Brazzil - Year 10 - Number 151 - July 1998

KEEPING HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS ALIVE

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GRIEF: EANDRO'S DEATH OVES THE NATION

COMING TO GRIPS WITH CHILD WORK

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BRASIL NATIVO

Lam Hall Celebrated for her singing with Sergio Mendes, Grammy* Award winning Lani Hall delivers 'Brasil Nativo; a new album filled with the rhythmic colors and passions of the native land.

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BRAZILIAN DAYS

Featuting Dori Caymmi

Pu1 Wiliter and Oscar Castro-Neve Grammy* Award winner Paul Winter and Bossa Nova King Oscar Castro-Neves joining together to create this rhythmic journey into the putity & simplicity o the liossa Nova' sound.

AMAZON MOON

Featuring songs written by th:. legendary Jobirn, Carlos Lyra, No Rosa and many more ,

Guilherme Vergueiro s the music of Mike Stoller Guilherme Vergtteiro plays the tasteful Brazilian flavors of Mike Stoller. Amazon Moon is like a night in the Rainforest with a soft summer whisper that touches the soul.

Also features Brazil's own Octavio 13ailly, Claudio Celso, Teco Cardoso a0c1 vocals by Mike Stoller

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BRAZZIL JULY 1998

For decades TV in Brazil has survived on a diet of soap opera, live auditorium shows, and canned goods from Yankee television. Not only there is little variety in what is served, as there is practically only one restaurant in town. And its name is Globo.

This is a TV network able to do the unfeasible: getting a 100% share of everybody tuned in on the tube.

In a recent listing of the 30 top programs of the month, the first 29 spots1 were taken by Globo. Times have changed. In the '80s there wouldn't bel any 30'h post left for the competition.

Much has been written about how Globo with its soi-disant self-serving "Globo standard of quality" has squeezed the competition out of the picture. There is the story—always denied by the network—about an illegal partnership with American Time-Life media conglomerate when the company took off at the end ofthe '60s. It's also been pointed G lobo' s subservience to the military regime dur}

brnlliI http://www.brazzil.com ing the 21 years the dictatorship lasted.

All things considered, Globo won because it was working hard and reinvesting in the business the money it was making while the competition got lost in internal fights and in a show of incompetence. There have been some cracks on the Globo hegemony, but when you see the shows that once in a while threaten the Rio network leadership you might wish for two more decades of TV monopoly.

R.M.

CONTENTS 7

24

Farewell Jorge Zahar, the last in a line of idealist publishers

Nation Why are our children working hard

31

8

Music A whole nation moved

by Leandro's good-bye

11 Obituary Ludo Costa, the man who invented Brasilia

14

Cover How Globo TV became the only game in town

16 -rv

In the beginning there was Tupi

Cover by Sonia Pereira

DEPARTMENTS 6 Rapidinhas 22 Letters 48 The Cultural Pulse 51 Classifieds 52 That's Brazilian

Short story "Paisagem Perdida"

by Luis Jardim

39

Travel Salvador is Pelourinho and much more

44

Music Cuarteto Latinoamericano dedicated to Villa-Lobos

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54 Special The uneven fight against illiteracy

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Publisher and Editor: Rodney Mello / Entertainment EditOrs: Sam & Harriet Robbins Book Review: Bondo Wyszpolski / Music Editor: Bruce Gilman BRAZZIL (ISSN 1091-868X) is published monthly by Brazzil - 2039 N. Ave. 52, Los Angeles, CA, 90042-1024. Periodicals Postage rate paid at Los Angeles, CA. Single copy sold for $2. One year subscription for 12 issues is $3 (three dollars) in the U.S., $15 in Canada and Mexico, and $18 (surface mail) in all other countries. No back issues sold. Allow 5 to 7 weeks to receive your first issue. You may quote from or reprint any of the contents with proper copyright credit. Editorial submissions are welcome. Include a SASE (se f addressed and stamped envelope) if you want your material mailed back. Brazzil assumes no responsibility for any claims made by its advertisers.

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BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

5

nrirstrilAll In r NI II ILJIIIIIILD agagtel Top Of the Heap Which is the second best ad agency in the world?

American giant TBWA Chiat/Day that's the one. , The Yankee company got its runner-up prize during the recent 45th Cannes International Advertising Festival. And who came in first getting the Agency of the Year title? DM9DBB, the Brazilian ad agency which has the Microsoft account • in Brazil and is the fifth larg• est advertising company in the country, having earned $262 million in 1997.

• The prestigious Cannes • prize is awarded to agencies that sum the most points in several categories including for nomination in all existing categories. The Brazilian agency earned 10 points, for example, for getting the • Grand Prix. Created a mere • 9 years ago, DM9 has been romancing the first spot for some time. It came in third in 1997 and in second in 1993. The agency, which is responsible for the current reelection campaign of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, is led by colorful admanNizan Guanaes.

He Loves the Bomb Doctor Eneas Carneiro, • Brazilian presidential by diminutive Prona (Partido da Reedificacdo da Ordem • Nacional—Party for the Rebuilding of the National Order) might be short in chances for winning—polls

MIME Samba Muse Noel Rosa, one of Brazil's most gifted composers will soon have his life told on the big screen by director Ricardo Van Steen in the film Poeta da Vila (Poet of Vila). Rosa was so called because he was from the Rio neighborhood of Vila Isabel. The sambista, author of such classics as "Conversa de Botequim" (Bar Talk) and "Com Que Roupa" (With Which Clothes), died in 1937 at the tender age of 27, a victim of tuberculosis. Van Steen hasn't yet set his mind on the actor who will play the composer, but he has already chosen the actress who will play Lindaura, the poet's wife.

She is the young model and rising TV star Cam ila Pitanga, who became a household name in Brazil after appearing at Globo network miniseries Sex Appeal (in English like that), which portrayed the life of models. That was the same show that also revealed two other promising actresses: Luana Piovani and Carolina Dieckman.

She also appeared as Patricia in the novela (soap opera) A Proxima Vitima (The Next Victim) and then in another novela: Malhacilo (Pumping Iron). Now, at 21, she is dedicating herself to the theater. She is one of the rare young female beauty celebrities who has steadfastly refused a million-dollar offer to disrobe for Brazilian Playboy and other skin publications.

"This is a gift, a big opportunity life has given me," said the grateful model and actress. "I am starting with the right foot."

"Poeta da Vila," budgeted at $5 million, is based on the biographic book written by Carlos Didier and Jodo Maximo, but director Van Steen has already warned that he will not be telling the story of Rosa or the samba: "I want to talk about the love triangle formed by Noel, Lindaura, and Ceci."

•e avio

Love on Sale Is passion on the wane in Rio? In the last three years at least 15 motels—in Brazil they are synonym for love nest—have closed their doors and their movement has fallen by 30% in recent months. Blame it on lack of money and not lack of hormones, says Rio's Sindicato dos Hoteis, Bares and Similares (Association of Hotels, Bars and Alike). To deal with the crisis and draw clients the motels are reducing rates and inventing other promotions.

Motel Panda in the south neighborhood of Botafogo, for example, on weekends is allowing people to stay 12 hours for the price of six. Most of the motels, in which mirrors on the walls and often on the ceiling are de rigueur, have posted signs outside with promotions with hefty discounts. Couples are being able now to get suites with sauna and swimming pool for less than $30 and a more modest suite for $15.

BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

WS= By the Book He was an ilumnist and one ofthe fathers ofthe Brazilian intelligentsia. Almost singe-handedly he created the social sciences library of modern Brazil and for 40 years maintained aiid enriched it. Every student of humanities in Brazil encountered in the books they studied his last rame, which was also the name ofhis publishing house. This man was publisher and editor Jorge Zah , who died in Rio, on June 11 at age 78, during a surgery to change a mitral valve.

He was behind the Portuguese-version of such luminaries as Sigmund Freud, Marshall McLuhan Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm, Wilhelm Reich, Melanie Klein, Jean Pia et, Jacques Lacan, Rosa Luxemburg, and Leon Trotsky. He was also the one who gave a literaify presence, among others to Brazilian leftist thinkers like economist Maria da Conceicao ani President Fernando Henrique in his pre-politician phase.

Fearless in his cultural pursuit, this intellectual dared to publish Karl Marx in the 1 te '60s, the most repressive phase ofBrazil's military dictatorship (1964-1985). Between 1965 anc 1969 Zahar Editores published 0 Capital (Das Kapital) and A Ideologia Alemcl (German Ideol gy) by Karl Marx as well as Literatura e Revolucao (Literature and Revolution) by Trotsky and the 1848 Manifesto Comunista (Communist Manifesto), from 1848, besides several works by French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre. He specialized in publishing books that most of his colleagues would not touch due to its political explosiveness and high commercial risk.

A self-made intellect, Zahar, who was born in Campos, state of Rio de Janeiro, froin a Lebanese father and French mother, never finished second grade. This didn't prevent him from being an avid reader and a true intellectual. "What matters to me," he once said, "is not essentially the profit, but the bigger pleasure of publishing works for college students and intellectuals."

One of the most successful works published by Zahar was Leo Huberman's A Historia da Riqueza do Homem (Man's Worldly Goods). First published in 1962, this work that became the vade mecum of Brazilian revolutionaries, has already had more than 300,000 copies printed, a feat in a country where some bestsellers sell as little as 3,000 copies.

It was in 1947 that Jorge Zahar and brothers Ernesto and Luciano founded, in downtown Rio, Livraria Ler (Read Bookstore). Zahar Editores would appear 9 years later. Their first book: Manual de Sociologia (Sociology Manual) by Runney and Meier, soon followed by Otto Maria Carpeaux's Uma Nova Historia da Mlisica (A New History of Music). Along 40 years he would publish close to 2000 titles by foreign and Brazilian authors.

After selling his interest on Editora Zahar in 1983, the publisher started Jorge Zahar Editor with his children Ana Crigina and Jorge Junior with the same philosophy of his old publishing house.

He was the last of a generation of publishing idealists that also Silveira. Zahar was still a o included Alfredo Machado and Eni French wine lover and connoisseur and a movie buff, who started a film magazine in the '40s: Filme.

Zahar Main Titles Uma Nova Historia da Mzsica

by Otto Maria Carpeaux (1958) Historia da Riqueza do Homem by Leo Huberman (1962) 0 Eu Dividido by Ronald Laing (1963) Psicopatologia da Vida Cotidiana by Sigmund Freud (1964) As Fontes do Inconsciente by Melanie Klein (1964) A Ideologia Alemli by Karl Marx (1965) 0 Capital by Karl Marx (1967) Analise Critica da Teoria Marxista by Louis Althusser (1967) Eros e Civilizacclo by Herbert Marcuse (1968) Revoluccio na Comunicacao by Marshall McLuhan (1968) Arte e Alienaccio by Herbert Head (1968)

BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

Literatura e Revolucao by Leon 0 Riso by Henri liergson (1980) 0 Suicidio by Emile Durkheim Trotsky (1969) Rejlexiks de um Cineasta by (1983) Dicioncirio de Mzisica Zahar Sergei Eisenstein (1969) 0 Teatro Engaj ado by Eric (1984) Os Anos de Autoritarismo with Bentley (1969) Vida e Obra de Sigmund Freud text by Paulo Francis, Paul Singer, Yan Michalski and othby Ernest Jones (1970) Dependencia e Desenvolvi- ers (1985) mento na America Latina by Dicioncirio do Pensamento Fernando Henrique Cardoso Marxista by Turn Bottomore (1988) (1970) Rebeldes Primitivos by Eric Dicioncirio do BUM e Danca by A. J. Faro and Luiz Paulo Hobsbawn (1970) Capitalismo Dependente e Sampaio (1989) Classes Sociais na America 0 Processo Civilizador (9 volLatina by Florestan Fernandes umes) by Norbert Elias (during the '90s) ' (1973) OSemincirio, Livro I by Jacques Sobre a Televistio by Pierre Bourdieu (1997) Lacan (1979) Carnavais, Malandros e Herois Escritos by Jacques Lacan (1998)

by Roberto Damatta (1979)

give him less than 5% of the votes—but he is certainly rich in promises. Among them he is vowing to end the problem of the Brazilian street kids taking them all from the streets. As a guarantee that he will stick to his promise he vows to renounce if the problem is not solved in six months. In another front, the candidate and medical doctor, who is running for the second time in a row, guarantees that he will build Brazil's A-bomb "so the world will know we arc no illiterate Indians." gaZ

Setting the Table First Cancun and than the US. If everything works out as planned—and if globalization is really a twoway street—Americans soon will be eating less hamburgers and more quibes (a meat croquette), esfihas (meat-and-veggies-filled turnover) and other MiddleEast-with-a-Brazilian-touch delicacies from El Habib, a ten-year old Brazilian food franchise. After conquering Brazil—El Habib has opened 105 restaurants across the country—the fastfood chain plans to go worldwide starting next year. The beach resort of Cancun was chosen as the first stop in the expansion program due to its international tourist population. But Cancun should be just the entrance door to the US and the rest of the world.

e Blinked First Brazilian consular officers in New York were ex-

Hard Goodbye The premature death of Leandro from the country-music duo Leonardo and Leandro immersed Brazil in deep sorrow during a time when the seleceio (the national soccer team) was cause for some apprehension, but mainly for celebration to the whole country. The intensity of the collective outpouring of grief was a surprise to Brazilians themselves since the singer wasn't a star and his music genre is snubbed by most of the nation's intelligentsia.

Leandro, whose real name was Luiz Jose Costa, was 36. He died June 23 of multiple-organ failure caused by a giant and rare Askin tumor in his thorax. Chemotherapy, two surgeries, nothing was able to deter the cancer, which took over practically the whole right side of Leandro' s chest. It was April 20 and Leandro was fishing in a farm in the state of Tocantins when he felt the pain that took him to the hospital and the discovery of his cancer.

It was too late though and the tumor was already as big as an orange. Crowds had gathered outside the Hospital Sao Luiz in Sao Paulo's south zone, since he had returned to the hospital after a cardiac arrest at home.

On April 28, Leandro came to the U.S. At Baltimore's Johns Hopkins hospital he underwent a biopsy that confirmed his Brazilian doctors cancer diagnostic. During his brief stay in the hospital Leandro used to sing the title song of his just-released posthumous album. It was the favorite tune of his career he said.

Naively plain as all their songs, "Um Sonhador" (A Dreamer) brings now a harrowing feeling of premonition: Eu nclo sei para onde eu you pode ate tido dar am nada minha vida segue o sol no horizonte desta estrada.

I don't know where I'm going It might well amount to nothing My life follows the sun On this road's horizon The singer, who loved to dress well and to smile, appeared bald— due to the chemotherapy—rolled into a Brazilian flag at his Sao Paulo apartment balcony celebrating Brazil' soccer victory over Scotland. The dramatic image moved the country and even led President Cardoso to call the singer's family to wish them the best.

Leandro left three children: Tiago, 13; Lyandra, 3; and Leandro, five months. He had been married and divorced twice.

The mother of the two smaller children is former model Andrea Motta from whom he had separated a short time before knowing about his cancer.

During the 10-hour-long wake in Sao Paulo in the Palacio 9 de Julho, the state assembly building, Leandro's body was seen by a crowd of at least 20,000 people. Among the anonymous mob, who cried, prayed and sang some of the duo's hits, there were several celebrities and politicians. Sao Paulo state governor Mario Covas was there and so was senator Eduardo Suplicy, Sao Paulo mayor Celso Pitta, and former Justice Minister iris Rezende.

Luciano, from another famed sertanejo duo, Zeze Di Camargo e Luciano, fainted. Chitaozinho and Xorora—stillanother duo— and Roberta Miranda also came for the farewell. The Fire Department truck transported the Brazilian-flag bedecked casket when it was time to take it to the Congonhas airport on its way to Goiania.

8

Close to 100,000 people, including Vice-President Marco Maciel representing President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, followed the singer's body to the Jardim das Palmeiras cemetery for the burial on June 24. Said Maciel: "Leandro left a void and examples of love to the people and the music."

In Campos, state of Rio, 17-year-old Lidia da Silva Lima, soon after listening to the news of her idol's death, placed the duo's record with the cut "Pense em Mim" (Think of Me) and drank rat poison. She died 15 minutes after arriving at the hospital to where she was rushed.

Record TV network was rewarded for dropping its programmed world cup games in favor of the singer's death wallto-wall live coverage. Record, which was getting a ridiculous 1% rating in the games jumped to a up to 24% rating, what placed it in first place among all TV channels. That's what happened for example during the broadcasting of Austria vs. Italy. So enthusiastic was Record with the instant feedback given by lbope, the Brazilian Nielsen, that it almost skipped the game of Brazil against Norway.

Reporters Silvana Silva and Celia Serafim ended up crying on the air while showing the crowd emotions and Disk Record host Gilberto Barros seemed at times more like a fire-andbrimstone preacher, screaming among other things: "Leandro did not win the battle against death, but for us he became a national hero."

When the day games ended, the other networks—Globo, Manchete, and SBT—joined in the mourning with news and specials about Leandro. The next morning all of them covered live the funeral in Goiania preempting the France vs. Denmark world cup game.

The shock over Leandro's death and the feeling of personal loss seem to stem from the fulminating power ofthe crooner's cancer. It took only two months from the day he felt strong back pains to the day he died. Some analysts also pointed out the agrarian origin of most of the population and a worldwide trend to value the simple and the country style represented by the sertaneja music.

Humble Origins Leandro was born August 15, 1961, the third of eight children. Their father, Avelino Virgulino, played viola (five-to-fourteen-string guitar) and Leandro started to play the guitar as a child. He and his seven siblings didn't have time to school though. Very early in life they started to pick up tomatoes with their parents who worked for a farmer in Goianapolis. To do their job the family had to wake up at 4 in the morning and walk six miles to be at work at 6.

In 1980, Leandro started to sing by himself in Goianapolis bars, after a day of work in the fields. It was 1983 when they decided to leave for Goiania to try the show business. "Don't worry," said Carmen Divina, the mother. "If it doesn't work you'll always have a home to come back to." They never had to.

Their first gig was at the Canta Viola (Sing, Viola) nightclub.

They would soon adopt the new moniker. Luis Jose and Emival Eterno became Leandro and Leonardo. At the time, Leandro was making a living as a salesman in a clothes shop while Leonardo worked in a pharmacy. They got the inspiration for their name from the twins fathered by the pharmacist.

Their first record in 1983—an independent production— was ignored. It was producer Moacir Machado, who that same year invited them to record for the 3M label after listening to them on a tape. "Solidao" (Loneliness) was their first regional hit, a song by Zeze Di Camargo, an unknown at the time, who would also become a country music sensation. Braziliansertaneja BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

music makes extensive use of duos. Leandro used to sing harmonies while his brother sang lead.

OU&NDO 0 CNSUINHDOR DE E SUSTAR 0 CHEQUE • HAMA 27 In 1985, their first CD, Leandro & Leonardo - Volume 1, with "Contradicoes" (Contradictions), sold 150,000 copies. The second, in 1987, containing "SolidAo" (Loneliness) was a bigger •agml. Iron4 success, selling 250,000 discs. In 1989, with their third album and the hit song "Entre Tapas e Beijos," (Amid Slaps and NE.SIA EDICAO, CAMINO ESPECIAL Kisses), they sold 1.3 million records. That was the CD that Pais chora per Leandro made them a national phenomenon. Except for the last album •• called Um Sonhador, all their CDs had the same name. There were 11 Leandro & Leonardo discs, distinguished from each other by a number.

They reached the top in 1990 with the release by the Continental label of their fourth CD with "Pense em Mim" (Think of Me), a catchy and saccharine tune about a man whose ladylove AMAKHA. POSTER DE LLIORLEIA PAM REVISTA interest has eyes for another man. The tune sold 2.9 million g.'y q.aregIFM'All copies and hit a chord with the middle and upper middle class in the South of the country. They were received by President Rracil irxra mai P Kinn IPCI2 vAnrpnittra VP7 Fernando Collor de Mello at Casa da Dinda, the presidential residence at the time.

If we fight by day This closeness to power brought also some heartache to the By night we make love singing brothers. They were involved in a suit against Goias Because our differences governor, Agenor Resende, who in 1994 was accused of misuse End in the bedroom of public funds. In exchange for 30 shows they had a runway and On the top of the bed a lake built in their farm in Jussara, state of Goias.

They had abandoned their cowboy outfits and adopted a Leandro and Leodignified suited look. "Our senardo have sold 20 milcret is to play music that people • lion discs, including the like to listen to and to not com- • Think of Me Pense em Mim 2.8 million for Pense em • plicate," Leandro told Brazil• Mim, a record in the ian Playboy. In 1991 they be- • Ribeiro, and

By Douglas Maio, Brazilian music induscame the first sertanejo artists • Mario Soares try only broken recently to perform at Rio's sophisti- • by the pagode group So cated pop music temple Cane- • Instead o thinking of him Invds de voce ficar pensando nele • Pra Contrariar. With the cao. It was their pinnacle.

Instead oF crying for him • Inves de voce viver chorando por de difference that the sertaA chorus of nouveaux • duo sold their nejo • riches, socialites and members Think of me Pensa em mim close-to-three-million Cry for d e ofthe thinking elite sang"Pense • Chore por mim when the record indusCall me p Liga pra mim em mim." By then, they were • try had only halfthe size No, don' call him No, no liga pra ele selling more records than kid • it has today.

Don't c for him Ndo chore por ele TV presenter Xuxa and roman- •• Passed their prime tic balladeer "King" Roberto • they were selling about r that Rememb Se lembre que eu Carlos, this one a best-seller • 500,000 of their latest g I For so!.

Ha muito tempo • for decades. Unheard for a Love yo , love you, love you CDs. In their wake, Te amo, te amo, te amo country group they got their •• I want t make you happy other duos like Zeze Di Quero fazer voce feliz own monthly program on • Camargo & Luciano and Globo network in 1992, the • Let's ta i the first plane Vamos pegar o primeiro avido • JoAo Paulo & Daniel • same year in which they also • Bound t happiness Corn destino a felicidade were able to be very suc• • became cartoon characters.

For me happiness is you A felicidade pra mim voce • cessful. When Leandro • • • fell sick, Leandro and A Legacy • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ••••••• • • • • • • • Leonardo were still very active and in demand doing two shows a Differently from their predecesweek, charging a minimum of $45,000 sor, the caipiras (hillbilly)— for presentation. And with two "best of' a caipira Leandro hated to be called CDs in Spanish they were poised to consinger—who sang about cattle and quer Latin America. farms, the sertanejo crooners talk They signed with BMG Ariola in about love, lust and sex in their lyrOctober 1997. Um Sonhador (A Dreamer) ics, as revealed in "Paz na Cama" was supposed to be the first of a series of (Peace in Bed): new albums. Even though their records Se de dia a gente briga didn't sell more than 1 million copies De noite a gente se ama since 1995, BMG on the strength of the que nossas diferencas tragedy has released their last effort with Acabam no quarto an initial 1.5 million copies.

• Em cima da cama.

0 GLOB()

MEM.. MEMO

a

BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

Of .0.11.7.

aza

Vatapa A Basquiat pecting to move into spacious new installations on Avenue of the America close to the district known as Little Brazil.

They became homeless instead and were forced by the US to take all of its belongings and personnel to a cramped office on Fifth Avenue already being used by the Brazilian government trade office.

After 50 years in the traditional Rockefeller Center, the Brazilian consulate needed to save some money and at the same time find larger quarters in which to house several offlees now spread all over town.

With a signed lease they communicated their new address to the US State Department sure that it would be a mere formality. Surprise. The answer was no. There would be no move before the Brazilian government agrees to heed an old Yankee revendication : exemption of the social security debt that the US has in Brazil. Without this the American government cannot sell the properties it bought in Rio when the city was still the capital of Brazil.

Washington argues that the Vienna Convention exempts diplomatic representation from tributes in the host countryBrasilia counter-argues that it cannot do anything for the US without changing the law. For the record, as of December 1997 only seven of 87 foreign diplomatic representations in Brazil were paying their social security dues.

With the US reprisal the discussion that had been ging its feet for more than or ear now is getting the f

One is a veteran from the state of Paraiba, the other a recent revelation from Maranhao. The first is Ze Ramalho, the second Zeca Baleiro, two musicians from two different generations representing the fertile northeastern poetry and music.

Together Ze and Zeca have recorded "Bienal" —the title refers to Sao Paulqiinternational and traditional art biennial— a satire poking fun at the contemporary art world. The tune was written by Baleiro and will be one of the cuts of the musicians eagerly waited second CD to be released in 1999.

Irreverent and cutting-edge, "Bienal" rhymes the Baiana (from Bahia) food vatapa with New York graffiti artist Basquiat.

"The tune might have as subtitle: The struggle of the dematerialized matter," joked Ze Ramalho.

Says Baleiro: "People have always compared Ze Ramalho and me. It happens that our source is the same: Bob Dylan and the repent istas (popular improviser singers from the Northeast) ." Four years ago Zeca had already written another song taunting modern art.

Bienal Biennial

By Zeca Baleiro Desmaterializando a obra de arte no fim do milenio Faco urn quadro corn moleculas de hidrogenio Fios de pentelho de urn velho armenio Cuspe de mosca, pao dormido, asa de barata torta Meu conceito parece a primeira vista Urn barrococo figurativo neoexpressionista Corn pitadas de art-nouveau pos-surrealista Calcado na revalorizacao da natureza morta Minha mae certa vez disse-me urn dia Vendo minha obra exposta na galeria Meu filho isso é mais estranho que o cu da gia E muito mais feio que urn hipopotamo insone Pra entender urn trabalho tao moderno E preciso ler o segundo caderno Calcular o produto bruto interno Multiplicar pela valor das contas de agua luz e telefone Rodopiando na furia do ciclone Reinvento o Ceu e o inferno.

Minha mae nao entendeu o subtexto Da arte materializada no presente contexto Reciclando o lixo lá do cesto Chego a urn resultado estetico bacana Corn a graca de Deus e Basquiat Nova Iorque me espere que eu you ja Picharei corn dende de vatapa Uma psicodelica baiana Misturarei anaguas de vinva Corn tampinhas de Pepsi e Fanta uva Urn penico corn agua da ültima chuva Ampolas de injecao de penicilina Desmaterializando a materia Corn a arte pulsando na arteria Boto fogo no gelo da Siberia Faco ate cair neve em Teresina Corn o clarao do raio da silibrina Desintegro o poder da bacteria

Dematerializing the work of art of the end of the millenium I make a painting with molecules of hydrogen Pubic hair from an old Armenian Spit of fly, stale bread, wing of a crooked cockroach My concept seems at first blush A figurative neoexpressionist barrococo With a relish of post-surrealist art-nouveau Modeled in the reevaluation of still painting My mom once told me one day Seeing my work in the gallery exposed My son this is weirder than a frog's ass And much uglierthan an insomniac hippopotamus To understand such a modern work You need to read the culture section To calculate the gross national product To multiply by the value of the water, light, and phone bills Twirling in the fury of the cyclone I reinvent Heaven and Hell.

My mother didn't understand the subtext Of the art materialized in the current context Recycling the trash of the basket I arrive at a cool aesthetic result With God and Basquiat grace New York, wait for me, I'm coming I will scratch with vatapd dende oil A psychedelic Baiana (woman from Bahia) I will mix petticoats of a widow To Pepsi and grape Fanta caps A bedpan with water from the last rain Ampoules of penicillin injection Dematerializing matter With art pulsating in the artery:I set fire to the ice of Siberia I even make snow in Teresina With the light of the silibrina' s flash I disintegrate the power of bacteria

10 BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

Brasilia for the funeral. Buarque has presented legislator two proposals: to give the name LĂźcio Costa to the so-called eixo monumental ( onu"All I want is to rest a little, my mental axis) in the center of Brasilia and to erect daughter," said Luck) Costa, 96, in his a monument to the city's creator. husky, almost-inaudible voice, after The architect's father was Joaquim Ribeiro drinking in bed from the coffee and da Costa, a naval engineer from Bahia, and his milk cup offered by his daughter Maria mother, Alina Ferreira from the st te of Elisa who was sitting by his side, at his Amazonas. The architect was born in T ulon, modest Rio apartment. Then he cov- France, on February 27, 1902, and lived n Enered his face with his hands and let his gland and Switzerland. He was already 16 when head fall to the side. No pain, no pro- he moved to Brazil in 1918. It was his father longed disease. The man who created without consulting him w o enBrasilia closed his eyes and rolled the son at EscolaNa ional peacefully went away. It de Belas-Artes (National chool was about 9 AM, June 13. of Fine Arts) setting th path As a friend observed: "He that would make him f mous died like a little bird." worldwide. He graduate in arBritish urbanist Willchitecture. iam Holford, president of Costa had a collect on of the jury that in 1957 chose prestigious internationa titles Costa's project as the winand memberships. He was Docning entry in the competitor Honoris Causa by rvard tion for building Brasilia, University since 1960, an memcommented: "His project ber of the American Institute of is a work of genius and one Architects, the Royal I stitute of the greatest contribuof British Architect , and tions to contemporary urFrance's Academie d' rchibanism." tecture. French Presiden GeorWhat are your plans for ges Pompidou awarded im in the future, asked Ronaldo 1970 the country's most prestiBrasiliense, the reporter for egion gious medal, the Correio Braziliense, Brasilia's most d'Honneur. Despite all the internationa titles, respected daily. "Simply to die," an- however, he was never made a honorary itizen swered Luck) Costa. "I dream with a by Brasilia, the city that he created. "Th s does tomb at the Sao Joao Batista cemetery, not bother me," he stated in his last inte iew. which I've already bought." It was October 6, 1997, and according to Famous and Poor Correio, this was the last interview from the architect and urbanist who "I am neither a capitalist nor a sociali t, l am created Brasilia, Brazil's modern capi- not a religious or an atheist," he used t say to tal. Costa was 95 then and received the those willing to pin him down. He never became journalist in his apartment in Leblon, wealthy and in the last years of his life e surin the south zone of Rio. Lucid till the vived thanks to the $1.200 monthly pen ion he end, he revealed that he would have received for his lifetime work done all exactly the same if he were as a public servant. In his offered another chance to redo his rundown apartment the blindplans for the creation of the Brazilian ers were rusting, the carpet capital. worn down, and the sofa torn Costa got his wish to be buried at apart. the SAo Joao Batista, in the Botafogo Costa always reminded neighborhood. Friends and relatives, people that he got the Brasilia though, complained about the little assignment in 1957 in a pubconcern Rio's authorities showed for lic competition not as favor. s his death. State governor Marcello The work was concluded in Alencar and Rio's mayor Luiz Paulo record time and Brasilia beConde didn't show up at the burial. came Brazil's new capital on Long-time friend filmmaker Luiz April 21, 1960. He recalled Carlos Barreto interpreted the feel- in an interview that he was on ings of many others when he. said: a ship going back to Brazil "This is a vexing and scandalous situ- from the United States when ation that a man of such importance is he decided to apply for a not paid homage neither by City Hall chance to build a new city. nor by the state government." Barreto "All in Brasilia was creation, thought that the authorities should have it came from my head. It organized a public wake at the Culture wasn't based in anything but Ministry building, one of the archi- my background as architect tect's many projects for the city. and urbanist," he said Cristovam Buarque, the District proudly.

Federal governor, however, came from The idea was to move Brazil's capital from

CU= Brasilia Is Orphan

BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

an overcrowded Rio to a barren plateau in the geographic center of the country. It was President Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira (1956-1960) wish that the creation of the new capital would spur the development of Brazil's hinterland. A monument to modern architecture, Brasilia has joined Venice and China's Great Wall in the UNESCO's World Heritage List.

The city was conceived as a celebration and a reminder of the balance of the three powers. The Supreme Court, Congress and the Presidential Palace are side by side at the end of the east-west main axis while the ministerial and other government buildings sit on both sides of the ample avenue.

A second axis laid in a north-south direction houses residential districts.

Superquadras (superblocks) for specific commerce and businesses were also created. Streets have no names, only number and letters. The city has been called hostile to pedestrians by Brasilienses (Brasilia residents) themselves.

The explosive growth of Brasilia always worried the Liicio Costa. In his plan the city would have 500,000 residents by the year 2,000. Brazil's capital, however, is close to reach 2 million people. Even though he had asked that the city controlled its growth, Costa was proud of his creation. After one of his last visits to the city he commented: "The truth is the dream was smaller than reality. And the reality was bigger and more beautiful than the dream."

The urbanist's work was always overshadowed by that of Oscar Niemeyer who was responsible for designing most ofthe important buildings in the new capital. "I created Brasilia, the project is mine," says Luck, Costa when asked ifthe paternity of the city should be shared with architect Oscar Niemeyer. He recognizes, however, that many buildings, like the Alvorada Palace and the Cathedral, created by Niemeyer became the striking post cards of the new capital.

It's been constantly repeated that the so-called Plano Piloto (Pilot Plan) for Brasilia was inspired by the shape ofa plane. "Nonsense," said Costa. "That is ridiculous. That's an acceptable analogy, but it would be total imbecility to make a city in the shape of an airplane. So it looks like a cross for those who like a cross, dragonfly, spaceship or bow and arrow. Each one sees whatever he wishes to see." • 11

pace

The Rightest Stuff

ian IR recently tributors er00,000 people who are than 100. It also found Ot that more than 2.500 haven'syet celebrated their flrstbirthday. In brief, from e 104 million nams on s list, the federal revenue' ervice (Receita Federal) lieves that 64 million fothein ar there. Many uldn'tbe e dead, others ve been registered more an once, don't exist or e too young.

To clean its database, e Receita is starting from cratch and asking every single contributor to reapply for a new number.

People will have a second chance next year. Then, by 2000 who hasn't re-applied will have its CPF (Cadastro de Pessoa Fisica—Natural Person Register) canceled, and become unable to do things like getting a job, opening a bank account or buying a car. Brazilians living overseas who want to keep their old CPF may use the Receita's address in the Internet: htty:// www.receitalazenda.gov.br For the renewal people are asked to give their CPF number, birth date, voting registration (titulo de eleitor) number and information on properties, cars, and bank accounts they might have.

t

Next time around a civilian and a woman may have a chance, but the first Brazilian astronaut will be a man, a pilot, and a military. Brazilian authorities excused themselves telling that they didn't have a say in the matter since NASA, the American Space agency, warned that they have no time to train a lay person. The man chosen to participate in the ambitious sixteen-country International Space Station (ISS) is FAB' s (Forca Aerea Brasileira—Brazilian Air Force) captain-aviator Marcos Cesar Pontes, 35, from Bauru, in the interior of Sao Paulo state.

Pontes must have the right stuff. He was picked among five finalists all of who were scientists or engineers, had impeccable health, extensive knowledge of English, at least 1,000 hours of flight as jet pilot, and had shown the ability to work under pressure and stressful situations.

This graduate from world-class ITA (Institut° Tecnologico da Aeronautica— Aeronautic Technological Institute) in Sao Jose dos Campos (Sao Paulo state) has already flown more than 1.700 hours in combat jets, including the Russian Mig 29 and the Yankee F-15, F-16, and F-18. In 1996 he concluded his postgraduate course in naval engineering at the Navy Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. His training at NASA starts in August even though he is not scheduled to go into space before 2003.

The Brazilian monetary contribution to the project is negligible: $120 million spread over three years. The $40 billion space-station program will cost $ 2,1 billion a year to the participating nations. Brazil will also be in charge of building a pressurized platform for the cargo bay. The device will serve for storing experiments.

Brazilians are already thinking about their second astronaut and for that post Thais Russomano, 34, who has a doctorate in aerospace medicine, seems like a natural candidate. She was the first South American to graduate from the NASA civilian astronaut course taught at Wright State University, in Dayton, Ohio. For Russomano, the news that AEB (Agencia Espacial Brasileira—Brazilian Space Agency) had limited its selection to military personnel was "a cold shower."

"I was very frustrated," she said, "because I had prepared all my life for that."

The doctor for five years had frequented NASA's installations in Houston and Cape Canaveral and endured and passed all the tests that war pilot Pontes is now going to face. As for the new astronaut, he says that he intends to prove that the dream is possible. He was only seven when in 1969 American Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon surface. "I couldn't believe it," he said recently. "I thought that it was all a TV trick." xp oitation

Sex, Lies and Videorape A videotape involving 25 girls between the ages of 14 and 18 engaged in hardcore sex became the box-office hit in recent weeks in Rio'sfavelas (shantytown).

The girls shown on the tape say they were promised money and jobs and in some cases were threatened with death to be part of the production. They were all from morro (hill) de Sao Carlos.

Bar owners were charging $2 a piece for patrons willing to see the homemade porno movie. The case became public only after a 15-year-old girl told her mother that she had been raped. She went to the "authorities" drug dealers, who are the ones who control manyfavelas—and they brought an end to the exhibitions. They were afraid real authorities would get involved drawing unnecessary attention to their trade.

Justice has finally taken action issuing an order for the arrest ofOtavio Ban-os Filho and Roberto Apolonio.

Both, who lived in the favela and were accused of rape by the girl, disappeared. Barros was the driver of a van who drove people downtown and Apolonio was the community leader.

12 BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

44'

DEBAT

or. up

After the Fall

Zikaff.

OCAMI111..Wavastmlooso

' tORRE10 — BRAZILIFIiISE

After having created the most inventive front page during the World Cup—the CBD (Confederacao Brasileira de Desportos— Brazilian Confederation of Sports) coat of arms with four and a half stars, the fifth one just half sewed, taking the entirety of the cover—to celebrate the victory against the Netherlands, Brasilia's daily Correia Brasiliense didn't scrap the page it had prepared to celebrate de final victory.

Brasil E Penta (Brazil Is Champion for the Fifth Time) it wrote beside a drawini of Ronaldinho holding the trophy. And in small letters came the explanation: "This fr nt page was aborted against the will of milli ns of Brazilians. It didn't arrive whole to your hands because it was barred by the most unhappy and simple question: the Brazilian Seleccio (national team) decided not to enter the field yesterday."

COMO A REDOCAO DO 1CMS PODE IVIUDAR VIDA DO BRASLEIRO

*4.441 datarde FIM DA OA zAGAto ,NALEE+K.).

Neer, F14

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KRA TEM TUX) 4 OW) 0 GLE Fca) NA NAP OM EOM

, FAL5WtCACOES CRESCE WOO ENTRE I RI, frolEtn0 OS OUE

Writing_for Rio's daily Jomal do Brasil, novelistRoberto Drummond was the writer who best captured the poetry of the World Cup. Here's a sample of his poems in prose: Cancao da esperanca brasileira

RRERA CC.)MEEOU 30 MtNUTOS ANTES: DOJOGO

POR QUE RONALDINHO NEM ANDOU EM CAIWO

*1;4 : tellehanialailtelaw i

BRAZZIL - JULY

141111011.1..11. 0.1a• NA woe owe.

Kato* Malimarikil DO IMMAtliati

Nao, tido vos trago lagrimas, nem funeral.

Trago, brasileiros, esperanca e vos convoco para a grande marcha da alegria, que nos levara ao penta no ano 2002.

Guardai vossas lagrimas, meus irmaos e minhas irmas: lembrai-vos de 1966, no rumo ao tri, tambem tropecamos.

Os sonhos sao como os rios: nao caminham em linha reta. (...) No, nao é hora de culpar ninguem.

Nao é hora de crucificar ninguem.

Houve erros?

Que eles nos sirvam de lick). (...) Nao, nao perdemos o penta estamos apenas tecendo o penta, pois no ano 2002 sai o Brasil - este nosso pals que hoje é urn n6 na garganta - podera se penta.

Song of the Brazilian hope No, I don't bring you tears or funeral.

I bring, Brazilians, hope and I convoke you for the big march of joy, that will take us to the penta (the fifth championship) in the year 2002.

Keep your tears, my brothers and my sisters: remember 1966, on our way to the tri, we also stumbled.

Dreams are like rivers: they don't walk straight. (...) No, this is no time to blame anyone.

This is no time to crucify anyone.

Were there mistakes?

May they serve us as a lesson. (...) No, we didn't lose the penta: we are simply sewing the penta, because in the year 2002 only Brazil—this land of ours that today is a lump in the throat—can be penta.

•

1998

13

BABBLE TOWER Thanks to a merciless bombardment of prime-time soap operas that for decades, day after day, including Saturdays, are fed to the Brazilian public, Globo network has established its monopoly over the airwaves and the way the nation perceives the world.

There have been some cracks lately on this hegemony, but it is still very common that at any given time 60% of all TV sets—at the end of A Proxima Vitima fThe Next Victim) they were 90%— in Brazil are tuned in on Globo, a network derisively called the Platinum Venus that everybody loves to hate.

ALESSANDRA DALEVI

mok, No sir

GAZETA

D RECTV 14 BRAZZIL -JULY 1998

very night, at 8:40 PM, almost half of Brazil stops everything they are doing—bring their plates if they are eating—and gather in front of the TV uned on Globo. It doesn't matter what they are going to be watching tonight. The so-called 8-PM novela (soap opera) for more than 20 years has been the top rated program for Globo network, a virtual monopoly on the Brazilian airwaves that only in recent years has suffered minor cracks.

These days the attraction is called Torre de Babel (Tower of Babel), a feuilleton filled with the common places of the genre: infidelities, Homeric retaliation, and impossible coincidences.

Torre de Babel is a synthesis of the strengths and the foibles of television in Brazil.

Torre de Babel has been presented as Brazilian TV's Titanic. Budgeted at $17 million, it is Brazil's most expensive novela to date, exceeding by at least $2 million other recent costly soaps. Each chapter costs $100,000, five times more than what the closest competition, SBT (Sistema Brasileira de Televisao—Brazilian System of Television), is spending on Fascinactio (Fascination), its own soap being shown at the same time slot.

The tower shopping mall alone, with 600 glass windows and the height of an eight-story building, cost $1.1 million and it was built to be exploded. The structure was erected in one month and a half by 200 workers. A junkyard and a slum were also built by order, adding $300,000 to the scenery bill. Another $230,000 were spent on imported material for special effects.

Globo has presented Torre as the novela with the largest number of top stars ever. Curiously, in 1990 when the TV network had its audience eroded by Manchete's soap Pantanal (Swamp), the leader gave its answer with another largestnumber-of-top-star-ever novela starring the same Gloria Menezes, Tony Ramos, and Claudia Raia who are present now and written by Silvio Abreu, the same author of Torre. Then the soap was called Rainha da Sucata (Junk Queen). Abreu says that he was inspired by the Unabomber (American terrorist Theodore Kaczynki) in composing the plot around the explosion in the tower that permeates the whole story of Torre.

There is a problem though in all these surpassing facts. The 42% ratings share enjoyed by Torre de Babel, which would be a dream number to any of the American networks, has brought author Silvio de Abreu and the whole Globo production team back to the drawing board. Focus groups are customarily used halfway through a show to gauge the success of a novela and they help decide what changes to make during the course of a soap. This time, the use of this resource was anticipated.

Globo's top bosses panicked when Torre de Babel's audience fell to 36% in its fourth day ofpresentation and to 35% one week later on chapter 10. Globo honchos seemed to be justified in their panic: Por Amor (For Love), the previous 8-PM novela, reached 52 points in its final episode.

Carlos Manga, the dramaturgy nucleus director, personally made changes even in already-shot chapters. Among the changes: Agenor became more simpatico abandoning the spitting habit and cuss words of the initial chapters; nasty former inmate Clementino gained a more docile image and lots of love scenes with Clara; and an oral sex scene between Sandra and Alexandre in the mall's bathroom was left in the cutting room. In an unheard of save-face strategy even in the show opening—in which the credits are presented—the dark sky gave place to a brighter late afternoon landscape.

Newsweekly Veja's TV critic Eugenio Bucci screamed: "Torre de Babel was doing well while the ratings were bad. (...)

In retreating as it retreated Globo committed a worse error: it gave up presenting the different and embraced the sameness.

Researches are useful for listening to and interpreting the TV viewer not for obeying him."

Behind Globo's rush to the rescue is the fear of losing top publicity money. While the price for a 30-second ad insertion during the prime-time novela is now $102,000, it will have to be lowered at the end of August when it is time to sign new publicity contracts if the ratings continue their downward march.

To deal with some ratings-busting characters, author Silvio Abreu has used the explosion at the Tropical Tower, which gives the name to the novela. With that he was able to eliminate the lesbian couple Leila (Silvia Pfeifer) and Rafaela (Christiane Torloni) who die in the expl6sion. Apparently there was strong reaction to them from the public not due to their relationship—

E

BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

other gay coupl s have been shown without any incident in the past—but beca se they are happy and adjusted together. One of the ideas was t kill one of the lovers and give the other a male sweetheart, bu the solution seemed far-fetched even for a made-by-polls oap.

Thanks tot e public reaction, Vilma (Isadora Ribeiro), who according to t initial synopsis should die in the explosion, was spared. Ca astrophes have been used frequently to change directions in n velas. Late Janete Clair, who wrote some of the most memorab e and campy soaps, once used an earthquake— an unknown o currence in Brazil—to completely change her story line. As r Torre de Babel the changes have worked so well that the s p has already reached peaks of 52 points after the alterations.

While Glo o shocked the masses, far-away second place, SBT Sistema rasileiro de Televisdo—Brazilian System of Television) la nched its own prime-time novela to compete against Torre. It is Fascinaclio (Fascination), a soap that is everything To e is not. While Globo uses its top stars, names guaranteed ,to draw public, like Tarcisio Meira and Gloria Menezes, Eds n Celulari and Claudia Raia, Tony Ramos, Adriana Egtev s and Isadora Ribeiro, Fascinaclio has a cast of mostly unknoWns. Contrasting with the violence, drug-infested, sexual deviant characters Of Globo's soap, author Walcyr Carrasco from SBT brings a Melodramatic love story set on the '30s with a love triangle involvIng one man and two girlfriends, one rich and the other poor.

Soap Land With 16 ndvelas being shown currently, Brazil only loses to the US (20) and Colombia (18) as the world's soap-opera queen.

On second thought, it should get the prize. While the Yankee novelas are spread through a much larger range of channels and are normally shown far from prime time, in Brazil every commercial channel carries novelas and the main ones are all shown on prime time.

For all its fame as a producer of high quality shows, Rede Globo wouldn't survive on the top without its soaps. Brazil's network has six novelas being presented daily. It by-far-leadingls, starts at 11:15 M with Caca Talentos (Talent Search). At 2:15 PM it is time f r 0 Salvador da Patna. (The Country's Savior).

Then it is novela after novela starting with Malhaccio (Pumping Iron) at 5:30 PM followed by Era uma Vez (Once Upon a Time) at 6, and Corpo Dourado (Golden Body) at 7. Just a little breather and it is time for Torre de Babel (Tower of Babel) at 8:40 PM. Second-place in the ratings, SBT has three novelas: Marimar at 11 am, Chiquititas (Little Girls) at 8 PM and Fascinacao (Fascination) at 8:50 PM. Record, Manchete, and Bandeirantes, all have a soap apiece. They are respectively Estrela de Fogo (Fire Star) at 8 PM, Mandacaru at 9:40 PM and Serras Azuis (Blue Hills) 84, 6:45 PM. Thanks to cable Brazilians can now also follow tile daily adventures of the grandmother of soaps, American General Hospital (8 AM) and Sunset Beach (9 AM) on TeleUno. At 10 AM Sony channel brings Days of Our Lives.

Pay channel 7i7 ends the daily novela offering with "Cebollitas" at 10 PM. That gives a total of more than 14 hours of soap every day.

TV d'Auteur In the Brazilian TV novela is an author's medium. Soap writers are in demand and some of they are as famous and powerful as the actors they help to project. Top writers not only have freedom to develop their months-long plot, but also have their saying n the choice of the cast and even the director of their novelas Says Silvio Abreu, the writer for Torre de Babel: "I am not a riter. I am a novelist. That's why I never create a character wit out linking it to the image of some actor. After all they are the o es who give life to my creations. I write the whole time thinkin in each of them."

And mor : "I will not shy away of talking about something only becaus the public rejects it. I simply write in the novelas what's bothe ing me. It is not my intention to defend such and such vision r such and such moral. I only want to expose what I consider harmful or positive." Abreu spoke all this on early May, before he first chapter of Torre de Babel was aired and the ratings juggernaut forced him into changes he had vowed not to make.

Differen ly from the U.S. where soaps are the result of more or less anonymous writers working as a team, Brazil's TV auteur often writes the whole novela all alone. Or at least that's 15

Half Centu in the Tube Brazilian TV will be celebrating its 50th birthday on September 18,2000. Despite of what many people think, TV in Brazil started in Sdo Paulo and not in Rio. "The Globo network came later," says Yara Lins, 68, the first face to air on Brazilian TV saying Tupi's call letters.

The first station was PRF3-TV Tupi, channel 3, belonging to the Diarios and Emissoras Associados (Associated Dailies and Broadcasters), then a powerful media conglomerate owned by legendary and folkloric Assis Chateaubriand (1892-1968), Brazil's own citizen Kane. Rio's branch of Tupi was born four months later in 1951. Only in 1953 would appear the first competition to Tupi. TV Record, also in sao Paulo.

Imagens do Dia (Images of the Day), the first news show on Brazilian TV, premiered the day after Tupi broadcast its first images. By 1 953, Reporter Esso started a brilliant career as the main news program in Brazil, a position it would keep until the end of the '60s, when under pressure from the military dictatorship the program lost its independent voice and gave place to news shows more to the taste of the generals who governed the country. Globo's slick and offend-no-one-in-power approach would thrive and reign supreme during the next three decades.

The powerful network has been criticized for being a mouthpiece for the military during the most repressive times of the generals' stay in power. The Jornal Nacional, Globo's prime-time news show, created in 1969, is the station's most enduring first-place winner on its time slot.

Chateaubriand brought the RCA 1'V equipment from the US that started television in Brazil more as a curiosity. It is believed that only five people had a TV by then and every4 thing was improvised at the beginning. As in the U.S., television in Brazil started by imitating radio. There was no videotape, and programs as well as ads were shown live.

Initially some of the successful live programs wert. famous plays and educational and kids shows. The video. tape would be introduced only in 1962 in Brazil. It took a little more than one year after the 1950 start for a kiss to be shown on the little screen. It was an exchange between Vida Alves and Valter Foster on the teledrama Sua Vida Me Pertence (Your Life Belongs to Me It was a scandal.

By 1961 Tupi was producing a series called Vigilante Rodoviario (Highway Patrolman), which obtained better ratings than Yankee enlatado (canned stuff) like Rin-tin-tin and/ Love Lucy. It was also Tupi, which revolutionized at the end of 1968—the novel(' premiered on November 4—the language of the soap-opera with Beto Rockefeller in which Beto, the main character, was a contemporary scoundrel who drew more laughs than sighs from an audience that knew only syrupy, melodramatic soaps up to then.

Curiously some of the people who were part of the first TV images aired in the country are still on the top. Hebe Camargo, then a popular radio singer, was turned into a TV hostess. She has become and still is up to this date the queen of live TV interview shows. After being featured on different TV networks through the years she is now a fixture and one of the leaders of audience at SBT. Lolita Rodrigues, a ballerina and soap-opera heroine in the pioneer days, and a colleague of Hebe, still works in novelas although in smaller parts. As for former radio presenter Lima Duarte he is still today the star of the Globo nave /as he works in.

For all its power. Rede Globo only joined the competition late on the game. The network started small in Rio in 1965. In the '60s it was TV Record that became the catalyst for a revolution in the MPB (Mnsica Popular Brasileira-Brazilian Popular Music) promoting extremely popular song festivals that launched singer-composers like Caetano Veloso, Gerald() Vandre, and Gilberto Gil. It was in 1973 that playwright Dias Gomes authored for

Babel Synopsis Set in Sao Paulo, the story of Torre de Babel revolves around a tower and a former inmate who plots to explode it. The ex-jailbird is Jose Clementino da Silva (Tony Ramos), a fireworks expert who goes to work as a bricklayer at Torre de Babel when his business goes belly-up. A good man until then, da Silva becomes a murderer when he finds his wife in bed with two men. He kills the three of them with an ax. The killing occurs in 1978.

The real action starts 20 years later, after the murderer has ended his prison term and gets out of jail with all sorts of revenge plans against those who testified against him during the trial, in special Cesar Toledo (Tarcisio Meira), the owner of the Tropical Towers shopping mall. All of this happens in the first chapter.

The murderer gets a job as a watchman at the tower and plans to explode it during the night when nobody is there. The plans go awry, however, and the explosion ends up killing many people.

The Names Cesar Toledo (Tarcisio Meira), the owner of Tropical Towers, has three grown children. He is a pretty decent guy, but he is accused of negligence when his mall explodes.

Marta Toledo (Gloria Menezes), Cesar wife, after separating from him gets romantically involved with another woman.

Henrique Toledo (Edson Celulari), a womanizer, he manages the Towers for the father. Widowed he is desired at a distance by Angela Vidal (Claudia Raia), a top executive at the Towers.

Alexandre Toledo (Marcos Palmeira), a young attorney who falls in love with Sandra (Adriana Esteves), his father's fiercest enemy. Conveniently, Sandra is the daughter of Clementino, the man who wants to explode the Tropical Towers. She is only interested in Alexandre's money.

Guilherme Toledo (Marcello Antony) is the Toledo's clan black sheep. He is a drug trafficker.

Jose Clementino da Silva (Tony Ramos);a former inmate intent on getting even with Cesar Toledo whose testimony was fundamental to put him behind bars.

Agenor da Silva (Juca de Oliveira), father ofJose Clementino who owns a junkyard. Another son, Gustinho (Oscar Magrini) makes a living singing. Agenor and brother Boneca (Ernani Moraes) dispute the same woman: Bina (Claudia Jimenez). She is a poor waitress who gets suddenly wealthy due to an inheritance.

Rafaela Katz (Christiane Torloni) and Leila Sampaio (Silvia Pfeifer) live together in a happy homosexual relationship.

Rafaela own a shop at Torre de Babel. Leila, who left an abusive husband, is Rafaela's business partner.

Lucia Prado (Natalia do Vale), an attorney and an old flame of Cesar Toledo, she falls in love again with him. They end up becoming business rivals. Lncia is loved by Edmundo Falcao (Victor Fasano), the owner of a restaurant chain.

Clara Soares (Maite Proenca), Marta Toledo's adopted sister, is governess at the Toledos' house and falls in love with Clementino, her boss and brother in law's worst enemy.

Jamanta (Caca Carvalho), a mentally retarded man. Nobody pays attention to him even though he has witnessed some key occurrences in the plot.

Celeste (Leticia Sabatella), a prostitute, has a child with Guilherme Toledo, but older brother Henrique is also drawn to her.

16

I. BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

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-Fivivdri_wrtt Globo 0 Bern Amado (The Well-Beloved One), a classic ofso,ap that introduced memorable characters with a distinctive language and touches of fantastic realism. The revolutionary novela also became a microcosm and sounding board of the world. Soon after the Watergate scandal broke in the news, the mayor in the novela wired the local church confessional for sound.

Dias Gomes' Roque Santeiro (Roque the Saint Maker) was vetoed by the military in 1975 and only had a chance to be aired in 1985 with the end of the dictatorship. In 1976, prolific Gomes, who more than anyone used the concept of novela as an open work to introduce characters, situations and dialogues reflecting the news or the public's reaction, went even further with Saraniandaia. He incorporated here a series of elements from the Latin-American magic realism including a man who sneezed ants, a fat lady who exploded, and a werewolf.

In 1992, author Gilberto Braga in recreating the past in the miniseries Anos Rebeldes (Rebel Years) inspired a new generation of students to go to the streets and demand the resignation of' then President Fernando Collor de Mello, who had won the election thanks to the personal commitment of Roberto Marinho to this candidacy.

During these five decades, among the most celebrated nave/as there were 0 Dire Ito de Nascer (The Right to Be Born), Tupi, 1964-1965; Redencdo (Redemption), Excelsior, 1966-1968; Beta Rockefeller, Tupi, 1968-1969; Jim dos Coragem (Brothers Courage), Globo, 1970-1971; Selva de Pedro (Stone Jungle), Globo, 1972-1973; 0 Bem-Amado (The Well Beloved One), Globe, 1973, the first novela in color; Mulheres de Areia (Sand Women), Tupi, 19731974; Gabriela, Globo, 1975; Escalada (Escalating), Globo, 1975; Saramandaia, Globe, 1976; Escrava Isaura (Slave Isaura), Globo, 1976-1977; Danein' Days (original title in English), Globo, 19781979; Roque Santeiro (Roque, the Saint Maker), Globo, 1985-1986, and P antanal (Swamp), Manchete, 1990.

According to the 1996 yearly book Grupo de Melia, Brazil has 257 TV stations that broadcast their own signal and 7,497 that only rebroadcast other stations' material. Rede Globo has the most extensive number of repeating stations, placing the TV network in 99.84% of the county's Soap writer Dias Gomes municipalities. Then comes SBT covering 81.74% of the territory, Bandeirantes (62.99%), Manchete (45.80%), Record (22.42%) and CNT (Central Nacional de Televisao--TelevisionNational Hub) (6.61%).

The total hegemony of Globe TV during the '70s had a few cracks—nothing too serious—during the 80s and 90s, challenged—not to seriously—by Bandeirantes network (created in 1969), SBT (1981), Manchete (1983), and CNT (1993). Pay TV started in 1990, but instead of making room for more participants at the media's table it has simply distributed the new reaches to the already powerful players. Globo became a major stockholder on Net Multicanal, and publishing giant April has joined American ABC and Hearst media conglomerates to launch TVA. BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

what happened until 1980, when Gilberto Braga, after writing all by himself the anftiological Dancin' Days (in English in the original), asked for help when Agua Viva (Live Water) got to chapter 30. Star soap authors Walcyr Carrasco, Benedito Ruy Barbosa and Gloria Perez still do all the work by themselves, however, putting as many as 16 to 18 hours of work a day to produce a close-to-an-hour show.

Writing nave/as is hard work and only the fittest survive. One of the finest soap script writers, Dias Gomes—he is also a renowned playwright—, who wrote the Roque Santeiro (Roque, the Saint Maker) novela and the miniseries Dona Flare Seus Dais Maridos (Miss Flor and Her Two Husbands) said recently: "Writing a novela is very tiring. I hope I will never have to write them again."

It's doubtful that his wishes will be heard. There is a pressing need for good novela writers and few of them available. Some of the talent that might be drawn to the well rewarded task give up when they become aware they will have to forgo a whole year of their lives and dedicate 15 or more hours every day to devise plots and dialogues that will survive the daily massacre of the ratings.

Torre de Babel, the current 8:00-PM story, was written by Silvio de Abreu, but only because the author that should fill up that prime-time spot, Gilberto Braga, was tied up writing Labirinto (Labyrinth), a mini-series to be aired in November.

By early July, Globo still didn't know who was going to write its next 8:00-PM novela, the noble t of all the time slots for soaps. Benedito Ruy Barbosa and Aguinaldo ilva were asked to present synopses of new stories as soon as possibl . Barbosa who wrote the recent hit 0 Rei do Gado (The Cattle King), h d been promised some rest until 99, but these plans had to be scrapped. S'Iva wrote A Indomada (The Untamed Woman), which aired in 1997 up to N vember. To sweeten the deal, Globo promised Silva that his work would b directed by his favorite director: Daniel Filho.

Globo's authors pool still includes Gloria Perez, who will write the next 6:00-PM novela; Manoel Carlos who has just finished writing Por Amor (For Love) and Lauto Cesar Muniz, who says he feels exhausted after writing non-stop two nave/as: Quem é Voce? (Who Are You?) (1996) and Zaza (1997). They are all experienced veterans, in some cases with decades of practice.

Getting new novela writers is complicated. In an interview with daily Folha de Sdo Paulo, Aguinaldo Silva, who wrote classic soap Pedra Sabre Pedro (Stone Over Stone) and the recent miniseries Tieta based on Jorge Amado's book Tieta do Agreste, said: "A novela writer needs to have a spirit of self-abnegation. Writing nave/as is a work that requires 10% of talent and 90% of obsession."

Ricardo Linhares and Alcides Nogueira are two of the few emerging names in the soap-writing metier. Linhares, who is writing the next 7:00PM novela under the "Tetra do Sol" (Sun Land) working name, is seen with enthusiasm by his veteran colleagues. Humble, however, he tells that he doesn't feel ready to join the 8:00-PM big leaguers: "I will still need to eat a lot of rice and beans;" he said recently.

To get fresh blood, in 1984 Globo created a school for authors in Sao Paulo, even though its headquarters are in Rio. People from all ages and backgrounds, but mainly students and youngsters, have been drawn to the program. The monetary rward is enticing. A novela writer from the first team can make as much ai $100,000 a month when you add to his salary the merchandising he intr duces in the novela (for example: a character uses an Apple computer t write a letter).

The number of people interested in the course has jumped from 350 to more than 700 in recent y ars. From those who apply, only 14 are chosen to participate in the three-month course and no more than three end up getting a contract with Globo. Sometimes they spend months doing nothing while drawing a sitlary and waiting for their chance to break in the business.

Glory and Decline If Globo is the dominant force on Brazilian TV today, its grip on the audience was still much stronger in the '70s and '80s. By 1989, Jornal Nacional, Globo's prime-time news show was getting ratings of 60 points in its most important market, the greater Sao Paulo. In 1994 this number had fallen to 45, a 25% decline. During the same period, the 8-PM novela fell 20.6% from 63 to 50 points and the 7-PM novela declined 18.3% from 60 points to 40. The loss of audience started in 1991.

These three programs constitute the backbone of Globo's programming schedule and were of major importance to consolidate the network as the hegemonic force that it has become. It was the late Walter Clark who in 1968 had the idea to present a news show in between two soap operas.

The new news program presented by Hilton Gomes at 7:30 PM only got the name of fornal Naciortal in 1969 though. Sandwiching news between soaps was a strategy to get an audience for a journalistic program during a time in which Tupi, Excelsior, and Record still represented a serious competition at least in th state of Sdo Paulo, the most populated one. Up to this date the period is t e most coveted by advertisers who pay premium 17

price for a spot during the Jornal or the 8-PM novela.

In its July 6 issue, Forbes lists him as "one the world's 200 Projections see a continuous eroding in audience, which working rich", having a net worth of $6.3 billion. Says Forbes: will mean ratings of less than 30 points for the 7-PM novela in "At 93, the media baron still carries political clout. His Globo the year 2000. While the Jornal Nacional has been losing an group dominates Brazilian TV and is challenging publishing average of 2.6 points tycoon Roberto Cia year, the 8-PM vita (owner of Edinovela loses 1.5 tora Abril) with a points yearly. At this new weekly ,newspace, the Jornal Namagazine, Epoca, cional will also be launched in May. getting less than 30 With his three sons, points instead of the he owns nearly all 37 that it enjoys now. $4.8 billion (net And the 8-PM novela revenues) of the will be only slightly Globo organizaover 40 points. tion."

Globo has been The Globo TV losing its public to chain is just part of several networks and an ever-growing a growing pay TV conglomerate service. According to started in 1925 with Ibope, in 1989 SBT the creation in Rio had eight points durof 0 Globo daily ing the 8-to-8:30-PM newspaper. Today slot. More recently the Marinho group the SBT ratings controls and holds jumped to 15 points shares in about 100 during that period, companies that emwhile all the other ploy more than networks put toSweet Whores 12,000 people. The gether had an inGlobo conglomercrease from five to ate earned $2.4 bilDespite the moralistic streak at Globo, the network is not abandoning its lewd nine points. In an inlion in 1995 makcharacters. Already on the air or waiting in the wings there are four roles for terview with Folha ing it the 18th largprostitutes, for example. It is a hooker the woman who lends its name to Hilda de Selo Paulo, Lauest private comFuractio (Hurricane Hilda), a very successful miniseries that has just had its run. For rindo Leal Filho, a pany in Brazil. novice actress Ana Paula Arosio it was a chance ofa lifetime to play Hilda, a married telejournalism proTV Globo's socialite from Minas Gerais, who makes some pocket money in a whorehouse. As fessor at USP (Uniranking as the a whore, gorgeous model Arosio has become the toast of the country and proved to versidade de S'ao world's fourth larghave the right interpreting stuff Paulo), explained est private network The next Globo miniseries, Labirinto (Labyrinth), to premiere on October 20, why Jornal Nacional does not translate will have three girls selling their bodies for a living. Once again, two beauties expect has been losing auinto equally topthe role to work wonders for their careers, even though they are already two dience: place earnings. A global—who work for Globo—high-magnitude stars. They are Malu Mader, who "It lost public belist ofthe most profwill play Paula, and Christine Fernandes, who will be Dora. Paula will be one of the cause it was not able itable TVs on the few to defend a businessman accused of a crime he did not commit.

A third lady of to create a credibility world published in the night will be interpreted by Brazilian sweetheart Claudia Abreu on a cameo aura since it was cre1995 by Television appearance. ated in 1969. If we Business InternaLabirinto is inspired by the Yankee TV series The Fugitive. In the Brazilian had real alternatives tional showed Rede version, Andre (Fabio Assuncao), a man unjustly accused of murdering a business, from the competition Globo in 32nd man during a New Year's Eve party decides to go on the run. He will be helped by the fall would have place, behind a prostitute (Paula) with whom he will fall in love. Hollywood is the clear been even bigger." smaller American inspiration for the series, which will have plenty of car chases and car crashes.

Despite the fall in conglomerates like Christine is not worried that she will be often seen in bras and panties or even audience, Globo conCox Entertainment less.

Curiously, however, she declined the title role on Brida, a novela premiering tinues to have record and Comcast.

August on Manchete network and that is based in the work of worldwide bestseller earnings in advertisWhile Time WarBrazilian author Paulo Coelho. She refused the role, the actress said, because she ing. While it made ner appeared on top did not want to appear naked. And she explains: "It doesn't make any sense to take $1.2 billion in 1996, ofthe list with earnmy clothes off in that plot. I have no problem with nudity, but it seemed gratuitous this amount increaings of $4.8 billion in the scenes I read. Yet as Dora, everything would fit." sed 20% to reach a year, Rede Globo Used to play fairy-like characters, Luana Piovani is all fired up since she was $1.5 billion in 1997. had $1 billion to given the opportunity to be Patricia in "A Professional" (The Professional), an Rede Globo is the show for. episode of the Mulher (Woman) series.

"This role was a gift," she said recently and world's fourth bigGlobo clings as explained where she was getting the inspiration to compose its character: "Every gest private network long as it can to its woman has a prostitute inside herself" behind only the three monopoly over the Patricia, a 22-year-old communications college student, sells her body to pay Yankee TV sisters airwaves. One of its the school. She has seven fixed johns. "It's as if she had seven sweethearts," said and its owner, Roberstratagems—a Piovani. to Marinho, is always costly one for that Why are prostitutes recurring characters in Brazilian TV shows? "The idea is to listed among the matter—is to mainshow the prejudice society holds against these girls," says author Sergio Marques, world's wealthiest tain a cast of 300 who is writing Labirinto together with Leonor Basseres and Gilberto Braga. In an men, according to under permanent interview with Rio's daily, 0 Globo, Marques declared: "We are not taking a deep Forbes magazine, contract even dive in social problems, but we want to show how people condemned by society the Bible of the secthough it cannot may have a stronger and more righteous character than others who are more tor. He is also known use more than 180 respected." as a kingmaker for actors at any given his personal involvetime. The surplus is ment in the election the Globo's way of of the last two Brazilian presidents: Fernando Collor de Mello preventing the competition from using these artists in their and Fernando Henrique Cardoso. productions. Aging leading man Tarcisio Meira, for example, gfirL 18 BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

makes 50 grand a month working or not. That translates into $14,000 per novela chapter in which he works. "It 's better to pay Tarcisio to do nothing than to have him working at another station," says an executive at the network. Since SBT started its own teledrama nucleus Globo has raised by 80% its budget for acting talent.

End of an Era On November 24, 1997, a brief and cold memorandum changed forever the way things are done at Globo. On that date, Roberto Irineu Marinho, the eldest son of patriarch Roberto Marinho, took control of Globo, by ending the executive attributions of Jose Bonifacio de Oliveira Sobrinho, 63, better known as Boni. Boni had the title of vice-president of Strategic Coordination, but he acted as if he were the network's owner.

The memo stripped him from that title giving him a new one: personal adviser for the younger Marinho. Seven months after the changes his new services hadn't been used yet and probably never will.

Roberto Irineu went by the title of vice-president executive, but it was Boni who had the last word and the owner's son had been uneasy about the situation for a long time. Boni had become a synonym for Rede Globo and is responsible for the socalled Globo standard ofqyality. He was brought to work for the company by Roberto Marinho on March 22, 1967, when Globo was giving its first steps. He was already an experienced executive, having worked at TV Rio and Excelsior.

It seems that Boni's fall started in 1995 after a series of conflicts between him and executive superintendent Marluce Dias da Silva, 48, brought to the network by Roberto Irineu four years earlier to trim expenses and make Globo a leaner enterprise. Legend has it that during a meeting in 1995, after a comment by Marluce, Boni said: "If I had more power I'd fire you."

In May 1997, Boni signed a four-year contract by which he gets a monthly salary of $500 thousand. There is a $30 million penalty for both sides in case the contract is not honored. The fallen all-powerful boss has indicated that he would forgo the penalty if Globo liberates him from the contract. But the network prefers having him doing nothing, but at their side.

In the just-published book Pilares Via Satelite—Da Radio Nacional a Rede Globo (Pillars Via Satellite--Nacional Radio to Globo Network), Paulo Cesar Ferreira, former partner of Roberto Marinho makes some juicy revelations. Ferreira worked for Globo for 21 years and he had a privileged inside spot from where to look.

Among the bombs: 1. Marinho had in 1969 the help of then Finance minister Delfim Netto to obtain a $3.85 million line of credit, the price for the buyout of American media group Time-Life. Marinho has always denied having received any money from the military government.

Rede Globo also never admitted having accepted TimeLife capital. Such investment would be irregular because the Brazilian legislation barred all foreign participation in the media.

2. The so-called Globo standard of quality was not a voluntary effort to improve quality, but an imposition by the military disgusted with the series of exploitation shows Globo aired at the start of the '70s.

3. Globo catered so much to the military that it maintained a military aide called Edgardo Manoel Erichsen. He was in charge of promoting such government-friendly programs like Amaral Neto, o Reporter, which showed the accomplishments of the dictatorship and Olimpiadas do Ezircito (Army's Olympic Games).

Ferreira also talks about total lack of infrastructure at Globo and tells anecdotes like the one with the company's number one star, Gloria Menezes, who was almost bitten by a snake when relieving herself in the bushes during the shooting of a novela.

And Now the Rest Runner-up SBT has adopted anew slogan recently: '16 years in second place so you can stay in first.' Apparently resigned to keep a distant second place to Globo 's unbeatable lead SBT (Sistema Brasileiro de TelevisAo—Brazilian System of Television) has been threatened to lose even this position by Record, an old decrepit network that has recouped some terrain since being bought by controversial Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (Universal Church of the Kingdom of God), which is pouring some good money on new 8RAZZIL - JULY 1998

equipment, re pected professionals and star hosts.

Among R cord's recent acquisitions there are those of highly-regard d news anchor B&B Casoy, who was lured from SBT and Carl's Massa, better known as Ratinho (Little Mouse).

Ratinho usual y carries a nightstick that he uses in his indignation rampages and fills up his daily programs with all kinds of psychological and physical crippling for attraction.

At SBT, t e boss, former street vendor Senor Abravanel, better known as Silvio Santos, is also the network's main attraction wit a day-long Sunday program that has lasted for 39 years. In May SBT's owner announced: "I want to be out of the limelight in e year and a half or two." The popular host, though, admit, that he might change his mind and stay put "if the repercussi sn of my departure and the vanity of my possible successors crate a problem."

Silvio S tos has prepared Gugu Liberato to succeed him, but it is no s cret that the chosen one has loftier plans, and dreams of on day having his own TV station. More recently, Santos has st ed training newcomer Celso Portiolli to take his place.

Differentl from Marinho and its Globo empire, Silvio Santos, 67, h s a hands-on approach. He not only is the main attraction of is network, he also controls every little aspect of its operation, is collaborators have their hands so tied that in a recent trip o the boss to Mexico, SBT stayed without a primetime news sh w, waiting for his return and his decision on what do about the hole news department. At the end the news sector was practical y zapped out with the firing of 75 professionals from So Pa lo, Rio and Brasilia.

Silvio S tos has also been actively engaged in finding a partner for hi network. Disney is one that has been approached.

SBT owner's trip to Mexico was for a week-long program of meetings w' Televisa's (Mexico's powerful TV network) executives f a possible alliance. SBT already has an agreement with A entina's Telefe from which he gets Chiquititas, a series with band of orphanage children, one of the network's hit shows. Tianks to CBS Telenoticias, Silvio Santos is also being able to guarantee some minutes of news in his schedule.

But he is en ng this partnership.

Silvio is nown for changing schedules at his whim. One extreme ex ple ofthis habit is Serginho Groisman's Programa Livre (Free P ogram), an interview show for youngsters, which in seven ye s had its day and time changed 36 times. The schedule is o absurd at SBT that Groisman's program for sometime had to conform to the exhibition of a novela at Globo, which also alters times and duration of shows according to the competition. More than once Programa Livre was taken off the air in the middle of an interview.

Impatient to see results and with an eye at the bottom line, SBT's owner trusts his instincts to at the last minute change schedules, cancel programs and not air ready shows.

Right now SBT has two completed novelas in the can waiting for his OK. They are Direito de Nascer (The Right to Be Born) and Perola Negra (Black Pearl), two melodramas.

Silvio Santos also likes to bestow shows on people who become media stars, even though they have no TV or media experience. It happened twice recently with two girls who generated a lot of publicity after posing in the nude for Brazilian Playboy. For Debora Rodrigues, who was a poor girl working for the landless movement, he created the afternoon Fantasia , a daily show in which dozens of pretty teen-age girls in little clothing sing, dance and appear in enticing close-ups sending kisses and asking amid erotic sighs that people call their 900 num'ben The program airs opposite Globo's Malhaciio , a novela in which the main attraction are skimpy-dressed young bodies working out in an exercise academy.

The newest attraction is national sensation dancer arla Perez, 20, who for three years was the main feature of B iano musical group E o Tchan. Better known for 19

The Auditorium Wars The success of TV hosts has created a new class of nouveaux riches in Brazil. Besides considerable paychecks these hosting stars fatten their bank accounts with merchandising and getting a percentage from the ads sold during their programs. Maria da Graca Meneghel, better known as Xuxa, the Queen of the Shorties, working at Globo, has become a multimillionaire industry and the richest ofthem all. But other emerging names are catching up fast.

In the same area as Xuxa, TV program for kids, there is Angelica and Eliana. Angelica, who also is a hostess at Globo, has become the leader in products licensing in all of Brazil. There are already more than 400 products bearing her likeness or her name. She makes $4 million a year. Working at SBT, Eliana gets a $70,000 monthly salary.

She also has licensed more than 100 products, does other shows and has CDs with her songs. Annual income: $4 million.

Gugu Liberato ($14 million a year) is the wealthiest of the emerging stars.

He has 41 products licensed and is the owner of Gugu Producoes, a company that promotes entertainment events. Gugu, who presents Domingo Legal (Cool Sunday) on SBT, the number one program on Sunday afternoons, would like to have his own TV station and has been trying to buy one for sometime. A big chunk of his earnings comes from the 12 minutes he gets in the show to sell as he pleases. A 30-second spot on Domingo Legal costs $90,000, just a little less than on the Jornal Nacional, Globo's daily prime-time news show, where the same ad would cost $110 thousand.

Competing with Gugu at Globo on the same Sunday time slot is Fausto Silva, the host for Domingeio do Faustdo (Big Fausto's Big Sunday). Faustao also derives his money from a salary plus merchandising added to his program.

He is worth $4.5 million a year. The competition among Gugu and Faustao last year ended up in an all-out war that only finished when Faustao provoked a national scandal by showing in his program a sushi bar where the food was served on the bodies of naked women. The long live scenes shot from every angle while three actors ate and talked about the experience was shown on a Sunday afternoon and provoked a deluge of indignant letters to the editor, comments and editorials. The top brass at Globo—so much for the highly touted Globo standard of quality—had to intervene and demand some cleaning up.

Since then, at least at Globo, the titillation decibels have lowered on live shows.

A lesser-known character, but who is already earning $6 million at SBT, is Celso Portiolli. The 30-year-old show host has just signed a contract for three years guaranteeing him a $100,000 monthly salary. If he is already earning an estimated $6 million a year is due to a clause that allows him to sell every day 1 minute and a half of publicity in the show he presents. On Sundays he hosts Tempo de Alegria (Joy Time). Earlier this year Portiolli's salary was a mere $8,000. His value shot up, however, when Globo showed interest in getting him. SBT is so fearful of losing the rising star that the network introduced a $30 million penalty to be paid in case he wants to jump the boat.

Thriving in mondo cane, Ratinho (Little Mouse) has become a media phenomenon disputed by different TV networks, including Globo, which reportedly wanted to tame him a little. Now at Record but with a serious offer to jump to number-two SBT, host Carlos Massa, gets a salary of$200,000 and earns some $6 million a year. He arrives at this amount by getting 5% of all the 900 toll calls dialed during his programs.

For the networks these crowd-pleasing shows are a cash cow. While a novela might cost about $100,000 per chapter, Ratinho's program, for example doesn't cost more than $25,000.

Colleague of Ratinho at Record, and also appealing to some lower instincts, hostess Ana Maria Braga makes $3 million a year. Among other items bearing her name, Braga has already released a recipe book, an engagement book, and a Christmas CD.

the size of her buttocks and her ability to shake them, Perez has premiered in June her Carla Perez do Brasil. She has been hired with a monthly salary of $100,000. Inspired by Argentinean show Ho/a, Suzana, Carla calls people who sent letters and gives them prizes.

To get the prize though they have to say, "Alo, Carla Perez." (Hello, Carla Perez). She also does interviews, having started with coach Zagallo just before he left for France with the Brazilian soccer team.

Déjà Vue Someone who left Brazil as long as 40 years ago might feel tricked by time upon returning today. He will be able, for example, to see on SBT Praca da Alegria (Joy Square), a comedy show created in 1956 and that is part of the Brazilian TV foundation. It is true that due to copyright concerns the program has changed its name to A Praca é Nossa (The Square Is Ours) and that Manoel dallobrega, the creatorofPraca has long passed way. But it's Carlos Alberto da N6brega, the son of Manoel, who directs today the show and some of the original actors are still interpreting the same old characters.

Chacrinha, Flavio Cavalcanti, J. Silvestre, Moacyr Franco, all of these names had a huge following during the '60s and the '70s with their live variety programs. They were disputed by the networks and Cavalcanti and Abelardo Barbosa Chacrinha galvanized the country with their more or less tasteless shows and guests. While suit-andtie-dressed Cavalcanti played the serious-aboveany-reproach journalist and Chacrinha came in a clown suit throwing codfish at the public in the auditorium, they were very similar.

Cavalcanti and Chacrinha passed away, but their legacy goes on. Music-inclined Moacyr Franco and J. Cavalcanti even had a recent revival getting their own program again, without the old public adulation, however.

The auditorium program has become a hot item again. There are no less than 27 of these shows being aired right now. Similar to some live programs in the U.S. the new wave of auditorium shows—some of them on prime time—bring more of the worst that real life has to offer: physically handicapped and desperate people, fights between couples, smutty intimate revelations. Anything for a few more points on the Ibope.

Magic Box The main reason why the Brazilian public gets what it wants on TV and almost instantaneously is Teletron, an audience measuring device used by Ibope (Institut° Brasileiro de OpiniAo Publica e Estatistica—Brazilian Institute of Public Opinion and Statistics), the Bra-

20 BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

• • • • • •

•

• • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • • •• • • • • •

• • • • OOOOOO • OOO • OO • FEBRUARY 1998 RATINGS

RANKING SHARE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

SHOW

8 PM novela Por Amor Jornal Nacional 7 PM nov. Corpo Dourado Praca TV 2nd Edition 6 PM novela Anjo Mau Tomei° Rio/SP Globo Reporter Fantastic° Voce Decide Fera Ferida Tela Quente Sai de Baixo Tomei° Rio/SP Copa Ouro de Futebol Supercine Planta° Medico Globo Esporte Vale - Felicidade Jornal Hoje Video Show Riacho Doce Temperatura Maxima Praca TV 1st Edition Sessao da Tarde Torneio Rio/SP - Sat Planeta Xuxa Sessao Aventura Cine Radical Domingao do Faustao Silvio Santos

•

• • • •• ••

NET

AUD.

Globo Globo Globo Globo Globo Globo Globo Globo Globo Globo Globo Globo Globo • Globo Globo Globo Globo Globo Globo Globo Globo Globo Globo Globo Globo Globo Globo Globo Globo SBT

39 36 33 32 32 30 30 29 29 27 27 27 26 23 23 23 21 21 20 20 20 20 18 18 18 17 17 17 17 17

59 58 59 61 61 53 48 47 45 58 48 43 42 56 40 37 51 48 48 48 47 43 51 49 46 46 45 43 35 29

Source: PNT/ AIP February 98 (Brasil) • • • • OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO • •

• • • • •• ••

zilian Nielsen, which follows on real time the evolution of the audience tuning in on a certain program. The recent invasion of the remote control has eliminated the habit people had of leaving the TV tuned on the same channel for days.

The Ibope service allows TV stations—and they use it in the most creative ways—to follow minute by minute their own performance and that of the competition. With these numbers guests who are not popular and subjects that draw little attention are cut short while ratings picker-uppers can be maintained in the air and exploited for half an hour or more. Oddly enough, shows in Brazil can have their time altered on the spot. It is common that high-ratings programs be prolonged to harm the competition. On the other side, the competition is also watchfid, waiting for the best time to start its program.

And what are good show baits? First of all, novelas stars, say the lbope data. Pretty women and successful music stars come next. Tarcisio Meira, a veteran sweetheart of novelas, for example, was able to raise a Domingdo do Faust do—a Sundayafternoon variety program—ratings by 14 points, from 25 to 39.

As for the most unpopular characters, politicians come in first, followed by less popular singers.

This system has provoked some humiliating scenes for some jewels of the Brazilian culture. Maria Bethania, Ivan Lins, and Jorge Ben Jor, all heavyweights of the MPB (Musica Popular Bras ileira—B razi ian Popular Music), among many others, had their participation in live shows abbreviated when their presence made the ratings go down.

Although the Mope machine is connected to a mere Roberta Close in Mandacaru

BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

660 TVs arid all from the city of Sao Paulo, it is believed that it portrays the whole nation's TV universe. Every point represents 80,000 homes in the Greater Sao Paulo.

Sex on TV While the audience leader G fob° has been forced to moderate the amount of nudity and sex it shows, the constraint does not apply to smaller networks, like Manchete and Band irantes, whose programs rarely reach double di it.

Veter novela director Waite Avancini, has become a expert in pro yoking sc ndals and getting free ublicity and with luck also some public to his novelas at Manchete. His last coup was to cast transsexual Roberta Close in Mandacaru, which doesn't get more than 8 points compared to more than 30 for Globo's novelas. La Close created an instant factoid threatening to sue any actor who refus d to kiss her on the mouth.

It was the pressure from a much wider and diversified audience hat forced Globo's director Antonio Calmon to stop the e otic teasing in Corpo Dourado, the current 7:00PM novel at Globo. In that soap, fast-rising star Daniele Winnits o en appeared naked on the beach, with an electronic bla k stripe covering strategic spots on her nude body.

On th wee hours, however, everything seems allowed even on th over-the-air channels. Some pornographic shows have bec me cult during that time slot bringing to smaller channels atings they cannot dream of during the day.

Bandeirantes, better known as Band these days, is betting that sadornasochism is the ideal recipe for its H show.

Hostess Tiazinha gets up to 6 points in Sao Paulo, which representS 480,000 homes. Band complements its late-night programniing with Cine Prive, a selection of pornographic movies sponsored by telesex 900 numbers.

Veter n show host Raul Gil in his Saturday Programa Raul Gil on Manchete is surrounded by six temptations in the shape of ix models during his "0 Diva do Raul" (Raul's Divan) se ment. They are Sonia Almeida, Jennifer Garcia, Magali V , Vanessa Pontes, Simone Morena, and Simone Loura rena means brunette and loura, blonde.) Each one has a spe ialty, Simone Morena, for example specializes in asking risqué questions.

Gugu Liberato from SBT's Domingo Legal has been using ero icism with great success for a longtime. One of the most-pop lar attractions of the show is the one in which gorgeous model Luiza Ambiel in a skimpy bikini struggles with a man to see who can get the largest number of soap bars from a water-filled bathtub.

Roaring Mouse The b ggest phenomenon ofBrazilian TV today is Carlos Massa, better known as Ratinho (Little Mouse). He is the son of a bricklayer who worked picking coffee grains, as a clown, ad even washing corpses for a living. In 1983, he was selli g food on the streets. Five years later, at age 29, he was elec ed city council of Curitiba, a large city and the capital o the state of Parana. Since June 1996 he worked at CNT/Ga eta hosting 190 Urgente, the cops-and-robbers show tha gave him an audience and drew the attention of the big TV n tworks. In July of last year Ratinho was making $7,000 a CNT. By the end of the year his monthly earnings had multi lied 37 times and he was already getting $260,000 a month.

In Notvember 1997, it was reported, Silvio Santos tried to entice th TV host offering him a $180,000 monthly salary plus com issions on 900-number earnings. "I didn't go to SBT so Iwouldn't be like a mercenary," Ratinho explained.

The hosts contract with Record runs until 2002. A clause establish s that he would have to pay a $25 million penalty • to unilat rally break the agreement.

21

to spread the news.

Passos, Luiz Bonfa, Garoto, Tom Jobim, Vinicius, and numerous others.

Carmha Lion Brazil, Via Internet

John (Joilozinho) Scott Via Internet

JUST FOR A CHANGE

HORRIFIED NON-SUBSCRIBER • • er rea mg an artic e a • out my avorite singer in your magazine I automatically placed itin my favorite places, expecting to later read articles as interesting as the one I Just read. I was disgusted when I recently saw an article on Carla Perez. The pictures you used were on a pornographic level and very offensive. I had my JO year-old sister watching while I had to quickly close the page.

Then I read about your magazine and how 70% of your readers are Americans.

How degrading to Brazilian women, like myself, to have to see that. What I would like to know is if there's an age limit in purchasing your magazine, and if not do you plan to issue one after this homd article. One thing I can assure you is that on this level of writing you'll never have my subscnption or my respect

Via Internet GMT74@ao 1. corn IN PRAISE OF REAL FEIJOADA Just rea 'Brazi s nation. Entree ey Eng Tie Mg. The article was a selection of feijoada recipes. I know thatfeijoada recipes are as different as the regions they come from, however, Eng persists in all of these recipes to make corned beef and ham hocks part of the ingredients. I am not Brazilian, but lived there for two_years from Sao Paulo to MaceiO, Campina Cirande and Recife. Never have I eaten or seen a recipe using corned beef or ham hocks. This is an Americanized version! No feijoada purist in Brazil would use these meats in afeijoadacompleta. Please correct me if I am wrong. Now for the piece de resistance, no recipe that I have seen on the Internet as yet has the one important ingredient for flavor listed. The ingredient is at least one cup of fresh orange juice added to the mix.

Darrell Rogers Via Internet - EDRpqaol.com PROUD AND GRATEFUL I am very appy to ow t at t ere are outside of Brazil people as dedicated as you are to our country. Congratulations. I enjoyed. to see the pool on your WEB site showing Fernando Hennque Cardoso as the favorite to be our next president. Cardoso who is also our current president was the only chief executive who was able to end inflation so much so that the Real was worth more than the American dollar. The Brazilian people are very happy with their oresidentand they are going to reelect him. Thanks again for what you are doing for my country.

Dr. Roberto von Haydin Sao Paulo, Brazil REFERENCE SITE I've just discovered Brazzil through a message at the Pat Metheny Group's site. I adored reading the article on Paulo 13ellinati and knowing that your magazine exists.

People from other countries are always asking me about subjects like Milton Na,seimento, fire in the Amazon forest,Brazilian instrumental music, Carnaval, Djavan, etc. I think Brazzil would be perfect for all of these Deople interested in Brazil. Congratulations.

May you have a long life. I've already placed you on my favorite-sites file and I am going You are invited to participate in this dialogue.

Write to: Letters to the Publisher P.O.Bos 50536 Los Angeles, CA 90050-0536 or send E-mail to: brazzil'a brazzileorn Please, include a phone number in the event Iv e need to reach you. Thanks!

22

I have a suggestion about the letter column of your newspaper. I think instead of most of the letters describing how bad or how good of a job your magazine is doing I would- find it more interesting, if people would comment about their expenences, etc. about Brazil. Me being a beach lover I believe that Canoa Quebrada and Porto Seguro are the nicest beaches.in Brazil. It anybody out there knows of any nicer beach, please respond to Robert at jits earthlink.net

Robert Hardebeck Via Internet ATROCIOUS DOUBT I just receives my irst issue o Brazzi . I

have been reading it slowly and carefully. and enjoying every word in it. For a Brazilian magazine you sure have a lot of articles in English. It is sypposed to be the opposite. Let us have more articles in Portuguese.

I avidly read Arifficial Fruit supposedly unpublished article. Thank God it was in Portuguese. I am beginning to think that Brazzil was the brainchild of some gringos who were never able to master the Portuguese Language.

Could that be true? Sure hope not. Just to show you that my heart is in the nght place, please send a subscription of Brazzil to my sister.

Incidentally I hate to see the name Brasil spelled with a 'z'. Couldn't we start a movement to change it?

David C. Pereyra Poway, California NO CHANGES, PLEASE I rea ly enjoy your magazine. I was in Brazil for two months last year, and reading your magazine always makes me want to return. You always have a great mix of topics, which reflects Brazilian culture more accurately than anything else I have read. Keep up the good work and please don't change. Please renew my subscription for another two years

Denise Ogawa Los Angeles, California

MY BRAZILIAN HEROES I just rea • t e artic ein Brazzi as out Pau o Bellinati. Thanks to Bruce Gilman for that informative piece of work. I am an American guitarist who visited Brazil as a high school exchange student (AFS), and fell in love with the music. l play bossa nova and Mpli style acoustic guitar, my heroes being (predictably) Joao Gilberto, Baden Powell, Paulo Bellinatt Raphael Rabello, Joao Bosco, Chico Bparoque, Edu Lobo, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Rosa

25¢ A COPY

OUR MARCH 96 COVER I m a stu I ent at La uar s a o ege an • I'm doing research on Brazilians in New York City generally, and in the Ironbound, Newark, specifically. I've looked for information on the topic for a long time, but with no greater luck. Therefore I was wondering if you might have any information or if you know somebody. that does?The type of information I'm interested in is history of migration, assimilation and general information on the Brazilian community in NYC. If you know anything, I would highly appreciate if you would let me know. I've already tried the consulate and the tourist center.

PatrikBolling/pbolling@hotmail.com New York, New York READING FOR THE LONGING We u to ive mBrazi an gosac every year. We are very partial to the Amazonas area as we lived in Santarem do ParA. We hope your magazine will be interesting and I don't get too homesick when we read it.

Robert P. Leonard Broken Arrow, Oklahoma WEB SURF IS UP Your Web page (brazzil.com) is becoming more awesome than ever. Please keep up the incredible contribution to us all.

May I ask that you program that really cool music oftheNordesteto continue to play during the entire browsing of the page instead of just while looking at the opening page.

Barajo J. Araujo Kauai, Hawaii

TORONTO POLICE VIOLENCE Satur • ay we. were peace I y celebrating our team's victory on College Street in Toronto. All of a sudden, a teenager was arrested. Witnesses said the only crime he committed was celebrating in the middle of the street (wrong street, I guess!).

The fans were not aggressive, but were of course u_pset; the police response was to call in the Special Unit. Toronto is home to about 7,000 Brazilians. That shows how many us can afford standing up for our rights.

biazzii

a

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To

Low wages and unemployment are mainstream concerns in Brazilian society but their most painful sign is the exploitation of child labor.

24

e debate on the issue child labor in Brazil begins with two divergent points. The first T one is the definition of child labor. The second, derived from the first, is the question of finding out how many Brazilian children actually work and under which conditions. Nobody knows exactly how many children work in the world, in spite of the many research and statistical institutes in charge of studying this issue.

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), 73 million minors between the ages of 10 and 14 are induced to precocious labor, which means 13% of all children in all poor and rich countries in the world. Five percent of these young workers are Brazilian children, according to a study by the Brazilian Geography and Statistical Institute (IBGE). The National Domicile Sampling Survey indicates that 3.5 million children in that age bracket were working in 1993, when the study was completed (it was published in March 1997). This figure is equivalent to the whole population of Uruguay, one of Brazil's partners in the Mercosul Foreign Trade Zone.

The worst part is that child labor is illegal; in Brazil, you have to be 14 to be employed. This is what the Constitution says in its chapter VII, article 227, which regulates social responsibility for children and adolescents. The third paragraph establishes age 14 as the minimum age for admission to the job market and includes other provisions such as guaranteed access to education and social security, as well as labor rights.

The Child and Adolescent Statute, in its fifth chapter, prohibits any work by children younger than 14, except in the position of apprentice.

This is the loophole that companies use when they want to obey the law: when the child turns 12, he/she can be an apprentice, so he/she is hired under special conditions (specific job description in case of a physical handicap, access to an apprentice scholarship fund, guarantee of labor rights, etc.). It is known that only 25% of these youngsters carry the carteira de trabalho (employment identification card) which grants them at least the social security benefits (known to be very fragile in the Brazilian case, since they do not abide by neither law nor ethics, as we have seen).

BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

Last year, at the ILO assembly in Geneva, Brazilian Labor Ministry Paulo Paiva announced that the government has decided to raise to age 15 the established minimum age for apprenticeship, following recommendations from that organization. Since 1996, ILO has been proposing a debate about a new child labor convention as a venue for countries to establish procedures in situations that involve risk and also to eliminate the most intolerable forms of child exploitation.

The United Nations Convention on Children Rights determines that all people younger than 18 are children and have specific rights to full development, survival, health, education, free speech, etc. Brazil was one of the signatories of that convention.

The child issue in Brazil, which is already serious, assumes in fact a much larger dimension because it reflects (sometimes in an overdose) a regular occurrence in the overall job market in Brazil, i.e., that informal work—work without the carteira de trabalho does not discriminate on the basis of age.

Just as we do not even know exactly how many adults are actually working in the country, we have no idea of how many children are already part of the Brazilian labor force. In spite of the lack of statistics, there is no question about the poor conditions under which these children work: wages, hours, vacation, breaks, all depend on the good will (or ill will) of employers.

There is no union to protect young workers (often because it is against the law), especially the domestic workers who have been called "new slaves" at the mercy of their own families (for whom they wash, iron, cook and oftentimes beg in the streets) or of whomever "hires" them as nannies, pool cleaners, car washers, gardening helpers, guards, dog trainers, etc.

Given this overall scenario, the profile of the young Brazilian worker is still an unknown.

Official statistics (such as the Brazilian Labor Market Chart, issued by IBGE) show that 65% of minors work longer than the legal workday and that more than 80% receive less than minimum wage.

A few years ago, IBGE published a study called Brazilian Social Inequality Features, according to which almost 8 million children and teenagers worked at the turn of this decade (3.6 million worked and went to school at the same time). This figure, ILO estimates, represents some 17% of the domestic labor force. According to IBGE, 14% of those workers are children between the ages of 10 and 13, i.e., below legal age. In northeastern Brazil, these numbers are twice higher.

No Play Children who work lack both the time and the disposition to play. When a working child sits in the classroom, he/she can't pay attention. As a consequence of working, he/she is more exposed than other children to health problems. At work, he/she is also at risk when he/she performs tasks, which are often heavy, beyond her strength and aptitude, during extended hours and with no protective equipment or even training for the task.

Does anyone have any questions about the kind of working hours which adolescents have to face in the BRAZZIL -JULY 1998

charcoal kilns of Mato Grosso do Sul, the orange harvests in Sa Paulo, the sugar cane cutting in Rio de Janeiro, the ex raction of salt in Rio Grande do Norte, the ore mining in Para, the office-boy daily routines in the huge co orate centers, the commerce of lcnickknacks in the orners of the large avenues, the begging at the tra ic lights of the gigantic urban areas in Brazil?

Since 1991, ILO has been working on developing its Internation 1Program for the Elimination of Child Labor, known in English as IPEC. The objective is a direct attack s the problem in 20 countries, Brazil among them. ccording to the United Nations, the vast majority f working children lives in Asia (half of the total), in Africa (a third of the total) and in Latin America.

It is not o ly a poverty issue, say the experts at UNICEF, whi h is a United Nations agency dealing with childhoou issues. In Latin American countries, one in five chi then already works. But in Eastern and Central Europ , increasing numbers of children have been forced ti start their working lives recently. In England and ' the United States, as a result of the growth in the Service area and in the demand for more flexible labor laws, employment of the very young has been grow ng. Gary S. Becker, Economics Nobel laureate in 1992, estimates that over 1.5 million American youngsters perform some kind of labor, even when th ir families have a higher standard of living than Latin American and Third World families who sometim s are extremely dependent on the wages of their offspring for survival.

The Uniterl Nations, through its several departments, is co mitted to uncover the hidden reality behind such s enarios. It has decided to start with the cruelest side f that reality: types of work which are hazardous or harmful to children. One example is children usin the large knives required to cut sugar cane. Forty p rcent of the accidents recorded in this activity victi ize children, although these young workers repr sent less than 30% of all sugar cane cutters.

The caus s of child labor are often economical reasons. In th case of Latin America, they are easily visible when we consider the crisis of the 1980s, which spread throughout several economies in the continent an established the short-term destiny of several developing countries: (a) government debt, which in turn led countries into recession and unemployment and (b) World Bank and IMF demands, resulting in restrictive—or "structural adjustment"— policies impo ed on debtor countries which destroyed, among other hings, their capacity to invest in education and health. All this resulted in a drastic reduction of the supply bf public services and/or the deterioration in the quality of such services. Children are direct victims of this situation: most government cuts affected health, food supply, food production subsidies and social services.

The result is that in the decade of the 1990s, when most Latin-Ainerican countries, Brazil included, can boast a scenario of inflationary stability and resumed economic growth, the social picture remains very poor. A survey by UNESCO, which is the United Nations agency for issues of education, science and 25

culture, reveals that for the past three years the elementary schools in the 14 less developed countries in the world have space for only four in each group of ten children. This is not the case of Brazil, although the situation here is not much better. In Brazil, which is considered the richest economy in Latin America, the graduation rate for elementary school is only 40%. In the continent, it reaches 50%.

In the view of the U.N. agencies, a broad strategy to fight child labor must start with what they consider the logical alternative: good quality schools to which families are encouraged to send their children and which develop relevant educational programs in which the students themselves are willing to participate.

There are 140 million children between the ages of 6 and 11 out of school and not very interested in school.

An equivalent number of children drop out of school due to lack of response or encouragement before they complete the initial phase of the course. It is calculated that 400 million children and teenagers up to age 18 do not attend any form of regular school. A good percentage of these young people tries to conciliate school and work, with no good results.

In the beginning of June 1997, the global media started working on an issue which is important for this case. ILO proposed to its 174 member countries assembled at the International Labor Conference the adoption of measures to fight bad work conditions— any kind of work, not only child work. A suggestion was made to create a global community seal in order to commit world commerce to defend the rights of workers. That is, the global economy would only accept products coming from countries that provide basic conditions for dignified work. The market rules issued by the World Commerce Organization (WCO) make no mention of the problem.

What ILO wants is to attempt to use the community seal to achieve the mandatory status which is absent in its recommendations—a problem which WCO does not have, because its recommendations are already legally enforceable. Brazil, in a still unexplained attempt to retain its place in the global market, is opposing the seal and thus aligning itself, also without explanation, to competitors such as China and Indonesia, which are countries known by their use of slave labor (adult and child). All who have adopted the no-seal stance maintain the position that they are trying to prevent imposition of new non-tariff barriers. Maybe.

The key, however, is to fight for the dignity of work and to include child work as the priority in this fight.

Also in early June of last year the 7th International Seminar in Technology and Employment took place in Sao Paulo, promoted by the Vanzolini Foundation (which has systematically promoted discussion on the issue of child labor), among others. One of the conclusions of that meeting was that countries like Brazil will establish their presence better in the global market when they develop educational and research policies that allow 26

them to empower and train their workers. Investment in basic education—the foremost need of children and teenagers—is one of the most effective measures among all the measures recommended at that seminar to secure competitive entry in the world market.

Experts have been stressing for years that countries need to improve their educational systems in order to achieve changes in their economic and social scenario. The longer and the better the educational process is, the less chance there will be for children to be exposed to labor, they say. That is the reason why the Convention on Children Rights insists in the fact that elementary education must be universal and mandatory.

If governments would honor their legal commitments in the educational arena, occurrences of children being exploited for labor would be significantly limited, UNICEF studies reveal. If there was political will, the funds to create good schools would be raised and all the innovative ideas springing up all over the world would succeed in rehabilitating educational systems everywhere. Successful programs are showing results all over the world.

The Brazilian Constitution says that education is a universal right and the duty of the State and the family and that it must be promoted and encouraged with cooperation from the whole society. The Federal Government is supposed to dedicate at least 18% of its fiscal revenue (25% in the case of state and local governments and the Federal District) to promote education (maintenance and growth). If this is in fact happening, and if it is enough, is something that no one can prove when they look at the status of working children in Brazil.

Only for a Few Minister of Education Paulo Renato Souza has said recently that the technical school model adopted so far in Brazil favors primarily the middle and upper classes. He promised to announce a national plan for financing the training ofteachers to work in professional technical schools.

The plan, he says, is to meet the new needs of the Brazilian population. This project should receive funds from the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB), in the order of $ 500 million.

Entities such as the Brazilian federations for commerce, industry and agriculture have been developing major technical school programs which are administered through the National Learning Services for Commerce (Senac), Industry (Senai) and Agriculture (Senar) and are considered to be the most advanced programs in the field, with centers located throughout the country.

Sesi and Sesc deal with basic education only. Several courses taught by Senac and Senai schools have been officially recognized as "third level" education (community college level in the U.S.) The initiative announced by Minister Paulo Renato Souza should be able to perfect the system and increase the supply of classroom space for adolescents and young adults interested in training and professional improvement.

Working children and working teenagers value education, declare the specialists. "Young workers who have completed 2"d level education (high school) boast an average salary advantage of 14% over their workmates who have BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

completed 1" level only and 91% over those without 1" level.

Young workers who have completed 1" level, on the other hand, make 67% more money than their friends who are below that level", says Elenice M. Leite, Senai's Department for Research, Studies and Evaluation, in her study "Minors in the Population and Workforce of the State of Sao Paulo", 1987.

For the past several years, the sao Paulo State Government has been conducting the Pacto dos Bandeirantes—Bandeirante Pact—(Bandeirante = Brazilian historical explorer), with the purpose of eliminating child labor in rural and urban areas through programs recommended by multidisciplinary chambers (uniting both government and the business community) and providing encouragement to stay in school. Several conventions were created, such as the agreement between the Labor Relations State Secretary and industry leaders like Abecitrus (orange juice exporting conglomerate) to stop child exploitation in the orange harvests and to decrease the drop-out rate in the schools, with support from the companies themselves. Other examples are same-type agreements signed with footwear industry unions and associations in the metropolitan area of Franca, state of Sao Paulo.

According to the Sao Paulo Sugar and Alcohol Industry Chamber of Commerce, which has signed the pact, there are no more children working in the 200 cities located within that sugar-alcohol industrial pole, the largest of its kind in Brazil.

Many children left fieldwork but not all have returned to the classroom. According to the Sao Paulo State Federation of Agriculture Workers (Fetaesp), there are still some cooperatives linked to the citrus industry who are employing 8 thousand children up to age 10. This pact is directly led by Walter Barelli, Sao Paulo Secretary for Employment and Labor Relations. According to Barelli, the solution to this problem is forthcoming.

Salary to Go to School A bill was introduced in the Sao Paulo City Legislature for a law which will supplement the income of those families who keep their children in school—a pioneer idea implemented by the local government of the Federal District (capital city of Brasilia).This is related to one of the sections in the pact, which stresses that without this extra income it is impossible to foresee the effective elimination of child labor in Brazil. Another section relates to professional training for teenagers in order to prepare them to enter the job market later.

The Secretariat for Child Well Being has created a "right to family and community life" program, which fights child labor indirectly by allowing the family of origin to keep their children. Each family of origin receives $50 to keep its children in school. The funds are donated by businesses and various agencies (domestic or not, such as the Associazione dei Bambini, an Italian association for children).

There are several other examples. One is the Somar Project, in existence for three years, sponsored by two corporations in the region of Matao, in the interior of the state of Sao Paulo, which provides care for rural area children, ages 5 to 15, who come from families who live off fieldwork BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

and the harvest of oranges. Rita Ferrari Magalhaes explains that the primary challenge of her program is to stop parents from profiting from their children's labor. The program looks at education in its search for alternative solutions.

Along these lines, very important work has been done by the Program for Solidary Community, directed by Ruth Cardoso (the Brazilian First Lady). She has been insisting in the concept of exchanging the labor of the child for the permanence ofthat child in school, with some form of remuneration for each family who succeeds in doing so. It could be the way out. In May 1997, for example, the program signed conventions with eight city governments in the state of Rio de Janeiro by which the eight Mayors committed to eradicate child labor by paying half a minimum monthly salary (about $50) to each family who takes their child away from work and keeps him/her at school. There will be inspections, specially in the Rio sugar cane region.

According to ILO, 20% of the workers in that region are children. Later this year, similar conventions are expected to be signed by this program with the mayors of the so-called lakes region, where the salt extraction industry employs many children.

In the sugar cane plantations in northern Rio de Janeiro state, children and teenagers represent approximately one fifth of the overall work force employed by the 12 mills in the region. In Pernambuco, estimates from the State Secretary for Labor and Social Action reveal the existence of 40 thousand dropout children working in sugar cane plantations.

The Bolsa Escola (School Scholarship) program, initiated by the federal government, wants to solve the problem by paying $50 a month to families of children who attend at least 75% of the regular class schedule. The plan is good, but the Pernambuco Federation of Agriculture Workers (Fetape) says it has been progressing at snail's pace.

Smelling a Rat The case of the footwear industry in Franca, SP, is exemplary. The Footwear and Apparel Industry Workers Union of Franca and Surrounding Region, in a joint effort with CUT (Central Unica dos Trabalhadores, a huge Brazilian workers union) and the InterUnion Department for Statistics and Socio-Economic Studies (Dieese), with support from agencies such as UNICEF and ILO, wrote a study which revealed that more than 70% of the children who live in the city work in the so-called production benches (shoe shops outsourced by the regional footwear factories) did not have the proper work registration and suffered from various health problems—headaches, dizziness, eyesight difficulties (due to prolonged exposure to shoe glue), cuts, injuries, muscle pain and back problems.

Half of these little workers had repeated a grade at school.

27

The industry union was called in to discuss the matter and Oded Grajew, is to launch a campaign to convince the the result was the creation of the Business Institute for consumer to only purchase products from companies that Support for Child and Adolescent Development (Prosport the "Big Sister" seal in their packaging.

Crianca), founded by a joint initiative involving the same footwear union, the Franca Commerce Association (Acif) This article was originally published in Portuguese by magazine Problemas Brasileiros, and other entities, for the purpose of stopping child labor and which you can read on line at decreasing the school dropout rate. The Institute launched http://www.uol.com.br/sesc/spu.htm the Pro-Child Seal, printed onto the packaging of the shoes, which identifies those factories that do not utilize child labor Translated from the Portuguese by Tereza d'Avila in their manufacturing process. Fifty of the 360 footwear Braga. Tereza is a professional free-lance translator industries in that region are already using the seal. accredited by the American Translators Association.

The charcoal kiln industries in Mato Grosso do Sul She specializes in technical and legal translation, present a very similar case. In a large region surrounding the as well as simultaneous interpretation, towns of Agua Clara, Ribas do Rio Pardo, Tres Lagoas, for corporations doing business with Brazil.

Tereza came to the U.S. in 1984 as Trade Promotion Brasilandia and Santa Rita do Pardo, children ages 7 to 14 are Officer with the Consulate of Brazil in Dallas, utilized to work the kilns in which the wood is burned to be where she served for nine years. transformed into charcoal (calcification). This labor inShe can be reached at volves daubing the oven doors with mud and collecting the 103264.2156Acompuserve.com charcoal, still very hot. In 1994, according to data from the Comissao Pastoral da Terra (Land Pastoral Commission), 2.5 thousand children under the age of 14 worked these kilns, along with their families. As it happened in Franca, the community decided to take action.

With support from the local government, the Citizenship Voucher AIR - IATA 01-1-9279-012 was created. It is a monthly stipend of $50 paid to one thousand chilOCEAN - FMC 3853 dren who have returned to school "but for whom there is still much to be done", admits JoAo Jose de Souza Leite, special programs coordinaTO ANY AIRPORT IN BRAZIL tor for the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Among all initiatives to fight child labor in Brazil, the pioneer and the one with the most extensive FULL CONTAINER & CONSOLIDATIONS scope is probably the Abrinq Foundation for the Rights of Children, TO ANY PORT IN BRAZIL 1 which was initially an association (EXCELLENT CONTAINER RATES) of Brazi lian toy manufacturers. This foundation has created a community program, which also works as a true marketing tool for businesses.

It is called Empresa Amiga da SHIPPER'S DOOR PICK-UP ""', AIR/OCEAN FREIGHT Crianca (something like Big Sister Company) and it consists of a seal— CUSTOMS CLEARANCE (INCL. ALL DUTIES) Iwo* which can also be used in advertising—which qualifies those compaDOOR DELIVERY TO BUYER IN BRAZIL nies that can prove that they do not employ children in any of their production stages and that they do not use suppliers who employ children.

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A casa da fazenda do velho Manuel Querino era separada do chiqueiro das cabras por uma porteirinha que dava para o cercado da roca. V icencia Querino abaixou-se para passar entre os dois paus da porteira e ficou, curvada, corn urn pe descansando no pau e outro mal apoiado no chao, escutando um aboio longinquo que se perdia no meio do mato.

De quem seria aquele aboio sonoro, saudoso, tar) diferente de todos os aboios já decorados. pelos seus ouvidos espertos? De Manuelzinho, seu irmao?

De Tifiba, o vaqueiro das Lavras? De Quincas, de Leonilo, de Jodo de Souza?

Ndo, aquele aboio ndo saia de nenhuma boca sua conhecida. Era corn certeza de alguem estranho, conduzindo alguma res rebelde pelas terras do pai dela.

Algum vaqueiro das bandas de Id do Grotdo ou do Toquinho, do lado de Id daquelas serras azuis por onde ela nunca andara. Aquelas serras azuladas, distantes, no meio das quais se distingnia uma pequenina mancha branca que diziam ser a igreja de Buique.

E como seriam aqueles lugares? Que haveria por la de 'estranho para os seus olhos tdo ignorantes e ao mesmo tempo tar) ansiosos de novas paisagens?

0 aboio foi despertando o pensamento de Vicencia e ela aos poucos se perdia corn ele, como de habito, em indagaciies curiosas—como seria isto, como seria aquilo. Esquecida, a perna curvada adormecia sobre o pau da porteira. 0 formigueiro dominava o pe, já inerte, e subia perna acima, como se lhe dessem urn numeric, sem conta de espetadelas de alfinete. Vicencia fez uma careta, puxou a perna devagarinho e saiu manquejando, fazendo uma cara de riso enjoado, praguejando sem raiva: —Diabo leve essa dormencia! Estou que nem velha de juntas travadas!

Adiante Vicencia estacou, dando palmadinhas na perna. E enquanto soltava pragas tolas contra a dormencia, o aboio se aproximava, varando a caatinga. As vezes, quando o vento mudava de direcdo, o aboio chegava aos seus ouvidos como urn apito de cigarra, triste como os cantos de fim de tarde. Era antes urn gemido do que urn canto. VariacOes de notas sem palavras, sem significacdo, mas tao expressivas no seu sentido de tristeza e de saudade.

E o aboio tristonho vinha vindo pelo meio do mato, ora mais perto, ora mais longe, enchendo de curiosidade os ouvidos espertos de Vicencia Querino.

Ela ajeitava a mdo no ouvido para ouvir melhor; entortavao pescoco, espichavao; voltava-se para uma direcdo, para outra e fazia-se perguntas mentais: "De quern sera, meu Deus? De quem sera essavoztdo bonita?" Apertava os olhos, prendia a respiracdo, esquecia os outros sentidos para agucar o do ouvido.

Seria para pressentir, para adivinhar alguma coisa, todo esse interesse?Nao. Vicencia Querino ndo ouvia daqtiele BRAZZIL -JULY 1998

Horizon The elopement would happen on the weddin_g's eve, the day when the old Manuel Querino was throwing a party. Until then there was only one thing to take care of: the horse.

Because both would not renege on the word given each other. The promise was under oath, and they had invoked God's name.

LUIS JARDIM

aboio nenhuma nota pela qual a lembranca de outra se despertasse. Aquela curiosidade nascera de repente, sem causas anteriores, simplesmente pelo gosto do desconhecido, do ignorado. Talvez a mesma curiosidade que the despertavam as serras azuladas là distante. Apenas, como via as serras desde que se entendera de gente, e por elas tinha uma estranha curiosidade, ela mesma fantasiava o que de grandioso pudesse haver do lado de Id: fazendas sempre verdes, gadq sempre gordo, cavalos bonitos, corredores, e a vida facil entre vaquejadas alegres e cocos bem cantados.

Uma figura de vaqueiro, apagada, indistinta, entrava a mais nessa fantasia, superando as qualidades de outros vaqueiros, de outro homens seus conhecidos; essa figura era o melhorc valeiro, o mais corajoso, o mais bonito de todos. icencia Querino porem ndo personificava em inguem conhecido o her6i dos seus devaneios de ertaneja de vinte e cinco anos. Era uma figura um ser existente apenas no seu pensamento s nhador.

Por isso o dono daquela voz ndo the despertava a lembranca, mesmo involuntdria, de nenhum homem conhecido. Era somente uma voz desconhecida, como the eram desconhecidos o herOi dos seus sonhos e a vidado lado de la das serras. No entanto, a curiosidade de Vicencia era cada vez maior, a proporcdo que o canto se aproximava.

Ndo tardou que varias reses aparecessem correndo no fim do patio, defronte de casa, tangidas pelo caminho do Vaquejador. Vicencia destacou entre elas urn boiato de oito arrobas, raposo, de cabeca levantada, espantadico, incerto na carreira por estranhar talvez as paragens em que pisava.

Certamente era aquela res que o dono da voz buscava no meio do gado. Os chocalhos das vacas despertaram a atencdo do velho Manuel Querino. 0 velho veio entdo ao alpendre, acompanhado da Andlia, a filha mais nova.

Olharam o gado. Comentaram.

Dois homens a pe, de varas na mao, arrebanhavam as reses. Atrds, meio envolvida na poeira, distinguia-se a figura dum cavaleiro. Visto de longe, esfumado no p6, lembrava o vulto de um toco queimado. As reses estacaram, cercadas. 0 cavaleiro chegou as esporas no cavalo, contomou de longe o rebanho e dirigiu-se a galope para a casa do vat° Manuel Querino.

Vicencia, encostada num esteio do alpendre, observava a figura do desconhecido, falando corn o velho.

Seus ouvidos guardaram estas palavras: "Como vai voce, Joao Tote?" "Que res é essa?" "De que morreu a finada?"

Guardara somente algumas perguntas do pai, feitas aos berros, porque ele era surdo, mas as respostas do desconhecido lhe escaparam. Ouvira uma ou outra articulacdo, sem sentido, lembrando o mesmo timbre do aboio.

Quando o vaqueiro se dirigia ao rebanho, o velho Querino gritou para a filha: —Abre ali a porteira do curral, Vicencia, que Tote vai prender o gado pra botar urn cambdo no boiato!

V icencia correu, satisfeita por prestar aquele servico. Abriu a porteira e trepou-se na cerca, um pouco afastada para ndo espantar o gado.

Joao Tote vinha atras do rebanho, dirigindo o cavalo para urn lado, para outro, cercando-o. Usava paleto preto, camisa preta e perneiras de couro.

Batendo corn o chapel.' de couro nas perneiras, a cabeleira preta, basta, certinha atras como a de uma imagem de santo, sacudia-se toda na cadencia das pancadas. Vicenciaachava-a bonita.

As primeiras reses transpuseram a porteira e Joao Tote levou a mao a boca, ajudando o aboio. Assim de perto o aboiar do vaqueiro ainda era mais bonito. As notas ndo se perdiam, ndo se destorciam pelo vento. Eram firmes, sonoras, tristonhas.

31

Vicencia Querino nao tirava os olhos de cima dele. Alem da cabeleira achava bonitos os olhos pretos, grandes; o pescoco bem feito, folgado na camisa aberta; o jeito mole do corpo em cima do cavalo fogoso, o bigodinho descaido nos cantos da boca.

Corn o gado preso, o velho Querino aproximou-se, gritando: Reimosinho, o malvado do boiato! E a pinta é boa, Tote! E pra carro?

Joao Tote explicou que o boiato era manhoso, tendente a embrabecer, arredio de curral e de gado manso. Era para vender em S. Caetano, porque dali sempre para pior. Para touro nao servia.

Procedia de vaca cachecha e pingadeira de leite. E nove arrobinhas por cento e oitenta, em tempos daqueles, eram na verdade urn born negOcio.

—E se nao fosse o seu curral, "seu" Querino,—disse Joao Tote, terminando a historia do boi,—o garrote valentao me deixava no mato. Fizemos ate urn estragozinho num descampado que tern aqui embaixo, perto ja do seu cercado.

0 bichinho corre! Mas corre mais este castanho que o senhor esta vendo!—e alisou as crinas do cavalo, agradandoo.

Deram urn dedo de prosa sobre outros assuntos. Por fim Joao Tote pediu: —Agora, enquanto Severiano laca o bicho, queria que ,vosmece me emprestasse uma foice. E pra cortar urn , cambaozinho pro malcriado.

—Pegue se aqui corn essa menina— respondeu o velho apontando Vicencia,— que ë o homem da casa!

E explicou porque ela era o homem, fazendo cara de riso: —Esta, a mais nova, é achacada que nem a mae. Os meus dois homens, Quinca e Manuelzinho, sao plantacao de fim de safra: nao dao pra nada! Se essa nao amofinar—insistia, apontando Vicencia--6 quern vai continuar a raca.

Porque o resto, Tote, so tern vista como melancia de beira de riacho: dentro é aguada que s6 miolo de facheiro!

0 velho na-se da prOpria mangacao e Joao Tote protestou por delicadeza: —E assim o que, "seu" Querino! 0 galho pode ser torto, mas brota de tronco linheiro. E quem (Id valor a madeira é o nome.

0 velho voltou-se, ainda rindo, e insistiu: —Nao é tanto assim nao, Tote! No telhado la da meiaagua tern ate sucupira dando cupim!, —E porque tern madeira ruim junto dela!

—Pode ser!—disse o yelho.—Mas eu ja nao posso cortar madeira nova, estou de dias contados e os dois homens cá de casa so cuidam de caca.

Vicencia apresentou-se a Joao Tote, 32

estirando-lhe a mao, meio acanhada. E indagou, espantando-o corn a experiencia que tinha das coisas praticas, dos servicos de homem, como insinuara o velho: —Se o boiato é brabo mesmo, o melhor é um cambao novo. A gente tern al alguns deles, mas secos, umas penas. 0 senhor nao acha melhor cortar urn novo, mais pesado porque a madeira verde?

Joao Tote aceitou esse conselho, dando razdo moca, mas teria aceito qualquer outro por acanhamento. Vicencia correu A casa, apanhou a foice e amolou-a As pressas na pedra. Depois convidou o vaqueiro: —0 senhor pode me acompanhar. Aqui bem detras da casa tern uma imburana boa.

Os dois sumiram-se na vereda, sem trocar uma palavra. A arvore esgalhava-se por sobre um matinho safado, mirrado da sombra enorme.

Embaixo dela havia pedras espalhadas, bem limpas, sinal de que costumavam descansar por au. Vicencia, de foice na mao, estacou junto ao tronco da imburana, e indagou do vaqueiro: —Quer cambdo bem torto?

Dominado pela disposicdo da moca, confirmando as referencias do pai, Jaz) Tote respondeu, sem saber ao certo o que queria: — E! Bern torto. Pode ser bem torto.

Vicencia desfechou entao um golpe de foice no galho a cavaleiro, corn toda a forca, e o ferro . enterrou se, rangindo na madeira fraca. E quando fazia esforco para a desencravar, Joao Tote dominou-se, deu um passo rapid° para ela, segurando-a no braco, exclamando: —Largue isso, moca! Isso nao e servico de mulher!

Eta respondeu um "que é que tern?" embaracado, entregando-lhe o instrumento.

Obedecido, Joao Tote criou alma nova. E, mais senhor de si, mais senhor dos encantos da moca, aventurou uma opinido: — Moca do vosso tope, minha filha ou minha mulher, ndo fazia servico de homem!

V icencia riu-se, baixando a vista. E ele insistiu, fazendo urn intervalo nos golpes que dava: — E mesmo em servico de mulher a senhora nao botava muito as mdos.

Acanhado do que dissera, quase sem sentir, dissimulou o embaraco vingando-se na imburana: deu urn golpe tdo forte e adoidado que a foice, cortando o galho já meio penso, enterrou-se violentamente no chdo. Por felicidade ndo Ihe cortara o pe. Vicencia adiantou-se, aflita, e ponderou: —Cuidado, "seu" Joao, nao vá fazer arte!

0 medo da moca, traindo a sua disposicdo de homem, agradou a Joao Tote. E ele agradeceu intencionalmente aquele interesse: —0 vosso cuidado era ate por pouca coisa, D. Vicencia. Gente do meu tope, corn pe ou sem pe vale a mesma coisa, que nao e muita!

Eta ndo deu resposta. As rub-es dele nao eram as razoes dela.

Voltaram a casa. Feito o cambdo, Joao Tote ndo tinha mais o que esperar. Soltaram o gado e o boiato saiu se embaracando no pau entre as mdos, tangido pelos dois homens. Joao Tote despediu-se de Analia e de Vicencia. Deu a mao ao velho, prometendo aparecer no dia do amansamento dos

animais. E ja montado, agradecendo a franqueza do velho, referiu-se a Vicencia: —Quem tern uma prenda assim, "seu" Querino, ndo se queixa do povo que possui. Olhe que deixa muita gente no canto da cerca!

0 velho respondeu, rindo, no seu jeito de fazer restricOes a tudo: —Ndo é tanto assim nao, Tote! Ndo tanto assim 0 vaqueiro juntou as esporas no cavalo, levantou o chapeu e correu em direcao ao seu pessoal, que se sumia no caminho do Vaquejador.

De longe, como quando ele vinha vindo, chegou novamente aos ouvidos de Vicencia o aboio saudoso. Somente o aboio era mais bonito e mais triste, e ela agora sabia de quern era. Olhando, olhando por muito tempo a direcdo que ele tomou, a mesma onde ficavam, bem distantes, as serras azuladas, Vicencia Querino sentiu como se ja ndo tivesse aquela mesma curiosidade pelo que de estranho pudesse haver do lado de la.

As serras cram entdo como uma paisagem conhecida. *** Mais de vinte vaqueiros estavam espalhados no patio da Lagoinha, a fazenda do velho Manuel Querino.

Descansavam do almoco sob as arvores, uns conversando, outros modorrando.

Depois, entdo, recomecariam o amansamento dos animais. Antes do almoco montaram de preferencia os animais mais novos, menos brabos. Ficaram para o resto da tarde as burras e burros ja taludos, as poldras e poldros valenthes.

Em casa, o pessoal da familia cuidava de uma coisa, de outra. Uma menina de cabelo assanhado varria a saleta cheia de cascas de laranjas e de sobras de palhas de cigarro.

0 velho Querino, sentado na rede, na sala da frente, conversava comvarios amigos, muitos ja da sua idade. Joao Tote estava na roda, escutando a conversa. 0 velho narrava as suas proezas no tempo de moco. E era um gosto ouvi-lo falar de terras estranhas, de vaquejadas famosas, no tempo em que havia vaqueiros de verdade. Hoje, todos concordavam, nao havia mais.

Restava urn ou outro cavaleiro perdido no send°, mas sem mais aquele gosto pelo trabalho do campo. Tambem ja ndo era possivel exigir-se de urn homem o trabalho exclusivo de montar a cavalo, de tanger o gado. Naqueles tempos antigos uma vaca de cria valia quarenta mil-reis e uma cuia de farinha se comprava por uma pataca. 0 caso agora era diferente. 0 vaqueiro se via obrigado atomar outros encargos: a botar rocado, a criar porco, a trabalhar na enxada. Já ninguem podia perder mais tempo em preparar boi brabo para uma vaquejada.

E ate, parecia, os prOprios boiatos de 8RAZZIL - JULY 1998

hoje eram mirrados, sem sustanca e coragem de correr. Mesmo as dancas eram sem vida, sem animacdo. Onde mais urn coco de durar tres dias, como tantas vezes o velho Querino assistira por este mundo a fora? E os cabras?

Quem via mais um cabra interromper uma luta, almocar, descansar, e comecar de novo, como o celebre Brafma, homem disposto e fazendeiro ate de posses?

—0 meu tempo era outro, insistia o velho Querino, orgulhoso do seu passado Era um passado cheio de aventuras sertanejas: cavalos famosos; pegas de boi; parelhas trocadas de durar noites; juntas para limpar rocados; cachaca; feiras ruidosas, brigas, tiros, facadas, mas nem uma figura de mulher. A mulher nao merecia uma lembranca, nao entrava no rot das aventuras. SO mesmo a mulher cuja disposicdo ou coragem se equiparasse a do homem, como uma D. Sebastiana, da Estrelad'Alva, que acuara dois homens na ponta do punhal.

Joao Tote, acompanhando corn interesse a narrativa do velho, teve medo de que Vicencia ndo fosse tambern assim: valentona, esperta demais. Ndo desejava uma mulher que the tomasse o folego, que falasse mais alto do que ele.

Por outro lado nao queria uma mulher moleirona, cheia de dengues como a sua finada. A sua mulher morrera de moleza, quase de preguica. Quando se sentava ndo levantava mais, deixando tudo por fazer, as galinhas, os bichos tomando conta da casa. Ficava-se durante horas esquecidas esparramada numa esteira, de almofada parada entre as pernas, corn o olhar cravado em pontos perdidos. De longe, ele ainda se lembrava muito bem, via-se-lhe a amareliddo da cara, onde dois olhos piongos mat se mexiam. A pobre da lesma ndo agtientara o primeiro parto.

Assim, como a finada, ele ndo queria ndo. Mas ndo queria V icencia tdo disposta a ponto de resolver-lhe os negOcios, de tomar a tarefa que cabia a ele como homem da casa. Jac) Tote perdera o fib da conversa do velho, e divagava corn aquela iddia. Nem ouvia o que diziam, as opini6es que trocavam.

A figura de V icencia enchia-lhe o pensamento, cheia de gestos masculinos, de ordens de macho, de arrancos de valentdo. Bern que o velho a gabara pela suadesenvoltura, pela suacoragem.

Eta era o homem da casa. E seria, como homem, o continuador da raca. Mas a rap a continuar, se eles dois se casassem, nao seria a do velho, mas a sua pr6pria. 0 nome Querino desapareceria e s6 haveria de ficar o dele: Tote.

Podia ser tambem que ate ndo fosse assim como ele estava pensando. Toda mulher que ele conhecia—ate mesmo a velha sua mde—quando ndo era doente, era sempre desembaracada, disposta.

Vicencia teria tornado a dianteira na BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

familia porque a irma era acliacada e os irmdos dois preguicosos de marca, viciados na caya, na vadiacdo. Mesmo, reparando bem, que diabo ela fizera de mais para tanto receio? Abrir uma porteira, dar um talho de foice? Isso ate menino fazia. E fora afinal so o que ele vira. 0 mais era gabolice do pai, valorizando o que era seu.

—Essa aqui, tenho cá as minhas duvidas que ndo me envergonha ndo!— disse o velho Querino apontando Vicencia, que entrava na sala corn urn ticdo na mdo.—Tern muito da tempera antiga, e se digo isso ndo e porque ela seja minha filha. Os outrostambem sdo e eu digo que ndo ddo urn caldo. Mas eu corn essa digo que nab temo muito ho em que conheco.

V icencia entregou o ticdo ao padrinho o velho Jacinto Querino, o irmdo mais velho do i. Joao Tote fitava-a meio atoleimado. Parara de pensar, dominado pela presenca da moca. E •s seus argumentos sumiram-se de vez, como a surdos, sem que a insistencia de Querino s bre as qualidades masculas da filha o impressi nassem mais. Desde que chegara, mal a tinha avi .tado. E a sua presenca au, pertinho dele, alvorecava-o.

Parecia mais bonita do que nunca. Cabelos castanho-claros, quase louros, olhos verdes e azuis, o rosto oval e bem feito como uma palminha de quipa. Nela ficavam bem ate aquelas duas espinhas nascendo, puxando sangue para a face. J odo Tote notava tudo, encantado, e já ndo o atorrhentava mais a iddia de mulher-homem valOntona, dominando. Agora pensava ao contrari : duas forcas juntas valiam ate mais. Nela tud ficava bem e a sua figura de mulher imp nha-se dominadora. Quase riu-se, sentindo- e bem interiormente. A ideia de casar-se corn el , de tela, dono de todos aqueles encantos e qu idades, aliviava-o de urn peso sem causa qu vinha sentindo. Era como se desabafasse de u a coisa, de urn desanimo. Uma coisa como ince eza ou impossibilidade. Mas incerteza de que se ele sabia que a moca gostava dele? E impossi ilidade por que, se nenhuma oposicdo poderia aver da parte do pai dela, as duas familias s ndo, do mesmo nivel?

0 velho Manuel Querino por sua vez omou o ticdo, soprou a brasa mortica. Vicencia sperava de lado, cabisbaixa. A fumaca ardia nos lhos do velho, ele recuava o rosto, e o cigarro e palha passava de urn canto a outro da boc , meio mastigado. 0 velho deu a primeira baforad ,depois de um espaco deu outra e nao entregou ticao a filha. Apertou os olhinhos miirdos, como e ainda ardessem e fitou por algum tempo Joao T • te. Jodo Tote mexeu-se no banco e tossru sem vo tade. 0 velho entdo fez uma cara de riso, aquele esozinho mangador que precedia e findava tod a sua conversa: —Ca na minha opinido agua salg da corn agua doce ndo presta. V ira agua salobra. Eu s6 bebo agua dum pote sa. E bem assim C rap que muito se mistura. Corn essa iddia é que eu guardei Vicencia pra se casar corn Batista, o filho mais velho aqui do compadre e mano Jacinto. Favendo barulho fica nas paredes da mesma casa.

V icencia ndo deu uma palavra, nao eve um gesto. 0 rosto nao revelou o menor conten amento ou a menor tristeza. Era como se nad tivesse ouvido. Todos a olhavam, curiosos. J -o Tote

empalideceu e baixou a cabeca, raspando corn a unha a tabua do tamborete. 0 tio falou: — Caso ela esteja de acordo, posso garantir que o meu filho faz melhor negOcio do que ela.

0 velho Manuel Querino dessa vez ndo riu e afirmou de cara fechada: — Eu nunca me governei quando tinha pai. Filho meu, eu vivo, tambem ndo se governa! Palavra dada é palavra a cumprir. Pega o Vicencia, e traz aqui urn cafezinho pra gente!

Pouco tempero pra teu tio.

Vicencia retirou-se de cabeca baixa.

Os homens na sala gabavam a mop., comentavam-lhe as prendas. Depois o assunto foi casamento. Falaram do de sicrano e do de beltrano. 0 velho Jacinto lembrou, gracejando: —Tote esta na vez de casar de novo.

Quern casa uma vez fica no costume.

Tuba, o vaqueiro das Lavras, tirou pilheria corn o amigo: —Essacabeleira de promessatange as mops, Tote!

Joao Tote riu-se, sem dar resposta.

0 velho Manuel Querino tomou aquele seu ar mangador de sempre e deu a sua opinido: —Homem, se eu fosse mulher, o diabo e quern se casava corn viilvo!

Viuvo é café requentado.

Deram gargalhadas, fizeram outras comparacoes. Joao Tote, enfiado, aceitava sem resposta as brincadeiras que faziam corn ele. Caetano, urn vizinho do velho Querino, protestou: —.I4 nao sou do mesmo pensar, Manuel! Porque tenho ca pra mim que a viuva do finado Chiquinho do Tanque Novo ainda transtorna qualquer vivente...

—Isso é viOva, rabo de saia!— respondeu o velho Querino, dando uma gaitada.—Viavo e café choco e viuva é rapadura. Café sem tempero ndo vai, mas o tempero dele serve ate puro mesmo.

A gargalhada estalou e todos falaram ao mesmo tempo, sem se destacar o que de particular dizia nenhum deles. Analia entrou na sala corn uma porcdo de xicaras e a marmita do café. 0 velho Querino reparou a ausencia da outra filha e disse a Analia: —Servico que urn comeca o outro ndo deve acabar.

—Eta nao trouxe o cafe, pai, porque foi no caldeirdo buscar um pote de agua. Ndo tinha ninguem que fosse.

Um bando de vaqueiros chegou porta, reclamando que estava na hora.

0 sot já pendia ha muito e restavam ainda dezesseis animais. Uns tomaram urn cafezinho, outros pediram agua.

A sala ficou vazia e todos os homens se dirigiram para o curral. As mulheres foram depois. Os vaqueiros decidiram, 33

como ja era um pouco tarde, que os animals fossem montados de dois em dois. Selaram primeiro uma burra e um poldro do velho Jacinto. Esperavam que esses animals fossem valentes, porque os sinais eram bons, nao enganavam. Dois vaqueiros de fama montaram. A burra ainda deu uns pinotes, mastigando o freio, assanhada do berreiro que faziam. 0 poldro entretanto ficou tremendo sob O cavaleiro. De yentas acesas, dava de vez em quando urn coicezinho sem coragem.

Depois, acossado nas esporas, correu num chouto maneiro, puxando a baixo.

—E de sela! E de nascenca!—gritou o velho Manuel Querino.

—Pode ser. Mas eu nao gosto de animal que nao esperneia quando leva sela pela primeira vez. E mau sinal!— respondeu o irmao.

A burra, perto do aceiro do patio, quis desgarrar pelo mato, numa carreira adoidada, mas urn vaqueiro segurou-a pelo freio. Endireitou a bicha para o lado de casa, deu-lhe uma palmada na anca, e ela saiu as popas, num galopinho assanhado. Acabaram nao dando o que esperavam.

Montaram outros animals, uns mais teimosos, outros menos. Graca de verdade teve a queda de Luis Broca, enganchado no estribo, as costas ralando-se pela terra. Mais adiante o burro parou, olhando Luis Broca espernear no barro como urn bode na capacao. 0 mais brabo dos animals tinha sido mesmo a poldra alaza de Tioba. Montou-a urn tal Jeremias, um vaqueiro desconhecido, trazido de propOsito pelo dono da egua. 0 homem era cavaleiro de fato. As suas maos, quando montava, nao conheciam arcao de sela. Montava corn seguranca, sem temer tamanho ou fama. Corn a poldra de Tiaba tinha sido assim. Ajoujou-a nas esporas, o chicote comia por cima, e a bicha velha, dando pinotes de onca agastada, nem aluiu o homem enfincado em cima dela como uma estaca em terra dura. Nos pubs, urn pe saiu do estribo.

0 vaqueiro nem deu pela coisa, assanhando cada vez mais a poldra valentona. Abarcou corn as pernas o bucho da egua, largou o freio, acoitando o chicote, ora na anca, ora na cabeca, de modo que ela se azougasse aindamais.0 animal fez roda, adoidado, e disparou, tomando sempre a direcao que Jeremias queria. Cansada, espumando, as yentas abertas como dois bueiros, a poldra acabou deixando-se montar por duas vezes sem reagir. Por fim, dando-a por pronta, o vaqueiro assinalou-a a seu jeito: curvou-se no pescoco da poldra e assentou dente numa das orelhas. A bicha deu uma popa, tomou impulso e saiu a toda em direcao ao curral. 0 tal Jeremias desmontou-se com o animal

correndo. Meteu-lhe os dedos nas Yentas escancaradas e gritou, acalmando-a: —Deixa de brabeza, mofina! E reconhece que tu te pegaste foi corn urn homem! 0 que tinhas em cima de ti nao era uma forquilha nao, zambete!

Era urn par de pernas de verdade!

Deu-lhe ainda umas boas tabicadas, e a poldra encolheu-se toda, de rabo entre as pernas como um cachorro apanhado. Depois da poldra de Tinba, os animals que se montaram nao passavam, na opiniao de Jeremias, de umas grelhas de cangalha. Restavam somente quatro.

Dois deles, os que seriam montados primeiro, diziam os vaqueiros ser brabos de verdade. Seria montado urn de cadavez, porque eram poucos.

Joao Tote, calado ate all, escorado sem coragem nos paus-apique do curral, prontificou-se amontar o castanho dum fazendeiro da Ribeira. 0 dono preveniu-o: —Nao tendo boa perna nao se atreva, moco, que o bichinho é manhoso!

Joao Tote respondeu de cara fechada, como se tivesse motivos intimos para a resposta brusca: —Tambem sou de boa raca, "seu" Lucas! Nao you alem das minhas posses, mas dentro delas sou senhor!

Pulou em cima do animal, ja selado, e deu garra do freio.

Encostou corn forya as esporas bem no vao no poldro, e o poldro, possante, alto, quase cavalo feito, saiu aos coices, aos saltos, de pescoco arqueado.

0 velho Manuel Querino, junto de Lucas, ouvira a resposta do viravo. Virou-se entao para Vicencia e disse baixinho, como se confiasse um segredo que get gente de casa pudesse ouvir: —De boa raca, sim senhor, mas o pal roubou cavalo!

Vicencia encarou o velho, sem revelar espanto pela acusacao. Depois, sem um transtorno na fisionomia, acompanhou corn a vista o movimento do cavalo montado por Joao Tote.

No meio do patio, dando pinotes como um gato, o cavalo rodava, corria, procurando livrar-se do cavaleiro. 0 chicote cobria-lhe a anca sem pena. E as pernas do vaqueiro, acompanhando o movimento do braco no castigo, chegavam-lhe rudemente as esporas. 0 cavalo, atordoado, desembestou de arranco em direcao ao grosso do pessoal reunido em tomb dum pe de piranha, e estacou de repente, as pernastraseiras levantandose numa popa danada. Sem esperar, de maos soltas, Joao Tote precipitou-se pelo pescoco do cavalo, estendendo-se de mau jeito no chao. 0 pe, na volta que o loro deu, ficou preso no estribo, quase amarrado. 0 poldro espantou se, azucrinado ainda mais pela sela que virava no espinhaco, e correu num galopao, aos coices, arrastando o cavaleiro. Os vaqueiros correram em socorro.

Vicencia acompanhou-os, e mais adiante, ligeira como um gato maracaja, deu garra do beico do poldro, torcendo-o corn toda a forca. Jeremias tambern estava em cima do bicho, segurando a brida. 0 poldro deu urn gemido, recuando.

Manquejou nas pemas traseiras, e ficou sem acao, de boca escancarada, com a brida cortando e o beico torcido na mao da moca. As carnes gordas do peito tremiam, enegrecidas do suor. Desembaracaram Joao Tote e ele se levantou, meio amarelo, afirmando que naotinha sido nada. Queria

montar de novo. Aconselharam que nao, ja bastava. Era coisa que sucedia.

E o dono do poldro, vingando-se da resposta brusca sem motivo, repetiu o conselho: —Eu bem que preveni. E preveni por prevenir!

Mas Joao Tote insistia, queria montar outra vez. Danara-se porque Vicencia, como urn macho disposto, fora quem o acudira primeiro. Teve impetos de dizer que mulher cuidava era de galinha e de bacorinho. Aquilo era uma desmoralizacao, um desaforo.

Quem quisesse ser homem que vestisse urn par de calcas. E como ele insistisse no proposito de montar, sem saber ao certo o que falava, pensando no que deveria dizer a Vicencia, os vaqueiros se calaram, acanhados de aconselhar em vao. Mas o velho Manuel Querino interveio: —.Id se sabe que voce tern boa perna, Tote! Nao precisa provar nao. Isso de cair, cal-se ate da rede parada. Sabemos que voce monta. Toda a sua raca foi sempre cavaleira. Cavalo era com voces.

Disse isso rindo, olhando a filha.

Joao Tote tambem olhou-a. E os olhos de Vicencia nao !he pareceram de homem, de valentao. Eram claros, mansos, sem a pinta vermelha de macho brabo. Olhos bonitos, serenos, que nada diziam, alem da boniteza que tinham. Joao Tote acalmou-se, dominado. Teve quase medo e vergonha de Vicencia. E arrependeu-se da ofensa que Ihe fizera em pensamento. Ate admitiu, satisfeito da hipotese: "Acudiume de bem querer."

Um menino trouxe urn caneco de agua para ele. D. Quiteria, a mae de Vicencia, aconselhou-o: —E born, "seu" Tote! Tome sempre urn golezinho. Pra queda e susto agua fria é remedio.

Joao Tote aceitou a agua, sentindose bem com tantos cuidados. Nisto ouviu-se urn barulho. 0 vaqueiro Jeremias, aproveitando a indecisao do viavo, saltara em cima do cavalo e saIra corn ele aos pubs, gritando: —Agora é comigo, grelha! E comigo, me derruba, me arranca da sela!

0 cavalo, ja bem desasnado da primeira prova, deu pubs sem gosto, sem o mesmo impeto. Jeremias gritava, de bracos I evantados, metendo as esporas no poldro. 0 pessoal todo assistia e gabava o vaqueiro. 0 velho Manuel Querino gritou, rindo: —Esse é de verdade! Esse nao cal assim corn dois porens nao! 0 bicho dos meus!

E, pilheriando, voltou-se para Joao Tote: —Aprende, Tote! Toma al uma licaozinha!

Riram-se todos. Joao Tote tambem riu, meio encabulado. Corn mais umas carreiras o poldro estava pronto, assinalado ao modo de Jeremias. E ele, BRAZZIL-JULY1998

envaidecido dos elogios, acabou montando os tres animals restantes. A festa terminou corn o soljá posto, quase escurecendo. Os vaqueiros trataram de selar os cavalos, encabrestar os animais desasnados. Jodo Tote procurava os seus arreios, sem saber onde os tinham botado. Vicencia indicou: — Pra nao haver muita mistura, pendurei corn outros all na imburana.

Foram juntos busca-los. Vicencia mesma tomou a sela num braco, o freio e a manta no outro. Quando os entregava a Joao Tote, disse em voz baixa: —Fiquei sem jeito corn as brincadeiras de pai, na vista de gente. Pai quer que eu case corn Batista mas eu nao caso.

JoAo Tote, sem esperar por aquilo, ficou embaracado e nao disse uma palavra. Ouviram passos. Era o velho Manuel Querino. 0 velho, rindo-se, aos berros, foi dizendo: —No disse a voce que Vicencia era o homem da casa, Tote! Se ela não ajudasse, voce podia sair daqui numa rede. E que voce nAo sabe, mas a queda foi feia, de mau jeito. Perdi um primo numa dessas. Homk!

JoAo Tote sO fazia rir, sem achar palavras. Retirou-se já noite escura, o horizonte perdido nas trevas. * * *

Num domingo, dia de feira em Capoeiras, Jac, Tote encontrou-se corn Vicencia Querino. Eta havia ido ao povoado, acompanhada do itmk Manuelzinho, assistir ao batizado de uma prima. Joao Tote perturbou-se corn a presenca da moca na venda de Joao Borrego. Dirigiu-se a ela meio atarantado, sem saber como comecasse.

V icencia olhou-o. Erecebeu-o contente, sem se alterar. Era como se visse urn conhecido antigo. Apertaram-se as maos e Joao Tote, antes de perguntar pela gente dela, referiu-se A queda: —Ainda estou envergonhado do quedaco, moca! Passei por um molengo mas eu ate nem sou desprevenido de seguranca.

Vicencia riu-se e inquiriu: — 0 senhor nk sentiu mais nada?

A gente Ia em casa ficou ate corn cuidado. Mae disse: PinhAo roxo born.—Nada, D. Vicencia! SO foi o susto. NAo sei mesmo o que era que eu tinha pra se dar aquele cochilo. Podia ate ter morrido. Tambem se morresse, que diabo de falta eu fazia?

Vicencia ficou calada por algum tempo. Depois olhou em redor e disse baixinho: — A gente As vezes pensa que nao faz, mas faz.

—Fazia o que, moca! Quem era que ia se lembrar de mim? Poucos amigos, e mulher nao tenho, nem filhos. Bern eu cá suspeito, ninguem me quer! Pra resumir, dona, eu sou dos tais que quando querem ir por um caminho, BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

chegam os outros e fecham a porteira.

—Quando se quer passar corn disposicAo, seu Joao Tote, cuido que a porteira dao impede. SO dá mesmo o trabalho de abrir a tranca que os outros fecham.

JoAo Tote espantou-se. Dissera a coilsa por alto, corn a verdadeira intencao bem escondida, e a moca compreendera. Era um tino de abismar.

Nem faro de cachorro de caca. E continuou espantado, sem saber mais o que dissesse.

V icenc ia, pronta para qualquer resposta, nao queria se adiantar em perguntas. Olhou, esperando, e calou se.

0 vidvo fez urn cigarro de palha, cabisbaixo, sem encontrar mais palavras. E assim decorreu urn tempo enorme, urn junto do outro como dois mudos. Dal a pouco apareceu Manuelzinho. Falou corn Jok Tote, aceitou o cigarro oferecido. Jok Tote danou-se consigo mesmo, renegando o embaraco que tinha sempre junto da moca. Agora, com Manuelzinho au i perto, Ilk podia trocar duas palavras. Tudo obra dos olhos dela. Boniteza so, mas nunca diziam um sim ou um nAo. Pensando bem, o papel de mulher era o dele. E ela, como dizia opal, o homem da casa. Da casa dela sO, ndo!

Mandando neletambem. Antes os modos da nada.

Ele quando quis casar corn ela teve tanto ajropelo como arredar umapalha. E, remoendo essas oisas, deu urn muxoxo sem proposito.

—Pensando na mode da bezerra, "self Joao?

— gracejou Manuelzinho.

Joao Tote deu uma risadinha envergorjhada e o irmAo da moca, como ele era amigo da familia, bem tratado pelo pai, pediu Ihe urn favor: —"Seu" Joao, caso nâo the fosse incOmodo, eu the pediria pra botar sentido al em V icencia, enquanto you all no ferreiro encomendar urn cao novo pra minha espingarda.

JoAo Tote respOndeu que dgcitiveSse cuidado.

Gente do velho Manuel Querino era como se fosse gente dele. Novamente sods, JoAo Tote criou animo e falou, aproveitando-se do que dissera a Manuelzinho: —Gente dos Querinos e gente minha pelo respeito que me merece. Mas eu maldo que nunca que o velho me desse franquia na familia. se alguem de Id quisesse casar comigo. Nao ha raca boa fora da dele, pensa o velho. E e por isso que ele determina as filhas pra casar corn os p- rentes.

Nk the tiro o direito. Cada um manda como quer no seu terreiro.

Vicencia encarou-o, seria e respond eu corn firmeza: —Ele determina mas eu nao caso. NA° disse isso ao senhor? Agora, quem quiser casar comigo, eu querendo, o resto ja nab é da minha conta. 0 carro sempre anda ants.

Joao Tote decidiu-se corn a mesma emocAo de quern decide urn pass°. de morte.

—Pols D. Vicencia, a senhora desculpe, se direito eu nao tenho da proposta que the faco. Mas e que desde que vi a senhora, naquele dia do boiato, pode crer que a senhora mora comigo na minha cabeca. Pra falar a verdade e born confessar: vosmece nao me larga o pensamento. Aonde eu you, a senhora vai comigo. Se é fraqueza minha contar, ca por conta do transtomo, pois As vezes eu cis o que estou doente. Mas, se you dormir, o s o nao

chega porque a senhora não deixa. E me acordo ainda bem os galos nao cantam, D. V icencia, pra ter tempo de pensar na sua imagem. A comida me amarga e o gosto da agua e o mesmo daquela do dia do quedaco. Me desculpe o desaforo, como ia dizendo, se direito eu nao tenho, mas desde o momento em que o velho marcou a senhora pro filho do irmao covardia nAo e, que eu me conheco!—pode crer que a mim a mode nAo me espanta. E se ela viesse, eu acho que ate louvava a Deus.

Joao Tote tirou o chapel' quando pronunciou o nome de Deus e empacou, desconfiado, arrependido do que tinha dito. Ficou de cabeca baixa olhando a biqueira do sapatao, puxando devagarinho o bigode para dentro da boca.

Vicencia, se estava comovida pelo que acabava de ouvir, nao demonstrava.

Contudo esperou que ele continuasse, olhando-o. Conhecia-the a indecisdo.

Esperou, esperou, mas Joao Tote era um burro acuado. Eta entk instigou-o, em voz baixa: — Pode continuar, "seu" JoAo Tote!

Proposta nenhuma fez ainda o senhor.

— Eu me embaraco, dona. Eu nao chego a um resultado no que sinto, mas, confessando a verclade, a sua presenca me desarma, me faz ate mat. E muito pior eu fico sem ela. Por outras palavras, se a senhora quisesse eu casava. E, como ia dizendo, quero ser desculpado, se direito eu nao tenho no que digo.

Pode me desculpar, certa de que desculpa a urn menino que nao sabe o que faz. Eu nao quero dizer nada, mas cuido que doideira comeca assim. De juizo atravessado eu ando, não nego.

— Ha muito que eu quero, "seu" Joao. Direito eu the dei e nAo foi de hoje. Julgo ate que se o senhor falasse antes, talvez pai nao ajustasse aquilo corn Batista. Agora eu lhe previno duma coisa, pra sua decisao: a gente se casar, vai ser labuta, porque pai tern cabeca de ferro.

— D. Vicencia, por sua causa, e não estou me gabando, eu botaria abaixo a fack, se preciso fosse, tudo quanto é pau do sertdo. Nao e pra me gabar, eu repito, mas acho que ainda não nasceu barreira que eu nAo atrevesse, para alcancar a senhora do lado de Id. E Deus queira me perdoar, mas eu ate matava gente.

Mesmo...

—Manuelzinho apontou al i—preven iu V icenci a.

JoAo Tote, branco como algodao, pediu no mesmo instante uma quarta de cachaca a Joao Borrego. 0 copinho tremia-the na mAo, entomando a cachaca. Virou o de um trago, ja pela metade, e a aguardente nAo the deixou nenhum ranco na goela.

— Quern bebe e no cospe nao sabe beber! —gritou Joao Borrego de dentro do balcao, andando de urn lado para 35

outro como passarinho na gaiola.

—Entao bote uma conta da boa al pra mim!—pediu Manuelzinho, chegando-se para junto do balcao.

0 irmao de V icencia engoliu a cachaca, olhou Joao Tote e indagou, ficando de boca aberta: —Que diabo tern o senhor, "seu" Joao, que o sangue sumiu-se da cara?

Joao Tote respondeu que era sem causa. Talvez resultado da queda.

Andava ultimamente assim, corn umas visagens pelo corpo. Vicencia aeonselhou-o, sabendo a verdadeira causa: —Cuide do achaque, "seu" Joao!

Fora da morte, pra tudo hd remedio.

Joao Tote prometeu cuidar do que fosse preciso. Despediram-se, tomando destinos diferentes.

Um mes depois, na mesma feira, os dois tornaram a encontrar-se. Joao Tote justificou, bendizendo, o vicio dos filhos do velho Manuel Querino. A mania de caca favorecia o encontro dos dois, o irmao sempre ausente corn negOcios de espingarda.

Dessa. vez Vicencia Querino era a intranqijila. Joao Tote ao contrario mostrava a todos o seu contentamento, alegre e risonho como uma crianca.

Vicencia, sisuda, corn a disposicao de quern trata dum problema grave, faloulhe em primeiro lugar.

0 senhor decida depressa como vai ser, "seu" Joao, porque pal marcou o casamento pra daqui a um mes!

Joao Tote franziu a testa, encarandoa. Pensou um instante e propos sem a indecisao de outrora: —A garupa do meu cavalo é macia e duvido que outro homem, correndo atras de mim corn distancia de duas bracas, me pegue mais nesse mundao.

E s6 a senhora querer!

Vicencia respondeu incontinenti: —Fugir eu fujo, "seu" Joao. Mas juro que pal morre de raiva, se nao matar a nOs dois.

— Indo n6s dois duma vez, D. Vicencia, you tao alegre pra debaixo da terra como vai semente pra nascer. Ind° eu sO, eu padeco. Mas indo so a senhora, eu ficando, queira crer que muita cova vai se abrir por este sertao a fora.

Joao Tote conquistara o posto de homem que antes era de Vicencia. Estava disposto a tudo, nao conhecia obstaculo corn que nao lutasse ate veneer ou morrer. Era um jogo de morte, mas o que ele buscava era a vida. E por ela iria longe, sentindo for-gas paravarar distancias. So nao iria muito alem das prOprias forcas, fazendo o impossivel, se Vicencia impedisse. Mas Vicencia estava de acordo. 0 furto se daria na vespera do casamento, dia em que o velho Manuel Querino ia dar uma festinha. Dai ate Id so haveria urn cuidado: tratar do cavalo, porque os dois nao voltavam atras a palavra dada urn ao outro. A promessa 36

foi sob jura, invocado o nome de Deus. *** Na vespera do casamento apareceu tanta gente como nao se esperava. Ate os parentes mais afastados dos Querinos vieram. E de toda parte chegavam vaqueiros, fazendeiros montados, conduzindo mulheres nas garupas dos cavalos, ou acompanhando, a passo lento, as familias a pe, aos bandos.

Joao Tote chegou a boquinha da noite.

Amarrou seu castanho bem afastado de casa, de propOsito, e nao tirou a sela. A manta de couro de bode, comprida, cobria metade da garupa. Os arreios eram novos, de seguranca. Depois tirou as esporas e amarrou-as juntamente corn o chicote nas correinhas do arcao da sela. Afivelou melhor o cinturao e retirou da cintura a pistola e o punhal, -atando uma arma a outra numa correia. Pendurouas no pescoco do cavalo, dando urn no corn as crinas. Em seguida olhou a estrada larga, cuspiu de banda e dirigiu-se para a festa.

Quando entrou em casa, o velho Manuel Querino veio logo ao seu encontro, rindo-se, pilheriando aos gritos: —Vocêjá aprendeu a montar, Tote? Arranje urn bode mocho, capado, e ensaie pelo meio do patio!

0 outro tambem riu, satisfeito, estirando-lhe a mao. 0 velho abracou-o, fazendo perguntas.

A casa estava bem clara, as paredes corn uma porcao de alcoviteiros pendurados dos tornos.

Gente muita conversando. Mulheres fumando, rindo, batendo boca. Da sala da frente via-se o fumaceiro na cozinha, a lenha se queimando sob panelas de coisas boas. Tres violas penduradas nos armadores de redes e dois ganzas embrulhados em lencos, postos no batente de uma janela.

Meninos corriam pelo meio da gente grande, brincando, traquinando. Joao Tote reparava tudo, disfarcadamente. Precisavaconhecer bem o terreno em que pisava, ter nocao exata das coisas, de modo a poder escolher o melhor momento. A tarefa era dificil, arriscada. Mas ele estava disposto a tudo. E por isso mesmo e que se prevenia corn mil cuidados, corn mil cautelas, para nao botar a cacada a perder. Mostrava-se bem disposto, alegre, sem dar o menor sinal do seu prop6sito. 0 velho Manuel Querino, que de vez em quando o olhava, indagou rindo: machucou os ossos do noivo, Tote?

— Ainda nab tive a satisfacao, "seu" Querino.

Cade esse felizardo?

Batista apresentou-se, satisfeito, de fatiota branca e bem engomada. Abracaram-se. Trocaram palavras amaveis de felicitacOes e de agradecimentos. Joao Tote entretanto nab tinha visto ainda a noiva.

Estimava dar-lhe tambem os parabens. 0 velho gritou, corn o risozinho de costume: —Vem cá, Vicencia! Vern aqui falar corn Tote, o amansador de cavalo manso!

As gracas do velho eram sempre recebidas corn risos.

Lembraram, os que conheciam o fato, a queda desastrosa do vidvo.

Vicencia nao tardou. Apresentou-se, indiferente, calma, e estirou a mao a Joao Tote, rindo-se como fizera corn os °taros que a haviam cumprimentado.

Ele tambem se embaracou, e, por delicadeza, aventurou-se: —Peco licenca pra ter a mesma opiniao do pal do noivo: ele faz mais neg6cio do que ela. Nao porque deixe de ter muitas qualidades, que sou G. primeiro a reconhecer.

Vicencia baixou a cabeca. 0 pessoal que estava na roda riu, achando engracada a opiniao dada, e o velho pal tambern deu a sua: —A minha opiniao é outra, Tote velho! Quem faz negOcio em familia bota o dinheiro pra circular na mesma casa. Prejuizo ou lucro é sempre do mesmo povo. Agora, sendo o neg6cio corn estranhos, ai a coisa é outra.

—Esse velho é urn sabidao! Isso nao bota agua a pinto!— interrompeu o velho Gusmao, compadre dele, que se chegava para a roda.

A conversa tomou outro rumo. Dar a pouco Analia veio chamar o pessoal para corner alguma coisa. 0 velho Querino bateu palmas e anunciou: —Quern quiser comes e bebes que emboque Id pra dentro! Tern um putici de coisas. E quern nao quiser, que fique vadiando no samba, queja vai comecar!

Tres homens, na porta da frente, repinicaram as violas. Os ganzas se remexeram, imitando a cascavel.

Alguns pares foram se formando e corn pouco se dancaya parelha trocada. Urn caboclo baixo, de pescoco curto e de veias grossas, soltou o coro da danca: Tava a paca roendo o coco, Veio a culla e tomou.

Quero ver levantar cinza, Como ontem levantou!

Enquanto o pessoal se divertia, uns dancando, outros manjando na saleta, Analia chamou Vicencia para a camarinha. Estava aflita. Queria dizer uma coisa. E no escuro, cortando as palavras para tomar folego, foi dizendo em cochicho: —Esta tudo perdido, Vicencia! Pal sabe de tudo. Ele me botou em confissao e eu fui obrigada a dizer que tu fugias hoje. Ele quis sair daqui ontem mesmo pra liquidar "seu" Tote. Mae foi quem impediu. Mas ele disse que esse desaforo precisava dum ensino. E ja esta tudo combinado, Vicencia. Quando pal der ao pessoal o dltimo trago de cachaca, dizendo que sO se danca mais dois ou tres cocos, Manuelzinho, Quinca, urn cabra que eu nao sei quem é e mais dois filhos de tio Jacinto vao pra curva, la no fim da cerca. SO o teu noivo, Batista, esta na ignorancia. Eles ja cortaram ate urn galho da braana.

Botam no caminho e quando "seu" Tote se apear pra arreda lo, eles o matam.

Pal quer que tu vejas tudo da garupa do cavalo. Virgem, eu nao sei como pai assim! E nao ha quem diga, fazendo aqueles agrados todos a "seu" Tote. E preciso nao ter coracao pra se ficar assim como pal. Eu estou corn tanto BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

medo, Vicencia! Pega so aqui nas minhas indos!

No escuro da camarinha ndo se via o rosto de Vicencia. Ela pegou nas maosgeladas da irma e indagou, de voz abafada: — E quern disse a pai que a gente se gostava, pra ele maldar, e te botar em confissdo?

— Ora, quem disse, Vicencia! E tu es boba! Quem nao conhecia o teu transtorno? Desde que tu largaste de olhar aquelas serras do lado de la., como era teu costume, pai ficou de pulga na orelha. Ficou maldando. Tu pensas que enganavas, mas a gente via, Vicencia.

Tu vivias distraida, pensando, pensando Ate de memoria fraca tu ficaste.

Respondias adoidadamente ou entdo ficavas de ouvidos tapados, quando a gente te fazia uma pergunta. Ate mde desconfiou! E cu disse a ela. Mae ndo desaprova. Ela gosta de "seu" Tote. Eu rezei tanto pra que ele ndo viesse, e ele esta ai. Esta al, coitado, inocente. Vai morrer como carneiro de festa. Mesmo na vespera.

— Vicencia! Vicencia! —gritaram da sala.

— Já you, pai! E mandou que a irmd saisse primeiro e dissesse que ela estava se arrumando.

Vicencia ficou so no quarto. Ndo podia demorar muito.Nao tinha o direito de pensar, de chorar, de imaginar um meio de salvacao. E este meio ndo havia. 0 pai era uma ono, daria o bote de qualquer maneira em cima do carneiro inocente. Quer ela fugisse quer "seu" Tote era urn homem morto.

Se soubesse antes teria fugido hd mais tempo. Agora era tarde. Estava tudo perdido.

A porta da camarinha se abriu e o pai indagou, de voz aspera: —Que está fazendo al, Vicencia, encafuada neste escuro?

Vicencia levantou a tampa da arca e respondeu: —Estou procurando o meu frasco de cheiro, pai! saio já. —Anda corn isso! 0 teu noivo esta. na sala sem dama.

Vicencia incorporou se a danca como dama do noivo. Os pares se trocavam nas umbigadas e a mazurca dos pes acompanhava o ritrno das violas. Quando o caboclo baixo tirava os versos, os instrumentos paravam.

Depois tornavam a tocar e a danca cada vez mais se animava. Suavam, limpayarn corn os lencos a testa e o pescoco.

A poeira levantava-se, ardia nos olhos.

De vez em quando pares novos se juntavam a danca, outros saiam.

Vicencia, arrogantemente, desafiando as iras do pai, ndo tirava os olhos claros de cima de Joao Tote. E ele as vezes distraia os seus, corn medo que notassem. Ela insistia, entretanto. Era como se quisesse guardar bem na vista um rosto que ndo haveria de ver nunca mais. Joao Tote inquietava-se. Aquilo ndo era o sinal convencionado. Era urn BRAZZIL -JULY 1998

modo estranho, fora dos hdbitos de Vicencia. Ndo via justificativa para tanta impruden ia. Se notassem? Se maldassem? Estaria tudo rdido, na certa. Ela, que ate all fora dissimulada, so retudo corn ele proprio, a ponto de deixd-lo incerto no direito que tinha, mostravase agora como uma crianca sem tino, descobrindo as artes a todo o mundo.

Joao Tote desviava os olhos dos dela, mas de vez em quando arriscava urn olhar rapid°, de soslaio, para se certificar se ela ainda insistia no proposito de olhd-lo. Insistia, ndo arredava os olhos de cima dele. Era como se it'd° tivesse outra coisa para olhar, para ver. Joao Tote se impacientava cada vez mais. Baixou a cabeca, errando constantemente o passo da danca. Umadesanimacdo, um desalento comecava a invadir-lhe o espirito. Dal a pouco pediu desculpas a moca corn quern dancava e saiu da roda. A parelha trocada entretanto continuava animada. Vicencia seguiu-o corn os oftos, ate quando ele desapareceu na escuriddo do alpendre.

A danca rolou por muito tempo, sem que Joao Tote reentrasse na sala. Afinal bateram palmas, estacando os pares. Fora Vicencia que batera.

Depois falou: —Agora, minha gente, urn descansinho pra retemperar as forcas!

Todos acharam boa a iddia. Desfeita a roda, os homens dirigiram-se para o terreiro em busca de ar. Sopravam, tangendo o cansaco. A noite era de escuro. Nem uma estrela se via no ceu.

Jodo Tote descansava num cepo, furnando, desanimado. A esperanca the fugira, a coragem desaparecera. Tinha urn vago pressentirnento de que Vicencia estragara tudo. Urn relaxamento apossava-se dele, tirava-lhe a vontade, anulavalhe a disposicdo. A cabeca estava como se fosse oca, sem nenhum pensamento alojado Id dentro.

Ndo tinha forca, animo para pensar, imaginar.

Encostado na parede, de cigarro na ma°, se o deixassem au i dormiria, esqueceria tudo, como urn bicho sem proposito nenhum na vida Muitas mulheres na saleta comiam pamonha, canjica, beiju seco.

Outras ajeitavam o cabelo ou suspendiam as saias, limpando os babados sujos da poeira vermelha.

Ouviu-se o som das violas que se afinavam. E urn toque animado, acompanhado dos ganzds, convidou novamente o pessoal a danca. Alguns pares estacionavam na sala, esperando o niunero.

Vicencia gritou, animada: —"Seu" Tote! "Seu" Tote!

Joao Tote despertou como urn boi lerdo na ponta do ferrao. Aquela voz sempre the comunicavavida nova. Corn o coracdo aos pinotes, atarantado, Joao Tote seguiu igual a urn menino que obedece a chamado de pai ou de mae. Mao p6de mais entretanto recuperar o animo, dispor interiormente a sua conduta. Era urn cabe a lesa, sem vontade, sem direcdo, sem proposito. 'arida convidou-o, rindo: —Dance comigo, "seu" Tote!

0 viiivo ndo respondeu, entregue a. acaso, sem ser mais senhor de si. Essa impr dencia extrema de Vicencia nao o impression° mais, nâo teve forcas de chamd-lo a realidade. En ostouse a moca, corn o olhar cravado no ca deeiro defronte. 0 velho Querino olhou a filha fix mente.

Ela correspondeu a sua insistencia, co o num

desafio. E ficaram os dois por algum tempo se olhando sem pestanejar.

Pareciam duas criancas brincando de pegar urn seri°. 0 velho perdeu, afinal, e desviou olhar para Joao Tote. Ele porem nao atendeu ao do velho, corn o seu preso a luz do candeeiro, tonto por ela como uma mariposa. Os primeiros passos se remexeram na danca e foi preciso Vicencia despertar o seu cavalheiro: —Acorde, "seu" Tote!

A danca comecou.

Jodo Tote moveu as pernas corn o esforco de quem arrastasse um grande peso. Dancava sem ritmo, errando, sem vontade. Movia-se dominado por uma for-9a alheia a sua vontade. Talvez a vontade masculina de Vicencia, obrigando-o. As parelhas se trocavam, circulando. A voz do caboclo marcava a cadencia na carretilha dos versos ligeiros. Joao Tote continuava ausente de si mesmo, sem nocao de nada. Sc parassem a danca de repente, é possivel que continuasse a dancar sa, como urn bebado. Vicencia, no tumulto, aproveitando o trecho da sala onde a luz era mais fraca, pegou-lhe na mdo, apertando-a. Joao Tote pareceu despertar, alentando-se, mas, quando a mao de Vicencia largou a sua, voltou a inconsciencia a que se entregara. Era um cego sem guia, urn homem aniquilado, morto.

0 velho Querino acompanhava-os corn o olhar espreitador, mastigando o cigarro de palha apagado. Vicencia notava a vigilancia do velho. E quando passavaperto dele, dancando, levantava o rosto, corn modos de debique. Dal a pouco se ouvia o yozeirdo do velho.

—Parar um instante, minha gente!

Mais uma bicada a todos pra esquentar o sangue e depois tres dancinhas pra terminar!

Vicencia estremeceu. Era o sinal.

Na segunda danca o pessoal iria para a tocaia. Joao Tote morreria como um moco na espera. Sc fugissem, morreria ta sangrando como um porco. Sc ficassem, morreria no terreiro da mesma forma.

0 velho distribuiu ele mesmo a caninha. As mulheres beberam primeiro. Depois os homens. E o copinho passava de boca em boca, ouvindo-se em seguida estalidos de lingua e referencias elogiosas a cachaca de primeira ordem. A Joao Tote poderiam ter dado veneno, porque ele ndo sabia o que estava bebendo. Continuava distante, sem se achar a si mesmo.

Servida a aguardente, os pares retomaram a posicdo da danca. E as violas gemeram os primeiros sons.

Vicencia avancou para o meio da roda e bateu palmas. Todos a olharam. la falar. 0 pai encarou-a, procurando 37

adivinhar o que iria sair da boca da filha. V icencia olhou para todos, depois demorou a vista em cima de Joao Tote.

Ele porem nao prestava atencao a roda, nao se despertara, alheio a tudo, e esperava somente que a mosica tocasse para dancar automaticamente.

Vicencia falou: —Pai, nao é preciso nada do que o senhor arranjou, pois a vinganca quern vai tomar sou eu mesma.

Todos ficaram surpresos, suspensos. Ninguem sabia do que se tratava, a nao set os que estavam de posse do segredo. Analia comecou a chorar e a mae levou-a para a camarinha.

Vicencia prosseguiu, impassivel: —Quando um desaforado se mete pra banda da filha dum homem, ela mesma deve dar a licao.

E, aproximando-se de Joao Tote, que permanecia indiferente a tudo, como se nao tivesse ouvido nada, assentou-lhe corn toda a forca uma bofetada na cara. As marcas dos dedos ficaram-lhe na face, o sangue subiu e Joao Tote estremeceu todo, sem se arredar do lugar, como urn bicho mortalmente ferido. Os olhos pularam, alargaram-se, tornaram-se olhos de louco. Antes que tivesse qualquer ideia, que fizesse qualquer movimento, dentro daqueles dois segundos, outra bofetada

estalou-lhe na face já apanhada. Joao Tote deu urn gemido, urn estranho gemido, arredou violentamente o pessoal que estava na sua frente, e saiu correndo como um alucinado.

Poucos minutos depois se ouviu urn tropel de cavalo, longe, num desembesto de morte. 0 velho Querino franziu a testa e ordenou ao cantador: —Bote a festa pra frente, "seu" Terto!

0 caboclo cantou, engrossando as veias do pescoco curto: Corre, corre, meu cachorro, Meu cachorro corredor!

Pega a ono, pega o bicho, Vai pegar o meu amor.

A danca reanimou-se. A barra da manha vinha nascendo. Vicencia saiu para o alpendre e os versos do caboclo acompanhavam os seus ouvidos: Volta, volta, meu cachorro, Meu cachorro corredor!

Foi-se a onca, foi-se o bicho, Foi-se embora o meu amor.

A velha Quiteria veio atras da filha e indagou: —Estas chorando, Vicencia?

--Eu, mae! Chorando por que? Quem é que tern olho de formiga pra nao ficar de vista vermelha corn esse poeirao la de dentro!

Quando a velha saiu, Vicencia pareciaprocurar corn ansiedade uma coisaesquecida. Mas la longe nao se via nada, a bruma da manha tapando tudo.

Perto, entretanto, as coisas eram as mesmas: urn couro de bode espichado e pendurado numa jurema; mais embaixo o curral, vendo-se a caveira duma res enfiada numa estaca, de urn lado, sob uma braima, o carro de boi corn dois anuns sentados nos fueiros e perto de casa as touceiras de gravata corn uma porcao de cascas de ovo espetadas nas pontas das folhas compridas.

Vicencia procurava a distancia, o horizonte sumido na nevoa. 0 sol ia dissipando o nevoeiro e esbocavam-se, meio indistintos ainda, os contornos das serras azuladas. Vicencia olhava, ansiosa, sem ver nada. Esperou que o nevoeiro passasse. Passou. Porem outro, talvez o dos pr6prios olhos, continuava a impedir-lhe a visao. Vicencia insistia, insistia, apertando os olhos, mas nao enxergava nada.

As serras azuladas, la distantes, eram entao como uma .paisagem perdida.

This short story was originally published under the title "Paisagem Perdida" on Maravilhas do Con to Modern° Brasileiro, Editora Cultrix, 1961, 330 pp

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...Continued from the previous issue.

Igreja da Ordem Terceira de Sao Francisco Next door to the Igreja Sao Francisco is the 17thcentury Church of the Third Order of sao Francisco. Notice the frontispiece, in the Spanish baroque or plateresco style, which remained hidden until it was accidentally discovered in the 1930s when a workman hammered off some plaster to install wiring. Opening hours are Monday to Friday from 8 to 11.30 am and 2 to 5 pm.

Igreja Sao Pedro dos Clerigos The Igreja Sao Pedro dos Clerigos is on Terreiro de Jesus, next to Cantina da Lua. This rococo church, like many others built in the 18th century, was left with one of its towers missing in order to avoid a tax on finished churches. It opens only during mass (usually from 8 to 9.30 am on Sunday), and if you visit during this time, do not disturb the service.

Pelourinho To see the city's oldest architecture, turn down Rua Alfredo de Brito, the small street which descends into the Pelourinho district. `Pelourinho' means 'whipping post', and this is where the slaves were tortured and sold (whipping of slaves was legal in Brazil until 1835). The old slave-auction site on Largo do Pelourinho (also known as Praca Jose de Alencar) has recently been renovated and converted into the FundacaoCasa de Jorge Amado (Jorge Amado Museum). According to a brass plaque across the street, Amado lived in the Hotel Pelourinho when it was a student house. The exhibition is disappointing, but you can watch a free video of Dona Flor or one of the other films based on Am ado' s books. The BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

TowIL1 That's a Sanctua Legend says Salvador ha 365 churches, one for every day f the year. Sometimes it seems to have more. And there are Pelourmho, Elevador Lacerda, Mercado Modelo, names to arouse memories or provoke longings for the unknown. Plus Candonlble, beaches, parties, museums...

museum is open Monday to Friday from 9 am to 6 pm.

Next door is the Museu da Cidade. The Exhibitions on display include costumes of the orixds of Candomble, and the personal effects of the Romantic poet Castro Alves, author of Navio Negreiro, and one of the first public figures to protest against slavery. The museum is open Tuesday to Saturday from 9 am to 6 pm.

Igreja Nossa Senhora do Rosario dos Pretos, across the Largo do Pelourinho, was built by and for the slaves. The 18th-century church has some lovely azulejos and is beautifully lit up at night. The church is open Monday to Friday from 8 am to 5.30 pm, and on Saturday and Sunday from 8 am to 2 pm.

Igreja do Santissimo Sacramento da Rua do Paco From Pelourinho, go down the hill and then continue uphill along Ladeira do Carmo. You will reach a set of steps on the left, which lead up to the church in an approach reminiscent of the Spanish Steps of Rome.

The first Brazilian film to win an award at the Cannes film festival, 0 Pagador de Promessa, was filmed here.

Igreja da Ordem Terceira do Carmo This church, at the top of the hill on Ladeira do Carmo, was founded in 1636 and contains a baroque altar and an organ that dates from 1889.

Igreja e Convento de Nossa Senhora do Carmo & Museu do Carmo Next door, this religious complex is moderately interesting. Among the sacred and religious articles in the museum is a famous sculpture of Christ created by Francisco Chagas (also known as 0 Cabra). There's also a treaty 39

declaring the expulsion of the Dutch from Salvador on 30 April 1625. The document was signed at the convent, which served as the general's quarters at the time. The museum is open Monday to Saturday from 8 to 11.30 am and from 2 to 5 pm.

For a glimpse of old Salvador, continue walking for a few blocks past dilapidated buildings which teem with life.

Also notice an odd-looking public oratory, Oraterio da Cruz do Pascoal, plunked in the middle of Rua Joaquim Tavora.

Praca Tome de Souza While not officially recognised or protected by the Brazilian historical architecture society SPHAN, this plaza in the center has several beautiful and important sites. The Palacio Rio Branco was built in 1549 to house the offices of Tome de Souza, the first governor general of Brazil. The palace has been rebuilt and refurbished over the years, and the large, cream-colored, birthday-cake building is now headquarters for Bahiatursa.

Elevador Lacerda The Lacerda Elevator, inaugurated in 1868, was an iron structure with clanking steam elevators until these were replaced with a new system in 1928. Today, electric elevators truck up and down a set of 85-meter, vertical cement shafts in less than 15 seconds, and carry over 50,000 passengers daily.

Things weren't always so easy. At first, the Portuguese used slaves and mules to transport goods from the port in Cidade Baixa to Cidade Alta. , By 1610, the Jesuits had installed the first elevator to negotiate the drop. A clever system of ropes and pulleys was manually operated to carry freight and a few brave souls.

You should watch out for petty crime around the elevator, particularly after dusk.

Cidade Baixa Descending into the lower city you'll be confronted by the Mercado Modelo. Filled with souvenir stalls and res40

The church is open from 6 taurants, it's Salvador's worst concession to tourism. am to noon and 2.30 to 6 pm If you've missed capoeit'a, there are displays for Tuesday to Sunday. tourists outside the building—anyone contemplating The Bay taking photos is well advised to negotiate a sensible From the church there is a price beforehand or risk being suckered for an absurd very interesting half-hour walk fee. The modernist sculpture across the street is reto the bay, where you'll find ferred to as bunda (arse) by the locals—which gives the old Monte Serrat lightit a much more appealing aspect. There are many house and church (good crab cheap lanchonetes in Cidade Baixa and the area is at the barracks). Nearby is worth exploring.

Praia da Boa Viagem, where Mercado Sao Joaquim one of Bahia's most popular To see a typical market, take either the `Ribeira' or and magnificent festivals, the Bonfim' bus from the Procissao do Senhor Born bus stop beside the el- r Jesus dos Navegantes, evator (base station). Get takes place on New off after the Pirelli Pneus Capoeira Year's Eve. store on your left, after One capoeira group in SalThe beach is lined about three km. Mercado vador is notorious for extractwith barracas and is aniSao Joaquim is a small ing money from unsuspecting mated on weekends. It's city of waterfront barratourists. Unfortunately, the a poorer part of town and cas, open all day, every group is also one of the more quite interesting. From day except Sunday. It's spectacular to watch. I should Boa Viagem, there are not exactly clean (watch have known better, but I buses back to the bus stop out for the green slime stopped to watch them one beside the Lacerda Elevapuddles)—and the meat afternoon and was immeditor (base station). ci neighborhood can turn ately asked for money "for the Museu de Arte the unprepared into deschool." I handed over what I vout vegetarians. You are Sacra da Bahia considered a reasonable sum, This museum is bound to come across and have done so, thought I spontaneous singing and housed in a 17th-century might as well take a photo. convent, which has been dancing at barracas After taking a quick snap beautifully restored. The where cachaca is served. of the action, the `Mestre', a mountain with muscles on his Igreja Nosso sacred art on display inmuscles, pulled out of the cludes excellent and varSenhor do Bonfim circle and approached me. He Take the Bonfim' ied sculptures and images asked me for money, and I in wood, clay and soapbus across the road from explained that I'd already the market to the Igreja stone—many were given. "Yes," he said, peering shipped to Salvador from Nosso Senhor do Bonfim, down at me with a broad smile, further along the ItapaPortugal. Opening hours "but you need to pay more for gipe peninsula. Built in are Monday to Friday the Mestre." I refused, but as 1745, the shrine is famous from 9.30 to 11.30 am he became more persistent for its miraculous power and 2 to 5.30 pm. (and, the crowd around grew to effect cures. In the Sala Museu de Arte more amused at the encoundos Milagres you will see Moderna ter), I reached into my pocket votive offerings: replicas On the bay, further and dropped'a bunch of coins of feet, arms, heads, down from the center tointo his massive palm. He hearts—parts of the body ward Campo Grande, is looked from the coins to me, devotees claim were the Solar do Unhao, an then threw the coins into the cured. old sugar estate that now ground in apparent disgust.

For Candomblistas, houses the small Museu Moving closer, he took my Bonfim is the church of de Arte Moderna, a reshead gently into his hands and Oxala and thus their most taurant and a ceramic gave me a 'friendly' headbutt! important church. In workshop. Legend has it January, the Lavagem do that the place is haunted Bonfim, one of Bahia's most important festivals, by the ghosts of tortured takes place here and Candomble priestesses (meies de slaves. One look at the ancient Santo) lead the festivities together with Catholic priests. pelourinho (whipping post) There are also huge services at Bonfim on the first and and torture devices on display last Friday of each month. makes the idea credible. HowWhen you approach the church you'll undoubtever, it's a lovely spot; the art edly be offered afita (ribbon) to tie around your wrist. exhibits are often good and With thefita you can make three wishes that will come the restaurant has a tranquil true by the time it falls off This usually takes over two atmosphere and a view. months and you must allow it to fall off from natural This area has a reputation wear and tear. Cutting it off is said to bring bad luck. for crime (especially mugging BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

of tourists), and buses don't pass close to it—it's better to take a taxi to and from the Solar do Unhao. Opening hours are Tuesday to Sunday from 1 to 5 pm.

Candomble Before doing anything in Salvador, find out about the schedule for Candomble ceremonies so you don't miss a night in a terreiro. The Federacao Baiana do Culto AfroBrasileiro (Tel.: 321-0145), at Rua Alfredo do Brito 39, Pelourinho, is open Monday to Friday from 8 am to noon and provides information on Candomble services. Pass through the clinic and speak to An in the back room. Bahiatursa has many Candomblistas on its staff who can provide the addresses of terreiros— the Eventos & Servicos guide available at Bahiatursa offices lists a monthly schedule with transport details. Activities usually start around 8 or 9 pm and can be held any day of the week.

Capoeira School To visit a capoeira school, it's best to get the up-to-date schedule from Bahiatursa, which has a complete listing of schools and some class schedules in its monthly Eventos and Servicos guide.

The Associacao de Capoeira Mestre Bimba is an excellent school. It's at Rua Francisco Muniz Barreto 1, 1st floor, Terreiro de Jesus, and operates Monday to Saturday, from 9 to 11 am and 4 to 7 pm.

Beaches The beaches of Pituba, Armacao, Plata, Placaford and Itapoa may not be as famous as Ipanema and Copacabana, but they are more beautiful. Although these beaches are all within 45 minutes by bus from the center, Pituba, Armacao and Mad are becoming increasingly polluted and are not recommended for swimming. The state government has made plans for a new central treatment plant which BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

will pump outfall five km out to sea—in the meantime, it's advisable to head for Placaford, Itapoa or further north.

If you just want to experience Salvador's beach scene, Barra has the first beaches and is the liveliest—but swimming is not advisable on the Atlantic Ocean side, due to heavy pollution. Surprisi gly, the water on the bay side at Barra certainly lo tics clear and inviting—locals love it, so you can mak up your own mind. There are plenty of restaurants, arracas and bars along the waterfront, although it ca get a bit sleazy at night. You can see Bahia's oldesi fort, the polygonal Santo Antonio da Barra, which as built in 1598 and fell to the Dutch in 1624. The v ew from the fort of Itaparica is splendid.

Festivals Salvador's Carnaval receives greatest e phasis, but it is by no means the only festival wort attending. There are many others, particularly in January and February, which attract huge crowds. Since the 17th century, religious processions have re ained an integral part of the city's cultural life. C mbining elements of the sacred and profane, Cando bid and Catholicism, many of these festivals are a wild as Carnaval and possibly more colorful.

Carnaval Carnaval in Salvador is justly world fa ous. For four nights and three days, the masses go to the streets and stay until they fall. There's nothing to t, so all you have to do is follow your heart—or th nearest trio eletrico—and play.

Carnaval, usually held in February o March, starts on a Thursday night and continues intil the following Monday. Everything, but everything, goes during these four days. In recent years, Cariaval has revolved around the trios eletricos. The tri s play a distinctively upbeat music from the tops f trucks that slowly wind their way through the main arnaval areas (Praca Castro Alves, Campo Grande an Barra).

Surrounding the trios is a sea of dancing, rinking revelers.

Carnaval brings so many tourists and o much money to Salvador that there's been an i evitable tendency towards commercialization, alth ugh this trend is still light years behind Rio. Fortunat ly. local residents have been very critical of this trend, and arts and community groups have now been given a greater say in the arrangements of Salvador's Carnaval. A more authentic festival has resulted from this: events have been decentralized, and freer and more impromptu expression is encouraged. Let's hope the spontaneity continues.

Take a look at the ewspaper or go to Emtursa r Bahiatursa for a list of evens. Don't miss the afoxes (Afr blocos, large groups of Carna al revelers), such as Badaue, le-Aiye, Olodum, Timbalada, Muzenza and the most famous, Filhos de Gandhi (Sons of Gandhi). The best place to See them is in Liberdade, Salvador's largest black district.

Also, explore Carnaval Caramuru in Rio Vermelho and the smaller happenings in Itapoa, the old fishing

and whaling village which has a fascinating ocean procession on the last day of Carnaval, when a whale is delivered to the sea.

The traditional gay parade is held on Monday at Praca Castro Alves. Many of Brazil's best musicians return to Salvador for Carnaval, and the frequent rumors that so and so will be playing on the street are often true (for example, Gilberto Gil and Baby Consuelo have both taken part).

Many clubs have balls just before and during Carnaval.

If you're in the city before the festivities start, you can also see some of the blocos practicing. Just ask Emtursa or Bahiatursa.

Hotels do fill up during Carnaval, so reservations are a good idea. Stay near the center or in Barra. Violence can be a problem during Carnaval, and some women travellers have reported violent approaches from locals.

A common experience you may encounter at Carnaval is when you are sucked into the crowd right behind a trio eletrico and have to dodge all the dancers with their flying elbows!

Procissao do Senhor Born Jesus dos Navegantes This festival, which originated in Portugal in 1750, is one of Bahia's most popular celebrations. On New Year's Eve, the image of Senhor dos Navegantes is taken to Igreja Nossa Senhora da Conceicao, close to Mercado Modelo in Cidade Baixa. On the morning of New Year's Day, a maritime procession, consisting of dozens of boats, transports the image along the bay and returns it to the beach at Boa Viagem, which is packed with onlookers eager to celebrate with music, food and drink.

Festas de Reis Also of Portuguese origin, this festival is held in Igreja da Lapinha on 5 and 6 January.

Lavagem do Bonfim This festival, which takes place on the second Thursday 41

in January, is one of Salvador's most popular events and is attended by huge crowds.

The festival culminates with the ritual lavagem (washing) of the church by maes and fl/has de santo. Abundant flowers and lights provide impressive decoration, and the party atmosphere continues with the Filhos de Gandhi and trios eletricos providing musical accompaniment for dancers. If you want to do the ninekm walk to the church, it's best to leave early with the Irides, before the trios eletricos blast into action.

Festa de Sao Lazar° This is a festival dedicated to the Candomble orixa.

Omulu, and culminates on the last Sunday in January with a mass, procession, festival and ritual cleansing of the church.

Festa de Iemanja A grand maritime procession takes flowers and presents to Iemanja, the Mae e Rainha das Aguas (Mother and Queen of the Waters). One of Candomble's most important festivals, it's celebrated on 2 February in Rio Vermelho and accompanied by trios eletricos, afoxes and plenty of food and drink.

Lavagem da Igreja de Itapoa Celebrated in Itapod, 15 days before Carnaval, this warm-up for Carnaval is all music and dance, with blocos and afoxes.

Festa de Sao Joao This festival is celebrated on 23 and 24 June with pyrotechnics and many parties on the street where genipapo, a local liqueur, is consumed in very liberal quantities.

Santa Barbara The festival of Santa Barbara is the Candomblefesta of the markets. Probably the best spot to see the festivities from 4 to 6 December is in Rio Vermelho, at the Mercado do Peixe.

Festa de Nossa Senhora da Conceicao This festival takes place on 8 December and features a procession in Cidade Baixa 42

Candomble A long evening of Candomble at Casa Branca, Salvador's oldest terrreiro, is quite an experience. The women dress in lace and hooped skirts, dance slowly and chant in Yoruba. The men drum complex and powerful African rhythms. The terreiro is dominated by the women: only women dance, and only they enter a trance, the principal goal of the ceremony. Men play a supporting role.

The dance is very African, with graceful hand motions, swaying hips and light steps. When a dancer enters the trance, she shakes and writhes while assistants embrace and support her. Sometimes, even spectators go into trances, although this is discouraged.

The In& de santo or pal de santo runs the service.

The mile pequena is entrusted with the training of priestesses; in this case two filhos de santo: one, a girl over seven years of age, the other a girl under seven. The initiates are called abian.

On a festival morning, the celebration commences with an animal sacrifice. Only initiates may attend this service. Later in the afternoon thepade ceremony is held to attract the attention of Exu, and this is followed by chanting for the orixas, which is accompanied by alabes (atabaque drummers).

The festival we attended was for Omolu, the feared and respected orixO of plague and disease. He is worshipped only on Monday and his Christian syncretic counterpart is either St Lazarus or St Roque. His costume consists of a straw belt encrusted with seashells, straw mask and a cape and dress to cover his face and body, which have been disfigured by smallpox.

When the dancer had received the spirit of Omolu in their trance, some left the floor. They returned with a person dressed from head toe in long straw-like strands to represent Omolu. The dancing resumed.

Although the congregants ofCasa Branca are friendly and hospitable, they don't orient their practices to outsiders. Westerners may attend and many white Brazilians are members. After the ceremony, guests are invited to the far end of the house for sweets and giant cakes— one cake decorated like the Brazilian flag.

followed by Candomble ceremonies in honour of Iemanja.

Passagem do Ano Novo New Year's Eve is celebrated with all the zest of Carnaval—especially on the beaches.

Places to Stay Salvador has many hotels, but they can all fill up during the Carnaval season, so reservations are a good idea. Bahiatursa can help you find lodging—just provide the staff with a general idea of your preferred price range and type of lodging. Bahiatursa also has lists of houses that take in tourists and these can be a source of excellent, cheap lodgings when hotels are full, especially during summer holidays and Carnaval. But beware, the tourist office makes selective referrals and it helps if you don t look too burnt-out or broke.

Camping On the outskirts of Itapoa, there are several campgrounds, such as Camping Ecologic° (Tel.: 249-5900), Alameda da Praia s/n (no number), and Camping Clube do Brasil (Tel.: 242-0482) also at Alameda da Praia, s/n (no number). At Pituacu, about 14 about 14 km from the center, there's Camping Pituacu (Tel.: 231-74 1 3), on Avenida Pinto d'Aguiar.

Places to Eat Bahian cuisine is an intriguing blend of African and Brazilian cuisine based on characteristic ingredients such as coconut cream, ginger, hot peppers, coriander, shrimp and dende oil. Dende, an African palm oil with a terrific flavor, is used in many regional dishes (you'll also smell it everywhere). Since dende has a reputation for stirring up trouble in travellers' bellies, you are advised to consume it in small quantities until you've become acclimatized.

The Pelourinho area is packed with restaurants, though many of them cater for tourists and are expenBRAZZIL -JULY 1998

sive. The best value for lunches are the popular comida-a-quilo restaurants, where you serve yourself and pay by weight.

Entertainment Salvador is justly renowned for its music. The blending of African and Brazilian traditions produces popular styles, such as trio eletrico (which dominates Carnaval), tropicalismo, afoxe,caribe, reggae, lambada, jazz and Gilberto Gil. Bars and clubs tend to come and go quickly in Salvador, so ask around and check the newspaper to confirm the following suggestions. If you want to plug into the arts, Fundacao Cultural Estado da Bahia (Tel.: 321-0222) is at Praca Tome de Souza, Paldcio Rio Branco, sala 31. The Fundacao publishes a monthly guide, Agenda Cultural, which gives a comprehensive rundown of music events, theater and dance performances, and art exhibitions.

The weekly magazine Veja contains a supplement with tips on the hottest n ightspots. Teatro Castro Alves (Tel.: 235-7616), on Praca Dois de Julho (Campo Grande), is the biggest music theater in Salvador. The big acts play here, and they're often Brazil's best.

Pelourinho is now the nightlife capital of Salvador; its cobbled streets are lined with bars, and blocos practice almost every night.

Olodum play on Sunday nights in the Largo do Pelourinho and draw crowds of dancers into the streets. The famous Filhos de Gandhi have their center close by, at Rua Gregorio de Matos 53, and rehearse on Tuesday and Sunday nights.

Dia, a music and dance school at Rua Joao de Deus 19, has a street practice on Friday night—a highlight is a 15piece, all-female drum outfit.

During summer, the city sponsors a festival of music ' called Ribs &Agitos, with free T live music at several outdoor venues, including Largo de Tereza Batista , and Praca Quincas Berro d'Agua (known locally as Praca Dois M) in Pelourinho. Praca Dois M is also home to several hip bars— BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

Habeas Copos and Kibe & CIA are two of th popular spots.

Other music venues around Pelourinh include Coracao do Mangue, a small bar at Rua Francisco M Barreto 27 with a street stage and live usic on Tuesday and Friday; and Bar do Regga , at Rua GregOrio de Matos 36, with dancers spillin out onto the street just about every night. Gueto, at Ru Alfredo de Brito 33, is the place to go for dance mu ic.

Tuesday night is probably the biggest night in Pelourinho. Traditionally, important relig ous services known as 'Tuesday's Blessing' have .een held every Tuesday at the Igreja Sao Francisco. The services have always drawn locals to Pelouri ho, and since the restoration of the area, the weekly celebrations have turned into a mini-festival. Olodu play at the Teatro Miguel Santana on Rua Greg6rio e Matos, and other bands set up on Terreiro de Jesus, argo do Pelourinho and anywhere else they can fi d space.

Crowds pour into Pelourinho to eat, drink d ce and the party lasts until the early hours of the mi ming. he Aiye, one ofthe most exciting Camay 1 blocos, gives free concerts every Saturday (at lea during summer) in the Forte de Santo Antonio lem do Carmo, in Barbalho, from 9 pm. African c Iture is kept alive in Liberdade, which is a good pla e to see afoxe. It's best to go with someone who kno s these areas.

Around the beaches, Rio Vermelho h S some good nightspots, and many of the better hot is, such as the Salvador Praia, have fancy nightclubs. few of the happening bars are Zona Franca, at a Joao Gomes 87; Intermezzo at Largo da Mariquit s/n (no number), with outside tables; and Extudo, at Rua Lidio Mesquita 4.

Barra is full of bars, discos and musi Some places are quite good, but it's more touris and is starting to get a sleazy reputation. Habeas C pos, at Avenida Marques de Leao 172, is an old favo ite (and attracts an older crowd); Zimbabwe, at Rua Afonso Celso 473, has good music and specia izes in afrodisiacos (aphrodisiac drinks)!

Pituba beach has several bars with music such as Tocaia Grande, Rua Minas Gerais 784, which pecializes in Arabian appetizers.

Those in search of danceterias (dance hall ) could try Bell's Beach, a slick place at Avenida • ctavio Mangabeira, Praia do Corsdrio, Boca do Rio; or head towards Amaralina to visit New Fred's (Te .: 2474399), at Rua Visconde de Itaborai 125, w h is a huge lambada mecca with room for 600 dan ers.

Folklore shows, usually consisting of ini-displays of Candomble, capoeira, samba, Iamb a, etc, are presented in the evening at Senac in Pel rinho; Solar do Unhao, south of the city center; and oenda (Tel.: 231-7915), at Jardim Armacao, nex to the Centro de ConvencOes. Things to Buy For handicrafts, you can browse in ercado Modelo, Praca da Se, Terreiro de Jesus and nu erous shops and galleries in Pelourinho--all place where articles and prices are geared to tourists. For large, local market, try Mercado Sao Joaquim (also known as Feira Sao Joaquim), which is just north of he city

center. Dedicated shoppers should head for Shopping Iguatemi (Salvador's largest shopping center) and Shopping Barra, both gigantic complexes with dozens of shops.

Getting There & Away Air The big three domestic airlines all fly to Salvador, as does Nordeste, which goes to smaller cities in the region like Ilheus and Porto Seguro. You can fly to most cities in Brazil from Salvador, but make sure you find out how many stops the plane makes: many flights in the Northeast operate as 'milk runs', stopping at every city along the Atlantic seaboard, which makes for a long ride. There are regular international flights between Salvador and: Miami; Frankfurt; Paris; Amsterdam; Lisbon; Madrid; Rome; New York; Buenos Aires; Tenerife; Montevideo; and, believe it or not, one weekly flight to Moscow!

Getting Around Venice has its canals and gondolas; Salvador has its bluff, elevators, hills, valleys and oneway streets. The Lacerda Elevator runs daily from 5 am to midnight, linking the low and high cities. The Plano Inclinado Goncalves, behind the cathedral near the Praca da Se, makes the same link and is more fun (and less claustrophobic), but only operates Monday to Saturday from 5 am to 10 pm. The city's latest addition to the lift world is the Plano Inclinado Liberdade/ Calcada, which links two poor neighborhoods north of the city center.

To be continued.

Excerpts from Brazil A Travel Survival Kit 3rd edition,

by Andrew Draffen, Chris McAsey, Leonardo Pinheiro, and Robyn Jones.

For more information call Lonely Planet: (800) 275-8555.

Copyright 1996 Lonely Planet Publications.

Used by permission.

43

Avant_garde Enigma In a genre where the European model has prejudiced judgment, Villa-Lobos's string quartets have become landmarks of 20th century chamber music.

Photo by Ximena Puente

BRUCE GILMAN

Cuarteto Latinoamericano 44

At moments of profound introspection about both self and music, composers turn to the string quartet. It's odd but composers have always thought, have always functioned this way. The string quartet is the most serious, most intimate, most significant piece a composer can write. It is a genre in which the composer holds a mirror up to himself and to his way of composing. Musical substance, unobscured by orchestral effects, lies open to view.

Throwing light on some of the most profound philosophical statements in music, this year's Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland has as one of its themes the string quartet. At Kuhmo, the entire Villa-Lobos string quartet cycle will be performed between July 19 and August 2. Additionally, Cuarteto Latinoamericano will perform the 17 Villa-Lobos string quartets in five concerts between October 20 and 25 as part of the 26th Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato, Mexico. According to Marcelo Rodolfo of the Villa-Lobos Museum in Rio de Janeiro, these will be the first live performances ever of the Brazilian composer's complete quartet cycle.

Cuarteto Latinoamericano is an ensemble that illuminates both the classicism and the passionate modernism of Villa-Lobos.

The players are ardent about emphasizing the changing moods, tone color, and exotic twists in this volatile music. Reaching into the repertory of Villa-Lobos with the same attention others give to Mozart, they play Villa-Lobos with an intense conviction and a rapport that verges on the telepathic, bringing out not only the nostalgia in the harmony but articulating the rhythm, which is intrinsic to Villa-Lobos's avant-gark, nationalist, and folkloric works.

Comprised of Javier Montiel (viola) and the brothers Saul and Aron Bitran (violins) BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

and Alvaro Bitran (cello), the Cuarteto is a unique the classical vkiorld with some of the best creations fraternity. Since 1987, they have been the quartet by its greatest composers: Beethoven, Brahms, in residence at Carnegie Mellon University and Haydn, Mozart, Revueltas; the Villa-Lobos quarhave a similar residency at tets illustrate the enorthe National Conservatory r mous productivity of of Music in Mexico. In conBrazil's most prominent A Notch Below Beethoyen cert the group has collabocomposer. In the context Heitor Villa-Lobos wrote quartets throiaghout rated with such internationof 20 century string his lifetime. The sheer number penned by Villaal figures as flutist Julius quartets, his quartets repLobos is remarkable, not only in terms of qUantity Baker, cellist Janos Starkresent the voice of an but also in terms of their magnetism and au hority. er, guitarist Narciso Yepes, extremely original comBy adding the fabric of Brazilian folk and opular and conductor Eduardo poser who wrote string music to one ofthe most traditional genres om the Mata. The group has conquartets throughout his Classical and Romantic periods, and by disre arding sistently worked to erode life. But ultimately, the the formal structure of the European model Villasome of the most enduring Lobos created string quartets of a highly p rsonal importance lies in their world with remarkable contrasts and rh thmic cultural misconceptions quality. sophistication. The structural ingenuity, rh thmic about classical and string vitality, and melodic fluency of his string uartets quartet music by commitSaul—Also, we have were a forceful rebuke to European paroc ialism. ting themselves to the disto remember that there Today the 17 quartets of Villa-Lo os are covery, performance, and were few string quartets recognized as the most remarkable cycl after recording of under-reprebeing written in Latin Beethoven, and scholars assert that these w rks are sented Latin and South America before 1915. as important to the 20th century repertoire those written by Bart6k and Shostakovich. If an thing, American composers.

With that in mind, it's the string quartets of Villa-Lobos exemp *fy the Sharing the ability to astonishing to realize conviction of a composer who would not a andon stretch the boundaries of that Villa-Lobos didn't his musical concepts simply because they ere too classical music, Cuarteto follow the European patchallenging for his contemporaries to realiz . What Latinoamericano is seen by tern of composition, but Villa-Lobos did with harmonics (partia tones many as the Latin Amerirather, even from the first produced by the vibration of fractional part of the can imprint of the Kronos quartet, developed a tostring that give a dreamlike transparency to note) Quartet. The group has altally new approach to in his third quartet is, without a doubt, extraor inary.

In 1916, before Bartok or Shostakovich, Villaready recorded most of the quartet writing.

Lobos wrote a complete movement with le -hand existing string quartets by pizzicato (notes played by plucking the trings) Latin and South American Brazzil—Can a lisand double harmonics —techniques few h d even composers for the New Altener ,notice the comthought of. bion, Dorian, and Elan laposer's artistic develThere are passages in the quartets where layers bels. Their first digital reopments or marked styare directed to go to the highest possible reg ster of cording of quartets by listic periods as the the instrument, where distance can no lo ger be Heitor Villa-Lobos, Albermeasured on the fingerboard, and to play •recise quartets progress from pitches. For the listener these are striking ffects, 1 through 17? to Ginastera, and Silvestre but performers can really suffer. Most ave to Revueltas was selected as revoice, that is, redistribute certain lines to d'fferent Critics Choice for 1989 by Saul—Definitely. strings in order to play their parts. Critics o VillaEven though all of the The New York Times.

Lobos argued that he was too eager to exp nd the quartets share some comAnd last year the group limits of the quartet literature and that he never was presented the ASCAPmon features —a richworried about the awkward demands he placed on ness of timbre, exacting Chamber Music Award for performers.

They claimed that Villa-Lobos wrote too Adventurous Programming instrumental writing, an quickly and that he was exhaustively preoccupied of Contemporary Music. abundance of melodic with his wish to assert himself and declare his Presently they are recordmaterial, the nostalgic artistic career. But when we put aside all the ing the entire cycle of Vilcharacter of the slow exoticism, we can look at the depth, the originality, movements—they clearla-Lobos string quartets for and the power of his music. Written over a period ly reflect three groups, Dorian. To get the insidof forty-two years, the seventeen string quartets of defined both stylisticalers' perspective on the Villa-Lobos represent the most important string quartets of Villa-Loly and chronologically: contribution to the string literature of the 20th century by a composer from a continent wi hout a Quartets 1 to 6(1915 bos, I interviewed the playrigorous tradition in the accepted Eu opean to 1938) share the uners one afternoon between repertoire. mistakable influence of World Cup games.

IN popular Brazilian music, French Impres ionism, and the interest for unusual Brazzil—Whatis the importance of the Villaperformance t chniques and original sonorities— Lobos string quartets in relation to the Brazilian classical repertoire and to the 20th century Euabundant use f pizzicato, harmonics, mutes, etc.

The secon group, Quartets 7 to 9 (1941 to ropean repertoire as a whole?

1945), represe ts the pivotal part of the cycle. The depth of their expression, their harmonic sophisAlvaro—In a genre that traditionally supplies BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

•

tication, their contrapuntal richness, the high level of instrumental difficulty, and sheer length make them an unparalleled milestone in 20th century quartet literature. The last seven, Quartets 10 to 17 (1946 to 1957), mark a return to a simpler, almost Neo-Classical compositional approach. The counterpoint becomes explicit— predictable—and the rhythms simpler, although ever ingenious.

the use of mutes. In the third quartet there is an unusual placement of the mute on the side of the bridge. There is also prevalent use of extremely high registers, particularly in the first violin part.

Brazzil—How does the mood, harmonic language, tone color, and rhythm of the VillaLobos quartets compare to those of BartOk and other European composers?

Aron—It is indeed hard to explain. There may be three reasons that partially account for it. First, until recently there were few recordings available. Second, it is quite hard to get a hold of scores and individual parts. Villa-Lobos's music was published by several different houses, and many have not reprinted the music in years.

And third, at first reading the music appears quite hard to interpret, almost cryptic. It is only after extensive work has been put into clarifying the balance that the textures become evident and the music flows nicely.

Aron—It is very different to compare these works with Bartok or any other European works from the same period. All four of the elements implied in your question differ in Villa-Lobos from his European counterparts. The mood is clearly Brazilian in that it relates vividly to the landscape of that country in a way that is more than a subjective appreciation. The rhythms are enormously original, yet the meter seldom changes, unlike Bar*tOk and most contemporary European composers. And the tone color is determined, above all, by the lyrical capabilities of the instruments.

r

Brazzi/—What are some of the stylistic considerations a performer needs to keep in mind when interpreting Villa-Lobos?

Aron—One must never forget that this music, no matter how sophisticated it may at times be, comes directly from Brazil's folklore. Rhythmic flexibility in the melody combined with a relentless pulse in the accompaniment, accounts for that wonderful combination of energy and freedom that defines these quartets and Brazilian music as a whole. These two elements must be kept in mind constantly when performing the Villa-Lobos quartets.

Brazzil—Can you explain some of the distinctive string techniques Villa-Lobos employs in the quartets?

Aron—Villa-Lobos makes extensive use of harmonics, pizzicato, double stops (playing two strings together), col legno (playing with the wood of the bow rather than the bow hair), and

46

Brazzil—Why is it that few of the highprofile quartets—the Tokyo, Emerson, Kronos—play the Villa-Lobos quartets?

Brazzi/-1-las the complete cycle of 17 Villa-Lobos string quartets been recorded?

Aron—Yes. The complete cycle was recorded by the Hungarian group, Danubius Quartet. And we are presently in the middle of recording the complete cycle as well, having already released Volume I (quartets 1, 6, & 17), Volume 2 (quartets 3, 8, and 14) and Volume 3 (quartets 7 and Brazzit—When will the recording be complete?

Aron—We expect to complete the cycle by the summer of 1999.

Inalist Brazzil—Which is the most demanding quartet to perform?

Aron—Unquestionably number 7 because of its intensity, duration, and enormous technical difficulties Brazzi/—Are there any high-profile Brazilian String Quartets who specialize in the works of Brazilian composers?

1:4 Alvaro—No, unfortunately there are none.

There was, however, a Brazilian quartet called Bessler-Reis who recorded many of the VillaLobos quartets before splitting a couple of years ago.

Brazzil—Can you talk about the goals of BRA7_ZIL - JULY 1998

Cuart o Latinoamericano?

Jay er--I think we can talk about both short .and lo g term goals. In the short term, we are

Albion NA100CD

8

DOR-90246

1997

R- 20

1996

putting lot oftime and effort into the Villa-Lobos project, which includes the performances at the Cervan no Festival in October '98 in Guanajuato, Mexico where as you know, we will play for the first ti the 17 Villa-Lobos siring quartets in five concert This project also includes the continuation of e quartet recordings. As Aron mentioned, we are i the middle of that project, with three CD's out. By ewáy, Vol. 3 was nominated this year for the Can es Classic Award in Chamber Music, 19th and 20 Century. In the long term we hope to continu our strong ties with the U.S.A., Europe, and So h America and to keep playing the main festival and, of course, continue teaching and coachin Bra —Does Cuarteto Latinoamericano have an ensemble philosophy?

19 9 tt

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Festival in Finland please ://ditillajak.fi/kuhmoft

Javi r—Although there is -nothing etched in stone, p rt of our philosophy is to give our best at every p ormance. No matter whether it's a short rehearsa , a very important concert in a major chambe music series, the tenth take of a difficult passage n a recording session, or a performance for fo grade children; we always approach a perform e as if it were our last. Another important asp of our credo is that, as far as priorities go, fain' es come first and the job second. I strongly think hat this is one very important reason we have bee together for more than seventeen years.

Bra Will international recognition come to Cua to Latinoamericano as it has to quartets like Kronos, Tokyo, Emerson, and JuilHard?

Alvars I am not the ideal person to compare our succ ss with these other great quartets. We have a different profile. For example, we travel wi 30 or more pieces just for a weeklong tour, and e seldom play the traditional repertoire.

We do m et these ensembles at most of the chamber musi societies and festivals, and like them, we also hay; a high-pressure recording and performance sc edule.

Brazz I—Gentlemen, thank you.

Saul—Delighted.

music links can be found at: http:// zond/itidex.litml BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

Bruce Gilman, music editor for Brazzil, received his Masters degree in music from California Institute of the Arts. He leads the Brazilian jazz ensemble Axe and plays cuica for escola de samba MILA. You can reach him through his e-mail: cuica@interworld.net

47

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RIO Tern Que Rebolar (You Have to Toil)—A portrait of old Rio with its scoundrels and bohemian sambistas. Directed by Andre Paes Leme, with Flavia Bauraqui and Roberto D6ria. Arte & Cia Casa de Cultura at Universidade Estacio de Sá.

Oh! Calcutd—Traditional cult British musical on all sorts of sex deviations. Directed by Gugu Olimecha, with Jaqueline Brandao and Silvana Bulgarelli. Teatro Tereza Rachel.

0 Silicone (Silicone)—Comedy. A marriage in the brink of collapse. Written by Agildo Ribeiro and Gugu Olimecha. Directed by Agildo Ribeiro. With Agildo Ribeiro and Helena Werneck. Teatro dos Grandes Atores.

Toda Nudez Seth Castigada (All Nudity Will Be Punished)—Nelson Rodrigues classical and polemic play about a prostitute who becomes a housewife. Directed

by Moaeyr Goes. Marilia Pera plays Geni, the main character, a role written for Fernanda Montenegro. Teatro Carlos Gomes Amor de Poeta (Poet's Love)—The story of the burning passion between romantic poet Castro Alves and actress Eugenia de Castro. Written by Tiago Santiago, directed

by Andre Mauro, with Maria Claudia and Tiago Santiago. Teatro Glaucio Gil.

SAO PAULO Porca Miseria (Goddamn)—Willing to go back to their homeland an Italian family concocts a sting. Written by Jandira Martini and Marcos Caruso. Directed by Gianni Ratto, with Marcos Caruso, Janchra Martini, Miguel Magno, and Noemi Gerbelli.

Teatro Sergio Cardoso. ppp@WLLMSHKSPR.br—William Shakespeare revisited with several of his plays getting new versions. By Jess Borgeson, Adam Long, and Daniel Singer. Translated

by Barbara Heliodora. Directed by Emilio Di Biasi. With ensemble ParlapatOes, Patifes & PaspalhOes: Alexandre Roit, Hugo Possolo and Raul Barretto. Teatro Faap.

Antes do Fim (Before the End)—The story of a murder for love. Written and directed

by Samir Yazbek, with Rodrigo Penna, Claudia Cavalheiro, and Adriano Costa.

Teatro Mars.

As Maos de Euridice (Euridice's Hands)— Monologue. Praised and reviled Pedro Bloch's story of a man who leaves his wife.

Directed and interpreted by Carlos Lopes.

Teatro das NacOes. Quem Roubou meu Anabela? (Who Stole My Anabela?)—An adulterous living together with their daemons. By Ivo Bender.

Directed by Jairo Maciel, with Cia. Luz & Palco. Teatro Macunaima.

Caixa 2 (Under the Table)—A man becomes a millionaire due to a mistake by a bank teller. By Juca de Oliveira, directed

by Fauzi Arap, with Juca de Oliveira, FOlvio Stefanini, Suzy Rego, and Petronio Gontijo.

Teatro Jardel Filho.

48

American films just released: After Glow

(0 Despertar do Desejo), An American Werewolf in Paris (Urn Lobisomem Americano em Paris), Deep rising (Tentriculos), Doctor Dolitlle (Doctor Dolittle), Godzilla (Godzilla), Head above water (Amor Alucinante), Hush (Segredo de Sangue), Junglebook 2 (0 Livro da Selva 2: Mogli e Baloo), Lost in Space (Perdidos no Espaco), The Magic Sword: Quest For Camelot (A Espada Magica: A Lenda de Camelot), Mercury Rising (Codigo Para o Inferno), Mulan (Mulan), The Newton Boys (Newton Boys, Irmilos Fora-da-lei), Paulie (Paulie, o Papagaio Born de Papo), She 's So Lovely (Loucos de Amor), The Postman (0 Mensageiro) Central do Brasil (Central Station)—Brazil/1998—By Walter Salles. Drama with Fernanda Montenegro, Vinicius de Oliveira and Marilia Pera. Unscrupulous Dora changes her life when she decides to go looking for the father of a boy who loses his mother.

Menino Maluquinho 2—A Aventura (Slightly Crazy Boy 2—The Adventure)— Brazil/1998—Based on popular kid book by cartoonist Ziraldo. Directed by Fernando Meirelles and Fabrizia Alves Pinto. With Samuel Costa, Jodo Romeu, Samuel Branddo, Stenio Garcia, Marta Overback.

La Serva Padrona (The Boss Maid)— Brazil/1998—Directed by Carla Camurati with Thales Pan Chacon, Silvia Klein, and Jose Carlos Leal. The efforts of a maid to marry her boss.

Prima Della Rivoluzione (Antes da Revolucilo)—Italy/1964—By Bernardo Bertolucci with Francesco Barilli and Adriana Asti. Adventures of a disillusioned youngster.

Le Destin / Al Massir (0 Destino)— France & Egypt/1997—By Youssef Chahine with Nour El Cherif, Laila Eloui, and Mahmoud Hemeida. The life of Spanish-Arab philosopher (1126-1198) Averroes, who, despite being a Muslim, influenced Christian theologians.

Lucie Aubrac (Lucie Aubrac—Um Amor em Tempo de Guerra)--France/1996—By Claude Berri with Carole Bouquet, Daniel Auteuil, and Jean-Roger Milo. An antinazi activist in France risks all for her husband.

Rien Ne Va Plus (Negocios a Parte)— Franca/1997—By Claude Chabrol with Isabelle Huppert, Michel Serrault, and Francois Cluzet. Comedy. Small-fry robbers get involved in international drug Mafia.

FICTION 1 0 Mundo de Sofia, Jostein Gaarder.

CompAnhia das Letras, 555 p. R$26,50.

2 A Aguia e a Galinha, Leonardo Boff.

Vozes, 206 p. R$16.

3 Atraves do Espelho, Jostein Gaarder.

Companhia das Letras, 144 p. R$17.

4 0 Plano Perfeito, Sidney Sheldon.

Record, 300 p. R$25.

5 Cromossomo 6, Robin Cook. Record, 528 p. R$28.

6 0 Pequeno Principe, Antoine SaintExupery. Agir, 92 p. R$13.

7 A Senhora de Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley. Rocco, 5Q4 p. R$28.

8 Despertar da Aguia, Leonardo Boff.

Vozes, 174 p. R$12 90 Homem Que Calculava, Malba Tahan.

Record, 218 p. R$19.

10 0 Servo tiros Ossos, Anne Rice. Rocco, 384 p. R$28.

NONFICTION

1 Cancer Tern Cura, Frei Romano Zago.

Vozes, 208 p. R$10.

2 Chic Homem, Manual de Moda e Estilo, Gloria Kalil. Senac, 237 p. R$45.

3 0 Livro das Virtudes Para Criancas, William J. Bennett. Nova Fronteira, 112 p.

R$19.

4 203 Maneiras de Enlouquecer um Homem na Cama, Olivia Claire. Ediouro, 125 p. R$10.

5 Coisas Que Toda Garota Deve Saber, Samantha Rugen. Melhoramentos, 104 p.

R$8,20.

6 As Melhores Piadas do Planeta e da Casseta, Casseta e Planeta. Objetiva, 128 p. R$10.

7 Violetas no Janela, Vera Lucia M. de Carvalho. Petit, 139 p. R$9,50.

8 177 Maneiras de Enlouquecer uma Mulher no Cama, Margot Saint-Loup.

Ediouro, 128 p. R$10,90.

9 Luta nas Classes II (0 Professor Contra-Ataca), Bernardo Jablonski and Ronald Fucs. Frente, 116 p. R$13.

10 Homens Sao de Marte, Mulheres São de Venus, John Gray. Rocco, 304 p. R$26.

ESOTERISM/ SELF-HELP

/ 0 Sucesso E Ser Feliz, Roberto Shinyashi. Gente, 198 p. R$20.

2 Meditando corn Brian Weiss, Brian L. Weiss. Salamandra, 100 p. R$14,90.

3 Con versando corn os Espiritos, James Van Praagh. Salamandra, 224 p. R$19,50.

4 As Sete Leis Espirituais do Sucesso, Deepak Chopra. Best Seller, 104 p.

R$13,50.

5 Minutos de Sabedoria, Torres Pastorino.

Vozes. 280 p. R$4,29.

According to Jornal do Brasil http://www.jb.com.br BRA7_21L - JULY 1998

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For Ad, call (213) 255-8062 or E-mail: brazzil@brazzil.com 50

BRAZZIL - JULY 1998

FEIRA LIVRE OPEN MARKET BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

FOOD

Inside sales agents needed, bilingual, Mon-Fri., L.A. Area.

Call (213) 482-2323. Ask for Sergio.[150]

Salgados - Coxmhas, Risoles, Croquete / Docinhos - Brigadeiro, Beijinho... Suzana (714) 666-2749 [153]

International Company exporting to Brazil. High $ potential for individuals with contacts in Brazil. (805) 449-5507 [150] Vendedor (a) independente.

Procuro por uma pessoa interessada em atuar na venda de software personalizado em contabilidade (626) 584-1512 http:// www.paikco.com/sales/ [150] CATERING

Atencao, brasileiros: fazemos comidaparacongelar, salgadinhos, jantares, pequenos/grandesgrupos.

Call Joy (562) 438-3415 [149] CLASSES

Conversational Brazilian Portuguese Method - "I tried several methods to learn BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE, but when I started lessons with NIL SON, I knew immediately that I'd found the best one. And in just a few months, I was able to communicate on a one-on-one basis." Individual, Total Immersion, Corporate Group and Semi-Private.

Phone (310) 379-0738 [148] Portuguese Courses in Salvador da Bahia, Dialog°, http:// www.brazilstudy.com, E-mail: dialogo brazilstudy.com, fax: 01155 71 336-6329 [155] COMPUTER & SOFTWARE

Need a Computer? Bad Credit?

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Delightful Brazilian Cooking

by Eng Tie Mg, two for one sale $14.95, plus $5 shipping and handling. Over 130 authentic, quick and easy recipes. P.O. Box 30818- Seattle, WA 98103 -Tel! Fax (206) 789-3693. [142] BRA7_ZIL - JULY 1998

HEALTH & FITNESS

Newest Technology in nutritional supplement delivery Spray Vitamins, 25-30 seconds in bloodstream, 90-96% absorption. Call (310) 452-1952 [148] JOB OFFERED

Sales Manager to 75 K (US).

Company does not want to relocate anyone. Market and sell new and existing automotive drive train components to assigned accounts. Increase sales, program management and market positioning in traction control products—axles, clutches, etc. Portuguese/English bilingual, BS degree a must. Please e-mail or fax résumé to Jackie Nabat: jackie@bryantjobsearch.com or 1(800) 772-6788. Voice line is 1 (810) 772-6452 x124 [151] MISCELLANEOUS

Babalawo Zezito D'Oxum, 45 anos no Rio. Rua do Carmo 15, Parque Amorim, Belford Roxo, Rio, Brazil Zip: 26185-340. Tel.: (021) 761-1682 [156] Estude a Biblia por correspondencia na privacidade do seu lar.

Inteiramente gratis. Envie seu endereco postal para: BCCI, Box 3841, Springfield, IL 627083841 [144] Tickets para o Brasil - Cheap / Baratos- 1(800)643-3910. Tudo legal. [157]

Music Brazilian Music in its totality.

Samba, bossa nova, chorinho, baiao, axe, and more. Merchant Express (954) 785-5991

FEIRA LIVRE RATES: 500 a word. Phone is one word.

DISCOUNTS: For 3 times deduct 5%, for 6 times deduct 10%, for 12 times deduct 15%.

POLICY: All ads to be prepaid. Ads are accepted at our discretion. Your canceled check is your receipt. Please, include address and phone number, which will be kept confidential.

DEADLINE: The 25th of the month. Late material will be held for the following month if appropriate.

TO PLACE AD: Send ad with check, money order or your Credit Card number (plus your name and expiration date) to: BRAZZIL P.O. Box 50536 Los Angeles, CA 90050-0536. with you for fri ndship/marriage. No Fee. Sen • color photo and profile to S • TB, P. 0.

274123, Tampa, L 33688,call (813) 932-3805 or e-mail: davesotb@sotb.c m - http:// www.sotb.com [ 51] PERSONAL MAN SEEKS WOMAN

American Male 40, i rofessional, kind, handsome, ffectionate, in Chicago, wan i.. to meet a Brazilian lady 20- 5, write send photo; William ook, 3814 Madison, Bellwoo , IL 60104 USA [150]

portugues. Apenas amizade.

Tenho 18 anos. Luciene Pinto, Rua Leonardo da Vince, No. 13, Senador Camara., Rio de Janeiro, CEP: 21831-100 Brazil. [152] Friendship/Marriage/Correspondence. Men, ladies, worldwide. Large information packet $2 (no inmates). Ladies in Brazil, about 80 names, addresses (no pictures) $12. Agarwal, Box 10020, Glendale, CA 91209 [149] PSYCHOTHERAPY

American, male, w ite, 45 years old, would like to eet a Brazilian or Portuguese .dy. I speak English only. Ag open. Call (415) 757-1946 (E es) [142]

Chronic & Life Threatening illnesses, A.D.D. & dyslexia, life transitions, bicultural & relationship issues, sexual identity conflict — Edison de Mello, M.D.- Ph.D./MFCC — Portuguese/ Spanish/ English. (310) 656-6987 [137]

Americano, 36, a raente, romantic° e since o. Procura brasileira 18-45. En iar foto para: 2440- 16th St. #17, San Francisco, CA 94103 [ 48]

Emotional & psychological help - Elizabete Almeida MFCC licensed psychotherapist. English/Portuguese. Reasonable rates. (310) 281-7536. [158]]

Seeking ladies 18- 5 years old to correspond wit American men for friendship nd companionship. FREE fo all ladies.

Write: TigerLilies 709 Lookout Dr., Suite 5206, Garland TX 75044 USA [160]

RENTAL

Guaruji/Coberturinha 2Q/2B -6 blocos da praia. Mes: $350 + Temporada: 150/week. Brasil: 011-55-11-263-8675, Los Angeles: (310) 785-1822 (Maria) [151]

PERSONAL MUSIC INSTRUCTION

Bossa Guitar, John Scott (310) 459-5995 [150] NEWSPAPERS & MAGAZINES

Jornais e revistas do Brasil.

Recebemos jomais diarios etodas as principals revistas, incluindo masculinas e femininas. Tel. (954) 785-5991

MAN SEEKS MAN

Westerner, 38, livi g in Hong Kong, 5'10", 160 1 s, athletic, banker, wants to met Brazilian males visiting Honk Kong for sex or relationship. Flrefer 30 and up, tall, not thin, we 1 endowed.

E-mail tfontana@hbtmajl.com [149]

TRANSLATION & INTERP.

Dialogo Translates from and to Brazilian Portuguese: Irttp:// www.brazilstudy.com [155] Translation Services (Servicos de Traducao) from/to English/ Portuguese (415)457-3103 [153] TRAVEL

PERSONAL

FRIENDSHIP/MARRIAGE

Touristic services in Salvador da Bahia: Dialog°, http:// www.brazilstudy.com [155]

WOMAN SEEKS MAN

Gostaria de corres ponder-me coin brasileiros (as), latinos (as), ou •americanos (as) que falem

brazzil-ADS (213) 255-8062

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Single Brazilian Women. Men worldwide desire to correspond

51

Boston Books Livraria Plenitude (800) 532-5809

Consulate Consulado do Brasil (617) 617-542-4000

Dentist Sylvio P. Lessa (617) 924-1882

Food & Products Brasil Brasil (617) 561-6094 Jerry's Cachaca (617) 666-5410

Instruction Approach Student Ctr (617) 787-5401 Braz. & Amer. Lg. Inst.

(617) 787-7716

Publications The Brazilian Monthly (617) 566-3651 Bossa: Braz. Jazz Guide (617) 262-9997

Restaurants Café Brazil (617) 789-5980 Ipanema (508) 460-6144 Tropicilia (617) 567-4422 Pampas Chu rrasca ria (617) 661-6613

Chicago Consulate Consulado G. do Brasil (312) 464-0244

Translations Portuguese Lang. Ctr. (312) 276-6683

Los Angeles Airlines yang (800) GO VARIG Vasp (310) 364-0160

Arts & Crafts Bakari Art Studio (213) 938-0523 Folk Creations (310) 693-2844 Culture Planet (310) 441-9808 Zebi Designs (310) 391-6530

Auto Repair Cosmo Auto Parts (213) 259-9818

Banks Banco do Brasil (213) 688-2996

Catering Joy's Catering

(562) 438-3415 Clothes Samba Collection

(562) 437-1939 Summer Brazil

(310) 455-1772 Clubs & Associations Brazil-Cal. Chbr of Corn.

Mov. Social Humanista

(310) 854-5881

(305) 358-3003

(310) 281-6652 SambaLa -Esc. de Samba (562) 437-1939 Consulate

Tocantins Communic.

International Tours (800) 822-1318 Luma Travel

(818) 248-3667 Travel/Tours Around the World Trl.

Brazilian Consulate

(800) 471-6333

(213) 651-2664 Dentist

Brazil Air

(800) 441-8515

Gilberto Henriques

(818) 767-1200

(213) 464-0524 Events Promotion Brazilian Nites Prod.

(818) 566-1111 Pegasus - Parties & Ent.

(818) 549-0383 Samba & Saudade

(323) 634-7811 Sayegh Promotions

(562) 863-3463 Food & Products Cachaca Pitu

(714) 731-7788 Health & Fitness Hands of Care Mas. Ther.

(213) 937-3835 Instruction Brasil Brasil Cult. Ctr

(310) 397-3667 Modern Lang. Center (310) 839-8427

Brazil Tours Cheviot Hills Travel

(310) 202-6264 Traveland (800) 321-6336 TV Brazil TV & Production

(562) 437-6404

Miami S. Florida Airlines Transbrasd

(800) 872-3153 Yang (800) 468-2744 Vasp (800) 732-8277 Banks Banco do Brasil

Internet & Art Design

(305) 358-3586

ArtMedia

(305) 372-0100

(310) 826-1443 Legal Services

Banco Nacional Banco Real

Manoel Faria

(305) 372-5007

(510) 537-3533

Br Online Travel

Ralph Baker (510) 444-8100

(888) 527-2745 Via Brasil Travel

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New York N. Jersey Books Luso-Brazilian Books

(800) 727-LUSO Clubs & Associations Brazilian Ch. of Corn.

(212) 575-9030 Brazilian Trade Bur.

(212) 224-6280 Consulate (212) 757-3080 Food & Products

(415) 334-0106 Brazilian Cult. Movem.

(510) 215-2658 Computer

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(718) 204-1521 Coisa Nossa (201) 578-2675 Merchant Express

(407) 354-5200 Cam. Corn. Brasil- EUA (305) 579-9030

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(818) 798-5424 Physician Ingrid Rodi - Gynec.

(813) 842-3161 Consulate Consulado do Brasil

(305) 285-6200 Dentists Hiclimo de Si (305) 262-8212

Food & Beverages

Bibbo (415) 421-BIBO Carmen's International (415) 433-9441 Neyde's (415) 681-5355

Clubs & Associations

(310) 585-8911 Matchmaker

Braz. Jazz /All Occasions

(415) 565-3560 Beauty Salon

B.A.S.O. (415) 661-2788 Bay Area Brasilian Club

The Brasilians

ARARA - Amazon. As.

Nilson Auto Body (415) 255-6717 Mans Auto Body

Brazilian Com. Bureau

ABFC -As. Bras. da Fier.

(310) 450-4586 Music

Auto

(212) 916-3200

Finance Plus Mort. Corp.

(212) 382-1630 Brazilian Voice (201) 955-1137 OCA Magazine (516) 596-1853 Portugal-Brasil News (212) 228-2958 Samba Newsletter

(718) 937-0574 Restaurants ,

Brasilia

(212) 869-9200

(415) 665-1994 Consulate Brazilian Consulate (415) 981-8170

(212) 877-7730

(415) 282-7378 Dental Care

(213) 483-3430 Psychother/Counsel.

(305) 523-8134

Brazilian Pavillion

Brazil by Mail

(212) 758-8129

Roberto Sales, DDS

Elizabeth Almeida, M.A.

(954) 472-7163 Guarani Esteves

(305) 345-1540

Cabana Carioca (212) 581-8088 Indigo Blues

Vanya's Sweets

(212) 221-0033

(954) 785-0087

S.O.B. (212) 243-4940 Tapaj6s River

Nilson A. Santos

(310) 281-7536 Dr. Jefferson Si

(818) 592-0402 Tania Haberkorn, M.A.

Via Brasil

(310) 840-5380 Publications

(305) 866-7718 Physicians

Brazzil

Dr. Jorge Macedo

(213) 255-8062 Real Estate

Brazil 2000

(201) 491-9196 Travel Agencies

(305) 271-7311

Barb Tour Service

Dr. Mario Sanches

(201) 313-0996

Cent. 21 - Vlad. Bellemo

(305) 541-7819

(714) 406-0121

Dr. Neri Franzon (305) 776-1412

Odyssea Travel Service (212) 826-3019

Cent. 21 - Solon Pereira

(562) 924-9633 Cent. 21 Tinia Sayegh

(562) 865-2992 Restaurants & Cafés Bossa Nova

(310) 657-5070 Brazilian Tropical

(714) 720-1522

By Brazil

(310) 787-7520

Publications Florida Review (305) 374-5235

Real Estate Simone Bethencourt

San Diego Auto Car Mania Auto Repair

(619) 223-7748

(954) 704-1211 Restaurants

Clubs & Associations Clube Bras. San Diego

Bo teco

Sunday Night Cl. Brazil

(954) 566-3190

(619) 295-0842

(310) 837-8957

(954) 781-1113

(619) 233-5979 Import/Export

Ginga Brasil

Po rat)

Brazil Imports

(305) 373-2777

(619) 234-3401 Money Remittance

Café Brasil

Brazilian Tropicana

(714) 778-0266 Itana Bahia

(310) 370-0929

(310) 657-6306

Centro Cultural Gaucho

Rio Braz. Churrascaria

(213) 256-6548

(714) 739-2000 Zabumba (310) 841-6525 Translation/Interp.

Brazilian Wave

Brazilian Int. Affairs

Euroamirica

Steak Masters

(305) 567-1718 Travel Agencies (305) 561-3788 Discover Brazil Tours

(800) 524-3666

Viva Brazil

(415) 342-8508 Voz do Brazil (415) 586-2276 Musical Instruments Tamborim & Samba

(415) 871-2201 Physician Dr. Guilherme Salgado

(415) 832-6219 Printing M. C. Printing

(510) 268-8967 Publications Brazil Today (510) 526-1115 Brazzil (415) 587-4990 Restaurifslight Clubs Bahia Cabana

(415) 861-4202 Balboa Braz. Rest.

(415) 387-1118 Café Mardi Gras

(415) 864-6788 Canto do Brasil

(415) 626-8727 Joio's Restaurant

(408) 244-1299 Little Rio (415) 441-3344 Michelangelo Café

(415) 986-4058 Mozzarela Di-Bufala (415) 346-9888 Nino's

(510) 845-9303

Dance Instruction Porto Brasil (510) 526-1500 Aquarela Stelladoro (510) 548-1310 (415) 928-2662 Birds of Paradise 1 (510) 863-3651 Translation Brazil Culture & Arts Port. Lang. Services (510) 215-8202 (415) 587-4990 Ginga Brasil Travel Agencies (510) 428-0698 Escola Nova de Samba Paulo's Travel (415) 661-4798 (415) 863-2717 Samba do Coracio Rio Roma (415) 826-2588 (415) 921-3353 Samba, Swing & Suor Santini Tours

All Braz. Imp. & Exp.

(310) 451-8144

Brazilian Sociocult. C.

52

New Port Tours

(201) 589-5884 Publications

Fogo e Paixao

Vasp

(305) 374-5855

(310) 360-0901 Loans

Meiojas & Ferraz

(415) 986-5737 (800) 732-VASP Attorney

Monark Travel

(305) 358-2433 Banespa (305) 358-9167 Clubs & Associations

(310) 665-0166

El Jardin (818) 566-1111 MILA - Samba School (310) 391-6098

(305) 374-8635

Airlines Varig

(510) 451-8315 Events Promotion F. B. C. Events (415) 334-0106 Nativa Productions

(408) 287-9798 Food Brazilian Coffee Dist.

(415) 648-5966 California Produce (415) 586-6200 HGC Imp. Wholesale

(408) 947-8511 Instruction Portuguese - A. Frame (510) 339-9289 Portuguese Lang. Serv.

(415) 587-4990 Money Remittance Vigo (415) 863-0218 West Brazil

(415) 695-9258 Music Celia Malheiros (415) 738-2434 Damien's Intercimbio

(510) 843-2363 Travel Americas

(415) 334-0404 Tropical Travel

(510) 655-9904 Tuca nos Travel

(415) 454-9961

ash ington DC Airlines Transbrasil

(202) 775-9180 Yang (202) 331-8913 Vasp (202) 822-8277 Banks Banco do Brasil

(202) 857-0320 Banco do Est. de S. Paulo

(202) 682-1151 Clubs & Associations Braz. Am. Cult. Inst.

(202) 362-8334 Inst. of Brazil. Business

(202) 994-5205 Embassy Embaixada do Brasil

(202) 238-2700 Restaurants

Vigo-California

(415) 595-2274

(619) 479-V1GO

'Fop na Roupa (510) 464-5999 Marcos Silva (510) 945-0138 Terra Sul

Amazonia Grill (202) 537-0421

(415) 752-9782

(703) 750-0101

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BRAZZIL - P.O. BOX 42536 LOS ANGELES, CA 90050 Call (213)255-8062 or E-mail: brazzil@brazzil.com

BRAZZIL -JULY 1998

1990 found that only 7.6 percent of population ten years old or older in the state of Sao Paulo had less than one year of schooling or no schooling at all, in contrast with states in

FAX:

53

ram aim national monnization. Substantial

funds were to come through loans from the World Bank ($ 350 million) and the Inter-American Bank (Boletim do GETA June 1991). Some funds apparently were

tion of the low importance given to adult education as a field of study. Only three universities in Brazil offer specializations in adult education (the federal universities of Paraiba, Rio Grande do Sul, and Rio Grande

An excerpt conditions may be extremely dismal. At a Catholic church meeting .on hunger I attended in Sao Paulo, one of the priests mentioned that people who retrieve food from garbage cans during the day are finding it increasingly difficult to find it because someone else is picking the leftovers at night.

Brazil, the largest of the Latin American countries, in many ways reads like the Guinness Book of World Records. Brazil accounts for about 45 percent of all industrial production in Latin America. It is recognized as one of the strongest economies in the world, producing a GNP of $467 billion in 1990 (in 1980 US

do Norte), and only one university (Espirito Santo) offers a course to train teachers in literacy using Freire's method (Haddad 1989). At present there is no curriculum area in normal schools (which train primary school teachers) to develop teachers with competencies in adult literacy.

The daily circulation of newspapers in Brazil gives an insight into access and use of print. Table 1 shows the number of daily newspapers in the country, their daily circulation, and the estimated newspaper circulation per 1000 inhabitants. It can be observed that in terms of individual readership, few newspapers are available to Brazilians as only 55 per 1000 persons may read/buy them on a given day. The number, which has increased only slightly between 1975 and 1992, compares unfavorably to that of Argentina—which has a circulation rate of 144/1000 (1992 data) and a literacy rate of 94 percent (1980 data). The Brazilian rate compares most negatively with Finland, the country with the largest readership in the world (which has a circulation rate of 515/1000), and US (circulation rate of 240/1000). Presenting complementary statistics, Tourain affirms that in 1980 fewer than 4 percent of the Brazilian population read a daily journal (1991).

Table 1 Number and Circulation of Daily Newspapers in Brazil Circ. per Year Number Circ.

Papers in 1000 1000 resid.

43 4653 75 289 45 5482 80 343 48 6534 85 322 55 8500 92 373 Source: UNESCO Statistical Yearbook 1994, pp. 7-82 and 7-83.

Illiteracy in Brazil is particularly dramatic when we consider that Brazil also has many educated people. Employers are constantly asking for higher levels of education.

It is unclear whether these demands have increased because the uses of reading and writing are more needed in the performance of previous manual tasks or because employers, having access to individuals with greater levels of education, want to use the more qualified labor force (Haddad 1992a).

Whatever reason may be at work, persons with low reading and writing skills become easy targets for low-paid jobs with no social security or workers' benefits.

GRGs in Brazil, which are large in number because of their previous work of resistance during the military dictatorship and

their close affiliation with numerous Catholic community groups (particularly the Comunidades Eclesiais de Base), have mobilized themselves for education in the past.

Usually their struggle has sought the expansion of primary schooling. In other cases they have aimed at the expansion of secondary schools and the creation of supletivo classes so that overage students may complete their education. This is discussed further in the next chapter.

II MOVA as a State-Civil Society Partnership We must systematize our experience so that others in this country may take our experience as a point of departure, benefit from our testimony, and move forward (R Freire, statement in a MOVA video program, 1991).

One literacy program of particular interest from a pedagogical and political perspective is MOVA (Movimento de Alfabetizacao de Jovens e Adultos), implemented in the city of sao Paulo from January 1989 to December 1993.

I "discovered" the existence of the MOVA initiative during a visit to Brazil in 1989. At that time I was conducting a feasibility study for the creation of an international literacy center and contacted numerous literacy programs, both in governmental agencies and in NG0s, to gain an appreciation of the types of functions they performed and their needs. MOVA impressed me with its innovative features, especially its "emancipatory literacy" objectives and the ample participation of grassroots groups.

The fact that Paulo Freire—the architect of "emancipatory literacy"—was the secretary of education for the municipality of Sao Paulo, where MOVA was taking place, further added interest to MOVA as a case study.

Given my longstanding interest in gender issues, my original research questions about MOVA revolved around two key issues: (a) how does an emancipatory literacy program treat women—that is to say, what mechanisms are put in place for issues of attendance, retention, content of materials, and instructional methodologies; and (b) how does emancipatory literacy benefit women? Specifically, how do women renegotiate relations within household and community? What changes take place in their lives following a greater conscientization?

The first research visit to the program, in May-June 1991, revealed that nothing had been designed or was in place with the specific aim of addressing women's conditions or needs. The program, however, had a number of characteristics that appealed to women attending it.

My research questions then underwent change to focus instead on gaining an understanding of the factors that made it possible

for women to participate in MOVA, the type of experience they had in literacy classes, and the uses and meanings they had for the literacy skills they developed through MOVA participation. While my focus was narrow, i.e., centered only on the women's experience and emphasizing the women's perspective, it became clear over time that I could not treat participation in MOVA without understanding MOVA' s existence and its insertion in the public sphere of the city of Sao Paulo itself This focus, of a larger scope, was further reinforced by the grassroots groups themselves, who in frequent exchanges with this researcher would mention important dynamics affecting program functioning that lay beyond the perceptions of the literacy learners but which in various ways affected them. The research process, therefore, has been one of progressive unfolding and unveiling of actors, events, and experiences.

1. MOVA Features From an analytical perspective, MOVA offers high promise for the understanding of literacy programs for adults because of the following features: (a) its massive nature, affecting the entire city of sao Paulo—a rather unusual feature in literacy programs conducted under non-revolutionary conditions; (b) the strong role of grassroots organizations in the design and implementation of the program, making MOVA an instance of change using the partnership principle between state and civil society, and thus evincing greater and more extensive levels of participation than in other literacy programs; (c) reasonable financial and technical support by the government (in this case the local municipality); (d) the presence of emancipatory objectives for literacy, as the key aim of the project was the creation of new citizens for the "construction of a democratic and popular alternative, the radical transformation of political structures and social organization;" (e) a relatively sustained effort, as the program was conceived from the time the Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores; PT) administration governed the city of Sao Paulo and its classes were offered for three years; and (f) MOVA enjoyed the intellectual support of Paulo Freire, a renowned educator who served as the city's secretary of education during the first two years of the MOVA program.

As a result of an evolution in my thinking, this study seeks two objectives. At one level, it aims to understand how gender shapes the acquisition and use of literacy knowledge. Gender may express itself through the factors that promote or deter women from participating in literacy programs, the objectives the women seek through literacy, the meanings they see in the instructional practice, and the way the literacy knowledge contributes to changes

BRAZZIL - JULY 1998 56

in self-image and relations with others in the Paulo (26 percent of the total) lived infavelas ing to the 1991 census data, there are about household and the community.

(Noticias Populares June 15, 1992). one million illiterates in sao Paulo, which At another level, the study provides a As a city, Sao Paulo is awesome on translates into an official illiteracy rate of 14 case study of a grassroots literacy move- many counts. With large avenues and giganpercent for those aged five or older. Those ment in a process that bears promise for the tic parks, numerous high-rise buildings, and without access to print cope with an uncerexpansion of education and the reduction of an intense pace, sao Paulo goes to sleep late illiteracy. The need for the participation of and wakes up early in the morning with d e tain world, relying on colors and shapes, and organized citizens in the provision of educa- sounds of building construction and remod- a few isolated letters for recognition of buses tion has become increasingly real, particu- eling. Hard statistics indicate that the city and streets. Illiteracy exists because there is larly now that not only are governments occupies 0.1 percent of the Brazilian terr - a large segment of people who are poor, beleaguered by demands to expand the edu- tory but that it comprises ten percent of its used by the economic system and unatcational system but situations of financial population and generates twenty-five per- tended by the political system. Another reacrisis confront many developing nations. cent of its revenues (Prefeitura do Municipip son is the insufficient schools and educaThis study describes the way in which a de Sao Paulo 1992). Its budget is the fourth tional programs for younger people.. The major, literacy movement implemented its largest in Latin America—larger than that o f steady migration from poorer and less eduliteracy program, its relations with the gov- many countries in the region. Wealthy by cated regions of the country to the industrial magnet of Sao Paulo further compounds the ernment that sponsored it, and its efforts to most standards, the municipal govemmen problem. ensure satisfactory performance and sur- has a diversified source of income, with 35.

For many of those who work in an urban vival. percent of its revenues originating in th setting, access to knowledge is tantalizingly I should make it clear that this study is municipality itself, forty-one percent corn close yet prohibitive. For those who work, not an evaluation of the MOVA program. ing from state transfers, and 3.6 percen distances tend to be considerable and the My interest is not to judge MOVA's success from federal sources. For all its size and time spent going from home to work is often or failure in attaining its stated objectives, power, Sao Paulo is vulnerable to external but rather to use the program as a terrain politics since the substantial state revenues measured in hours. The municipality is about from which to examine social and political are oftentimes manipulated by state authori- fifty km. from east to west and seventy km. dynamics that impinge on literacy. While I ties (delays in remittances is a common from north to south. There is a lively public do refer to the entire program at the level of tactic) whenever they want to exert pressure transportation systCm with a dense network governance and management and review or express displeasure with events and con- of buses, trains, and subways. But while everybody is served and one can go practivarious links between the program and the ditions in the city. cally anywhere using public transportation, educational bureaucracy, my study covers A modern and vibrant city, Sao Paulo the main cost is that of time. The city has only one of the six urban regions in which has all the features associated with urban MOVA operated; it is based on the experi- living: a large network of public transporta- about 10,000 buses and many of them connect in ingenious ways with metro stations. ence of four of the seventy-five grassroots tion, many newspapers, numerous jobs in But there are only forty km. of metro, so groups that took part in MOVA; and the manufacturing and service, a strong presemphasis is on the program impact on ence of TV and radio programming, abun- many people (about 71 percent) must take buses or make time-consuming bus-metro women, not on program impact on multiple dant print messages in posters, street and actors and institutions, as a conventional traffic signs, store names, and electronic connections (Rolnik et al. 1990, pp. 156 and 199; SMP 1992b). evaluation would have been. billboards. It possesses two of the best uniWhile people from diverse statuses and 2. The Context versities in the country, the University of The city of Sao Paulo is surprisingly sao Paulo (USP) and the Catholic Univer- job positions—corporations, banks, factoorderly for its size and constant motion. sity of Sao Paulo (PUC)—both institutions ries, domestic service, and street markets— What is known as the metropolitan region of of high intellectual display and productiv- cross paths everyday, this proximity is susao Paulo comprises thirty-eight munici- ity. It also has a good network of public perficial. People with low skills and low palities and is home to between fifteen and schools, certainly more schools and better salaries live in different worlds from those of middle and upper classes. The access to eighteen million inhabitants. The munici- teachers than other parts of the country. print is like the access to school—possible pality of Sao Paulo proper had ten million Current observers of the city as an eduinhabitants aceording to the 1990 census. In cating setting have (see, for instance, but highly unlikely. Not all ofthose living in the daytime, with the influx of workers, it Ajuntamento de Barcelona 1990) remarked the peripheral areas of the city have access to education. Approximately 300,000 of the swells to thirteen million. that the city has become the central hub of all Large as it is, the city gains 300,000 types of communications but note also that children in Sao Paulo are not enrolled in school, most often not because they do not inhabitants per year. About forty-six perthe most anguished solitude" is to be found ant schooling but because the system has cent of sa-o Paulo's residents come from in cities because modern mass media proo place for them. For adults, the situation is other states, and eighteen percent of its in- mote unidirectional messages while making orse since most resources go to serve priml habitants come from the Northeast, many of it difficult for individuals to transmit mesary schooling. Even them dislodged from the fields by theexpan- sages of their own (Moles Batllori 1990, p. oung adults seeking to sion of agro-industries and their insatiable 370). omplete secondary educaclaim for land.

In terms of exposure to print, written ion have problems finding While getting a factory job is increas- messages are inescapable. Posters and brochools that will accept ingly difficult in Sao Paulo, those who join chures proliferate in the commercial areas. em. the labor market are paid wages consider- In residential neighborhoods, banners—a Different illiteracy ably higher than those in other sectors. Infla- widespread custom in Brazilian culture— tes have been attached to tion—which hovered at 20-25 percent per announce all kinds of information: from a e Municipality of sao month until mid-1994—created the "fave- special sale of T-shirts, to the schedule for aulo. Statistical data for lization" of many in the working class. It is registration in a vocational school, to a missl'80 indicate that the city estimated that about eight percent of the city ing dog for which a good reward is availof Sao Paulo lived in favelas by 1987. And able. There are 89 publications in the Mu- h d 645,100 illiterates, prod cing a rate of 9.6 percent even the former working class elite—the nicipality of Sao Paulo, 14 percent of these ( sing the definition of automobile assembly workers—are poor appear daily and 36 percent weekly (SME t ose who are five years or today: a recent publication found that 2500 1992a). o er and cannot read or of the 9800 Ford factory workers in Sao Despite the omnipresent print, accord- w ite; cited in Haddad et al.

1993, P. 17). Ten years later, the Municipal Secretary of Education (Secretaria Municipal de Educacao; SME) reported 1.5 million illiterates for the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo (SME 1990a). Other estimates for 1989 report 1 million of adults without schooling and 2.5 million youths and adults with less than four years of schooling (SME 1989a).

The problem of illiteracy is not limited to those who have never been to school. Many of those who have attended public school for a few years sometimes read as poorly as those who, without schooling, have nevertheless managed to make sense of a few printed signs in their everyday life.

The fate of those in literacy programs is usually negative in that many drop out. Data on dropouts for Supletivo I (the basic literacy classes, equivalent to grades 1-4 of primary schooling, offered by either the municipality or the state) for the state of Sao Paulo indicate rates ranging from 39 to 34 percent for the years 1988-1991 (cited in Haddad et al. 1993, P. 31). This high dropout rate must be considered in light of the very low enrollment in literacy programs.

According to a household survey conducted in 1990, the enrollment in the three networks providing literacy programs (state, municipal, and private) in the state of sao Paulo covered only 4.9 percent of the illiterate persons age fifteen and over.

As in other parts of the world, sao Paulo is experiencing an increasingly strong educational devaluation. Whereas a decade ago manual service jobs could be obtained without formal education, today large firms and even middle-class homes require workers with several years of formal education. In this land of coffee, it is very common for companies to have a person— invariably a woman—who prepares and serves coffee for visitors or during break times. She is the copeira. Today, some large companies require complete primary education to be a copeira.

2.1. Zona Leste Because Sao Paulo is immense, this study zeroed in on one area of the city, the Eastern Zone (Zona Leste; pronounced zonah leschay). Formal studies identify this area as being inhabited predominantly by low-income people (Secretaria Municipal do Planejamento 1990), although the southern sector of the city appears to be poorer. Zona Leste has 3.2 million inhabitants or about thirty percent of the city's population. It also has more than one hundred favelas, where approximately twelve percent of its popula4

tion lives. According to studies by local groups, Zona Leste has a population estimated to be about thirty-five percent illiterate and fifty-five percent semi-literate.

The inhabitants of Zona Leste are mostly immigrants from the Northeast. Conditions in this area are better than in their former rural and semi-rural environments, yet many residents face serious subsistence problems, including poor conditions in housing, sanitation, electricity, health, and transportation. The majority of its working population works in other parts of the city. This produces a substantial displacement of people everyday, a dependency on and crowding of public transportation, and an isolation of many neighborhoods, which because of the limited jobs in their area, also have few services available.

The majority of people in Zona Leste are unskilled workers (general assistants, maids, construction workers), low-level government workers, and people in the informal sector of the economy. Seventy percent of its residents are estimated to earn a monthly salary lower than two minimum salaries, which enables people to live only if they consume within the informal sector of the economy. (One minimum salary was approximately $ 65 in 1994. Curiously, a"minimum wage" has become a unit of reference in reporting salaries in Brazil.) People near the center of Zona Leste have incomes ranging from 0 to 8 minimum wages, those farther away have incomes between 0 to 4 minimum wages (SMP 1991).

As is true for the city of Sao Paulo as a whole, the periphery also has uneven terrain. From a distance, the houses in Zona Leste look charming— clustered on rolling hills against a constantly blue Brazilian sky.

From up close, the streets are not always paved and some have big holes. All the houses are of brick, some covered with plaster, and built, or mostly being built, by the owners themselves. One and two-stories high, the houses grow to accommodate emerging needs. A few houses are complete—they have painted walls and iron fences to protect residents. Most houses are at some stage of construction, with rooms being added as incomes allow. Since they tend to be painted on their final day of construction, most houses exhibit the concrete gray of the plaster. Empty lots dot the neighborhoods, full of weeds and sometimes garbage. Most houses have electricity and water and less- often sewage. Open trenches, narrow and shallow, border many of the housing blocks. In them, dirty water and human refuse flows, giving some streets a Medieval look and smell.

Yet, the streets are not chaotic. While some are paved and some are not, they have been clearly established with consideration of a larger urban design. The houses, though self-built, follow standards of construction and design that reveal a desire to live decently. Looking at these houses, most of them the product of hard labor on weekend

time, one can feel the energy of people attempting to better their life. Among the stores of Zona Leste, there are many that sell construction materials: bags of cement, bricks, doors, windows, paint. People buy these materials in small increments, whatever they can afford at the time. They do know that they should get what they can as soon as possible because with inflation rates about 1500 percent a year, increases in the price of products of 10 to 20 percent per month are common, and these are not matched by increases in wages. Judging from several houses under construction, the initial steps are to build a fence and accumulate construction materials behind it.

Many children roam the streets. Boys play with soccer balls of all types and sizes; they also fly very spirited kites. Some of these kites are serious fighters, carrying broken glass in their whipping tails and able to cut rival kites to the ground. Remnants of many kites tangled tails resembling bird nests on electrical wires—are testimony to fights and to long hours of kite flying.

Zona Leste has been the site of many mobilization efforts by its inhabitants—a mobilization to demand social services in areas such as land for housing, health, and education. The inhabitants have been successful in their demands; today these services exist even if still at precarious levels.

It is estimated that perhaps more than 85 percent of the people active in these efforts have been women, even though the coordination of the various popular movements is in the hands of men.

According to several of the most tenured and important leaders of Zona Leste, the community began to mobilize itself in 1984 around demands for land for housing.

During this mobilization they realized that illiterates would not be able to obtain land because they were not able to sign a property title. Also, the mobilization found that many families had been evicted from their lands because they had signed the wrong papers.

Literacy demands thus emerged in connection with land acquisition, as a means to cope with governmental rules. The Literacy Movement of Zona Leste gained literacy experience when it signed an agreement with the then-existing federal literacy program, EDUCAR, for running twenty-five nuclei. EDUCAR provided only funds, not training. The movement trained its own teachers.

Zona Leste's mobilization in education has focused on the demand for more primary schools, the expansion of high school classes, and the provision of preschool services for children. The women have never mobilized to demand literacy training for themselves, although obviously there is a need for this.

Excerpted from Literacy for Citizenship—Gender and Grassroots Dynamics in Brazil by Nelly P. Stromquist, State University of New York Press, 1997, 248 pp

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