Castro Alves

Antônio Frederico de Castro Alves (March 14, 1847 – July 6, 1871) was a Brazilian poet and playwright, famous for his abolitionist and republican poems. One of the most famous poets of the "Condorism", he won the epithet of "O Poeta dos Escravos" ("The Poet of the Slaves").

He is the patron of the 7th chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.

Life

Castro Alves was born in the town of Curralinho (renamed "Castro Alves" in his honor in 1900), in the Brazilian state of Bahia, to Antônio José Alves, a medician, and Clélia Brasília da Silva Castro, one of the daughters of José Antônio da Silva Castro (a.k.a. "Periquitão", Portuguese for "Big Parakeet"), a proeminent fighter in the 1821–23 Siege of Salvador. In 1853, he was sent to study in the Colégio Sebrão, run by Abílio César Borges, the Baron of Macaúbas. There, he would meet and befriend Ruy Barbosa.

In 1862, he moved to Recife in order to study at the Faculdade de Direito do Recife, but he was rejected twice. He only was able to join the college in 1864, there meeting Tobias Barreto and José Bonifácio the Younger (step-grandson of famous statesman José Bonifácio). They would heavily influence Alves' writing style, and in turn, Alves also influenced them both. His father would die in 1866, and short after, he met Portuguese actress Eugênia Câmara, and would start dating her afterwards.