake him and to demand that 

 he pay. A fight resulted and several blows were 

 exchanged, in the course of which the shirt was 

 torn. The disputants were soon separated by 

 bystanders. Eenato, however, continued his com- 

 ments in a loud voice. At this point the soldado 

 came up and inquired what was going on. One of 

 the bystanders undertook to inform him. He said 

 that "the Riograndense" had torn the shirt of the 

 young man, and that he could not expect to make 

 him pay for the trinket by using such methods. 

 ^^^lereupon Eenato turned to the bystander and 

 shouted in a loud voice, "You are not my friends. 

 Not a single one of you in this accursed j)lace. 

 You listen only to Gerardo because he's one of 

 you." The bystander did not at first reply. As 

 Eenato continued his remarks, however, he finally 

 turned and, in a cold voice, with deadly intent, said, 

 "I have no fear of any man like you ; we'll settle 

 this matter." The sui-delegado, however, who 

 meanwhile had been informed of what was occur- 

 ring, arrived at that moment, and he and the 

 soldado separated the contenders and put an end 

 to the quarrel. 



After Eenato had left, bystanders recalled other 

 instances in which, as they said, "the Eiograndense 

 had shown disrespect for persons in the village." 

 Meanwhile, Eenato was saying that he would leave 

 the community ; that he "wouldn't stay in a place 

 where he had no friends and no one liked him." 

 Arming himself with a garrucha, he went about 

 his affairs in the village in a belligerent mood. 

 Two days later, he left the community. A vil- 

 lager was heard to remark, "£" jd fol tarde (He 

 stayed too long as it was) ." 



Of quite different character, however, were the 

 experiences of the school teacher Anita and the 

 Japanese storekeeper. The school teacher came 

 to the village 15 years ago. She was pleasant in 

 manner, friendly and tactful. Although her 

 schooling had been more extensive than that of 



