Two essays were published in the illustrated book Xilógrafos de Juazeiro, the “Introdução” by Eduardo Diatahy and this essay, “Cordel - A Novelística Nordestina” by Geová Sobreira. Both of them help, to some extent, to compensate for the absence of critical and interpretive articles about wooden printing blocks and literatura de cordel [string literature]. The authors of these essays continue to adapt this form of expression that still exists in the northeastern part of Brazil, the sertão region. They pay great attention to the city of Juazeiro do Norte, the major printing and publication center in this field.
In the 1920s and 1930s Virgulino Ferreira da Silva (1897–1938), alias Lampião, was the leader of a gang of rural bandits known as cangaceiros [yokes] because they were country boys. They held up ranches and stole food, tools, and even cattle which they then distributed among the poor, a la Robin Hood. After they were caught their throats were slit and their remains languished at the morgue for decades. It was not until 1969 that their families were legally entitled to remove them and bury them elsewhere. The gang’s activities resonated with people living in the poorest parts of Brazil where, to this day, its members are remembered and depicted in myriad ways.