Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
politically autonomous and as a defended settlement. Historians and rural sociologists
such as Flavio dos Santos Gomes, Flavio Moura, and Victor Salles in their magisterial
studies of quilombos have sketched some of the defensive features of quilombos , all of
which characterized Canudos to an extraordinary degree. First, quilombos used the en-
vironment as the first line of defense. They were typically hard and exhausting to get
to, well hidden, while access routes permitted a great deal of surveillance. Canudos, da
Cunha notes, was difficult to make out in the landscape, a “monstrous urb” looking like
a jumble of earthquake ruins as one approached it from the north and almost invisible
if one came from the direction of the coast. The journalists and writers who covered the
final expedition all noted to their dismay how grueling it was to get within striking dis-
tance. 88
The difficulty of access was matched by the ease of surveillance. An active intelli-
gence network was key to the survival of quilombos . Canudos was extremely well in-
formed about the movements of the Brazilian military, whether this was through “secret
agents,”partisans,orchildrenwhoranmessages,orthroughitssnipernestsandlookouts
hiddenamongjumbledboulders.Canudosclearlyhadsympathizersineveryvillage,and
many in adjacent valleys had kinfolk living there. 89
Flavio dos Santos Gomes also underlines the how important guerrilla tactics were for
the survival of quilombos . It is possible that the great insurgent warriors of Canudos de-
veloped their backland military skills not simply in the herding of animals and the daily
violence of the Sertão but in the longer historical defense of these refuges. Much of da
Cunha's most agile descriptions are devoted to what a perfect landscape Canudos had
for clandestine war. Few places in Bahia were more blessed with tricky terrain for mis-
leading guides, getting companies to run up against a mountain wall to their doom, or
providing easy ambush than the environs of Canudos. Indeed, Os Sertões at its heart is a
kind of paean to the brilliance of guerrilla strategy in a complex and difficult landscape
where the sertanejo military imagination (and deadly practice) shines. Da Cunha's pos-
ture shifts from derogation to admiration of such inventive warfare.
Canudos had to have significant defenses and had them in abundance, including the
most unlikely in this land of drought: “in this lonely region where mountaintops merge
with the high tablelands, they had precisely selected the spot that came nearest to being
one enormous moat.” 90 To cross the Vasa Barris into Canudos meant to take on snipers
fromeverydirection,includingthechurchtower.Horsesandmenwerehamperedbythe
river flow, and their slow, clumsy movements made them simple targets even for impre-
cise weaponry.
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