Ramos, Graciliano

(1892–1953)

   Brazilian author, journalist, and political activist. Born in Quebrangulo, in the northern state of Alagoas, where his father was in business. Ramos spent his early years in the nordestino of Brazil, a region of the country known for its periodic droughts and for the poverty of many of its inhabitants. He worked as a journalist in Rio de Janeiro for the daily Correio da Manhã until returning once again to the north. In Palmeira dos Indios, he was elected prefeito, mayor, in 1927. After a few years in government, he resigned his post. Later, he was named Secretary of Education for Alagoas.

   Following the abortive uprising by the Partido Comunista Brasileiro (PCB, Brazilian Communist Party), led by Luís Carlos Prestes, Ramos was arrested in March 1936, along with thousands of others. The charges were never clarified, but he was held until January 1937. He would go on to become a respected novelist, known for his sober style and his focus on regionalist themes. He was elected president of the Associação Brasileira de Escritores (Brazilian Association of Writers) toward the end of his life. Throughout it, he maintained ties with leftist sectors, although he would not formally join the PCB until 1945. Earlier, in 1944, he was appointed Federal Inspector of Secondary Education.

   Ramos is chiefly remembered for his reconstruction of the rule of Getulio Vargas (1930–1945) and for his book Memórias do Cárcere (Memoirs of Prison). A measured, thoughtful work, it was begun in 1947. In it, the author reflects on his experiences under Vargas’s Estado Novo dictatorship of 1937–1945. He also examines self-censorship, which leads the artist to abandon any artistic pursuits, thus eliminating the necessity of the state to censor his or her work. The phenomenon represents a form of inner exile, termed insilio in the Spanishspeaking countries of Latin America, and has often been remarked upon by those living under dictatorships, particularly artists. Memórias do Cárcere was published in a posthumous edition in 1953. Among his works of fiction, he is remembered for his novel Angústia (1936, Anguish) and particularly for Vidas secas (1938, Thirsty Lives), which remains a classic of Brazilian literature, exploring the lives and struggles of the inhabitants of the nordestino.