Heritage: Cult or Occult? (Pre)tensions of the Banditry Spectacularization in the Northeast Brazil

This paper investigates the transition of the memory surrounding the Cangaço, a phenomenon of banditry in Northeast Brazil, into an institutionalized cultural heritage. As the celebration of the centennial of Virgulino Ferreira da Silva’s birth took place, the major name in the movement, known as Lampião, this research analyzes the strengthening of the mnemonic culture of the phenomenon, with the symptomatic transformation of da Silva’s place of death into an official historical landmark. Thus, the article seeks to uncover the attribution of values, derived both from duties to the memory caused by “presentist” experimentations with time, and from appropriations triggered by cultural and regional development policies. This spectacularization, with its fixed framing of memory, conceals conflicts and wounds of this sensitive past. The paper further discusses the relationships between the memories of the phenomenon and northeastern identities, and their roles in the dynamics of remembering, forgetting, and silencing.