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Written in the 1940s, the book Lutas de Família no Brasil (Family
Feuds in Brazil), by Luiz Aguiar Costa Pinto, allows us to understand
how the conflicts that took place in our country are similar to - or different
from - those experienced in Kadaré's Albania. Based on an analysis of
the confrontations between the Pires family and the Camargo family, in
São Paulo, and between the Feitosas and the Montes, in Ceará, the book
proves that vengeance, in Brazil, takes place in the absence of legal
authority. It is something that arises naturally, spontaneously, and that
only stops when a stronger ruling power appears.
These studies were critical to the creation of the characters of the
father and mother of the Breves family, played by José Dumont and Rita
Assemany. Critical, also, in defining the social class to which they belong.
The Breves are landowners bound to the sugarcane monoculture, which began
to decline after the abolition of slavery at the end of the 19th century.
Their rivals, the Ferreiras, are landowners on the rise - they raise cattle.
Below are some of the codes established by these families in an attempt
to regulate the blood feuds, excerpted and compiled by Sérgio Machado
from the book Lutas de Família no Brasil.
"Vengeance is an absolute and unquestionable duty, an obligation
that cannot be escaped, under penalty of banishment. In such cases,
the disgrace is not only the individual's, but the entire family's."
"For the family, the struggle is a struggle for its own survival. To
avoid this would break the rule, go against tradition, threaten its
own existence and social harmony."
"The excessive growth of the power of the families and the weakness
of governmental power cause the problem of private vendettas in Brazil."
"The duty of taking revenge falls naturally to the relative closest
to the victim."
"If the closest relative doesn't carry out his duty, the offense to
the dead man will turn back against him."
About the role of the mother
"The role of the women in this situation is crucially important. It
is always rare that revenge is unleashed upon a woman, and it is also
only rarely that a woman carries out a reprisal in the name of acting
for the family."
"Sustaining and encouraging hatred, (…), keeping alive the spirit of
revenge, these are roles reserved for the women in the family feuds."
"If at the time when the violence is to be unleashed, there are no adults
to carry out the reprisal, the task of inciting the younger ones to
carry it out one day, and of nourishing their spirit of revenge, falls
to the women and the elders."
"The women use every resource to promote the feud and transform the
family from a community into a communion. If it is a blood feud, they
display the blood stained clothes of the dead man; they live in permanent
mourning, not leaving the house, lamenting the dead man night and day,
recalling and exaggerating his good qualities, arousing longing, remorse
and the desire for vengeance."
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