José Américo de Almeida: A Brazilian Literary Icon

Published on November 23, 2013 · Updated on June 27, 2025

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José Américo de Almeida: A literary and political legacy of the Brazilian Northeast

José Américo de Almeida (1887-1980) was a Brazilian writer and politician. His work “A Bagaceira” launched the Northeast Regionalist Generation and is a social critique of the reality of rural workers in the region. He was elected to the Brazilian Academy of Letters on 27 October 1966, occupying chair number 38. As well as being a writer, he was an lawyer, university professor, folklorist and sociologist.

Life and education

José Américo de Almeida was born on 10 January 1887 at the Olho d’Água sugar mill in the Areias district of Paraíba. At the age of nine, when his father died, he was taken into the care of his uncle, Father Odilon Benvindo. He studied at the Liceu Paraibano.

He moved to Recife where he entered the Faculty of Law and graduated in 1908. He served as a magistrate, a prosecutor in the district of Recife and in the Sousa district of Paraíba.

A Bagaceira and the regionalist generation

Biografia de José Américo de Almeida

In 1928 he published “A Bagaceira”, a novel that brought him national fame and launched the regionalist generation of the northeast. The title refers to the place where sugar cane bagasse accumulates in the mill. Figuratively, it can refer to an ‘unimportant object’ or even ‘wretched people’. In the preface, the author expresses his astonishment at the reality of the Northeast : “There is a greater misery than dying of hunger in the desert: it is having nothing to eat in the land of Canaan”.

The main character of the novel, Lúcio, is a university student and the son of a plantation owner. He represents the duality between the peasant and the university student, reflecting the social and economic tensions of the Northeast. The plot is structured on two levels. In the first, the author presents observations and analyses of rural life, highlighting the sertanejos who flee the drought and temporarily work in the mills, comparing them to the permanent workers of the place, and addressing the collective ignorance and misery. In the background, she tells of a love affair between the retreatant Soledade, Lúcio and his father, Dagoberto.

Political career

José Américo de Almeida also devoted himself to politics and was Governor of Paraíba. During his term, he founded the Federal University of Paraíba and was appointed its first rector. Under Getúlio Vargas, he was appointed Minister of Transport and Public Works and Minister of the Federal Court of Audit. Almeida played an important role in education and the modernisation of the state of Paraíba, being part of the intellectual elite that sought social improvements in the region.

His death

José Américo de Almeida died in João Pessoa on 10 March 1980.

Work by José Américo de Almeida

Reflections of a goat, essay, 1922
Paraíba and Its Problems, 1923
A Bagaceira, novel, 1928
The Ministry of Transport in the Provisional Government, 1933
The Revolutionary Cycle in the Ministry of Transport, 1934
The Boqueirão, novel, 1935
Coiteiros, novel, 1935
The Word and Time, essay, 1937-45-50-65
Droughts in the North East, 1953
Occasions of Blood, essay, 1954
Speeches of His Time, 1964-1965
The Black Angel, essays, 1967
Graça Aranha, The Doctrine, Memoirs, 1968
Me and Them, Memoirs, 1970

Written by Willy Sievert

Editor of Bahia.ws since its founding in 2009. Based in Salvador, he travels frequently across the Northeast and all of Brazil to keep the guides up to date. Learn more about Willy Sievert →