Pulling Teeth

Fountain in Tiradentes.

In the mountains a few hundred miles north of Rio de Janeiro a gold rush almost as big as the California one took place in the 17th and 18th century. Portugal taxed this gold to finance their empire, and through trade, the Industrial Revolution in England.

However, near the end of the 1700s, as the gold started to run out the Portugese, discontent with a lower take, raised the tax rate. This was around the same time as the American and French revolutions, and low and behold, the people of Brazil followed international sentiment and rebelled.

Unfortunatly, unlike the US and France, the revolution failed. One of the leaders of the revolution, Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, took full responsibility for the revolution, and was hung in Rio de Janeiro, in the plaza today named Praça Tiradentes.

His body was quartered and with his blood, a document was written declaring his memory infamous. His head was publicly displayed in Vila Rica, the town at the heart of the gold rush. Pieces of his body were put on display in the cities between Vila Rica and Rio, in an attempt to intimidate other would-be rebellions.

Today, the square of his death is named Tiradentes in his honor. It seems that in Joaquim´s life prior to being revolutionary thinker and General, he had been a dentist. Tiradentes is Portuguese for teeth-puller. Thus, all of Brazil refers to him as Tiradentes, and his home town in the gold rush mountains has now been renamed Tiradentes after him.