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Best regards, Andrew Stewart - - - Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via https://washingtonbabylon.com/newsletter/ Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <h-rev...@lists.h-net.org> > Date: March 30, 2020 at 11:30:22 AM EDT > To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > Cc: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.org> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-LatAm]: Marquez on Kraay, 'Bahia's Independence: > Popular Politics and Patriotic Festival in Salvador, Brazil, 1824-1900' > Reply-To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > > Hendrik Kraay. Bahia's Independence: Popular Politics and Patriotic > Festival in Salvador, Brazil, 1824-1900. Montreal McGill-Queen's > University Press, 2019. xiv + 416 pp. $39.95 (paper), ISBN > 978-0-7735-5748-2. > > Reviewed by John C. Marquez (University of California, Irvine) > Published on H-LatAm (March, 2020) > Commissioned by Casey M. Lurtz > > On July 2, 1823, members of the Exército Pacificador (Pacifying > Army) expelled remaining Portuguese forces from Salvador, effectively > consolidating Brazilian national independence as it unfolded in > Bahia. Brazil declared its independence from Portugal in 1822, but it > was not until the second of July that following year that Bahians > took control of the city of Salvador. For this reason, Bahians from > the nineteenth century to the present commemorate Dois de Julho > (second of July) as a marker of independence, alongside the more > familiar date of September 7 celebrated throughout Brazil. As Hendrik > Kraay describes, the "bedraggled patriots who marched in Salvador on > 2 July 1823 likely knew they were participating in momentous events, > although they could not have known that their actions would soon be > symbolically re-enacted, year after year" (p. 43). > > _Bahia's Independence: Popular Politics and Patriotic Festival in > Salvador, Brazil, 1824-1900 _comprehensively explores this symbolic > reenactment in the civic ritual known as Dois de Julho, particularly > as it mapped onto and shaped the province's nineteenth-century > political culture. Civic rituals and public celebrations following > Brazil's independence offer historians a unique window into social > beliefs and political customs throughout the empire and the tensions > that surrounded them. Based on more than twenty years of research, > and building off his previous work that explored Brazil's "days of > national festivities," Kraay sets out to understand the invention and > reinvention of Dois de Julho and popular mobilization around Bahians' > distinct remembrance and celebration of national independence. Kraay > argues that Dois de Julho celebrations in nineteenth-century > Salvador, rather than embodying a "regional identity project," > provided Bahians a living ritual through which to articulate > distinctly Bahian narratives of independence (p. 9). Indeed, Dois de > Julho "celebrates independence not in a nation-state but in one of > its constituent parts" (p. 7). In turn, Kraay demonstrates that civic > rituals celebrating July 2, 1823, mobilized popular support and > participation among Bahians across the long run of the Brazilian > Empire. The meanings of such civic rituals, however, varied among its > participants, making it a key site for understanding political life, > exclusion, and popular struggles over citizenship in Bahia's public > sphere. > > To trace Dois de Julho's evolution across the nineteenth century, > Kraay expertly pieces together various sources, including memoirs, > provincial correspondence, plays, and newspapers. Reading across > these sources, Kraay finds contradictions and errors in surviving > accounts of nineteenth-century Dois de Julho, making it challenging > to paint a full picture of early celebrations. Kraay engages the work > of folklorists like Manoel Raimundo Querino, reading their accounts > against surviving newspapers in order to challenge the "official > histories" that those writers generated. The result is a new history > of Dois de Julho and Bahian political culture that is sensitive to > broader historical shifts and that corrects common misconceptions of > the celebration still present today. > > _Bahia's Independence_ is organized chronologically and thematically > across six chapters. The first half of the book traces key shifts in > Dois de Julho celebrations within Bahia and Brazil's social and > political context. Chapter 1 describes the invention of Dois de Julho > in 1824 by Exaltados (radical liberals) who adapted and reworked > old-regime civic rituals into new expressions of radical liberalism. > While "official" histories of Dois de Julho frame its origins as a > popular movement belonging to the "_povo_" (people), Kraay charts how > Exaltados took their politics "into the streets," politics which > included identification with the _pátria_ (homeland) and lusophobic > nativism (pp. 45, 66). Kraay also identifies the use of indigenist > allegories in these early celebrations, consistent with > appropriations of indigenous people as symbols in the wider empire at > the same time. Following the Sabinada Rebellion (1837-38), Dois de > Julho underwent a period of repression by the province's conservative > administration, though it was slowly restored by radical liberal > supporters of the festival. Chapter 2 traces Dois de Julho's > mid-century evolution from a political civic ritual promoted by > Bahia's Exaltados into a broader popular festival that marked > Bahians' sense of national identity. Key to this evolution was the > emergence of patriotic battalions who marched on the evening before > July 2. This Noite Primeira procession garnered a wider participation > of Bahians in Dois de Julho festivities. Ultimately, both Dois de > Julho organizers and political administrators fearful of the _povo's_ > disorder repressed the Noite Primeira festivities in the early 1860s. > Between the decline of the Noite Primeira festivities and the > creation of Brazil's republic (1889), Dois de Julho retained its > popular elements while also becoming a flashpoint for partisan > politics. Dois de Julho celebrations prompted new neighborhood > celebrations, widening the geography of local patriotic celebration > and popular participation. Celebrations also became a site of debate > between Liberal and Conservative politicians, who used Dois de > Julho's festivities to conduct politics. Indeed, as Kraay reinforces, > "Dois de Julho celebrations were serious politics, albeit wrapped in > a festive and celebratory culture" (p. 167). > > The second half of the book explores several themes that shaped the > meanings of Dois de Julho celebrations throughout the nineteenth > century. The metaphors of freedom and liberty that patriots deployed > to describe Bahia's contribution to Brazil's independence, Kraay > notes, were "never intended to apply to slaves, who were not part of > the nation" (p. 172). Slavery and race presented glaring > contradictions in Dois de Julho celebrations, even as patriots > endeavored to maintain silence on the matter. As Kraay argues in > chapter 4, Dois de Julho patriots and their celebrations reinforced > racial exclusion by foregrounding Bahian and Brazilian citizenship, > which did not extend to Africans or their enslaved descendants. > Afro-descendants in Bahia nevertheless attributed their own meanings > to Dois de Julho, though discerning these meanings is difficult given > limited and biased press accounts. Chapter 5 brings readers into > Salvador's São João theater, where mid-century Dois de Julho > celebrations incorporated plays to stage Bahia's centrality to > Brazilian independence. Simultaneously accepting _indigenismo_ while > silencing slavery and race from the national landscape, these plays > foregrounded a liberal vision of Brazil's independence that rooted it > less in the actions of Pedro I in Rio de Janeiro and more in the > actions of Bahian troops. The creation of the Brazilian republic > (1889) transformed Dois de Julho celebrations. To explore this > transformation at the turn of the twentieth century, the book's end > point, Kraay focuses on debates surrounding the construction of a > monument in 1895. Through this monument, organizers hoped to offer a > "modern, respectable way to commemorate the patriots' 1823 victory," > as well as to manage the association of the _cabocla/o_ as an > indigenist symbol of Bahian independence (p. 246). > > By using a popular civic ritual like Dois de Julho as a window into > politics and society in nineteenth-century Bahia, Kraay's analysis > offers several insights. Kraay's larger argument that Dois de Julho > patriots were "far from regionalists, if by this is meant an ideology > that contradicts loyalty to the national state," contributes to a > larger revision of the theme of regionalism in Brazil (p. 195). As > Dois de Julho celebrations evolved in the nineteenth century, Bahians > who celebrated the provinces' contributions to national independence > continued to see themselves as Brazilians. One wonders what the > larger implications or tensions of this were, given that Kraay > suggests that Dois de Julho "sat uncomfortably alongside Brazil's > other days of national festivity" (p. 192). Furthermore, Kraay's > analysis is attentive to exclusions and silences. He illustrates how > indigenist symbols in the figure of the _cabocla/o_ and the near > silence on matters of slavery, despite a reliance on the metaphor of > liberty, made Dois de Julho another site of exclusion and selective > inclusion. More challenging, however, is understanding the meanings > of national or subnational rituals to Afro-descendants. Kraay's > argument that Dois de Julho represented an avenue for "engaged > citizens" simultaneously reminds us that such engagement happened > alongside formal and informal exclusions, raising questions of what > "popular" can truly mean in this period (pp. 9, 167). > > This is a well-researched book that significantly broadens our > understanding of political culture, regionalism, and Brazilian > national identity in Bahia. Kraay affirms our understanding of the > silences and exclusions that undergirded Brazilian independence, and > identity in the nineteenth century and lays the groundwork for > further research into the ways ritual, race, gender, and exclusion > shaped popular political mobilization in Bahia and beyond. It will be > of special interest to undergraduate and graduate students and > scholars studying independence, popular politics, and ritual in > Brazil and Latin America. > > Citation: John C. Marquez. Review of Kraay, Hendrik, _Bahia's > Independence: Popular Politics and Patriotic Festival in Salvador, > Brazil, 1824-1900_. H-LatAm, H-Net Reviews. March, 2020. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54455 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
