A bill filed in the Legislative Assembly of Rio Grande do Sul (RS) aims to recognize the quilombola leader Manoel Padeiro as the state’s first black hero. The PL was proposed by state deputy Laura Sito (PT) and aims to establish June 16 as an official commemorative date in the calendar.
The deputy’s advisor recalls that, so far, RS has not recognized black leaders from Rio Grande do Sul as heroes or heroines of the state. It also informs that the initiative seeks to show, in partnership with the black movement, academia, quilombolas and school communities that names such as Manoel Padeiro, Preta Roza, Oliveira Silveira, Lanceiros Negros and other important figures for the construction of the history and identity of gauchos are recognized through dialogue with the State Department of Education.
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Who was Manuel Padeiro?
The figure of quilombola leader Manoel Padeiro is already remembered in various ways in the southern region of the state. Also known by the nickname “General” Manoel Padeiro, he is often described as “Zumbi dos Pampas”, by comparison with the leader of the largest quilombo in the history of the country, Quilombo dos Palmares.
As recorded by researcher and professor Joaquim Dias, the Quilombo do Manoel Padeiro existed during the years 1834 and 1835, in the Serra dos Tapes region, which then belonged to the municipality of Pelotas. The quilombolas carried out a series of attacks in the region, against farms, brickworks and even slave quarters. A little more of his story is told in this brief report by the researcher, available on Youtube:
The figure of Padeiro still has repercussions in the South Zone of the state, among remnants of quilombos and black communities. The bill’s initiative aims to expand that narrative statewide.
As recorded in the book “The Calhambolas of General Manoel Padeiro: quilombola practices in Serra dos Tapes (RS, Pelotas, 1835)”, authored by Paulo Roberto Staudt Moreira, Natália Garcia Pinto and Caiuá Cardoso Al-Alam, Padeiro is recognized as a righteous leader, religious reference, and even a rebel, increasingly crystallized “in the collective memory of the city and region as a hero, an example of resistance by Africans and Afro-descendants”.
The book had an expanded second edition in 2020, and can be purchased or downloaded for free here at this link.
Also according to Blog Pelotas Cultural, other works and studies can help to better understand the history of Manuel Padeiro’s Quilombo. One of them is the work “The Negro in the South of the country”, by Mário Maestri, published in the Revista do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional, available here (page 230).
In addition to this, the master’s thesis “Between forgetfulness and silence: Manuel Padeiro and the memory of slavery in the Quilombo district, Pelotas, RS”, produced by Cristiane Bartz de Ávila, investigates the memories of the experience of slavery and the Quilombo experience in the Zona South of the state. In particular, it gives visibility to residents of the Alto do Caixão and Algodão communities, as well as the Quilombo District, whose origins date back to the 19th century, with the Quilombo figure of Manuel Padeiro and its resistance as a reference.
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Source: BdF Rio Grande do Sul
Editing: Marcelo Ferreira
