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DIDA, MORE THAN A GIRLS' BAND, A MISSION
No. 164 — August 1999
ECONOMY: TRUCK DRIVERS STOP THE NATION
POLITICS: THE 100.000 MARCH OF THE DISCONTENTS
TRAVEL: MARANHAO AND ITS FRENCH HERITAGE
PASSAGE: THE RED BISHOP GOES TO HEAVEN
SPECIAL: CARDOSO, A MESSIAH DESPITE HIMSELF
SHORT STORY: FIVE TALES BY MOACYR SCLI
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3 BRAZZIL -AUGUST 1999
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BRAZZIL -AUGUST 1999
We are used to talk about the Brazilian black, and the poor, and misery, and crime, and all kinds of trouble in the same breath. But when we know Brazil has 165 million souls and that half of them are black or mulatto it is impossible not to ask the natural question: "Aren't there any affluent blacks?" If a mere one percent of the nation's blacks had succeeded economically we would already have
8
Passage Dom Helder says farewell
820.000 well-to-do blacks. Imagine that 10% of them have made good and pros-1 pered in life and this would give us a respectable 8.2 million people, a popui lation larger than that of several Latil American countries. And that's the case. There are about 8 million middle-class blacks in Brazil today. A crowd too large to be ignorecI As you might know, Brazzil is a very small operation: one person and some volunteers who help as and when they can. The magazine is coming out almost two months late and I'm sorry for that. I don't see me catching up soon, but rest assured that the content is fresh and you will get all the issues yon've paid for. Thanks for understanding and all the best. R.M.
CONTENTS
http://www.brazzil.com by businesses. And the increasing presence of blacks has been noticeable on advertising in which black models have become more common and on TV soap operas where blacks are getting juicier roles than those of maids, cooks, and chauffeurs. Aware of their strength blacks are finally organizing themselves and occupying their rightful place in society. We have plenty to say about that on our cover story. R.M.
26
10
Short Story Five little gems by Moacyr Scliar
11
Travel The charming_past and rich present orMaranhao
18
Cuisine Feijoada and other toothsome recipes
Media How Brazilians survived the apocalypse
34
Cover And now, the affluent Brazilian blacks
38
Cover by Aylan Mello
Politics The 100.000 march goes to Brasilia
20
Economy Truck drivers stop their trucks and Brazil
22
Ideas Censorship is alive and well in academia
24
Poetry Buzzing around Mario Quintana
DEPARTMENTS 6 Rapidinhas 16
41
Impressions Life in the pleasure lane in Rio
45
Letters
Music
49 The Cultural Pulse 51 Classifieds
Didal the sounds of a social experiment
54
Special President Cardoso: the real and the rule
52 That's Brazilian
TIME TO RENEW? Sorry, we don't send Send mail to: P.O. Box 50536 - Los Angeles, A 90050-0536 reminders. Look at the Ads/Editorial: (323) 255-8062 - Subscrip.: ( 23) 255-4953 label to know when your Fax: (323) 257-3487 - Brazzil on line: http://ww.brazzil.com subscription ends. E-mail: brazzil@brazzil.com Publisher and Editor: Rodney Mello / Commercial Director: Leda Bittencourt Entertainment Editors: Sam & Harriet Robbins / Book Review: Bondo Wyszpolski / Music Editor: Bruce Gilman Brazil Bureau Chief: Marta Alvim - E-mail: mItdalvim@yahoo.com - Tel : (021) 539-9214 - Fax: (021) 581-0198 BRAZZIL (ISSN 1091-868X) is published monthly by Brazzil - 2039 N. Ave. 52, Los Angele , 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 doliars) in the U.S., $15 in Canada and Mexico, and $18 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 (self addressE d and stamped envelope) if you want your material mailed back. Brazzil assumes no responsibility for any claims made by its advertisers. The Library of Congress ISSN: 1524-4997 POST MASTER: Send address changes to BRAZZIL - P.O. Box 5 )536 - Los Angeles, CA - 90050-0536 5 1 BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
00011111q11011‘ I II Mill inhis e avio
Pretty Baby Brazil's latest sex symbol is still a teen. Deborah Secco, the star of Suave Veneno (Mild Poison)—the top TV novela (soap opera) on Brazil at the moment, seems like an old pro, but she is a mere 19. As precocious as they come, she has a ten-year career on TV, has been married for almost two years and has just been given what in Brazil is a seal of achievement and coming of age: the cover of Playboy magazine. She is in the August issue, gracing not only the cover but also 24 pages inside. Deborah seems to be puzzled by all the fuss around her: "It's funny to see myself as a sex symbol. I don't feel like I am one. I am still the same little girl. I have nothing to complain about though. I'm living the best phase of my life." In an interview with Rio's daily 0 Dia, Secco declared: "There are millions of women more sensuous than myself. One day I was looking in a magazine at a list of the 100 sexiest women in the world. I didn't think I would make it. And I couldn't believe it when 1 saw myself in 11th place between Sharon Stone and Cindy Crawford. After me there were Meg Ryan and Liv Tyler. All gorgeous women. We haven't the slightest idea what we mean to people. I always thought about myself as a normal girl. I know millions of women who are prettier than I am." Secco traveled to Los Angeles recently to have her pictures taken in the nude. She was photographed by celebrity photographer J. R. Duran, who among other things made her pose with a rubber frog on her belly (the caption: A modern fable. Is she going to lick the frog?) and sucking on a baby bottle (the legend in English: Oh! Pretty woman!..) Did she feel embarrassed or ill at ease with the Playboy experience? "Not at all," she says. "Posing was easy. I loved it. I thought all the pictures were gorgeous. The difficult part was to choose the best among the three thousand. Of course to pose in the nude is very good for your ego. It means that you are des i red.Deborah has already bought an apartment and a car with the money she got, but has not decided what to do with the pay from Playboy. "I never in my life thought I would be able to make so much money." How much? She will not reveal. "1 cannot say due to the contract I've signed with them." Her only worry now is that her image can be damaged by so much exposure. She has been cutting down on the interviews she gives and intends to take a break from TV as soon as she ends her participation in Globo's Suave Veneno, where she is Marina, a character whose main goal is to nab a rich husband. Marina da Silva Coelho spends most of her days on the beach, showing off and trying to catch the big fish. Deborah's character has caused a stir among some soccer star women who feel ridiculed by Marina. The soap opera written by Aguinaldo Silva was—according to the author—inspired by Shakespeare's King Lear. Waldomiro, the main character, is a businessman from Pernambuco known as the Marble Emperor who has to share with his three ambitious daughters all the wealth he amassed.
6
emory
Life of Our Birthdays Brazilians don't know her anymore, but Bertha Celeste Homem de Mello was very famous in 1941 when from among 5,000 participants her verses were chosen to be sung with the melody of the American song Happy Birthday to You. The song every Brazilian sings at birthday parties goes like this: "Parabens a voce / Nesta data querida / Muitas felicidades / Muitos anos de vida" (Congratulations to you / On this cherished date / Much happiness / Many years of life), a little more imaginative than its Yankee counterpart created by Mildred (the melody) and Patty Hill, two Louisville teachers. The American ditty was composed in 1893 as a classroom greeting called "Good Morning to All," with the happy birthday verses added in the 1920s when the song was published by Robert H. Coleman. Born in 1902 in Pindamonhangaba, in the interior of Sao Paulo, Bertha was 97 years old when she died of a pulmonary infection in Jacarei—also in Sao Paulo—where she had lived for the past 40 years. The author was graduated in Pharmacy and earned a Ph.D. in Literature. Under the Lea Magalhaes penname, Bertha wrote a great number of poems celebrating country life and country folks. Among her better-known poems are "Cancao do Imigrante" (Immigrant Song) and A Capelinha do Arraid (The Burgh's Little Chapel). She was already a writer when at the age of 38 she sent her happy birthday verses to a competition promoted by.Almirante on his radio program at Tupi, a Rio de Janeiro radio station. The submissions were judged by Cassiano Ricardo, Olegario Mariano, and Mucio Leao, all of them members of the very exclusive (40 members only) Brazilian Academy of Letters. Her prize: one thousand cruzeiros, the recording ofthe song by Continental, and fame. Fame vanished though. Not more than 200 people followed the casket to the cemetery of Pindamonhangaba, which declared an official day of mourning.
BRAZZIL -AUGUST 1999
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The Day Samba Stopped Semente de amor sei que sou desde nascenca, mas sem ter brilho e fulgor, eis minha sentenca Cartola and Carlos Cachaca Love seed I know I am since birth Without shine and glean though, it's my sentence
the author of little jewels like "Nao quero mais" (I don't want anymore)— NA° quero mais amar a ninguem Naofuifeliz, o destino nao quis... I don't want to love anyone I was not happy, fate. didn't want... —"Quem me ve sorrindo" (Who sees me smiling), and "Tempos idos" (Gone times). These are some ofhis most popular creations, but many of his compositions (more than 300) were never recorded and many got lost. In what is considered one of the prettiest odes to Mangueira, he wrote "Alvorada" (Dawn) in partnership with Cartola. Alvorada has lyrics like: Alvorada, lá no morro, que beleza Ninguem chora, nao ha mais tristeza Ninguem sente dissabor
"No thanks, I only drink cachaca." Tenente Couto, who was throwing a bash at famed Praca Onze in Rio for a group of musician friends, couldn't take anymOre of the refusals of his guest to drink beer and sent someone to buy the cachaca. When the popular strong sugarcane liquor arrived, Couto asked, "Where is Carlos?" Carlos who?, people wanted to know. There were three different Carlos at the party. "The one oflhe cachaga," said the host. The name caught. Carlos Moreira de Castro from then on would be known as Carlos Cachaca. He was then 17. There is no more cachaca and no more Carlos. The poet, composer and sambista whose story blends itself with the history of escola de samba (samba club) Estaclo Primeira da Dawn, up on the hill, what a beauty Mangueira has died in his sleep--the way he said he would like No one cries, there is no sadness anymore to go—on August 16, two weeks after his 97th birthday. No one feels troubled "Today is party day in heaven," said Dona Zica, widow of legendary Cartola, who was his most frequent partner. The composer co-authored almost every samba-enredo "He does not only tell the history of Mangueira," his friend (samba plot) of Mangueira during the '30s and '40s. He Was Fernando Pimento used to say, "he is the history ofMangueira." also the one who wrote "Homenagem" (Homage), the 1934 Together with Cartola, Cachaca founded the Bloco dos tune that's considered the first samba enredo ever. Some of Arengueiros, a samba group that gave birth to Mangueira Cachaca's work came to light through samba school. the voice of his best friend and partDespite the closeness of Cachaca to ner, Cartola. There is still plenty of Mangueira he was not there at the Buraco never recorded tunes composed with Quente (Hot Hole) meeting to sign the book Herminio Bello de Carvalho waiting on April 28, 1928, the day the escola de to be made public. samba was founded. It's said that he missed Famous, although poor till the end, the historic moment because he went out he had a privilege of few living men: with a woman, another one of his vices: A his name (Carlos Cachaca) graced the different story places him working late at the street he lived in. Loved by his fellow Rede Feffoviaria Federal railway company, composer he recently had been paid where he was an employee. Because Of his an homage by composers Moacyr Luz absence, Cachaca is not considered a and Aldir Blanc who celebrated him Mangueira founder officially. Among the with the samba "Genio da Raca" (Genames signed in the book there are Abelardo nius of the Race). da Bolinha, Marcelino, Pedro Cairn, Menininha (Clotilde da Silva) was Saturnino Goncalves, Seu Euclides, Ze the love of his life. She not only adEspinguela, and Cartola. mired and adored him but also danced, Despite this bureaucratic detail, no other sang and went with Cachaca to the man symbolized Mangueira so well. For riffraff bars he enjoyed so much. They starters he was born on August 3, 1902 in the were married for 45 years until area that became the shantytown neighborCletildes's death in 1983. hood that gave name to the samba school. The name was inspired by an important Friends said that despite his ill factory in the area, the Chapeus Mangueira (Mangueira Hats). health and difficulty in moving Cachaca felt loved and was The composer had abandoned cachaga for decades, but happy for having- received as a gift on his birthday on August adopted beer and continued having it against the advice of 3 a hearing aid allowing him to listen to sounds he couldn't doctors who encouraged him to quit. His best argument: "Why should I? Three of the doctors who advised me to do that are hear for years. One month before his death he had moved from Mangueira to the house of his daughter, Ines Moreira de already dead." Having started as a samba composer in 1923, Cachaca is Castro, in the Engenho da Rainha neighborhood.
EIRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
emem • enng
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The Suave Dom
"Are you going to heaven?", a reporter asked him once. "I have great hope," answered Dom Helder, a man who liked to be called just with the I \r t r ,\ r honorific title for bishops, Dom, and whose main virtue wasn't humbleness. He loved to tell this little joke about himself: "Dom Helder died, went to heaven and there was Saint Peter waiting for him at heaven's gate. Already_ impatient that the bishop didn't make up his Mind to enter, the gatekeeper saint asks: "Why is he taking so long?" To which one\ aide answers: "He is waiting for the media to cover the event." And cover they did. The bishop whose name could not even be mentioned in the media during the darker years of the military dictatorship (1964-1985) and who was derisively called "Red Bishop" by one ofthe most influent Brazilian papers, conservative 0 Estado de S. Paulo, found his death making front cover headlines across the country. As witness to the love people had for him, more than 2000 people walked for two hours under the sun following the Fire Department truck that carried his casket through the streets of Recife to Olinda where Dom Helder was buried at the mausoleum of the Alto da Se Church. Thousands more had come to the daylong wake. On their way to the mausoleum the faithful sang the national anthem, church hymns, as well as Roberto Carlos popular songs "Jesus Cristo" and "A Montanha". Sionxtrn, mi,ito Mind A.*, ele de, 11,4kr Diminutive (he was 5"2') and gaunt, Helder Camara was big enough to 21101,4:mofitiOrkin relqw•Ohrtia reollesch nr$ Eu• ',Wei.. omit, nu owyeeakruvdo face the powerful and condemn the atrocities they committed in the name reboil seer) veoutedo I7h t•T Cott.abhia St an NM& iue Parte of national security. An admirer of FidelCastro, he used to attacktapitalism intigion.le boa Inteim Pu1 Wm. 'Rohe, marl.fealp. Dom Witkv 1,,tio twpwehrorpepor enrx and the United States. An inspirer of Liberation Theology he didn't wantto so, a mrs.tawil peirte per Man er. 1(10,0 de mon eh ea.,- ,e-Vc be linked to any ideology however. Contrary to the Liberation Theology, . war, n, • which condemns the giving of alms, he used to give to the poor. Talking *7/2/1909 t 27/8/1999 about his dilemma with the military he declared in 1964: "If I give food to also. t 4r...4C atow091,4, • the poor they call me a saint. If! ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist." During the Second Vatican Council in 1963 he suggested to his fellow bishops they should abandon titles of nobility like eminence and excellency and to exchange their valuable crosses for bronze or wood ones. He wrote: "Let us end once and for all the impression of a bishop-prince, residing in a palace, ttei * isolated from his clergy whom he treats distantly and coldly." Following his own advice when he took his post as archbishop of Pernambuco state's Olinda and Recife, on April 12, 1964-2-less than two weeks after the March 31 military coup against President Joao Goulart—Dom Helder chose to live in a little hotise behind a church instead of the Episcopal mansion. He also - took out the gilded throne his predecessor had and adopted a wooden chair in its place. Dom Helder kept his Franciscan habits until the end. Instead of the embroidered frocks favored by his peers he preferred an old worn white cassock. At his inauguration homily he talked about his beliefs: "On Judgement Day, we will be judged by the way we treated Christ represented by those who are hungry, thirsty, and go through life dirty, hurt and oppressed." What he called "preferential option for the poor" was Dom Helder's life-long undertaking. In the 1950s as Rio's auxiliary bishop he had already develeped two programs to help the poor: the Saint Sebastian Crusade (1956) and the Providence Bank (1959). His intent to go to the roots of what caused poverty gave origin to the CEBs (Comunidades Eclesiais de Base—Grassroots Church Communities), an institution much maligned by the military, which accused him of being a communist. Late controversial fightwing playwright and journalist Nelson Rodrigues, who often criticized Dom Helder, wrote: "He would like to make the headlines of Kennedy, the frontpages of Guevara and get the promotion of Martin Luther King." Combative and renowned journalist David Nasser also used to write against Dom Helder at the end of the 60's and beginning of the 70's, calling him "our Lenine in frock", "little father Helder", "hypocrisy globe-trotter". Searching As a young priest, Helder Camara was a fascist, a youthful sin for which he paid his whole life trying to explain why he opted for that extreme-right movement inspired by Benito Mussolini (1883-1945). "This was a short political experience from which God freed me totally," he declared once, adding: "I think everything in life can be used: the things we've done right and the mistakes. When mtegralismo (Brazilian fascism) appeared announcing God, country R1 I
,
a
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
and family, it seemed to me that those ideals were very similar to the ones I'd learned as a Christian." At the end of the 40's he opted for the left. In 1947 Dom Helder organized the ACB (Mao Cateslica Brasile ira—Brazilian Catholic Action), which in turn inspired the creation of CNBB (Conferencia Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil—National Conference of Brazilian Bishops) from which Camara was the first general secretary. The archbishop used to receive phone threats • and shots were fired against his house once. In May 1969, Father Henrique, one of his main aides, was kidnapped, tortured, stoned and shot to death. Dom Helder, with ten priests, led a 10,000 people procession to the cemetery for the burial. He used to say at that time: "In Brazil, today,'a biShop can say things that a student, a worker, a teacher or an intellectual would not be able to say." Forbidden from giving interviews and with newspapers prohibited from mentioning his name (even to criticize him) - the archbishop continued to talk outside of Brazil. In 1970 he denounced tortures and the plight of political prisoners in Brazil during a speech to 20,000 people at the Paris Sports Palace. He explained once: "If! talk overseas it is mainly because the media is closed to me in Brazil." His muzzle was removed only in 1977. But then there was already a different climate in the country, even though the military dictatorship would remain in power for eight more years. Simply Jose Helder Pessoa Camara was born in the interior of Ceara state, on February 7, 1909, the eleventh of 13 children of accountant Joao Camara Filho and elementary school teacher Adelaide Pessoa Camara. While the mother wanted to name him Jose the father was able to have it his way, naming the son for a little Dutch harbor. Later, he would sign "Padre Jose" at the end of the meditations he used to write. He also affectionately called his guardian angel Jose. "You cannot accuse those who are thirsty for just justice," he once said. "In the Northeast, Jesus Christ is called Jose." From age four he showed an interest in the priesthood playing mass when children of his age had less religious interests. Young Helder entered the Fortaleza Diocesan Seminary in 1923. He became a priest on August 15, 1931 and a bishop on April 20, 1952. In 1985, when he reached the age of 75 he was compulsorily retired. Helder Camara won 25 international peace prizes and was nominated several times for the Nobel Prize. Secret documents published in the just-released book Dom Helder Camara— Entre o Poder e a Profecia (Dom Helder Camara—Between Power and Prophecy) by Nelson Piletti and Walter Praxedes, show that General Medici's regime (1969-1974) tried to sabotage his Nobel candidacy by spreading calumnies about him. Dom Helder also won 32 honorary doctoral degrees titles from Brazilian and foreign colleges. Among the books he wrote were Revolugio Dentro da Paz (Revolution Within Peace), Espiral da Violencia (Violence Spiral), 0 Desejo E Fertil (Desire Is Fertile), Mil Razoes para Viver (One Thousand Reasons to Live), and Sinfonia dos Dais Mundos (Symphony of Two Worlds), the latter one with Swiss musician Pierre Klein. He wrote 22 books that were translated into 14 languages. L 'Osservatore Romano,Vatican' s official newspaper, compared him once to Saint Francis of Assisi: "He is a man of God, a man of Christ, a man of the poor." But most typically he was • bombarded by the left and right alike. BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
HELDER CAMAFtA'S THOUGHTS Misery "I think tha the world's biggest problem is the ever widening gap be een the rich and increasingly richer countries and the hug mass of poor, increasingly poorer ones." "Poverty is evangelical virtue. It's different from misery that goes agains God's plans. What we have is misery." Capitalism t an economic system, whatever its name "I believe (because today ere are capitalisms, it's important to stress the plural),,whose m in concern and sometimes exclusive concern is profit, is also an intrinsically materialistic, inhuman system." Social Justi e "People ask e why and when I started to get interested in social justice. I • uld answer that this is a duty of every priest. But !cannot for et that! personally knew hunger andmisery. That I saw my mother crying and my father silent with bitterness when ere was nothing to eat, when there was no bread to divide ong the children." Guerrilla ar "I'm not tire and I'llnot get tired of proclaiming that when we denounce v olence, pointing to the reaction of the oppressed or the y s ungsters who try to act on their behalf, this violence is alrea • y number 2. I'm not tired and I'll not get tired of proclaiming at violence number 1, the violence mother of all other violent e, is the injustice that exists all over." Revolution "I don't fe the word revolution. I'm only very careful when I use it. A much as I respect those who are fighting for a deep and fast ocial change, forget democratic methods and use armed forc , in bloody revolutions and guerrilla warfare, I don't believe hate." Subversive "Sometime extremists tried to call me communist bishop, red bishop. I ne er had the slightest link with any communist system. After 1 64, it seemed that to preach about agrarian reform was to a vocate communism. But this has been refuted so much that i.day no one has the courage to call me a communist." Christiani "If tomorro the Latin America masses open their eyes ... they will distan e themselves from Christianity because it will seem to them t at their religion is allied to the exploiters." Persecutio "The privil ged groups and the governments never fight against Christi ity. They would never do that since they are the defenders s f the Christian civilization. What they fight is the `communis infiltration' inside the Church. What seems to be a clever str. gem." Criticism "You can c iticize me as much as you wish. Everyone has the right to do is. You can attack if you feel like it. But, be honest. Don't ise the gravest suspicions just on the basis of imagination • on't judge me by what the newspapers and magazines say at I said. Attack me only after checking first if I will have real chance of defense: it's not fair to beat someone who as his arms tied." U.S. Politi s "The diffe ence between Reagan and Carter is the same that exist betw en Coca-Cola and Pepsi." Some sites about Dom Helder on the Internet: http://ww .domhelder.com.br/ http://ww .oneworld.org/ccj/noticias/domhelde.htm http://ww .hotlink.com.br/users/jurandir/Helder.html http://ww .elogica.com.br/users/assuero/dom.htm
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It Apocalypse Hysteria It might be the colder than usual temperature, the lack of political scandals at home or up north in the US, or simply mere laziness. The fact is the Brazilian media went overboard during the recent solar eclipse, mixing in the same bag, astronomy and astrology, scientific observations and Nostradamus (1503-1566) predictions, April fool jokes and astronomical observations, making some people believe that the end of the world was imminent. The American press virtually ignored the fact since the phenomenon could not be observed here. The last solar eclipse of the millenium couldn't be seen in Brazil either, but the national media seemed intent on bringing it home with a vengeance. Television was the guiltiest in this game, bombarding the air with catastrophic predictions dressed as news that ended by not only scaring adults, but children who didn't take it as.a big joke. Rio newspaper 0 Dia reported several stories of terrorized kids including 11-year-old Cintia Rodrigues, who, already resigned to the approaching end of the world, asked that her mother, grandmother and her dog Miiicha be together with her, explaining, "We need to be embracing when everything ends." Another girl, Marisa Medeiros, 10, locked herself in the bathroom for hours until her mother, a doctor, found her and with the help of neighbors was able to open the door. Marisa was convinced that she was going to lose her family and crouched on the shower box waiting for the end. Words of comfort weren't enough to calm her down, and she had to be faken to a hospital. Janice Figueira Medeiros, Marisa's mother, blamed TV for what happened. "It is irresponsible for television to broadcast news of the end
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of the world during times accessible to children. The reports say that the end is going to be on a certain day without making it clear that this is only a prediction made by a crazy man." There was no proof of cause and effect but there were at least three cases of suicide in the northeastern state of Piaui attributed to the news about the apocalypse. Even publications considered serious entered the Armageddon frenzy. Weekly newsmagazine isto E went to the extreme of dedicating a cover to the subject. Over a black circle representing the sun the magazine wrote on the cover: "August 11, The Century's Most Feared Eclipse —Next week, two days before a Friday 13, sects all over the world will be waiting for the Apocalypse. Astrologers foresee conflicts and rebellions." Six pages inside echoed the same theme. Epoca, another news weekly, was just a tad sober, writing on the top of its cover: "The Century's Last Eclipse: Science and Mystery in the Sky." TV itself, which led the doomsday paranoia, was making fun of the media in the end. TV Globo's anchor ended the news bulletin the morning the world was supposed to end with this remark: "In this edition, you learned that the world has not ended. Gosh, what a relief. Everything goes ahead then, life continues! End of the world, for now, only our media." Correio Braziliense, the Brasilia daily, was very critical of the frenzy and their editors seemed to be having fun. They found a clever way to explore the subject the day the world was supposed to go up in smoke. Over a front page completely black they wrote in a very small type: Acabou? (Finished Yet). Some restaurants and nightclubs used the occasion to throw a party. In Rio's beach neighborhood of Ipanema, the Hippopotamus nightclub organized the "End of the World Party" and the host was no less than Nostradamus (actor Leonardo Arantes dressed as the prophet) who gave fortune cookies to those who dared to come to the last it de am* party. Rhapsody, also in Rio, offered what it called the "Last Supper," with bread and wine and a 0 MAIS TEMIDO,ECLIPSE reenactment of Christ's last meal. In Copacabana, the Le Boy nightclub cooked up a party called "If DO SECULO it is going to end, may it all end in happiness." And in the neighborhood of Santa Teresa, a club, not sure about the outcome, named its celebration: "In case the world does not end." The telephone at the National Observatory was never so busy, the same thing with confessionals. Even the CNBB (Conferencia Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil—National Conference of Brazil's Bishops) dealt with the subject on its Internet page. In the bulletin, "The End of the World," Dom Raymundo Damasceno Assis, CNBB' s general secretary, wrote: "Nostradamus's predictions made in the 16th century can be interpreted in several ways and should not be seen as divine revelations."
Pre-dated checks only before the end of the world.
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
Up and Coming Yes, there are 'prosperous and even rich Brazilian blacks. And they are not just the successful soccer players and musicians. There are actually millions of them, working as lawyers, doctors, executives and businessmen, making up one third of the Brazilian middle class: EMERSON LUIS
CV? AZ WM=
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BFtAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
A recent spot aired on Brazilian network TV presented a man touting the excellence of Itan, the second largest private bank in Brazil—Bradesco being the first. Nothing new there. Financial institutions have been selling their wares on the tube for decades. What prompted many viewers to do a double take was the fact that the actor making the pitch was black. Despite having a population that is half black or mulatto, one would never guess it by watching Brazilian commercials. On TV and in print ads models tend to be angelic-looking blueand green-eyed blondes. The fact that a big bank is using blacks to sell itself to the general public is further proof that the invisible black Brazilian middle class is finally coming forward and being recognized as an economic power. Appliance manufacturer Walita was the first company to use a black model on TV to sell its products. Its 1979 groundbreaking spot featured an interracial couple formed by a white woman and a black man. The most successful instance of a black promoting products on TV is actor Sebastiao Fonseca who, as the spunky Sebastian, has been in a continuing advertising campaign for apparel maker C & A since 1988. Fonseca has become a popular spokesperson for the company which produces an average of three new spots a month, and he travels around the country promoting autograph afternoons at C & As' outlets.
At its Internet site (http:%/ www.ceamodas.com.br) the company even has a game in which Sebastian dances. A DataFolha study from 1997 shows that black participation in TV ads ranged from a low 4.7% on Manchete TV to 17.8% on SBT TV. Globo, the dominant TV network, with about two thirds of the total audience, had 13.2% of its ads featuring black people. For Haroldo Campos, editor ofRaca Brasil, "while the market has awakened to the black presence the same has not happened with the advertising agencies." Felipe Duke, creative director at ad agency Propeg, has an opinion that will not endear him to black activists. Duke says that it's time to rethink the way , blacks are used in ads, but not for the usual reasons, such as their lack of presence, but because "a black when he sees another black does not identify with the product, despite the fact that he is watching himself. There is a prejudice against products intended for the lowest classes and blacks unfortunately are still part of them." Those who have explored the market for black products have no complaints. "It's delirious, I made $800,000 last year and intend to make $2 million this year," said Antonio Carlos Moreira in an interview for weekly magazine Manchete. Moreira is the owner of Cravo e Canela, a pioneer manufacturer of cosmetics for blacks. Until recently these specific products had to be imported or blacks were forced to use the same make-up created NE for white skins. Some figures that attest to the increasing black affluence: according to the IPEA (Institut° de Pesquisa Economica Aplicada— Institute for Applied Economic Research), the number of blacks in the Brazilian middle class has increased by 10% in the last seven years; today blacks represent 22% of business owners, as compared to 10% ten years ago. According to United Nations statistics, Brazil is the world's largest black country after Nigeria. In a country where reliable statistical data are a rarity it is no surprise that nobody knows how many blacks there are, and much less how large is the number of blacks who belong to the middle class. Big enough, however, to provoke some course corrections at Brazil's most important ad agencies. Big enough to deserve an eight-page cover story in mid-August in Veja, the largest (1.2 million copies) Brazilian weekly newsmagazine. A study conducted at the end of 1997 by ad agency Grottera Comunicacdo revealed that Brazil had a black middle-class of 7 million, with an average monthly family income of about $2,000. Grottera's purpose was to create a profile of
the black consumer. Every month this population spends around $500 million in non-essential products, and has a total buying power of close to $45 billion a year. The work was not as rigorous as other traditional research studies since the population sample researched was limited to responses to a questionnaire inserted in the magazine Raga Brasil, whose readership is not a representative sample of black Brazilian middle class. Of the 3,250 questionnaires returned, 1,500 were used for the study. Luiz Grottera, director of the agency, takes to task Brazilian businessmen for not tapping this mother lode more aggressively. "The ignorance about black consumers show disdain by the companies. Wouldn't it be better to invest in products for these 7 million consumers here in Brazil instead of trying to sell more to the Mercosur countries?" A 1997 study by DataFolha, the research branch of Folha de Selo Paulo, showed that the Brazilian elite was made up of the top 8% of the population. Blacks and mulattos, while constituting half of the total population, represented a mere 14% of the elite group. Separately, blacks represent 2% of this total. Being Black Recent estimates about the size of the Brazilian black middle class suggest an 8million-strong population ,or roughly, one third of the whole Brazilian middle class. If there is such a big contingent of well-todo blacks in the country why is this crowd often treated as invisible? In part this has to do with Brazilians accepting their blackness. The concept of race is very flexible in Brazil. People who would be considered black in Europe or in the United States in Brazil get a variety of designations, some euphemistic, including pardo (the official designation for mixed race), mulato, mulato escuro (dark mulatto), mulato claro (light mulatto), and moreno. President Fernando Henrique Cardoso whom no one would call black, says that he has a foot in the kitchen, meaning that he has black ancestors. While the "one-drop-rule" makes the whitest American a black as long as there is a black ancestor somewhere, a lack of precision in the Brazilian race classification makes the color question a personal choice, seemingly with infinite possibilities. Two cases in point: IBGE's interviewers are instructed, when filling out census questionnaires to ask interviewees to state their own color. That has led to a profusion of tones, some of them stunningly imaginative but hardly precise or helpful, colors like "coffee and milk" or "baby brown". To the question "What's the color of your skin," posed to respondents in the 1995 study by DataFolha 's—a subsidiary ofF olha de S o Paulo, Brazil's largest daily, with a circulation of some 400,000 copies—had more than 100 different answers. In Bahia, where blacks represent about 80% of the
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BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
population there are at least ten different ways to designate a black, sometimes with very subtle differences from each other. These descriptive words are more than just ways to differentiate colors, they also express the attitude of the talker towards the person he refers to. So a black who has a blue tone to his skin is called retinto (re-painted) while dark blacks with straight hair are called moreno (brunet). Someone with a brownish-black skin is known as negro form iga (ant black) while escurinho (little dark one) is used to designate blacks who whites believe are decent and "know their place." Those with dark skin, straight hair and light eyes are called cabo-verdes. Mulato is the generic term for mixedrace Brazilians, but it designates mainly those African-Brazilians with big lips and flat noses. Depending on the context, neguinho (blackie) can be offensive or very endearing when a couple (black or white) use it between themselves as in "vem e me dá um be/o, minha neguinha," (come and give me a kiss, my little darling). Negao (big black man) and negona (big black woman), on the other hand, unless used among friends is a provocation or insult. There are several different ways to designate lighter skin blacks. A black with light skin and light eyes and yellowish hair is called sarara or sararci miolo if he is almost albino. Albinos are known as gazos . By the way, on Article 289 of Bahia's constitution mandates that every time an ad shows more than 'CASA TO two people, one has to be black. On BLACK! the books since 1989, the law has just recently started to be enforced. Four Million Slaves • The first Brazilians, many anthropologists agree, came from Mongolia over the Bering Strait, as well as from Australia and Polynesia, some 20,000 years ago. When the Portuguese arrived in Brazil in 1500 there were about 3 million Indians; fewer than 300,000 survive today. Blacks were added to the racial mix starting in 1531, when the first slaves were brought from Africa. During a slave trade that would last more than 300 years, 4 million blacks mainly from Mozambique, Angola and the Gulf of Guinea would be transported to Brazil, a practice that ended only in 1855. Miscegenation has been the way of Brazil since colonial times. Slavery was abolished without bloodshed in contrast with other countries in the Americas and without bad blood between masters and slaves. Interestingly, the majority of the new freed men stayed with their owners in their new condition with the same bonds of camaraderie and respect they had before the end of slavery. Slavery in Brazil ended in 1888. Since BRAZZIL -AUGUST 1999
their integrati n in society, blacks have been fighting to be visible and be accounted for. While their number has been increasing, ce sus data suggest that their share of the total po ulation is becoming smaller. While United Na 'ons figures show Brazil as having the largest bla k population outside Africa, IBGE' s 1991 de ographic census establishes that only 5% per ent of the Brazilian population, or 8.25 milho people, are black. According to these figures, 50° of the population is white and another 45% is arda (of mixed race). "If we continue at this pa ,we will soon have fewer blacks than France," de ounced historian Wania Sant'Anna in an inte iew with Jornal do Brasil, a Rio daily. Sant'Anna and several black activists would lik a change of methodology. "We would like for IBGE to recognize the criteria of color, race an ethnicity as fundamental characteristics of the black population and to offer more statistics in hich the race variable is one of the factors an lyzed," the historian said. "The lack of such data distorts 1 the reasoning about the Brazilian reality." Black act ists also accuse the IBGE of inconsistency when it uses t e term pardo to designate color of skin. They are worried t at this classification may end up creating a huge catego that is not helped by any government social progr m. Iv ir dos Santos, executive secretary for CEAP (Cent o de Articulactio de Populaydes Marginalizad s—Center of Articulation for Marginalized Popu ations ) suggests a national awareness campaig so those who tell the IBGE interviewer they arep rdo would start saying they are black: "A frank and o en dialogue among Brazilians might lead the pard population to present itself as black. We don't want o use a straightjacket, but we would like to see thep rdos free to say, "I have this origin and have no probl m recognizing that." e next census is scheduled to take place in Aug st 2000. The first census took place in 1872, the regime of Emperor Pedro II, and the duni gove ment has been at a loss to deal with the issue of ra e and color ever since. The population was then divid d into slaves and free men. On that first effort to count how any Brazilians there were, skin color choices were white, lack, brown and caboclo (Indians and their descendants) White, black, caboclo, and meshy° (mestizo) were the te s used to define color in the 1890 census. The next two efforts, in 1900 and 1920, didn't include an item about color. In the first census by IBGE (Institut° Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica— Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) in 1940, the questionnaire included three options for color: white, black, and yellow. In 1950, 1960, and 1980 pardo was added to these three colors. In 1970, there was no question about color. In the latest census, the one in 1991, another classification was added: indigenous. Some changes are being studied for the 2000 census. One would be to include the questions of race and color in all the questionnaires and not only in 25% of 13
them as has been done up to now. Another suggestion is to change the term used to designate a black person. Until now preto has been the used term. Blacks themselves have suggested the adoption of negro instead. Another change would be the chance for people who call themselves pardos to add if they are of African descent, independently of how many generations ago the African ascendant appears. But that might not work. Census tests revealed that few people wished to declare they are of African descent, even after having classified themselves as pardos. IBGE' s former president Simon Schwartzman believes that people don't admit to their blackness because they are afraid that such an admission would make life more difficult for them. "Social reality," Schwartzman told Jornal do Brasil, "is defined by perceptions. This is a question of identity that is self defined by the person. This is not a racial question, but a cultural one Black Roots What does the black Brazilian middle class want? The same things as the white middle class, according to a study by ad agency Grottera. Twenty nine percent dream about buying their own home, 39% would love to travel, 43% are interested in buying or trading their car, 44% of them want to start their own business, while 54% want to make more money. Better education is the key to the recent black advancement. The black middle class has a much better chance to go to school than their parents had. While only 27% of the parents finished high school this number has increased to 39% among their children. Thirty five percent of the black middle class has a college degree. Interestingly enough, it was during the military dictatorship that blacks were offered better chances to educate themselves. Dulce Maria Pereira, a black activist from the leftist PT (Partido dos Trabalhadores—Workers' Party) told Veja in 1998: "It was the military regime that created the black middle class in this country, by opening public schools' doors to everybody and not just the white elite, as in the past." Despite the headway made by blacks, they are conspicuously absent from high government posts and the military brass. President Cardoso, who as a sociologist has often written about the black plight, has only had one black Minister, none other than soccer legend Pele, who after a mostly ceremonial stint at a Sports Ministry post has since left the presidential cabinet to take care of his own very busy agenda. It's been said repeatedly that poverty and not race is the main cause for discrimination in Brazil. However that's not what statistics say. The illiteracy rate for blacks is twice that of whites. At the Universidade de Sao Paulo (USP) the largest and best Brazilian university, a laughable 14
I% of the student body is black or of mixed race. Up until September 1996 when the Ebony-like, slick Raga Brasil magazine was launched with an initial circulation of 300,000copies, blacks didn't have a national or a recognizable publication to call their own. The magazine is still going strong, even though its circulation stabilized at around 100,000 copies a month. Discrimination against blacks in many instances is not veiled and in some cases it seems the result of actions or inaction taken L)'01 t. by blacks themselves. How else does one udt, 1J11! : explain that Salvador, the capital of Bahia state, has never elected a black mayor, even though 80% of its population is black? The situation gets even more perplexing when one considers that voting in Brazil is mandatory for everyone 18 or older. Celso Pitta, an unknown black bureaucrat, won the Sao Paulo mayoral race in 1996 only because he had a very powerful sponsor , Paulo Maluf, former mayor of the biggest Brazilian city. Fascination and Chagrin In his just-released book Coal to Cream, the Washington Post's culture editor, Eugene Robinson, who was the Post's correspondent in South America during the 80s, talks about his enchantment and subsequent disenchantment with the so-called Brazilian racial democracy. Although based in Buenos Aires, the reporter used to make frequent trips to Rio. Sprawled on the sand under the Ipanema sun and surrounded by a seminude fauna seemingly oblivious of their own skin color Robinson, a black, believed he had found his racial Shangri-La. "The emphasis on the more mutable issue of color (rather than the rigidity of race) was at the heart of what I loved so much about Brazil—the absence of racial conflict," he writes. "There was no silent struggle going on." This first impression, though, like many passions and loves at first sight, didn't last long. The harmony he saw, the American journalist would soon find out, was mainly the result of the silence and complacency of the oppressed. This reality was more acute in Brasilia, the capital, where Robinson noticed that while cabinets were peopled by whites, garages and kitchen were crowded with blacks. His conclusion: black American resentment is a necessary evil, black Brazilian accommodation an unneeded harmony. The Invisible Black Under the guise of non-discrimination and political correctness, no one in Brazil seems to be gauging the advancement or the failures of the black population. The professional associations for lawyers (Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil), doctors (Conselho Federal de Medicina), engineers (Conselho Federal dos Engenheiros) all say they are proud of not knowing how many blacks or members of any other racial group belong to their ranks. BRAZZIL -AUGUST 1999
All of this makes it impossible for Brazilian nonwhites to establish any official program similar to the affirmative action existing in the U.S., although there are still some efforts to achieve this, like a recent decision by a Sao Paulo Judge establishing that 25% of all models used in the state government's advertising be black. For blacks to succeed in the job market is much harder than for whites. It's believed that a mere 1% of the strategic positions in the work force are occupied by blacks. The bank industry is a good illustration of this reality. According to Sao Paulo's Seade Foundation, while the average monthly salary for whites is about $400, a black hired for the same position would make less than half this amount (about $190). Another study by Ipea shows that whites have a 30% better chance of getting a job when applying together with a black, even if both have the same level of education and experience. Another DataFolha study from December 1996, this one commissioned by the sao Paulo's Bankers Union, showed that 87% of those working in banks are white and that 91% of the managerial posts are also in the hands of whites. Among workers only 2% are black and among supervisors a negligible 1%. Mulattos and browns make up 7% of the bank employees total. Since then, according to Dieese (Departamento Intersindical de Estatistica e Estudos Socioeconomicos—Inter-Union Department for Statistics and Socioeconomic Studies) the situation has deteriorated further. Neide Aparecida Fonseca, the Banker's Union director told Raga Brasil: "The banks' selection process is extremely racist and the few blacks who are approved work in the rearguard, in the branches basement We have one black banker for every 1,000 whites in the frontline." "Racial diversity only exists in the ads," says Fonseca. "The private banks have discovered that there are 7 million blacks in the middle class and started to use blacks in their advertising to win a share of this market." Exame, a biweekly business magazine, had a hard time preparing an article entitled "Race and Career" published on its May 8, 1996 issue. Their conclusion: "The number ofblack executives is almost zero." The magazine contacted approximately 100 companies looking for blacks who had achieved success in their career. They found 12, but only five agreed to be interviewed. Headhunters say they never hear of companies making restrictions about the color of their candidates. That would be illegal anyway. These same BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
headhunters al o recognize that very rarely, if ever, do they see a black be g hired as a top executive. "The prejudice starts with the ads offering jobs, which ask for candidates with 'good appearance,' this way excluding blacks," says Valdir Jose Quadros, director of Unicamp' s (Universidade de Campinas) Institute of Economics. The term 'good appearance' has been used in Brazil for a long time as a code word for "whites only". For Jose Adir da Silva, coordinator of the Black Awareness Nucleus, a sao Paulo group in defense of blacks' rights , there's been lots of talk lately, but little action. In an interview with the weekly Epoca he said: "We want quotas for blacks in the universities. This is something the government doesn't do. 1f25% of the state of Sao Paulo population is black, why is it that less than 1% of USP' s (Universidade de S'do Paulo) students are black? The current economic crisis acutely , who are among the poorest. We, the black, continue to lead in illiteracy, unemployment and living in substandard housing." For decades, blacks have been successful in some restricted areas like soccer and music, namely samba. Leonidas da Silva, Didi, Garrincha, Fio Maravilha and, of course, Pele, are all legendary names in soccer. The same goes for Cartola, Pixinguinha, Ataulfo Alves in the music area. They are all from the old guard. With the exception of Pelle, being famous didn't improve their life style. Fio Maravilha, for example, ended up delivering pizzas in San Francisco and the sublime Cartola, who was able to record his first LP only at 66, was never able to move out of the shack where he lived before becoming famous. It's a very different story today. Black soccer players command salaries in the millions. On TV there is a small but powerful team of very young black beauties who get top billing and no longer appear just 1,C as maids or cooks. They have names like Tais Araiijo, Isabel Fillardis, and Camila Pitanga. And the top-selling musician in Brazil today is blackpagodeiro Alexandre Pires, whose So Pra Contrariar band sells three times more CD's than Roberto Carlos, until recently the unbeatable champion. Last year, Camila Pitanga, 24, told Veja magazine about how exasperating it is to have people constantly chastising her for calling herself b lack: "No matter how much I insist in reaffirming my black roots, people always keep thinking the opposite. It's something very annoying and as terrible as the most consummate prejudice. They ask, why do I insist I am b ack when I am so pretty. This is absurd. It is as violent as f I were barred from entering a hotel or a restaurant b cause of the color of my skin." • 15
Letters DREADFUL ALL OVER irst o a , I wou e tote you guys that your layout is terrible. You can still do good stuff in a black and white edition. Hire a better graphic designer. One example is that terrible and deceiving article on Antonio Carlos Magalhaes. The title in black over the black and white picture is almost unreadable (even though the title is not worth reading). I'm also writing to express my indignity (sic!) with that same article. Alessandra Dalevi should at least have done some research about the Brazilian political history, before writing that stupid article. Of course she can admire ACM, -but as a professional she should focus on telling the truth and not participating in such farce. I suggest you to read more, Mrs. Dalevi. The books from Thomas Skidmore would be a good. Maybe next time you do a better job.
Andrea Augusto Via Internet PATHETIC YOU By the writing o your artic eon Brazi s Indians you have just admitted three things: 1. You have never been in the Amazon forest or met with any Indians who live there. 2. You are extremely uneducated in the field of anthropology. 3. You are a sad, pathetic man who, since his own world is shit, wants to destroy the world of others since they might have a better one.
Robert Farnsworth Via Internet BRAZIL LESSON WOU I just i e to say at I saw e movie Central Station and immediately had the urge to find out everything I could about Brazil-. I've been browsing the Internet the whole day and then came across your Website. What a find! The articles are fantastic. I've been reading all your back issues. The economics and culture of Brazil are amazing. I've learnt so much. Keep up the good work!
Aruana Zeelie Cape Town, South Africa BRAZZIL WILL DO
Alberto DOI-ell° Los Angeles, CA PERSONAL NOTE 2 Born ia, sett Davis De Hi ster. I just finished reading your article, "Samba Web,'' in the April issue of Brazzil magazine. (And I'm so sorry for myself to have to procrastinate to read it until now...!) I think you did a wonderful job on both establishing the Samba Web as well as revivin your experience in your article. I am so prou of you and your job. As I was reading it, I can almost, feel the sliver, thrill, and even the air temperature (and your sweat!) that you must have experienced. It was great. As I am a fairly new local student (and a sambista-wannabe)in San Francisco, both financially (and my limited talentwise) struggling to learn Brazilian percussion and dance, your article was a great inspiration to me. I wish, from the bottom of my heart, that I could join the Rio 2000 Camaval... But at this point it !doesn't seem realistic financially.... david, please, please, pleeeease, come up with another article when the big thing is over, will you promise? Anyway, it's good to know that someone as enthusiastic as I am does exist. If you ever come to visit here in San Francisco, please call me. I'll be more than delighted to meet you. Muito obrigada! With a ton of-respect,
Yoko Balsiger San Francisco, California PERSONAL NOTE 3
Erin Flanagan Via Internet
articles are very well written and with a very cultural content. It's amazing how. you guys are carrying on with this magazine for so long time and just with volunteer help (I think). My subscription finishes this month and I need to know how to fill out the check, in order of whom? I'm leaving for vacation next week, so how late can I-mail you the check? -
25¢ A COPY
Marcos Marcancola Via Internet PERSONAL NOTE Dear Ms. Daniella Thompson, Just read your article "Rio When It Drizzles" in the June issue of Brazzil. It left me with that funny up/downy feeling youget when some friend mentions the name of old love. Ah... I, too, was an honorary Carioca for 11 glorious years; from my innocent 20 years to a very knowledgeable 31. You are invited to participate in this dialogue. Write to: Letters to the Publisher P.O. Box 50536 Los Angeles, CA 90050-0536 or send E-mail to: brazziViebrazzil.com Please, include a phone number in the event we need to reach you. Thanks!
It has come to my attention that your article on Barao de Itarare starts by a historical flaw: the anecdote about the medical examination which ends with the totally bald patient actually happened not to Torelly but to Francisco de Paula Ney, one of the most brilliant Brazilian intellectuals of the 19th centun, .
Atari() d'Alcantara Via Internet FAMILY ROOTS I am trying to locate the web address o the Rio de Janeiro telephone directory. I have used the following_ web address to locate many relatives in -Sao Paulo: http:// www.telesp.com.br/scripts/ehttcp.exe?/ computer: ehps2:7060+tdespin.ehtchas+EH102 I saw on your Website that Rio also had such a web address but I was unable to locate it. I have been researching this family, Demaret, originally of St. Mary Parish, Louisiana. for over 30 years. In that time I have documented over 5,000 descendants of this family. And just last year I was able to locate those relatives who left the U.S. for Brazil after the Civil War. I have just recently translated my Dernaret Family Book into Portuguese and plan to distribute copies to each family member at the Confederado reunion in Americana next April. That should be an interesting story in itself. Thank you for your cooperati on and assistance. Abracos,
Robert Hicks Austin, Texas DISARMING RIO I ma ree ancejourna ist. I was in razi recently, where I was covering a story about a disarmament campaign in Rio de Janeiro organized by a group called Viva Rio. The story appeared in the San Francisco Bay Guardian a few weeks ago, but I was wondering ifyou might be interested in including it on your Website. I also have access to some great photographs of the campaign which were taken by a friend of mine who is a professional photographer. Do let me know if you are interested and many thanks,
,Robin Pagnamenta San Francisco, California FOR MORE LETTERS AND ENTIRE LETTER SEE: h ttp://www. brazzil.co m
Hello, Bruce Gilman. You've played a large part in my appreciation of Brazil ian music through your writing. Thanks for helping me discover this amazing music and country.
m very prou II to IP e a subscriber or t e
Brazzil magazine. I like it very much, the
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The Golden Years, the Cariocas call it now— from the last years of Getalio's dictatorship to Castel° Branco's uncertain government. That's when the family said. "Enough.- We left Brazil to start life anew in Canada. Brazil's economy being what it was at that time. But one never forgets. Your humorous yet so keen observations of things Carioca, with all their foibles and fallacies. really hit the nail onthe head! The Santa Tereza part Frei ished most, as that section of the city holds a .special tenderness in my memones—a certain someone used to live there. Anyway, I am just comfortably retired in Los Angeles and I think it's high time for another rook at Brazil and helping celebrate the year 2000 there. This e-mail is expressly to thank you for evoking those many ghosts that still linger faithfully after all these years. Bless you for sharing your love for that impossible and frustrating CidadeMaravilhosa. It really is! But don't ask me to explain it. You do it so darn well. Another soul lost in exile,
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It was dubbed the "March of 100-thousand", and although ended with the announcement that a series of measures, most the turnout didn't match the title, it was, by far, the largest antiaimed at launching or enhancing social assistance programs, government demonstration since president Fernando Henrique will be introduced by the government in the next few days. It Cardoso was first elected in 1994. is still not clear if this is a bona-fide attempt to Even as it fell short, last move on key issues, or a knee-jerk reaction to the Thursday's event organized by a march. hodge-podge of leftwing politiLooking at the organizers, the march made it cal parties, labor unions and reliclear there is not much glue between the parties gious organizations captured the and factions that currently oppose the government. public's attention in Brazil at the Even as busloads of protestors arrived, party leadend of August, and delivered imers couldn't agree on common goals for their portant messages—to the govmovement. The biggest hitch was the demand for ernment, its opponents, and BraCardoso 's resignation, something most parties and zilian society. organizations refused to officially support. Certainly the orderly way in The rift became obvious and public when a which it all happened is a posidocument unifying all demands could not be delivtive sign. More than a thousand ered at the end of the protest. The government, of buses bfought in participants from course, cashed in on this lack of cohesiveness, and all over Brazil, and they arrived, often described the movement as the "march of the protested, and left without inciaimless"—a bit heavy handed as an overall assessdent. Police reported one arrest ment, but not entirely false. for drunkenness. Market reaction, What the opposition did deliver was a petition or the lack of it, is also worth with over one million signatures, calling for a noting. While speakers railed congressional inquiry on the privatization of against the government in BrasiTelebras, the State telecommunications lia, it was business as usual monopoly dismantled a year ago. As a throughout the day—no noticedriving cause forthe protest march, this able effects on key indicators. was a very poor choice, bordering on This is not what some in govsilliness. ernment seemed to expect. CabiThe basis for the petition was a net members, and the president series of illegally taped conversations himself, dubbed the march "unbetween government officials, discussdemocratic" even before it took ing ways to assist one bidder in the place. A protest march, however privatization process to obtain financlarge, is not in itself undemoing from a government source. In one cratic, but had critics been more specific exchange, president Cardoso himself is President Fernando and focused their remarks on some ofthe heard agreeing with the approach. The Henrique Cardoso called movement's stated aims, the argument help did not materialize, the bidder did the march undemocratic would have made sense. not win a chunk ofTelebras, and dozens since one of its objectives One such aim was president Cardoof taped conversations could only show was to oust him. But more so's resignation, proposed by one of the the government's intent was ensuring than a thousand buses organizing parties. In light of recent that qualified bidders entered the newlybrought in participants events in neighboring Venezuela, where created, privatized telecoms market. from all over Brazil, and general Hugo Chavez is in the process of The fact is that the opposition's they arrived, protested, and dismantling his country's institutions, rejection ofprivatization is strictly dogleft without incident and the resignation demand and what it rematic. The numbers simply demolish without compromising the ally implied came across as annoying to any argument against privatizing the republic. The people on all sides of the issue. And it phone system in Brazil. Against a mildemonstration also showed didn't help that former presidential canlion or so signatures on that petition, that Brazil has no genuine didate and the left's inspirational leader, there are over 15 million new phone opposition. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, went public users in Brazil in the first year of privawith his admiration for what Chavez is tized telecommunications alone—all ADHEMAR ALTIERI doing. benefiting from improved access to both At best though, this led to a bit of cellular and fixed phone lines, discomfort and a lot of verbal jousting, not to mention lower prices. None CORKER) BRAZIL! VASE _ . but no real threat or surprise. After all, Lula has said many of this would have happened untimes before he considers Fidel Castro "the greatest statesman der a State monopoly, which in the Americas". It seems that the authoritarian approach is never managed more than a milSINAL DE ALERIA not an option Lula fully rejects. And while Venezuela borders lion new phone lines per year on Brazil, the two countries are oceans apart in terms of before privatization, and always institutional stability, so the threat of a repeat in Brazil of at extremely high cost. what's happening there is remote, if it exists at all. In high unemployment days, From the government's perspective, a large protest, even the newly-privatized telecommuif smaller than promised, is not something to be shoved aside nications sector is one of the bigand ignored. In the past, we've described president Cardoso's gest job creators in Brazil today, government as lethargic, and that may be the nicest thing one which makes it even more difficould say about its lack of initiative and leadership on vital cult to accept the opposition's issues—particularly the all-important constitutional reforms rejection. On the other hand, this that don't seem to go anywhere. If a few thousand shouting is not entirely out of line with the protestors in Brasilia help to shake out a few cobwebs, they way the Brazilian left has carried will have served a useful purpose. on for several years now. RelLost Left evance and timeliness have not Already there are signs this might be happening. The week been the buzzwords of opposi-
Govern() e oposicao falam em vitoria apes a ma rcha
Disunity Rally
18
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
-0ESTADO DE S. PAULO
tion initiatives. Even in organizing this march, the amount of political opportunism at play was obvious from the start. In another gem, during a speech to promote the march, Lula described the current government as "the worst in Brazil's history". Interesting that he would find this government, even with all its problems, worse than Fernando Collor's administration, so rife with corruption it led to that president's resignation to avoid impeachment. Or worse than Jose Sarney '5, which chalked up galloping inflation levels of up to 90 percent per month. Or worse than the 21 years of military rule that ended in 1985.
differently if it held power. There's no lack of catchy slogans and dogmatic phrases. Unfortunately for the Brazilian left, these tend to represent ideas which the rest of the world abandoned several years ago. Adhemar Alfieri is a veteran with major news outlets in Brazil, Canada and the United States. He holds a Master's Degree in Journalism from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and spent ten years with CBS News reporting from Canada and Brazil. Altieri is a member of the Virtual Intelligence Community, formed by The Greenfield Consulting Group to identify future trends for Latin America. He is also the editor of InfoBrazil (http://www.infobrazil.com), an English-language weekly e-zine with analysis and opinions on Brazilian politics and economy. You can reach the author at editorsAinfobrazil.com
Strange Bedfellows
The lack of unity so visible in Brasilia at the end ofthe march, when organizers couldn't subscribe to a common set of demands, has really been the norm among the government's opponents, and this is no small problem. It means there is no constructive opposition at work in Brazil today. Opponents can put together a protest march, but come up empty handed when asked just how they would do things differently. This was the case in the past two presidential election campaigns, which saw Lula suffer resounding first-round defeats to Cardoso. If there's an objective at all, it seems to be cashing in on any opportunity to bash the government, without necessarily offering an alternative. This "anything goes" attitude was clear during a recent farmers protest, when Lula' s left-wing Workers' Party (PT) joined hands with extreme rightwing members of Congress to defend a costly debt pardon for wealthy landowners. A prominent voice from the Brazilian left summed it all up in a recent television interview. Harvard professor Roberto Mangabeira Unger said the left needs to "stop campaigning and realize the election is over, and they lost". Unger's conclusion, five days before the march even happened: Brazil currently has no practical, functioning opposition. Respected Brown University Brazilianist Thomas Skidmore, in a radio interview following the march, agreed with Unger and added: "The Brazilian left no longer has a point of reference. Regimes it once looked to as ideal to pursue no longer exist". As things stand, the leftwing opposition led by the PT is doing little more than keeping an eye out for opportunities to be critical, which is part of its role. But in the process, it is making no discernible contribution to improve things. It is certainly not spelling out just what it would do BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
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A nationwide truckers' strike that resulted in the blockade of several major highways throughout Brazil at the end of July, spoke volumes about much more than problems affecting the trucking industry. Few would disagree with the truckers' demands: lower fuel prices and toll charges, better highway maintenance, and more policing against cargo theft, a serious problem on Brazilian highways in recent years. It's what the truckers' action represents in a broader context that causes concern. Rallies and demonstrations were a risky undertaking in Brazil until the end of military rule in the mid '80s. Participants and their causes were generally portrayed by the regime as less-than legitimate, if not outright criminal. Such movements, labor or otherwise, were often dealt with in violent fashion. With the return of civilian rule in 1985, Brazilians gradually shed the aura of illegality created by the military, and re-learned that demonstrating is part of one's right to freedom of expression, not necessarily a criminal act against the State or a breach of national security, as the uniformed rulers of the past would have everyone believe. Now, Brazilians are witnessing the other extreme, and at times being held hostage by it: a concept that says a rally must disturb, paralyze, interfere, upset or interrupt as broadly as possible, in order to be effective. Most troubling is the impression that nobody seems concerned about the need to accomplish goals without trampling on everyone else's individual rights. That was clearly the case with the truckers' movement. It was the latest in a series of similar actions by different groups, some isolated, others ongoing and growing in stature, and they all fit into a trend. All have been loyal to the extreme approach to demonstrations on the rise for at least a year, especially in Sao Paulo, Brazil's main city and economic engine. With a population of 15 million, the city is difficult enough to negotiate under normal circumstances—pollution, crime and monstrous traffic tie-ups are among its major problems. City bus drivers know a rally at the wrong place and time is enough to wreak havoc above and beyond the already difficult norm. And they put that know-how to use a week before their trucking colleagues. They caused two days of citywide traffic hell, by parking hundreds of buses in sequence, one behind the other, along major arteries at rush hour. It was a protest against delays in benefit payments by the private companies that own the buses, and handle mass transit in the city. Not the most serious dispute of all time, but good enough to paralyze one of the largest cities in the world, and disrupt the lives of millions of people. Free For All A focal point for protestors has been Avenida Paulista, or Paulista Avenue, a major Sao Paulo thoroughfare. Street vendors defending their right to set up on every corner, van owners demanding licenses to operate legally, doctors, nurses and teachers who want better pay, the HIV-positive who want better care, even a group protesting the recent shutdown of a radio station—all of those, and many others for and against a myriad of causes, have gone to Paulista to protest recently. Always when traffic is at its peak, 'with predictable effects: nobody goes anywhere until the snag comes undone, usually several hours later. City officials ask frequently that such demonstrations not be held at Paulista. Since participants and organizers attach little importance to the basic individual right to come and go—few bother to get proper authorization for a demonstra20
Ionia ,
Governo se rende e a greve acaba
Wild Bunch The recent country-wide trucker's strike was the latest in a series of similar actions by different groups, some isolated, others ongoing_and growing in stature, and they all fitinto a trend. All have been loyal to the extreme approach to demonstrations. ADHEMAR ALTIERI
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
tion—officials like to remind them that in the vicinity of Paulista, there are nine major hospitals. In other words, bad traffic in the area could put lives at risk. So far, the argument hasn't made an impression. But perhaps the one example of maximum impact and visibility, that helps to understand the current thinking behind protesting in Brazil, is what happens far away from major cities like sao Paulo. It's in the countryside that the MST, the landless workers' movement that's been described as the largest left-wing organization in the Western Hemisphere, gets away with snubbing the law on a regular basis, without consequence. There's a political side to what the MST does, which is a whole different story. For those unfamiliar with the movement, a brief explanation would be that it has organized thousands of so-called landless peasants throughout the country to pressure for land reform. The technique is to set up camp near lands considered unproductive and pressure the government to make it available for redistribution, either by purchasing the property from its owner, or taking it away outright based on the fact that it was unproductive to begin with. The land is then distributed to the landless. If the government is slow to respond, the camped MST supporters will simply invade the property—recently they've taken to invading productive farms as well. Families then divide the land into plots, and begin to plant crops and set up homes. The government is then pressured to make the arrangement permanent, again by purchasing or moving to legally displace the owner. Without question, Brazil has a land distribution problem, and a serious one to be sure. Cities like Sao Paulo are swollen by thousands who left subsistence farming to seek a better life in the city. Many would go back under better conditions, so there is merit in the idea of assisting that process, especially in a landmass as large as Brazil, with no lack of arable land. But there's a key element here: the current federal government can be accused of inaction on a number of fronts, but not this one. In fact, during President Fernando Henrique Cardoso's first term in office, the federal government settled close to 250 thousand landless families throughout Brazil—more than all previous federal administrations combined. MST Tactics
The response of the MST to that effort has been to intensify land invasions, while attempting to discredit what the government has accomplished. Add to this a number of recent facts that have undermined the MST's credibility, such as: Efforts to "recruit" so-called landless peasants in major cities for new campsites and future invasions; Encouragement of ransackings of government food stores by poor peasants in Brazil's drought-stricken northeast; Stated aims that have little to do with land reform, such as the need to not just take away and redistribute land, but also "punish farmers", as defended by MST leader Pedro Stedile; A recent survey by Brazil's top weekly news magazine, Veja, showing that MST numbers don't add up: there are more landless peasants in Brazil now, by their accounting, than before the government settled a quarter of a million families. At this rate, the landless movement will also be endless; Between questionable MST actions, and government land reform initiatives, there's more than enough to justify BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
resistance to M ST tactics. As there was enough to justify stopping truck s from paralyzing the country, bus drivers from disrupting Sao Paulo, and so many others from launching initiatives that harm the vast majority. Instead, as a recent editorial by the, 0 Estado de S. Paulo newspaper said, "... this is not what we see in today's Brazil. A nearpathological fear of facing up to transgressions permeates all levels of administration, and it starts at the presidential palace, where tnlerance and complacency are becoming the norm, all in the name of a sort of abstract democratism that, in practical terms, is the equivalent of a license for any sector—social or professional—to adopt pressure tactics that are clearly illegitimate and even criminal." Impunity
Why so much government hesitation to stand up to such a broad spectrum of questionable, often illegal actions? Impunity may be the key word. For decades, successive governments i Brazil have tolerated blatant examples of wrongdoing t at have gone unpunished. From bankrupt construction c mpanies that took the money and left thousands of woul -be homeowners empty-handed, to investment scandals where the investors always took the fall, to politicians wh seek office to benefit from congressional immunity, the ist is extensive—Brazilians have really seen more than thei share of excessive tolerance. In nearly 11 cases, there's a common thread: those responsible se dom if ever pay for their wrongdoing, certainly never o to jail, or have their personal property confiscated to cover losses they've caused. It is always the public purse— he taxpayer—that makes amends, while those who ought to b punished, in many cases, flaunt ostentatious lifestyles. Indeed, w may be witnessing a trickle-down effect of impunity, wh re society, perhaps unconsciously to some extent, but op• nly and blatantly in many instances, goes to extremes in th certainty that punishment will not be the end result. The mire tolerance there is, the further people will push and test t e authorities. The more serious and numerous the unpunishe acts, the more difficult it becomes for the authorities to ct. And to make matters worse for the government, politic opponents certainly do take advantage of these percept ons, and encourage or even lead different sectors in acts of defiance of the rule of law. That may seem like a lot of theory, but it does bear a strong resem • lance to the actual sequence of recent events. A clear enoug trend has been established, and to put a stop to it, the go ernment must press on with vital reforms, including a 11 review of the judiciary. A clear message is needed that ding widespread impunity in Brazil is the objective. Th legal system must gain the ability to deal with the rich and powerful, or risk being unable to deal with anyone at all. Adhemar Altieri is a veteran with major news outlets in Brazil, Canada and the United States. He holds a Master's Degree in Journalism from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and spent ten years with CBS News reporting from Canada and Brazil. Altieri is a member of the irtual Intelligence Community, formed by The Greenfield Consulting Group to identify future trends for Latin Am rica. He is also the editor of InfoBrazil (http:// wwvv.info razil.com), an English-language weekly e-zine witb analysis and opinions on Brazilian politics and economy. You can reach the author at editorsAinfobrazil.com
21
Min Straitjac Brazilian scholars ape foreign trends in order to be seen as more up-to-date. This superficial use of foreign authorities and even of fashionable terminology or jargon disenfranchises people and discourages critical thought. External censorship, prevailing in the military period, has been replaced by a much more deleterious inner censorship. PEDRO PAULO A. FUNARI What is the current status of academic freedom in Brazil? Academic freedom in Brazil, as in other countries that experienced dictatorship, is a matter of particular concern and a sensitive issue. Intellectuals are therefore quite aware ofthe political implications of what they say and do. Brazil was ruled by the military fortwenty one years (19641985) and the scars caused by authoritarian rule are still very much with US.
Nor can academic freedom be dissociated from society and Brazilian society has from its inception been authoritarian and patriarchal, dominated by patronage and hierarchy. Brazil has been described as a country without citizens, where there are dependents and vassals and where privileges are granted to people in power. The result is a most uneven society, with the 10% richest people getting 47% of the GDP, while the poorest 10% gets only 0.8%. In this context, intellectuals have traditionally been people from the ruling elites and the main obstacle to their freedom came not from the state but from their peers. As patronage is pervasive, critical approaches are not welcome. In the Brazilian academic world, scholars are encouraged to exchange favors, in a "give and take" attitude (following the Roman do ut des approach). Accordingly, the best way to survive within the intelligentsia has always been to eulogize intellectual authorities, be they university deans and presidents or state officials. Since the 1930s, when Brazil's first universities were founded, the opportunities for people from outside the elite to become academics have increased, despite the continuing constraints of the clientage system. Especially in the years after the Second World War, academic freedom expanded considerably, although professors still held sign i ficant power over ordinary scholars. Professors, who were not always scholars, were appointed by university authorities interested in promoting friends and acquaintances, while ordinary lecturers, who studied and got academic degrees, were kept in junior positions without tenure. When the military took over in 1964 there was strong opposition from some scholars, as restrictions on freedom of speech run directly counter to academic independence. The academy was quickly targeted by the military authorities concerned with what they considered to be subversion. First, the military imposed censorship and reduced funding, then came the expulsion of scholars, finally free thinkers were tortured and killed. As Aziz ALI' Saber, a leading scholar who survived this nightmare, put it recently, "it was forbidden to think." In the words of another academic Francisco Iglesias, "A lot of people suffered, were exiled, tortured, killed." Many leading intellectuals had their academic freedom severely affected, most were exiled, like Fernando Henrique Cardoso (the current President of Brazil), Maria Leda Linhares, Ciro Flamarion Santana Cardoso. Hundreds of others were expelled from the academy. Perhaps the most well-known victim was Paulo Duarte, a leading humanist who had fought against dictatorship since the 22
Second World War, and who was expelled by collaborationist academic authorities in 1969. The end of military rule in 1985 left the same people in power; and within the academic world the n lost of the collaborators retained their authority. ,Nonetheless, the restorationof civilian rule meant 'fredom of speech; and, in response, free expression sprouted in the last fifteen years. At the same time, the enticements of power were not negligible, and several intellectuals, attracted by the opportunity to gain influence, tailored their work to the demands of the entrenched authorities and then, when they achieved power themselves, were able to win additional credence for the theoretical frameworks through which they provided intellectual support for globalization. This is the case, ironically, of several former exiles, like the President himself, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and a host of ministers and other high officials. Through the systematic denial of other interpretations, they establish a discursive field constraining other academics to comply or to be excluded from funding and power. Academics are led to carry out studies confirming fashionable ideas, particularly those sponsored by official institutions and funding programs. In a society grounded on patronage, to follow official policies is more important than elsewhere, and the temptation to parrot the established ideas and canonic authors is palpable. There are even scholars who consider that favor is not a threat to academic freedom: "The political culture of favor does not necessarily entail submission and inequality," suggests a scholar, "it can also bring rights, equality, justice and, why not?, fraternity." However, "fraternity" is a symptomatic word, as it refers to brothers in a hierarchic system, thus limiting freedom and constraining scholars to compromise their freedom in order to take part in the academic brotherhood. Nowadays, academic freedom is thus hindered not by the state, as was the case during the dictatorship, but by two different but concurring sources. Globalization is clearly the leading maitre motused by the dominant scholars and research foundations to promote their concepts as the only valid and acceptable ones. Scholars ape foreign trends in order to be seen as more up-to-date. This superficial use of foreign authorities and even of fashionable terminology or jargon disenfranchises people and discourages BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
critical thought. Globalization also affects academic freedom in Brazil by accentuating the imbalances between the tiny minority of professors with access to the intemet and ordinary academics with difficult or no access. This varies by discipline, with the humanities, in particular, lagging behind. An even more important threat to academic freedom is the patronage-ridden academic system itself which enforces compliance with official policies. As Milton Santos, a leading scholar and geographer exiled during the dictatorship and one of the few black intellectuals in the country, said recently, "to look for new ideas is dangerous." This is because the patronage that pervades every institution, from small towns to states, from university departments to ministerial offices in Brasilia, means that scholars are pressed to put their academic freedom on hold, so that they can be in good terms with both official policies and funding and with colleagues in academic posts. Young scholars are particularly vulnerable to persecution. Walter Alves Neves and Solange Caldarelli were expelled from the University of Sao Paulo some years ago when a dean decided that she did not agree with their ideas about prehistoric settlement. Eduardo Goes Neves was also subjected to threats from a senior scholar, who tried, unsuccessfully, to get the University Chancellor to fire him just because the young archeologist disputed her claims about a very early occupation of Brazil some fifty thousand years ago, a claim, by the way, not accepted by almost every serious foreign specialist. These are clear examples of how scientific disagreements can become threats within the Brazilian scholarly world. Nowadays, another way of limiting the freedom of scholars is just to stop or reduce funding for scientific research. This strategy was widely used during military rule, against scholars and institutions that did not conform. The Institute for Prehistoric Studies, in Sao Paulo was affected by such cuts during the 1960s and 1970s, as were departments from the humanities to the medical sciences at
many universities throughout the country. Recently though, the authorities are disguising the reasons for their cutbacks, claiming that the reduced funding stems from the search for globalization and modernity. These cutbacks have been extensive and public universities have sometimes been without funds to pay for toilet paper! Engineering research centers in Rio de Janeiro have been subjected to reductions, because, according to the authorities, they were "too nationalist." The lack of funds has been used as an excuse to close down department; and research units, affecting scholars studying such subjects as eastern and dead languages (Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese) , archaeology and even nonapplied, so called pure sciences, like physics. Naturally, these cutbacks have only increased the public and private pressures on the already underpaid lecturers at state institutions. Academic freedom thus faces new challenges in the late nineteen nineties, as the earlier external censorship, prevailing in the military period, has been replaced by a much more deleterious inner censorship. To deviate from dominant discourse is to risk retaliation from people and institutions with power. It is perhaps a mixed feature of postm 13dem times in Brazil that academic freedom is threatened not b3 the sheer use of force, as had been the case for several years, but y a most insidious internalization of docility, as well as by the d minant discourse that favors market oriented research. This paper fir $t appeared in Academe, publication ofthe American Association f University Professors, 1999, July/August, pp. 22-25. Pedro Pau o A. Funari, BA, MA, Ph.D., is an archaeologist, Unive ity of Campinas professor, author of several books and papers. You can contact him at pedrofunari@sti.com.br
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If poetry is a banquet, and it is, surely one of its finest couplet Being or becoming: desserts is the memorable couplet, the aphoristic quality of That is the question. which may spread it far beyond even the most assiduous freeBut the poetic content here falls flat: the structure of the loader at the table of the poet. "To be or not to be," for example, is recognized around the world; known throughout Brazil in original "To be or not to be" has been deformed too much out of its grammatical shape, and the result is a too-obvious squeezing both its English and Portuguese forms. It is therefore a real treat for any reader in Brazilian poetry of philosophy into poetry. Neither mode of writing has been to discover Mario Quintana's take-off on that immortal couplet: satisfied. Another alternative, which admittedly circumnavigates the problem Ser ou estar: eis a questa°. To Be or to be: Even those with as slight a knowledge of Portuguese as this That is the question. writer will immediately spot the impossibility of adequately is better, but the full flavor of "Ser ou estar, eis a questeio" translating this genial philosophic-poetic-grammatical thought on one ofthe basic questions which finally confront the thinking can only be savored in the original Portuguese. The theme of the eternal versus the temporal, the changeless reader: ser or estar, two Portuguese verbs which, alas, can only versus the changeable, recurs be translated as "to be." For throughout the history of literathe native speaker of Enture not only in philosophy, ficglish, it may come as a surtion, and poetry, but in religious prise to meet up with these texts as well. It appears Adam two, and it may require and Eve rejected some timeless some persistence to acquire principle in favor of some passtheir correct usage. Briefly, ing enjoyment; the story ofChrist the "ser" to be refers to an might be said to symbolize the essential identity or qualunion of the timeless and the hisity, as in "He is a poet" (Ele torical. Machado de Assis's é urn poeta.) The "estar" to Memorias Postumas de Bras be refers to a temporary, Cubas may be seen as the reflecexistential circumstance or Mario Quintana is probably the greatest tion of an eternal soul on his quality as, for example, "He poet in (at least) the history of his earthly, in-time foibles. In phiis quite drunk" (Ele esta home state, Rio Grande do Sul. losophy, William James sums up bem bebado.) Quintana's own earthly existence the "first affirmation of religion" Quintana's couplet may illustrates the difficulty a poet may as "the better things are the more be used to illustrate some encounter in resolving the contrasts eternal things, the overlapping of the difference between between his timeless profession and his things, the things in the universe the modes of expression of time-ridden existence. which throw the last stone, so to philosophic prose and speak, and say the final word." philosophic poetry (or poJOHN HOWARD Mario Quintana's interest in etic philosophy, ifyou will). this theme is made explicit in the The general intent of philofollowing untitled sonnet: sophical inquiry has been described as an attempt to The beauty of verse printed in discover general principles books (statements which belong —a serene beauty with something to the ser—or "being"— of the eternal— aspect ofreality) with which Before they are disturbed by to understand the details of women reciters. existence (changeable cirThere they rest, mysterious amcumstances which belong phoras to the estar—or "becomOn their fragile shelves of glass... ing" aspect of reality). It is There they rest, motionless and the investigation of what silent. the philosopher Alfred But not identical and dumb as the North Whitehead defines as dead in their tombs. "the ultimate question of Each has a distinct timbre of sithe relation of reality as lence... permanent with reality as Only the soul can distinguish their fluent." different paces, It is worthwhile noting When the only sound in your room that the very traditional philosophical pair "being and becoming" lacks an exact transla- Is when you turn, soul suspended, one more page tion in Portuguese, there being no single word which corre- Of the book... But the verse wounds your chest like the sword of an angel. sponds to the English "becoming." Curiously, the two English nouns, which make up this complementary pair of concepts are There you are, as if you had, without trying, performed a perhaps best translated, albeit approximately, by the two Portu- miracle... Oh! what a beating, what a beating of wings! guese verbs in question, "ser" and "estar." Thus, philosophically speaking, one might state the premise of the couplet as "one question which confronts all men is the (A beleza dos versos impressos em livro basic choice as to whether it is best to devote one's attention to —serena beleza corn algo de eternidade— that which is essentially more permanent or that which is more Antes que venha conturba-los a voz das declamadoras. changeable." Stated in this way (either in English or in Portu- Ali repousam eles, misteriosos cantaros, guese) the proposition is more rational, less poetic; more given Nas suas frageis prateleiras de vidro... Ali repousam eles, imoveis e silenciosos. to reflection, less to intuition and feeling. There being no exact translation of the Portuguese verbs Mas nao mudos e iguais como esses mortos em suas tumbas. "ser" and "estar," one might be tempted to translate Quintana's Tern, cada urn, urn timbre diverso de silencio...
Being and Becoming
24
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
S6 tua alma distingue seus diferentes passos, Quando o 6nico rumor em teu quarto E quando voltas, de alma suspensa—mais uma pagina Do livro...Mas urn verso fere o teu peito como A espada de urn anjo. E ficas, como se tivesses feito, sem querer, urn milagre... Oh! Que revoada, que revoada de asas!) Among other things, the poem is a brief meditation on the persistent wish for permanence in a life of constant change, the "eternal" poem versus ephemeral reading aloud, the "motionless and silent" amphoras versus the "beating of wings." One of the notable contradictions of the poetic process is the poet's celebration of events in time which, happily, become timeless when printed as poetry. Mario Quintana' sown earthly existence illustrates the difficulty a poet may encounter in resolving the contrasts between his timeless profession and his time-ridden existence: his well-known difficulty at such mundane tasks as finding a home sharply contrast with his poetic genius—he is probably the greatest poet in (at least) the history of his home state, Rio Grande do Sul. A master of the aphoristic verse, Quintana's one-liners frequently illustrate the theme at hand, time and the timeless: ' If I were to really believe everything I think, I'd go crazy. (Se eu fosse acreditar mesmo em tudo o que penso, ficaria. louco.) Here "belief' may be taken as those permanent principles at the base of consciousness, whereas the stream-of-consciousness, the moment-by-moment changes in the constant succession ofthoughts, are the maddening representatives ofthe world of time. Thinking, that is, by its very nature, is a process, and a process is all about change; believing, on the other hand, is a state of (relative) permanence. There are many other examples in his poetry:
The quotidian is a disguise of the mystery. (0 quotidiano é o incognito do misterio.) Don't forget: he clouds are always improvising, but it's the wind's fault. (Ndo esquece que as nuvens estdo improvisando sempre, mas a culpa é do ento.) Time is just a oint of view of our clocks. (0 tempo e u ponto de vista dos relogios.) In the latter o ,time itself is negated as a reality; it exists merely because a achine we have invented says it does. The unspoken implic ion is that eternity is the only reality, an absolute refuting he relevancy of a "point of view." The soul is th t thing always asking us if the soul exists. (A alma é ess coisa que nos pergunta se a alma existe.) Destiny is ch e gone mad. (0 destino é acaso que enloqueceu.) We should g through life as though we were skipping school, not as tho gh we were going to one. (A gente deve travessar a vida como quem esta gazeando a escola e neio co o quem vai para a escola.) Now there's happy poetic thought: Immortality as an eternal skipping f school. John Howa d has published the translations of several Brazilian poe s, and several poems of his own. He has an MA in literatur from California State University. You can reach him at Jonhow99@hotmail.com
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5 BY MOACYR SCLIAR
Shazam Captain Marvel declared that his name was Jose and that he was a car salesman. He felt bad. Unlike the modern heroes, he wasn't used to dissimulation, intrigue and concealing. ABRIL Df 1950 Extinto o crime no mundo, o Capita() Marvel foi chamado a uma sessdo especial do Senado norte-americano. La foi saudado por Lester Brainerd, senador por Louisiana, e recebeu a medalha do Merit° Militar e umapensao vitalicia. Comovido, o Capita° Marvel expressou seu agradecimento e manifestou o desejo de viver tranqiiilamente portoda a eternidade. Para seu retiro, o CapitaoMarvel escolheu a cidade de Porto Alegre, no Estado do Rio Grande doSul, Brasil. Alugou um quarto numapitoresca pensao do Alto da Bronze; pensava em escrever suasmemOrias. Nos primeiros tempos, o Capita() Marvel despertava a atencao da vizinhanca. Sua apa vermelha, o interessante macacao que sava, faziam com que uma multidao de garotos corresse atras dele, gritando: "Voa! V oa!" Desgostoso, o Capitao Marvel evitava sair a rua. Coin o tempo, porem, foi caindo no esquecimento do pUblico. A televisao exibia novas series filmadas; duas ou tres revolucOes eclodiram no pals; e o Brasil tornou a levantar o campeonato mundial—o que nao acontecia ha muito tempo—gracas a seu arqueiro, urn mulatinho chamado Freud de Azevedo, que por uma curiosa aberracao da natureza, tinha nascido corn tres bracos. Alem disto, o Capita() Marvel tinha renunciado ao uso de seu uniforme tradicional e usava uma roupa comum, de tergal cinza. Suas mem6rias foram lancadas corn relativo sucesso pela Editora Vecchi. A tarde de aut6grafos compareceram autoridades civis, militares e eclesiasticas; criticos viram no livro valores insuspeitados, urn novo olhar sobre o mundo. Mas depois disto, o Capita() Marvel foi novamente esquecido. Passava os dias no seu quarto de pensao, folheando velhas revistas em quadrinhos e relembrando corn saudades o maligno Silvana, falecido de cancer muitos anos antes. A tarde, o Capita() Marvel trabalhava no seu jardim. Conseguira que a dona da pensdo lhe cedesse o terreno atras da cozinha e au i plantava rosas. Desejavaobterumavariedade hibrida, mas todas as suas tentativas tinham sido vas. A noite, o Capita() Marvel assistia a televisdo e ia ao cinema. Olhava corn melancolico desprezo os hernis modernos, vulneraveis a balas, incapazes de voar, usando apenas a inteligencia bruta. Depois voltava para casa, tomava um soporifero e ia dormir. Aos sabados, costumava ficar num bar perto da pensdo, tomando cachaca corn maracuja e conversando corn antigos boxeadores. Numa destasnoites, em que o Capitdo Marvel estava especialmente deprimido (ja tinha tornado oito calices de bebida), uma mulher entrou no bar, sentou-se ao balcdo e pediu uma cerveja. 0 Capitdo Marvel considerava-a em silencio. Durante sua longa vida, nunca 26
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
dera muita atencao a mulheres; o combate ao crime era uma tarefa absorvente, entao, e ele no desejava desperdicar energias. Mas agora, aposentado, o Capita° Marvel podia olha-la a vontade. Nao era uma mulher bonita. Teria cerca de quarenta anos, era baixa, gorda e estalava a lingua depois de cada gole de cerveja. Mas era a unica mulher no bar naquela noite de sabado. Sentado a mesa, o Capita° Marvel olhou sua prOpria imagem no espelho descascado a sua frente. Mesmo naquele ambiente melancOlico, era uma esplendida figura de macho e ele nao poderia deixar de reconhecer isto. —"Posso sentar?"-0 Capita° Marvel voltou-se. Era a mulher, com o copo de cerveja na mao. Sentou-se. Conversaram algum tempo. 0 nome da mulher— pelo menos, foi o que ela disse—era Maria Conceicao. 0 Capita() Marvel declarou chamar-se Jose e ser vendedor de automOveis. Sentia-se mal; ao contrario dos herois modernos, nao tinha o habit() da simulacao, da intriga, do disfarce. "Vamos para o meu quarto, bem?"—sussurrou a mu lher as tres horas da manha. Foram. Era no quarto andar de um velho predio na rua Maiechal Floriano. As escadas de madeira, pontilhadas de escarro e pontas de cigarros, rangiam ao peso dos dois. A mulher bufava e tinha de parar a cada andar. "E a pressao alta". 0 Capita() Marvel teve vontade de toma-la nos bracos e subir voando; mas queria perm anecer incognito. A mulher abriu a porta. Era um quartinho miseravel decorado com flores de papel e imagens sagradas. No centro, uma cama coberta com uma colcha vermelha. Arquejante, a mulher voltou-se para o Capita() Marvel e sorriu: "Me beija, querido." Beijaram-se longamente. Sem uma palavra, tiraram a roupa e meteram-se na • cama. "Como tu es frio, bem"— queixou-se a mulher. Era a pele de aco, a couraca invulneravel que tantas vezes protegera o Capita() Marvel e que já comecava a enferrujar debaixo das axilas 0 Capita() Marvel pensou em atritar um pouco o peito corn as maos; mas tinha medo de soltar faiscas e provocar urn incendio. Assim, limitou-se a dizer: "Já vai melhorar. Já vai melhorar." —"Vern, querido. Vem"—murmurou a mulher. 0 Capita() Marvel lancou-se sobre eta. Urn urro de dor sacudiu o quarto. "Tu me mataste! Me mataste! Ai, que dor!"—berrava a mulher. Assustado, o Capita° Marvel acendeu a luz: da vagina, corria urn riacho de sangue. "Me enterraste um ferro, bandido!" As pressas o Capita() Marvel enfiou as calcas. "Socorro! Socorro!" Sem saber o que fazer, o Capita° Marvel abriu a janela. Luzes comecavam a se acender nas casas vizinhas. Etc saltou. Por um instante, desceu; mas logo em seguida adquiriu equilibrio e planou suavemente. As vezes, solucava. Lembrava-se dos tempos em que era apenas Billy Batson, modesto locutor de radio. Havia uma palavra capaz de faze-lo voltar aquela epoca; mas o Capita() Marvel já a esquecera. BRAZZIL -AUGUST 1999
Wedding Ni ht Time able Finished the copulation I will say, exhausted as I may be, brief words about the beautiful moments we just experienced. I'll repeat that I love her, that I love her. "Senhora Presidente: Na qualidade de futur Diretor-Gerente das empresas dirigidas por V.S., e tambern na qual dade de seu futuro genro, submeto a sua apreciacao a seguinte Agenda para a Noite e Napcias 1. Os trabalhos terao nicio as vinte e tres horas na suite 1.102 do Hotel Real Navarino. Tr ta-se de hotel, e de aposento, habitualmente escolhido por nubentes ara a noite de nirpcias. 0 apartamento simpatico e acolhedor; ha musica ambiental, suave e romantica; uma reproducao da Maja Desnuda proporciona, particularmente para quem vem de urn ambiente culfo e refinado, como é o caso de sua filha, urn sutil estimulo erotic°. Pro idenciarei champanhe, e do melhor; entrando, proporei de imediato um brinde. Pretendo que o efeito inebriante da bebida elimine qualquer nibicao ainda presente na noiva. 2. A seguir, usarei da alavra, fazen o urn breve mas emocionado retrospecto de urn namoro apaixonado, de urn noivado ardente. evocarei cenas pitorescas ou ternas cômicas ou dramaticas; ao concluir, abracarei a noiva, declarando enfa icamente que a amo. 3. Beijar-nos-emos. beijo sera muito prolongado, da variedade conhecida como de lingu na qua!, modestia a parte, sou mestre. Corn este beijo tenho despert do poderosas paixOes, inclusive nas mais frigidas. Ao fmal deste b ijo, pode V.S. crer, sua filha estara gemendo de prazer. 4. Seguir-se-a a op acao de retirada das roupas. Ajuda-la-ei, transformando este mom nto numa ocasiao para caricias e elogios: aos belos seios, a graciosa c ntura, as longas coxas, que, de acordo com Lorca, compararei a in es movendo-se na semi-obscuridade. Em seguida me despirei. Ela podera constatar que seu noivo é uma bela figura de macho, alto, for-e, bronzeado; e se, ao avistar o membro viril, soltar uma pequena exclamacao, sera, nao de susto, mas sim de excitacao. 5. Folguedos amorosos. Tomarei a iniciativa, comecando por pequenos e nmidos beijos no pescoco, na nuca, nas orelhinhas; e nos seios. Demorar-me-ei a explorar corn a ponta da lingua os delicados mamilos, passando depois a succao o que arrancard a ela, estou seguro, numerosos e repetidos gemidos de prazer. Descendo, prosseguirei, via ventre, aos pequenos labios, que sera() acariciados e sugados. Eta entao se rendera completamente e a levarei nos bracos ate a cama. Corn a experiencia acumulada em muitos anos (em camas, bancos de automOveis e macegas) decidirei sobre o momento oportuno para a penetracao e a 6. Copula. Sera o mnento culminante do programa. Tenho para mim que sera uma copula arrebatadora, uma torrente de paixao rompendo as comportas para, em meio a gemidos de prazer, culminar num cataclismico orgasmo: triunfo do amor! Copula realizada, diri, ainda que ofegante, breves palavras sobre os belos momentos vivid s. Repetirei que a amo, que a amo. E entao-sono reparador. Para a segunda noite a agenda sera ligeiramente alterada, corn a introducao de novos tips de folguedo, e assim na terceira e na quartz noites (na quinta nao hav ra atividades). Ao cabo de meses urn padrao acabara por se estabelec r, e tudo caird na rotina. 0 noivo, contudo, aguardara ansioso a oportunidade de novas experiencias: outra boca a beijar, outras coxas a acariciar. Boca e coxas que poderao ser as suas, Senhora Presidente." 27
Go, son she used to say, enjoy yourself. Enjoy yourself?—the boy, annoyed. With what, in school? You're so stupid, mom, you never learn anything. Seri a o cheiro, talyez—mistura de odores, de terra de serragem molhada, do suor de homens e animais exoticos. Seria o cheiro; talvez. Talvez nao. 0 fato é que ela estava se sentindo mal au, muito mal. Meu Deus, pensou, eu queria estar em minha casa, é a coisa que eu mais queria neste momento 0 homem diante dela, o Breno (Breno ou Bruno) parecia nao perceber seu mal-estar. Sorri a o tempo todo, um sorriso humilde— humilde mas debochado; um son-iso de dentes estragados. As caries dele me repugnam, ela pensou, e the ocorreu: sera por isso que me sinto mal? Indignou-se: nao é a mim mesma que devo fazer perguntas; é a esse homem, afinal sou jornalista. Corrigiu-se: estagiaria. Estagiaria de quarenta anos, mas estagiaria. Ainda no estava formada. Abriu a bolsa, tirou a caneta—de ouro (os olhos do homem brilharam ou ela os adivinhou brilhar)—e um maco de folhas de papel. Vamos ver, disse, o senhor é da base. Sim, disse o Breno (ou Bruno), sou da base; fico no meio da base. A senhora sabe, eles dizem que eu sou o mais forte. Sei, ela disse, estou vendo. Fui o primeiro a ser convidado, acrescentou o homem, orgulhoso. Foi oprimeiro a ser convidado—ela escreveu, e perguntou: ha quanto tempo isso? Ah, respondeu o homem, ha muito tempo, ha uns dez anos mais ou menos. Dez anos. 0 que fazia ela ha dez anos? Morava no casarao de Higienopolis, entao, e os di as fugi am urn atras do outro. De mantra o marido aproximava-se dela, a pasta na mao: já you, Selma, te diverte. Beijava-a. Ela o beijava tambem, sabendo que de modo algum se d ivertiri a—nem naquele dia, nem em nenhum outro dia. Mas o marido estava corn pressa, estava saindo, nao era o momento de se queixar. Tomava mais urn gole de café, suspirava, pegava uma revista. —Foi o Ruivo quern me convidou—disse o homem. Ela estremeceu. Quem, perguntou, tentando disfarcar a perturbacao. 0 Ruivo, repetiu o Breno, ou Bruno; nao sei o nome dele, acho que ninguem sabe. Todo o mundo aqui chama ele de Ruivo. Passou urn homem baixinho, um homem que parecia um anao: era um anao. Carregava sem esforco urn enormetamborete. Sorriu para ela e desapareceu. Selma estremeceu. Escreveu— Ruivo o convi—; nao terminou a palavra, comecava a faltar tinta na caneta. Eu deveria usar uma esferografica, como todo o mundo, pensou, enquanto sacudia desesperadamente a caneta; mas nao sou como todo o mundo, uso caneta-tinteiro e me esqueco de enche-la. Tentou de noyo:—dou, sim, conseguia terminar a palavra. Convidou. 0 Breno, ou Bruno, falava, animado. —0 Ruivo me convidou. Nos eramos guns, eu tinha uns treze, e ele um pouco mais—dezesseis, acho. Um dia chegou perto de mim e disse: sabe, Bruno... (Bruno! 0 nome era Bruno. Nao deveria esquecer. Por via das davidas anotou num canto da folha: Bruno.) —aquela casa de muro alto? Ali tern coisa, Bruno. Que coisa, eu perguntei. Ruivo nao quis dizer, ele era assim mesmo, misterioso. Riu e disse: eu you te mostrar, vem comigo. Fui corn ele. Chegamos ao muro, ele mandou que eu me abaixasse, subiu nos meus ombros—e foi assim que tudo comecou, dona, todo o nosso negocio. 0 Ruivo era muito agil, mas eu nao, eu era um pouco desajeitado, ele entao me ensinou como é que eu deveria fazer para nao deixar ele cair. Custei a aprender, mas aprendi. S6 que, a senhora sabe, eu sou alto, mas o Ruivo é baixinho, entao tido 28
deu para ele olhar por cima do muro. Falta muito, Ruivo, eu perguntei la de baixo, urn tanto agoniado porque as botinas dele me machucavam os ombros. Falta, ele disse, falta um metro e tanto. Saltou la de cima, muito aborrecido. Ela escrevia, escrevia. Nao quero olhar para este homem— pensava--nao quero olhar as coisas ao redor. Saltould de cima-escreveu. Urn grito! Ouviu urn grito. Nao, urn grito nao, antes urn guincho, um guincho angustiado. Meu Deus, perguntou-se de novo, onde é que fui me meter? Indignou-se: nao, nao you me entregar! Nao you me deixar atemorizar, esta fase já passou! Forcou-se a parar de escrever, forcou-se a erguer a cabeca, a sorrir, a falar: • 1 —Foi entao que apareceram os outros. ' Isto mesmo, dona, disse o Bruno (Bruno?). Foi o Ruivo que disse: Bruno (Bruno!) precisamos de mais gente, s6 tu nao me chega. Ruivo, eu disse, tenho uns irmaos, posso falar corn eles. Bruno (Bruno!), ele disse, yamos precisar de cinco caras: tres para a base, dois para ficarem em cima da base e eu... (—no apice, ela escreveu; se antecipava) ...por cima de todos. Fiquei muito contente, dona (riu, o Bruno), porque nos somos justamente cinco irmaos: os dois gemeos e os outros. S6 que eu nao sabia se eles gostariam da coisa... Mas o Ruivo convenceu eles, disse que todos poderiam espiar por cima do muro, depois dele; depois que ele olhasse, ficaria na base, outro poderia olhar. Um grito, desta vez. Um grito de homem, e logo o guincho de urn animal enfurecido. Ela tomou a se encolher A caneta agora tracava no papel palavras invisiveis. A tinta tinha secado de vez. 0 Ruivo tinha labia—estava dizendo o homem, e havia admiracao em sua voz. 0 Ruivo era born mesmo... Convenceu os meus irmaos. Mas levamos uma semana treinando para formar a pir'amide; o Ruivo perdia a pacienc i a, o Ruivo gritava que a gente nunca ia aprender nada. Mas aprendemos. No fim, a gente estava fazendo uma beta piramide. Enxugou os olhos. Barbaridade, murmurou, isto foi h dez anos, quern diria. dez anos, e era verao. Te diverte, dizia o marido, saindo. A empregada aparecia, trazendo o menino pela mao: já you indo, Dona Selma, o Serginho esta atrasado para o colegio. Vai, meu filho, ela dizia, te diverte. Te diverte?—o menino, abonecido. Sc divertir corn que, no colegio? Tu es bun-a, mae, tu nunca aprendes nada! Sala, altaneiro como o pai. Ela suspirava, pegava a revista e ia para a piscina. Uma manha, continuava o Bruno, ou Breno, fomos ate a casa. Ficamos escondidos num campinho proximo, porque tinha um carrao preto estacionado no portao. Quando saiu, o Ruivo nos fez sinal. Corremos ate o muro, formamos a piramide. Ruivo subiu por nossas costas. Olhou. Nao disse nada, pulou o muro e desapareceu la dentro. Um urro. Mas isto agora é urn ledo!—pensou, alarmada. Isto que eu ouvi tern de serum I eao, e pode estar solto! Mordeu o dorso da mao, sacudiu a cabeca--pouco the importava que o homem notasse sua perturbacao. E que foi que o Ruivo viu la, perguntou. Nada, disse o homem. 0 Ruivo disse que nAo tinha nada la. 0 Ruivo mentiu—era o que ela deveria escrever, ou dizer; mas nao escreveria nem diria. Estava pensando no adolescente ruivo saltando do alto do muro, caindo junto a borda da piscina; estava pensando em seu susto, e no sorriso debochado dc, e depois na ideia, a ideia fascinante--por que ncio?—estava pensando em seus dedos tremulos abrindo o chambre... Hoje—o homem concluia—trabalhamos todos aqui, no cinco do Ruivo. Nosso numero ainda é a piramide. S6 que Ruivo nao trabalha mais corn a gente. Agora ele éo dono de tudo. Esta por cima—disse o homem, corn seu sorriso de dentes estragados. Pon cima. 0 Ruivo por cima. Ela guinchava, ela urrava, ela gritava, ela gemia—ninguem ouviria: a casa estava vazia, os muros cram altos e grossos. H dez anos... —01a, Selma—disse uma voz atras dela. Voltou-se: um homem bem vestido, urn homem elegante apesar da reduzida estatura. Era ele, sim; era o —01a, Ruivo. apice da piramide.
DaIlia's Bargains Even before the movie starts I can imagine what it's all about: a pathetic pornographic thing, old, dark, mute— the woman with the dog, the woman with two men, the woman with another woman. Tudo bem em Sao Paulo, eu satisfeito na posicao de gerente de uma cadeia de I ojas—boa casa, dois automoveis, viagem para o Caribe marcada, tudo--quando, de repente, telefona de Porto Alegre minha mAe. 0 velho esti doente, ele nao (Id conta da casa e dos neg6cios... Sou filho dnico. Tomo o primeiro aviao. Encontro meu pai bem melhor. Mas ja que estou, resolvo botar em ordem o neg6cio deles, uma lojinha de confecceles para homens; no Mont'Serrat. Dava bem quando era a anica loja da zona, corn sua fiel clientela de funcionarios pirblicos e pequenos comerciantes. Gracas a ela estudei, terminei urn curso. E por isto que o meu diploma de contador esta pendurado atras da caixa, junto corn alvards e o retrato do meu avo, fimdador do estabelecimento. Agora, porem, vejo que ha outra loja na ma, bem defronte a nossa—a Casa Dalila. Tambern pequena, tambem desarrumada, tern urn movimento bem major. Por que?—pergunto-me, olhando a proprietaria, uma velha de cabelos oxigenados e olhos pintados que, da porta, me encara desafiadora. Nao sabe corn quern esta lidando. Lanco-me ao trabalho. Uma investigacao preliminar me revela que grande parte de nossa clientela faz agora suas compras na Casa Dalila. E logo descubro por que: as notas de compra dao direito a frequenci a de certas sessaes cinematograficas real izadas nas noites de sexta-feira, nos fundos da pr6pria Casa Dalila. Obtenho algumas destas notas. E marco minha passagem para sabado. Pretendo resolver o assunto a minha moda: rapido, eficiente, sem barulho. As nove da noite de sexta-feira, de &tilos escuros e bigodes posticos, toco a campainha da Casa Dalila. A porta se abre; aparece a cara pintada da velha. Mostro as notas de compra, entro, e sou conduzido a uma sala mal iluminada dos fundos da loja. Ali, entre manequins sorridentes e caixotes de mercadorias, estao os outros espectadores. Nao sou o atria) de oculos escuros. Sento-me num tosco banco de madeira, acendo urn cigarro e espero. Esti nervosa, a Dona Dalila. Corre pela sala, ajeita a tela rasgada, consulta o relogio; finalmente anuncia, corn voz rouca, que a sessao vai comecar. Apaga a luz e liga o velho e barulhento projetor. Um letreiro aparece na tela: "As Aventuras de Dalila". Antes mesmo que o filme se inicie já imagino do que se trata: uma lamentavel coisa pomografica, antiga, escura, muda—a mulher corn o cachorro, a mulher corn dois homens, a mulher corn outra mulher. De fato, a primeira cena ja mostra uma cama; e dentre pel es e plumas emerge o rosto da devassa: olhos pintados de preto, boca em coracao —linda, a diaba, apesar de tudo. Entra o cachorro; depois os dois homens; depois a outra mulher. A plateia ri e aplaude; de entusiasmo, alguns gemem, mesmo. 0 filme termina. A luz se acende. Resmungos; quer mais, alguem. Nao, diz a velha, porhoje é so. S6 na sexta que vem. E nao esquecam as notas de compra. Meio oculto atras de urn manequim, espero que todos saiam. A velha esti enrolando o filme. Saio do meu esconderijo; ao me ver, assusta-se. teminou! Te arranca. —Que foi?—grita, enraivecida. Cai fora logo que é tarde e eu ainda tenho muito que fazer. BRAZZIL -AUGUST 1999
Tiro o bigode e os oculos. Recua, surpresa: Mas é o filho de Dona Cecilia! Exato, digo, e acrescento: o filho dos teus concorrentes. Es ou aqui para terminar corn a palhacada. Ri, incredula. Terminar, como? Por que?Porque é concorrencia desleal, digo. S6 por isto. — Teus pais odem fazer o mesmo na loja deles—observa, sarcastica. —Cala a bo a!—berro (mas minha faria é calculada). — Meus pais nao so ordinarios como tu, sua vaca! Sao honestos! Assusta-se: ao precisa gritar, nao sop surda; e depois, o que tern de mal em p sar uns filmezinhos? E uma sujeira—grito-atrair fregueses om estes truques! Suspira. Est ' bem, diz.Nao passo mais filmes. Comeca a tirar o robo da maqui a. — Me da istc aqui—ordeno. — Para que?*a voz é tremula, e ha verdadeiro pavor nos olhos. Ah! —Da aqui! epito. Tenta escap r pela porta dos fundos. Agarro-a, tiro-lhe o filme. Tenta rea ir. Aplaco-a corn urn born murro. — Vou quei ar esta droga--digo, ainda ofegante.— Aqui mesmo, e ja! — Espera u pouco! —o tom agora é de suplica, e a boca sangra.—Me f um ark() favor. Me deixa assistir o filme pela altima vez. —Para que? —Deixa eu passar o filme. Depois te explico. Consulto o r logio. Tenho tempo; e mesmo, nao vi direito o filme. —Esta born Coloca o flrie na maquina, apaga a laz. Sento-me no banco, acendo urn ciga o. El a senta-se junto a mim. Olhamos o rosto na tela—os olhos çintados, a boca em coracao. — Sabe queri é esta ai?—murmura ao meu ouvido. —Sou eu mesma. —Mentira tia. — Palavra. Eu mesma, na Europa. Fui muito famosa... A bela Dalila. Olho-a. De ,fato, parece-me reconhecer no rosto gordo os tracos da mulher da tela. — Passa o fi me de novo. Nao ha dirvida: os mesmos olhos, a mesma boca. Sou eu, sirn—sussurra, e ri. Caimos no ha°, entre os manequins. Sabado de manha ja estou no aviao, caminho de Sao Paulo. Já convenci os velhos a vender a loja papa Dalila; já acertei a mesada que lhes mandarei de Sao Paulo; e a resolvi que tao cedo nao voltarei ao bairro de Mont' Serrat, entr Porto Alegre.
Tales of the Trembling Earth A roar m de the house shake. A blood cascade gushed over the man! The foot was agitated as a wounded monster. A nova em regada, é o que eles dizem, tern dois defeitos: come demais gozado isto—se queixa dos bichinhos em sua cama. Nao se ueixa da cama, nem do quarto; se queixa dos bichinhos que ao a deixam dormir. 29
Mas a nova empregada, eles dizem, tern qualidades: é limpa, é trabalhadora, é honesta. Tudo computado, eles estao satisfeitos. Eles: o Senhor Isidoro, Dona Debora, e seus dois filhos: o Alberto eo Julio. Estavam de acordo: muito boa, a nova empregada. A Gertrudes. Uma colona de origem alema, gigantesca. Trabalhadora, quieta. Do servico pan a cama, da cama para o servico. (Nem podiam imaginar o que ia acontecer, eles.) Uma manha—dois meses depois da chegada de Gertrudes— marido e mulher acordaram corn uma sensacao de asfixia. As janelas estavam fechadas (era inverno), mas mesmo nos meses frios a porta ficava aberta, para o caso de as criancas chamarem noite, e tambem para garantir urn minimo de ventilacao. Dona Debora sofria de bronquite asmatica. Aguela manha, porem, notaram que a porta estava obstruida por uma grande massa de contornos indistintos. Dona Debora acendeu a luz, saltou da cama, e foi ver o que havia. A porta estava bloqueada por urn pe. 0 que ela via era a sola calosa de um grande pe. Alarmada, chamou o marido: Isidoro! Isidoro! Olha ali, na porta do quarto! E urn pe, Isidoro! Eu acho que é o pa da Gertrudes! 0 marido sentou na cama, tonto de sono. Nao quero essa mulher no meu quarto, resmungou, enquanto procuravaos oculos. Manda ela jade volta para a cozinha. —Nao, Isidoro!—a mulher arfava, o peito comecando a chiar. —Eu acho que ela nao pode, Isidoro! Ela ficou enorme, Isidoro! Ele colocou os oculos, saiu da cama e, foi ate a porta. Examinou cuidadosamente o estranho objeto. E um pe enorme-disse—de uma pessoa branca. SO pode ser o pe da Gertrudes, mesmo. —E agora?—perguntou a mulher apavorada. —A primeira coisa—disse o marido—e nos sairmos daqui. Espiou por uma fresta entre o pe e o marco da porta. -Nao vejo nada... Gertrudes! Tira o pe dal, faz favor! Urn gem ido abafado veio de longe. 0 Senhor Isidoro escutou corn atencao. Creio que a cabeca esta na cozinha, disse. Chega aqui mulher, ve se consegue entender o que ela diz. A esposa aproximou-se da porta, a mao em concha na orelha. —Ela diz que nao tira o pe. Ela disse que no sal daqui. Ela disse que nao volta para o quarto dela, que la os bichinhos incomodam demais. —Desaforo! gritou o Senhor Isidoro, irritado. —Tira este pe dal, ouviste? Tira! Urn grito veio do quarto ao lado: —Mae! —E o Julio disse Dona Debora, apavorada. —E o meu filhinho, o meu Julio. —Mae—dizia Julio—tern urn pe enorme aqui na porta, mae! A gente nao pode sair! —Nao te assusta, filhinho disse o pai. —Nao estou assustado disse Julio. Nao estava mesmo; tinha so dez anos, mas era muito vivo e esperto. 0 outro, de doze, era mais quieto. —E o pe da Gertrudes—disse o Senhor Isidoro. —Mas nao te assusta, filho, o papai já cid um jeito. Voltou-se para a mulher: —Um pe na nossa porta, urn pé na porta das criancas, a cabeca na cozinha. Ela esta ocupando toda a casa. A pema e a coxa devem estar bloqueando o corredor. —E agora?—perguntou a esposa, cada vez mais assustada. 0 dono da casa apertou os labios e fitou amulher. Nao ha jeito, disse, temos de amputar. —Urn dedo?—disse a mulher, recuando. —No minimo. Ela estava horrorizada. —Mas assim, a frio? E a dor? —0 que é que se vai fazer? Ou ela, ou nos. —Pelo menos,—suspirou a esposa—avisa a coitada. Ele se aproximou da fresta da porta. —Gertrudes!—gritou, na direcao da cozinha. —Gertrudes! Vamos tomar uma pequena providencia. Vamos te dar urn cortezinho no pe, ouviste? E para a gente poder passar. Depois 30
traremos socorro, e tudo vai terminar bem. Ouviste? Urn gemido foi a resposta. —Sera que ela ouviu?—perguntou a Dona Debora. 0 Senhor Isidoro consultou o relogio. —Nao sei. Mas tido posso perder mais tempo. Vamos comecar. Foi ate a janela, quebrou uma vidraca e voltou corn um grande caco de vidro. Tens alcool ai, perguntou a mulher. Muito pouco, ela disse, e ele, que droga! Logo agora que a gente precisava, pediu que ela the despejasse o liquido nas maos. Depois, pediu que ela colocasse uma cadeira ao lado da porta, subiu e ficou a altura do grande artelho. E como casca de arvore disse, tocando a sola do Ile. — Tern um calo enorme aqui, um cabo do tamanho da tampa de um bueiro, bem onde eu queria cortar. Da cozinha veio uma risadinha abafada. Sente c6cegas, coitada—murmurou a Dona Debora. —Vou comecar!—gritou o marido. Tomando impulso, cravou a lamina de vidro na base do dedo. Urn urro fez estremecer a casa! Uma cascata de sangue jorrou sobre o homem! 0 pe se agitava como um monstro ferido! —Para, Isidoro! gritava Dona Debora, horrorizada. —Agora nao posso parar! Agora que comecei nao posso pant-! Tenho de ir ate o fim! Os gritos de Gertrudes se transformaram num uivo medonho, continuo. No quarto ao lado Julio chorava alto. —Para, Isidoro! reit —Cala a boca, mulher! Cortando sempre, Isidoro chegou ao osso. Para desarticular a falange usou a coluna do quebra-luz como alavanca. Finalmente o grande dedo tombou como um galho quebrado. Uma lufada de ar entrou no quarto. 0 Senhor Isidoro espiava pela abertura. r —0 que estas vendo?—perguntou a esposa. —E bem como eu imagi nava—el e disse. —0 corpoé enorme, ocupa todo o living. A barriga parece uma montanha. As tetas parecem duas montanhas. Enche a casa, esta mulher. 1-1.ite; —Coitada—disse a esposa. —Nao fala assim, Isidoro.' Ele examinava a ferida da amputacao. —Continua sangrando. Tenho de dar urn jeito nisto. Nao posso subir por aqui, esta muito escorregadio. Passou os olhos pelo quarto. —Aquilo ali nao é o ferro eletrico? —Bota na tomada. Quando estiver bem quente me dá Enquanto o ferro esquentava, ele acalmava os filhos: —Se acalmem. 0 papal já vai al. De repente se lembrou da empregada. —Gertrudes! Nenhuma resposta. Deve ter desmaiado, concluiu. A esposa lhe alcancou o ferro quentissimo—e ele o aplicou a superficie sangrenta. Urn cheiro de carne assada encheu o quarto. Tu estas fazendo comida, mae? Estas fazendo comida para nos? perguntou Julio. Pobre crianca, disse ela, ainda nao, filhinho, ainda nao estou fazendo comida--daqui a pouco, Jul inho, espera so urn pouquinho. —Deu resultado—gritou o Senhor Isidoro. —Cauterizei a ferida. Agora nao sangra mais. Desceu. —Vamos, Debora. Sobe ali, passa pela abertura, e sai. —Eu? Mas eu nao passo por ai!—protestou Debora. —Sobe! Mas a mulher tinha razao. Nao passou mesmo, depois de varias tentativas. —Tu es uma baleia, mesmo!—resmungou o Senhor Isidoro. —Nao tenho culpa, Isidoro. Isidoro avaliava a situacao. —Born. Vamos fazer o seguinte: eu passo e tiro as criancas, que é o mais importante agora. Depois venho te buscar. Dona Debora concordou. 0 Senhor Isidoro beijou-a, icou-se pelo pe acima e corn algum esforco transpos o coto do dedo. A primeira coisa que viu foi suas ferramentas espalhadas pelo chao do living. Estivera consertando uma cadeira na noite anterior; ficara corn sono e fora dormir, sem guardar o material apesar BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
das reclamacOes da mulher. Agora, corn as ferramentas, sentia-se armado. Pegou o serrote e brandiu-o no ar gritando para Debora: —Viste, Debora? Viste como as vezes é born ser desorganizado? Isidoro escalou uma coxa de Gertrudes, e olhou ao redor. Como tinha imaginado, o corpo da empregada ocupava praticamente toda a casa. Caminhou sobre o ventre montanhoso, cuj a gordura caia em pregas nos flancos. 0 Senhor Isidoro teve vontade de levantar a camisola, para ver como estavam as partes, mas desistiu—a hora nao era para sacanagens. A porta do quarto de Julio estava bloqueada pelo outro pe. 0 homem galgou-o corn certa facilidade; já tinha adquirido pratica e alem disto agarrava-se nos pelinhos loiros. Examinou o sulco entre o primeiro e o segundo artelhos, cheio de urn sujeira de meses (limpa, ela? Pois sim). Por al i nao poderia tirar as criancas. Este pe, contudo, parecia menor, e nao fechava totalmente a abertura. Concluiu que se cortasse a unha do dedao conseguiria uma fresta bastante ampla. Para este trabalho usou o serrote e se saiu bem. Logo as criancas estavam fora; passado o susto, Mho divertia-se, brincando de escorregador nas coxas da empregada. Mas o Senhor Isidoro estava preocupado.Nao tinha meios de sair do living; todas as aberturas estavam bloqueadas. Terei de cavar urn tune! no braco, raciocinou, e atingir a porta da ma pelo corredor. Neste trabalho foi ajudado pelas criancas. Usaram formao, talhadeira e a lamina da plaina—e naturalmente o ferro eletrico como cauterio. Gertrudes nao reagia aos golpes, embora estivesse quente. 0 Senhor Isidoro imaginava que ela estivesse desmaiada (de fome. Alimentar um corpo destes agora nao vai ser facil), mas nao se preocupava. Queria sair dal i o mais depressa possivel para trazer socorro. De repente Julio comecou a chorar: —Coitada da Gertrudes! Tao boa, e n6s aqui machucando ela! Trouxemos a pobrezinha para Porto Alegre s6 para fazer mal para ela! 0 Senhor Isidoro parou o trabalho, tomou-o nos bracos sujos
RIO-SP
FROM LAX
de sangue. —Nao, filhinho, nao é nada disto. 0 que estamos fazendo para o nosso bem e para o bem de Gertrudes. Temos de buscar ajuda, nao yes? E depois—a gente nao tirou Gertrudes de casa. Eta é que quis vir para a cidade para melhorar de vida, ganhar dinheiro, arranjar um namorado... corner mais. Se nao fosse a gente ela teria ficado la no interior, nunca teria progredido. Agora—quem mandou ela ser gulosa e comer tanto, nao é verdade? Isto foi urn castigo. Mas eu nao estou brabo, nao; logo a gente vai sair daqui e buscar um medico para ela. Julio mais calmo, voltaram ao trabalho, que ia se tomando cada vez mais dificil. 0 Senhor Isidoro teve de construir um sistema de sustentacao, a semelhanca do usado em minas. Usou para isto a madeira dos moveis. 0 time! era tao comprido que ele teve de instalar tambern uma rede eletrica. Isidoro cavava, os meninos transportavam a came cortada. 0 trabalho levou cerca de doze horas. A noite atingiram o antebraco, furaram a pele e saltaram para a palma da mao. Afastaram os dedos—e viram-se diante da porta! A saida! Depois libertaram a Dona Debora, depois se abracaram, riram, contavam-se a historia uns para os outros, mil vezes. A hist6ria qUe eles contam é esta. Eu conto outra historia. Sou empregada, sou uma colona do interior, mas sei ler e escrever, sei contar historias. A historia que eu conto é de quatro bichinhos que passeavam pelo meu corpo, me picando, me mordendo, me tirando sangue. Quatro bichinhos que estavam a vontade, como habitantes de uma terra amavel. Vao ver, os quatro bichinhos quando a terra tremer. Vao ver que historias lhes conta esta terra tremula. These short stories were excerpted from Os Melhores Contos de Moacyr Scliar, Global Editora, Sao Paulo, 1984. In the original they were called: "Shazam," "Agenda para a Noite de Nupcias," "Apice de Piramide," "Ofertas da Casa Dalila," and "Histerias da Terra Tremula."
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Maranhdo, with an area of 324,616 sq. km and a population of five million. is the second largest state in the Northeast, after Bahia. For many years after their discovery of Brazil, the Portuguese showed little interest in the area, which now forms the state of Maranhao. In 1612, the French arrived to construct a fort at Sao Luis, which later became the capital of the state. Although the southern and eastern areas of Maranhao are characterized by vast expanses of babacu palms and typical sertdo landscapes, the western and northwestern regions merge into humid Amazon rainforests. The rural economy of Maranhao is dependent on the babacu palm, which serves an amazing multitude of purposes: the nuts can be eaten straight out of the fruit or crushed to produce vegetable oil (margarine) or industrial lubricating oils: the tips of the young palms can be eaten as 'palm hearts'; and the older trunks are used for construction of huts, with roofing material supplied by the leaves-which can also be used for the production of cellulose and paper. The residue from the crushed nuts provides excellent fertilizer and cattle feed: and the hulls of the fruits are used in the production of acetates, tar and methyl alcohol. Finally, the hulls are turned to charcoal for use in smelting. Things go better with babacu! The state's most recent impact on the country's political scene was made by Roseana Sarney, the daughter of former president Jose Sarney, who in November 1994 became the first woman in Brazil to be elected a state governor. Young and beautiful, `Roseana', as she encouraged voters to call her, had her face splashed on just about every inch of available wall space during the campaign. She scraped into the job by the slimmest margin, with many residents claiming it was her family's connections and power that got her over the line. Meanwhile, her father recently established a $12.5 million memorial to himself, complete with blackmarble mortuary room, with part of the money paid by taxpayers. SAO LUIS sao Luis, the capital of Maranhao, is a city with unpretentious colonial charm and a rich folkloric tradition—definitely a highlight for travelers in the Northeast. The population is a diverse mixture of Europeans, blacks and Indians. Apart from the attractions of the restored colonial architecture in the historical center, Sao Luis offers passable beaches only half an hour from the center (with better ones further afield), and the opportunity to cross Baia de Sao Marcos to visit Alcantara, an impressive historic town slipping regally into decay. History Sao Luis was the only city in Brazil founded and settled by the French. In 1612 three French ships sailed for Maranhao to try to cut off a chunk of Brazil. They were embraced by the local Indians, the Tupinamba, who hated the Portuguese. Once settled in Sao Luis, named after their King Louis XIII, the French enlisted the help of the Tupinamba to expand their precarious foothold by attacking tribes around the mouth of the Amazon. But French support for the new colony was weak, and in 1614 the Portuguese set sail for Maranhao. A year later the French fled, and the Tupinamba were 'pacified' by the Portuguese. Except for a brief Dutch occupation between 1641 and 1644, Sao Luis developed slowly as a port for the export of sugar, and later for cotton exports. As elsewhere, the plantation system was established with slaves and Indian labor, despite the relatively poor lands. When demand for these crops slackened in the 19th century, SA° Luis went into a long and slow decline. In recent years the economy of Sdo Luis has been stimulated by several megaprojects. A modern port complex has been built to export the mineral riches of the Serra dos Cara*, a range of hills in the Amazon, which has the world's largest deposits of iron ore. In 1980s, Alcoa Aluminum built an enormous factory for aluminum processing—you'll see it along the highway south of the city. The $1.5 billion price tag for this project was the largest private investment in Brazil's history. A missile station has been built near Alcantara, and oil has been found in the bay. Orientation It's easy to get around on foot—despite the hills and confusing street layout-because everything is so close. In fact, as long as you're in the old part of town, a bus is rarely needed. The most confusing thing about getting around Sao Luis is the existence of several different names for the same streets. There are the new official names that are on street signs and the historical names or nicknames that the locals use. No two city maps seem to be the same. Catedral da Se Constructed by the Jesuits in 1726 as the Igreja Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte, this building became the official cathedral in 1762. Inside, there's a fine baroque altar and ceiling frescoes decorated with babacu motifs. Palacio dos Lebes Originally a French fortress built in 1612 by Daniel de la Touche, during the reign of Louis XIII, this is now the Palacio do Governo, the state governor's residence and office. The interior reflects the pomp of Versailles and French architectural tastes. Visiting hours are 3 to 6 pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Projeto Reviver During the late 1980s, the state authorities finally agreed to restore the historical district, which had been neglected and decaying for many decades. The initial restoration project was completed in 1990, but the new governor. Roseana
French Touch Sao Luis is a city with unpretentious colonial charm and a rich folkloric tradition. Sao Luis also offers passable beaches only half an hour from the center, with better ones further afield.
BRA7_ZIL -AUGUST 1999
Sarney, has promised new funds for ongoing work. Over 200 buildings have already been restored and the district has been turned into one of the architectural highlights of Brazil. To appreciate the superb colonial mansions and the many designs and colors of their azulejo facades, just wander around the district. Azulejos were first produced in Portugal and later became a popular product in France, Belgium and Germany. Since azulejos provided a durable means to protect outside walls from the humidity and heat in sao Luis, their use became standard practice during colonial times. Museu de Artes Visuais This museum has a fine collection of old azulejos, engravings, prints and paintings. It's open from 9 am to 5 pm Monday to Friday, and from 2 to 6 pm on Saturday and Sunday. Opposite the museum is the old round market, where you can shop with the locals for dried salted shrimp (eaten with shell and all), cachaca, dried goods and basketwork, or visit the lunch counters for cheap local cooking. Cafui das Mercas & Museu do Negro This museum is housed in the old slave market building where slaves were once kept after their arrival from Africa and until they were sold—notice the absence of windows. A small and striking series of displays documents the history of slavery in Maranhao. The museum is open from 1 to 5.30 pm Tuesday to Saturday, and from 2.30 to 5.30 pm on Sunday. The African slaves brought to Maranhao were Bantus from Africa who were used primarily on the sugar plantations, and to a lesser extent for the cultivation of rice and cotton. They brought their own type of Candomble, which is called Tambor de Mina in this part of Brazil. The museum director, Jorge Babalao, is an expert on Candomble and Bantu/Maranhense folklore. He may be able to indicate where you can visit a ceremony, but the major houses, the Casa das Minas, Casa de Nag6 and Casa Fanti-Ashanti-NagO, don't welcome visitors. Museu do Centro de Cultura Popular This museum is at Rua 28 de Julho 221, just a few minutes on foot from the Cafua das Merces. The displays include a good collection of handicrafts from the state of Maranhao, and Bumba Meu Boi costumes and masks. It's open from 3 to 6 pm Monday to Friday from 10 am to 1 pm on Saturday and Sunday. Centro de Criatividade This exhibition and performance space in the heart of Projeto Reviver is for culture vultures interested in the local art scene. There's a theatre for local plays and dance productions, an art gallery and a cinema showing art-house films. Igreja do Desterro This church notable for its facade, was built between 1618 and 1641 and is the only Byzantine church in Brazil. There's small adjoining museum, the Museu de Paramentos Eclesiasticos, with a display of ecclesiastical apparel. Fonte das Pedras This fountain, built by the Dutch during their brief occupation of Sao Luis, marks the spot where, on 31 October 1615, Jeronimo de Albuquerque and his troops camped before expelling the French. The fountain is located inside a small, shady park. Museu Histerico e Artistico do Estado de Maranhao This museum, housed in a restored mansion originally built in 1836, provides an idea of daily life in the 18th century, with an attractive display of artifacts from wealthy Maranhao families. There are furnishings, family photographs, religious articles, coins, sacred art—and President Jose Sarney 's bassinet. Opening hours are 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday to Saturday. Fonte do Ribeirao This is a delightful fountain, built in 1796, with spouting gargoyles. The three metal gates once provided access to subterranean tunnels, which were reportedly linked to churches as a means to escape danger. Beaches The beaches are beyond Sao Francisco district and they are all busy on sunny weekends. You should beware of rough surf and tremendous tides in the area: ask for local advice about safe times and places to swim before you head for the beaches. Ponta d'Areia is the closest beach to the city, only 3.5 km away, but the pollution has put a stop to bathing. It's a popular beach for those who want to make a quick exit from the city and visit the barracas and restaurants here for beach food. The next beach, Calhau, is broad and beautiful and only 7.5 BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
km from the city. The locals like to Orive their cars onto Calhau (as well as the net beach, Olho d'Agua) park and lay out their towels alongsid their machines. On weekends this causes congestion witich spoils enjoyment of these good city beaches. Olho d'Agua, 11.5 km from Sao Luis, has more beach barracas and football games. It's active and fun on weekends. Praia do Arsicagi, four km further, is the quietest and most peaceful of these beaches. There are only simple bars and a few weekend beach ouses. Festivals sao Luis ha one of Brazil's richest folkloric traditions, which manifests itself during its many festivals. Carnival is supposedly a real it. There are active samba clubs and distinctive local dances and music. Most Carnival activity is out on the streets and the ti rist influence is minimal. The Tambor a e Mina festivals, held in July, are important events for follow rs of the Afro-Brazilian religions in Sao Luis, and sao Luis' fa ous Bumba Meu Boi festival commences in the second half f June, continuing until the second week of August. The Fest do Divino, celebrated on Pentecost (between May and June), i especially spectacular in Alcantara. Things to B y Sao Luis is t e place to look for the traditional handicrafts of Maranhao, suc as woodcarving, basketry, lacework, ceramics leatherwork, an a woven goods made from linen, local plant fibers and straw. Also on sale are featherwork and items made from woven stra or plant fibers (from baskets to bracelets) by the Urubus-Caa or Indians and the Guajajara Indians, both from the interior of Maranhao state. CEPRAMA ( entro de Artesanato), at Rua de Sao Pantaleao 1232, is housed in a renovated factory and functions as an exhibition hall a d sales outlet for handicrafts. It's open from 3 to 9 pm on Sunda1 and Monday, and from 9 am to 9 pm Tuesday to Saturday. Als worth visiting are the Centro Artesanal do Maranhao at Av nida Marechal Castelo Branco 605, and the Mercado Central The Mercado Central is open from 7 am to 4 pm Monday to S turday, and the Centro Artesanal do Maranhao is open from 8 a to 8 pm Monday to Friday and from 8 am to 1 pm on Saturda . ILHA DES 0 LUIS Praia da Ra i osa Out at the tia of the Ilha de Sao Luis, 30 km from the city, is the interestin fishing center of Raposa, also known for its lacework. It's a poor town, built on stilts above mangrove swamps, which ives it an unusual appearance. The bulk of the town's populati n is descended from Cearense immigrants. There are no tou ist facilities but the ocean here is pretty and very shallow. T ere are lots of small fishing boats and it's not too hard to nego iate a ride. Bathing at the beach is dangerous due to extreme ti sal variations. The water recedes up to one km at low tide. Sao Jose do Ribamar This fishing own is on the east coast of the island, 30 km from the city. Th re's a busy little waterfront with boats leaving for small towns long the coast. This is a good way to explore some of the unto risted villages on the island. On Sunday buses go from Sao Jo 'é to nearby Ponta de Panaquatira, a popular weekend beach. The Sao Jos do Ribamar Miracle The origins if the town date back to the early 18th century when a Portug ese sailing ship went astray and started to flounder on the aia de sao Jose. The desperate crew begged for mercy from sao Jose das Botas and promised to procure the finest statue oft e saint and construct a chapel for it if they were spared. The ship and its crew were miraculously saved, and several years later, the p omise was kept when a fine statue of the saint was installed in chapel at the tip of the cape where the disaster was narrowly av sided. The settlement on this site later received the name Sao Jo 'é do Ribamar, a fusion of the saint's name and the local Indian ame for the rock formation at the cape. According ta local legend, the statue was moved away from its site beside t e shore, but miraculously reappeared in its original positio the next day—without any signs of human intervention. T miracle was repeated a couple more times, until the locals a cided the statue should be left in its preferred place. During it track, the statue left deep footprints along the rocky coastline hich are now venerated by the townsfolk, who host the annual esta do Padroeiro (held in September) in honor 35
of the saint.
young guide, who can organize transport for day trips. If you don't want to do th e full day trip, it's possible to hire boats along AROUND SAO LUIS the riverfront to take you to the beginning of the park for a few dollars. ALCANTARA Tutoia Bumba Meu Boi Across the Baia de Sao Marcos from Sao'Luis is famous for its BumbilVlete TutOia is a fishing port and beach Sao Luis is the old colonial town of Boi—a fascinating, wild folkloric festival ' town on the edge the Delta do Parnaiba, Alcantara. Founded in the early 1600s with a Carnivalesque atmosphere in whic a 2700-sq-km expanse of rivers, dunes, with extensive slave labor, the town was participants dance sing and tell the sto beaches and mangrove forest which the hub of the region's sugar and cotton of the death and resurrection of the bilflid , straddles the borders of Maranhao and economy. The beneficiaries of this wealth, with plenty of room for improvisiition-z Piaui. Maranhao's rich landowners, preferred Parade groups spend the yeaft On the beachfront, the Pousada living in Alcantara to Sao Luis preparation, costumes are lavish and neve Cacao is a beach shack with a bar While the town has been in decline songs and poetry are invented. There ar decorated with shark's jaws and since the latter half of the 19th century, it three forms of Bumba Meu Boi i snakeskins. Apartamentos cost $8, single is still considered an architectural treasure Maranhao: bois de matraca; bois de; or double. The Hotel Tres Irmaos, on and some experts claim that it is the most zabumba and bois de orquestra. Praca Igreja, in the center, is run by a homogeneous group of colonial buildings The story and its portrayal cliff* the friendly family and has quartos with fan and ruins from the 17th and 18th centuries Northeast, but the general plot IS 0 at $3 per person. in Brazil. follows: Castrina, goddaughter Of theloca Construction of the Centro de farm owner is pregnant and feels a crliVin THE NORTH COAST Lancamento de Alcantara (CLA), a nearby to eat the tongue of the best boi (but) 0 The town of Guimaraes is a center rocket-launching facility, caused ,the farm. She ca.blestier, husband, Chico for boat building and fishing. Further mutterings amongst residents, who to kill the be 'Qntel the dead bull i north is Cururupu, a small town which is disagreed with the forceful resettlement discovered, seve -clfiritcters (caricature the gateway to the Lencois de policy undertaken to clear the drawn from all 1e1 of society) do som Cururupu—a huge expanse of coastal construction site. There couldn't be a detective work and finally track down th ' dunes similar to, but not to be confused greater contrast with this slumbering perpetrator of the crime. Chico is brough with, those in the Parque Nacional dos colonial town than a space-age launching to trial, but the bull is resuscitated b Lencois Maranhenses. pad! various magic incantations and tunes. About 80 km offshore is Parcel de Things to See & Do pardon is granted and the story reaches it Manoel Luis, a coral reef named after the The town is very poor and decaying, happy ending when Chico is reunited wit • Manoel Luis, the first ship to be lost but don't miss the following: the beautiful Catrina. . there. According to experts, this reef, row of two-story houses on Rua Grande, The festivals start in the second hal extending over 28 km, is the largest in the Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Carmo of June and continuelatb the second wee South America, and there are plans to (1665); and the best preserved pelourinho of A ug us G e t he tourist office a call to turn it into a marine park. There are also (whipping post) in Brazil, on Praca da get th e ext.ac t data ta -plans to exploit it as one of the world's Matriz. top attractions for divers, especially those The Museu Histerico, on the Praca with fat wallets tucked into their wetsuit. da Matriz, displays a collection of sacred art, festival regalia; RESERVA BIOLOGICA DO GURUPI and colonial furniture. Each room has its own guardian----ii This biological reserve in the Serra do Tiracambu, on the source of employment for the locals. Opening hours for, the'. western border of the state, is not open to the public. This news museum are 8 am to 2 pm Tuesday to Saturday, and 8 ant° ' does not seem to have reached the sawmill owners, loggers and pm on Sunday. assorted industrialists clustered on the fringe of the reserve, Once you've seen the main sights, you can walk WI thewho are plundering it at top speed. beaches or take a boat trip out to nearby islands. -$ IMPERATRIZ Festival Imperatriz, 636 km from Sao Luis, is a rapidly expanding The Festa do Divino is held on the first Sunday aft city on the border with Para. The expansion is due to the rabid Ascension Day. Check the date for the festival (usually held logging and mining of the surrounding region, which is turning May) with the tourist office in Sao Luis. , the forests into ecological nightmares and attracting plenty of This is considered one of the most colorful annual festiVa low-life characters to make a quick killing. The only possible in Maranhao, a fusion of African and Catholic elernentsliVi reason to visit would be to change buses—otherwise, just keep two children dressed as the emperor and empress pallid going. The airports at Imperatriz and nearby Acailandia are through the town and accompanied by musicians. frequently closed for days on end because of the huge clouds of smoke from forest fires. PARQUE NACIONAL DOS LENGOIS CAROLINA MARANHENSES The town of Carolina, 242 km south of Imperatriz, lies The natural attractions of this national park include 15$0 sq.'t beside the Rio Tocantins, and provides a handy base for visiting km of beaches, mangroves, lagoons, dunes and local faunat nearby natural attractions. (turtles and migratory birds). The park's name refers t0i Pedra Caida, 35 km from town on the road towards Estreito, immense dunes, which look like lencois (bed sheets) stite is a dramatic combination of rock canyons and waterfalls. Some across the landscape. Since 1981 this parcel of land has been s of the other spectacular aside as a protected ecological zone, staving off the ruinous waterfalls in the region are: effects of land speculation. • Cachoeira do Itapecuruzinho, Excerpts from Brazil The park has minimal tourist infrastructure, but it's c 27 km from town on the road A Travel Survival Kit possible to arrange a visit from the town of Barreirinhas ic • • that goes toward Riachao; 3rd edition, is two hours by boat from the dunes. The tiny fishing villages of Cachoeira de Sao Sirhao, at by Andrew Draffen, Mandacaru and Ponta do Mangue, around 22 km northeast ciff;!, Fazenda sac) Jorge, about 10 Barreirinhas, are very hard to reach and have no facilities for km from Carolina; and Chris McAsey, tourists, so take your own hammock. Cachoeira da Barra da Leonardo Pinheiro, Barreirinhas Cabeceira. and Robyn Jones. Barreirinhas, the jumping-off point for visiting the Parque,,; There are rock paintings For more information Nacional dos Lencois Maranhenses, is also, a pretty little town; and inscriptions 4t Morro das on the banks of the Rio Preguica. There is a river beach with call Lonely Planet: Figuras, close to Fazenda sand dunes near the center of town, and a couple of good Recanto; and bat enthusiasts (800) 275-8555. pousadas and restaurants. .1, will want to visit the colony Copyright 1996 Lonely Pousada Lins organizes tours of the park—the day tr* of bats in Passagem Funda, a Planet Publications. boat up the Rio Preguica costs $90 for up to five pe I large cave 704 km from Used by permission. Otherwise, ask around for Edivaldo, a friendly and hone Carolina. 36
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
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SF TO RIO OR SAO PAULO
a Padir de
$550 ida e volta
(Sujetto a restncoes ou mudancas sem avrso previa)
NYC TO RIO OR SAO PAULO a partir de $
445 ida e volta
(Stiletto a restricOes Cu mudancas sem aviso previo)
so ligar, comprovar e viajar
(Suteito a restricaes Cu mudancas sem aviso previa)
SF TO BELO HORIZONTE
Mais uma vez o "jeitinho brasileiro" mostra que tudo é possivel
MIAMI TO RIO OR SAO PAULO
a partir de $ 555
Ida e volta
(Sujetto a restricOes Cu mudancas sem aviso previo)
EXCLUSIVO! GRATIS - LIGAcAo DE QUALQUER CIDADE BRASILEIRA
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a parttr de
(Sujetto a restricaes Cu mudancas sem aviso previot
000-817-471-6333 LAX TO BELO HORIZONTE OR SALVADOR a partir de
$490
ida e volta
(Stiletto a restricoes ou mudancas sem aviso prevto)
ATLANTA To RIO OR SAO PAULO a partir de $
485
ESTAMOS CERTOS QUE APOS VOdS VIAJAREM COM 0 JEITINHO BRASILEIRO SEREROS SEMPRE A SUA AGENCIA NUMERO 1. ASSENTOS LIMITADOS. SUJEITO A RESTRIcOES
3411 141111V ly .„
tda e volta
(Stiletto a restricries ou mudancas sem aviso previo) BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
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TRAVEL
$440 Ida e volta LOS AN,G, ELES
To RIO OR SAO PAULO a partir de
$390
Ida (one way)
(Sujetto a restricOes Cu mudancas sem aviso previo)
_SAN DIEGO TO SAO PAULO OR RIO a partir de
$565 ida e volta
(Sujetto a restricoes ou mudancas sem aviso previo) 37
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Mouthwaterin Bit For centuries Brazilian have borrowed from the foods of other people, then combined them with their own to produce a fascinating wide-ranging culinary world. Here, a little sample of these riches. HABEEB SALLOUM
The first time I entered a restaurant in Recife, Brazil's major northeastern resort, I was astonished to see featured on the menu kibe—a meat and wheat patty whose home is the Middle East. In the ensuing days, I discovered that this famous Syrian dish had become truly a Brazilian food. Served in almost every eating place throughout the land, it was prepared in a much tastier fashion than its country of origin. Yet, I should not have been surprised. The ethnic mixture and the diversified climate of Brazil have been responsible for the creation of one of the most varied kitchens in South America. For centuries Brazilian cooks have borrowed from the foods of other people, then combined them with their own to produce an interesting and fascinating wide-ranging culinary world. Aboriginal Indians; West African and Portuguese—both influenced by the Moors; and other ethnic foods such as: German, Italian, Japanese, Syrian, etc. have entered into the cuisine of that vast country. Before the white man came, the Indians cultivated beans, corn, peanuts, sweet potatoes and manioc root— their principal food. Rice, introduced into the Iberian Peninsula by the Arabs, was brought to Brazil by the Portuguese, and bananas, coconuts and yams came along with the African slaves. In the subsequent years, from these food crops, rice and especially beans became the basic diet of the Brazilians, so much so, that Brazil became known as 'the land of beans'. In the northeast of the country, the first part of Brazil colonized, the African slaves who were imported in great numbers for plantation work did most of the cooking. The Portuguese women were very few and pampered, disdained kitchen work. Hence, the enslaved blacks were, in the main, responsible for developing the true Brazilian cuisine. Among the people of Brazil there is a saying 'the blacker the cook the better the food.' As their ancestors had done in Africa, they lavishly spiced their dishes, using chili powder as one of the most important flavouring. In the following years these hot eatables became the norm for recipes in the north of the country. However, southward, the spicy foods gradually diminish, being replaced by numerous immigrant dishes— a legacy of the many foreign communities in that part of the land. The products of the coconut are heavily employed in the Brazilian kitchen. They are used in fish and meat stews as well as in sweets. Likewise, Brazil nuts are very important in cooking or as appetizers after being salted, toasted or made into chips. Also, dende oil, extracted from the fruit of the West African palm, is the most common fat employed in preparing food. It is one of the important ingredients which, along with coconuts and Brazil nuts, help to create in visitors and inhabitants alike an incurable appetite for the victuals of that Amazon land. The epitome of the Brazilian kitchen is feijoada—a medley of countless ingredients and the national dish of the country. This complicated mixture of beans, salted meats, sausages and rice is considered by the inhabitants the king of all eatables. However, its preparation is time consuming and, therefore, it is extremely hard to find in restaurants. In the homes, it is traditionally served only at noon on Saturdays. In the past,feijoada was known as a lowly peasant food and most of the well-to-do were ashamed to offer it to guests. Today, it is a different story. Even in the best of homes it is served, especially to large festive gatherings. When prepared for these banquets, this dish, as its name feijoada completa implies, is by itself a complete gourmet meal. Outside of Brazil a cook might find a feijoada meal difficult to BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
prepare. A number of the ingredients, such as came seca (preserved meat), are hard to find. On the other hand, these can be easily replaced by other available products. In this simplified version of Brazilian feijoada all the ingredients called for are to be found in most large food outlets. FEIJOADA COMPLETA (COMPLETE BEAN AND RICE MEAL) Feijoada—Bean Dish 4 tablespoons cooking oil 2 medium sized onions, chopped 4 cloves garlic, crushed 1 medium hot pepper, finely chopped 11/2 pounds hot sausage, any type, whole 11/2 pounds uncooked corn beef, cut into 2 pieces 11/2 pounds lean beef, cut into 2 pieces 21/2 cups black beans, washed 4 cups water 2 cups grapefruit juice 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh coriander leaves 11/2 teaspoons ground ginger 1 teaspoon oregano 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon pepper 1 teaspoon cumin Heat oil in a large saucepan, then sauté onions, garlic and hot pepper for 5 minutes. Add sausage, then stir-fry for a further 10 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and increase the water, if needed, to at least 2 inches above the beans and meat, then bring to a boil. Cook over low heat for 2 1/2 hours or until the meat and beans are well done, adding more water if necessary. In the meantime, prepare the following side dishes: Cooked Rice 4 tablespoons butter 1 medium sized onion, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, crushed 11/2 cups rice 3 cups water 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper WWZIL-AUGUST1999
Melt butter in a large frying pan, then stir-fry onion and garlic over medium heat for 10 minutes. Add rice, then stir-fly for further 2 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Cover, then cook over medium/low heat for 20 minutes. Turn off heat, then allow to cook in its own steam for further 30 minutes. Place on a serving platter, but keep warm. Cooked Collard or Kale 4 tablespoons cooking oil 1 medium sized onion, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, crushed 1 bunch collard or kale, about 11/2 pounds, washed and the thick ends removed, then chopped 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 4 tablespoons lemon juice Heat oil in a large frying pan, then stir-fry onion and garlic over medium heat for 10 minutes. Add collard or kale, then sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Cover, then turn heat to low and cook for 25 minutes. Stir in lemon juice, then place on a serving platter, but keep warm. Sliced Oranges 3 medium sized oranges, peeled and thinly sliced, then placed artistically on a serving platter How to Serve Remove the meat and sausage from the beans, then slice. Place each type of meat separate on a platter and the beans in a serving bowl. After placing all the dishes on the table, each person should place rice in the middle of his/ her plate, then top with beans, including some of the juice. Surround, separately, with the meat, collard or kale and orange slices. Note: This feijoada completa meal serves of about 10 Often a feijoada meal is ended with the following dessert and coffee:
QUINDINS DE YAYA. (COCONUT MUFFINS) Makes 24 m ffins This dessert and almost all other Brazilian s eets are of Portuguese origin ith strong Moorish overtone 21/2 cups shredded and sweetened coconut 1 cup sugar 1 cup flour 3 teaspoons baki powder 1/2 cup butter, m lted 4 eggs, beaten 1 teaspoon almon i extract Place coconuts, s gar, flour and baking powd r in a mixing bowl, then horoughly combine. Thoroughly mix utter, eggs and almond extra 't in a small bowl, then slowly stir into ingredients in the m xing bowl, continuing until batter is formed. Place in greased uffin trays, half full, then bak in a 350° F preheated oven fir 20 minutes or until don. Remove, then allow to cool u efore serving. BRAZILIAN OFFEE Brazil supplies half the world's coffee iieeds and, hence, coffee is th t country's national drink. I is served black in demi-tas es, heavily sugared. 3 cups water 5 tablespoons pul erized coffee 2 tablespoons su..ar Place all the ingr dients in a coffee pot, then bring to a boil. Remove fr the heat and allow to settl for half a minute, then bri g to a boil again and repeat he process one more time fore serving. OTHER BRA ILIAN FOOD Besides feijoada, the Brazilian kitchen is ric in a wide spectrum oftasty • ishes. From this storehouse o mouth-watering foods these ew are sure to tempt the unin tiated:
CANJA (CHICKEN SOUP) Serves 8 to 10 4 tablespoons cooking oil 1 pound boneless chicken, cut into small pieces 2 medium sized onions, chopped 4 cloves garlic, crushed 1 medium hot pepper, finely chopped 3/4 cup pulverized Brazil nuts 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh coriander leaves 8 cups water 11/2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon ginger 1 teaspoon pepper 1/2 teaspoon allspice 1/4 cup rice Heat oil in a large saucepan, then sauté chicken pieces over medium heat for 10 minutes. Add onions, garlic and hot pepper, then stir fry for further 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients, except the rice, then bring to a boil. Cover, then cook over medium heat for 1 hour. Stir in rice, then cook for a further 20 minutes or until chicken and rice are well done. SHRIMP PATTIES Makes about 36 small patties l'/2 cups dried shrimp (found in Chinese markets), soaked in water for 4 hours, then drained 4 tablespoons finely chopped fresh coriander leaves 2 medium sized onions, chopped 4 cloves garlic, crushed 1 teaspoon ginger 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1/8 teaspoon cayenne 4 tablespoons flour 2 eggs oil for frying Place all the ingredients except oil in a food processor, then process into soft paste, adding a little water if necessary. Set aside. Place cooking oil in a saucepan to about 1/2-inch thickness, then heat. Drop in paste, 1 tablespoon at a time, then fry over medium heat until the patties turn golden brown, turning them over once. Drain 39
on paper towels, then serve while warm MOQUECA DE CAMARAO (SHRIMP STEW) Serves about 6 4 tablespoons butter 2 medium sized onions, finely chopped 4 cloves garlic, crushed 1 small hot pepper, finely chopped 1 medium sized carrot, scraped and finely chopped 1 large sweet red pepper, finely chopped 2 cups stewed tomatoes 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1/2 teaspoon cumin 1 pound frozen shelled shrimps, thawed Melt butter in a saucepan, then sauté onions, garlic, hot pepper, carrot and sweet pepper over medium heat for 10 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, salt, pepper and cumin, then cover and cook over medium heat for 25 minutes. Stir in shrimps, then cook for further 15 minutes. Serve hot. BERINGELA COM CARANGUEJO (EGGPLANTS WITH CRABS) Serves 6 to 8 1 medium sized eggplant (about 11/2 lbs.), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes 11/2 teaspoons salt 1/2 cup cooking oil 2 medium sized onions, chopped 2 cloves garlic, crushed 1 small hot pepper, finely chopped 1 pound frozen crab meat, thawed 2 cups stewed tomatoes 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh coriander leaves 1/2 cup fine bread crumbs 1 teaspoon ground ginger 1/2 teaspoon pepper Sprinkle eggplant cubes with 1 teaspoon of the salt, then place in a strainer. Place a heavy weight on top, then allow to stand for 1 hour over a pot to drain out bitter juices. Heat oil in a frying pan, then sauté onions, garlic and hot 40
pepper over medium heat for 10 minutes. Add eggplant cubes, then stir fry for further 5 minutes. Transfer frying pan contents into a casserole, then stir in remaining ingredients, including the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cover, then bake in a 350°F preheated oven for 1 1/4 hours. Serve hot. VATAPA (FISH STEW) Serves 6 to 8 4 tablespoons butter 1 medium sized onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, crushed 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1/4 teaspoon allspice 1/8 teaspoon cayenne 1 pound fish fillet (any kind), cut into 2 inch cubes 6 cups water 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconuts 1/2 cup pulverized Brazil nuts 1/4 cup cornmeal Melt butter in a saucepan, then sauté onion and garlic over medium heat for 10 minutes. Add remaining ingredient, except coconuts, Brazil nuts and cornmeal, then bring to boil. Cover, cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. Remove, with a slotted spoon, the fish fillet, then stir in coconuts, Brazil nuts and cornmeal. Bring to boil and cover, then cook over low heat, stirring a number of times to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom, for 30 minutes, adding more water if necessary. Gently stir in fish cubes and cook for a further 10 minutes. Serve immediately. CUSCUZ DE GALINHA (CHICKEN COUSCOUS) Serves 8 to 10 Cuscuz is a version of the famous North African dish called couscous. It was introduced into South America by the West African slaves who adapted it to Brazilian taste. Today, the basic difference between the two is that, in the Brazilian dish, cornmeal in-
stead of wheat semolina is utilised and the cornmeal is mixed into the stew. To prepare this dish, a couscousiere is needed. However, ifone is not available, a double boiler with a perforated top may be substituted. 4 tablespoons cooking oil 1 pound boneless chicken, cut into small pieces 1/2 pound spiced sausage, chopped into small pieces 1 cup chopped green onions 4 cloves garlic, crushed 1 medium hot pepper, finely chopped 4 tablespoons finely chopped fresh coriander leaves 2 cups stewed tomatoes 1 teaspoon dried mint 2 teaspoons salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1 cup water 21/2 cups cornmeal 1/2 cup butter, melted 3 medium sized tomatoes, fairly thinly sliced 1 can heart of palms (14.64 oz 410 g), drained and sliced 1/2 cup sliced green olives 4 hard boiled eggs, shelled and sliced 1 cup frozen peas, thawed 2 oranges, peeled and sliced Heat oil in a saucepan, then sauté chicken and sausage over medium heat for 10 minutes. Stir in onions, garlic, hot pepper, coriander leaves, stewed tomatoes, mint, salt, pepper and water, then cover and bring to boil. Cook over medium heat for 1 hour or until the chicken and sausage are well cooked, adding more water if necessary. Set aside. In the meantime, in a heavy frying pan, toast the cornmeal over medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring constantly, then slowly stir in 1 cup of water and stir-cook for another 3 minutes, making sure no lumps form. Stir into the chicken and sausage mixture the cornmeal and the butter, then set aside. Grease top part of a cous'cousiere, then decorate the bottom and sides with some of the tomatoes, palms,
olives and eggs. Divide remaining tomatoes, palms, olives, eggs, and peas into two parts and set aside. Place 1/3 ofthe cornmeal mixture on the bottom of the couscousiere, then spread 1 part of the tomatoes, palms, olives, eggs and peas overtop. Cover with another third of cornmeal mixture and top with the remaining tomatoes, palms, olives, eggs and peas. Evenly cover with the remaining cornmeal, then tightly cover. Fill the bottom of the couscousiere to within 1 inch of the top with water, then bring to a boil. Fit in top part of couscousiere, then seal the two together with a flour impregnated piece of cloth. Steam over medium heat for 11/2 hours. Remove cover and invert a serving dish over top, then turn top part of the couscousiere on the serving dish. Gently tap the outside of couscousiere to release the cuscuz, then decorate with the orange slices and serve. Habeeb Salloum, who resides in Toronto, is a Canadian author and freelance writer specialising in travel and the culinary arts. Besides books and chapters in books, Habeeb has had hundreds of articles about food and travel published. Among his most important works are the books: Journeys Back to Arab Spain (1994); with J. Peters, From the Lands of Figs and Olives (1995 HB; 1997 PB); with J. Peters, Arabic Contributions to the English Vocabulary (1996); and Classic Vegetarian Cooking From the Middle East and North Africa, (in press). You can contact him at salloumAchass.utoronto.ca BRAZZIL-AUGUST1999
TV News I have been trying to get a perspective on TV 8:00 PM national news (equivalent to our 6:00 PM news service). Again, you have to scale everything. Brazil is 165 million people. Australia 18 million people. The population ratio approximately 9:1. But the news service is still only Y2 hour in each country, not 4.5 hours in Brazil, so news does not scale accordingly. Now we all know that news requires the extremes. That is what news is about. So if you take the 11% most extreme news stories in Australia, and then apply this to Brazil, you get the news in Brazil. So once every 9 days in Australia, something that is news in Australia would be news equivalent in Brazil. Let me give an example, the road toll. Every second night on the news in Australia, you get some news item about a car accident. Usually, horror of horrors, a couple of Aussies wipe themselves around a gum tree, or ploughed into atelephone pole pissed as a fart, or some head on collision involving two cars and a truck on the Hume Highway. Well it is the same here, but scale on a factor of 9:1. So instead of 2 people getting killed, it tends to be a minimum of 6 or 7 people all in one car, driven over the edge of cliff, or a bus head on collision with a farmer, his wife and six children and their donkey pulling the cart. So the news is bad, some times horrific, but when you scale it accordingly, it is pretty similar.
becomes loose, it is not long before 3-4 stones become loose, and then suddenly the whole footpath has eroded into a shambles. Whatever, it looks great, and they form the most wonderful patterns with these stones, especially along Ave Atlantica and Ave Vieira Souto. These footpath patterns are very famous and are seen in the photographic postcards sold in all the newsagents. One problem with these footpaths is they are very uneven, and the cracks between the stones are the curse of stilettos. Hence the women here wear very practical shoes, not much height, large heels, and very rarely stilettos. The only people that seem to wear stilettos are the transvestites in front of the Copacabana Palace. Could be a good clue to those wanting to make sure they are meeting the right people. This would have to be the only city in the world where a size 12 is the most common stiletto shoe size! They are so big!
Le Bee Fin bar and restaurant Have you ever been to a restaurant that has been in continuous operation for over 48 years? Have you ever sat in a restaurant and wondered wha famous people may have dined at the same table? Ever been to a restaurant that says "This restaurant is not about profit, it's about passion for quality of dining?" Le Bec Fin is about this. Stilettos Some background to this. The restaurant market is a very Not many stilettos used by women in Rio de Janeiro. Why? I tough game, long hours, plenty think it is because of the Portuguese of competition, and for people stone. Let me explain. who supply products and serMost of the footpaths in Rio de vices to restaurants, equally deJaneiro have been around a long time; manding. Now in Brazil, one way this is an old city. Even in Zona Sul that restaurant owners/managers (Leme/Copacabana/Ipanema/ keep food and beverage salesLeblon), which are less than 80 years men at bay is to employ a old, the footpaths were all made with sommelier, an expert on food the little Portuguese stone. The stone and wine. The sommelier acts as comes in two primary colors: black a consultant to the hotel, restauand white, although you do see some rants and even supermarkets, and red stone occasionally and some of The female Carioca rarely goes delicatessens, and are the chief the black stone can look bluish in in the ocean, and if she does it is technical buyer, and sometimes color. Each stone is of an irregular a real slow process. First she gets more (nudge, nudge, wink, shape; it can be squarish, triangular, up from the beach chair, and wink). They wield awesome oblong, sometimes round, just that adjusts the dental floss, removes power, and in Brazil they have uniqueness that makes it so charmsunglasses and Walkman. She their own society, a professional ing. The stones are laid by hand, and then walks, struts, bumps, grinds and an amateur chapter. I deal tapped into place to form the footin a very languid way to the high mostly with the professionals, path and a dry, course sand and cewater mark. After ensuring the but the amateurs are very enthument mortar mix is spread between right amount of attention is siastic buyers so they are also the cracks. The mortar is then wafocused on her she turns and important. tered and the stones firmly fixed into glides into the water. One of the professional place. About eight hours later, the sommeliers we have met is a guy cement hardens, and voila, a new JOHN MILLER by the name of Marcos. Marta footpath. Only problem with this is has lead the way on the relationit's very labor intensive to make, and ship with Marcos, and she has high maintenance. The reason for the POSTCARDS FROM RIO just been so professional in the high maintenance, is once one stone
Life's a Beach
BRAZZIL -AUGUST 1999
41
way she has gone about this. Now Marcos is the number 3 sommelier in Brazil, and his mentor is number two. Both of these sommeliers have reviewed our wines in Sao Paulo in May. So anyway, Marcos has invited to dinner to present our wines at Le Bec Fin, so Marta and I go to this restaurant with Marcos and his wife for dinner at about 10:30 PM. It's in an old part of Copacabana near the Copacabana Palace. We rock on up, the door is opened, and wow, this place is all establishment. It's one ofthe smallest restaurants I have ever seen, maybe seating for 40 people maximum, and a bar area for maybe 12-15 people. The carpets are plush, the walls are all very handsomely covered, lots of big mirrors and gold leaf, and the worlds most expensive coffee machine, a $12,000 HG Wells Time Machine lookalike. Now check this out, the owner bought this machine/museum piece in Vienna, it's the only one of its kind in the world, it's all brass and copper, stands about 4 feet high, and makes well, good coffee. So we are invited to sit at the best table in the house, and the manager comes over. The manager's name is Valmir (speaks 6 languages, all self taught), and he is the number two sommelier in Brazil and the mentor of Marcos. Valmir started work at the restaurant when he was 12 years of age as a kitchen hand washing dishes. He is now 40 years of age, and the manager of the restaurant, so he is a bit of a "legend" so to speak, more famous than the restaurant (and he knows it, and is planning accordingly, good luck to him). We pull out some wine to show, and he graciously takes them away. He comes back with the Yalumba Method of Champagnes, and pours a glass, inserts a thermometer in the glass, and then asks if we can wait while the champagne is chilled a further 3.2 degrees. Anyway Valmir gives us a run down on the restaurant, who eats there, etc. Names roll off his tongue like Michael Caine, Robert De Niro, Sophia Loren, George Bush, Joao Havelange, Pete, Roger Moore, Vinicius de Moraes, late Brazilian President Juscelino Kubitschek, Henry Kissinger, Placido Domingo, Rod Stewart, and Brasilia's designer-architect Oscar Niemeyer. Naturally we are sitting at the best table, the restaurant only has about 2-3 other tables dining tonight, and the service is just awesome (excuse me, someone is mopping my brow). The appetizers are caramelized horseradishes, pickles, olives, and char grilled eggplant. The breads are divine. The menus are handed around, and all I see are zeroes everywhere, minimum main meal is about $60.00. Now I am a bit concerned at this stage. Oh well, too late to pull out now, relax and go with the flow. Marcos says, "I have ordered for you the house specialty, a special freshwater sashimi Brazilian fish with Iranian caviar, steak tartar entree, and then filet mignon, followed by crepe suzette. You must have the crĂŞpe as Valmir is world-renowned for his crĂŞpes". "Hey no problem Marcos, and while your at it, can you organize a doggie bag for the leftovers". So we sit, eat, drink and enjoy a few Australian wines (4 in all), and the conversation flows, Marcos is going to do a few things for us, and Valmir keeps popping over every ten minutes with some joke, anecdote or story. He brings over the wine list of the house, very impressive. They are all here. Valmir shows me his scrap book of wines that have been drunk in the restaurant. The oldest was a wine from 1860, but there are many Portuguese Portos dating back to late 1800s. We left at 3:30 in the morning, a memorable time. Oh, the bill... Valmir says, "We must apply jeitinho to the ways of the world, John. Come and see me tomorrow and we will work something out". I am a little nervous at this scope of generosity. Next day he orders 4 dozen reds and whites, does not ask for the bill to be paid, and just suggests to come and do a wine tasting next month with him at the restaurant. He is going to organize the attendees. Brazilian hospitality leaves me gasping sometimes. I leave him a small but special gift from Australia. Cinema Recently Rio de Janeiro cinema festival was held on the 42
beach in front of the Copacabana Palace. The projection screen was assembled on the sand, and the mock up looked like a giant clap board (Act 1, Scene 3, Take 2, Copacabana Beach, and action). The movies ran for four nights and they were of excellent quality. My favorite was about a violin that went missing in Portugal, then went to Spain, and finally ended up in the possession of a blind beggar in Sao Paulo who played the violin for a living. The villains and the good guys chased this violin all over the planet, as the violin case contained contraband diamonds that were being smuggled across the borders of Europe. The beggar used the violin case to collect the coins provided by people who donated to his violin playing. The final scene shows him closing the violin case and the diamonds falling out of the case and onto a subway train line (sorry I did not mean to spoil the ending for you). Soccer and volleyball Soccer and volleyball all continue well into the night in the flood lit areas of the beach, so it's just full on activity usually finishing about 7:30-8:30 PM. At this time, the Carioca lets the estrangeiros have a go on the beach, and this is when the United Nations rugby team plays. We usually play on Saturday night, I guess this may sound strange to be playing rugby on a Saturday night at 7:30 PM, but you have to remember, you do not even go out for dinner until 10:30 - 11:00 PM on a Saturday. Our rugby team consists of players from Argentina, Chile, Wales, Ireland, England, South Africa and New Zealand. Belly Dancing But of course, every Carioca woman wants to learn how to belly dance. The beach is an ideal setting for this. Lessons every Wednesday night, in front of Ipanema Sol Hotel. Beach behavior Some Carioca behavior and ways to blend in. Clothing For the male Carioca it is Speedos or board shorts (always black) hung very low on hips revealing top of pubic hair, Tshirt, thongs (blue), money pouch, cheap sunglasses, suntan, optional attire is a strap-on walkman. Other accessories include bicycle, boogie board, surfboard (choose one only please). Definitely no towel. For the lady Carioca, it is the dental floss, kanga, black Lycra shorts, baseball cap, suntan oil, expensive sunglasses, strap on wallunan (compulsory), sandals, gorgeous full body tan, optional T-shirt. Up-market accessories include mobile phone, beach chair (wood), and rich German tourist (optional but financially desirable). Entering the ocean The male Carioca enters the water at a jog and dives headfirst into the second wave he encounters. He then swims about in the Atlantic washing machine, very rarely swimming out the back of the break. He leaves the water by walking up out of the ocean to the high tide mark, shakes his head like a dog to get rid of the excess water, flicks his hair back with his hands, and adjusts the crown jewels at least 4-5 times to make sure everything is straight and in its place. The female Carioca rarely goes in the ocean, and if she does it is a real slow process. First she gets up from the beach chair or kanga, and adjusts the dental floss, removes sunglasses and Walkman. She then walks, struts, bumps, grinds in a very languid way to the high water mark. She looks left and right, turns around and faces the beach to see who is watching her. After ensuring the right amount of attention is focused on her and not much competition in range, she turns and glides into the water. The female Carioca then wades out to her waist, gently dips below the waves holding her nose and her black mane of hair. She bobs up, adjusts the dental floss and flicks her black hair back over her head. She walks out of the surf, and grabs her hair in a knot, and wrings it out like a towel. She then flicks off some ERVIOL-AUGUST1999
excess water, ensures that the sun tan oil and water mix is driving all the guys nuts, and adjusts her bikini top by tucking in the sides of her breasts. She then bumps and grinds back to her kanga, puts on some more coconut oil, and gently positions her derriere back down. I have studied this process a couple of thousand times now, it is definitely an art form. Sandcastles Ever wanted to see the Last Supper carved in sand. Or life size Christ on the Cross complete with gaping red dyed sand where the nails were put through Christ's hands and feet, and a sword put through his ribs. Maybe a Formula-1 racing car, or a miniature city made from sand complete with Snow White, the Prince and Smurf dwarfs. Maybe you always wanted to see a sandcastle of a dozen mermaids lying on the sand, or a complete life size car with seats and everything, or maybe a mock up of a Vasco da Gama's sailing ship, complete with masts and sails. How about your every day pyramids of Cairo and the sphinx. The sand artists of Brazil travel up and down the coast of Brazil building these amazing sculptures, and just depend on the charity of the people to give to the beauty of their work. They usually fix their work with a spray so that in the event of rain and or high winds the sculpture has some chance ofwithstanding the ravages of nature. So much creative ability, so fleeting the result. Brazilian Expressions & Etiquette. "You find me with short pants" - When someone surprises you. "The jump of the cat" - when you do something very clever and catch the prize (i.e. the cat pouncing on the mouse). "You travel in the mayonnaise". This means that you do not pay attention to what the other person is saying. "A bird in the hand is worth two in the air". Sounds familiar. "In the river with the piranha, the crocodile swims on its back". One of my favorites, so picturesque, it needs no explanation. "Tudo born, tudo bem, to the banco (bank), to the praia (beach)". A little gringo cross over expression, that combines a casual greeting in Portuguese and what life can be like for the Carioca. Marta and John Miller's Wedding Oh yeah, I nearly forgot the reason I came to Brazil, to get married to Marta Maria V iana de Almeida. (Miller). Marta and I have been planning this for about 12 months. We have had just one or two obstacles put in our way, so this whole process is just one other mountain to climb. Just to give you some background to this whole thing, my father died this year in January, and this threw a few plans into confusion early on this year. On top of this, Marta had a bit of a personal crisis early this year that was reaching a critical stage. No matter, Marta and I are very determined, so we just take it one step at a time. So the usual chaos on the morning of the wedding. We are in the process of moving apartments, we are waiting on money to arrive from Australia desperately, we are sweating on a sale that would double our total sales to date, people owe us $3000, we have no red wine in Brazil, we reneged on a verbal agreement for another apartment so a real estate agent is chewing us up, Marta's daughter is moving house and needs some money, and a few other things too complex to even mention. So yeah, it is a hell of a trip. But Marta says we are strong and Christ is looking after us. So we await the arrival of Marta's bridesmaid, Flavia. Flavia has just had a baby so you know, not everything can go to plan. She arrives in good time, we hit the gridlock, and I am looking at my watch. In the car is Fldvia (driving), Marta, Marina (Marta's mom), and moi. We arrive at 10:50 AM, 10 minutes early. Where do we arrive, Copacabana Precinct for Births, Deaths and Marriages, i.e., Registry Office. Fortunately it is not too hot today, but I am sweating. This is a pretty crowded place, and we go in and get our number, 3. BRAZZIL -AUGUST 1999
A few amigos on hand, Tim Moulton (best man), Barbara (Marta's daughter) Christian (Barbara's husband), amigo Olivier (with video camera), Tamara (my Portuguese tutor) and boyfriend Rob. First up is the signing of the documents, the legal stuff. We get this knocked over with pretty quickly, but the photograph vultures are on hand to sting me for $50 bucks. Ahhh, what the heck. The wedding certificate is signed and printed on an Epson dot matrix sprocket feed printer (9 pin) with sprocket hole paper tied into a bow. Now a small glitch happens. Globo TV are here to video some wedding ceremony for Brasil Legal, a program that documents life in Brazil. I smell delays coming up. I have hit the nail on the head. You have to understand this is batch processing, so about 25 couples are all waiting to get married at the same time, some waiting with shotguns I am sure, as there are a few very pregna t ladies. So its lights, c meras, and action while we wait for this bit of Globo news to ass by. Tim Moulton is his usual genius self and has a bottle o Angus Brut Rose chilled and brings it from his car so we can ave a drink while the usual waiting game is played. Like about two hours. We stand outside on the footpath, taking pictures, 0 ivier videotaping, and just generally compare notes on past weddings, how different this one is. Lots of jokes, who would elieve this in Australia, man I cannot even believe it myself You have to u derstand we are in downtown Copacabana, this is not the Gard n of Eden. It is not quite like getting married in a chapel in Las egas, but it is different. Marta is just ecstatic, and I am pretty ov r the moon as well. I am a bit reflective at this stage, wishing a f people were here to share in this moment. I lose it for a few oments, recover well, and all is going to be OK. So anyway, th judge finally arrives to anoint our wedding so we trudge back pstairs to the civil ceremony place. Now you have to understan this is amongst people from pretty humble backgrounds most y. The people are here for one reason only, they cannot afford a flash church wedding (me included), and just want to have quiet ceremony that gets this legal bullshit out of the way. Bu at the same time, it is all very important to every one, it is a sp cial occasion, and doubly so for Marta as she has never been to he altar before so she is just radiant. And looks it as well. Gifooming, all dressed in white, just so beautiful. So we pile on b ck up the stairs into the room with the judge and about 60-70 ot er people crammed into a 10X5 meter room. The name of the judge is juiza Maria Vitoria Raimunda Cantolino Guimaraes Riera. Maria calls the room to order and starts to intone the process. She is quite famous, and claims the record for the most number of marriages conducted in Copacabana (that would be pretty high up in world standings too). The usual stnff, very well done, I can tell, but do not understand too rrnich. I am shaking hands with fellow Bridegrooms, wishing them luck, thumbs up signs, you know male bonding. Then it hits me, a good time to hand out the business cards for Aussie wines, so I start to flick a few of these around. Marta does not approve, so I quit. (Man, I could have nailed about 20 dozen in this roo , no sweat). The judge is getting a bit impatient at the nose from outside the room, doors opening and people arriving lat , but no matter, things start to move. We Pre about the 5'h coupl to be invited to come to the front. The Judge say "John Miller" and "Marta de Almeida" and we head to the front of the room in front of the bench with our wedding party in tow, Tim, my best man, Fldvia, Marina, Barbara, Christian Tamara, and Rob. Olivier is already at the front getting eve thing on video. The judge makes some comment about A stralia and I say "Yeah, Kangaroo", and the place just erupts in laughter. You have to be here to appreciate the vibes in the roo . Also, everything is in Portuguese, which just adds to the m ment. The judge makes some solemn statements and I nod and say 43
the right words at the right time except I throw in my some adlib stuff like "To legal" and "Beleza" which is sort of like "I am cool, and chilled out, no problem, no sweat stuff' on top of the "Sim". The judge is very sweet, and notes I have an Australian/ Brazilian flag tiepin and nods approvingly. She is very kind and gives her blessing. Now it is time for the rings and Tim has a bit of trouble opening the box. The judge sorts this out quickly and then I get to make my vow to Marta; "Marta, I promise to love, care and protect you". Marta reciprocates with the words we first spoke "I speak German, Ingles, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, and I also will love and care for you". She is losing it a bit here, but so be it. Man, we have faced a lot of obstacles to get to this point. Mission accomplished. I am married to the most wonderful woman in the world. We get out of here straight away, head downstairs to a * boteco and have a round of beers to celebrate. We toast, we drink and then it is time to move on as this is a work day. Tim has to go, Olivier has to go, Tamara and Rob have to go. Flavia drives the wedding party back to the Garota de Ipanema. The bar staff are very warm and lots of hugs and handshakes all round. We have a caipirinha (Brazilian margarita), cenvja (beer) and a few nibbles, we reflect and then back to the apartment. It is 4:00 PM and much to do today. Marta is very tired, and we need some privacy very quickly. Soon we will do some good things and spoil each other, but for now, we have a few more hurdles to get over. So now I have been married in the registry office in Copacabana. Please do not pass judgement, lets see how things turn out. I am off on my honeymoon for 6-12 hours. Check you later. Sao Paulo Traffic Sao Paulo has just introduced a law to ban every car from the road between 7:00 AM and 8:00 PM for one day per working week for the month of August, depending upon the last digit of the number plate. Of course taxis, buses and commercial vehicles exempt, but goes to show what air pollution can do to a city with poor public transport. Why August? Temperature inversion month. Effect, traffic is a lot better, car sales are up, peak our spreading to earlier hours, people start working earlier, air pollution no change. Some numbers to mull over on Sao Paulo. Number of taxis: * 25,000 (4 times new York), 11,000 buses, the Metro carries 4 million passengers per day. One road, "the Marginal" carries 450,000 cars per day. The congestion in traffic is measured in backup kilometers, which peaks in the morning at 280 km. On the weekend, an average of 1.5 million cars head to the beach at Santos. Sao Paulo is fed by one hydropower station on the border of Paraguay that generates 11 gigawatts of power (no that is not a typing error, I am pretty certain that is about the total power generating capacity of the whole of Australia or pretty close to it). I am in Sao Paulo about once every 4-6 weeks. There are two major rivers running through SP. One is called the Rio Pinheiros, it ain't pretty that is for sure. The Rio Pinheiros descends at less than 2 cm per kilometer and I do not recommend lighting a match near it. You can walk across parts of it (not because it's shallow either), and I have to so say, this is not a part of Brazilian environmental management that can be condoned. Brazil can do better, and they know they have to. The highway has been privatized between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (this is the equivalent of privatizing the Hume
• Highway between Melbourne and Sydney). It costs approximately $8 to travel the full 450 km for a standard car. It is segmented into four fares for the full journey, each costs $1.86, and this stupid toll amount causes most of the problems. People even stop their car and write a check for this amount $1.86. Carioca Time Wasting time is one of my big issues, but I think not restricted to arkioca, I have seen plenty of it in Australia. I hate wasting time, i`aiting in lines, waiting for people, waiting for meetings, it just drives me crazy. I have alwa34:s [lad my watch set to Vince Lombardi time, and this is impossible [lyre, you just miss the mark by half an hour every time. For#he Carioca, setting a time for an appointment is like a game. I have yet to work out the objectives of this game, but I seem to lose frequently. I lose time. Things go slow, late, take too long, man... But remember the golden rule, John, if you go fast, you make mistakes, can be expensive, and... Portuguese Lessons Let's skip to the important stuff... R-rated Section - If you are under 18 years of age, please do not enter this section. Unfortunately my pocket Collins English/Portuguese dictionary does not list the more expressive English swear words for parts of the male and female anatomy and acts of sexual behavior, but Marta (and for that matter most Cariocas) are very proficient withlhese words. So I have had some expert help in this area. Filho da mita = Son of a bitch (more or less), literally son of a whore, a vbry popular expression Tarado = Horny man. Peitinho = The part of the woman that a man gets as much pleasure as a baby without feeding Peit'do = How would you describe the super structure on Kate Fischer Piroca, pi, pau, caralho = The piece, of flesh where man keeps his brain half the time Xoxota = Map of Tasmania 4Wr Boceta, buceta = More of the same, but closer to Hobart Foder, trepar, meter, comer = What John's Piroca and Marta's Xoxota like to do together Chupar = Think of licking an ice cream. ( French kissing in South America) Cu = Popular part of anatomy in Oxford Street Veado, viado (masc) = The owner of the Cu Bicha (niasc) = The other owner of a Cu who likes to put his piroca in the cu .;,1:1•1`4 Sapatdo (fem.) = Think of woman from Glebe"lA"' Piranha= Working woman (note the name is the same as the fish with the nasty teeth) Grelo, grelinho = The part of the woman's anatomy that Australian men cannot find (sorry guys, this is to keep the balance of politically incorrect jokes). Caralho = Expression of anger and to describe the crown jewels of a Carioca. Porra -= The equivelant of fuck in terms of usage by the Carioca, literally j ism Gozar= to come, umm, I think I should quit this before I get into any more trouble. But then again, see it depends... Ciao. John Miller is an Australian, living in Rio de Janeiro, selling Australian wine. 'Postcards from Rio' is a journal of his journey in the land of the Cariocas. For contact: John and Marta Miller Rua Joaquim Nabuco, 106 / Apt 1001 Copacabana CEP 22080-030 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Tel: +55 (021) 521 8568 E-mail: miller ario.nutecnet.com.br BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
Neguinho and Dida girl
Markin Time Progress, frustration follow 15 months after release of first CD of Dida Banda Feminina. Neguinho, the inspiration behin the band, has many plans but few resources. PHILLIP WAGNER AND DANIELLE VA IM
Fueling what Carlinhos Brown has called "an elegant revolution", music rtists like Neguinho do Samba are institutionalizing programs which transform the lives of marginalized Afro razilians in Salvador, Bahia. The leaders and sponsors of this movement include many notables in Brazilian music. Carlinhos Brown himself organized an effort which resulted in construction of the Pracatum school for isadvantaged children in CaRdeal ghetto. This followed his earlier work to establish in Candeal a world class per rming facility for Timbalada, and to provide financial assistance for residents to revitalize their community thr gh exterior home improvements. Neguinho's work, which includes collaborations with Paul Simon and Mic ael Jackson as mestre of Olodum, culminated in release of Banda Feminina's first CD, A Mulher Gera o Mun o little more than a year ago (See "Stirring up Heat" by Kirsten Weinoldt, Brazzil, April 1998). Since that time eguinho (Antonio Luiz Alves de Souza), Cultural Director Vivian Canine de Jesus Queiros and tnestrina Adria a Portela have continued unabated in their efforts to nurture the growth of a full fledged program to serve th needs of girls at their facility in Pelourinho. Following an informal "reunion" of sorts with our old friend Ne uinho, Danielle Valim (a resident of Salvador) and I conducted an exhaustive interview with Vivian. Brazzil—How many girls are currently, involved in the project? Vivian—Eighty to ninety at this time; but it varies as girls come and g . Eighteen perform in the banda ferninina. Brazzil—What, specifically, is your job with Projeto Dida? Vivian—Neguinho calls me the Cultural Director. I coordinate instruc ion according to the philosophy of the school. This evolved from the fact that at first Neguinho was formul ting ideas (for the project) only in his head. I began to document them in an amateur way; but it was the o ly way to progress. Over time I began to assume more responsibility for documenting and helping to imp ement Neguinho's ideas. Brazzil—Have you ever received an education preparing you for t is kind of work? Vivian—No. I began with Neguinho at age sixteen. I didn't know anyt ing about this kind of work and BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
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only learned through experience. I was continually asking Neguinho about his ideas, to give them form. I was always asking him, "What are you trying to do? What materials do we need?" We learned together by trial and error. We'd make a mistake one day and correct it the next. Finally, we began to develop a methodology for working with the girls. We started to involve them iii things other than music that Neguinho realized were so important for them. We began to conduct group-counseling sessions. We invited doctors to counsel and direct them, to address health and sex issues. People began to come from foreign countries to introduce the girls to the lives of women in other places. Brazzil—But the original focus was the music? Vivian—Yes. The girls were first attracted by the tambor, the percussion. But once they were here we worked to transform their lives. We're constantly struggling to educate with the limited knowledge and resources available to us. For example, I myself discovered in a magazine article that March 8 is the International Day of Women—a very important date for us. We're always seeking to profit from such chance discoveries to teach and extend the minds of these girls. I stumbled into working with culture because I had an innate interest in it. I never planned to do this. Like all the girls here I came only to learn how to play. Brazzil—So you met Neguinho through Dida? Vivian—No. I knew him when Dida only existed in his mind. One day he mentioned the idea casually. It didn't take form until 1993, although it had been growing in Neguinho's mind for ten years. Before 1993 Neguinho didn't have any significant financial support or support within the community. Following his participation as Mestre for Olodum with Paul Simon (Rhythm of the Saints) he acquired this (the Dida) building in Pelourinho, which provided a place for music rehearsals. So he started to talk to people. He spoke with Adriana, who was very interested, and with my mother. But I was very skeptical. I thought to myself "this man is crazy, I won't participate because I'll only embarrass myself'. I thought for a long time before deciding to go. Even then I only intended to participate as a musician, and I still play today. I didn't have any clear sense of what Neguinho was planning. If I'd known that it was not only to be a banda, that there was something bigger behind it, maybe I 46
wouldn't have hesitated. So I came with Adriana and a few other girls, some of whom are still here today, just to learn how to play. But Neguinho's ideas were much more extensive. He wasn't only thinking about the music. "Don't be with those people!" he would admonish us when we thought to surround ourselves with friends involved in questionable activities. "Where are you going?" he would ask sometimes, adding "It's too late for you to be out!". Neguinho was like a father. We began to become interested in what he really wanted of us. Then one night he described his ideas for the project to Adriana and me. He talked about Dida being many things, a school to study flamenco dance, music chords and battery percussion. We began to realize that he didn't want only a banda, he wanted a school and he wanted to instill responsibility. Once a girl was here they were required to be on time, attend regularly, pay attention at rehearsals, etc. Brazzil—But there must have been some rough moments at first. Vivian—Neguinho had started the process to have Dida recognized as a legal entity. When he talked about wanting to make Dida a place where women can truly learn and grow, people used to tell him things like "Give it up Neguinho!", "The girls will become pregnant because men only see them as good for sex., "This will become a terrible problem for you", and "I can' help you because it won't work". Brazzil—How did Neguinho identify candidates for the program? Vivian—The first girls were those he already knew from earlier attempts to form a banda. They'd had some rehearsals, but nothing that lasted for very long. But from these experiences he knew that some of them would have the courage to persevere, so he contacted them again. And he contacted other girls who only knew how to dance because being able to play instruments is not a requirement for participation. Every girl coming to Dicta has a place here. The image of the banda and the girls in the program are only a reflection of those already here; so only girls from similar backgrounds are attracted. An upper-class girl who has the best of everything wouldn't be attracted to Dicta. We reflect the simplicity of our roots; and it isn't appealing to girls who prefer shopping malls and rock music. I'm not saying this can't be changed, because we accept everybody. Some girls come with more abilities, or skills, than the others. Some have been with us from the beginning, and some have only recently arrived and are just beginning to learn. But everybody is equally important to us. Brazzil—Are you talking more about the project now than the band? Vivian—Yes. Many women from wealthy districts want to participate with blocos at Carnaval time, but they're fearful of having to be with such a group everyday. They're only looking to have fun. But when Dicta performs in poorer districts, like Liberdade, we have 500 girls whose hearts are beating very fast looking at us because we're a reflection of their own image. They identify with us. Pelourinho isn't a residential district anymore, so most of the girls come from distant poor districts like Liberdade, Plataforma, Mata Escura, Sussuarana and Cabula. It often takes the girls more than an hour to get here. But they're the target population for our program. Brazzil—Dida is also working with children now. How did that come about? Vivian—When Neguinho started this thing of forming a "banda feminina" he focused on working with older girls; but he always wanted to work with the children. To Neguinho it's fundamental because children are the foundation for our future. It's a very long and beautiful story because when he started gathering children they were only thieves and drug users, or the sons and daughters of thieves and drug users and prostitutes. They'd all have had a tragic destiny if nobody had done anything. Once they heard the rhythms of Samba Reggae, they wanted to play. But in order to participate the children had to commit to not be using needles and drugs, to not be stealing and to not allow anyone else to steal. Neguinho also required the fathers and mothers to be their guardians. The children could only participate if a father or mother would be there to take care of them. Brazzil—So when did the children's program begin? Vivian—In June of 1998 (a couple of months after the CD was released). BRAZZIL-AUGUST1999
He named the program Sodomo, a Yoruba word meaning "to raise a child as if that child were our own". It's been wonderful, but we've only been able to initiate 70% to 80% of what we visualized. The girls and boys receive classes in theatre, song, capoeira, dance and flamenco dance. We meet monthly with the parents to assess the children's progress. These children aren't always from the same families as the girls in the banda feminina, but they come from the same places, often very distant places. Some wash car windows at intersections, or sell ice cream, just to have the money for bus fare to and from our facility. We're able to provide some transportation vouchers, but not enough for every day. Brazzil—You talk about parental involvement, but this must be very difficult. Neguinho has indicated that the program sometimes has to work almost as hard to reform the parents as the children, because so many of these children come from difficult situations. Vivian—Yes. Our idea is to make a tripod of the child, the family and the (public) school. The place we've had the least success with is the school. For now we're asking the mothers to come to Dida so we can work with them to discover what help their children need in school. The children bring their homework exercises to Dida for review and receive assistance with their efforts. It's really frustrating because in the end it doesn't matter if the parents are doing their job and we're doing our job but the school isn't doing anything. Brazzil—Can you elaborate on the overall efforts of Dida? Vivian— Well, Dida is a music school. Our courses are open to anyone; men, women & children without distinction. But we're best known for the banda feminina, which was the foundation for everything that has followed. It's our most important program because so much attention is focused on this group; it's how we're known to the world. And we really believe that women generate the world, so working with the banda we're assuring a good foundation that will ease our future burden to be working with these children. Besides the music school, the banda and Sodomo, we have a Carnaval bloco, Mulher Gera o Mundo (which, like their CD of the same name, means women generate the world). Our annual Carnaval theme always honors great women in history and focuses on themes related to women's issues. Each year, 2000 women participate in our Carnaval group, which I believe is the only female bloco in Brazil. There are other projects that we've not been able to initiate but have begun to plan for and promote. These include the pediatrics and gynecologist clinics, and a clinic for a general practitioner. The space we need is in an adjoining building that Neguinho has lent to the government. If we can renegotiate to recover this building we'll be able to progress more quickly. We already have partitions and professionals who are willing to volunteer time and services. Another project we envision is a music research center. It was Neguinho who gave birth to samba reggae, and samba reggae has already inspired many other rhythms because Neguinho never stops creating. He's always developing something new. Our research center would study the evolution of the rhythms he creates. It would also be a place where talented new musicians with limited financial support could record their work, so that other new ideas and movements may be generated. Brazzil—What about changing technologies? All the music of Bahia seems to have its roots in the rhythms of African drums, but Dida is more than music. Can your projects have the impact you anticipate without looking forward too? Vivian—We're trying to establish an Information Management Center. We know that computers would allow the children and the girls to develop another marketable skill, "which can improve their lives. Our desire is to offer a wellrounded foundation in the arts so they can learn how to dance, how to paint, how to sing, etc.; but also to learn some marketable skills. Our approach is always evolving. And technology is important for the banda too because we want to score our music on computers. It would make our jobs much easier. Brazzil—But the medical facilities, the research institute and the information management center are all projects, which are not yet being developed. Is this because these projects are of lesser priority? Vivian—The primary reason is that we haven't been able to generate enough financial support for them. Right now the school is struggling because we have such limited funds to pay our teachers and maintain the BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
building. Those things we do have we have because we project a "wooden face". We can't afford to worry about being too ashamed to ask for help. A wooden face never gets red, even when thinking of things that could make one feel too ashamed to ask for money, or help, to obtain. We're not going to give up, and we're not going to have only the Dicta banda. We're planning to have other bandas because Dicta is to us "like a child that will live by itself', not always connected to the project. We plan to have other children like Dida. The girls of Dida have a full agenda and they hope that it will become more full as time passes, creating a need for other bandas here in Bahia, which will provide opportunities for other youth. Brazzil—Your first CD is impressive. Will there be a second? Vivian—We were working with BMG records, but the contract has expired. We're trying to record a second CD independently because we've learned that having to be dependent on a record company is very difficult for a new group. We would, •for instance, much rather record fewer songs of higher quality. We don't want to record hundreds of songs that nobody will respect or care about. We want to have more artistic control. Brazzil—How much of the CD was the work of Neguinho? Vivian—Almost all of the music and lyrics were written by Neguinho, and Neguinho was co-producer. But the original agreement with the recording company was for Neguinho to be the sole producer. We've discovered through this experience that we have only limited knowledge and power to control our destiny with the major recording companies. The other producer for the CD was Alfredo Moura, another musician who works with Neguinho from time to time. Brazzil—W h y wasn't the CD better publicized? Vivian—The publicity we expected never materialized. We discovered that the quality of our music is no assurance that our songs will play on the radio. On the week that the CD was launched our songs did play a few times, but there was little support from the record company. Salvador is a melting pot of music and the 47
competition is great. You have to pay to have your songs played on the radio, and it's very expensive. You have to be able to provide a car or a television for the radio station to offer in a promotional lottery. It's an inclusive business and if you don't pay then your songs won't play, even if they're the best. Caetano Veloso is the best composer, songwriter, performer and poet in the Brazilian music industry today. He (and Gilberto Gil) created the Tropicana movement. But when he was starting out he didn't have the money and they didn't play his music. Brazzil—Is there a connection between Caetano and Dida? Vivian—Caetano is a godfather to Dicta. He
discovered our work in 1996. Prior to that time he was not familiar with us but because he knew and respected Neguinho's work he was willing to listen to our music. Caetano immediately fell in love with Dicta and invited us to work with him on the soundtrack of the movie Tieta, based on the romance novel Tieta do Agreste by Jorge Amado. The leading actress was Sonia Braga. It was the most fantastic experience of our lives. Caetano sang with us at Carnaval time for two years following release of the CD and never asked for compensation. His wife Paula is also a fantastic person. She has the business sense to accomplish things. Brazzil —As cultural coordinator which aspects do you deal with? African? Brazilian? Vivian—We focus especially on the African woman; the history
of women, history in general and significant women in history. I myself don't teach, I learn. We're trying to discover, for example, the contributions of women in Bahian history, and we also study folklore. We try to preserve and enhance the value of our cultural manifestations. We emphasize important cultural dates and musical personalities. We want the children to know about these things because so many of them arrive here thinking they're blond or Indian. Fathers and mothers often emphasize the fact that they may have non-African blood, and many work to hide their African heritage. We want to make them aware of their real roots and to be proud of their African heritage. Brazzil—W hat are projeto Dida's greatest needs at this time? Vivian—We need study materials for children, and "school tables" with attached chairs. We need uniforms for capoeira classes and dance classes, and videotapes. We have one small video camera. The dance room needs a mirror. We need clothes for Flamenco dance, castanets and a dancing bar (for the wall). We need CD and tape players, skirts and computers. The only computer we had has broken. We need many of the basic things like paper and notebooks. Brazzi/—Are you able to feed the children? Vivian—The city government provides some food so the children
may eat here before or after attending public school. At nights we're able to provide a soup for dinner. This was a great worry for us at one time but it isn't now, at least not for the moment. Brazzil—Are you able to recruit teachers? Vivian—Teachers are a great need, and are very difficult for us to find because they receive so little money to work here. Currently we pay them from a small stipend, which we require from the few students who have any resources. These students aren't part of the project, but our classes are open to anyone who wishes to attend for music or dance. But even many of these students can't afford to pay. We won't deny anyone who wants to study here but has no money. The stipend for instructors is supplemented with the proceeds of instruments Neguinho sells, from a course he gives, and from royalties to music he's written. So we stumble along like cripples. Finding the money to pay teachers is the one worry that most keeps us awake at night because the teachers work most directly with our children. And they need to be paid. Brazzil--What about volunteer help? 48
Vivian—Many people have come to help us, but most don't stay very long. It's difficult for other people to feel as committed as we are, or to give as much as we demand of ourselves. Our concern is for the girls and children, we want everything to be made in a clear way. By and large it's the core staff of three who manage the project. Many pass through the project with us and we thank them very much. But they don't stay. Brazzil—W ill the portion of the project, which has been implemented, continue to grow? Vivian—We hope so. Sodomo
has not been fully implemented. We need transportation to go to the schools of the children and bring them here. We need transportation to get them home late at night. Neguinho wanted to get a bus from the United States where they're less expensive, but import taxes made the purchase impossible. He tried for a long time to figure out how to ship a bus, but we still need one. We often work with students until 8 PM, but some of the students don't arrive home until 9:30. It's very late and we're very concerned for these children. Did they arrive safely? What happened to them when they arrived home? We want to be able to bring them here and deliver them back to their families. We also want to be able to bring the mothers of the children here. We'd like to make a dance class and a banda with them to take them out of their difficult lives and introduce them to more of the world. We believe it's important to enter into the lives of the girls of the banda and the children. We want to expand our existing programs to attract more children. We have only 40 children at this time. Ok; they make the noise of 80 children (laughs). But they're fewer than what we've planned for. We want to touch more lives. We want to continue to focus on addressing the needs of the marginalized and preparing them for a better future. Phillip Wagner is a resident of Indiana in the United States who first traveled to Brazil to instruct process management for EDS, with whom he has been employed for 23 years. Phillip is also, a free-lance photo-journalist whose credits include coverage of the IsraeliPLO accords, the film industry, travel to Mexico and Brazil, and the Brazilian music industry. A previous credit includes "Meet the Girls from Rio", following interviews with Marisa Monte and Zelia Duncan, in Indiana's most widely circulated entertainment publication Novo Newsweekly. Danielle Valim resides in the Pituba district of Salvador and, like Phillip, harbors a special interest in the works of programs in Brazil which help people to help themselves. Phillip and Danielle are engaged to be married. Phillip's e-mail and web-site addresses are: pwagner@iei.net http://www.iei.net/—pwagner/gooddeeds/ index.html http://www.ielnetb-pwagner/ brazilhome.htm BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
RIO Um Ato pare Clarice (An Act for Clarice)— Monologue with texts by late writer Clarice Lispector (1925-1977). Directed by Eduardo Wotzik, with Clarice Niskier. Actress, who is pregnant, found Lispector's texts that deal with the origin of life, love and search for God. Teatro da Academia Brasileira de Letras As Fels de Robert Taylor (Robert Taylor Lady Fans)—Comedy. Written by Marcus Vinicius Faustini and Walter Daguerre, with Rosane de Souza. The story of a fantasized trip to Brazil of actor Robert Taylor. Teatro do Posto 6. Opereta—O Homem Que Sabia Portugues (Operetta—The Man Who Knew Portuguese)—Comedy. Written by Tim Rescala, directed by Chico Pelucio, with Mauricio Tizumba, Regina Sp6sio, and Marina Machado. A forty ish Portuguese teacher tries to find a wife though the newspaper personals. Teatro Villa Lobos Ensaio pare Danton (Rehearsal for Danton)—Drama. Written by Georg Buchner, directed by Marcio Marciano and Sergio de Carvalho, with Companhia do Latao. Adapted from The Death of Danton, which occurs during the French RevoLution. Teatro CCBB.
SAO PAULO Rent—Musical. Written by Jonathan Larson, directed by Fausto Viana, with Patricia Novais and Alexandre Nardis. The dreams, disputes and despair of a theatrical troupe of New York. Unido Cultural Brasil-Estados Unidos. A Pens& da Dona Tina (Mrs. Tina's Boarding House)—Comedy. Written and directed by Ronaldo Fonseca, with Erika Bernardino, Adilson Aranjo, and Sandra Martinelli. The adventures of a couple trying to steal a fortune hidden in a boarding house. Anfiteatro Frei Paulo. Nau de Loucos (Ship of Fools)— Drama. Written and directed by Daniel Furtado SimOes, with Gisele Morceli, Clayton Freitas and Ivan Capua. The arrival of a new patient at an insane asylum brings a fresh interest in life to a depressed artist. ECA/USP's Teatro Laboratorio. BRAZZIL -AUGUST 1999
Just-released American movies: Playing By Heart (Coracoes Apaixonados), Universal Soldier: The Return (Soldado Universal, 0 Retorno), She 's All That (Ela E Demais), Lake Placid (Piinico no Lago), Blast From The Past (De Volta para o Presente), Pushing Tin (Alto Controle), Black Dog (Estrada Al,ucinante), Rushmore (Tres E Demais), Eyes Wide Shut (De Olhos Bern Fechados), Senseless (Sem Sentido), Wing Commander (Wing Commander: A Batalha Final), Runaway Bride (Noiva em Fuga) Por Trds do Pano (Behind the Curtain)—Brazi1/1999—Drama—By Luiz Villaca, with Denise Fraga, Luis Melo, Pedro Cardoso, Marisa Orth, and Ester G6es. The existential conflicts of a married young actress who meets a director divided between the whims of ex-wife and the jealousy of current one. Caminho dos Sonhos (Dreams' Way)—Brazil/1999—Drama—Directed by Lucas Amberg, with Edward Boggiss, Tais Aradjo, Caio Blat, Thalia Shire, and Elliot Gould. In the name of love a couple (he a son of Jewish immigrant, she a black) battles their families and society. Ate Que a Vida Nos Separe (Until Life Do Us Apart)—Brazi1/1999—Adventure—Directed by Jose Zaragoza, with Alexandre Borges and Julia Lemmertz. Five friends from Sao Paulo and their love exploits. 0 Viajante (The Traveler)—Brazil/1998--Drama—Directed by Paulo Cesar Saraceni, with Marilia Para, Jairo Mattos, Leandra Leal, and Miriam Persia. How the arrival of a salesman changes the life of a Minas Gerais state little town. Notting Hill (Urn Lugar Chamado Notting Hill)—England/1999—How a chance encounter between the most famous Hollywood star and a businessman changes their lives. Directed by Roger Michell, with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. Ayeneh (0 Espelho)—Iran/1997—Drama— Girl decides to perambulate through the streets of Teheran when her mother does not come on time to pick her up at school. By Jafar Panahi, with Ymina Mohammed-Khani. No Se Lo Digas a Nadie (Ndo Conte a Ninguem)—Perull 998—Drama— Directed by Francisco J. Lombardi, with Christian Meier, Lucia Jimenez, and Santiago Magill. Middle-class youngster gets involved with drugs while trying to find his own identity.
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Americana loura, 29, filha de brasileira e alemao, gostaria de conhecer um rapaz negro, 25-34, morando em Los Angeles, para amizade e talvez mais. Pode escrever/mandar retrato a 1111 Sartori Avenue, Torrance, CA 90501 [156] Brasileira, atraente, procura americano 40-50. Foto para 170 Del Paso Ct, Fairfield, CA 94533 [165] Brazilian lady, 59, gostaria de conhecer senhor educado e corn situacao financeira estavel. Por favor, escreva para: PO Box 2673, Santa Clanta, CA 913862673 [153]
JOB WANTED PERSONAL
Looking for part/full time job. Housekeeper/baby-sitter experi-
MAN SEEKS WOMAN
brazzil-ADS (323) 255-8062
African/American Male, 40, Engineer, handsome, affectionate, romantic, in Houston, desire to meet Brazilian lady 25-35, send letter with photo; Wilfred
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
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: BRAZZ1L P.O. Box 50536 Los Angeles, CA 90050-0536. Edwards, PO Box 2 25, Missouri City, TX 7745 , USA Email: wilfred.edward @usa.net [166] Brasileiro-American , 36 anos, romantic° e atraente, p ocurando relacionamento corn b ileiraou americana. (818)344- 881 [166] Seeking beautiful, pr English-speaking woman for best frien riage, Write to: Jo 1492, Morrobay, 93443-1492, USA [1
fessional, Carioca and maraps, Box al i forn ia 3]
Swedish gentleman, idower, 58, well educated, speaks Port., seeks independent, warmhearted, educated lady with humor, and good profssional status in'Brazil, USA or anywhere. Write Bjorn Gunnarson PO Box 17242, Stockholm, 10462 Sweden - Email:bjorn_s@dataphone.se [164] Americano, 38, atraente, romantic° e sincero. Procura brasileira 18-45. Enviair foto para 2440-16th St, No. 179, San Francisco, CA 94103 [158] Seeking Bay Area single Brazilian women to meet n ce, single, attractive American men in the Bay Area for frienc ship, romance, and marriage. No fee. Send color photo and profile to Love Connection - 964 Howard St, San Francisco, CA 94103 Suite 20 [160] Seeking ladies 18-45 years old to correspond with American men for friendship and companionship. FREE for all ladies. Write: TigerLilies, 2'709 Lookout Dr., Suite 5206, G arland TX 75044 USA [160] PERSONAL MAN SEEKS MAN
Brazilian bottom, 33 y/o, 55", 123 lbs, white skin, se ks black,
young top man who wanna move to Brazil and share a whole life. Valdeck - Phone 011 5571 981 1990, valdecka@hotmail.com [163] Very handsome, professional, 40's WM seeks sincere, VGL/ black/Brasil man. Truly love the music from Caetano to Nana to Gil and .more! Maybe we can make music! I'm real thing! (323) 227-8935 [158] RENTAL
The ideal apartment for vacation or business - Beautiful airconditioned studio apartment with all new appliances and parkay floors, in the heart of Copacabana, located on quiet tree-lined street, around the corner from shopping area and restaurants, just 2 blocks from the beach. Building is clean, well managed and has 24-hour security. Perfect for one or two people. $45 per day during low season and $55 during high season. Monthly rates also available. Tel. (718) 658-4987. E-mail: rio988@gateway.net [164] kio de Janeiro - Apartment for Rent - Great Area! - Beat Hotel Prices! (510) 236-3684 [164] TRANSLATION & INTERP.
Dialogo Translates from and to Brazilian Portuguese: http:// www.brazilstudy.com [155] TRAVEL
Receba seu cartao de socio do Club Brasileiro enviando $2.00 por ano corn seu nome e endereco para A TTT SERVICES - (909) 627-2171 - 12400 Cypress, 88, Chino, CA 91710 e tenha 10% de desconto na passagem para o Brasil. [164] Touristic services in Salvador da Bahia: Dialog°, http:// www.brazilstudy.com [155]
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 Brazzil (323) 255-8062 The Brazilian Monthly (617) 566-3651 Bossa: Braz. Jazz Guide (617) 262-9997 Restaurants Café Brazil (617) 789-5980 lpanema (508) 460-6144 Tropicana (617) 567-4422 Pampas Churrascaria (617) 661-6613
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an Francisco Airlines Varig (650) 794-1998 Vasp (800) 732-VASP Attorney Laura Basaloco-Lapo (415) 288-6727 Manoel Faris (510) 537-3533 Auto Nelson Auto Body (415) 255-6717 Matts Auto Body (415) 565-3560 Beauty Salon Bibbo (415) 421-BIBO Carmen's International (415) 433-9441 Neyde's (415) 681-5355 Clubs & Associations B.A.S.O. (415) 661-2788 Bay Area Brasilian Club (415) 334-0106 Capoeira Institute (510) 655-8207 Computer Micronet (415) 665-1994 Consulate Brazilian Consulate (415) 981-8170 Dance Instruction Aquarela (510) 548-1310 Birds of Paradise (415) 863-3651 Ginga Brasil (510) 428-0698 Escola Nova de Samba (415) 661-4798 Samba do Coracao (415) 826-2588 Samba, Swing & Suor (415) 282-7378 Dental Care Roberto Sales, DDS (510) 451-8315 Events Promotion Eyes For Talent (650) 595-2274 F. B. C. Events (415) 334-0106 Nativa Productions (408) 287-9798 Food Evergreen Market (415) 641-4506 HGC Imp. Wholesale (408) 947-8511 Instruction Portuguese - A. Frame (510) 339-9289 Portuguese Lang. Serv. (415) 587-4990 Money Remittance Brazil Express-Vigo (415) 749-0524 West Brazil (415) 695-9258 Music
Celia Malheiros (415) 738-2434 Fogo na Roupa (510) 464-5999 Ricardo Peixoto (415) 752-9782 Voz do Brazil (415) 586-2276 .Percussion Emiliano Benevides (415) 648-2441 Physician Dr. Guilherme Salgado (415) 832-6219 Printing M. C. Printing (510) 268-8967 Publications Brazil Today (510) 526-1115 Brazzil (323) 255-8062 Restauritslight Clubs Bahia Cabana (415) 861-4202 Café Mardi Gras (415) 864-6788 Canto do Brasil (415) 626-8727 Janete & Pedro Br. Food (415) 821-4600 Muzzarela Di Bufala (415) 346-2284 Nine's (510) 845-9303 Porto Brasil (510) 526-1500 Terra Brazilis (415) 863-5177 Translation Port. Lang. Services (415) 587-4990 Travel Agencies Brazil Express (415) 749-0524 Paulo's Travel (415) 863-2556 Rio Roma (415) 921-3353 Santini Tours (510) 843-2363 Travel Americas (415) 334-0404 Tropical Travel (510) 655-9904 Tucanos Travel (415) 454-9961
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53
"This is my bible, I read this book every day in order to get angry." Fernando Henrique Cardoso and his colleagues were concerned when these words were spoken on television by the Sao Paulo security chief, Colonel Erasmo Dias. Irate attacks can be good for book sales, and their analysis of urban poverty in the midst of Brazil's economic boom needed all the publicity it could get. But it was dangerous to be so visible at a time when leftists were often tortured by the police and sometimes even -disappeared." Shortly after the Colonel's denunciation, in 1975, an antiCommunist group set off a bomb outside their sociological research institute. Cardoso was called to military police headquarters. At the entrance, he was blindfolded and taken to a room where he was interrogated. When he had to go to the toilet, they forgot the blindfold and led him through a room where a man was being tortured. All he could think was "What an idiot I am, I should have stayed abroad. There I am a friend of the king." After his release, the incident abraded on his mind. It was still bothering him three years later, when he received an honorary degree from Rutgers University in New Jersey. His hosts placed a cap and gown over his head and shoulders, which reminded him of the blindfolding, and he could not get the memory out of his head for the remainder of the ceremony. The interrogation itself was a dialog of the absurd, focusing on a meeting he had with Earnest Mandel in Mexico City. Mandel is a prominent Belgian intellectual, who happened to be active in an insignificant Trotskyist movement. The inquisitors asked Cardoso a long series of questions about his meeting with Mandel, not believing that it was purely a discussion about social theory. They had met at the airport, and Fernando Henrique had carried Mandel's wife's suitcase while they chatted between flights. Cardoso was interested in Marxism as social theory, not as political dogma. Twenty years later, Cardoso was taken by the military to the Fortaleza de Lajes, near Rio de Janeiro. As the soldiers clustered around him, eager to meet their new President, he told the accompanying Admiral, "my father was imprisoned in this stone cell here." Le6ncio Cardoso was an officer in the
54
A Reluctant Hero Fernando Henrique Cardoso was shocked when he got the news from friends that he had been appointed Finance Minister. He immediately called President Itamar Franco to complain. Franco could only say, "the public response has been excellent." TED GOERTZEL
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
Brazilian army who had been briefly imprisoned for his support of a democratic revolt. After his retirement, as brigadier general, Leoncio served a term in Congress as part of a group organized around the slogan "from the empty cooking pot and the dry water fountain." This referred to life in shantytowns where food is scarce and water must be carried up steep hills. Leoncio was a genial, kindly man who was glad to have his son go into sociology instead of following the family's military traditions. In Brazil everyone who counts is on a first name basis, and every effort is made to find a way to solve problems informally. Reversals of political fortunes are not uncommon. But Brazilians never before elected a sociologist president, let alone one who had been banned from teaching as a subversive by the military government. But Cardoso has the military to thank for many of the twists of fate which made him the world's first sociologist to rule a nation. He was well on his way to a distinguished but conventional academic career when the military overthrew the Brazilian government in 1964. He went into exile in Chile where he got a wonderful job with a United Nations research institute, enjoying what he later called the "bitter caviar of exile." Colloquy with brilliant colleagues from all over Latin America broadened his horizons and he co-authored a book on Dependency and Development in Latin America, which revolutionized thinking in the field. After a brief visiting professorship in Paris, he returned to Sao Paulo where he won a Professorial Chair in Political Science at his alma mater, the University of Sao Paulo. Once again his plans to settle into a quiet academic life were upset by the military, who purged him and many of his most distinguished colleagues during a crackdown on the left in 1968. The purged professors were prohibited from teaching anywhere in the country, but in characteristically genteel Brazilian fashion, they were "retired" at full pay, giving them in effect a lifetime sabbatical. They took the opportunity to open an applied research institute, which made them much more effective in pressuring the military regime. The military canceled the political rights of many of the established democratic leaders, and set up a two party system in the hope that this would pro-
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
vide a harmless outlet for dissent. In fact, the new system forced the opposition to unite instead of bickering among themselves as they had in the past. When the economic boom ended many opposition politicians were elected to important offices. There was a shortage o leadership, however, because the military had canceled the rights of many of the best known politicians. Fernando Henrique was an advisor to the opposition party, and was well known as an essayist and journalist. The Brazilian electoral system allowed multiple candidates for the same position from the same party, and he was asked to join a slate led by a well-known democratic politician, Franco Montoro. Montoro was running for the senate, and he wanted to reach out to the intellectuals on the democratic left. Cardoso campaigned hard, with no thought of winning for himself, but when he came in second he learned that this made him the "alternate" senator who would take office if Montoro died or retired. Two years later, Montoro ran successfully for governor, and Fernando Henrique succeeded to the senate. In his debut speech to the Senate, Cardoso quoted from German sociologist Max Weber's Politics as a Vocation on the need to achieve the possible by attempting the impossible and from Goethe's Dr. Faust on the twisted, deceptive nature of a world in which many have sold their souls to the devil. So it was in Brazil, he implied, where the struggle had been long, progress slow, and many ideals had to be compromised. Hopes were high when the military returned to the barracks, but the politicians reverted to many of the practices, which had led to the breakdown of democracy in 1964. They voted massive patronage spending for their friends and allies, greatly inflating the currency. As senator, Cardoso was a member of the Constituent Assembly, which created a new democratic constitution in 1988. He found it a very frustrating process. At one point he chastised the politicians for fiddling while Rome burned, wasting time in useless bickering, failing to exercise "the most elemental responsibility of the politician: to respect common sense, the good sense of the man of the streets, without which we will not have representativeness or, for that matter, democracy."
Cardoso was aghast at the direction the Constituents were taking. He thought they were leading Brazil backwards, sailing against the winds of history. He told the senators that, choosing development implies a process which, for lack of a better name, I will call 'modernization,' but which in truth is the 'globalization' of the economy. In an era when Europe is integrating its market by means of a multiplicity of jointventures with the Soviet Union, in which China is 'westernizing,' Japan is already a part of the 'western' world, and the United States is forming a great market in North America, together with Canada and Mexico, Brazil cannot isolate itself, anachronistically, with an outdated policy of autarchy which runs the risk of turning it into a huge Cambodia. If any of Cardoso's colleagues from the academic left in the 1970s had heard this speech, they would have been astounded. For them, "modernization theory" and "dependency theory" were polar opposites, and Cardoso had built his academic reputation as a leading exponent of what they called "dependency theory." But for Cardoso, dependency was a topic of study, not a theory. His studies showed that the world had changed, and Brazil had to change with it. In the end, he was forced to accept a compromise with leaders who were well intentioned but, in his view, unrealistic. In 1988 he observed "the basic principle of the constitution which we are elaborating is the establishment of a welfare state. This is an ancient aspiration of the Brazilians... all the developed countries have a welfare state, and it is just that we make a Charter with this concern. The problem is that, thirty years later, the welfare state in the developed countries has become the fiscal crisis state, the state threatening to go into default. What I think is that after the promulgation of the new constitution, we will have to make adjustments, because the Brazilian state entered its fiscal crisis, a state threatening to go into failure, before it began to promote well-being. I am certain that this will not be easy. I am certain that it must be done." Seldom have a politician's remarks been more prophetic. What Cardoso had no way ofknowing was that he would be called upon to lead the nation in making the changes he had predicted. By 1993
55
the inflation had gotten completely out pletely incapable of controlling inflaof control with prices doubling every tion. Cardoso expressed his regrets at month. Inflation had long been a way of the need for another change of Finance life in Brazil, and people had done their Minister only six months after the forced best to adjust to it. Bank accounts, tax resignation of the previous President, bills, many salaries and other payments Fernando Collor de Mello, on charges were indexed, so people's debts and of massive corruption. President Franco then came directly incomes were automatically adjusted to to the point, asking "would you agree to compensate for the declining value of money. This worked fairly well for be Minister of Finance?" Cardoso wamiddle class people, but great mass of vered, saying he was quite satisfied in people who lived from paycheck to pay- the foreign ministry, and that he thought check saw the value of their money it would be better deplete from day to day. Price changes to persuade Rewere erratic, and no one knew what a sende to remain, product or service would cost in two rather than upset weeks. When people received money the system with they rushed to spend it as quickly as another sign of instability. But he possible before it lost its value. Because of the elaborate indexing was not in the mechanisms, people could live with in- country, and he flation from month to month. But in the didn't know the long run, indexing was self-defeating details of the situbecause each new price rise automati- ation. Itamar was cally caused other prices to rise. There the President, and the final decision was was the risk that the vicious cycle would his. Itamar said he would get back to get out of hand and money would lose its Fernando Henrique as soon as he had talked with Resende. value altogether. President Franco was at his wit's end Cardoso had accepted an appointment as Foreign Minister, a post for about the inflation numbers, and there which he was well prepared and which were persistent rumors that he was thinkhe thoroughly enjoyed. He was com- ing of resigning. With great relief, he pletely shocked when on May 19, 1993, took Cardoso's response to mean that he during a visit to New York City, he would accept the position if formally received a surprise telephone call from asked to do so. This was not what President Itamar Franco. The call, at 11 Cardoso had told his closest political on a Thursday evening, caused a cheese advisor Sergio Motta who had alerted soufflĂŠ to collapse in the oven at the him that he was being considered for the job. Motta thought home of the Brazilian Cardoso should take ambassador to the United the job, but he replied Nations, just as Cardoso As a sociologist "you're crazy, I'd was enjoying a toast of Cardoso never take that thing." fine French wine. The realized Another close associwife ambassador's Brazilian ate, Jose Serra, was couldn't object too inflation was afraid that if Cardoso more than an strenuously when she accepted the job, witheconomic heard that it was an urproblem, it was out assurance that he gent call from the Presideeply rooted in would have the redent. President Franco the national sources necessary to asked Cardoso if he was character and end inflation, he would standing or sitting down. the nation's ruin his own electoral He sat down, anticipating social prospects and bring the a long conversation. institutions. rest of the Social DeFranco informed him mocratic Party down that in a few minutes he was going to ask finance minister Eliseu with him. Cardoso's wife was hurt to learn that Resende for his resignation. This was not surprising because the Finance Min- he had accepted the position without ister is the one who is blamed whenever consulting or even telling her, but he inflation gets out of control and the told her he hadn't realized he had acFranco government had proved corn- cepted it himself. Based on Cardoso's
56
polite non-refusal, President Franco had gone ahead and ordered the appointment published in the Didrio Oficial. Cardoso was shocked when he got the news from friends that the appointment had already been made. He immediately called President Franco to complain. Franco could only say, "the public response has been excellent." Cardoso was a sociologist, not an economist, and he had no special expertise on monetary policy. But as a sociologist he realized Brazilian inflation was more than an economic problem, it was deeply rooted in the national character and the nation's social institutions. Writing during the epoch of hyperinflation, the Brazilian psychoanalyst Joel Birman observed that "inflation causes a devastating impact which can be seen in the progressive deterioration of the conditions of existence of the great majority of the Brazilian population." Most disastrous, in Birman's view, was an increase in interpersonal violence, which had become a "basic attribute and trademark of Brazilian life." People felt impunity from social control, death lost its tragic dimension and a feeling of horror "impregnates the totality of interchange between people." Everyday life presented itself as "a nightmare on the edge of chaos." As a result of this feeling of horror, hopelessness had become the predominant mood in Brazil, and cynicism the predominant ethic. This feeling of helplessness about inflation penetrated into the highest ranks of government. Adding to the irritation was the fact that other nations had ended severe inflations, including, in recent years, Israel, Bolivia and Argentina. Cardoso simply refused to believe that Brazil could not do what these nations had done. If he had believed that Brazil was hopeless as a nation, he could have emigrated to Paris in 1969 and enjoyed the perquisites of a professorship at the College de France. He wasn't about to hide in the Foreign Ministry, now that the President of the Republic had challenged him to take on the nation's most vexing problem. But what to do? The logical first step was to put together a team of the country's sharpest economists, even though most of them had worked on
BRAZZIL- AUGUST 1999
previous unsuccessful plans. Cardoso recruited Edmar Bacha, Persio Arida, Andre LaraResende and Gustavo Franco among others. They were highly qualified, with Ph.D.'s in economics from leading world universities, and with experience in the struggle against Brazilian inflation. They had learned from their past failures, but they were not at all certain that they could succeed. Edmar Bacha thought "the best we can do is avoid a hyperinflation, if we do that we will have done much." Bacha had been involved in creating President Sarney 's Cruzado Plan, and the failure weighed heavily on him. When Samey took office; inflation was 225% ayear, when he left it was 80% a month. Some economists called this a "hyperinflation," but Bacha feared an inflation so great that people would have to carry bills to the market in suitcases to buy groceries. Bacha refused to accept the job unless he could commute into Brasilia on Tuesdays and leave on Thursdays. He was concerned about his own career if he became too closely tied to another failed plan, and wanted to keep other options open. At the first meeting of the economic advisory team, however, he plunged right in with a proposal, which became the core of what became known as the Plano Real. He suggested a temporary dual currency system, in which all contracts, including salaries, would be continually readjusted to their value in U.S. dollars. To make the readjustment, he proposed using the indexing system, Which people already understood. This meant change could be implemented very quickly. Using a government index also preserved a degree of national autonomy, since prices would not be permanently linked to the dollar, as Argentina had done, Once everyone was used to calculating money in this new unit, new currency could be printed which was valued in those units. Brazil would have a hard currency. Cardoso's mood improved. He became less serious, more cheerful. His advisors sensed that he really thought they might actually slay the dragon of inflation. Of course, the new currency would not be a permanent solution unless more fundamental changes fol-
BRAZZIC-AUGUST 1999
lowed. The automatic readjustment of apparent to the President, but was all too prices and wages would have to be ended. visible to the press who photographed Government spending would have to be the young lady from beneath the pobrought under control, despite the man- dium. dates of the 1988 constiMany of the military tution. Without these more officers felt that the publifundamental reforms, the Card so's cation of these photoper onal new reform would prove graphs so compromised style puts only a temporary gimmick the dignity of the Presihim at a and the government would dency that Itamar should disadv ntage have no choice but to print be removed from office, in cam aigns money to pay its bills. although he was hardly aga rist The economists were responsible to check the pofiti ians skeptical, not because they undergarments of young with a more didn't think their ecowomen he met at perfectly pop list nomic plans could work, manne , but it legitimate public funcbut because they doubted serve him tions. Cardoso was prowell w th the that Cardoso could mobifoundly disturbed that this militarY men, lize the political clout to trivial episode should put as well as implement them. Their Brazil at risk for a coup wi h pessimism was rooted in d'etat. busine smen. years of hard experience. Finally, a compromise Cardoso understood why was worked out. Itamar the past efforts had failed, agreed to dismiss his Mindespite excellent technical advice by the ister of Justice, who had displeased the same people who were advising him generals, as a token of his repentance. noW. But he thought they could succeed Since it was not thought appropriate for because of the feeling of desperation in a military man to openly dictate policy the political establishment. He thought to the president, Cardoso was asked to that "it would only be possible to con- be the messenger. He was selected bequer inflation in a moment of political cause the military thought him dignified weakness. Only in a moment of political and unquestionably respectable, in conweakness could the minister of finance ast to several other senior officials of assume the powers necessary to impose he government. President Franco acthe difficult measures necessary to conepted the solution, allowing the Ministrol inflation." He took full advantage of er to announce he was leaving so he this window of vulnerability and got ould run for elective office. Later he Congress to pass a Social Emergency hanged his mind and remained. Fund giving him control over the Cardoso often seems a bit stiff and government's key finances. It wasn't ormal in his public demeanor, perhaps really a fund, nor was it devoted to eflecting his upbringing in a military social programs, but the amity. He usually dresses formally, and emergency was real ooks very much like a corporate execuenough. ive. This personal style puts him at a One week after the isadvantage in campaigns against poliSocial Emergency Fund 'cians with a more populist manner, but was passed, the governserves him well with the military men, ment was thrown into a • well as with businessmen. His proper foolish mini-crisis when emeanor also serves him well on those President Itamar Franco e occasions when he is caught in what was photographed holdight otherwise have been a comproing hands with a beautiful ising situation, such as when he was young actress on a pohotographed being kissed by a drag dium in the Samba Stadium in Rio de ueen in the 1993 Carnaval celebration. Janeiro. It was in the middle of the ortunately, the celebrant was fully Carnaval celebration, when Brazilians othed, and Cardoso looked suitably put aside their inhibitions for a week of barrassed in the newspaper photodancing and revelry. The young lady aphs. was so much in the spirit of the event The Plano Real succeeded brilliantly that she was wearing only a short skirt cause it was the right plan at the right and no underpants, a fact which was not ti e. As Cardoso remembers, "the soci-
57
ety got tired of inflation. There came a point when they were fed up with it. At that point, we needed something to close the circuit. That was the Piano Real. We took a chance on it, and we won because the country understood. It was fantastic. Within a week, everyone knew what it meant." This smashing victory over the curse which had plagued Brazil for decades made Cardoso the overwhelming favorite in the presidential elections and on October 3, 1994, he was elected President of Brazil with 54% of the vote. The charismatic champion of the Workers' Party, steelworkers union leader Lula da Silva, received 27%, with the rest split among several candidates whose campaigns never took off. Cardoso won every state except for Rio Grande do Sul and the Federal District. Surveys showed him leading among all social classes, although with a stronger margin among the wealthier voters. Since Cardoso won more than half of the total vote, there was no need for the usual runoff election. (...) The critical intellectuals remain petulant, complaining that the Cardoso administration is boring and predictable. His leftist critics, within Brazil and abroad, are unhappy that he has not solved more of the nation's problems. They point to rural and urban poverty, the diminishing of the Amazon forests, pollution of the environment by illegal gold mining, murders of street children by police death squads, displacement and even extermination of Indian tribes, and other appalling problems which persist in Brazil. No president, however, could eliminate these problems by decree, as many of his critics seem to assume. As an elected democratic leader, Cardoso has to work through the Congress, which is responsive to pressures from the middle class and organized pressure groups. Cardoso would like his administration to be the government of the marginal and excluded groups, but that this is not possible, given political realities. In some ways, Cardoso is working against the grain of Brazilian culture. His fundamental goal is to build democracy. He wants people to work together to make compromises and resolve con-
58
flicts, but he finds that many Brazilians do not want to do that. They want the President to impose a solution in their favor. Brazilians have a weakness for strong leaders who impose their will. People tell Cardoso that he is isolated in the Presidential Palace, not talking to anyone. But he told me that he -talks to everyone,- but he finds that each group wants him to listen only to them. He fears that democracy is still tenuous in Brazil because people have limited patience for the compromises needed to solve problems democratically. Cardoso's thinking is similar to that of the American pragmatist philosopher Richard Rorty. Rorty argues that "the Left should put a moratorium on theory. It should try to kick its philosophy habit.- Instead of getting lost in abstractions such as -postmodernism" or Theoliberalism," Rorty argues that the Left should focus its energies on "campaigns- or movements for specific, tangible objectives. Rorty uses American examples such as the eight-hour day, universal health insurance, and voting rights for women and minorities. In Rorty's view, political life follows no predictable agenda and leads to no dramatic conclusion. It is a "tissue of chances, mischances and lost chances— a tissue from which, occasionally and briefly, beauty flashes forth, but to which sublimity is entirely irrelevant.Cardoso's career has been just such a series of -campaigns- to accomplish Brazilian objectives: direct elections, a democratic political party, anew constitution, a stable currency, pension reform, administrative efficiency, improved primary education, and so on. Ironically, Cardoso won the presidency because his conscientious, pragmatic, problem-solving approach happened to lead to a dramatic and even sublime moment of social transformation: the end of hyperinflation. Solving inflation was a campaign he undertook because it needed doing and President Franco asked him to do it. It was not his area of professional expertise, nor had he ever anticipated making a contribution in that way. Ending inflation was a tremendous boon for the people of the empty cook-
ing pot and the dry water fountain that Leonidas Cardoso had been struggling to help when Fernando Henrique was coming of age. Cardoso remains popular among the poor, despite the criticism of the intellectuals and the civil servants. He says, "I am more popular among the poor than among the rich. For two reasons: first, because the control of inflation has permitted them to eat, and, second, because there has not been even a hint of corruption." The balance sheet of Cardoso' s achievements is remarkable by any standard. Inflation has been ended while raising the standard of living of the poor and imposing a minimum of austerity on everyone else. The economy is being reorganized on a sound basis, in keeping with state-of-the-art economic principles. The bureaucracy is being cut back and reformed, and human services are being reorganized and developed. The country remains vulnerable to global economic forces, and difficult domestic problems remain. But the same can be said of other countries, including those with wealthier economies and more established democratic traditions. (...) Fernando Henrique Cardoso will enter into history as the president who prepared Brazil to compete effectively with other countries in meeting the challenges of the twenty-first century. This is a remarkable accomplishment for a man who began his career struggling to adapt nineteenth century Marxism to twentieth century realities. This text was excerpted from Fernando Henrique Cardoso: Reinventing Democracy in Brazil by Ted Goertzel, Lynne Rienner Publishers, $19.95 in paperback or $49.95 hardcover. For details on the book, or to order a copy, go to the publisher's catalog http://www.rienner.com/ page at goertzel.htm. A supplement to the biography of Cardoso can be accessed on Ted Goertzel's WEB site at http:// crabrutgers.edut--goertzel/supplement.htm Ted Goertzel is a Sociology professor at the Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey. He is the author of several books, including Linus Pauling: A Life in Science and Politics and Turncoats and True Believers: The Dynamics of Political Belief and Disillusionment. You can contact him through his E-mail: goertzel@ctab.rutgers.edu
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 1999
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