Jaguarari through time

The small city where my in-laws live, Jaguarari, gives me the impression that it hasn't changed much over the years. The population is expanding and houses are reaching up the hills somewhat, and the old pastureland behind my in-laws' house has been parceled out to become new houses. But on the other hand, the city has no industry, new houses look the same as old ones, and new businesses are typically more of the same (a new bakery, bar or restaurant that sells the same things as the rest). Since 2007 (the first year I saw it), the traditional Saint John festival in June has hired more expensive bands, but otherwise been the same.

Nevertheless, recent conversations have started to give me a better idea of just how much things have changed. My mother-in-law grew up outside the city, a 90-minute walk over the hills, in a mud-and-stick house in what was at the time a coffee-growing community. The house still stands decades later, but no one lives in it. All the inhabited houses are made of bricks and concrete, and running water is being hooked up now. The few people that still live in the little community (most have moved into the city center leaving only a ) have given up on coffee and focus mostly on bananas, complemented by honey and a few other fruits.

The path between this community and the main part of Jaguarari is fairly lush and hilly, compared with the flat and dry cactus-strewn sertão that surrounds it. But it isn't what it used to be, or so they say. Apparently many plant and animal species have been lost during decades of land clearing for cattle pasture. My mother-in-law told me a story about a young girl she was friends with as a child, who used to also steal her lunch from the pot first, before anyone else had sat down at the table. The girl's mother resolved to put an end to this, and one day put a "dragon" in the stew. Apparently a "dragon" is a bat-like beast (but not a bat, I asked several times to make sure) that is incredibly ugly, but no longer exists in the region. In any case, the girl was severely traumatized by finding it in the stew and never again ate before the rest of the family.

Besides dragons, the region of decades past also included the presence of a shape-shifter, who would play tricks on the children by turning into trees and spying on them, and of course the infamous "cangaceiro" bandits of the 1930's, the most notorious of which was Lampião. Lampião reportedly tried to invade Jaguarari at some point, but the hills closed in to form a wall that kept him out. (Readers should not that there probably isn't a single city in Northeastern Brazil that doesn't have an outrageous story involving Lampião)

As incredible as those stories are, they are easier to believe than a story my father-in-law tells me; that education in Jaguarari is much worse than it was in his time. Given the isolation of the area, the difficulty of imagining how exactly students will apply what they learn in chemistry class, and the fact that, as semi-literate as the region is right now, the young population is certainly far ahead of the older population, I just can't believe this. School attendance rates in his time, which would be the 60s and 70s, were far lower then. I attribute this story to bias or rising standards for education, which make failure more apparent if not more frequent.

As recently as the 1980's, the central area of Jaguarari (which includes a nice and well maintained series of public squares that serve as a general meeting place as well as a space for concerts, sports, and all manner of other events and competitions) was just a rough dirt patch. It still held concerts though, and the excellent northeastern musician Zé Ramalho even gave concerts back then.

Old traditions have died out. My wife tells me about how terrified she used to be during Carnaval in Jaguarari. It was nothing like the famous Carnaval of Rio though -- it was mostly old timers fashioning scary costumes and running from house to house to terrorize kids. Moms would give them a few bucks to go away, and the money would be used to pay for the costumes and keep the tradition going. But once the new generation was hooked on TV and video games, no one is interested in parties or traditions that don't revolve around famous bands playing in the square.

More recently, the region was significantly influenced by a population of Gypsies until the mid-1990s or so. According to my mother-in-law, they first lived in tents outside of town and, as time went on, moved into houses. Either they become richer and richer, or more and more willing to flaunt their enormous wealth. Gold teeth and loan sharking were popular on the one hand, and stealing from the outdoor market on the other. All of it was very recognizable from the international reputation of Gypsies. In any case, around 15-20 years ago they packed up and moved to Juazeiro, a bigger city to the north, reportedly in part because of growing friction with the community -- the governor at the time took measures to make sure that they left. The local graveyard apparently still has lots of luxury goods that have been left behind by the graves of dead Gypsies.

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My temptation is generally to think that things don't change too much in these small towns, and that development is going to be very hard for Brazil's arid interior to achieve. Nevertheless, it's easy to see how much really changes in a generation, for better or for worse. Though the picture that comes to mind when I think of the year 2030 is pretty much what it is now but with more computers and fewer young people (due to declining birth rates and accelerated migration to bigger cities), there must be some surprises in store that I can't imagine.