Carranca

If smoke attracts the apparitions, the popular strategy to ward them off is to fight fire with fire. That is: against the ugliness of the monster, something just as ugly. The so-called figureheads were sculptures placed at the front of vessels that sailed through the middle São Francisco River region, with both aesthetic and protective functions.

The forms are varied, but they usually feature a mixture of human with horse, dragon or lion. This, in fact, was another name by which the piece was known in Juazeiro: "Lion of the Boat". The pieces were painted with striking colors, mainly red, blue, and black. It was said that when the figurehead groaned three times, the vessel was doomed to sink.

The figureheads on the river

It is assumed that the first boats to navigate the São Francisco River date from the end of the 18th century, propelled by poles and oars, and were used for both passenger and cargo transport. The figureheads were gradually incorporated onto them from 1880 onwards, by imitation. Researchers, such as Paulo Pardal, suppose that they come from an attempt to replicate what was seen on foreign ships.

The era of figureheads was brief and came to an end with the introduction of the internal combustion engine. Heavy vessels like the old barges gave way to lighter ones that had little space for adornments like large figures. Today, the figureheads found on boats are mere references to the old ones, but they do not occupy the same cultural role as their predecessors.

From boat to house

As the 20th century progressed, figureheads left the river and became floor or shelf pieces; propped up at the entrance of houses to continue performing their function of keeping evil far away. If before they needed to be designed to withstand the waters, today it is possible to think of figureheads made of clay. This is the case of the famous pieces by Ana Leopoldina Santos, Ana das Carrancas. One of her trademarks was the eyes of the figureheads, always hollow: a loving tribute she made to her husband, Zé Vicente, who was blind.

The vampire carranca

Another familiar figure today is the carranca-vampira, or vampire carranca. It was first called the carranca-macaca. Sharp white teeth stand out against the monster’s bright red mouth. A line of the same red traces the eyes and turns up slightly at the corners, a detail that hints at the design’s East Asian inspiration.

Its creation is recent. It dates from 1971 when Severino Borges de Oliveira, Master Bitinho, from Petrolina (PE), had just watched the Japanese film "King Kong Escapes," directed by Ishiro Honda a few years earlier, in 1967. Master Bitinho was born in 1941 in the municipality of Taipu, in Rio Grande do Norte. An artisan since childhood, at the age of 12 he was already building everything from rifles to calunga dolls that his father sold at the fair.

After living for some years in Ceará and Bahia, he arrived in Pernambuco in the 1970s, where he created the carranca (a type of carved wooden figurehead) from an umburana tree trunk. Thanks to his art, he even got to know Japan. An example of the direct dialogue between popular culture and pop culture.