S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 Arab immigration is so present in the daily life of Brazilians that it even has participation in the history of one of the great myths of the country, that of cangaceiro Lampi\u00e3o. A cangaceiro is a social bandit typical of the northeast of Brazil in the nineteenth century and the early 20th century. It was a Lebanese who filmed Virgulino Ferreira da Silva, Lampi\u00e3o\u2019s full name, who fought against the large landowners of Brazil early last century. The moviemaker is called Benjamin Abrah\u00e3o Botto, and, despite not being a professional, between 1935 and 1937, he shot footage of the brigand and his band, in the hinterland in northeastern Brazil.<\/p>\n
What was a Lebanese immigrant doing in the hinterland of northeastern Brazil following the feared Lampi\u00e3o? Not even the researchers know that answer for sure. According to writer Antonio Amaury Corr\u00eaa de Araujo, who has published eleven books about Lampi\u00e3o, it is possible to deduce that the motivation was economic. \u201cTwo important factors are considered. First, Lampi\u00e3o was already a legend and Benjamin wanted the challenge of interviewing and photographing a legend. Second, he was being paid, and well paid,\u201d said journalist Artur Aymor\u00e9, author of book \u201cO Outro Olho de Lampi\u00e3o \u2013 A imprensa e o cangaceiro\u201d (The Other Eye of Lampi\u00e3o \u2013 Press and the cangaceiro), published this year.<\/p>\n
It is necessary to recall that Benjamin arrived from Lebanon at a very young age at a time in which his country was under the Ottoman Empire. As was the case with many Arabs, Benjamin arrived in Brazil named Jamil Ibrahim, and adopted another name, Benjamin Abrah\u00e3o Botto, upon arrival, explained Araujo. Historic records show that he worked as a peddler and then had a dry goods store. His destiny, however, started turning in the direction of Lampi\u00e3o when he went to work as a secretary to Priest C\u00edcero. Araujo recalls that Benjamin was introduced to the cangaceiro by Priest C\u00edcero, in 1926, in Juazeiro, Cear\u00e1.<\/p>\n
The filming of the gang began after the death of the preacher. \u201cA German company started a small film production agency in Fortaleza (Cear\u00e1), called AbbaFilmes. AbbaFilmes got in contact with Benjamin and asked whether he would like to face the challenge. It was a challenge as the cangaceiro was sought by the police in seven states,\u201d said journalist Aymor\u00e9. Benjamin managed to get in contact with the gang and then had access to simulations of attacks by the cangaceiros. \u201cBenjamin was an extremely sociable person, caring and managed to convince Lampi\u00e3o that the documentary would strengthen his image as a fearless fighter for social justice,\u201d said Aymor\u00e9.<\/p>\n
The footage, however, did not generate immediate results. "The film was shown once in Fortaleza, but during the showing, the police invaded the cinema and those present did not see the entire movie. The police impounded the film and it was forgotten there, at a Federal Police warehouse, for 25 years\u201d, pointed out Aymor\u00e9. Years later, moviemakers managed to rescue the material and extract over 15 minutes from it. The scenes, in fact, are in movie "Baile Perfumado" (Scented Ball), by directors L\u00edrio Ferreira and Paulo Caldas, produced about Benjamin in the 1990s. <\/p>\n
But how about Benjamin, what happened to him after the footage was shot? His life, in fact, was very short after Lampi\u00e3o. He was murdered a few months later. And if there is much confusion regarding the life of Benjamin Abrah\u00e3o Botto, there is more regarding his death. Writer Araujo even spoke to sheriff En\u00e9sio Mariano, who was in the house next-door to the one in which Benjamin was killed. <\/p>\n
\u201cHis death was quite confusing. What is known is that he had a relationship with the wife of a handicapped shoemaker. But Benjamin had also filmed Lampi\u00e3o alongside important people who did business with Lampi\u00e3o, and I think that was the cause of his death. As he had a relationship with this woman, I do not know to what extent they placed in the shoemaker\u2019s head that he had to have Benjamin killed. The butcher\u2019s son-in-law and son murdered Benjamin, stabbing him 42 times,\u201d said Araujo. <\/p>\n
Writer Aymor\u00e9 also doubts the version of passion crime and says he believes that it is more probable that it was the police itself that committed the crime. "The Federal government was very concerned with capturing Lampi\u00e3o. They (the police) considered it depreciation, a foreign citizen managing to film Lampi\u00e3o and the police not managing to get close to him,\u201d said the journalist and writer.<\/p>\n
Of other details of Benjamin\u2019s life, there are few historic records. He probably came from Zahleh, said Araujo. There is also information about his being very friendly and even a womanizer. Some say he was single, others that he was married and even had a son. \u201cFrom what it seems, he had true talent for cinema, passion for it, and wanted to do it with great effort, he had the dream of being a movie director. This version, in fact, was shown in Baile Perfumado", says Aymor\u00e9.<\/p>\n
*Translated by Mark Ament<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The only footage of Lampi\u00e3o, a famous brigand, was by a Lebanese moviemaker: Benjamin Abrah\u00e3o Botto. He showed the daily life of Lampi\u00e3o and his band in northeastern Brazil in the 1930s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1455,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-economy"},"wps_subtitle":"The only footage of Lampi\u00e3o, a famous brigand, was by a Lebanese moviemaker: Benjamin Abrah\u00e3o Botto. He showed the daily life of Lampi\u00e3o and his band in northeastern Brazil in the 1930s.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1455"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}