The War of the Contested

expression of barbarity in relation to the defense of a form of life

Abstract

This article's reflective and analytical theme is the Contestado War as an expression of barbarity in relation to the way of life of the Contestado country people. Its objective is to remember the violence perpetrated by the coercive institution (army) of the Brazilian State in the service of the interests of the latifundium and international capital in the exploitation of the natural resources available in the region occupied by the sertanejos and their community way of life. Still in this direction, the objective of the article is to demonstrate that the barbarity of the Contestado War continues to manifest itself today in the form of naming the conflict as “War”, as well as in the pejorative ways of naming country people as: “fanatics”; “black”; “caboclo”; “jagunço” denoting the disqualification of the countryman, of the reaction in defense of his way of life. The naming of the conflict and the sertanejos constitutes an official strategy of attributing responsibility to the defeated and, above all, erasing from popular memory the barbarity committed by the Brazilian State in the service of capital on a portion of its population. Questioning, remembering and contradicting the name attributed by the official state discourse as the Contestado War presents itself as a way of rescuing memory, the struggles for the emancipation of human beings from the contested movement as an expression of the centuries-old struggles of Brazilians against oligarchic violence and of capital.

Key words: Contestado War; Form-of-life; Barbarism; Memory; Development.