“Some
time ago we were collecting diverse works
in order to represent the Cultural Memory
of Pipa During this time we heard about
legends such as “Morro dos Amores”
(Lovers Hill), “Pedra do Moleque”
(The boy’s rock), “Cavalo
de Ouro” (the golden horse) and
stories of fishermen, the wolf man, enchanted
mines and cursed ones like the haunted
“Mina do Pé de Trapiá”
the most infamous and terrible of all
mines.
We found out about the most diverse aspects
of cultural life in Pipa and from some
documents dating back to last century
(the nineteenth century) we discovered
to our surprise [considering the times]
people who had excellent handwriting and
literate women such as Moça de
Pedro (Pedro’s girl!) and Joana
de Luizá who had read “A
Historia de Carlos Magno e Dos Doze Pares
de França”.
Poetry, representing the soul of the people,
flourished at the end of the nineteenth
and beginning of the twentieth centuries
with various poets, notably Antonio de
Moça de Pedro with his elegies
of the “Bois de Reis” such
as “O Nascimento do Aurora”
(the birth of Aurora) and “Eu Vi”
(I Saw).
In the twenties, side by side with the
legends, the first verses written by the
poet Antonio José Marinho, the
famous Antonio Pequeno (Little Antonio)
appear. The school superintendent at the
sub station of the police in Pipa, by
the forties was also writing plays, musicals
and “motes” (verses of political
satire and praise written at election
time, the most well known being those
of José Fidelis da Costa). The
most famous inhabitant of Pipa, however,
is Antonio José Marinho’s
son, of the same name, who began to write
his verses and music in the fifties.
Text
by Francisco Fernandes Marinho
