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The concrete -- or stone rather -- reason for this neighborhood's name was taken down and away on September 7th, 1835. But the metaphor remains, echoing through Pelourinho's byways like the doleful remonstances of aggrieved spirits.
"Pelourinho" means pillory. And Salvador's pelourinho last stood at the top of the sloping Largo do Pelourinho, final point in a journey which began in the city's first open market in the Praça da Feira (today known as Praça Municipal -- the open square at the top of the Elevador Lacerda). The pelourinho stood at the market's center. Then sometime between 1602 and 1607 -- period of the Governorship of Dom Diogo Botelho -- the pelourinho was moved by governor's decree to the Terreio de Jesus. But the Terreiro de Jesus was the site of the Jesuits' church and school, and the screams and groans interfered with church services and teaching. So it was removed again and repositioned at the bottom of the Ladeira de São Bento (where Praça Castro Alves is now located). Again it was removed, for the penultimate time, in 1807, and taken to the largo which would come to bear its name. It would stand there for another 28 years. * * * Anybody visiting Salvador winds up spending at least some time in Pelourinho. Pelourinho is the Old City, the old heart of Salvador, with colonial-era buildings and winding cobblestone streets. Cana Brava Records is located there (here).
If you are in Pelourinho and looking for information, a good source is Bahiatursa. The organization has an information center (with maps and other resources, and attendants speaking a number of languages) at Rua das Laranjeiras, No. 12. Any policeman or shopkeeper can tell you where it is, or point you in the right direction. The Balé Folclórico da Bahia (this is a nice site, very well done) presents a wonderful and amazing show of dance and capoeira in the Teatro Miguel Santana in Pelourinho, at Rua Gregôrio de Mattos, 49. Performances are Monday through Saturday -- with the exception of Tuesdays -- at 8:00 p.m., and they run an hour or so in duration. Tickets are R$20 and half-price for students. Advance purchases of tickets can be made at the theater on show days, beginning at 2 p.m. during the week and 4:30 p.m on Saturdays.
Interested in cachaça? Cachaça is to Brazil what rum is to the Caribbean, it's the national distilled spirit (okay, I know the Caribbean isn't a "nation"!). Pelourinho has an interesting place called "O Cravinho" (literally: "The Little Clove") where the approach to cachaça is something akin to that of a Frenchman to his wine, or a German to his beer, or a Scotsman to his whiskey.
O Cravinho is owned and run by Julival Santos Reis, a gentle man with the manner and appearance of a field biologist. Sr. Reis will gladly and knowledgeably discuss (in Portuguese) distilling methods and the various types of woods utilized in barrels used to age cachaça, pointing out which of the barrels lining the walls in his establishment are constructed from which type of tree (massaranduba is a common one). Sr. Reis' establishment consists of a bar/restaurant in ambient amber-colored wood and a small annex to the right of the restaurant entrance where bottled cachaça may be purchased. The restaurant is a popular place where entering often means squeezing past patrons gathered at the very popular bar towards the front. (Curious about what those people are drinking out of those little cups? There's something on that here.) Further back, behind the restaurant section, is a courtyard (shared by various other establishments) with live music seven nights a week (the entrance is one store-front to the left of O Cravinho's entrance, under a sign reading Fundo do Cravinho (Back of O Cravinho). Sunday is the most animated night back here, with music (pagode fundo de quintal) starting up at 5 p.m. (or so) and running until 10. Cover is 2 reais. O Cravinho's address is Praça 15 de Novembro (Terreiro de Jesus), No. 3. The phone number is 3322-6759.
Another interesting place to have a lean and a cravinho is at the hole-in-the-wall establishment Preto Velho, operated out of a doorway at Rua Gregório de Mattos, 38, across the street from the Filhos de Ghandy headquarters. Preto Velho is owned and operated by Domingos Teixeira Lemos, a man who was born and raised in Pelourinho and who has lived every one of his 87 years there. At one time his establishment was a restaurant, but with the death of his wife several years ago the place shrank to a simple bar. Sr. Lemos occasionally has other batidas on hand as well (jatobá and erva doce, for instance). Speaking of the Filhos de Gandhy headquarters, it's a culturally jamming place to be on Sunday evenings, from 4 p.m. (or so) until 10 p.m. (or so). Men dance as if in a house of candomblé, to live music -- percussive ijexá -- in the big downstairs hall, while friends and family eat abarás and drink soft drinks and beer on the mezzanine. The vibe is very, very good and the place gets very, very packed. Admittance is free.
Berimbaus are on display and for sale all over Pelourinho. One interesting place which deals in berimbaus and more is Mestre Lua's Atelier Percussivo, located at Rua Inácio Ociole, No. 3 (a small street close to the Igreja São Francisco). Mestre Lua is a capoeira master who crafts percussion instruments (berimbaus, atabaques, bongôs, timbaus, cuicas, congas, djembês, and more) of great beauty and quality, and his shop looks like something of a living museum. The difference is that these instruments are made to play. They are also pricier than others to be had, but even so they are far less expensive than anything similar purchased in the United States or Europe. The phone number at the shop is 3488-3600, and Mestre Lua's home phone is 3636-8118. Should you stop by the shop (or call) you may be attended by Mestre Lua's protogé Gigante ("Giant"). Gigante isn't really all that big, but he was a tall boy back when he started studying capoeira with Mestre Lua's group. Mestre Lua also organizes percussion classes and workshops, sometimes on his property on the island of Itaparica.
Somebody else who sells berimbaus in Pelourinho -- and who you'll almost certainly see if you're in Pelourinho anytime during the day -- is Mestre Gajé, who, in his pre-mestre days, is pictured below, third from the left. The photo was taken over 40 years ago so the mestre has undergone some of the changes natural to our species over time (for one thing his belly is bigger!). The hippie to the left is venerable Mestre Bola Sete, author of a book bearing this photo on its cover. The two players are João Pequeno and João Grande.
Mestre Gajé sells berimbaus in the Largo do Pelourinho...painted (for tourists; a practice originated in the '50s by Mestre Waldemar da Paixão, another story; actually a lot of other stories) and unpainted (for people who will actually play them). Want to see berimbaus and drums (and the human spirit and body) in action? There's an excellent high-energy two-hour (7 p.m. to 9 p.m.; 10 reais cover) demonstration/show of capoeira on Tuesday nights (night of the above-mentioned benção) at the renowned Academia de Mestre Bimba (located at Rua das Laranjeiras, 01, just off of the Terreio de Jesus). These beatboy (and girl) Baryshnikovs clap, sing, wield the ancient art of capoeira and its accoutrements, and soar! Depending on where you're staying in Bahia, on where you've gone, what you've seen and done, it may have crossed your mind that Old Bahia -- that Bahia of myth and magic -- hasn't been much in evidence. You may have wondered whether it even exists anymore. Well setting that question aside for now (the answer being: it does) Bahia is lucky to have been the home a marvelous chronicler who worked in the medium of black & white photography.
I'm speaking of Pierre "Fatumbi" Verger, born in Paris on the 4th of November, 1902, passed away in Salvador on the 11th of February, 1996. A small sample of Verger's vast work hangs in the Galeria Pierre Verger at the entrance to Praça da Sé (on Rua da Misericórdia) -- resonantly beautiful prints which truly capture the soul of Bahia. The Galeria also sells T-shirts with Verger photos on them, and this is one place in the Cento Histórico where the presence of T-shirts doesn't seem to cheapen or lessen the authenticity of the area. The Fundação Pierre Verger has a comprehensive site here, showcasing Verger's photos not only of Bahia but of a plethora of other places around the world. * * * High Pelô fashion ("Pelô" is the local abbreviation for "Pelourinho") in hair may be had at a number of places both on the street and in small, storefront shops. Natalice Passos (pictured below), Queen of bloco afro Ilê Aiyê in the year 2000, weaves hair (for women, men, people black, white, in-between, and otherwise) in a shop called Negra Jhô on Rue Frei Vicente, 4.
* * * Main Entry: sen·za·la Pelourinho's senzala was located behind the Colégio dos Jesuitas (which stood on the site currently occupied by the old School of Medicine), where it stretched out and across the hillside descending from behind the houses on Rua Alfredo de Brito (originally Rua Portas do Carmo) to the cidade baixa (lower city). Nowadays the area is called "Roçinha" (ho-SEEN-ya), and although enforced servitude was abolished (in Brazil) in 1888, poor Roçinha hasn't managed to climb much above a standard of living laid down for it centuries ago. Entrance is via an archway set on the left-hand side of Rua Alfredo de Brito as one descends towards the Largo do Pelourinho from the Terreiro de Jesus, a couple of doors down from the A Cubana Sorveteria (ice-cream shop), and just past a clearly marked address -- #16. The area used to host music, reggae mostly, several nights a week, but that's not happening anymore, and sightseeing isn't recommended. * * *
From its first location in the Igreja dos Quinze Mistérios (Church of the Fifteen Mysteries) in 1832, to its present location in Pelourinho (acquired in 1883), this society of black men and women has for 172 years endeavored to help others in need by everything from purchasing freedom from slavery then to buying medicine and paying funeral expenses now. More to come... * * * And finally, if you're curious, a square of broken marble at the top of the Largo do Pelourinho (in front of what is now the Casa de Jorge Amado) marks the spot where the pillory stood, that stone column to which slaves were bound, beaten, humiliated and tortured, the pelourinho which was eventually to give Salvador's first neighborhood its name.
Further Personalities, History, Fables and True Tales of Pelourinho & Environs Camafeu de Oxossi
Camafeu de Oxossi was a force-of-nature. Born in 1915 in Gravatá (across the street from Pelourinho), his father died when Camafeu was seven years old, and not liking the way he was treated by his new stepfather he lit out to fend for himself in the streets in and around Pelourinho. Camafeu was baptized Ápio Patrocínio da Conceição, but according to Jorge Amado "Ápio Patrocínio da Conceição did not exist, it was just a nickname they gave him when he was born." The christening was struck after a lucky run in a jogo de sorte, a gambling game, in Pelourinho. The guy he cleaned out called him "Camafeu" (a camafeu is a bas-relief cameo) after a lucky character in a film in town at the time. The Oxossi part came later, for this: Camafeu had a stall called Barraco de São Jorge in the old Mercado Modelo and São Jorge, or Saint George, is syncretised with the orixá of the hunt in candomblé, Oxossi. Voilà! A name fit for a legend! Camafeu studied at the Escola de Aprendiz de Artífice close to Praça da Piedade, sold shoelaces, shined shoes, worked as a sailor and then later on the docks of Salvador, eventually coming to own a barraca (stand) at the Mercado Modelo (the first Mercado Modelo, which burned down in 1969, some say at the hand of the mayor). Camafeu didn't take the business seriously, partied with friends there, and wound up having to sell the place. The mercado's administrator allowed him to put a couple of boards over an old fountain and at this makeshift stall Camafeu sold clothes and used shoes, eventually earning enough money to get back into the game, buying a couple of barracas, and then a couple more, all side-by-side, joining them together. Here he sold materials for candomblé (he was an Obá de Xangô in house of candomblé Ilé Axé Opô Afonjá) and wandered the mercado aisles, berimbau in hand, singing the cantigas de capoeira (he was a highly respected capoeira master). His barraca was, according to Jorge Amado, a meeting place, a nexus, a musical conservatory. Sr. Amado went on to say that culture in Salvador is born, nurtured, and affirmed in some pretty strange places. With his illustrious pen he immortalized Camafeu in several of his books, including O Sumiço da Santa (The War of the Saints), Pastores da Noite (Shepards of the Night), and Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos (Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands).
Camafeu was a Filho de Gandhy and was the afoxé's president from 1976 to 1982. He died in 1994 and at his funeral, while being interred in the cemetery of the Ordem Terceiro de São Francisco to the accompaniment of Catholic prayer, a song in Yoruban was lifted to the skies by babalorixá Luís da Muriçoca, and all present joined in.
Jorge Amado of the Wayward and Picaresque
The fellow sitting next to Camafeu de Oxossi in the photo in the preceding section is (should you not know) the best known of Brazil's writers, Jorge Amado. Sr. Amado got off to an early start, publishing his first novel O País do Carnaval (Carnival Country) in 1931, when he was just eighteen years old. His second novel Suor (Sweat) was written while he was a student living in Pelourinho (at Largo do Pelourinho 68 -- the old address -- which is actually located on Rua das Portas do Carmo, just around the corner from where Batatinha -- see further down -- lived), and Pelourinho, with its wild and colorful cast of characters and misfits, would become the setting for many of Amado's novels and short stories.
Bright Melancholy and the Diplomat of Bahian Samba
Batatinha (Oscar da Penha, born on the 5th of August, 1924 and in his youth a resident of Beco do Motta 2) played the matchbox and composed many lovely sambas.
Listen to Batatinha's Toalha de Saudade This is a song with an interesting provenance, a true story: Batatinha as a young man was out in the surging crowds that are part of Carnival in Bahia, when out of the multitudes emerged a lovely young woman, asking if she might borrow Batatinha's small embroidered towel, a standard component of samba school carnival kits back then. Batatinha complied. The moça delicately dried her face, handing the towel back to Batatinha, politely thanking him before disappearing back into the crowds, never to be seen (by Batatinha) again...leaving behind in the towel's weaving her beguiling scent and sweet memories of what might have been...
Batatinha died on the 3rd of January, 1997, aged 72 years, leaving behind muito saudade! |
