...I was born to be anonymous. I am a guy without date, that is, without history and no vocation for historian... Also, to tell you the truth, I have never passed self-criticism. A solitary ruminant of ideals, that’s what I am! ...
...Anarchism, socialism, and communism would not constitute for me matters of faith, but rather contributions of the human spirit in the search for a more fair social order... (Cristiano Cordeiro, Memória & história, 1982. p. 13 and 83, free translation)
Cristiano Coutinho Cordeiro was born on May 23, 1895, in Limoeiro, a city in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil.
He entered the Recife Faculty of Law in 1913, graduating in 1917 at the age of 22.
In 1913, as a college student and employee of the Tesouro do Estado (State Treasury, current Pernambuco Treasury Department), he began to attend unions and participate in labor movements, including taking part in a march of cigarette factory female workers, known as cigarreiras (cigarette women), in the city of Recife.
At the request of the committee of the general strike that took place in Recife in 1919, Cristiano Cordeiro wrote a special issue dedicated to the movement for the Tribuna do Povo, a newspaper created in 1918 by Antônio Bernardo Canellas, as an Organ of the Federação da Resistência das Classes Trabalhadoras de Pernambuco (Pernambuco Federation of the Resistance of the Working Classes Resistance).
In 1921, he directed the newspaper A Hora Social (The Special Hour), organ of the Federação dos Trabalhadores de Pernambuco (Pernambuco Federation of Workers), which circulated for the first time in Recife on October 26, 1919. The editorial staff and offices of the newspaper were located at Praça do Carmo 17.
In 1922, Cristiano Cordeiro founded the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) with writer and journalist Astrogildo Pereira and seven other companions, in a meeting held in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro.
Back in Recife, he tried to enlarge the group, which became the regional committee of the PCB. Despite having many sympathizers, the party never had more than one hundred affiliates. Among the best known sympathizers were Joaquim Cardozo and Aderbal Jurema.
In 1933, as PCB suggested, Cristiano Cordeiro ran, with three other workers, for federal deputy in Pernambuco with the political slate Trabalhador Ocupa Teu Posto (T.O.P.) (Worker Occupies Your Post). In his platform were included issues such as drought, divorce, protection of the Brazilian indigenous people, and the social matter.
Of the four candidates, only Cristiano was elected, however, he did not become a federal deputy. In a statement given to Ricardo Noblat, he told what happened: Agamenon Magalhães , who already had ascendancy over the electoral mechanism, annulled two ballot boxes, so I failed to reach the coefficient by a difference of a few votes.
In 1935, Cristiano Cordeiro was elected alderman of Recife, with two companions from the T.O.P. slate, the graphic worker Chagas Ribeiro and the merchant João Bezerra. He obtained alone more votes than the 17 integralist candidates.
He took a stance against the so-called Communist Intentona, classifying it as a seditious movement because he thought it was inopportune. Nevertheless, Cristiano was fired from the Tesouro do Estado and imprisoned in the Recife House of Detention [nowadays, Casa da Cultura (House of Culture)]. He was released on November 9, 1936, to attend the funeral of his wife, Celina Cordeiro.
Only in 1937 he was sworn in as elected councilman of Recife, by a Writ of Mandamus, filed by lawyer Baltazar Mendonça at the Court of Justice of Pernambuco, on the eve of the coup that instituted the Estado Novo.
When the City Council was closed, Cristiano was arrested again and ordered to leave Recife by the then secretary of Public Security, Etelvino Lins. He was deported to the city of Santos in the state of São Paulo, where he taught in two schools and worked as a reviewer for the newspaper Diário de Santos (Santos Diary).
Thereafter, by indication of the then federal deputy Domingos Velasco, he went teaching in Goiânia, capital of the state of Goiás. There he held several positions, among them professor of Introduction to the Science of Law, Industrial Law, and Labor Legislation at Faculdade de Direito de Goiás (Law School of Goiás); professor of the Pre-Law Course at the State University of Goiás; professor of Political Economy, Tax Legislation, and Law at the Escola Técnica de Comércio de Goiânia (Goiânia Technical School of Commerce), of which he was one of the founders, besides directing the Public Library and collaborating in several local newspapers.
Cristiano Cordeiro was also a professor at the Colégio Estadual de Petrópolis (Colégio Estadual de Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, appointed by João Café Filho, then President of the Republic (1954–1955), who had been his press news partner in the 1920s and 1930s, in Recife.
In 1947, he was expelled from the party by initiative of the PCB regional committee because of his position on the 1935 Communist Intentona.
When he returned to Recife in 1948, he resumed his job as a civil servant, and was assigned to the Arquivo Público Estadual (State Public Archive), which he only left when he retired.
In 1961, Sudene (Superintendence for the Development of the Northeast) hired Cristiano as editor and translator, under Celso Furtado, and worked at the institution until he turned 80.
In 1982, he launched at Bookstore Livro 7, in Recife, Memória & História, a collection of political writings from 1922 to 1979.
Cristiano Cordeiro died in Recife, on November 30, 1987, at the age of 92.
Recife, January 27, 2012.
sources consulted
ARAÚJO, Antônio Henrique da Silva. O cristianismo em Pernambuco nos anos 30: Cristiano Cordeiro, o apóstolo dos trabalhadores, dezembro de 2011. Disponível em: <http://pcb.org.br/portal/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3331:o-qcristianismoq-em-pernambuco-nos-anos-30-cristiano-cordeiro-o-apostolo-dos-trabalhadores&catid=56:memoria>. Acesso em: 25 jan. 2012.
BARROS, Manoel de Souza. Apresentação. In: MEMÓRIA & história 2. São Paulo: Ciências Humanas, 1982. p. 13-15.
CORDEIRO, Cristiano. Depoimento a Ricardo Noblat. In: MEMÓRIA & história 2. São Paulo: Ciências Humanas, 1982. p. 81-88.
MEMÓRIA & história 2. São Paulo: Ciências Humanas, 1982. 255 p.
NASCIMENTO, Luiz do. História da Imprensa de Pernambuco. Recife: UFPE, Imprensa Universitária, 1967. v. 3, p. 207.
NASCIMENTO, Luiz do. História da Imprensa de Pernambuco. Recife: UFPE, Editora Universitária, 1982. v. 8, p. 62.
how to quote this text
GASPAR, Lúcia. Cristiano Cordeiro. In: Pesquisa Escolar. Recife: Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, 2012. Available at: https://pesquisaescolar.fundaj.gov.br/en/artigo/cristiano-cordeiro/. Access on: month day year. (Ex.: Aug. 6, 2020.)