Statue of Luiz Gonzaga – Northeastern Fair
Who do you think this is? ´A man with a wide smile, playing the accordion, wearing a striking jacket (gibão), leather sandals, and a hat, all in the style of the cangaceiros´. The obvious answer to this guessing game is Luiz Gonzaga. And it’s no wonder it´s so obvious because Gonzagão is one of the most iconic artists in Brazilian music. He blended and created musical styles, symbolized the culture of millions of Brazilians, especially those from the Northeast, and became the King of Baião.
According to a gypsy who supposedly read his fortune before he was even one year old, Luiz Gonzaga do Nascimento was destined to travel the world and to become very popular. He was born in Exu, Pernambuco, on 13 December, 1912. At the age of 12, he was already accompanying his father to parties and sambas in the Araripe region, where Exu is located. At 18, he ran away from home and enlisted in the Army, pursuing a military career for nearly a decade. He served in Ceará and Minas Gerais. After being discharged, he moved to Rio de Janeiro, in 1939. After 10 years without contacting his family, Luiz Gonzaga was about to sail back to Pernambuco. While waiting for the departure date of the ship, he stayed at the Rio de Janeiro Guards Battalion. It was there that he met former sailor and guitarist Xavier Pinheiro, who suggested he perform on radio programs to earn money. And that´s when everything changed.
Luiz Gonzaga (on the right on the accordion) with Norival Guimarães (on the guitar), still at this time dressed in a suit and patent leather shoes. Circa 1946. José Ramos Tinhorão Collection/Instituto Moreira Salles.
Gonzagão developed a particular Northeastern style of music with the trio “Pé de Serra”. It featured accordion, triangle, and zabumba. He had an unmistakable, powerful voice and recorded hits such as “Asa Branca” and “Baião” (composed in partnership with Humberto Teixeira) and “Xote das Meninas” (a collaboration with Zédantas). But beyond the music, he gradually established an iconic image that is still familiar today. He noticed that while Cariocas had their striped shirts, Baianos wore straw hats, and Southerners had their bombachas, the people of the Northeastern hinterland didn´t have a characteristic accessory of their own. And he thought of Lampião and his hat. At first, the accessory was rejected: “We´re not having a cangaceiro on Nacional!” he was reportedly told and the hat was reserved for performances outside the radio station headquarters, in a building called ´A Noite´. However, Gonzagão’s success was so great that the executives at Nacional relented, and Luiz Gonzaga was able to forgo the suit, tie, and patent leather shoes he had been wearing, making his mark in history with his gibão, leather sandals, and a cartridge belt slung across his chest. The leather hat grew larger and gained a crown at its center. And so, the King of Baião emerged in Rio.
Dressed in traditional cangaceiro style in a gibão and wearing a leather hat. The crown at the center of the hat is for the King of Baião. Undated – José Ramos Tinhorão Collection/Instituto Moreira Salles
As well as being the greatest promoter of Northeastern music throughout Brazil, Luiz Gonzaga also represented the exodus of thousands of Northeasterners who left their region to try for a better life in the Southeast. The Northeast region was stricken by drought and a lack of public policies in the mid-20th century and many people went to São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and other states further south on the map.
The Campo de São Cristóvão, where the Northeastern Fair is now held in Rio, was the final destination for migrants from this region of Brazil, especially during the 1940s and 1950s. They traveled on flatbed trucks and were received by fellow Northeasterners who had been in Rio for some time already and who often paid for the newcomers´ tickets so they could reclaim their baggage that had been left as collateral with the truck driver.
Marcelo Motta/Wikiloc
Although Luiz Gonzaga didn´t arrive in Rio de Janeiro like this, the placement of his statue in this location is highly symbolic. The life-sized statue of Luiz Gonzaga is made of bronze and was inaugurated in 2003. It was created by the artist from Paraíba, Joás Pereira dos Passos who is also the creator of other monuments, such as the statue of Noel Rosa in Vila Isabel. It greets people arriving at the São Cristóvão Fair via the entrance near the elevated highway of Linha Vermelha. The map of Brazil at Gonzagão’s feet seems to refer to one of his songs, A Vida do Viajante (a collaboration with Hervê Cordovil), in which the artist confirms the gypsy’s prediction with the verses: “My life is to wander through this country / to see if one day I can rest happy”… The monument encapsulates the country’s diversity and, in particular, the meeting of Rio de Janeiro with the Brazilian Northeast.
