SOURCE: Curran, Mark J. “Brazil's Literatura de Cordel: Its Distribution and Adaptation to the Brazilian Mass Market.” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 1 (1982): 164-78.

[In the following essay, Curran expounds on the literature de cordel, a popular form of narrative poetry written by Brazilian poets of the Northeast, and the means by which it is marketed to the Brazilian public.]

The literatura de cordel [popular literature in verse] is that body of narrative poetry with folk-popular characteristics which is written by literate or semi-literate poets principally from Brazil's Northeast.¹ Although popular poetry—that is, written with signed authorship—it has intrinsically folk characteristics: it is persistent and long lasting; its most famous stories are known by title rather than by author to its public; it is closely linked to the oral poetic tradition; and many of its public hear the poetry rather than read it. Its themes range from the traditional—that is, fairy tales of princes and princesses, fables, religious and moral exempla [examples] and the like—to the circumstantial or current events. Cases in point are poems with titles like História da princesa Eliza [Story of the princess Eliza], A princesa Rosamunda ou a morte do gigante [Princess Rosamunde or the death of the giant], O boi misterioso [The mysterious bull], História da mo˜ca que bateu na mãe e virou cachorra [Story of the girl who beat up her mother and was turned into a dog], namorados de hoje [Lovers in this day and age], Os heróis do espaço e a conquista da lua [The space heroes and the conquest of the moon], and A volta de Jânio Quadros a esperança do povo [The return of Jânio Quadros the hope of the people]. The poems truly document both the traditional literary interests of their readers, as well as serve as a historic chronicle of diverse events affecting their lives.

The literature de cordel is printed on cheap, fragile paper in folhetos [booklets] and is sold in feiras [markets], places of public transportation or in the plazas of urban centers. It can be found from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in the South, to Brasília and Goiás in the Center, to Bahia and Piaui in the Northeast, and to a limited degree in Amazônia (Belém, Santarém and Manáus). Its origins are peninsular, and its name comes from the original literatura de cegos [literature of blind beggars] in Lisbon.² It began in Brazil in the late 1800s in the Northeast and reached its peak in the late 1940s, the 1950s and early 1960s. Although affected seriously by economic developments and the rapid expansion of modern media in Brazil, it remains a viable medium of communication, a document of a people's point of view and most important, an alterative source of entertainment for many Brazilians.

The poets of the literatura de cordel are almost exclusively from the lower class and are most often from rural roots, although some of them have migrated to large cities along the northeast coast or to major urban areas in the Center and South of Brazil (Brasília, Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo). In recent years some of the poets have studied on the advanced level and a few have obtained university degrees. This change in educational level obviously affects their viewpoint in their poetry.

In this paper we will deal with two important aspects of today's literatura de cordel: how it is actually distributed for mass consumption in Brazil and how information about it is divulged to the general public. The actual channels of distribution of cordel are much the same as they have been for the last fifty to seventy years, but the divulgation of cordel's existence, importance, and values as entertainment and journalistic medium has changed rapidly in the last fifteen years, expanding with the times in Brazil.

The distribution of cordel today follows these general lines: the poeta popular [popular poet] composes his poem, either orally to be written down by a friend in the case of an illiterate poet (these are now rare), or in written form much as a learned poet. If he is not an editor [popular publisher] who has his own printing shop (and those with their own shops are very rare today, a change from the situation of some twenty years ago), he must take his poem to a printer to have it published. The printer may on occasion be a colleague of cordel who has been successful enough with his own poetry and the sale of it to get the money together for a shop, thus becoming a publisher as well as poet.³ But more likely, the printer is just a small local commercial printer not directly affiliated with cordel. Generally speaking, no money changes hands in the publishing process since the poets are almost always on the poverty line. Instead, the printer gives the author one-fifth of the completed folhetos (one thousand in the standard printing of five thousand) to dispose of as he wishes.⁴ The printer keeps four-fifths of the folhetos which he generally sells in his shop wholesale to agentes [agents], who in turn sell to revendedores⁵ [retailers] who sell directly to the public in the fairs or markets. Occasionally, the printer will also function as salesman and directly retail his share in the markets. The printer or whoever pays for the printing generally keeps the publication rights, and the author has received his sole payment. Obviously, the poeta-editor [poet-publisher] with his own shop is much better off. But he is becoming rare indeed these days.⁶

There is one important variation to this general rule: the case of the poet who pays cash for the printing of his folheto but personally handles its distribution, thus taking the title of editor [publisher] as well as autor [author]. This is the case of Rodolfo Coelho Cavalcante of Salvador, Bahia, who publishes folhetos for colleagues. He offers authors twenty percent of the printing, but does not retain publication rights.

The publisher's terms of sale are varied: cash on the spot, on credit to friends and agents of good standing, or on consignment to agents, but always with a significant discount to agents who often pay just slightly above printing costs. Most agents go directly to the printing shop to pick up their folhetos, but in the case of larger publishers such as the Tipografia São Francisco [San Francisco Printing Shop] in Juazeiro do Norte, Ceara, or Luzeiro Editora [Luzeiro Publishing House] of São Paulo, large quantities of folhetos are transported via the mail or by bus. The agents buy in the thousands. They will set up shop in large markets such as Rio's São Cristóvão where local hawkers may buy at their stall and turn around and sell individual titles to the general public in their own market stall fifty feet away across the aisle.

The most interesting aspect of distribution is on the retail level in the market place. This process remains essentially unchanged since we first described it in 1973.⁷ The seller, often the poet himself, usually has a fixed place in the market where he works. It may be a banca [permanent stand], but more likely it is simply a small space, four by six feet let's say, where the salesman sets up for business. In most markets the poet must pay a fee for his spot, contrary to the original idea of the feira livre [free market] where vendors could set up with no restrictions.

The poet arrives early in the morning, carrying his merchandise in a weather beaten old suitcase made of wood or cardboard or perhaps in a large plastic sack. If there is no permanent market stall, he will have a wooden stand rigged up to either support the open suitcase or a flat board which provides a level surface. He displays his folhetos spread out like playing cards on top of the stand. Customers attracted by the exposition of the booklets of verse begin to amble by, stopping to chat with the poet and to pass the time of day. A poet over the years builds up his clientele, so his arrival is also a time for socializing, for renewing old acquaintances or for getting caught up on the news. A cafezinho [small cup of strong Brazilian coffee] at a nearby refreshment stand is often in order. But eventually, when an ample crowd has gathered, the poet announces he will “sing” such and such a folheto. The crowd itself is a phenomenon: the physical characteristics of the northeastern racial type; the manner of dress; the seriousness, attention and admiration the customers show the poet.

He begins naturally with a story which offers elements of humor or drama, but always with lots of action. This is because the traditional buyer of folhetos loves movimento [“action”] and excitement in his stories, not unlike the fans of early westerns of the United States cinema. The “melody” used by the poet to “sing” his folheto is traditional, the same used for any story written in the same rhyme and meter. The poet's voice is usually raspy and there is little melodic variation, thus the sound is repetitive and not very pretty. The poet's voice may crack or he may sing off key, but it matters little. Beauty of voice and fidelity to melody are fairly unimportant. Rhythm, rhyme and content are what matter. The oral effect of such a “singing” is very similar to the performance of the contador [a singer-improvisor of oral verse].

One must be patient and witness the entire performance to gain the full theatrical effect. The poet is given to long pauses in his song-narration, stopping to comment on the story and its events, often in a humorous way.⁸ He may interrupt the performance to sell a copy of the folheto being sung to a customer in a hurry. Although he will generally finish the story (if it is a long one, this means thirty to forty minutes of singing), the poet will at times stop just before the climax and tell the crowd to buy it if they want to know the ending. But a total performance is more likely. One of the aspects of a good story in cordel is that the people love to hear again and again, as well as to read and reread the same story, even memorizing much of the verse in it.⁹

Performances are frequently difficult to hear above the din of the marketplace: blaring music from record stands, blaring public address systems belting out their movimento [music for atmosphere], the yelling of other merchants and finally the street noise of passing trucks or buses. This is the main reason successful poets today use a microphone and speaker. We saw one poor poet in Rio de Janeiro who had no public address system and was totally drowned out by the noise during his performance. But he continued to sing his entire poem to a sparse audience.

This scene of the poet selling his verse is repeated in markets and public plazas and on street corners throughout Brazil. Some sellers recite rather than sing; others do neither but just quietly converse with passersby and customers. One sees in such performances the intrinsic oral nature of cordel, a narrative poetry written to be recited aloud as well as read.

This is the most colorful process of sales and distribution, but it is not by any means the only one. Much of cordel is purchased quietly with little fanfare at permanent stalls in the markets where the owner may sell as well foto-novelas [photo novels], histórias em quadrinhos [comic books], livrinhos de modinhas [booklets of lyrics of popular songs] and tourist souvenirs. Luzeiro Editora of São Paulo, the largest publisher of cordel in Brazil, publishes the poetry with polished, multi-covered attractive covers which imitate comic book format. These are sold at regular newstands in much of Brazil and offer considerable competition to the traditional folheto style.¹⁰

What we have described is the traditional manner of sales and distribution of the poetry of cordel. While it is basically still the norm today, other aspects of cordelian reality are undergoing more perceptible change. In a recent study A literatura de cordel: explicação e atualização [Brazilian popular literature in verse: explanation and update], based on interviews with 40 poets and publishers in 1978 and 1979, we found that cordel in itself has not changed so much as have people's attitudes toward it. These attitudes are reflected in the changes in the divulgation of cordel in Brazil today. We will briefly summarize below certain phenomena which demonstrate these changes.

Cordel is now of interest to diverse social classes both within and outside the northeast, because economic hardship enduced migrations of northeasterners to other areas of Brazil. Cases in point are migrations to Amazônia in the early 1900s and again in recent years, to Brasília and Goiás in the 1950s, and to the industrial south, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, for the past 30 years. At the same time, there has been an awakening of interest on the part of intellectuals, students and official tourism.¹¹ There are various aspects to this new situation which reveal how and why cordel now reaches an enlarged public. The changes affect a new public more than the old, but both are to be noted.

Cordel really has few innovative ways of reaching its old, traditional public, the poor of the rural northeast, of the cities along the northeastern coast, and of the markets where nordestinos [northeasterners] gather in new areas as a result of internal migration. The poet reciting his verse in the marketplace still prevails, but he has searched out new sales sites as he has migrated: the praças [plazas] of urban areas where northeasterners “matam saudades” [“kill off homesickness”] and spend their leisure time. The Praça da República [Plaza of the Republic] in downtown São Paulo and the Largo de Machado [Machado's square] and plazas in Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro are cases in point in recent years. And of course the feira do nordestino [northeasterners' market] in São Cristóvão in Rio de Janeiro is a very important center.

A contemporary, although limited means of divulgation to cordel's traditional public is via radio. There is a real increase in Brazil today of radio programs geared to an audience which appreciates the improvised, oral verse of the cantador in the repentes, desafios, pelejasor and cantorias [poetic duels]. The programs have long been a staple over the airways in rural towns and cities of the northeast, but now are also popular in other cities where there are large northeastern contingents. The development of the relatively cheap transistor radio and its availability to even the poor has enhanced the cantador's market. In our recent study with interviews with the poets and the publishers, several poets who are also cantadores spoke of radio as a way to advertise their folhetos.¹²

The same public which buys the recordings of the cantadores and their improvised verse, long a staple in record stores catering to rural tastes, can now buy LP's of cordel, although selection is very limited. The first breakthrough was an LP by José Costa Leite for Continental Recordings with an original printing of five thousand copies.¹³ This effort was followed by an official government effort when FUNARTE [National Foundation of the Arts] in collaboration with the National Folklore Institute made a high quality LP with the poet José João dos Santos (Azulão) singing folhetos. Whether these present true breakthroughs in the marketing of cordel or will become only collectors' items remains to be seen.

Probably the most important development in regard to divulgation to a traditional audience—and that significant portion of the public who read comic books, photo novels and the like—is the marketing by São Paulo's Luzeiro Editora (previously Editora Prelúdio [Preludio Publishing House] of its literatura de cordel in a new format. It has reduced the sales of the traditional folheto in the northeast for several reasons: it is sold in a much broader area than most folhetos printed by small publishers; it is sold in traditional ways by the hawkers in the fairs, but also on newsstands that a broader public frequents; its cost is higher, thus giving a greater margin of profit to prospective sellers; and its glossy format is decidedly more attractive to prospective buyers who are not refined or sophisticated to any degree in their tastes.

The Luzeiro format in the opinion of many poets and publishers attracts more buyers from the traditional lower class than the cheaper, poor quality and fragile (but authentic) old folheto. It is not a question of poetic quality, for the poems inside the colorful covers are legitimate cordel stories by well-known contracted poets like Manoel D'Almeida Filho or Paulo Nunes Batista. It is a matter of sales appeal and profits, since the new format dominates sales in many parts of Brazil.

Cordel's appeal to a new public and buyers has reflected changing times and attitudes, but has not in-and-of itself particularly enlarged sales. The new customers can be broken down into three large groupings: intellectuals and artists who purchase and collect cordel for a variety of motives (out of intellectual curiosity; as inspiration for poems, novels, plays, songs, films, and paintings; or for documentation for these and books); urban middle and upper class youth who are now urged to become familiar with cordel as part of their popular cultural heritage by teachers and professors in class; and tourists and curiosity seekers. How these people came to know of cordel and what they have done with it explain to a great degree cordel's new dimension in Brazil.

Perhaps the springboard for the renewed and amplified interest in cordel, the reason Veja [See], Manchete [Headline] and other magazines began to include it in regular coverage, was the gradual increase of interest in the scholarly world in cordel. Learned articles, books, occasional congresses and officially recognized university curricula all discussed cordel.¹⁴ The literature on cordel has multiplied three or four times in the last fifteen years.¹⁵ Articles have appeared in specialized reviews like the Revista Brasileira de folclore [Brazilian folklore review], Revista do livro [Review of books], Cultura [Culture], Vozes [Voices], Ariel, Brasil açucareiro [Sugar Brazil] and Revista de ciências sociais [Social Science Review]. They have also appeared in literary supplements, in commercial news magazines and especially in special issues or special studies editions. The number of monographs and books on verse has increased as well.¹⁶

An additional phenomenon has taken place in the primary and secondary schools within Brazil. Special classes on the oral and popular traditions are given, and fieldtrips to markets and fairs are commonplace. Thus, the value of this tradition is being taught for the first time where it counts, among the youth.

There are now sporadic conferences on cordel, generally sponsored by universities or research institutes. Perhaps the first important meeting of national or international significance was the section dedicated to cordel at the First International Congress of Portuguese Philology held at the Federal Fluminense University in 1973. Other cases in point were the Symposium at the P.U.C. [Pontifical Catholic University] in Rio de Janeiro in 1978 and symposia at the Federal University of Ceará in the late 1970s and at the University of São Paulo in 1981. Regional meetings are held on a regular basis in the northeastern states, e.g., Pernambuco, Paraiba, Bahia, or Ceara.

The result of all the above is that today more people have learned of cordel and more people search it out. This does not necessarily mean prosperity for the poets, far from it, for inflation and new trends have cut drastically into their older, traditional market. But it has caused many spinoffs that we will mention briefly below.

The cordel tradition has been indirectly divulged via Brazil's nascent commercial film industry. Through these films the general public has become acquainted with the cantador and the poeta popular. Dias Gomes' award winning film, Pagador de promessas [Payer of Promises], has a secondary role based on the cordelian poet of Bahia, Cuíca de Santo Amaro. Ariano Suassuna's Auto da compadecida [The rogues' trial] is based almost totally on cordelian poetry in an adapted and recreated form and employs a narrator which is a combination of clown, picaro and popular poet.¹⁷ The cinema novo [new wave cinema] of Glauber Rocha has taken themes dear to cordel, like the religious fanatism of the backlands and the cangaçeiro [backlands bandit] cycles of cordel, to create unusual films in Antônio das mortes [Anthony of the deaths] and Deus e o diabo na terra do sol [God and the Devil in the land of the sun]. Rocha has combined new wave cinema techniques with dramatic figures from popular tradition and backlands' ballads as sung by the cantadores to produce his unique prize winning works of cinematic art. Interviews with the films' authors, directors and actors on television and articles in national magazines also contributed to the divulgation of folk-popular culture. A documentary film on the subject, Nordeste: cordel, repente, canção [Northeast: cordel, poetic duel and song] (Embrafilm, 1975) by Tânia Quaresma has also reached limited urban audiences.

An interesting phenomenon took place in 1974 when the themes of Rio de Janeiro's international Carnival were based on Brazilian folklore. The famous escolas de samba [samba schools] which parade in what many see as Brazil's most colorful spectable, used diverse folkloric themes, and one entire school's theme was made up of plots and figures from cordel. The visibility such an event gave to a public little familiar with cordel cannot be understated: the throngs lining Avenida Presidente Vargas [Avenue President Vargas] to see the 12-hour parade (including the foreign audience from all over the world), the transmission of the same via television throughout Brazil, and finally the thorough coverage given the event in the national weeklies, e.g., Manchete and Veja, read by middle- and upper-class segments of society.

The oral traditions of the cantador and themes from the Romanceiro popular do nordeste [Popular ballads of the northeast]—Ariano Suassuna's name for the literature de cordel—have reached an entirely new market via two recent musical efforts: the recordings produced by Marcus Pereira in Música popular do nordeste [Popular music of the northeast] and the recordings and performances of the Ariano Suassuna inspired Quinteto Armorial [Armorial Quintet] of Recife. In Pereira's nationally successful recording venture, he combined on the spot recordings of the diverse types of northeastern music—the cantoria [poetic duel], the cantador de coco [singer of improvised songs], etc.—with a quality imitation of diverse popular music forms by the Quinteto Violado [The “Guitar” quartet]. The result is a commercially palatable version of folk-popular culture produced for the record-buying urban masses. The Quinteto Armorial attempted to create an authentic north-eastern music inspired by backlands traditions. It used traditional instruments and themes from the cantador and cordel for its concerts and recordings. It has taken the very essence of the northeast to a new public, urban and educated.

Cordel has become successful on a regional level in Brazilian theater. Aside from the use of its characters and themes already mentioned in the plays of Dias Gomes and Ariano Suassuna, there is the direct application of cordel, modified and dressed up, on the popular stage. The best example is that of the Teatro Vila Velha [“Old Town” Theater] in Salvador. In addition, one might mention that the old Teatro Opinião [“Opinion” Theater] of São Paulo in the 1960s liberally used cordelian themes in its works. And of course João Cabral de Melo Neto's Morte e vida severina [The hard death and life] based on the reality of the poor imigrant of the northeast, a major theme in cordel, was successful on stage, on records and on the screen. Although not a direct adaptation from cordel, it has much in common with it: characterization, locale, theme and use of cantadores.

The xilogravura [popular woodcut] which appears on the covers of many folhetos has in recent times come into its own as a valid work of folk-popular art, an inspiration for erudite artists and a collector's item. Poets who do good quality woodcuts are rare: good examples are José Costa Leite of Condado, Pernambuco; Abraão Batista of Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará; Minelvino Francisco Silva of Itabuna, Bahia; Dila of Caruaru, Pernambuco (who dabbles in poetry but does unique “woodcuts” carving in a rubber medium); and José Francisco Borges of Bezerros, Pernambuco. Many of these artists have commercial success selling their woodcuts independently as works of art. The visibility of their art form naturally has drawn that public's attention to the folhetos themselves.

A not so obvious divulgation of cordel, but an important one, is the use of cordel in erudite literature by well-known authors.¹⁸ Most readers do not realize that what they are reading is a borrowing, at times clear and obvious, at times only suggested, directly from cordel. Some obvious and prominent works in recent years have been the aforementioned plays by Dias Gomes and Ariano Suassuna and several of Jorge Amado's recent novels (Pastores da noite [Shepherds of the night], Tenda dos milagres [The miracle shop], and especially Tereza Batista cansada de guerra [Tereza Batista home from the wars]). Amado chose popular woodcuts by Calasans Neto imitating those of cordel to illustrate the latter novel; Ariano Suassuna did likewise for his Romance da pedra do reino [Romance of the rock of the kingdom]. Cordel is made visible to the public through such works, and it is gradually becoming common knowledge that such writers are inspired by it. This alone acts as another way to popularize cordel.

Probably the most effective way the very existence of cordel has been divulged to the general public in recent years is through the written medium, most importantly in news or cultural interest articles in magazines of national circulation such as Manchete, Veja, Cultura and in intellectual articles in local literary supplements such as those of the Jornal do Brasil [Journal of Brazil], O Estado de São Paulo [The State of São Paulo] and others. These articles have exposed cordel and its values to a totally different public than its traditional buyers.

The most important articles in Veja appear in its regular section on literature. This indicates that cordel's former “country” status has been raised to a different level of appreciation. The door was gradually opened to Veja coverage because of the original interest and research on cordel by a handful of Brazilian and foreign scholars who pointed out its worth.¹⁹ A page-long interview with Professor Raymond Cantel of the Sorbonne on cordel in Veja is a case in point.

Manchete's coverage has been more of a sensationalist nature, for example the article “José Soares canta a glória de Jusçelino” [José Soares sings the glory of Juscelino”] published September 18, 1976, on the occasion of the former President's death. Such articles arouse curiosity, and middle- and upper-class people begin to visit the heretofore forbidden and off limits markets and fairs of the humble classes.

With the “commercialization” of cordel, new opportunities have been opened to the enterprising poet who is willing to sell his poetic services for advertising in verse. This has long been done in cordel by poets who will occasionally write a poem or folheto to advertise the opening of a new store or a political candidate's reelection campaign. One poet who learned to take advantage of this trend was José Soares of Jaboatão, Pernambuco. Soares specialized in the folheto de encomenda [commercial folheto]. In an article in Veja (May 11, 1977), he listed clients like the Center for Social Communication of the Northeast, the Santa Maria College and the Itapemirim Bus Company. Folhetos have been used as programs for plays, political campaign propaganda, announcements for bank openings, Christmas greetings, wedding invitations and graduation announcements. All demonstrate the divulgation of cordel to a new public.

And, to conclude, one of the recent ways cordel reaches a national and international tourist public is the promotion of local folklore through official tourism departments of the various cities and states. The National Folklore Institute has also jumped on this bandwagon. These local commissions list as regular attractions local fairs and markets where all manner of popular art appears. The Northeastern Market in Rio de Janeiro, the popular fair in São Paulo and the Mercado Modelo [“Model Market”] in Salvador are examples. Local Tardes de cultura [“Cultural afternoons”] are advertised, as are artisan fairs where all manner of folk or popular artists including poetas populares and cantadores sell their products.

We have seen how cordel's divulgation to a new and expanded audience has taken place. But, how has cordel changed so as to reflect its new public? Evidence that a change is taking place is seen primarily in new themes and greater emphasis on an urban cordel. Poets alluded to these new themes in interviews with us in 1978 and 1979, and we saw much evidence of the same in markets in Recife, Salvador and Rio de Janeiro in 1981. The relaxation of government censorship and the abertura [“redemocratization”] of Brazilian national politics in recent years are reflected in recent cordel publications in Brazil. Titles like O justiceiro Mão Branca do esquadrão da morte [“White Hand” taking justice in his own hands through the death squadron], Não matarás o Papa [You won't kill the Pope], and Uruguai torura [Uruguay and torture] by Raimundo Santa Helena (a controversial new poet using the cordel format) in Rio de Janeiro indicate a political awareness and brazenness in conflict with older, traditional writers of cordel. Franklin Machado in São Paulo writes O indio não é bicho [The Indian is not an animal] and O negro também é gente [The Black is also “people”]. Antônio Lucena do Mossoró writes a diatribe against the arrival of Frank Sinatra in Brazil and anti-Brazilian tastes in popular music in Quem é fã de Frank Sinatra desconhece a grandeza dos poetas e artistas do Brasil [He who is a fan of Frank Sinatra fails to see the grandeur of poets and artists of Brazil].

Contemporary topics dealing with the new morality (but adapted to the old established cordel format), political amnesty, the current plight of the poor in the face of astronomical inflation, divorce or current figures of the entertainment world surely indicate the vitality of an ever changing cordel.²⁰

In these recent developments there remains one central fact: a new public has been exposed to cordel and is changing its attitude toward it. Cordel in turn is changing so as to please its new customers. The folk-popular tradition of poetry related to Brazil's cordel in Spain, Portugal and in much of Spanish America has practically ceased to exist, while cordel in Brazil is still very much a going concern. Its capacity to evolve, to change and meet the times is perhaps the main reason. As Abraão Batista, a poet, publisher and wood cutter of Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará, said in a recent interview:

The folheto accompanies the people. Look, the poet with his eyes open has to face reality: man has been to the moon, the Pope is no longer infallible. They are now recording conversations between spirits, and parapsychology is now in evidence. The folheto like the people suffers a mutation, now proceeding, now retreating millenniums, but in the end always evolving.²¹

Notes

1. Our description of cordel as folk-popular poetry follows the designation of M. Cavalcanti Proença in his introduction to Literatura popular em verso. Catálogo (Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa, 1962), p. 1.

2. Luἴis da Câmara Cascudo, Vaqueiros e cantadores (Porto Alegre: Editora Globo, 1939), p. 16.

3. This is a tough proposition especially with today's skyrocketing costs of the press itself, paper, ink, supplies and labor. Only family operations where wife, children and other relatives pitch in can make it. J. Borges of Bezerros, Pernambuco, and Abraão Batista of Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará, expressed this view using themselves as personal examples. See Mark J. Curran, A literatura de cordel: explicação e atualização (Recife: UFEPE, forthcoming).

4. Ibid. See especially the section on the publishers of cordel.

5. Revendedores are also referred to as folheteiros. See Liêdo Maranhão, “Cordel agentes e folheteiros,” Equipe, junho de 1974, pp. 3-6.

6. Ricardo Noblat, “Ganhando status,” Veja, 25 Oct. 1978, p. 151.

7. See Mark J. Curran, A literatura de cordel (Recife: UFEPE, 1973). As recently as August of 1981 we witnessed the sale of folhetos in diverse parts of Brazil. We saw, among others, Azulão, a master in his work and art, sing Rufino o rei do barulho to a crowd in the northeastern fair of Rio de Janeiro. Azulão had them coming back for more as he sold out his entire stock of that story.

8. Ariano Suassuna wrote an article in which he noted the similarity between the poet's conduct while selling in the market and the demeanor of his own narrator-clown in O auto da compadecida. See “A Compadecida e o romanceiro nordestino,” in “Literatura popular em verso. Catálogo (Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa, 1973), p. 163.

9. This description of the poet selling his verse updates and augments the account previously published in Curran, A literature de cordel (1973), pp. 20-21.

10. Both Rodolfo Coelho Cavalcante and José Francisco Borges complained of Luzeiro and its tactics in interviews during 1978-1979.

11. See Ricardo Noblat's “Ganhando status,” Veja, 25 Oct. 1978.

12. João Bandeira de Caldas, Pedro Bandeira de Caldas, João de Lima, Benoni Conrado da Silva and José Francisco da Silva reported to us, along with others, that they sold their folhetos via radio programs and cantorias.

13. See Veja, 13 April, 1977, p. 102.

14. In his informative update on the status of cordel (cf. note six, Ricardo Noblat offers proof of the new acceptance of cordel. He reports that the new edition of the “Dicionário de Aurélio” defines cordel in 1975 as “The Northeastern ballad tradition.” It was defined in 1972 as “of little or no value.” Noblat reports on theses being done on cordel, three alone at the P.U.C in Rio de Janeiro in 1975; cordel as an accepted part of the college curriculum at the UFRJ and at other federal universities as well; and on the creation of research centers dedicated to the study of cordel. A thorough recent study by Eduardo Bezerra de Menezes, “Para uma leitura sociológica da literatura de cordel,” Revista de ciências sociais, VIII, nos. 1-2 (1977) confirms this.

15. A good recent bibliography is by Mário Souto Maior, Literatura de cordel I (São Paulo: Global Edta., 1976), pp. 17-30.

16. The most significant role for the development of cordelian research in Brazil belongs to the Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa. It began its collection of cordel in the early 1960s and followed with the publication of quality books on cordel beginning in 1962. Several volumes have been issued including catalogues, anthologies and studies.

17. We commented on Suassuan's use of cordel in “A influência da literatura de cordel na literatura brasileira,” Revista Brasileira de Folclore, 9 (maio-agosto, 1969): pp. 111-123.

18. See also our studies “A cultura popular e Grande Sertão: Veredas,” As tradições orais portuguesas e brasileiras em verso, ed. Joann Purcell (Los Angeles: n.p., 1976), pp. 36-81, and Jorge Amado e a literature de cordel (Salvador: Fundação Cultural do Estado da Bahia e Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa, 1981).

19. The poets themselves readily admit this in 1978-1979 interviews. Azulão of Rio de Janeiro explained it well: “The literatura de cordel suffered to a certain extent in the first years of television, radio or the cinema, but later these same media became useful to cordel when many researchers outside of Brazil arrived here to research our literature. Then, there was a general awakening on the part of TV and radio to do coverage. That was when cordel sales took a better turn.” (Appendix, A literatura de cordel: explicação e atualização, p. 81).

20. See José Francisco Borges' A moça que virou jumenta porque falou de “top less” com Frei Damião [The girl who turned into a donkey because she talked about “top less” with Father Damian]; Paulo Teixeira Souza's Cordel pela anistia ampla, geral e irrestrita [“Cordel” in favor of a complete, general and unrestricted amnesty]; Apolônio Alves dos Santos' Uma carta que veio do céu para o Presidente Figuereido falando a favor do pobre [A letter from heaven to President Figuereido speaking in favor of the poor] and O divórcio no Brasil [Divorce in Brazil], and Almir Oliveira de Guzmão's Vida, paixão e morte de Vinicius de Moraes [Life, suffering and death of Vinicius de Morais].

21. Curran, A literatura de cordel: explicação e actualização, p. 81.