The family history of the founding members of .38 is closely linked to the history of Brazil as a nation. Among the family members, FERDINAND BRANDON of Normandy, a crusader who served in Portugal in the war against the Moors during the Second Crusade in the 12th century, stands out. Brandon is an ancestor of JOSÉ JOAQUIM DE LIMA E SILVA, from the Order of Avis, founded by Lusitanian crusader knights whose hands were hardened while fighting the Muslim militias in the East. His son, FRANCISCO DE LIMA E SILVA was one of the regents of the Empire of Brazil, during the reign of Dom Pedro II, and his grandson, Luis Alves de Lima e Silva, the DUKE OF CAXIAS, is the most decorated General in the country’s history and is, until today, the Patron of the Brazilian Army.

JOÃO MANUEL DE LIMA E SILVA, uncle of the Duke of Caxias, had a leading role as a General in the Farroupilha Revolution, which took place in Rio Grande do Sul (the southernmost state in Brazil) in the 19th century. Francisco and João Manuel’s brother, JOSÉ JOAQUIM (who has the same name as his father), was a combatant in the Brazilian wars of independence and led the liberation of the province of Bahia, the last Brazilian state to be freed from the Portuguese. He had the title of Viscount of Magé and is Rafael and Tony’s fifth grandfather.

EDUARDO DE LIMA E SILVA HOERHANN, great-grandfather of the brothers Rafael and Tony, was a prominent character in Santa Catarina state’s history and led the team responsible for the cessation of physical violence between European settlers and the Laklãnõ / Xokleng natives in 1914. This indigenous group was frequently attacked by settlers and for this reason became hostile and incommunicado until its insertion in the regional society, promoted by the National agency for the protection of the Indians. Eduardo Hoerhann served in this federal institution for more than 40 years, where he promoted the nationalization of this ethnic group and won them the first demarcation of indigenous land in the country, in 1926.

Eduardo’s father, MIGUEL HOERHANN, was an artillery instructor for the Austro-Hungarian empire, a teacher of bayonet fencing, salon fencing, and Swedish gymnastics in the state of Maranhão and later in Rio de Janeiro. That early form of gymnastics was specifically geared towards the military training of the new cadets and officers of the Brazilian Navy. Miguel has written an extensive collection of articles in several in periodicals and is the author of the book “A Esgrima de Baioneta”, published in Maranhão, in 1904.