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.
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.
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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.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780804786102 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Stanford University Press |
| Publication date: | 05/29/2013 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 576 |
| File size: | 11 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
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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 UniversityAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8047-8610-2
Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Constructing the Monarchy, 1823–1829
* * *
The last years of Joao VI's reign in Rio de Janeiro left imperial Brazil a vibrant tradition of commemorating the birthdays, weddings, and accessions of 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 the monarchy that Pedro I sought to establish, and little distinguished imperial civic ritual from its colonial predecessor until early 1830. However, the new regime was a constitutional monarchy—Pedro stressed that his power derived from both the people and from divine grace—and this lent a different tone to the celebrations of the new empire, especially given the nagging doubts about Pedro's commitment to the charter that he granted in 1824.
From 1823 through 1829, civic ritual presented Pedro I as a legitimate monarch, founder of the nation-state, and grantor of the constitution. Few discordant voices can be heard in the documentation from these years, largely because de facto press censorship and the more general repression of Pedro's critics after 1823 limited the scope of political debate until the late 1820s. Foreign observers, both diplomats and travelers, did not face these restrictions, and in this chapter, their observations and assessments provide an essential counterpoint to official rhetoric. Independence was intimately connected to the issue of the form of government—indeed, one historian has recently pointed out that, in the parlance of the day, independência meant not just autonomy from Portugal but also an antiabsolutist political position.
Until the mid-1820s, it was not entirely clear on which days the new empire's foundation should be celebrated. Several dates (celebrated with some regularity in the capital) and the elaborate rituals associated with Pedro's return from his journey to Salvador in 1826 underscored a monarchical interpretation of independence. Shortly after these festivities, during parliament's first session, legislators designated five "days of national festivity" and thereby established a calendar of civic commemorations that lasted until 1831. The legislators' civic calendar partially challenged the monarchical interpretation of independence by designating the date of parliament's opening as a day of national festivity. In the late 1820s, 7 September and 12 October (the former constructed as the date of his definitive declaration of independence and the latter the date of his acclamation, both in 1822) emerged as the empire's principal civic celebrations. Pedro's marriage to Amelia de Leuchtenberg in October 1829 was his last chance to bask in the full glory of imperial civic ritual. In early 1830 radical liberals attempted to seize control of Rio de Janeiro's civic ritual, thereby ushering in several years of intense conflict over the meaning of independence and the empire's political organization (Chapter Two).
While this chapter focuses on the principal recurring civic rituals and several moments of nonrecurring monarchical celebrations, it should be noted that the calendar was full of additional gala days and that births and deaths in the imperial family were celebrated and mourned throughout Brazil. Moreover, the monarch was a constantly visible presence in the capital, sometimes magnificent and distant, other times earthy and accessible. Pedro I's modest court was fully integrated into the city. He directed Brazilian diplomats to study restoration France's court protocol and etiquette, but there is no indication that he attempted to reform the Brazilian court along the lines of Charles X's court, described by one historian as a "golden age" of French court life. Pedro and his people came into frequent contact. Foreigners often remarked on his "affable" manners and the unusually "familiar contact with royalty" granted to his subjects in the regular audiences held at the palace, "when the humblest individual in society may in person claim redress," and during Pedro's outings into the city. The beija-mão or hand-kissing ritual of fealty, moreover, required that subjects come into direct physical contact with the emperor. Robert Walsh saw a "droll forward fellow of the lower ranks" tell the emperor a joke after mass at Gloria church, much to the amusement of Pedro and his attendants. This accessibility continued the practices established by Joao VI in the 1810s.
To prepare for his visit in 1828–29, Walsh had read James Henderson's 1821 History of Brazil, and he was surprised to see none of the "oriental homage" that Henderson had described when the royal carriage passed through the streets in the 1810s. Brazilians merely doffed their hats when royalty passed, and no one bothered him when he neglected this small courtesy. Jacobus von Boelen, who visited Rio de Janeiro two years before Walsh, by contrast, saw outriders with whips to remind people to take off their hats; he added that people had to remain standing while the monarch passed by. Disrespect of the monarchy was, however, another matter, and in 1829 a carpenter was arrested for whistling in the emperor's presence. With either shock or prurient curiosity, foreigners also recounted what they learned about Pedro's mistresses. Eduardo Theodoro Bòsche suspected that Pedro had capped the celebrations in honor of his birthday and acclamation in 1825 with "some amorous conquest," while another foreigner proclaimed that the honors conferred on Domitila de Castro, his principal mistress during the mid-1820s, outdid "the age of Louis XIV."
After the establishment of constitutional rule back in 1821, "the press began to teem with periodical publications," as John Armitage put it; most of these were not newspapers in the modern sense but rather "political journals" whose editors enjoyed considerable influence. Alongside these journals, the Diário do Rio de Janeiro, founded in 1821, served the business community by publishing mostly advertising and commercial notices; the populace soon dubbed it the "butter daily" for its listing of food prices. The Jornal do Comércio, established in 1827, also served these purposes; both it and the Diário later developed into major daily newspapers. Pedro and José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva's crackdown on the radicals in late October 1822 included an imposition of censorship that the emperor and his principal minister relaxed while the constituent assembly met (May–November 1823). Pedro again muzzled the press when he closed the assembly (by this time, he had also broken with José Bonifácio, who soon went into exile). As far as Armitage was concerned, this "all but annihilated" independent journalism; in 1826, he judged the government-controlled Diário Fluminense to be little better than the colonial Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro.
A gradual liberation of the press permitted the appearance of new newspapers over the next years, including Evaristo Ferreira da Veiga's Aurora Fluminense (in December 1827), "the most decided and liberal," according to Walsh; and João Clemente Vieira Souto's Astréia (in June 1826), published by what Joâo Loureiro called "a gang of liberals" in 1829. 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. That the traveler Walsh and the Brazilian Loureiro offered details about these newspapers' government or opposition connections indicates that these ties were widely known. Full press freedom returned in 183o, but legislation of that year established a complex procedure of jury trials for those accused of abusing this liberty.
There is no indication of periodical circulation in the 1820s and little direct information on their readership, but it is clear that these newspapers were 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 Moritz Rugendas, who had been in Rio de Janeiro from 1821 to 1825, recalled how "people of all classes gave themselves over to political conversations." They included "churchmen, officers, merchants, and workers," all of whom followed politics with "great interest, good sense, and eagerness." Others made their views known in different ways that reveal the lively political culture. Night-time police patrols were necessary "to keep down placards" in early 1826, but they could not stem the tide of "seditious" documents. By August, reported Condy Raguet, the U.S. chargé d'affaires, "caricatures in charcoal ha[d] appeared upon the walls of white houses, pronouncing the treasonable and revolutionary expression 'Morra o Imperador [Death to the Emperor],' 'Viva Bolivar [Long Live {Simón} Bolívar],' and representing His Majesty as riding to destruction in a carriage driven by the Viscountess of Santos," his mistress Domitila (he had granted her the title in 1825 and would promote her to marchioness on his birthday in 1826). Such graffiti indicate a significant, if normally invisible, political underground that rarely manifested itself directly on days of national festivity.
While civic rituals no doubt afforded an occasion for Brazilians throughout the far-flung empire to imagine themselves as fellow subjects of the Bragança monarchy, fellow Brazilian citizens, and members of the nation, imperial civic rituals placed little emphasis on the nation in this abstract sense. There are no indications of a Romantic nationalism during these years, and civic rituals turned overwhelmingly on the political arrangements of the new state. Tellingly, as we noted in the introduction, the well-informed Raguet called the holidays instituted by parliament in 1826 "days of political festivity," even though he certainly knew that the law designated them "days of national festivity." Civic ritual's central political dimension ultimately facilitated the adoption of many of its forms by Pedro I's opponents in 1830, the subject of the next chapter.
IDENTIFYING INDEPENDENCE
Today every Brazilian schoolchild learns that Pedro I proclaimed Brazilian independence on 7 September 1822 on the banks of the Ipiranga River in Sâo Paulo. In that year, however, the historical meaning of his actions was not quite so clear cut; at least for the rest of 1822, contemporaries attributed little significance to the date and the Grito do Ipiranga (Pedro's cry of "Independence or Death") as they busied themselves with the emperor's acclamation (12 October) and his coronation (1 December). De facto autonomy from Lisbon had been achieved well before 7 September 1822; in the early August manifestos written by José Bonifacio, Pedro had already claimed independence for Brazil. The resulting lack of attention to 7 September has led to a historical consensus that it took some time to construct it as Brazil's independence day. In fact, 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 festivity for much of the decade.
In 1860 Gottfried Heinrich Handelmann observed about 7 September that, "at first, not as much importance was given to it as later," but he offered no sources for this assertion. A number of other historians have recently noted the limited attention to the events of 7 September 1822 in the Rio de Janeiro press of later that year, the absence of the date from a list of court gala days published in December, and Hipólito José da Costa's failure to comment on the date in his Correlo Brasiliense (among other things), all of which appear surprising in light of the later importance attributed to 7 September. In a 1995 article, Maria de Lourdes Viana Lyra argues that the construction of 7 September as Brazil's independence day began in the mid-1820s and was only complete by 1830, with the publication of José da Silva Lisboa's História dos principals sucessos do Impèrio do Brasil (History of the Principal Events of the Empire of Brazil, 1825–30). In this official history, the Viscount of Cairu (Lisboa received the title of baron in 1826 and viscount the following year) presented Pedro as "the Hero of Brazil," responsible for its "elevation ... to the rank of Empire," an assessment that, as Lyra notes, fully suited a conservative monarchy. On 7 September 1822 the prince-regent's "Herculean blow against the Lisbon Cortes" annihilated its "usurped Sovereignty over Brazil," and he thus proclaimed the "BRAZILIAN NATION'S COMPLETE INDEPENDENCE," declared Cairu in sections of the 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's sovereignty: The reformist and conservative position held that it derived from his royal lineage, while the revolutionary view held that only the people—the Brazilian nation—had the right to acclaim Pedro as their ruler and invest him with power. Pedro had to formally give up his claim to rule based on popular sovereignty in the 1825 treaty that resulted in Portuguese recognition, which in turn necessitated a reconstruction of the history of independence to emphasize that it came directly from Pedro's actions on 7 September 1822 and not through his acclamation by the Brazilian nation, which Cairu duly supplied.
Lyra's elegant analysis, however, misses the extent to which Cairu's interpretation came into question, especially after radical liberals took to the streets on days of national festivity in 1830. Moreover, a closer look at the celebrations held on 7 September starting in 1823 reveals no doubt that it was already considered Brazil's independence day. Rather, the key issue was whether independence as proclaimed on 7 September was as important as Pedro's acclamation on 12 October (or even the other 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 the decade it had caught up to the latter date. A second issue, vigorously debated in 1830 and 1831, was the nature of Pedro's role on 7 September 1822; many, in fact, rejected Cairu's view and argued that Pedro's call for independence responded to the nation's desire to be free, a view that subordinated him to the Brazilian nation or political community.
The events of the second half of 1822 that led to the creation of an independent Brazilian empire offered two major alternatives from which to date the new regime's founding: Pedro's Grito do Ipiranga on 7 September or his acclamation on 12 October, also his birthday. Pedro himself thought the latter most worthy of commemoration. A December 1822 decree mandating the court protocol for gala days failed to mention 7 September and, perhaps even more interestingly, identified no day as commemorating independence (12 October was described as Pedro's birthday and his acclamation). Earlier that month, however, Pedro had decreed that "given that it is appropriate to commemorate the glorious era of Brazil's Independence and its elevation to the status of Empire ... the number of years elapsed ... should be counted from the memorable day 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 3 May 1823, Pedro alluded to the date as his first declaration in favor of full independence. In early September, the assembly resolved that the day be considered, for the moment, a national holiday, for it was the "anniversary of Brazilian independence," and its members sent a large deputation to congratulate Pedro. Much to Raguet's surprise, 7 September 1823 "was celebrated with all the parade, military, civil, and religious appropriate to so important a festival." He speculated that the ceremony had something to with the increasingly acrimonious politics surrounding the assembly and wondered whether he had been wrong to see the acclamation (12 October 1822) as "the true day of the declaration of independence." Baron Wenzel de Mareschal, the Austrian representative, was apparently not surprised and simply reported that "a military festival is being prepared for 7 September, as the day on which independence was proclaimed in Sao Paulo." The sole Rio de Janeiro press reference to this year's commemoration of 7 September was a sonnet in O Silfo that concluded: "Thou art independent ... Oh! What remains for thee / Courage Brazil! Constitution or Death," a call for Pedro to let the constituent assembly complete its work. What Raguet referred to as the "military, civil, and religious" elements of the celebration were the constituent parts of official civic ritual at that time—artillery salutes from forts 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 theater gala, and nighttime illumination of the city.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Days of National Festivity in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1823â?"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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Table of Contents
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