The painting titledIndependence or Death! or The Cry of Ipirangaby artist Pedro Américo, was commissioned by the Ipiranga Monument Commission to depict the moment ofBrazil's Independence..
However, various scholars have long questioned how accurately this work represents the process that led to September 7, 1822.
In an interview on the"Conversa Bem Viver" (Good Living Conversation) program,Brazil's Radio FatoCarlos da Silva Jr, a professor at the State University of Feira de Santana with a doctorate from the University of Hull in the United Kingdom, warns of the class reduction in the perspective constructed by the painting.
"Pedro Américo's painting presents a perspective on the elite's imagination or view of the historical process, but it is much more complex. Independence is also a process that involved popular participation, a process that included the population's struggles, and in some cases, military conflicts with the loss of thousands of lives," explains the historian.
For him, the prominence of the political elites of the time also shaped the flags that were prioritized and those that were left out of the independence process.
The vast majority of people involved [on September 7], and we now know this, were members of the elite, the slave-holding elite, in fact. Slavery sustained the colonial economy, as it later sustained the economy of the Brazilian Empire, and not all of these movements questioned or demanded an end to slavery.
For the historian, Brazil's independence process was incomplete, as it did not ensure the end of slavery in the country. Historiography also shows that this process mobilized other social actors who were overlooked in the memory of this historical event and are not represented in Pedro Américo's work. He further highlights that the process began much earlier, for instance, with the so-called "Revolta dos Búzios," also known asBaian ConspiracyThe Tailor's Revolt, which took place in Salvador in 1798.
Other political projects were in dispute at that time. Ultimately, the social political configuration led to the establishment of a monarchy in Brazil, but there were other social groups demanding greater political participation, demanding citizenship, demanding the end of slavery, as the leaders of this movement in 1798 [Revolt of the Buzios in Bahia] themselves did.
He points out that a figure who passed into posterity in this field of historical memory, but who is still little related to the process of independence, wasMaria Felipa"She is a representation of popular struggles, of the struggles of black women for independence, in the expulsion of the Portuguese, in her case, on Itaparica Island," the academic completed.
The professor also highlights theJuly 2, 1823, consolidated as the Independence of Bahia, as a milestone for the completion of Brazil's independence process from the Portuguese crown.
If Brazilian troops, led by Bahians, had not guaranteed the expulsion of the Portuguese and entered the city of Salvador on July 2, 1823, we don't exactly know how the configuration of this new territory would have been. Bahia was an interesting space for Portugal. From Bahia, they could ensure resistance against Rio de Janeiro and eventually expand this conquest in relation to the Northern provinces, to ensure the continuity of the Portuguese presence in Brazilian territory.
Text: Good Living Conversation
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