Avante Camaradas - Brazilian Army Song

"Avante Camaradas" is one of Brazil most iconomic military songs, and it comes with a powerful backstory.

Back in the closing years of the fourty one year long oligarchic dictatorship known as the "old republic" a popular uprising overthrew the unelected ruling satrap of the city of São Paulo, Júlio Prestes, who you probably know as the winner of the rigger 1930 election. Such uprising failed to spread and defeat the ruling oligarchy as the country was so underdeveloped that the lack of communication infrastructure allowed the government to keep it isolated, preventing a larger rising. Instead of fighting to the death in a doomed battle of the capital, the rebels succesfully evacuated most of their forces from the capital leaving a token force to resist the returning tyrant who recaptured his golden city after a bloody bombing that left five thousand civilians dead.

The force that managed to evacuate the city was named "The first revolutionary division" led by Field Marshall Isidoro Dias Lopez and his second in command, Miguel Costa, someone you can find two videos about him in my channel. The first revolutionary division got reinforced by rebelled forces coming from the south led by Luis Carlos Prestes, a gaúcho commander.

Through the space of three years the first revolutionary division fought through the brazilian backlands against the federal army led by Marshall Rondon, through deserts, forrests, swamps, mountains and cities in the largest military march done in history, overpassing both the chinese Long March and Genghis Khan and Alexander the great conquests. Their forces having overwhelming popular support of a people tortured by the leftovers of slavery, neglet and feudalistic opression done by decrepit colonels and corrupted military forces.

By 1926 with the situation spirraling out of control the ruling oligarchy elected a reformist, Washington Luís, whose reforms improved the situation enought to allow the column to be seen as less needed, leading it to cross to Argentina in 1927 as political exilees. Isidoro and Miguel Costa would be recalled by Getúlio Vargas in 1930 where they fought in the 1930 revolution, while Luís Carlos Prestes would move to the soviet union where he converted to communism.

This song was composed during the civil war known as the "forgotten revolution" as it was sunk by the government after the 1964 coup. The author of the lyrics is unknown, but the melody was composed a few years before by Antônio Manuel do Espírito Santo ( 1884 - 1913 ). In the aftermath of the 1930 revolution the song has been adopted by the brazilian army.