Who He Is
Dr. Camacho, a law graduate from Recife, a political journalist who changes adjectives according to the government, becomes a deputy, wants to be a minister and fails, and lives off the practice of law. At the head of the paper Atalaia, he is the one who feeds the political ambition of Rubião, which the novel only then gives him, with a seat in the Chamber and a candidacy.
Trajectory
He appears in the drawing room in Botafogo when Cristiano Palha visits Rubião, and the mention of the moon leaves them speechless (Chapter LIV). When Rubião decides to go to Minas, Camacho cuts him off on the way (Chapter LVI), and the narrator then portrays him: a law graduate from Recife, a political journalism that changes adjectives according to the government, a deputy who does not become a minister (Chapter LVII).
He had won Rubião over earlier, with politics and a lunch (Chapter LVIII); with Palha, he understands himself with a glance and holds him in the Court, one dangling the deputy's seat (Chapter LIX).
esse olhar foi como um bilhete de visita trocado entre as duas consciências, that glance was like a visiting card exchanged between the two consciences
Rubião runs to his office after reading the Atalaia and puts in five contos for the paper (Chapter LX, Chapter LXI); Camacho publishes an entire column on the scratch from the rescue, and Rubião gently scolds him (Chapter LXVII). At the birthday ball of Camacho's wife, Rubião sounds out Carlos Maria (Chapter LXX). Camacho proposes the candidacy for deputy to him (Chapter C); Rubião pays for the Atalaia paper and, hearing an article, suggests strengthening a word, and Camacho objects to the sound, but accepts (Chapter CX, Chapter CXI).
Palha invokes him as an argument when dissolving the partnership with Rubião (Chapter CXXVIII). He alone argues that the face is not to be altered: he makes his own face a moral necessity and says that his life reproduces it (Chapter CXLVIII). When Rubião comes back from the delirium and looks for his friends, Camacho receives him coldly, pretends to consult books in order to dismiss him, and he leaves hurt (Chapter CLXXIX).
Themes Embodied
The standard themes that run through him are Ambition and Money and Wealth.
Camacho is the other side of Rubião's money: he offers the Chamber, speaks of principles and sacrifice, demands loyalty, and sells grandeur. He enters the book as a portrait, the politician who changes adjectives, and it is in this exchange that the text sums him up.
When Rubião comes back from the delirium and looks for his friends, Camacho dispatches him with papers and pauses: the man who used to talk a great deal in front of him now pretends to consult books. His coldness measures what the friendship was worth.
Relationships
- Rubião: the friend whom he seduces with politics, from whom he receives money for the paper, and whom he dismisses coldly.
- Cristiano Palha: the ally with whom he understands himself without a word.