Days of National Festivity in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1823–1889 - Hardcover

Kraay, Hendrik

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0804785260 ISBN 13: 9780804785266

Publisher: Stanford University Press, 2013

Synopsis

Official and popular celebrations marked the Brazilian empire's days of national festivity, and these civic rituals were the occasion for often intense debate about the imperial regime. Hendrik Kraay explores the patterns of commemoration in the capital of Rio de Janeiro, the meanings of the principal institutions of the constitutional monarchy established in 1822–24 (which were celebrated on days of national festivity), and the challenges to the imperial regime that took place during the festivities. While officialdom and the narrow elite sought to control civic rituals, the urban lower classes took an active part in them, although their popular festivities were not always welcomed by the elite. Days of National Festivity is the first book to provide a systematic analysis of civic ritual in a Latin American country over a long period of time―and in doing so, it offers new perspectives on the Brazilian empire, elite and popular politics, and urban culture.

About this title

About the Author

Hendrik Kraay is Professor of History at the University of Calgary. He is the author of Race, State, and Armed Forces in Independence-Era Brazil: Bahia, 1790s–1840s (Stanford University Press, 2001).

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Days of National Festivity in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 18231889

By Hendrik Kraay

Stanford University Press

Copyright © 2013 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-8047-8526-6

Contents

Map, Table, and Figures....................................................
vii
Currency, Orthography, Names, Pseudonyms, and Note Conventions.............
ix
Acknowledgments............................................................
xi
Introduction...............................................................
1
1. Constructing the Monarchy, 1823–1829....................................
29
2. The Radical Challenge, 1830–1837........................................
53
3. Monarchical Reaction, 1837–1841.........................................
86
4. Official Festivities and Politics, 1841– 1864...........................
112
5. The Equestrian Statue of Pedro I, 1862..................................
146
6. Patriots on the Streets and at Home, 1840s–1860s........................
178
7. The Empire on Stage, 1820s–1864.........................................
205
8. War, Patriotism, and Politics, 1865– 1870...............................
240
9. Questioning Official Ritual, 1870s–1880s................................
270
i0. Popular Patriots and Abolitionists, 1870– 1889.........................
313
Epilogue: Republican Innovations in the 1890s..............................
36i
Conclusion.................................................................
379
Abbreviations Used in the Notes............................................
393
Notes......................................................................
395
Bibliography...............................................................
491
Index......................................................................
539

Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Constructing the Monarchy, 1823–1829

* * *

The last years of Joao VI's reign in Rio de Janeiro left imperial Brazil avibrant tradition of commemorating the birthdays, weddings, and accessionsof monarchs and other members of the royal family with illuminations,ephemeral architecture, Te Deums, military parades, fireworks,theater galas, and artillery salutes. Late-colonial ritual forms suited themonarchy that Pedro I sought to establish, and little distinguished imperialcivic ritual from its colonial predecessor until early 1830. However,the new regime was a constitutional monarchy—Pedro stressed that hispower derived from both the people and from divine grace—and thislent a different tone to the celebrations of the new empire, especiallygiven the nagging doubts about Pedro's commitment to the charter thathe granted in 1824.

From 1823 through 1829, civic ritual presented Pedro I as a legitimatemonarch, founder of the nation-state, and grantor of the constitution.Few discordant voices can be heard in the documentation from theseyears, largely because de facto press censorship and the more general repressionof Pedro's critics after 1823 limited the scope of political debateuntil the late 1820s. Foreign observers, both diplomats and travelers, didnot face these restrictions, and in this chapter, their observations and assessmentsprovide an essential counterpoint to official rhetoric. Independencewas intimately connected to the issue of the form of government—indeed,one historian has recently pointed out that, in the parlance of theday, independência meant not just autonomy from Portugal but also anantiabsolutist political position.

Until the mid-1820s, it was not entirely clear on which days the new empire'sfoundation should be celebrated. Several dates (celebrated with someregularity in the capital) and the elaborate rituals associated with Pedro'sreturn from his journey to Salvador in 1826 underscored a monarchicalinterpretation of independence. Shortly after these festivities, during parliament'sfirst session, legislators designated five "days of national festivity"and thereby established a calendar of civic commemorations thatlasted until 1831. The legislators' civic calendar partially challenged themonarchical interpretation of independence by designating the date of parliament'sopening as a day of national festivity. In the late 1820s, 7 Septemberand 12 October (the former constructed as the date of his definitivedeclaration of independence and the latter the date of his acclamation,both in 1822) emerged as the empire's principal civic celebrations. Pedro'smarriage to Amelia de Leuchtenberg in October 1829 was his last chanceto bask in the full glory of imperial civic ritual. In early 1830 radical liberalsattempted to seize control of Rio de Janeiro's civic ritual, thereby usheringin several years of intense conflict over the meaning of independenceand the empire's political organization (Chapter Two).

While this chapter focuses on the principal recurring civic rituals andseveral moments of nonrecurring monarchical celebrations, it should benoted that the calendar was full of additional gala days and that birthsand deaths in the imperial family were celebrated and mourned throughoutBrazil. Moreover, the monarch was a constantly visible presence inthe capital, sometimes magnificent and distant, other times earthy andaccessible. Pedro I's modest court was fully integrated into the city. Hedirected Brazilian diplomats to study restoration France's court protocoland etiquette, but there is no indication that he attempted to reform theBrazilian court along the lines of Charles X's court, described by onehistorian as a "golden age" of French court life. Pedro and his peoplecame into frequent contact. Foreigners often remarked on his "affable"manners and the unusually "familiar contact with royalty" granted tohis subjects in the regular audiences held at the palace, "when the humblestindividual in society may in person claim redress," and during Pedro'soutings into the city. The beija-mão or hand-kissing ritual of fealty,moreover, required that subjects come into direct physical contact withthe emperor. Robert Walsh saw a "droll forward fellow of the lowerranks" tell the emperor a joke after mass at Gloria church, much to theamusement of Pedro and his attendants. This accessibility continued thepractices established by Joao VI in the 1810s.

To prepare for his visit in 1828–29, Walsh had read James Henderson's1821 History of Brazil, and he was surprised to see none of the"oriental homage" that Henderson had described when the royal carriagepassed through the streets in the 1810s. Brazilians merely doffedtheir hats when royalty passed, and no one bothered him when he neglectedthis small courtesy. Jacobus von Boelen, who visited Rio de Janeirotwo years before Walsh, by contrast, saw outriders with whips toremind people to take off their hats; he added that people had to remainstanding while the monarch passed by. Disrespect of the monarchywas, however, another matter, and in 1829 a carpenter was arrestedfor whistling in the emperor's presence. With either shock or prurientcuriosity, foreigners also recounted what they learned about Pedro'smistresses. Eduardo Theodoro Bòsche suspected that Pedro had cappedthe celebrations in honor of his birthday and acclamation in 1825 with"some amorous conquest," while another foreigner proclaimed that thehonors conferred on Domitila de Castro, his principal mistress duringthe mid-1820s, outdid "the age of Louis XIV."

After the establishment of constitutional rule back in 1821, "the pressbegan to teem with periodical publications," as John Armitage put it;most of these were not newspapers in the modern sense but rather "politicaljournals" whose editors enjoyed considerable influence. Alongsidethese journals, the Diário do Rio de Janeiro, founded in 1821, servedthe business community by publishing mostly advertising and commercialnotices; the populace soon dubbed it the "butter daily" for its listingof food prices. The Jornal do Comércio, established in 1827, alsoserved these purposes; both it and the Diário later developed into majordaily newspapers. Pedro and José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva's crackdownon the radicals in late October 1822 included an imposition ofcensorship that the emperor and his principal minister relaxed while theconstituent assembly met (May–November 1823). Pedro again muzzledthe press when he closed the assembly (by this time, he had also brokenwith José Bonifácio, who soon went into exile). As far as Armitage wasconcerned, this "all but annihilated" independent journalism; in 1826,he judged the government-controlled Diário Fluminense to be little betterthan the colonial Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro.

A gradual liberation of the press permitted the appearance of newnewspapers over the next years, including Evaristo Ferreira da Veiga'sAurora Fluminense (in December 1827), "the most decided and liberal,"according to Walsh; and João Clemente Vieira Souto's Astréia (in June1826), published by what Joâo Loureiro called "a gang of liberals" in1829. Several other newspapers maintained close ties to the government,including both the Diário do Rio de Janeiro and the Jornal do Comércio,as well as Analista and the French-language Courier du Brésil. Thatthe traveler Walsh and the Brazilian Loureiro offered details about thesenewspapers' government or opposition connections indicates that theseties were widely known. Full press freedom returned in 183o, but legislationof that year established a complex procedure of jury trials forthose accused of abusing this liberty.

There is no indication of periodical circulation in the 1820s and littledirect information on their readership, but it is clear that these newspaperswere widely available, sold in many shops and by subscription,and read in public, which made them accessible to some of the illiterate.Indeed, politics retained an important oral dimension; Johann MoritzRugendas, who had been in Rio de Janeiro from 1821 to 1825, recalledhow "people of all classes gave themselves over to political conversations."They included "churchmen, officers, merchants, and workers," allof whom followed politics with "great interest, good sense, and eagerness."Others made their views known in different ways that reveal thelively political culture. Night-time police patrols were necessary "to keepdown placards" in early 1826, but they could not stem the tide of "seditious"documents. By August, reported Condy Raguet, the U.S. chargéd'affaires, "caricatures in charcoal ha[d] appeared upon the walls of whitehouses, pronouncing the treasonable and revolutionary expression 'Morrao Imperador [Death to the Emperor],' 'Viva Bolivar [Long Live {Simón}Bolívar],' and representing His Majesty as riding to destruction in a carriagedriven by the Viscountess of Santos," his mistress Domitila (he hadgranted her the title in 1825 and would promote her to marchioness on hisbirthday in 1826). Such graffiti indicate a significant, if normally invisible,political underground that rarely manifested itself directly on days ofnational festivity.

While civic rituals no doubt afforded an occasion for Braziliansthroughout the far-flung empire to imagine themselves as fellow subjectsof the Bragança monarchy, fellow Brazilian citizens, and members of thenation, imperial civic rituals placed little emphasis on the nation in thisabstract sense. There are no indications of a Romantic nationalism duringthese years, and civic rituals turned overwhelmingly on the politicalarrangements of the new state. Tellingly, as we noted in the introduction,the well-informed Raguet called the holidays instituted by parliamentin 1826 "days of political festivity," even though he certainly knew thatthe law designated them "days of national festivity." Civic ritual's centralpolitical dimension ultimately facilitated the adoption of many of itsforms by Pedro I's opponents in 1830, the subject of the next chapter.

IDENTIFYING INDEPENDENCE

Today every Brazilian schoolchild learns that Pedro I proclaimed Brazilianindependence on 7 September 1822 on the banks of the IpirangaRiver in Sâo Paulo. In that year, however, the historical meaning of hisactions was not quite so clear cut; at least for the rest of 1822, contemporariesattributed little significance to the date and the Grito doIpiranga (Pedro's cry of "Independence or Death") as they busied themselveswith the emperor's acclamation (12 October) and his coronation(1 December). De facto autonomy from Lisbon had been achieved wellbefore 7 September 1822; in the early August manifestos written by JoséBonifacio, Pedro had already claimed independence for Brazil. The resultinglack of attention to 7 September has led to a historical consensusthat it took some time to construct it as Brazil's independence day. Infact, 7 September was recognized as Brazil's independence day in 1823,and its commemoration quickly gained prominence in Rio de Janeiro,although 12 October remained a more important day of national festivityfor much of the decade.

In 1860 Gottfried Heinrich Handelmann observed about 7 Septemberthat, "at first, not as much importance was given to it as later," but heoffered no sources for this assertion. A number of other historians haverecently noted the limited attention to the events of 7 September 1822 inthe Rio de Janeiro press of later that year, the absence of the date froma list of court gala days published in December, and Hipólito José daCosta's failure to comment on the date in his Correlo Brasiliense (amongother things), all of which appear surprising in light of the later importanceattributed to 7 September. In a 1995 article, Maria de LourdesViana Lyra argues that the construction of 7 September as Brazil's independenceday began in the mid-1820s and was only complete by 1830,with the publication of José da Silva Lisboa's História dos principalssucessos do Impèrio do Brasil (History of the Principal Events of the Empireof Brazil, 1825–30). In this official history, the Viscount of Cairu(Lisboa received the title of baron in 1826 and viscount the followingyear) presented Pedro as "the Hero of Brazil," responsible for its "elevation... to the rank of Empire," an assessment that, as Lyra notes, fullysuited a conservative monarchy. On 7 September 1822 the prince-regent's"Herculean blow against the Lisbon Cortes" annihilated its "usurpedSovereignty over Brazil," and he thus proclaimed the "BRAZILIAN NATION'SCOMPLETE INDEPENDENCE," declared Cairu in sections ofthe book published in 1830.

This was a conservative interpretation of independence; as Lyra explains,Cairu was responding to the debate about the origins of Pedro I'ssovereignty: The reformist and conservative position held that it derivedfrom his royal lineage, while the revolutionary view held that only thepeople—the Brazilian nation—had the right to acclaim Pedro as theirruler and invest him with power. Pedro had to formally give up his claimto rule based on popular sovereignty in the 1825 treaty that resulted inPortuguese recognition, which in turn necessitated a reconstruction ofthe history of independence to emphasize that it came directly from Pedro'sactions on 7 September 1822 and not through his acclamation bythe Brazilian nation, which Cairu duly supplied.

Lyra's elegant analysis, however, misses the extent to which Cairu'sinterpretation came into question, especially after radical liberals tookto the streets on days of national festivity in 1830. Moreover, a closerlook at the celebrations held on 7 September starting in 1823 reveals nodoubt that it was already considered Brazil's independence day. Rather,the key issue was whether independence as proclaimed on 7 Septemberwas as important as Pedro's acclamation on 12 October (or even theother events that laid the groundwork for the imperial political order).To judge by the celebrations held in Rio de Janeiro, 7 September was,for a short time, overshadowed by 12 October, but by the middle of thedecade it had caught up to the latter date. A second issue, vigorouslydebated in 1830 and 1831, was the nature of Pedro's role on 7 September1822; many, in fact, rejected Cairu's view and argued that Pedro's callfor independence responded to the nation's desire to be free, a view thatsubordinated him to the Brazilian nation or political community.

The events of the second half of 1822 that led to the creation of anindependent Brazilian empire offered two major alternatives from whichto date the new regime's founding: Pedro's Grito do Ipiranga on 7 Septemberor his acclamation on 12 October, also his birthday. Pedro himselfthought the latter most worthy of commemoration. A December1822 decree mandating the court protocol for gala days failed to mention7 September and, perhaps even more interestingly, identified no dayas commemorating independence (12 October was described as Pedro'sbirthday and his acclamation). Earlier that month, however, Pedro haddecreed that "given that it is appropriate to commemorate the gloriousera of Brazil's Independence and its elevation to the status of Empire ...the number of years elapsed ... should be counted from the memorableday of 12 October of the current year."

The following year, however, 7 September quickly gained prominence.During the throne speech that opened the Constituent Assembly on 3May 1823, Pedro alluded to the date as his first declaration in favor offull independence. In early September, the assembly resolved that theday be considered, for the moment, a national holiday, for it was the "anniversaryof Brazilian independence," and its members sent a large deputationto congratulate Pedro. Much to Raguet's surprise, 7 September1823 "was celebrated with all the parade, military, civil, and religiousappropriate to so important a festival." He speculated that the ceremonyhad something to with the increasingly acrimonious politics surroundingthe assembly and wondered whether he had been wrong to see theacclamation (12 October 1822) as "the true day of the declaration ofindependence." Baron Wenzel de Mareschal, the Austrian representative,was apparently not surprised and simply reported that "a militaryfestival is being prepared for 7 September, as the day on which independencewas proclaimed in Sao Paulo." The sole Rio de Janeiro pressreference to this year's commemoration of 7 September was a sonnet inO Silfo that concluded: "Thou art independent ... Oh! What remains forthee / Courage Brazil! Constitution or Death," a call for Pedro to let theconstituent assembly complete its work. What Raguet referred to as the"military, civil, and religious" elements of the celebration were the constituentparts of official civic ritual at that time—artillery salutes fromforts and warships, a military parade, a Te Deum in the imperial chapel,a levee in the city palace (with the obligatory beija-mão), an evening theatergala, and nighttime illumination of the city.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Days of National Festivity in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1823–1889 by Hendrik Kraay. Copyright © 2013 by Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Excerpted by permission of Stanford University Press.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0804785260
• ISBN 13: 9780804785266
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 576