The cangaço in the press and in history

considerations about Ceará (1910 - 1930)

Abstract

This article discusses how news about cangaço appears in Ceará newspapers as the historical process unfolds. We turn our attention to the early years of the Republic and to the Sedição de Juazeiro, to understand how those involved in fighting in defense of the “land of Padre Cícero”, many of them jagunços and cangaceiros called to fight for Floro Bartholomeu, are described by the press. Later, with the droughts (1915, 1919 and 1932) that affected the life of the population of Ceará and the moments of greater social unrest, we realized that the groups of independent cangaceiros appear with greater expressiveness. We analyzed the newspapers O Rebate, Jornal do Ceará, A Ordem, A Esquerda, Gazeta do Cariry, O Sitiá, O Povo, among others. We infer the role of the press in narrating the actions of these subjects that have been looming in the newspapers since the 1920s: the news starts to gain more space and appear in greater quantity criticizing the governments. In the 1930s, even with the repressive apparatus that was created, the news remains, however, the tone of denunciation is not so strong.