Antonio Frederico de Castro Alves was born 172 years ago, on March 14. He was born on March 14, 1847, at 10 o'clock at Fazenda Cabaceiras, Parish of Muritiba, County of Cachoeira, presently and since 1971 called Castro Alves Historical Park, located in the municipality of Cabaceiras do Paraguacu, in the State of Bahia. He disembodied on July 6, 1871, in Bahia, at three-thirty in the afternoon.

He is still alive, because the Spirit is immortal. In the spiritual world, he continues to free slaves, i.e., Spirits who were slaves of vices and passions on this Earth.

At age of 13, Castro Alves witnessed a scene he would never forget: the slashing of a slave. One of his habits was to contemplate the star of dawn, which he called "the tear of the Christ, due to the suffering of the slaves".

Being one of the Spirits of the phalange of Ismael, he reincarnated in the Earth with a defined mission. He was already master of the art of poetry, a Spirit that in the course of his existence cultivated the intellect with demonstrations of high sentiments.

On February 3, 1858, when he was 11 years old, Castro Alves was enrolled in the Baiano Gymnasium, founded and directed by Dr. Abilio de Souza Borges. Before, he and his brothers attended Sebrao College. The pedagogy of Dr. Abilio was revolutionary; he abolished punishments and stimulated the taste for literature. Ernesto Carneiro Ribeiro, one of his teachers, said that in a Latin class of Father Tertuliano Fiuza he asked for permission to translate, in verses, Ode, from the Latin poet Horacio, given as a theme to the students. The license was granted and Castro Alves translated, which amazed everyone.

The poetic talent was already revealed to him at this age. Dr. Abilio, in awe, said: "Here is a young man who shows an inclination for literature, especially for poetry, because he already makes verses of certain metrics, exact rhyme and, above all, pleasant musicality."

During the time he studied at the Bahian Gymnasium, in addition to attending the school program, he translated from French, Charles Andre's Anthology, poems by Victor Hugo, his favorite poet; he also translated, from English, the poet Lord Byron; he read Camoes, Alvares de Azevedo, Junqueira Freire, and Goncalves Dias. And he began to draw. One of his most beautiful drawings is that of a young girl, kneeling at the foot of the cross, an oil painting that he called "Magdalene at the foot of the cross." He studied law in Recife and Sao Paulo.

Eugenia Camara - Castro Alves met the actress Eugenia Infante da Camara in 1863. She had beautiful black eyes. Intelligent, well-educated, she spoke several languages. Portuguese of birth, she was of a very old family, some of its members belonging to the Royal House. Eugenia had arrived in Brazil in 1858 or 1859.

There were many poems that Castro Alves composed for Eugenia Camara, among them "The Gondolier of Love", composed in Recife, dated January 1867, and "To an Actress", composed in Recife on September 27, 1866. We highlight the following verses:

   There is something great

   Of this world in the amplitude,

   As if the face of the Eternal

   Throbs in Creation...

   And the man who looks at the desert

   Says to himself: "God is near,

   What greatness is the Creator”.

   And, under the Father’s eyes,

   He releases the reins to the achievements,

   Calls the Condor for wings.

Spiritist attitudes - Castro Alves was not defined by this or that religion. But he had noble attitudes and ideals, coinciding with the Spiritist ideals. He knew the Bible, spoke in God and fraternity, and fought for the freedom of the slaves and for the ideals of the Republic. In Sao Paulo, he attended Freemasonry Loja America, number 86, which today bears his name.

In 1870, he had gone to the Coqueiros Farm in Bahia, when he noticed a group of people, among them a very young girl, almost white, a very light brunette.

"What is this girl doing here?" asked the poet.

"She's a slave, young man.

"Slave, why?" What did she do? He looked at the dealer and asked:

"How much do you want for her?"

- Five hundred thousand “reis”.

(Translator’s note: Brazilian currency at the time)

Castro Alves searched in his pockets, but the amount he had was not enough. He borrowed the money from his friend Jose Dutra, summoned the young woman, kissed her broad, dark forehead, and delivered her, freed in the care of Dutra. As he left, the merchant asked him if he wanted a receipt.

- Receipt? What did I buy from you? Leave immediately, sir. Your work is despicable and infamous. In the name of Christian and human principles, he had to free a captive.

On another occasion, the poet was at the window of Colonel Feliciano de Aquino Tanajura's house, when he saw an old slave, sighing. He went to the slave, questioning him about the cause of his grief. The slave told him that they had stolen the fourth of flour and the "ration" his mistress had given him for the week. Castro Alves reported the episode to the slave owners, who gave him back what they had stolen.

Shot was not accidental - Worthy of record is the episode happened in Sao Paulo, in which the poet was shot in the foot. The longed for Norlandio Meireles de Almeida, considered the greatest scholar of Castro Alves, says that to commemorate the Independence of Brazil, a session was held on September 7, 1868 at the Literary Gymnasium, beginning at 5 pm, at Dr. Ladeira Falcao, number 4, Sao Paulo (SP), in the house of Mr. Paiva. The presence of Castro Alves had been announced.

Then he appeared with his song of pain and revolt. He said the "Tragedy in the Sea" (the initial title of the poem "O Navio Negreiro") in front of the powerful owners of farms and exploiters of slave labor. The session was directed by Jose Francisco Diana, honorary president of the Literary Guild, and terminated at 8pm.

On November 17, 1868, a Tuesday, the Correio Paulistano newspaper, number 3,733, page 1, said: "According to what we are informed, the academic Castro Alves was the victim of a lamentable disaster on November 14, when hunting in the suburbs of the capital, and jumping from a ditch, unintentionally shot at his own foot with the shotgun he carried”. And the information: "we proceed to the inquiries about the poet’s wound, caused by a shot fired by himself casually, it is supposed". O. Giffening of Niemeuer (secretary of Police).

Norlandio Meirelles de Almeida explains: 1) When a respectable newspaper of the time, as was the Correio Paulistano, publishes a news "according to what we are informed", it is because they themselves did not confirm the fact. 2) Analyzing the information: "we proceed to the inquiries" (...) "second assumes", it is clear that there were doubts about what actually happened. And if the case went to the police (Giffening was secretary of Police) it is because the occurrence was more serious than it is supposed.

Bullet to kill tapir -Antonio Carlos Veloso Guimaraes, great-grandson of Elisa de Castro Alves Guimaraes, Castro Alves' eldest sister, said that the whole family of the poet knows that he never used a shotgun in his life. "He fought for life, he was not going to hunt for a bird," explains Guimaraes, emphasizing that if the poet were to kill a bird with that bullet, the bird would turn to dust. "That was a bullet to kill tapir."

In the operation for the amputation held in Rio de Janeiro, by Dr. Andrade Pertence, 38 grains of lead were removed from the poet's heel. Guimaraes says that no one in their right mind will admit that Castro Alves, as the biographers say, carried a shotgun with his barrel down and, above all, his left shoulder, for he was not left-handed!

Antonio Carlos Veloso Guimaraes was a medium, married, with two children and attended the Perseverance Spiritist Center in the city of Sao Paulo. On February 19, 1985, Guimaraes received a communication from Octavio Ribeiro da Cunha, son of Amelia de Castro Alves, sister of the poet. Cunha was professor of Chemistry at the Polytechnic School of Rio de Janeiro and disincarnated in Rio in 1974.

The message said that shooting in such a hunt was really an attack, perhaps not with the intent to kill him, but rather to scare the entire abolitionist student class. As O Navio Negreiro had a great repercussion in the society, composed largely by farmers, some of them hired a gun man to treacherously target the poet, from the back and at night. They aimed at the legs, showing the intention of only frightening him. And they did scare him. Everyone held back their demonstrations. And, from there, Castro Alves never made an abolitionist poem any more. In order not to frighten the family, the poet invented the story of the hunt. The message says Castro Alves did not like to hunt. He understood, yes, noble ideals.

Interest in Spiritism - Eugenio Gomes, in the newspaper O Globo, Rio de Janeiro, on August 19, 1961, and in the Diario de Sao Paulo, on September 10 of that same year, launched the question: "Was Castro Alves Spiritist?"

Among other things, says Eugenio Gomes: "As for Spiritism, Victor Hugo was undoubtedly the main responsible for its propagation among his several generations disciples, after leaving in Les Contemplations the effects of complicated experiments on metapsychism in the Island             of Jersey".

The fact is that Spiritism was one of the integral elements of the religious complex of Victor Hugo, and the autobiographical poem "A Olympio", translated by Castro Alves, is testimony of this, especially by these verses:

Do not console me, do not, and do not grieve too much...

I'm calm, impassive.

I never look at the world of this world,

But to the invisible world.

In the middle of 1868, when Rio de Janeiro surgeons amputated his gangrenous foot, without anesthesia, in the midst of great pain, Castro Alves uttered a statement revealing the superiority of the Spirit on the subject: "Cut it, cut it, Doctor... he said to the surgeon about his foot. I will be with less matter than the rest of humanity”. Of course, in such circumstances, no one is able to say phrases by just doing saying them...

Still in the “sertão”, Castro Alves had expressed a desire to read a Spiritist book. This is inferred from a letter from Augusto Alvares Guimaraes (married to Adelaide de Castro Alves Guimaraes (sister of Castro Alves) in which he tells him: "There is no work by Allan Kardec with the name of Poetics of Spiritism. I was given the opportunity to consult a Spiritist Library and I will see what will serve you”.

(Translator’s note: “sertão” one of the four sub-regions of Northern Brazil)

Why did Castro Alves never give an idea of ​​his philosophical-religious ideas? Sylvio Brito Soares, in Great Figures of Humanity and Spiritism(FEB 1961), insinuates that the answer may be in the poem My Secret:

  I know how this world laughs at mockery,

 Of this golden dream of fantasy.

 I know ... For every belief of our soul,

 It has a phrase of irony...

 Ah! let me keep my secret!

 From this cruel laugh I'm afraid...