h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Os Sertões -

Antonio Conselheiro: "O sertão vai virar mar, o mar virar sertão" -

Euclides da Cunha - engineer, writer.

Two lives, part of Brazilian history.

No entry should go without a reply. I have no idea what the subject is except that Euclide was a mathmatician. No ablo espanol or portugese. Sorry about the language barrier PE. I wish I was fluent in more than one language (english). I have had a year each of Spanish, German, French: a touch of Gaelic and Japanese. But I am fluent in my mother tongue only, and some times I doubt that I can master that, . Anyway, I couldn't stand to see "no replies" to this subject so I had to post something. That OK with you? MM

Hi MM, nice to know you've studied all those languages - wish I could remember what I learned, my memory is terrible for important things - wonderful for details, though.

This Euclides da Cunha was a Brazilian engineer - he wrote a very important book "Os Sertões" - how the Brazilian army had to wage several battles against a group of religious fanatics which had founded a city called Canudos, before achieving a rather 'sad' victory.

Even today a medieval form of worship and belief is observed in several parts of the country's northeast. I think there are many parallels between the peasant movements of the Middle-Ages in Europe and this episode in Brazilian history.

In this book, da Cunha referred to the northeastern population with the sentence: "O Nordestino é, antes de tudo, um forte." - The Northeasterner, is, above all a strong [person]" Harsh climate, and very difficult socio-economical conditions make survival a sort of miracle. They are intelligent, hard workers, and so many of them are forced to find work in the more prosperous southeastern regions.

The group's leader was called Antonio Conselheiro. A man who became a religious fanatic after suffering some great personal loss. He opposed the newly founded Republic, which must have been concerned about his influence with the surrounding population. The book is about a social tragedy which Euclides da Cunha witnessed (as a military engineer) and reported in his book. It is a tragic work of art.

(after posting, I discovered how I had been repetitious. Too late, of course. Wish we could somehow edit these sentences.)

Gaelic?

The Irish missionaries were efficient and dedicated about spreading Christianity in Europe. (Frequently visited a town founded by one of them: Sankt Gallen, Switzerland. Wonderful library.)