by Natalia Essigmann
Romãozinho: Brazil’s Devilish Child
I woke up.
The scattering sound from outside took me by surprise.
Looking at the clock on my papered walls,
I realized it was too late for the stablehand to be here.
I took the gun leaning on my maple nightstand and headed toward the door.
Is that squawking?
I open the door, startled by the strong light coming from the pen.
Fire!
I run as fast as I can, but the light runs, too.
What is going on?
I start shooting, but it is no use;
Whatever it was is gone.
I approach the pen and find only feathers in red.
Here we are: the last article in the series! Unlike the other Brazilian folklore creatures featured in this series, Romãozinho was originally a human boy. Unfortunately, there is not too much information on how he came to be, but some scholars believe that the legend of Romãozinho was inspired by Saci-Pererê (check out the fourth article in my series!; O mito, 2021). However, it is thought that the legend originated in the 20th century in Goiás, a state in the Central-West region of Brazil. Thus, Romãozinho’s story is not nearly as old as that of the other Brazilian folklore creatures that I have discussed in this series, which may be why information is limited.
According to the legend, Romãozinho is a Black boy with sociopathic tendencies who has always been mischievous (O mito, 2021). Before becoming a supernatural entity, he tortured and killed animals, which is a well-known sociopathic trait (Only, n.d.). Romãozinho was just an all-around cold troublemaker (O mito, 2021). One day, his mother cooked a whole chicken and asked him to bring it to his father, a farmer, who was at work. With much displeasure, Romãozinho agreed. Along the way, due to his vengeful attitude, carelessness, and desire to make others feel bad, Romãozinho ate the entire chicken and left the bones. When his father saw this, he became confused and frustrated, and asked Romãozinho why there were only bones in his lunchbox. Romãozinho saw this as an opportunity to wreak havoc and gave an extremely malicious response. He claimed that his mother and a man who visits the house when his father is not around ate the chicken and packed the bones to bring to his father (O mito, 2021). Understandably, his father suspected that his wife was cheating on him and became enraged, dropped everything, and rushed to their house; Romãozinho followed. Once they arrived at the house, his father took a dagger and killed his mother. Meanwhile, Romãozinho laughed the entire time. Romãozinho’s mother seemed to know that the entire situation was his doing. Just before she died, she cursed Romãozinho into immortality, saying that even hell would not accept him. As a result, it is said that Romãozinho remains a child to this day, walking around scaring people, torturing animals, and causing other trouble. Like the Curupira (check out the third article in my series!), although a bit different, Romãozinho is sometimes depicted as a formation of fire (O mito, 2021). Interestingly, however, it is thought that Romãozinho is not an inherently evil entity. Sometimes, he is known to help others with his cleverness (Romãozinho, 2020).
In addition to Saci-Pererê, Romãozinho relates to a few other folklore characters. Corpo-Seco, or “Dry-Body” in English, is a Brazilian folklore character that represents the afterlife of past humans who treated family members very poorly (Rico, 2017). If a human becomes a Corpo-Seco, they are never able to enter heaven or hell and are forced to live on earth forever–just like Romãozinho! The other folklore character, the Wandering Jew, originated in 13th century Europe (Wandering, 2021). Also known as Ahasvero, the Wandering Jew is said to be a man who ridiculed Jesus during the crucifixion and was consequently subjected to immortality on earth until Jesus’ Second Coming.
Unfortunately, since my family is from a region in Brazil that is relatively unfamiliar with Romãozinho, they do not know enough about the legend for an interview. However, I found a very interesting case from 1996 in Euclides da Cunha, Bahia. Apparently, a family household in the town started to get harassed by some sort of supernatural entity (Caso, 2015). Rocks would get thrown at their house and break their roof tiles, their mattresses would spontaneously combust, and eventually, rocks were thrown at people’s heads. The family decided to reach out to the town’s priest, but the priest declined to step foot in the house. Other people, such as a woman holding a picture of the pope and a man with a gun, attempted to eradicate the household of the entity but ultimately failed and were injured in the process (Caso, 2015). The family even tried moving to another house on the same property, but the strange occurrences continued. Since the legend of Romãozinho is popular in that area, many believed that he was responsible. Importantly, however, the family’s 13-year-old son claimed that he often “heard voices.” Thus, some believed that the young boy was actually the one responsible (Caso, 2015). Either way, I thought this was a very interesting story!
Here is the original feature of the story on Globo’s Fantastico (unfortunately, there are no English subtitles, but the visuals are worth seeing):
References
Caso de “demônio” que aterrorizou Euclides da Cunha completa 19 anos; Veja vídeo. (2015, May 19). Portaldenoticias.net. www.portaldenoticias.net/caso-de-demonio-que-aterrorizou-euclides-da-cunha-completa-19-anos-veja-video/
Ricon, L. E. (2017). Corpo-seco. Multirio. multirio.rj.gov.br/index.php/interaja/multiclube/9a11/diz-a-lenda/13063-corpo-seco?pag=2
O mito do Romãozinho: Texto completo. (2021, June 16). Site de Dicas. www.sitededicas.com.br/folclore-romaozinho.htm#link2
Only sociopaths intentionally hurt animals: A professional view. (n.d.). PETA Prime. https://prime.peta.org/2010/04/only-sociopaths-intentionally-hurt-animals-a-professional-view/
Romãozinho. (2020). Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rom%C3%A3ozinho#:~:text=Romaozinho%20(Portuguese%3A%20Rom%C3%A3ozinho%20%5Bxom%C3%A3w,district%2C%20Pedro%20Afonso%2C%20Goi%C3%A1s.
Wandering Jew. (2021). Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wandering_Jew#Brazil
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