|
 |
|
|
|
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. Lots of good stuff -- music and capoeira -- is there. The place is full of bars and restaurants and small shops.
Pelourinho is also quite self-consciously touristy. The area was rebuilt starting in 1994 and boutiques sprouted like dandelions (this being the flip side of what in my opinion was a mistake in planning for the area's redevelopment). Nowadays elderly tourists can be seen being led en masse from historical site to historical site, hounded by vendors with cheap trinkets. The area was more "authentic" before, but the tradeoff was that one was also far more likely to be robbed. (The possibility of that happening now is extremely remote due to the vigilance of the police, but it's still not a good idea to wear snatchable jewelry). * I should add another important caveat here: Although Pelourinho is generally very safe, there is one area of it which is not. These are the small streets to the right of Praça da Sé (the large public square which serves as Pelourinho's entrance-way). This area has yet to be "redone", and it retains many of the characteristics of the old, pre-reconditioned Pelourinho.
Tuesday night is Pelourinho's biggest party night. It's called benção (or "blessing"), from an origin in the Igreja do Santo Antônio's custom of giving away bread to the poor on Tuesday evenings. Bahia has a way of turning religious events into parties, and that's exactly what happens here; lots of people, lots of music, and lots of dancing. Benção is even bigger during the summer months (December, January, February), and the biggest parties during any given month are the first and last of that month (that's when people get paid!) 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 322-6759.
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 84 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 5 p.m. (or so) until 10 p.m. (or so) there is dancing to live music in the big downstairs dance hall. The music is good (it's ijexá-based dance music) and admittance is free. The vibe is very, very good and the place gets very, very packed. Beer and soft drinks are sold on the premises. Note: The Sunday evening ijexás are on hiatus until Brazilian Father's Day (in August).
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 thirty-nine 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 Terreiro de Jesus (in front of the Catedral Basílica, the big church to your left as you enter the Terreiro from Praça da Sé)...painted (for tourists; a practice originated in the '50s by Mestre Valdemar 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. Rough-hewn bars and reggae are the order of the night there now, the beer (and some food) served forming the backbone of a very local economy. Roçinha tends to fill up on Tuesday nights when the weather is good, and live reggae is played up at the top of the hill on Friday nights (5 reais cover). 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. * * *
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.
|
  |
|
  |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
