Orlando Villas-Bôas (1914-2002)

Son of a city with a Native Brazilian name - Botucatu, SP - explorer Orlando Villas-Bôas was the best friend of the Native Brazilians when he got enwrapped by the forest.

He was born on 12 January 1914. At the age of 27, he was leading a quiet life as an office worker in his home town, when the Vargas Government decided to recruit workers for the Roncador - Xingu expedition. An admirer of Marshal Cândido Rondon, Orlando became enthusiastic with the possibility of taking part in the great march to the West and, together with his younger brothers Cláudio and Leonardo, signed up at the recruitment point in São Paulo. They were not accepted, because they knew how to read and write. However, the Villas-Bôas brothers did not give up: they grew beards, took sun for a whole month, and then they returned to the recruitment station, said they were illiterate, and were then accepted.

Fundação Getúlio Vargas/CPDOC Enlarge

• Orlando Villas Bôas (1914-2002)

That moment, in 1943, marked the start of one of the most significant adventures of the 20th Century, the history of 35 years of dedication of a whole family, led by Orlando, to the Native Brazilian cause. Orlando was a stonemason’s assistant until they discovered he could read and write. After that, he was promoted to secretary and, two years later, took command of the exhibition. Together with the people he led, he travelled along more than 1,000 kilometres of rivers and 1,500 kilometres of open pathways. Along this way, a total of 43 cities and villages and 19 landing strips were created, which would later become military bases, support points for aviation and also points of assistance for the Native Brazilian population. More than five thousand Native Brazilians were contacted, from more than 20 tribes and 14 ethnic groups. The expedition was attacked on nineteen different occasions, but, at the strict orders of the commander, the Native Brazilians were scared off with shots into the air.

His most significant feat, which led the Native Brazilians to dedicate the Quarup (the most important religious and sports ceremony of Xingu Indians) to him in 2003, was the creation of the Xingu National Park (Parque Nacional Indígena do Xingu) in 1961. With an area larger than that of the state of Sergipe, the Native Brazilian reservation is the struggle by the White Native Brazilian, as Orlando was called, and by his brothers.

During their years in the forest, the Villas-Bôas brothers caught malaria more than 200 times. However, life was kind to Orlando: on two occasions, in the 1970s, he was nominated by international personalities and institutions for the Nobel Peace Prize. After years in the forest, in 1973, Orlando decided to come back to live in São Paulo, continuing to defend the Native Brazilian cause. “We need to save this other humanity”, he would say. Together with his brother Cláudio, apart from his diary on the great expedition, he published books, including Indians of the Xingu and Xingu: The Indians and their Myths.

He died of multiple organ failure, at the age of 88, on 12 December 2002. He left his wife, Marina Villas-Bôas, with whom he had two children, Noel and Orlando Junior.

Source:
100 Brazilians Book (100 Brasileiros) (2004)