Santa Rita Durão

José de Santa Rita Durão (1722-1784), orator and poet, could be considered the creator of 'Indianism' in Brazil. His epic poem Caramuru is the first work to treat the native inhabitants of Brazil as its theme. Written in the style of Camões, Caramuru imitates classical poets.

Life

Durão, who became priest of the Augustinian order, was born near Mariana, Minas Gerais. He was educated at the Jesuit College in Rio de Janeiro until age ten and the following year left for Portugal. There he was awarded a doctorate in theology and philology at the University of Coimbra, in the city of Coimbra, Portugal, where he subsequently became a member of the faculty.

But during the Marquis of Pombal government in Portugal, Durão was persecuted and left Portugal for Rome, where he worked as a librarian for more than 20 years. He also visited both Spain and France during this time. When Pombal's government fell, he returned to Portugal, where he returned to teaching at the University of Coimbra. He lived there for the rest of his life.

Although he never returned to Brazil, his epic Caramuru was his remembrance of his native land.

Work

Virtually all that remains of his literary production is the ten-canto epic poem Caramuru, whose form is strictly patterned after The Lusiads by Camões. Arranged in rhymed octaves and filled with erudite information on the flora, fauna, and Indian populations of Brazil, Caramuru is a tribute to his distant homeland. According to tradition, the reaction to Caramuru was so cold that Durão destroyed the rest of his poetry.

The framing story of the poem is that of the shipwrecked Portuguese sailor Diogo Álvares Correia (Caramuru, or dragon from the sea) who became the patriarch of a large half-caste community and the founder of Bahia through his Indian wives. It was the custom for the conquering tribesmen to attempt to retain the strength of their vanquished, but worthy, foes. This was done by offering him a "widow" with whom to bear children and then by the ritualistic ingesting of his flesh. Diogo Álvares was not immediately eaten because of injuries he suffered in the shipwreck. He asked for and was granted permission to swim out to the still-visible ship to retrieve a crutch. The crutch he brought back was a blunderbuss, which, when he displayed its fire power, earned him not one but several wives and eventually the leadership of the community.

List of works

• Pro anmia studiorum instauratione oratio (1778)
• Caramuru (1781)

In English Translation

• Caramuru (selection) in Poets of Brazil ISBN 085051701X