Readers' Guide to Brazil, an epic novel by Errol Lincoln Uys
CHARACTERS/PEOPLE
Conquest of Amazonas - Antônio Parreiras | Wikipedia Commons
Aruanã: Warrior-chief of the Tupiniquin, one of Brazil’s indigenous tribes flourishing at the time of colonization by the Portuguese in the 16th century
Affonso Ribeiro: Degredado, “outcast,” exiled to Brazil from Portugal; progenitor of a vast and unruly clan, who crop up throughout the novel
Nicolau Cavalcanti: Founder of the Cavalcanti clan who settle in Pernambuco, where they establish Engenho Santo Tomás, a sugar plantation in the lush valley of the same name.
Helena Cavalcanti: Wife of Nicolau, a pioneer of great fortitude and forbearance
Tomás Cavalcanti: Son of Nicolas Cavalcanti, Pernambuco militia captain
Duarte Coelho Pereira: First donatário (land grantee) of Pernambuco, founder of Olinda (real)
Brites Coelho Pereira: Dom Duarte’s wife, a formidable woman who played an imposing role in the settlement of Pernambuco (real)
Inácio Cavalcanti: Nicholau’s nephew, a Jesuit priest, who becomes a protector of the Indians, founder of an aldeia, a mission.
Unauá: Child of Nicolau Cavalcanti and Jandaia, daughter of Affonso Ribeiro
Tomé de Sousa: Governor-general of Brazil, based at Salvador, Bahia (real)
Manoel de Nôbrega: Jesuit priest, founder of first aldeais, mission villages, among the Tupinambá Indians at Salvador, Bahia; first Provincial of the Society of Jesus in colonial Brazil (real)
José de Anchieta: Jesuit priest, “the apostle of Brazil,” missionary, writer and poet, one of the founders of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (real)
Mem de Sá: Governor- General of Brazil, judge, “Protector-Guardian” of the Indians, scourge of rebellious Tupiniquin and Tupinambá (real)
Amador Flôres da Silva: Bandeirante, a “flag-bearer’ or pathfinder, adventurer, explorer, emerald hunter. Amador is the founder of the da Silva clan of São Paulo de Piratininga, the future metropolis of São Paulo.
Ishmael Pinheiro: Son of a Cristão Novo, New Christian, Jews compelled to accept Catholicism in 16th century. The Pinheiros are prosperous traders and armadors, suppliers to the bandeiras
Maria Ramahlo: From the great clan of mamelucos related to the castaway João Ramalho, who settled at Piratininga. Maria is renowned for her delicious quince marmalade.
Antônio Raposo Tavares: Explorer, slave-hunter, prospector, leader of path-finding bandeiras, instrumental in extending limits of Brazil west of the continent beyond the Tordesilhas Line toward present-day boundaries of Brazil (real)
Pedro Mola: Jesuit priest attached to Spanish reductions in Paraguay. The missions occupied by Guarani Indians, known to slave-hunting bandeirantes as Carijó. (real)
Fernáo Cavalcanti: Great-grandson of Nicolau Cavalcanti, senhor de engenho at Santo Tomás in the time of the Dutch occupation of north-east Brazil.
Joana Cavalcanti: Daughter of Fernáo Cavalcanti, a wild, free spirit, who rebels against the “captivity of the big house”
Johan Maurits, count of Nassau-Siegen: Governor of Dutch possessions in Brazil, forward-thinking, tolerant and innovative, he rebuilt Recife, and invited scientists, scholars, writers and artists to the colony (real)
Secundus “Segge” Proot: Artist and pupil of Rembrandt van Rijn, Amazon adventurer, who searches for a second Eden in Brazil
Bento Maciel Parente: Son of a governor of Maranhão of the same name; slave-hunter operating out of Belém do Para to prey on river tribes of the Amazon (real)
Abel O’Brien: Irish renegade living on the Rio das Amazonas, survivor of ill-fated 1620 Amazon settlement under Roger North, who served with Raleigh
Ganga Zumba: Great Lord of Palmares, leader of the quilombo of Palmares, a runaway slave refuge in Pernambuco (real)
Nhungaza: Commander of the Royal Regiment at the quilombo of Palmares; originally from Dzimba we Bahwe, “Place of the Stones,” in Zimbabwe. Kingdom of the Mwene-Mutapa
Joäo Fernandes Viera: Pernambucan rebel leader in the struggle against the Dutch (real)
Henrique Días: Commanders of black and native volunteers fighting in guerilla war against the Dutch in Pernambuco (real)
Felipe Camaräo: Potiguara Indian, convert, leader of Indian volunteers in guerilla war against the Dutch; knight commander of the Order of Christ (real)
Olímpio da Silva: Son of Amador Flôres da Silva, the bandeirante. A tropeiro, a muleteer, in the highlands of Brazil
Trajano da Silva: Son of Amador Flôres da Silva, accompanied his father on a seven-year-search for emeralds in the Mantiqueira Mountains of the Brazilian highlands
Sebastiäo Carvalho e Melo: Better known by his later title of Marquis of Pombal, powerful cabinet minister at the court of José I of Portugal; instrumental in rebuilding Lisbon after the 1755 earthquake (real)
Bartolomeu Rodrigues Cavalcanti: Senhor de engenho of Santo Tomás in mid-18th century, with its classic Casa Grande; slave owner; militia commander
Paulo Cavalcanti: Son of Bartolomeu Rodrigues Cavalcanti Coimbra-educated scion of the Cavalcanti family of Engenho Santo Tomás, witness to the Great Lisbon earthquake of 1755
Graciliano Cavalcanti: Son of Bartolomeu Rodrigues Cavalcanti, vaqueiro at heart, rustic cavalryman
Estevão Ribeiro Adorno: Descendant of the degredado Affonso Ribeiro, head vaqueiro at Fazenda da Jurema, a 130-square mile cattle ranch in the far west of Pernambuco, property of the Cavalcantis
Januária Ribero: Daughter of the vaqueiro, Estevão Ribeiro Adorno
Pedro Prêto: “Black Peter,” Freed slave, descended from Nhungaza of Palmares; Pedro is a carpenter at the Jesuit aldeia of Rosário, Pernambuco, later turned over to a civilian director
Leandro Taques: Jesuit missionary, head of the aldeia of Rosário, Pernambuco, at the time of the expulsion of the Jesuits from Portuguese possessions
Elias Souza Vanderley: Descended from Jaspar van der Lei, gentleman in waiting to Johan Maurits, civilian director at village of Rosário, Pernambuco, former Jesuit mission
Joaquim José da Silva Xavier: “Tiradentes,” - The Toothpuller – Leading member of the Inconfidência Mineira, 18th century Brazilian revolutionary movement against Portuguese colonial rule (real)
Benedito Bueno da Silva: Captain of the Monsoons, canoe convoys, descendant of the great bandeirante Amador Flôres da Silva; founder of Itatinga, a vast fazenda fronting the Rio Tietê
André Vaz da Silva: Great-grandson of Trajano da Silva, young child of Amador Flôres da Silva; a member of the Inconfidência Mineira revolutionary movement
Antônio Paciência: Mulatto slave, born at the Fazenda da Jurema in the interior of Pernambuco; voluntário do patria in the War of the Triple Alliance in Paraguay; resident of Canudos, Bahia in late 19th century
Policarpo Mossambe: African slave, originally brought from Mozambique to Pernambuco, later sold and transported to São Paolo; ‘volunteer’ during the Paraguayan war (War of the Triple Alliance)
Pedro II: Emperor of Brazil, belonging to the House of Bragança, whose members went into exile in Brazil in 1808, following Napoleon’s invasion of Portugal (real)
Ulisses Tavares da Silva: Fazendeiro and patriarch of the da Silva clan at Itatinga; hero of the battle of Bussaco, Portugal and conquest of the Banda Oriental, in the south of Brazil; honored by Emperor Pedro II as Baron of Itatinga
Teodora Rita Mendes da Silva: Baroness of Itatinga; wife of Ulisses Tavares
Firmino Dantas da Silva: Grandson of Ulisses Tavares, baron of Itatinga; captain of Tiberica’s corps of voluntários da Patria; "The Inventor"
Francisco Solano Lopéz: President of Paraguay; field-marshal; led Paraguay throughout the War of the Triple Alliance (1865-1870), greatest conflict between nations in the Americas. (real)
Eliza Alicia Lynch: Irish-born partner of President Francisco Solano Lopéz of Paraguay, mother to Lopéz’s six sons (real)
Hadley Baines Tuttle: Engineer; Crimean war veteran; lieutenant in Paraguayan Army during War of the Triple Alliance
Luke Kruger: Itinerant American inventor and tinkerer, originally from Pittsburgh, U.S.; torpedoman in Paraguayan Navy
Clóvis da Silva: Grandson of André Vaz da Silva, Minas revolutionary; artilleryman in Paraguay
Renata Laubner: Daughter of Tiberica apothecary, August Laubner, Swiss immigrant to Brazil
Fábio Alves Cavalcanti: Great-grandson of Paulo Cavalcanti; lieutenant-surgeon in the Brazilian Imperial Navy
Louis Gaston D’Orléans, comte d’Eu: Son-in-law of Emperor Pedro II; commander-in-chief of Brazilian forces in final phase of the War of the Triple Alliance in Paraguay (real)
Joaquim Aurélio Nabuco: Writer, politician, abolitionist from Pernambuco; first ambassador from Brazil to the United States after end of the monarchy and beginning of the republic (real)
Rodrigo Cavalcanti: Senhor de Engenho at Santo Tomás late 19th century; founder of Usina Jacuribe, modern cane processing plant
Celso Cavalcanti: Third and youngest son of Rodrigo Cavalcanti; abolitionist with yearning for the priesthood; member of Clube do Cupim, “the Termites,” Brazilian underground railroad assisting slaves to flee plantations beyond Recife; later Monsignor Celso
Bábá Epifánia: Nursemaid to da Silva children; manumitted slave from the lands of the BaKongo, a “saint of the senzala;” curandeiro; associated with the "caiphazes,” militant abolitionists of Sáo Paulo
Aristides Tavares da Silva: Son of Ulisses Tavares and Teodora Rita; abolitionist and republican
Honório da Silva: Son of Clóvis da Silva; artillery lieutenant under Benjamin Constant; republican; serves at Canudos
Antônio Conselheiro: Anthony, The Counselor; Antônio Vicente Mendes Maciel Messianic leader of backlands rebellion centered at Canudos, 250 miles west of Salvador, Bahia; predicted the end of the world in 1899 (real)
Artur Oscar: General in command of campaign against rebels of Canudos. (real)
Juraci Cristiano: Son of Antônio Paciência; doctor; organizer of Alianca Nacional Libertadora (ANL); supporter of the Ligas Camponêses, the Peasant Leagues; author of The Biography of a Patient Man
Euclides da Cunha: Correspondent for Estado de São Paulo at Canudos; author of Os Sertõss, Rebellion in the Backlands. (real)
Amilcar da Silva: Son of Aristides Tavares da Silva; coffee fazendeiro; Paulista magnate with 24 enterprises, including textile and clothing factories, an iron foundry and construction firm, cattle ranches and a small shipping fleet
Roberto da Silva: Son of Amilcar da Silva; civil engineer trained at São Paulo and Cornell University; Brazilian Air Force pilot in World War II, flying in support of the “Smoking Cobras;” involved in the construction of Belém-Brasília Highway and Brasília itself
Juscelino Kubitschek: “JK” President of Brazil from 1956-61; best known for promoting construction of Brasília (real)
Durval Meneses Cavcalcanti: Senhor de engenho of Santo Tomás; owner of Usina Jacuribe; strongly opposed to reforms that may threaten his family’s still-vast landholdings
Antônio “Tôninho” Paciência: Son of Juraci Cristiano; parish priest at Rosário, Pernambuco; associated with Sem Terre – “Without Land” – the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST)
Clodomir Cavcalcanti: Senhor de engenho of Santo Tomás in the late 20th century
Mariette da Silva Prado: Daughter of Roberto da Silva; lawyer and politician; founder of Casa dos Meninos shelter for street children in Riachuelo favela, Tiberica; Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers’ Party) candidate; mayor of Tiberica
Bruno Ramos Salgado: “The Old Devil” Officer of the SPI and FUNAI, Indian protection services of Brazil; of Paresí Indian descent, he is a grandson of the Cearáense Mad-Murilo Salgado. Bruno’s first SPI post is at a Shavante settlement on the Rio das Mortes. He later makes his home at Kaimari in the Serra dos Paresís of Rondonia, actively resisting loggers and others who would despoil the Amazo
SETTINGS | LOCATIONS
Rio de Janeiro by Alessandro Cicarelli 1844 | Wikipedia Commons
Porto Seguro: Pedro Alvares Cabral’s first anchorage three days after sighting land on April 21, 1500. The malocas of Aruanã, the Tupiniquin, and his people located in the vicinity
Cerrado: Central plain of Brazil, home to nomadic Nambikwara and Shavante
Amazon River: “Mother of Rivers” to Aruanã, the Tupiniquin, and Ubiratan, the Tapajós. “Amazon” derives from legendry female warriors, referenced by Francisco Orellano, who made the first descent of the Amazon from Quito, Ecuador (1539-1542,); “The River Sea.”
Tocoyricoc’s Cave: Dwelling of legendary Inca explorer, prospector, priest, located three days journey by canoe west of present-day Manaus. (fictional)
Goa: Port on the Malabar coast, key point on Indian Ocean trade routes, conquered by Afonso de Albuquerque, captain general and governor of Portuguese India, known as O Terrivél (The Terrible)
Terra de Santa Cruz: Original name for Brazil; also called Terra do Brasil, for the brazilwood logs harvested there; Terra do Papagaio (Land of Parrots,) to denizens of the Lisbon waterfront
Bahia de Todos os Santos: Bay of all Saints, present-day Salvador, Bahia; first capital of Brazil; site of first Jesuit colégio and aldeias (mission villages)
Mpinda: Port on the Nzere River, “Zaire,” to the Portuguese; slave trade center
Mbanza: Walled city, palace and place of justice of the ManiKongo, “Lord of the Kongo,” ruler of the BaKongo. King Affonso I is head of the kingdom at the time of Nicolau Cavalcanti’s visit in 1526, with a court of nobles on the Portuguese model; Henrique, son of Affonso, is Bishop of Utica, elevated to that position by Pope Leo X
Lisbon: Capital of Portugal; hub of the Age of Discovery in the 15th to 17th centuries, with Portuguese fleets sailing from the Tagus River to the shores of Africa, India and Brazil; in 1755, the city was devastated by an earthquake
Sintra: Country seat of the Portuguese Royal family, northwest of Lisbon; Nicolau Cavalcanti hails from the valley below the Serra do Sintra
Pernambuco: Site of an early logwood factory on the northeast coast of Brazil; captaincy granted to Duarte Coelho Pereira
Iguarassu: “Big River,” Location of Duarte Coelho Pereira’s first settlement in Pernambuco
Olinda: "Beautiful,” Capital of Pernambuco captaincy
Engenho Santo Tomás: The great sugar plantation of the Cavalcanti family in a coastal valley of Pernambuco; classic “Casa Grande” with its sugar mill (engenho) and slave quarters (senzala) (fictional)
São Vicente: Captaincy, with port of Santos
Piratininga: Plain above Serra do Mar highlands beyond Santos. Jesuits Nóbrega and Anchieta founded mission of São Paulo de Piratininga, the future São Paulo
Ilheus: Captaincy and settlement south of Salvador, Bahia; numerous Tupiniquin villages in interior in 16th century
Alcacer-Quibir: Battleground south of Tangiers, where King Sebastiäo of Portugal slain, leaving no heir and precipitating end of Aviz dynasty and occupation of Portuguese throne by Philip II of Spain
Caatinga: “The White Forest,” harsh interior region of northeast Brazil, with arid cover of spiky bushes, stunted plants, spiny cactus, stone-strewn and dusty
Paraguay: Province of the Spanish viceroyalty of Peru in the 16th century, west of Tordesilhas Line
Asunción: Spanish 16th century settlement; later capital of Paraguay
Guairá: Jesuit Province of Paraguay, with twelve mission “reductions” established for Guarani Indians; prominent missions that were focus of bandeirante raids included Jesús Maria, San Miguel, Concepción, San Antonio
Paraupava: Legendary lake filled with gold amid emerald-studded hills long sought by bandeirante adventurers. Similar to and entwined with the Spanish tale of El Dorado, The Gilded Man
Sertão: Backlands; wild country; the unknown forest; place of thorn and desert; brutal land without end; hill, valley hidden by the mists of Creation – “sertão” was all these and more to the bandeirante explorers. It started not beyond the next rise or across the river ahead but deep within the soul
Recife: Small port town of Pernambuco in 17th century; present-day capital of Pernambuco state
Mauritsstad: Island opposite Recife, capital of New Holland developed by Johan Maurits, leader of the Dutch occupation of northeast Brazil in 17th century
Belém do Pará: Bethlehem of the Rio Pará, settlement on a tributary near the mouth of Rio das Amazonas; 17th century depot of slavers raiding Amazon Indian villages, especially those of Tapajós and Tupinambá
Pará and Maranhão: Two northern captaincies of Brazil, originally regarded as separate state by Lisbon because of their remoteness from Bahia
Kaimari: Village of the Paresí Indians, whose clans occupied lands in present-day Rondônia (fictional)
“Love-Me-River”: Paresí name for the Madeira-Mamoré River, one of the arms of Mother of Rivers
Guajar-Mirim: “Little Falls” on the Madeira-Mamoré River, the first of twenty rapids on Love-Me-River
Guajaru-Assú: “Big Falls” on the Madeira-Mamoré River
Patauí: “Coconut Grove,” 250 miles upriver on Rio das Amazonas; site of 17th century English and Irish settlement
Death-Bird-Island: Rio das Amazonas, west of present-day Manaus; so named by Indians for its vast colony of urubus – vultures
Palmares: A quilombo, runaway slave center, 140 miles southwest of Recife in the foothills of the Serra do Barriga. The region of Palmares encompassed the kingdom of Ganga Zumba (“Nganga Dzimba we Bahwe” – “High Priest at the Place of Stones”)
Shoko: Capital and one of fourteen settlements of Ganga Zumba’s kingdom at Palmares; the name means “Monkey,” and comes from clan name of Ganga Zumba and his dynasty
‘Ngola Jango: “Little Angola” second city of Ganga Zumba’s kingdom
Zimbabwe: “Dzimba we Bahwe” – The Place of Stones – in the kingdom of the Mwena-Mutapa
Monte das Tabocas: Pernambuco headquarter camp of Governador João Fernandes Viera in insurrection against the Dutch occupation of northeast Brazil; site of battle in August 1645
Guararapes: A series of hillocks outside Recife, scene of two battles against the Dutch
Sabarabuçu: A legendary mountain of silver to be found in the highlands of Brazil
Mantiqueira: Aged volcanic formation of blue-peaked mountains in the uplands above São Paulo
Espinhaço: “The Spine,” a belt of scarps and mountains beyond the Mantiqueira, with headwaters of the Rio São Francisco
Sumiduoro: Headquarters for prospecting expeditions in the Espinhaço
Minas Gerais: “General Mines,” 18th century gold mining region of Brazil; present-day state of Brazil
Vila Rica de Ouro Preto: “Rich Town of Black Gold,”18th century mining center in Minas Gerais
Rosário: Initially aldeia of “Nossa Senhora do Rosário,” fourteen miles south of engenho Santo Tomás; later a rural town (fictional)
Tower of Belém: Landmark on a group of rocks beyond the riverbank at Restelo; departure point for Portuguese navigators of the great Indies fleets; a prison for offenders of high rank
Fazenda da Jurema: A 130-square-mile cattle ranch founded by the Cavalcantis in the interior of Pernambuco in the 18th century, the name derived from a type of acacia tree. (fictional)
Cuiaba: Mato Grosso goldfields, end point of the ‘monsoon “convoys from São Paulo, eight hundred miles directly south
Porto Feliz: Canoe landing on Rio Tietê, eighty miles from São Paulo, starting point for “monsoon” convoys
Itatinga: “Place of White Stones,” 125miles north-northwest of São Paulo, where Benedito Bueno da Silva founded the family’s ancestral home on a high bluff overlooking the Rio Tietê (fictional)
Tiberica: Settlement twelve miles southwest of Itatinga became a town in1766 and a parish a dozen years later (fictional)
Rio de Janeiro: On Guanabara Bay, where a French Huguenot settlement flourished briefly in the mid-16th century before expulsion by the Portuguese; capital from 1763 through Brazil’s evolution as colony, empire and independent nation, until 1960, when Brasilia was built
Cachoeira do Campo: Minas Gerais town, with residence of governor of Minas Gerais in the time of the Inconfidência Mineiro
Isla das Cobras: Guanabara Bay island with fortress dungeon
São Francisco River: 1,800-milewaterway from Minas Gerais north to Pernambuco, major passage for 19th century internal slave trade from north to south
Cerro León: Paraguayan military headquarters, 50 miles southeast of Asunción
Corrientes: River port in the Argentine province of same name; allied military base and hospital
Riachuelo: Stream flowing into the Parana River below its junction with the Paraguay River at Tres Bocas; scene of a major naval battle in June 186 in the War of the Triple Alliance
Humaitá: Fortress on the River Paraguay, with 75,000 yards of earthworks; eight riverside batteries mounting sixty-eight guns; with advanced batteries and outer earthworks, a total of 380 guns, mortars and rocket stands
Tuyuti: Site of two ferocious battles in the War of the Triple Alliance, the first in May 1866 involving 35,000 allied Brazilians, Argentinians and Uruguayans opposed by 23,000 Paraguayans; the second in November 1867
Curupaiti: Advanced Paraguayan battery on the east bank of the Rio Paraguay below Humaitá
Chaco: Paraguay’s western lands, across the Rio Paraguay
Itá-Ybate: “High Rock,” among the Lomas Valentinas hills, with Paraguayan defensive line of Pykysyry and Angostura batteries
Luque: Headquarters of the Brazilian command under comte d’Eu, thirty miles from the long valley of Pirayu, with the rail line from Cerro
Piribebuy: Provisional capital of Paraguay under Marshal-President Francisco Solano López
Acosta Ňu: Plain sixteen miles north of Piribebuy; scene of final battle of War of Triple Alliance
Cerro Corá: ”The Corral,” a wooded basin 230 miles northeast of Asunción, where the final scenes of the long and bloody war in Paraguay play out
The Corte: In the time of the Brazilian empire, the “Court” was at Rio de Janeiro, with the imperial palace of São Cristovão, the mansions of the wealthy below Corcovado Mountain, and the bleaker regions like Swine’s Head, where thousands crowded together
Ceará: Northern province of imperial Brazil devastated by drought in late 19th century that may have carried off as many as 300,000 souls; first province to free its slaves in 1884
Fortaleza: Capital of Ceará; port of exodus for thousands of sertanejo drought victims in late 19th century, bound for Amazonas
Jacuribe River: Flows through valley beyond Engenho Santo Tomás; also name given to Usina Jacuribe, an engenho central or cane processing factory developed by the Cavalcantis in late 19th century (fictional)
Itamaracá: Island 25 miles north of Recife
Tamandua-mirim: “Little River of the Anteater,” settlement eighty miles northwest of Tiberica, refuge for slave runaways on the eve of Brazilian abolition in 1888 (fictional)
Santa Barbara: Town settled by U.S. Confederate exiles after the Civil War, eighty miles north of São Paulo
Jabaquará: Santos vicinity; runaway slave quilomboin 19th century
Ilha Fiscal: Guanabara Bay, venue for a grand ball with 4,000 guests hosted by His Imperial Majesty Dom Pedro Segundo, two weeks before a revolution with a single shot fired heralded birth of the United States of Brazil, Estados Unidos do Brasil
Canudos: “New Jerusalem” of Antônio Conselheiro, Anthony, the Counselor, 250 miles west of Salvador, Bahia, on a great plain below rugged hills beside the Vasa-Barris river
Brasília: Capital of Brazil from1960, when it replaced Rio de Janeiro. Around the time of Canudos rebellion, first expedition to Goiás seeking a central site for capital; became commitment of President Juscelino Kubitschek in 1955
Brasília-Belém Highway: Connects these two cities, built in the late 1950s
Magdalena: Parish of Rosário, 14 miles south of Engenho Santo Tomás, in the zona da mata, “forest zone” of Pernambuco, headquarters of local branch of MST, Landless Rural Workers Movement (fictional)
Riachuelo: Tiberica favela. Mariette da Silva’s Casa de Meninos, a shelter for street kids, founded here in 1994 (fictional)
Kaimari: Telegraph Station and settlement on the Apidía River in the Serra do Paresí, Rondônia, residence of Bruno Ramos Salgado, The Old Devil (fictional)
GLOSSARY
bandeirantes: armed adventurers, particularly from São Paulo, who marched into the backlands in search of Indians and gold, or in exploration
caatinga: 'white forest,' Indian name for stunted forest and scrub in drought-prone northeastern Brazil
caipora: traditional Indian mythological being; goblin or malevolent spirit
Candango: 'a man who worked hard'; workers who constructed Brasília were called "Candangos"
Carioca: resident of Rio de Janeiro
Cristão Novo: a converted Jew or new Christian in the colonial era
degredado: 'degraded one;' criminal exiled to colonial Brazil to serve out sentence
emboaba: 'feather legs;' pejorative term for an outsider; especially Portuguese newcomers in Brazil in eighteenth century
engenho: sugar plantation; sugar mill
Exú: divine messenger and tutelary spirit of Afro-Brazilian religion
Inconfidência: a conspiracy for independence; particularly 1789 Inconfidência Mineira plot in Minas Gerais
mameluco: offspring of Indian and white
orixás: generic name for Yoruba deities
Paulista: inhabitant of or referring to the state of São Paulo
quilombo: fugitive slave colony, most notably Palmares
senhor de engenho: owner of a sugar estate
senzala: slave quarters on a plantation
sertão: the interior, backlands, wilderness, especially northeastern Brazil
voluntário: volunteer, particularly during the Paraguayan War
Xangó: deity of Afro-Brazilian religion, god of lightning and thunder
FAMILY TREES
MAPS
BRAZIL | THE COLONY
BRAZIL| FROM NINETEENTH CENTURY TO MODERN REPUBLIC
