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ASSPAULO - Associação
dos Proprietários da Praia de São Paulo I - Av. Beira Mar, s/n - Edf. Evilácio Amaral -
Praia de São Paulo I - Ilha de Itamaracá Pernambuco |
The Mangoes from 
Osvaldo Martins F. de Souza
Agricultural-engineer
Mango tree - mango
We had the curiosity of writing down the varieties of mangoes that existed or/and
exist in the Island of Itamaracá, mentioned in the researches that we have done with the
small sellers (most women and boys) located in the margins of the highway that give access
to Pilar (headquarters of the municipal district) and to Forte Orange and also the chats
that we maintained with some small farmers and ploughs: "Abacate, Alecrim, Beira do
caminho, Beijo de moça, Cajá-nova, Cajá-velha, Cajá, Castanha, coqueiro , Estrada,
Estribaria , Independência , Jasmin, (the one of the legend?), Itamaracá (Primavera?),
Leite-de-Sinhá , Lado-do-boi, Lado-do-cavalo, Maracujá , Manguito , Manguito primavera,
Marimbondo , Maria-lima, Roxada , Rosada, Rosa-branca , Rosário (from our point of view
the best after " Primavera "), Rosa-maça, Rosa Jasmim , Primavera, Parreira ,
Parreirinha , Parreira-nova, Ponta de D. Sinhá , Prainha , Pombo-roxo , Porta-da-frente,
porta-de-trás and Saudade ". The name of the mango depends on the place, the taste,
the format, the aroma and even of the legends, as it is the case of the " Primavera
".
It was from the seeds of the mango tree "Jasmim"(legend below) that the
mango "Primavera" came and whose fruits were denominated by Arlindo de Sá
Cavalcanti Agricultural-Engineer as " peach from Pernambuco ". Narrated by the
historian Sebastião de Vasconcelos Galvão (Dicionário Corográfico, Historico e
estatístico de Pernambuco, Vol. do Mosaico Pernambucano - Dr. Pereira da Costa), José
Lopes de Albuquerque (História e Segredos de uma Ilha - Itamaracá 3a. ed., Assessoria
Editorial do Nordeste, 1989, Recife) Valdecírio Rodrigues (História de Itamaracá,
Recife, 1972), and for the Agricultural-Engineer Otávio Gomes de Vasconcelos (A cultura
da manga em Itamaracá, Bol. of S.A.I.C. /PE, Tomo II, no.3, Recife, 1932) and José
Clóvis de Andrade (Origem da manga "Jasmim ", Gazeta de Alagoas (08.03.1969),
Maceió, Alagoas). The legend about the mango " Primavera " can be summarised
like this: in 1631, one paraibano, Antônio Homem Saldanha de Albuquerque, fell in love
with a beautiful young woman named Sancha Coutinho, daughter of João Paulo Vaz Coutinho,
proprietor of the Engenho Andirobeira, located between the cities of Olinda and Igarassu.
Passionate decides to ask the parents of Sancha, their daughter in marriage; but the
parents were strongly against. Hopeless and traumatic for the unexpected refuse, seeking
the glory that could make him worthy de young Sancha, Saldanha incorporated to the Army,
being mobilised to compose the troops that would later expel the Dutchmen from the Forte
de Cabedelo, from which resulted their retreat to Recife. Transferred for Pernambuco in
1633, it participated Saldanha of the glorious battle of Good Jesus' Camp, hurting the
Dutch boss Lourenço Reimbach, deadly; also wounded, Saldanha was said to have died.
Sancha Coutinho's hopes no longer existed. Thirteen years later, after her parents' death,
she lived with her brother Nuno Coutinho. in the Island of Itamaracá. One day, Saldanha
wearing priest's habit and being called by the name Priest Aires Ivo Correia, goes to
Itamaracá and knocks on the door of Sancha's house; as soon as she saw him she recognises
Priest Aires Ivo Correia as Antônio Homem Saldanha e Albuquerque, her old boyfriend. She
fell down dead, victim of violent emotion. It counts the legend, that Priest Aires planted
a mango tree on Sancha Coutinho's grave and from that comes the celebrated mangoes from
Itamaracá, that give the name of the " manga do jasmim" (' Primavera "),
because around the garden with many where the mango was planted there was a garden with
many jasmin trees. Mangoes
The former-mayor of Itamaracá, José Lopes de Albuquerque (o.cit.): tells the following: " As Mr. Ferdinand Wolf says, in its work " Litterature Bresilienne ", this poetic and beautiful legend was object of a lyrical drama in four acts, written in Rio de Janeiro in 1854, by Mr. Luiz Vicente de Simoni, and that had for title: " Marília of Itamaracá " or " A Donzela da Mangueira ". José Clóvis de Andrade (o.cit.), refers to a piece (Radio-theater?) presented by occasion of the inauguration of the new facilities of the Rádio Clube de Pernambuco, directed by Samuel Campelo, with verses by José Soares de Azevedo and music by Nelson Ferreira, having the newspaper " A Folha de Pernambuco ", from Recife, published the whole piece on June 12, 1938. José Clóvis doesn't mention the name of the piece, but it describes its characters: Mafalda (Luiz de Oliveira). Saldanha (Luiz Marinho) Sancha (RosáliaPombo). Historian (Vicente Cunha). Speaker (Samuel Campelo). Another legend about the mango primavera still exists which was told to us by Mr. José Maria Macedo, proprietor of the " Granja Bom Jesus, the first to export to Europe the delicious mangoes from Itamaracá, mainly the " Primavera ", properly conditioned in cartons with the stamp " Brazil-Tropic-Bras Exporter Ltda ". Here is the legend: close to Forte Orange, lived a fisherman's young daughter, with who flamenco official fell in love during the Dutch invasion. Committed with an islander, Maria Primavera - that was her name - refused in all the ways the proposals from the Dutch official. Not accepting the constant refuses, he ordered his soldiers to arrest Maria Spring's boyfriend and to throw him into the sea. Even so, Maria Primavera continued not to correspond the official's claims that ended up ordering to bury her alive. Months after, on Maria Spring's grave grew up a mango tree, which was named " Primavera ", mother plant of all the mango trees of its kind " which exist in the island.
The coastal sedimentary strip where the Island of Itamaracá is
located is constituted by the formation of Barriers on chalky deposits. In the base of the
prospecting drill columns dig to see the economic value of the chalky field - tells
Gilberto Osório de Andrade (Itamaracá - Contribuição para o estudo geomorfológico da
costa pernambucana, Recife, 1955) - he/she is " the formation of Itamaracá: a
cretaceous sandstone (campaniano?), rude chalky, fossilised, highly coherent, whose
thickness is known to surpass 14 meters of Massaranduba (to west of Pontas de Pedra) 20
meters in the Forno de Cal (Olinda) and 100 meters in Capissura (João Pessoa)".
Probably, brought closer in those character of geomorphologic considerations we believe
nevertheless - the distance from the calcareous substratum to the surface, generally, of
soil clay-siliceous of good permeable, does the agricultural engineer José Clóvis de
Andrade, believes that the presence of calcareous in most of the soils of the Island and
the favourable climatic conditions, make possible that the mangoes from Itamaracá keep
its exceptional qualities of flavour and morphologic aspect. Besides - concludes José
Clóvis de Andrade - they " fructify irregular and later out of the island, as if it
was a reaction of the nature against the removal of its natural " habitat, like we
have seen in the orchard of 1.000 trees planted by Dr. Samuel Hardman, in its firm
"Estiva", in Rio Formoso, south from Pernambuco. Alda P. da Fonseca (Magazine
" Lavoura ", no. 7, July), confirms that the mangoe tree has found in Itamaracá
and Itaparica a privileged soil, producing the best mangoes of the world. Unhappily, it is
not given to everybody the pleasure to taste the mangoes from Itamaracá that still stays
almost as the inhabitants of the Island monopoly.
We could not find out anything about the introduction of the mango
in the Island of Itamaracá: from where it proceeded, who brought it and when. Valderício
Rodrigues (História de Itamaracá, Recife, 1972), tells that captain João Gonçalves,
one of the landlords of the Captaincy of Itamaracá (1534-1593), " distributed lands
with who, in fact, wanted to cultivate them, at the same time he took providence for the
import and of trees and good seeds. He gave special treatment to the ploughmen and never
lost them from view. That is why it didn't take long so that the grape cultivation,
tobacco, cotton and fruits (the italic is ours) had extraordinary increment until the
point to serve as model and example in the neighbouring lands of the continent ".
Further on - Valderício Rodrigues - transcribes notes from the Emperor Pedro II's diary
", date from December 7th, 1859, when he visited the Island of Itamaracá: Did I
already " it was close night when I arrived, but there was a beautiful moonlight, so
I went to the mangoes tree planted in the place of the celebrated jasmim, the one that
Maria's loving legend calls (?) And of Ivo, called the revived about who Soares
d"Azevedo, in the Gym, made a poetry which he promised to give me. I picked some
mangoes leaves, at 6:45 increasing the nostalgia that the place woke up " in me.
Otávio Gomes de Vasconcelos wrote a report about the culture of the mangoes in
Itamaracá, published in the Boletim da Secretaria de Agricultura, Indústria e
Viação/PE, tomo II, no.3, in 1932 from which we transcribe the following: " still
lives the old mangoes tree " PRIMAVERA" and knowing about its existence I
hurried up to visit it in the property of Mr. Eustáquio Macedo, close to Pilar's Villa,
that possesses for its ancestors' inheritance. All my expectation all my expectations to
find a prosperous mangoes culture were annihilated, in the face of the state of
abandonment and mistreat I have found the historical " Primavera ". The Diário
da Manhã, of February 5th, 1936, has published a report under the following title: "
The mangoes primavera, in the Island of Itamaracá, makes shade since more than a hundred
years. Under the modern graft process, the technicians of the Secretaria da Agricultura
made it to fructify last " year. In 1936, João Cleofas de Oliveira, Secretario de
Agricultura, in the intervention of Carlos de Lima Cavalcanti, acquired a land of 4ha, in
which the historical mangoes tree was located; There a graft field was installed - today,
if we are not wrong, the area was invaded - where the technicians got thousands of
grafted, sold in the own place to the people who come for summer and/or give as present
" high authorities " like Assis Chateaubriand gave to Queen Elisabeth II.
Later on the agricultural engineer Arlindo de Sá Cavalcanti,
specialist in fruits and then Director-president of IPA, had the opportunity to multiply
thousands of grafts, using the graft type denominated " in window ", according
to him: The more recommended for the mangoes culture. The field wasn't big enough to
answer the request from everybody, mainly the requests from the mangoes " Primavera
", coming not only from Pernambuco as well as from the Northeast. Few years later he
was very disappointed when he returned to the place and found there, in the place of the
graft field, a closed army headquarter installed and countless mangoes trees reduced to
coal, inclusive the old trees of the variety " Primavera ", denominated by him,
with all pride as " peach from Pernambuco ". A research done by INCRA, in 1974,
related the following cultures found in the Island: Avocado, mulberry, pumpkin, herbaceous
cotton, garlic, arrow-root, rice, pineapple, banana, English potato, sweet potato, coffee
cashew, carom, coconut (giant and midget), carnation, onion, carrot, the African oilpalm,
sweet herb, tobacco, bean, fig, guava, sesame, sunflower, yam, jack, jute, orange, lime,
lentil, castor oil plant, manioc, mallow, melon, mint, passion fruit, mangoes, papaya,
corn, forage palm, piassava palm, black pepper, tomato, tangerine, tomrindo, soy, and weed
(angola, colonião, elefante, gordura, pangola and sempre-verde). Surprisingly, the grape,
present with three bunches in the heraldry of the Hereditary Captaincy of Itamaracá, gave
by Maurício de Nassau, in 1638, second José Lopes(o.cit.), in the sentence of Barleus,
in allusion of not having any place in Brazil as the Island of Itamaracá to have such
beautiful and succulent mangoes as that", isn't in that list. Some authors mention
the mangoes " Itamaracá " as if it was a different kind of mangoes "
Primavera " T. Yamashiro and I. Myazak (Principais pragas e doenças da mangueira -
Mangifera indica, L. in the State of São Paulo, and modernised methods of control -
Divulgação Técnica do Instituto Biológico/São Paulo. 1985). Includes the mangoes
" Itamaracá ", as one of the 45 more well-known varieties in Brazil under the
economic point of view. Rubens Braga (Plantas do Nordeste, especialmente do Ceará,
Ceará), the variety " Itamaracá " among other (Coité, Massa, Espada, Rosa,
Carlota, Manguita and Bourbon) as frequent in Ceará, Guido Maranca (Fruticultura
Comercial: manga e abacate, São Paulo, Nobel, 1978) refers to " Itamaracá " as
the third relatively " new " Brazilian variety, already diffused in another
American " countries; The Anais do Simpósio Brasileiro sobre a Cultura da Manga,
Jabuticabal, São Paulo, 1980, describes the variety " Itamaracá " as a small
tree, dense foliage, of flat, symmetrical, wavy limbo leaves, not twisted, lanceolate,
base in the form of an edge, short and sharp apex, leaf without shine, the new ones are of
tan colour. João Emmanoel F. Bezerra et alli (Cultura da mangueira, I.T. no. 24/IPA/PE),
describes the characteristics of four mangoes cultivated in Pernambuco, including "
Itamaracá ", as of small size, fruit weighing 150 to 250g, peel coloration
green-yellow, gold pulp, without fibber and with little terebentina. Ciência Agronômica,
July of 1986, analyses the characteristics physical-chemistries of the mangoes "
Itamaracá " in maturation state: phosphorous (mg of P205/100g) 20,37, for "
Rosa " 17,56 and " Sword " 20,42: Iron (mg/100g) 0,29, for " Rosa
" 0,14 and " Sword " 0,19; calcium (mg/100g) 1,01 for " Rosa "
1,11 and " Espada " 1,04; Tannin (mg/100g) 28,25, for " Rosa " 41,92
and " Espada " 57,54; and Pectina (mg/100g) 0,34, for " Rosa " 0,24
and " Espada " 0,41. G.L.Cruz (Livro Verde, Minas Gerais, 1965) counts there to
be more than 600 varieties of mangoes, including " Itamaracá " like " Rosa
", "Sapatinho ", Espada ", Coração-de-boi", Carlota ",
Augusta ", Ubá ", Itaparica ", Bahia ", Sapucaia " and "
Rainha ", as the most well known. Salim Simão (o.cit.) makes reference to the
variety " Itamaracá " as of commercial value for consumption " in natura
", together with " Bourbon ", Carlota " and " Haden ".
Simão Still affirms to be the " area of the Island of Itamaracá turning to the
continent the one with the best conditions for the cultivation of the mangoes " not
specifying, however, the reasons. Pio Corrêa (Dicionário das Plantas Utéis do Brasil ,
p87, vol. V, MA/IBDF/1984) highlights the varieties " Bourbon ", Rosa ",
"Manteiga ", "Espada", Carlota ", " ITAMARACÁ (the italics
is ours) and " Sapatinho ", among others.
Still, as another literary citation regarding the legends about the mangoes " Jasmim /Primavera " besides the ones that had been mentioned here, there is a version by Mário Sette (Terra Pernambucana, pp.53/55 - Fundarpe - Recife 1981): " Visiting a small cemetery in Itamaracá found Saldanha Sancha Coutinho's grave that had died waiting for him and on the foot of the dear grave, to shade the place, Priest Aires planted a mangoes tree that sprouted, grew, frondesced, fructified prodigiously and from this descend all the flattered sweet, perfumed mangoes from Itamaracá . Finally, to finish the chapter about the legends of the mangoes from the Island of Itamaracá, it is worth to mention Valdecírio Rodrigues' registration (História de Itamaracá - Recife - 1972) when he says that in the year 1883 was sung in Recife in the opera entitled "Marília de Itamaracá ", lyrics by José Afonso de Araújo and music by Euclides onseca.
About the influence of the chalky in the soils of the Island of
Itamaracá, contributing so that the mangoes there have extraordinary pomological
qualities, there is an excellent work by Emmanoel W. Duarte e Krauss, written in 1978, and
published by Condepe, in first edition, with the objective of measure the chalky fields .
He affirms: "In the marine border (oriental strip) the chalky layers appears in the
North end where the real state spread and overpriced the lands dividing it in plots,
standing back any use possibility; in the Central strip, Barriers' group sand-clay covers
presently a considerable thickness, superior of that which is acceptable for the
prospecting, exception done to little occurrences in the North. In the Western strip, the
calcium appears with a thickness that makes possible the prospecting ". Summarising:
The Island of Itamaracá is located in a chalky Gramane substratum with covered with the
Barriers formation; the zone of the beach is constituted predominantly by recent sediments
of the Quaternary; the elevations are composed for clay-sandy and the swamps are
constituted of clay and silts, laid in cretaceous formation.
Who is going to Forte Orange, by the highway, can see on the right side, several barriers cut, about 30m height, destroying boards with its characteristic vegetation, inclusive coconut trees, mangoes and mangabeiras (Hancornia Speciosa) still planted there in the few ranches and farms that exist and from where one of the prettiest landscapes of the Island of Itamaracá can be seen.
The fruits of the mangoes tree " Itamaracá
(Jasmin/Primavera?) planted in the Estação de fruticultura da Embrapa, in Cruz das
Almas, Bahia, present the following characteristics: Size and weight of the fruit - (150
to 250g); coloration of the peel - green yellow; coloration of the pulp - yellow-gold;
without fibber and of little terebentina. (Source: Instruções técnicas no.
24/ITA/Recife-PE. the mangoes produced in Itamaracá, thanks to its climate and to the
physical-chemical conditions of its soil (co pH from 5 to 8, being the ideal of 6,5),
present superior pomological characteristics to all the mangoes produced in Brazil. The
disadvantage among " Itamaracá " the " Espada " and " Rosa
" in what concern to the weight of the fruit (150 to 250g), compared with the one of
the " Espada " (200 to 250g) and with the one of the kind "Rosa " (200
to 350g) it is rewarded by the absence of fibbers (yarns of the pulp that stay among the
teeth when chewed), Brix (11,30), total acidity (0,28%) and relationship accidity/Brix
(1:4036). Still, the quantity of iron (mg/100g) 0,29 is superior to the type " Espada
" 0,14 and the type " Rosa " 0,19. its low quantity of tannin
(28,25mg/100g) compared with the type " Espada " (57,54) and with the type
" Rosa " 41,92, it contributes so that its pulp has the honey flavour. The
velvet stain in the apex of the fruit of the mangoes " Itamaracá ", around the
peduncle, deserves its name " peach from Pernambuco ", as said by Arlindo de
Sá.
The Historian and Poet José Lopes de Albuquerque, when mayor of
Itamaracá, did everything he could so that the Grafts Field could stay with the City
hall; unhappily he go nothing. The Grafts Field died from starvation. Today the mangoes
trees, with so much sacrifice recovered by the technicians of IPA/PE, presenting, still
accentuated pomological characteristics, is abandoned, going to the total disappearance.
Original of the Southwest of Asia, the mangoes were introduced in Brazil by the Portuguese
colonists. J.A. Gonçalves de Mello (" Notas acerca da introdução de vegetais
exóticos em Pernambuco " - Bol. of IJNPS no. 3) transcribes - for him the oldest
reference to the mangoes among us - a document coming from Lisbon, dated June 26th, 1703,
in which D.Pedro II recommends Francisco Lamberto " the whole care in the cultures of
cinnamon of the sleeves ". Pio Corrêa (o.cit.) presents the following route for the
mangoes: Southwest of Asia - east of Africa - America - Itamaracá (year 1700) - Antilhas
- Mexico - Florida. We don't know the reason why Pio Corrêa locates the Island of
Itamaracá as being in Bahia. Maybe he was making reference to the Island of Itaparica?
The Secretaria de Agricultura, through the Empresa Pernambucana de Pesquisas Agropecuárias - IPA, intends to sign agreement with the National Bank of the Northeast - BNN, with the objective of: 1 - identify, collect and preserve a wide sample of the genetic variety of the mangoes tree " Itamaracá ", Rosa " and " Rosari " in Pernambuco; 2 - evaluate and select the most promising types; 3 - produce trees of superior quality of the types selected through vegetative processes. The project consists of the formation of the germoplasma banks in the Experimental Station of Itaparema, in Goiana (FOOT), through the process of bubble of the window plate, in horses of the variety " Espada ", the trees must be transplanted for the definitive place when they are 30 to 50 cm height.
Itamaracá, was included in the referred agreement to try to the preserve of the varieties " Jasmim/Primavera " and " Rosari ", original of that Island the two first, baptised with the name of " ITAMARACÁ ".