The Bumpkin in Brazilian movies: Mazzaropi’s Antihero Bumpkin

by Jayane Maia

Reviewed by Matheus Lucas Hebling

There are several characters, figures, types that permeate the social imagination as representations of reality. The generalizations that create stereotypes are sometimes made to make it easier to grasp reality. In Brazil, the heterogeneity in terms of the population makes the differences between people more visible, so that the diversity of customs, language, and phenotype of Brazilian regions leads to the creation of regional stereotypes. One who is from the state of São Paulo has a reputation of being a self-made man. People who are born in the Northeastern region are usually seen as lazy by the South.

As I have previously discussed here in the blog, the bumpkin figure in Brazil has become popular thanks to the past century literature, amid the desire to come up with a national identity that was able to accommodate the European ideal of civilization. In this sense, the bumpkin replaced the Brazilian Indian as a representation of what it was to be Brazilian and emerged as an antithesis to what was considered the ideal of civilization and progress. The bumpkin was a widespread topic not only in 20th-century literature but in theater and cinema.
The artist Amácio Mazzaropi (1912-1981) was responsible for securing a place in history for the bumpkin figure in Brazilian cinema. Mazzaropi, who was born in São Paulo within a family of European immigrants, is better known in Brazil mainly for the humor he imprinted on his movies, in which he was the star. Having started his career as a circus performer, moving to radio and later television, Mazzaropi debuted in cinema in 1952 with Sai da Frente.
In his thirty-two movies, he played several bumpkins: Isidoro in Sai da Frente (1952), Chico in Chico Fumaça (1958) and Casinha Pequenina (1963), Gumercindo in Uma Pistola para o Djeca (1969), Sabino in Portugal… Minha Saudade (1973), and many others. But what brought him success was Jeca, the name of his character in Jeca Tatu (1959) and Tristeza do Jeca (1961).

In his movies, the rural man was always satirized. His clothes, speech, and physical demeanor were reasons for the public to laugh at. He played a rural man in short pants, plaid shirt, hat, and boots, who seemed out of balance while walked. On the big screen, while he was moving around, his shoulders and arms move like chicken wings taking flight. The bumpkin he played was a good and simple man as well as resigned to what life has given him. Poor, he was systematically a victim of those higher up in the social hierarchy: landlord, farmer, politicians, rich people.
Mazzaropi’s movies, between laughter and comedy, have another feature that draws attention: the subtle criticism of everyday issues that involve the supposed naivete and ignorance of the bumpkin. Denouncements about the Brazilian political and social contexts are very subtly inserted among the jokes made by Mazzaropi’s characters.
In Sai da Frente (1952), Mazzaropi plays Isidoro who needs a doctor for his dog, and goes to a tavern to call him. The conversation between the tavern’s owner and Isidoro shows in a very clever manner a characteristic feature of Brazilian politics: clientelism.

Isidoro: I’ll call the doctor.
Tavern owner: Call this one. [He points to the wall where there is a sign where it is written: “For state deputy vote for Crisostomo, a friend of the poor”].
Isidoro: But if I call, is he really coming?
Tavern owner: Why wouldn’t he come? That’s his job. Do you remember Dona Mariquinha?
Isidoro: The one who died last week?
Tavern owner: So he was the one who took care of her. Very good doctor. Look, friend of the poor. Don’t you want his phone number?
Isidoro: Give it to me.
Author’s translation of a dialogue in Portuguese between Isidoro and a tavern owner in Sai da Frente (1952).

In Tristeza do Jeca (1961), Jeca (played by Mazzaropi) and his daughter are victims of the political elite. In this movie, which still has a current plot nowadays, two politicians who compete for the election try to delude rural people from the countryside to gather votes. For this, they try to take Jeca to their side, hoping that his political support would influence the vote of his neighbors. For this, the mayor of the city makes his son promise to marry Jeca’s daughter. However, Jeca and her daughter are tricked:

Mayor: My children have even returned to Rio.
Jeca: And how will the wedding be then?
Mayor: Marriage?! Who spoke of marriage?! So you think my son, literate and intelligent, living in Rio surrounded by pretty girls, would tie-up with a bumpkin?
Author’s translation of a dialogue in Portuguese between Jeca and the mayor in Tristeza do Jeca (1961).

Despite the different names his characters had in each film, Mazzaropi plays a unique style of a bumpkin. Although his characters are victims, Mazzaropi plays a combative bumpkin who knows how to be smart at the right times, either to get out of an awkward situation or to find a solution to a problem. This is perhaps one of the aspects of his portrayal that brought him success. His characters seem to be easy to wrap, but they aren’t. They seem not to have an opinion, but they do. They look naive but are not.

Despite being considered poor, Mazzaropi’s bumpkin is conformed to his social condition. He does not want anything but the little he has. He is satisfied. However, he does not accept being treated as inferior by those who think they are better than him because they have money or possessions or because they live in a big city. He is savvy and combative when he has to face someone who wants to mistreat him or deceive him due to his social condition or supposed ingenuity. In his thinking, poverty and simplicity do not justify exploitation and mistreatment.
In Casinha Pequenina (1963), there is social criticism about the exploitation and abuse that black people suffered from the slave master of the farm where they work. In this context, Mazzaropi plays Chico, a bumpkin who lives on the land of the slave master and is responsible for giving food to the slaves.

Chico: There won’t be any more ceremony, your priest. Marriage is a thing of God and cannot be of interest to the Devil.
Slavemaster: Have you gone mad? How can you say that in front of so many guests who know my principles of justice and dignity?
Chico: Justice? Dignity? Who are you, Mr. Pedro, who dares to talk about it? The only justice you know is that of the trunk and the whip. And your dignity is stained by the blood that runs from the flesh of the unfortunate, cut by the whip of your henchmen. It is stained by the sweat of your employees who work from sunrise to sunset to fill the farm’s barns to receive what Mr. Pedro? Just hitting and mistreatment.
Slavemaster: Shut up! Or I have you cut with a whip.
Chico: See? You only know the law of the choir.
Author’s translation of a dialogue in Portuguese between Chico and the slave master in Casinha Pequenina (1963).

Even unintentionally, Mazzaropi, by giving life to his bumpkin, shows the other side of the coin, that is, the accusations and prejudices aimed at the rural man and other inferiorized people. In his movies, the voice of the story is the bumpkin. Therefore, everything is seen through his eyes. The movies portray conflicts based on the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed. What is new is that the story is now told not by men of letters, scholars, or the elite, but by a bumpkin.

Gayatri Spivak, an Indian theorist, questions in her book Can the Subaltern Speak? (2010) whether the subaltern can as such has a voice. Certainly, Mazzaropi, by playing a bumpkin in cinema, circumvents the hegemonic discourses and highlights the side of those who are oppressed and the target of society’s prejudice. Mazzaropi’s bumpkin speaks, thinks, faces. Even poorly dressed and has clumsy walking, the bumpkin played by Mazzaropi is smart and shows political awareness related to the context in which he lives.

More than starring in a simple comedy film, Mazzaropi portrayed a bumpkin different from the one described by most Brazilian men of letters. Fulfilling a social function before the public, he distinguished himself by being combative when the elite prejudice attacked him; by his wit in the face of common and complex issues of his daily life. The bumpkin he played was unique because, even though he was poorly dressed and with a clumsy walk, he was not the bumpkin who society usually conceived of as stupid and ignorant. Mazzaropi has got audience because people wanted to see a bumpkin who, contrary to what everyone imagined, did well in the end. He was an anti-hero who turned into a hero.

Jayane Maia is a research fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) and a doctoral student at the University of Hamburg. She holds a scholarship from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). Email: jayane.maia@giga-hamburg.de.

References
Limeira, Míriam S. 2004. As representações do caipira nos filmes de Amácio Mazzaropi. Dissertação de mestrado apresentada no Departamento de História da Universidade de Brasília (UnB). Brasília, setembro.
Naxara, Marcia Regina C. 1991. Estrangeiro em sua própria terra: representações do trabalhador nacional (1870/1920), Unicamp.
Spivak, Gayatri C. 2010. Pode o subalterno falar? Belo Horizonte: Ed. UFMG.