O Barão de Araruna e sua prole

Abstract

The most distinguished figures in public life, due to their deeds of intense repercussion, are those who usually animate the social landscapes of history. He recalled this truth at the beginning of this memoir. But he argued: nevertheless, history confined to a region, or even a simple village, is sometimes clarified in some of its aspects by the original contribution of some singularly gifted men. The attributes and virtues that he cultivated, sowed examples, explain the reason for the existence of daily life in many active passages. This was the case of Estevão José da Rocha, the Baron of Araruna, renewed with even clearer relevance in the trajectory of his son Felinto, the Commander, who distinguished himself in the fruitful work and in the greatness of character and heart. Today, the coordinates of life differ in substance from those others exhausted in the world of old. Today, man is valued as a unit subject to community tendencies. No one should take for himself the good that belongs to everyone, but the life and deeds of the Commander revealed his unique capacity for valuing work and should be considered in the light of his own time.