Henrique Maximiano Coelho Netto: A Brazilian Man of Letters, an Educator, Writer, Professor and Abolitionist.

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Henrique Maximiano Coelho Netto (February 21, 1864 – November 28, 1934) was a writer, an educator, a politician, the President of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, and my great grandfather.

Known as Coelho Netto, he was born in the north east of Brazil and as a young boy, he moved with his family to Rio de Janeiro. We studied law at the University of Sao Paolo but failed to complete the program.[1] Ultimately, he spent his youth fighting for abolition which did much to sour the Sao Paolo University Law department on any completion or granting of a degree.

Henrique Maximiano Coelho Netto (February 21, 1864 – November 28, 1934) was a writer, an educator, a politician, the President of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, and my great grandfather.

Known as Coelho Netto, he was born in the north east of Brazil and as a young boy, he moved with his family to Rio de Janeiro. He first studied medicine and failed at that. He then studied law at the University of Sao Paolo but failed to complete the program.[1] He finally finished his legal studies further north in Recife. Ultimately, he spent his youth fighting for abolition which did much to sour the relationship with the Sao Paolo University Law department forcing his departure.

    "Sertao." Or 'Backcountry.' 

Coelho Netto after Law School joined up with a rather Bohemian crowd in Rio de Janeiro which propelled him towards writing for newspapers and journals. It was during this period he began writing short stories. He soon married Maria Gabriela Brandão, my great grandmother and they had 14 children!

A true ‘renaissance man,’ my grandfather served in the government of Rio de Janeiro, a professor in Art History at ‘Escola Nacional de Belas Artes’ (National School of Fine Arts) in Rio de Janeiro, and later as a professor of literature at the ‘Colégio Pedro II’. He continued teaching, writing, and publishing in the early 1900’s and also served as a professor of history of theater and dramatic literature at the Escola de ‘Arte Dramática’ (Drama School).

Coelho Netto later served in Congress as a Representative from Rio de Janeiro and ultimately as the President of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. We was widely read but fell out of favor as Brazil oriented itself to Europe and modernism.

The majority of his works were short stories, folklore and drama, although he did write several full length novels.

I have many of Coelho Netto’s books (in Portuguese of course) and several works come to mind. The Magic Lantern is one. And another, very short, is “The Pigeons,” a depressing tale of a simple couple, a sick child, pigeon’s, old age, and death.

Coleho Netto begins “The Pigeons” thus;

 

“When the pigeons leave, misfortune follows.

 

—Indian superstition.

 

When Joanna appeared at the door yawning, fatigued after the long sleepless night spent at her son's bedside, Triburcio, on the terrace, leaning against his spade, was watching the pigeon-house closely.”[2]

Professor Rodrigo da Rosa Bordignon, of the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) (The Federal University of Santa Catarina) in Florianopolis, wrote, of my great great grandmother, Ana Sylvestre Coelho that “In several passages of her reminiscences, Coelho Netto highlights the virtues of her mother, and the allusion to being a "civilized Indian;" seems to refer so much to the strong religious devotion that sometimes left her "absorbed" (Coelho Netto, 1927, p. 135), and that she had hailed "all the homemade gifts that constituted the gift of the poor young women of her time."[3]

    Rio de Janeiro street, 1910.[4]

Of all that was Coelho Netto, I am most proud of his independent and noble mind; his abolitionist stance of which he never shied away from during the turn of the century in Rio and Sao Paolo. Remember, he left the University of Sao Paolo Law School for his abolitionist activity. “The time he would spend in Recife would not be enough to change the path that Coelho Netto was plotting for his life. With teachers more sympathetic to the abolitionist cause than those who had in São Paulo, could give greater flow to the ideals fought at the Academy —"[5]

    Coelho Netto[6]

 


            [1] https: //www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/c/coelho.htm

[2] Assis, Machado de. Brazilian Tales. Project Gutenberg, 2007. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/21040/pg21040-images.html#id_121        

[3] Rodrigo da Rosa Bordignon, Tempo Social, Revista de Sociologica, Universidade de Sao Paolo, May-August 2020, Texto recebido em 11/4/2020 e aprovado em 16/4/2020.doi: 10.11606/0103-2070.ts.2020.168692.https://www.revistas.usp.br/ts/article/view/168692/162348

[4] https://wornandwound.com/library/uploads/2018/06/Rio-De-Janeiro-1910-and-the-palace-copy.jpg

[5]Leonardo Affonso de Miranda Pereira,  “Tempo”, Barricadas na academia: literatura e abolicionismo na produção do jovem Coelho Netto, Rio de Janeiro No 10.

            [6] The Brazilian Academy, https://www.academia.org.br/academicos/coelho-neto/biografia


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