Negotiating Empathy Visual Culture, Animal Rights, and Abolitionism in Imperial Brazil PATRICIA D. MENESES INTRODUCTION In 1886 , the Brazilian magazine Revista Illustrada pub- lished a whole page of cartoons commenting on a grave incident: the brutal beating of two underage enslaved girls, Eduarda and Joanna, by their owner, Francisca Silva Castro, who later became known as the “torturer of Botafogo” (fig. 1 ). Eduarda was able to escape and describe her situation to the abolitionist leader and newspaper proprietor, Jose ´ do Patrocı ´nio (1854 –1905 ), who imme- diately denounced the facts and accompanied her to the police station. The two rescued girls were put under state protection, but Joanna died a couple of days later due to the severity of her injuries. Angelo Agostini (1843 –1910 ), who was responsible for the publication, was an Italian-born artist and car- toonist known for his wide engagement with the abo- litionist cause in Brazil. He founded Revista Illustrada in 1876 as a weekly magazine focused on satirical humor and critical commentary on current affairs. 1 His cartoon style was connected to European models, such as the caricatures published in the French magazine Le Charivari and the work of Portuguese artist Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro. The publication was extremely pop- ular at the time, reaching a wide audience in Brazil. Writer Monteiro Lobato described its success in the following way: There was no house that was not reached by the Revista, and it delighted both the cities and the farms. A typical picture of local color was the farmer who came home tired from the fields ... sat in a hammock, asked the mulatta for coffee, and opened the Revista. The well-finished drawings, much to the taste of his culture and sensibility, paraded before his eyes the political events of the fortnight. The fellow’s face lit up with healthy laughter. 2 Revista Illustrada, despite its clear ideological stance, was read not only by progressive liberals but also landowners who depended on slave labor. On the page in question, Agostini narrates the story in detail. The first scene shows Joanna and Eduarda accompanied by Jose ´ do Patrocı ´nio and abolitionist leader Joa˜o Clapp and surrounded by members of the press. 3 The next image—the most striking one—is a por- trait of the two young women with their faces disfigured by the violent treatment they received. In this instance, he temporarily abandons his freer cartoonish style and contrasts it with an achingly realistic and detailed rep- resentation, based on a photograph by Antonio Henri- que da Silva Heitor. 4 The mention of an actual photographic portrait reiterated the factual character of the depiction, despite its careful construction by the artist. The somber tone continues, as we see Joanna’s 1 . Revista Illustrada’s motto was “To speak the truth, nothing but the truth, even if I lose a few teeth by doing so” (“Fallar a verdade, sempre a verdade, ainda que por isso me caia algum dente”), Revista Illustrada, no. 1 (January 1 , 1876 ): 1 . All translations by the author unless otherwise noted. 2 . Original: “Na˜o havia casa em que na ˜o penetrasse a Revista, e tanto deliciava as cidades como as fazendas. Quadro tı ´pico de cor local era o fazendeiro que chegava cansado da roc¸a [ ... ] sentava-se na rede, pedia cafe´ a` mulatinha e abria a Revista. Os desenhos bem acabados, muito ao sabor da sua cultura e gosto, desfilavam ante seus olhos os acontecimentos polı ´ticos da quinzena. O rosto do sujeito ser iluminava de sauda´veis risos.” Monteiro Lobato, Ideias de Jeca Tatu (1919 ; repr., Sa˜o Paulo: Braziliense, 1967 ), 16 –17 . 3 . Joa˜o Clapp, a republicanist, was the president of the Confederac¸a ˜o Abolicionista Brasileira (Brazilian Abolitionist Confederation), the most important organ engaged in political activism for slavery abolition, coor- dinating the efforts of smaller or local associations. About the organization, see Cla´udia Regina Andrade Santos, “Na rua, nos jornais e na tribuna: a Confederac¸a ˜o Abolicionista do Rio de Janeiro, antes e depois da abolic ¸a ˜o,” in Tornando-se livre: agentes histo´ricos e lutas sociais no processo de abolic ¸a˜o, ed. Maria Helena Machado (Sa˜o Paulo: Editora da Universidade de Sa˜o Paulo, 2016 ), 335 –68 . 4 . The caption under the portraits reads: “Heitor, the photographer, portrayed the two almost blind from the beating, and with their faces all wounded and disfigured.” Photographer Antonio Henrique da Silva Heitor was active during the 1880 s in Rio de Janeiro and received the title of Photographo da Casa Imperial (“Photographer of the Imperial House”) in 1885 . 28 Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture, Vol. 6 , Number 4 , pp. 28 –44 . Electronic ISSN: 2576 -0947 . © 2024 by The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Reprints and Permissions web page, https://online.ucpress.edu/journals/pages/reprintspermissions. DOI: https://doi.org/10 .1525 /lavc.2024 .6 .4 .28 .