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José de Alencar
José de Alencar (1829-1877) was born in Mecejana, Ceará and later moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he practiced law and journalism. Alencar was active politically, at one time serving in the Imperial Cabinet as minister of justice. His literary career was driven by his vision for a national literature that would incorporate the elements of indigenous and foreign cultures. He was an avid proponent of a Brazilian Portuguese language that, like the culture, was a reflection of indigenous, African, and European influences.
O sertanejo (1875) is from Alencar’s group of novels about Brazil’s backlands, still untouched by urban civilization. Romantic in plot and theme, this book and its companion works (O gaúcho,1870; O tronco Ipê, 1871; and Til,1872) depict an ethnography of Brazil’s remote frontiers.