Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
11
Euclides and the Baron
A Labyrinth . . .
Riding out to construction sites and administering the building of public works was te-
dious and exhausting for da Cunha. It satisfied neither his creative nor economic yearn-
ings: he was beset with dissatisfactions in all his callings—military, engineering, farm-
ing, journalism. Any luster he might have enjoyed from association with General Solon
Ribeiro's military career had dissipated in subsequent intrigues, along with Solon's du-
bious performance in the second Canudos campaign. His final days in obscure outposts
hardly spoke of a surfeit of confidence in his trustworthiness. In a time of nepotism and
connections, while others thrived through their revolutionary associations, da Cunha's
carried little benefit.
Furthermore, da Cunha had managed to alienate a succession of regimes. His caustic
positions on corruption and cronyism and his moderate views on activities like summary
executionsduringtheJacobinfrenzyhadmadehimsomeobduratefoes.While
OsSertões
was a literary sensation, its description of military incompetence and, pitiless extermin-
ation of modest peasants, ex-slaves, and the last remnants of some regional indigenous
groups could hardly be construed as complimentary. He had broken with most of his con-
freresfromthePraiaVermelhaastheyroseonthewingsofpatronagetoevermoreaugust
sinecures.
Da Cunha had hoped to teach engineering and sciences at the new São Paulo Polytech-
nic,andbeggedhisfriendstointercedeforhim.Hehad,asusual,managedtoalienatethe
key person—the incoming rector—in one of his newspaper articles, closing off that pos-
sibility. Working his father's farm had its allurements and fed his nostalgia for the simple
rural life while subsidizing his household costs. But da Cunha's desire for the rural was
for the imaginary terrain of his childhood, not the adult anxieties of a marginal coffee en-
terprise. In addition, things were not going particularly well with the increasingly miser-
able Ana. The long correspondence with his father was often deeply affectionate, but the
career instability and the emotional volatility of Euclides worried the elder da Cunha.
The dead end of the army forced da Cunha to return to the dreary tasks of surveying
and engineering. His correspondence over these years is one long litany of complaint,
even when he could get some reading done on trains and muleback. Plan checking and
supervising construction held less and less attraction, and his youthful idealism about this
type of public service had waned in the tedium of the day to day. By 1904, many letters
to his literary confreres began with variations on “in the few minutes I could snatch from
Search WWH ::
Custom Search