19. Different Flavors of Brazilian Banditry
There were three different kinds of cangaçeiros, or rural bandits. First, were those who provided specific services to the landowners of Northeast Brazil. Then there were those known as satisfatorios, who essentially served as the private militia and muscle of the wealthiest landowners. Finally, there were the independent cangaceiros, who were pretty much out and out bandit groups. It is the last group upon which this article is focused. The region in which they operated, the hinterland of Northeast Brazil, is known as the Caatinga. It is a land of semi-arid tropical vegetation, full of shrubs and thorn forests. It was the perfect environment for bandit groups like the cangaceiros, who knew the Caatinga well. That familiarity helped them escape and hide from pursuit by the authorities in the inhospitable terrain. A hallmark of cangaceiros was their adaptability and ability to thrive in a forbidding environment.
Like violent Boy Scouts, cangaçeiros were always prepared. They knew medicinal plants, water sources, places with food, escape routes, and places that were difficult for pursuing police and soldiers to access. The first known cangaçeiro band was that of Jesuíno Alves de Melo Calado, nicknamed Jesuíno Brilhante. They operated around 1870, near the city of Patu and between the borders of the Brazilian states of Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba. Some scholars, however, believe that the first cangaçeiro was Lucas Evangelista, who formed an independent bandit group on the outskirts of Feira de Santana in the state of Bahia, in 1828. He and his gang were finally captured in 1848, and charged with sundry crime visited upon the local population. Evangelista was convicted, sentenced to death, and hanged the following year. The last famous cangaçeiros were those of Corisco (Cristino Gomes da Silva Cleto), killed on May 25th, 1940.
