Region Out of Place: The Brazilian Northeast and the World, 1924–1968 by Courtney J. Campbell (review)

Reviewed by: Region Out of Place: The Brazilian Northeast and the World, 1924–1968 by Courtney J. Campbell Giuliana Facciolli Courtney J. Campbell Region Out of Place: The Brazilian Northeast and the World, 1924–1968. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2022. ix + 301 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliographic references, index. 60 hardcover (ISBN: 978-0-822-94621-2) ; 60 e-book (ISBN: 978-0-822-98762-8). In 1969, as a result of the institutionalization of censorship and persecution of dissident voices by the Brazilian military dictatorship, Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso had his civil and political rights suspended. One of the greatest representatives of Brazilian popular and avant-garde music of the 20th century, Veloso saw Salvador's golden sun fade away to London's gray sky as his condition changed from popular artist to political exile. Still far from home, in 1972 the tropicalist from Bahia (a Northeastern state) appeared on the French TV show Discorama playing a cover of "Asa Branca" (White Wing) in a performance that would have brought even Luiz Gonzaga—the song's composer—to tears. The original version featured the accordion, triangle, viola capira (country guitar), flute, and zabumba (a type of bass drum), but the one presented by Veloso was limited to an acoustic guitar accompaniment interspersed with a curious vocalization, composed of a certain chewed groan, so peculiar for that context that it almost seemed out of place. "Asa Branca" is a composition with strongly regionalist roots, known to be the anthem of the Northeast region of Brazil. The song narrates how the sertanejo—the inhabitant of the Northeast backlands—becomes a retirante, a drought emigrant who moves toward the metropolitan areas of Brazil in search of better living conditions. Despite all the suffering to which he is subjected in those ravaged lands, the sertanejo still clings to a horizon of hope in which he will finally be able to return home. The music, a baião, keeps a fast and dancing rhythm, typical of the São João festivities in the Northeast, and reminds one of the vibrant culture back home. The themes of drought and migration are central to Gonzaga's music—as much as in pamphlets of Cordel literature—and is also the topic that opens Courtney Campbell's mesmerizing book. But then, if drought was the driving force behind all the Northeastern misery and outward migration in the song "Asa Branca, " where does the link that connects the harsh environmental conditions of the retirante with the torments of a political exile reside? To capture this repositioning from retirante to political exile, now, with help of Campbell's illuminating pathway, we need to first understand the meaning and the place of the Northeast region of Brazil throughout the 20th century. Striking a flawless balance between conciseness and enthrallment, the author explores these points, drawing not from a view of static regional tradition, but rather one disputed and constructed by different social actors—in the local, national, and even international sphere. And since the answer to, "What is the Northeast? " is only a brief moment of allocation of meaning, Campbell goes beyond, exploring its shifts End Page 207 and how they unfold in processes of negotiation, mediation, and contestation of identities, seeking to understand what it means for the region to step out of its preset framework. In this web of woven significance, the threads of inferiority, drought, poverty, and potential for rebellion stand out as dominant narratives to define the region's identity. First of all, the crises generated by drought were no natural phenomenon, but rather the effects of the wretchedness associated with Brazil's unjust agrarian structure. Migration could never be a solution for this socioeconomic phenomenon because the emigrated Northeasterner was treated like a foreigner within his own nation, experiencing a mixture of alienation, rejection, prejudice, and xenophobia. Parallel to this, the representation of the sertanejo takes on new political contours in the films of the Cinema Novo (New Cinema) movement in the figure of the cangaceiro (bandit). The bandit embodied the Northeastern resistance and served as an artistic resource to address social issues around poverty, land injustice, and illiteracy, alerting viewers. . .