Brazzil - Year 13 - Number 186 - September 2001 by Brazzil Magazine

Year 13 - No. 186 - September 200

POLITICS: THE ETHICS PACKAGE

!ECONOMY:

'THE MERITS Of FREE TRADE

TOURISM: CURING WATERS OF MINAS

JORGE AMADO:

"DORIS, 0 VERME1.110" - A DRAFT

OUTING 10 KNOW 1111EUS AND GABRIELA

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August 5, just one day before his death, Jorge Amado was resting with his eyes closed, when Zelia Gattai, his wife of 56 years, entered the room where he was with a copy ofweekly newsmagazine Epoca. The publication had just dedicated a cover story to Brazil's best-known novelist. "Open your eyes," she chimed. "Epoca paid a beautiful homage to you. But let's not be conceited because you are very pretty." According to Zelia, after listening to the whole story read to himâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; Amado was having trouble with his eyesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the author was very happy with what he heard. Amado would be 89 on August 10, but he was still full of projects and stories, despite ill health. The author of Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon and Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands was writing a story on the San Francisco River. He also left unfinished what should be one of his most ambitious novels: Boris, o Vermelho (Boris, the Red One). We have the pleasure to offer our readers a draft of the first chapter of Boris. It's enough to show the brilliance of this creator of characters and worlds. At a time when fantastic realism was still unborn, his fantastic creatures were already haunting, tickling, moving arid enchanting Brazil and the world. So long, old captain. We'll be seeing you soon on the pages you wrote. RM Send mail to: P.O. Box 50536 - Los Angeles, CA

90050-0536 Ads/Editorial: (323) 255-8062 Fax: (323) 257-3487 Brazzil on line: http://www.brazzil.com E-mail: brazzil@brazzil.com Publisher and Editor: Rodney Mello Assistant Editor: Leda Bittencourt Book Review: Bondo Wyszpolski Music Editor: Bruce Gilman Brazil Bureau Chief: Marta Alvim

Cover Jorge Amado: celebrating our most belo ed writer

Csateats 11

Fashion Revlon gets a Brazilian spokesmodel

Ecology The Sao Francisco river skirmishes

Music The best Brazilian song ever

Opinion Salvador and the class schism

I;olitics Who's afraid of the ethics package?

Economy The good fruits of blackout

Analysis COmparing American and Brazilian economies

Culture A new center for Brazilian history

Literature "Episodio de Siroca" by Jorge Amado

Travel Healing water of Minas Gerais

Language Why you should know Portuguese

Book Review Twelve Fingers by J6 Soares

Music The sound and the sounds of Olodum

That sublime duo: Vinicius and Jobim

Martinis

Impressions Wandering on Amado's Ilheus

E-mail: mltdalvim@yahoo.com TIME TO RENEW? Sorry, we don't send reminders. Look at the label to know when your subscription ends.

BRAZZIL (ISSN 1091-868X) is published monthly by Brazzil 2039 N. Ave. 52, Los Angeles, CA, 90042-1024.Periodicals Postage rate paid at Los Angeles, CA. Single copy sold for $2. One year subscription for 12 issues is $3 (three dollars) in the U.S., $15 in Canada and Mexico, and $18 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 addressed 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 BRAllIL P.O. Box 50536 - Los Angeles, CA - 90050-0536

WWW. BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

.COM

06 Rapidinhas 16 letters 41 Cultural Pulse 51 Classifieds 52 That's Brazilian

Fashion Those E es At Revlon it's the end ofan era. It's goodbye time to American Cindy Crawford, 35, and welcome party for Brazilian Caroline Ribeiro, 21. Caroline is the new Revlon Girl. Cindy has been spokesmodel for the cosmetic giant since she was 23. About her departure, a Revlon spokesperson declared, "It's a new era. We're moving with the times and we need a new face to reflect that." Revlon, before settling on Caroline, considered hiring two other Brazilian models for the post: world's number one supermodel Giselle Btindchen and Luciana Curtis. The company announced that Ribeiro will receive $6 million to be Revlon's new face. Crawford was being paid $3 million a year for her work. Rogerio Chain, Revlon's manager of marketing in Brazil explained: "Revlon is rejuvenating its image and that's why it decided to separate the name Revlon from Cindy Crawford, whose face is directly connected to the feminine posture of the end of the '80s and beginning of the '90s, a time in which women yearned to be the strong sex and were trapped into specific beauty patterns and coordinated colors. The contemporary woman has free spirit and wants to show herself to the world in her true essence." Caroline had a hard time as a model and almost gave up after trying to make it in Sao Paulo, Tokyo and then New York. Agents complained about her protruding teeth and lack ofcurves. When she arrived in New York in June 1999 the model rented a $350-a-month single where she had to share the bathroom with other residents. One other strategies to succeed was to abbreviate her name from Caroline Ribeiro Magalhaes to Caroline Ribeiro since the last name is very hard for a foreigner to pronounce. She was ready to go back to Brazil when Tom Ford chose her to be the model for Gucci, his company. Soon she would be a supennodel. The Gucci gig opened the doors of Chanel, Louis Vuitton and more recently Valentino. Caroline is from Belem do Path, in the Amazon region. She was born on September 20, 1980. That's the way she once explained the reason of her success: "I think my face is different, it's exoticâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;not like normal beauty. I don't have what you would call perfect beauty. My eyes are a mix of Indian and Portuguese. I can have either a Mexican face, or a Japanese or a Brazilian one. With a face like mine I can play around." Colleagues and journalist have raved not only about her beauty, but also about her pleasant personality.

Brazilian babies weighing in at 3 lbs or less are now being dealt with by the kangaroo method all over the country. Instead ofbeing put in incubators, the babies are wrapped up with paper to the body of the mother, the father, a big sister and any appropriate person. The special paper forms a kind of marsupium (abdominal pouch), guaranteeing continued human warmth and other needs. The method, created by a Colombian doctor, is being taught in 7 birthing centers that serve as radiating nuclei for the dissemination of the successful technique.

Life

Just like Kau aroos

BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

The fight against a project for transposing the waters of the Sao Francisco River was reinforced. The seminar -Sao Francisco River: a live-or-die issue," which was held recently in CabrobO (state of Pernambuco), proposed the creation of a Permanent Forum in Defense of the 'Old Chico' (the Sao Francisco river) with the participation of indigenous peoples and social and popular movements of the Northeast region. The meeting was attended by about 500 participants from non-governmental, environmental and union organizations, representatives of the University of Pernambuco and Cimi (Conselho Indianista Missionario Indianist Missionary Council)and indigenous leaders ofthe Truka, Xukuru, Pipipa (state of Pernambuco), Tuxa, Tumbalala (state of Bahia), Xukuru-Kariri, GeripankO (state ofA lagoas), and XokO (state of Sergipe). The participants pointed our contradictions in the transposition project, which was designed to remove a large volume of water from the Sao Francisco river at a moment when Brazil is rationing electricity for lack of water in major reservoirs. The project for transposing the waters of the Sao Francisco river was designed by the federal administration for the alleged purpose of solving chronic drought problems in the N ortheast region by making a large volume of its waters available for irrigation projects in the states of Ceara, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraiba and Pernambuco. The final document of the seminar, however, reports that "about 70 percent of the water that the project would make available would be used in large irrigation undertakings in the region and would not, as alleged, bring any benefits to those who suffer the consequences of the drought in the above-mentioned states, as only 5 percent of the population of semi-arid areas in the Northeast would benefit from the project." In the Northeast region, 18 indigenous peoples would be negatively affected by the transposition. The Brazilian electricity crisis has shown that the lack of water in the Northeast and the drastic reduction in the water volume of the Sao Francisco river clearly reveal the political inconsistency of the transposition project. According to the federal administration, water levels in reservoirs of p lants that use waters from the Sao Francisco river are critically low. The project could also meet economic interests of corporations and politicians who will use it to try to get reelected in 2002. Because of the low water volume in the Sao Francisco river, the transposition will only be possible if the waters of the Tocantins river are also diverted. For this purpose, a dam would be built in the Sono river (a tributary of the Tocantins river) close to the bounds of the Xerente indigenous area. The course ofthe Tocantins river would be modified through pumping, making the transposition and a huge financial investment possible. The participants in the seminar closed the final document requiring, among other measures, the immediate preparation of a project to revitalize and preserve the Sao Francisco river and its tributaries using the public funds set apart for its transposition. They also request the creation of mechanisms to ensure social control over the use of these funds and of the waters of the river. Regarding the cyclic drought problem, they state the following: "We believe that any projects designed to fight drought problems must take into account theneed to restore and preserve traditional knowledge that enables affectedpopulations to deal with the drought, so that typical cultures of semi-arid regions may be valued and the caatinga region preserved through sustainable management practices as a feasible ecosystem for the population of the region." The final document of the seminar "Sao Francisco River: a live-or die issue" was sent to the Federal Prosecution Service. the Chamber of Deputies, the Federal Senate, the ministry of Mines and Energy, and the Office of the President of the Republic.

Ecology Old Chico Blues

According to The Washington Post correspondent

MOW

Max Margolis, an ancient opera house in the midst ofthe Amazon jungle is again at tracting tourists. The luxurious Teatro Amazonas, built when the then billionaire city of Manausâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;once the only place in Brazil on the regular route of British and other European linersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;has been totally remodeled and refurbished to its past glories. Its ace in the hole is a 65-piece Philharmonic orchestra made almost entirely of expatriate Russians. Ukrainians, Byelorussians, Bulgarians, Czechs and other Slays, picked for their attested talents. The cloud now hanging over the showplace, some 1,000 miles up the Amazon, is the fear that it may fall preâ&#x20AC;&#x17E;, da capo to a blow like the one that snuffed out its short period of bright success and prosperity. The coup de grace came in the first decade of the 1900's, when the Amazon rubber boom blew up. Somerset Maugham was not there, but he might have written the tragedy of decay that a few rubber tree seedlings ("kidnapped" by the British and taken to the Federated Malay States) visited on rubber's natural birthplace. The current fear is that Manaus, scheduled to lose in 2013 its status as a Custom-Free Tax Zone, may go under again. Legislation creating the Free Zone, passed to prop up the moribund economy of the area, expires on that date. If in the intervening 12 years Amazonia can't find molto accelerando other income-producing businesses to add to tourism, it might be curtains un 'altra volta for Mozart and Verdi in the rain forest.

A Classical Comeback

BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

More than 200 Brazilian journalists, musicians and cultural icons were asked to name their three favorite naThat Memorable Tune tional tunes starting in 1917 when `Tel° Telefone" (On the Phone), the first Aguas de Marco •Brazilian samba, was recorded by Donga. "Which is the all-time best "E pau, pedra, Brazilian song?" was the question presented. Voters were told to cono fim do caminho sider among other items melody, lyrics, some historical reason, and urn resto de toco, even sentimental motives. The stunt was promoted by Polka de Sao Urn pouco sozinho Paulo, Brazil's most read daily newspaper. urn caco de vidro, If your own personal list included Tom Jobim (19274994), you a vida, o sol will be glad to know that seven of Jobim's songs made the ten most E a noite, 6 a morte, cited tunes. Jobinf s "Aguas de Marco", from 1972, was thechampion, o loco, o anzol but his name was also remembered for "Chega de Saudade" (3" place, oba do camp(), •from 1958), "Renato em Branco e Preto" (6th place, 1968) and "Garota o n6 da madeira (7 de Ipanema" " place, 1963). Jobim was again considered for Cainga candela, o matita-pereira "Corcovado" (1960) and "Desafmado" (1958; a tie in 9th place) and "Wave (Vou Te Contar)" (1967, 10th place). E tnadeira de vento, Tom Jobim had 32 of his songs cited, the most songs any author tombo da ribanceira had mentioned. Composer Chico Buarque de Hollanda had the same o mistdrio profundo, queira ou nao queira number oftunes remembered. Surprisingly, according to this criterion, Jorge Ben came in second with tunes mentioned. Only his 1963 o vento ventando, song "I'vlas que 6 o fim da ladeira E a viga, e o vao, Nada", however, testa da curneeira won enough votes to he, included a chuva chovendo, conversa ribeira among the 10 Das Aguas de marco, most memorable fim da canseira songs. No sQng was cited in his Eop,a ochao, 6 a marcha estradeira most recent phase Passarinho na mao, after changing his pecira de atiradeira name to Jorge Ben E uma ave no cell, J or. Caetano uma ave no chao V eloso had 20 um regato, é uma fonte, compositions é urn pedaco de pao mentioned, which E o fiindo do poco, gave him the third place in this category. d o fim do cammho In 1999, a search for the best Brazilian song of all times promote No rosto o desgosto, by Globo TV Network found that AryBarroso' s "AquareladoBrasil urn pouco sozinho ("Brazil") was the favorite. This time the results were less chauvinestrepe, 6 um prego, istic. Jobim, with atotal of I 10 mentions, came wellahead ofth$eOod uma ponta, e urn ponto most cited composer, Chico Buarque, who got 69 nods. Vimmus de E urn pingo pingando, Moraes (48 mentions) came in third for his collaborations with Jobim, é uma conta, 6 urn conto 'Chicol3uarque, Baden Powell, Carlos Lyra, Edu Lobo and Toquinho. E urn peixe, mm gesto, Caetano Veloso and Jorge Ben tied in fourth place with 34 citations, d um,a prata brilhando The fifth place went to Roberto and Erasmo Carlos, a duo famous for E a luz da rumba, o tijolochegando their romantic ballads. They were remembered 24 times by the Mutttrious panel of voters. a lenha, 4 o dia, Interestingly enough, the most memorable "Aguas de Marco o fun da pica& E a garrafa de cana, interpretation, which serves as reference for all the other versions, is o estilhaco na estrada the one sung by the duet Elis & Tom. Elis Regina didn't likeTpm Jobim and didn't hide her dislike for the maestro whom she called "a bore" E o projeto da casa, "dim-witted", and "old fogey" in the backstage, in 1974, when the Ells e o corpo na carna E o carro enguicaclo, & Tom LP was being recorded. Ells, however, needed to revitalize a 6 a lama, a lama career that was being derailed by bad press from critics who were demanding more sophistication from her. The partnership with MT= asso, 6 uma ponte, um sapo, 6 tuna ra made the trick for her. E urn resto de mato, "Aguas de Marco" appeared on a super btiefventure of alternana luz da rnanha tive tabloid Pasquirn into the music business. The nonconformistpuhlication in 1972 decided to release simple compacts—it record with Sao as aguas de marco fechando o verao a song on each side of the old vinyl disc—to reveal new Welts. To

Waters of March It's stick, it's stone It's the end of the road It's a rest of stump It's a little alone It's a shard of glass It is life, it's the sun It is night, it is death It's the snare, it's the fishhook It's peroba of the field It's the knot in the wood Lamp cainga tree It's the matita-pereira tree It's wind-resistant wood Falls of the ravine It's the profound mystery It's the you wish or you don't It's the wind blowing It's the end of the slope It's the beam, it's the span The new roof party It's the rain raining It's riverbank talk Of the waters of March It's the end of the struggle It's the foot, it's the ground It's the walk on the road Small bird in the hand A slingshot stone It's a bird in the sky It's a bird on the ground It's a creek, it's a fountain It's a piece of bread It's the bottom of the well It's the end of the way In the face the annoyance It's a little lonely It's a thorn, it's a nail It's a point, it's a dot It's a drop dripping It's an tally, it's a It's a fish, it's a gesture It's silver shining It's the morning's light It's the brick arriving It's the firewood, it's the day It's the end of the trail It's the bottle of liquor Splinter in the ro

It's the house's design It's the body in bed It's the broken down car It's the mud, it's the mud It's a footstep, it's a bridge ft's a toad, it's a frog It's a rest of brush In the morning's light

They are the waters of March Closing the summer a promessa de vida It's the promise of life no teu coracao In your heart BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

e Joao. Jose It's a snake, it's a stick E uma cobra, e urne,pau, It's John, it's Joseph E um espinho na mao, It's a thorn in the hand é urn corte no pe It's the cut on the foot They arethe thesummer waters of March Sao as aguas de marco Closing , the promise E a fechando promessa odeverao vida It's In your heart of life no teu coracdo E pau, d pedra, It's stick, it's stone It's the end of the road eE ourn tim do caminho resto de toco, It's a rest of stump urn pouco sozinho It's a little alone :4; urn passo, e uma ponte, It's a footstep, a bridge é um sapo, é uma ra It's a toad, it's a frog E, um belo horizonte. It's a beautiful horizon e urna febre terca It's a tertian fever Sao as aguas de marco They are the waters ofMarch fechando o verdo Closing the summer E a promessa de vida It's the promise of life no teu Coracao" In your heart

guarantee success for the record, their proposal was to release on the other side of the disc an unpublished tune by a famous composer. The new composers were rookies Jodo Bosco and Aldir Blanc with "Agnus Dei". Jobim became their godfather in the recording, with -Aguas de Marco". There would be only one more release in the collection: that of Fagner beingpresented - by Caetano Veloso. Women were barely mentioned in this selection. Rita Lee is the first woman to show up in the list. The feisty rocker was mentioned 15 times what guaranteed her an 116 place together with samba composer Cartola. Besides Lee, only Chiquinha Gonzaga and Dolores Duran were remembered. They showed up at the bottom of the list with four mentions each. A big name like Maysa was never mentioned. More recent composers like Marisa Monte, Adriana Calcanhotto, and Zelia Duncan also were snubbed. Talking for her colleagues, Rita Lee offered some explanation for this oversight: "Women are quantitatively less present in several areas. Only recently we started appearing while patriarchy exists for centuries. Chiquinha Gonzaga is from a time when men would say, -Music is man's occupation". Dolores Duran was from atime when guys would say, "Women who compose are whores I'm from a time when Tubby's Boy's Only Clubhouse used to say, o make rock you ought to have balls." Cassia Eller is from a time when people say, "You need to be a macho-woman to make music like a man." My granddaughter will be from a time when they will say, "Only a woman could make such a good song."

9th "Baby" (Caetano Veloso) "Corcovado" (Tom Jobim) "Desatinado" (Tom Jobim & Newton Mendonca) "Panis et Circencis" (Caetano Veloso & Gilberto Gil) "Perola Negra." (Luiz Melodia) "Tres Apitos" (Noel Rosa) "Tropicana- (Caetano Veloso) (5 votes) 10th "Beactress" (Edu Lobo & Chico Buarque) "Dora" (Dorival Caymmi) "Eu e a Brisa- (Johnny Alt) "0 Homem da Gravata Florida" (Jorge Ben) "Inntil" (Roger Moreira) "Ouro de Tolo- (Raul Seixas) "Wave (Vou Te Contar)" (Tom Jobim) (4 votes) Mentioned for more tunes:

lst (32 songs) - Chico Buarque, Finn Jobim 2nd (22 songs) - Jorge Ben 3' (20 songs) - Caetano Veloso 4th (17 songs) - Vinicius de Moraes 5th (13 songs) - Gilberto Gil eh (10 songs) - Rita Lee 7th (9 songs) - Arnaldo Baptista 8th (8 songs) - Ary Banos°, Cartola 9th (7 songs) - Roberto Carlos, Erasmo Carlos, Renato Russo (6 10th songs) - Dorival Caymmi, Luiz Gonzaga These big names were never mentioned:

Old guard Adelino Moreira, Alberto Ribeiro, Alcyr Pires Vermelho, Capiba, Custodio Mesquita, David Nasser, Fernando Lobo, Herivelto Martins, Jackson do Pandeiro. Jacob do Bandolim, Luiz Vieira, Vicente Paiva, Ze Dantas, Zequinha de Abreu Samba Assis Valente, Batatinha, Bide, Candeia, Cyro Monteiro, Elton Medeiros, Mano Decio da Viola, Joao da Baiana, Marcal, Martinho da Vila, Monarco, Moreira da Silva, Nei Lopes, Nelson Sargento, Paulo da Portela, Pedro Caetano. Silas de Oliveira, Synval Silva, Wilson Batista, Wilson Moreira., Ze Keti Brazilian Blues Billy Blanco, Maysa, Tito Madi Bossa nova Eumir Deodato, Joao Donato, Ron aldo Boscoli '60s Dori Caymmi, Joao do Vale, Nana Vasconcelos, Sergio Ricardo, Sidney Miller, Taiguara

The best .

"Aguas de Marco- (Tom Jobim) (23 votes) -C7onstnicao" (Chico Buarque) (21 votes) 3rd"Chega de Saudade" (Tom Jobim &V inicius de Moraes) (18 votes) 4th "Carinhoso- (Pixinguinha & Joao de Barro) (16 votes) 5" "Aquarela do Brasil- (Ary Barroso) (13 votes) 6th "Detalhes- (Roberto Carlos & Erasmo Carlos) "Retrato em Branco e Preto- (Tom Jobim & Chico Buarque) "As Rosas Nao Palm)" (Cartola) (8 votes) 7" "Asa Branca" (Luiz Gonzaga & Humberto Teixeira) -Domingo no Parque- (Gilberto Gil) "Garota de lpanema" (Tom Jobim & Vinicius de Moraes) (7 votes) 8th -Mas ()tie Nada" (Jorge Ben) "Sua Estupidez" (Roberto Carlos & Erasmo Carlos) (6 votes)

BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

'70s Alceu Valenca, Baby do Brasil, Ilelchior, Beto Guedes, Ednardo, Elomar, Fagner, Gerald() Azeved o, L 6 Borges. Pen inha, Pepeu Gomes, Sueli Costa, Walter Franco '80s Ed Motta, Eduardo Dusek, Guilherme Isnard (from Zero),, Humberto Gessinger (from Engineers do Hawaii), Kiko Zambianchi, Leo Jaime, Marcelo Nova, Paulo Miklos (from Titas), Paulo Ricardo (from RPM), Supla (from Toquio). Ze Miguel Wisnik '90s Adriana Calcanhotto, Carlinhos Brown, Chico Cesar, Lenine, Marisa Monte, Samuel Rosa, Zelia Duncan

More than 500 characters, unforgettable like Gabriela and known all over the world like Dona Flor are orphans. Jorge Amado created a universe made of"colonels" (mafia-type bosses), likeable scoundrels, compassionate prostitutes, poor seamen, street kids, winos and all kinds of lowlifes: No other Brazilian author was more respected or more translated overseas. He wrote more than 40 books, some ofthem translated into 48 languages and published in 52 countries. Thanks to movies and TV novelas (soap operas) his very cinematographic oeuvre made him a household name in Brazil, the worldwide Portuguese-speaking community and Latin America. With his death the post of Brazilian novelist that writer that symbolizes a country—is vacant. Jorge Amado died on August 6, four days short of his 89th birthday, but many critics and fellow writers had written his literary obituary several times before. They never forgave him for writing in a style so simple and colloquial that didn't seem literary enough and for depicting an exotic Brazil some would prefer ignored. The epigraph he used for his second book, Cacau (Cacao), from 1933 could be applied to his life: "A minimum of literature and a maximum of honesty." "Zelia, I'm having chest pains," the writer told his wife while resting at home the day of his death. He was immediately taken to the Alianca, a hospital close to his house, in Salvador, state of Bahia. Amado was back home since July 16 after having spent 22 days in the hospital—he was comatose for a short period—getting treated for hyperglycemia. For more than adecade he was having heart trouble. In 1993 he had his first heart attack. Three years later he was submitted to an angioplasty and in 1994 received a pacemaker. His last wish was fulfilled. His ashes were spread by Zelia Gattai—the woman who was his wife and with whom he lived for 56 years—under the mango tree the couple planted at their house in Rio Vermelho, a neighborhood in Salvador. This was the same mango tree under which he used to sit with friends to chat and tell stories. Watching the Tieta, Teresa Batista, Gabrie- scene were his two children: sociologist Joao Jorge, and psychologist Paloma, 50. la, Quincas Berro D'Agua, 53, The author was writing a story about the Sao Vadinho and Dona Flor. For Francisco river and was feeling depressed due to his eye problems which were making it hard for him to many of us they are all like read and write, despite the help of several magnifying lenses bought by Zelia for him. family. We heard through Salvador is today populated by Jorge Amado their ears, we suffered and characters. Many of them gave names to streets, squares and lanes. Baianos can walk, play and dance enjoyed life with them, we in places like Geni lane, Quincas Borba plaza and Clara dos Anjos street. Pedro Arcanjo and Teresa learned to watch at the world Batista the same heroine who became the title of of Amado's most beloved books: Teresa with other eyes. The man who one Batista, Cansada de Guerra (Tereza Batista: Home created all of these people from the Wars)—have also become streets in downtown Salvador. There are also bars, hotels, restauhas gone, but his creations rants and other commercial establishments that named for his characters as well as liquors and though live with us for good. were food products. Amado's face has also been a constant presence in newspapers, bookstores and newsstands in Brazil. ALESSANDRA DALEVI In 1984, Irwin Stern, a professor of Portuguese at Columbia University, wrote in The New York Times Book Review: "No other Latin American writer is more genuinely admired by his peers, nor has any other exerted so great a creative influence on the course of Latin American fiction." In 1987, Bantam Books paid $250,000— a record at the time for a foreign-language novel—for the rights to publish Tocaia Grande (Showdown), the story of the settling of Brazil's cacao plantations.

Death and the Death of the Patriarch

BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

In Salvador or in Paris he wasn't able to get out without being approached by fans, the same people who believed he deserved a Nobel Prize for literature. His latest production didn't contribute to his literary stature though. Tieta do Agreste (1977) and Farda FardcloCamisola de Dormir (1979) are minor works. But while he lost some of his faithful readers in recent years he got a new crowd of admirers in those who got acquainted with him for the first time watching adaptations of his books on TV and on the big screen. "I am a writer who has written about the life of my people, the character of my people," Amado declared a few years ago. "What I can say is that the greatest hero of the Brazilian novel is the Brazilian people."

Amado's World Jorge Amado was born on August 10, 1912 on a cocoa farm called Auricidia in the city of Ferradas, Bahia state, but two years later his parents moved to DMus and then eight years after that to Salvador—both also in Bahia. He was raised in the comfort of a middle-class family. His first book, Pais do Carncrval (Carnaval Country) was released in 1931 when he was 19 and already living in Rio de Janeiro. The land of Bahia was the setting for this novel, a setting that would be a constant in subsequent books. The theme from this first work—the gulf that separates the rich from the poor—would also be recurrent in his production. Pais do Carnaval show a young writer divided between religion, politics and literature. His second novel, Cacau (Cacao), from 1933, portraying workers from the south of Bahia, was banned during the right-wing presidency of Gettilio Vargas, a fascist sympathizer who led Brazil as a dictator from 1930-45 and then as an elected president from 1950-54. Vargas ordered that 1700 copies of his first six novels be burned in Salvador's central plaza. His political views constantly landed him in jail. In 1933, the writer married his first wife, Matilde Garcia Rosawith whom he would live until 1944. In 1934, Suor (Sweat)—a social novel set in Salvador, presenting a gallery oftypes including prostitutes and salesmen—was released. With Jubiabci (1935), Amado got great reviews and the book was translated into French and Spanish. The next year he published Mar Morto (Dead Sea), which was awarded the Graca Aranha Prize, an award from the Academia Brasileira de Letras. As a youngster, Amado became an active member of the Communist party. He was sent to jail after the 1935 Intentona Comunista, an unsuccessful attempt by the communist party to overthrow the government in Brazil. In 1937 he publishes Capildes daAreia (Sand Captains), a tale about street kids. Thanks to his affiliation to the Communist Party with its international network, he soon became a global author before the word globalization took the world by storm. Persecuted by the Vargas administration he went to Argentina in 1942. Amado was 32 in 1944 when his masterpiece Terras do Sem Fim (The Violent Land) was published. It is a portrait of the cacao plantations of the BrazilianNortheast peopled with poor and exploited workers. Still in Argentina, Amado went to live with Zelia Gattai in 1945. Since there was no divorce in Brazil, he was only able to officially marry her in 1978. With the ousting of dictator Gettilio Vargas in 1945, the author went back to Brazil and was elected deputado federal(House representative) by the PCB (Partido Comunista Brasileiro—Brazilian Communist Party). His stay in Brazil, however, was short lived. When his party was once more outlawed in 1947, he again went into exile, this time to Paris. Then France considered him persona non grata and he left to live in the Writers' Union Castle in Dobris, in the former Czechoslovakia. There he wrote 0 Mundo da Paz, uma ode a Lenin e Stalin (The World of Peace, an Ode to Lenin and Stalin. In Europe he made several friends who would greatly mark his care( existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), political activ Louis Aragon (1897-1982) and Spanish painter Pablo Picasso (1881-197: Amado considered Paris his second home and in 1985 received the Legit of Honor from then president Francois Mitterrand. In 1951 Amado went Moscow to accept the Lenin International Peace Prize.

New Times By 1956 he had quit the Party, though, disillusioned at the revelation Stalin's crimes. He adopted what he used to call "utopian socialism", but neN, formally renounced communism. In a 1975 interview, he declared: "The came a time when I had to choose active politics or being a full-time writ' BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

(1990) became miniseries. Political activities were taking so Amado wasn't enthusiastic much time, and there were lots of The 48 languages in which his books about TV and cinema adaptations politicians but few writers." were translated into: of his books. In a 1992 interview Amado's work became less he stated: "I rarely watch these and less political getting an inAzerbaijani, Albanian, Arab, Armenian, Bulgarian, Catalan, adaptations. The adaptation of a creasing dose of lust and zest for Chinese, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Estonian, Finnbook to any other medium is allife. Some of his old comrades ish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Guarani, ways violence. They destroy and fans would never forgive him Hebrew, Hungarian, Yiddish, English, Irish, Italian, Japanese, things that are very important in for what they considered beKorean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Moldavian, Monthe novel. I think that the adaptatrayal, but his popularity zoomed. golian, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, tion is valid only if it is not a pasSlovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Czech; Turkish, Amado commented once that Turkoman, Ukrainian and Vietnamese. tiche, but a recreation. Anyway, "my books are full of the smell, as bad as adaptations might be, taste and blood of my country." The 52 countries where his books were published: even if they distort and modify, Gabriela Cravo e Canela they always pass something of Clove and (Gabriela, Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Bulwhat you wanted to transmit to Cinammon), arguably his bestgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Denmark, Enthe reader when you wrote the known novel, appeared in 1958, gland, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, book." after a four-year period in which Holland, Hungary, Iran, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lethonia, the author didn't write any book. Lithuania, Mexico, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, Russia, A Major Author It tells the story of a pretty and Saudi Arabia, Slovak, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Thaisensual backwoods girl who is land, Turkey, Ukraine, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, After chastising the taken as servant by a bar owner Vietnam, and Yugoslavia. Academia Brasileira de Letras and who ends, up becoming his lover. Talking about the critics (Brazilian Academy of Letters) who see in Gabriela a break ofthe for many years, he became one of author with his past, Amado told the so-called immortals in 1961. an interviewer: "There is this idea that I wrote Gabriela because He mentioned his past criticism of the literary body in his inauI had left the Communist Party. This is not true. I would have guration speech without anyremorse: "I come to your illustrious written this novel anyway because I believe that Gabriela rep- company with the serene satisfaction of having being an adverresents continuity in my work." sary of this institution during that phase in life when we necesThe book was a huge success. In a land where books selling sarily and obligatorily are against the established and the definias little as 3000 copies are considered a bestseller, Gabriela sold tive. 20,000 copies in 15 days and reached 20 editions in three years. The author was an enthusiast and a high official of In 1983, Gabriela became a movie with Sonia Braga and Marcelo Candomble.His two homes in Salvador were filled with images Mastro ianni, who played a role ofArab immigrantNacib, but the of deities of this spirit religion brought to Brazil by slaves from film didn't work and the public stayed away. Africa. Candomble rituals and beliefs are a constant presence in Dona Flor e Seus Dois Mar/dos, which had been made into Amado's books. He used to say, "In Bahia, magic is a powerful a movie in 1975, grossed $20 million in the US becoming Brazil's facet of reality. Here we are all spellbinders of sorts." And in biggest box office in the United States. Once again Braga was another occasion: "We are not this or that, we are everything: the movie's star. Flor lives a menage a trois with her lascivious white, black, Indian. That's what makes our singularity and gives dead husband and the much more behaved new one. In Brazil, us a real importance." the movie directed by Bruno Barreto was seen by 12 million When he talked about the work of writing, Amado used to say people, a record for a national movie that that the origin ofh is talent was a mystery hasn't been broken since. for him. All he knew is that he was born Other adaptations of Amado's work to write and that was enough for him. The Ten Be stselling Books for the movies fared even worse. ReAmado never got used to the computer. nowned director Nelson Pereira dos Until the end he continued using his old Jorge Amado sold more than 20.7 milSantos tried his hand at two adaptations, typewriter. lion books. Tenda dos Milagres (1977) and Jubiaba He classified literature in families. (1986), but neither one was a success. For him, Francois Rabelais, the French I — Capitaes da Areia —4.3 million The work of French director Marcel satirist who died in 1553, was the family copies Camus with Pastores da Noite in 1975 man to whom he most felt close. Then 2 — A Morte e a Morte de Quincas was barely noticed. there were a series of other influent writBerro Dagua — 3.2 million Amado's work has been constantly ers, including Spaniard Miguel de 3— Gabriela, Cravo e Canela— 2 milused by Brazilian TV. Right now, Rede Cervantes, British Charles Dickens, lion Globo is presenting Porto dos Milagres Russian Maxim Gorky, and Brazilians 4— Tocaia Grande : A Face Obscura (Port of Miracles), a story loosely based Gregorio de Mattos and Jose de Alencar. — 1.7 million in two ofthe author's books: Mar Morto Amado himself said once that he 5 — Mar Morto — 1.5 million and A Descoberta da America pelos would like to be remembered as a guy 6--Tieta do Agreste and Dona Flor e Turcos. In 1961, now extinct TV Tupi from Bahia who was sensual and romanSeus Dois Maridos — both 800,000 was the first to adapt a book by Amado tic: "I am like my characters, sometimes 7 — Farda, Fardao, Camisola de to be shown on TV. With the help of his even the female ones." The Bahian auDormir: Fabula para Acender uma wife Zelia, the writer lent a hand to transthor left at least two unfinished books: Esperanca — 700,000 form Gabriela into a telenovela (soap Boris, overmelho (Boris, the Red One), 8 — 0 Gato Malhado e a Andorinha opera). A much more memorable adapwhich he was trying to write since th,e de Sinha: uma Historia de Amor — 600,000 tation would occur in 1975 by the hands '80s and A Apostasia Universal de Agua 9 — 0 Capita() de Longo Curso — of Walter George Durst for Globo TV. Brusca, started in 1995. 400,000 Other TV adaptations came. Terras do Answeringto a critic who called him 10— Terras do Sem Fim — 350,000 Sem Fim (1982) and Tieta (1990) were a novelist of bums and whores he said: made into novelas and Tenda dos "That's what I am." He didn't have the Milagres (1985) and Tereza Batista gift for languages even though he was 12

BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

fluent in French. He even gave up learning to write Portuguese correctly. After one more ofthe innumerous orthographic reforms he poured out his heart: "I write in baianes, decent language, AfroLatin. Not being a linguist has Its advantages. Imagine the heartache to seethe words xoxota orxibius translated as woman's sex or vulva, bunda turning into derriere. Derriere the bunda of a legitimate mulata? Never." Amado didn't like to talk about death and old age and was not happy to commemorate his birthdays in the later years. "Why celebrate senility?" he used to ask. "For a man who loves life and loves to live like me, the idea of death does not seduce at all." Touching the World Reflecting on Amado's death, major poet Ferreira Gullar wrote: "Jorge Amado's death is not an event limited to Brazilian literature since he is a writer who, translated into almost any live language, occupies an unquestionable place in the contemporary literary universe. Many of the stories he invented, many of the characters he created have become part of the fantasy world of people of all races and countries—an accomplishment never achieved by any other Brazilian writer and only by few of any other nationality. We should say even that his death goes beyond the limits of the literary world because those stories and characters are today part of our life, of our culture, of our way of seeing ourselves, of loving ourselves and laughing at ourselves. They teach us Brazil. "For a time I dedicated myself to reread Jorge Amado and Graciliano Ramos. This, exacting, avaricious of words, turned more to the interior world of the characters than to their actions. Masterpieces like Angtistia and Vidas Secas call our attention to life's suffocating reality, reveal one of the sides of this unequal and unforgiving Brazil. But there are other sides and one ofthem is shown to us by Jorge Amado's literature, which is neither less true, nor less Brazilian or less critical. It's the invention of another personality, more romantic, more sensual, more open to the pleasures of life. What this literature loses in rigor it gains in vitality and fantasy. And produces pages that are masterpieces of literary narration in Portuguese language... "As every society is an invention of its participants, there is no way to believe that this Brazil that we invent—and reinvent every day—would be the same without the Vadinhos, the Gabrielas, the Berros d'Agua, the Donas Flor, without infatuated and enchanted sailors, without the idealized prostitutes and whorehouses, the candomble temples and the mcies-de-santo, without bohemians, con artists, down-and-out poets and winos who were born in the pages of his books and ended up living and cohabiting with us. All these people are, at this moment, in some dead end street, in some room, in some bedroom from Ilheus or Salvador— beyond time and history—telling tall tales, playing love in bed, playing cards or their own fate in some little passion, almost always unimportant, worried only about ardently surrendering themselves to life." It was mainly during the '70s and 80s that Amado suffered the most severe criticism to his work. Some of the best Brazilian critics crucified him not only for what they saw as low literary quality but also distorted Baiano ideology. Carlos Guilherme Mota, in 1974, accused Amado of being repetitive. Alfredo Bosi, in his Historia Concisa da Literatura Brasileira (Concise History of Brazilian Literature) charges the author for overusing stereotypes: "The literary populism originated a blend of blunders, and the biggest of all was that of being considered revolutionary art. In Jorge Amado's case the pas-

hairs thmkts Latin-Ameni an Literature "This doesn't xist. This is a colonialist position. How can you put together, i a ghetto, the literatures of countries that have different economi s and societies? The only thing in common among Latin-Am ican countries is misery and oppression. We are all similar onl in what there's of bad and disgraceful." Brazilian Lit rature "Our literatur has the tradition to be on people's side. In some periods of h. tory, as in the worst years of the dictatorship, some authors dist ced themselves from the people, but we still have the traditio People "It's all that's lean, pure, decent. Greatness is in the people, in the strength th y have." Writing an old age "A writer nee s to have time, he needs to live from his writing. This story of oung spirit is nonsense. The spirit ends with youth. When we re old we cannot do one thousand things at the same time. We n ed to do one thing at a time. Ideas are not born when we sit by t e typewriter, they mature gradually until they get to the right p int." Censorship blame censorship for not writing. Censor"No author ship can prevent book from being published, but not from being written. It doesn t harm the creation. See the example of Chico Buarque de Hol da, one of the more persecuted. He composed nine songs, they forbade eight and he was already writing his tenth." Politics "I'm in favo of elections because it is a step for democracy, but I don't have a party. I think I was violated when forced to since no Brazilian chooses a party but a canvote in one p didate." Gabriela "I sold Gab 'ela way too cheap, 100,000 dollars. And then they went and ade this little porno movie that disfigured and vulgarized my ook." Bahia "In Europe t hey call me master, but it's strolling through the streets of Salvador that I feel at ease." Religion "It would b nice to believe that I have a place reserved by . For me, a little place would be good enough, God's right sid It happens though that lam not able even sitting oneseground. things." to believe in th Death "I don't fear death because I don't believe in heaven or hell. But the idea of dying is not pleasant at all. I wished I would believe that everything will continue and that a god exists. But I cannot. For me, after death it's all finished." Candombl "I'm materialistic, but my materialism does not limit me. I couldn't have the pretension of being a Bahia novelist if I didn't know intimately the candombles." Communi m "I was in Moscow for the last time in 1989. I saw terrible things. I came pack running because I was certain that I had a brain tumor. Tihen I saw that it wasn't that. It was the Soviet Union, the Be lin Wall, all of that falling on my head." Socialism "I never b ame an anticommunist. I think that socialism is the future. Th fall of the Berlin Wall meant the end of the repulsive dictat rships that existed in name of communism, but were not com unism." Nobel "I never thOught about getting the Nobel Prize. Why? I think I don't deserve it. The prize has to be given to great writers. That's not my case." Erudition "I know IiIle or nothing about theories. I am not an erudite reader of the t heoreticians either. I am only a man who fought and fights for causes that seem just to me." Life "I can say am a lucky man. Life gave me more than I asked." ."

I. BRAZZIL -SEPTEMBER 2001

.1 13

sage of time was enough to undo the mistake." Rogerio Menezes wrote in Correio Braziliense: "Yesterday the most important Brazilian writer in 501 years of h istory died. He was not the greatest because he wrote concisely and precisely. That wouldn't be Jorge Amado, it would be Alagoano Graciliano Ramos. He wasn't the greatest for being a daring renovator of the literary language. That wouldn't be Jorge Amado, it would be Mineiro Joao Guimaraes Rosa. The barroque-baiano (expression that's perhaps spectacular redundancy) Jorge Amado was the greatest because he was able as no other national author to take the rude and ignorant populace, the rabble, the mob that lives in the gutters, the wretched and the dispossessed, the miserable, the have-nothing, the survivors to the center of the plot of the national literature novels. And this, in this country soullessly elitist, is no small deal." Brief Chronology 1912 — Jorge Amado is born on August 10, in a cocoa farm in Bahia state, son of merchant Joao Amado de Faria and Eulalia Leal Amado. 1920-1926— Does his basic schooling in Ilheus and goes to a Jesuit high school in Salvador. 1922— Creates newspaper A Luneta and distributes it among friends and relatives 1927: Publishes poem in A Luva magazine. Gets his first job as a reporter for Dicirio da Bahia. 1928 — Writes his first stories to magazines Samba, Meridiano and A Semana. 1930 — Moves to Rio. 1931 — Starts Law School at Universidade do Rio de Janeiro. Pais do Carnaval, his first book, is released. 1933 — Marries Matilde Garcia Rosa 1935 — Argentina becomes the first country to translate Jorge Amado, publishing his Cacau. Soon after, Cacau and Suor are published in Russian, in the former Soviet Union. 1935 — Is jailed for his communist militancy. 1937 —The author goes on a tour ofLatin America and the United States. His books are considered subversive in Brazil and are burned in the streets of Salvador. 1938 — Suor is published in English translation by New York's New America publishing house. In France, Gall imard publishes in French Jubiaba. Renowned writer Albert Camus will read the work and comment in an article: "Jubiaba is magnificent and startling." 1942 — Goes into exile in Argentina. 1942— Meets writer Zelia Gattai, the woman who would be with him until the end. 1945 — Starts living with Zelia Gattai. Elected House representative for the state of Sao Paulo by the Brazilian Communist Party. 1948 — Amado goes into exile in Europe when the Communist Party is declared illegal in Brazil. 1950— Expelled from France for political reasons he goes to Dobris in Czechoslovakia. 1951 — Moves to Prague where his daughter Paloma is born. Is awarded the Stalin International Prize in Moscow. 1952 — Travels through China and Mongolia and returns to Brazil. 1953 — The US bans and confiscates all of his books for his communist point of view. He is forbidden to visit the United States. 1961 — Elected to the Brazilian Academy of Letters. 1975— Walter George Durst adapts Gabriela, Cravo e Canela into a TV soap opera. 1978— Bruno Barreto's movie Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos becomes the all time biggest box-office ever for a Brazilian movie in Brazil. He officially marries Zelia Gattai, now that divorce becomes available in Brazil. 1967— Uniao Brasileira de Escritores (Brazilian Writers Union) presents in Stockholm his nomination to the Nobel Prize of Literature. 1975 — French director Marcel Camus makes Os Pastores da Noite into a movie called Othalia de Bahia. 1979 —Sarava based in Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos opens on Broadway. The musical is authored by Richard Nash and Mitch Leigh. 1983 — Gabriela, starring S8nia Braga and Marcello Mastroianni is made. Receives France's Legion of Honor. 1987— Casa de Jorge Amado Foundation is created in Salvador, Bahia. 1995 — Receives Premio Camties, the most important literary award in the Portuguese language. I 995 —Released revised versions of Gabriela, Cravo e Cane/a, Terras do Sem Fim, Capitaes da Areia, Mar Morto and Jubiaba. The revision work is done by Paloma Costa, the author's Amado and wife Zelia Gattai daughter. 14

• • • Bibliography • • • 1931- 0 Pais do Carnaval • 1933— Cacau • 1934— Suor • 1935 — Jubiaba This book was praised • by French writer Albert Camus and was • important for Amado's reputation over•• seas. • 1936— Mar Morto • 1937— Capitcies da Areia • 1941 — ABC de Castro Alves • 1942— 0 Cavaleiro da Esperanca. Was • first released in Argentina. The Brazilian • edition only appeared in 1945. • 1943 — Terras do Sem Fim •• 1944— Sao Jorge dos BMus • 1945— Bahia de Todos os Santos (travel • guide) • 1945 — 0 Cavaleiro da Esperanca • 1946— Seara Vermelha • 1947— 0 Amor do Soldado (play) • 1951 — 0 Mundo da Paz (travel impres• sions) • 1954 — Os SzOterriineos da Liberdade • • (Trilogy: Os Asperos Tempos, A Agonia • da Noite, A Luz do Tiinel) • 1958— Gabriela, Cravo e Canela • 1961 — A Morte e a Morte de Quincas • Berro d'Agua • 1961 — Os Velhos Marinheiros or 0 • Capitdo-de-longo-curso • 1964— Os Pastores da Noite • 1966— Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos • • 1969— Tenda dos Milagres • 1972 — Tereza Batista Cansada de • Guerra • 1976— 0 Gato Malhado e a Andorinha • Sinha (book for children) • 1977 — Tieta do Agreste • 1979 — Farda, Farddo, Camisola de • Dormir • • 1981 — 0 Alenino Graphina (memoirs) • 1984 — A Bola e o Goleiro (book for • children) • 1984— Tocaia Grande: A Face Obscura • 1988— 0 Sumico da Santa • 1992— Ncrvegacclo de Cabotagem (au• tobiography) • 1994 A Descoberta da America pelos Turcos ••• Short Stories • 1945 —"Historia do Carnaval" • 1963 —"De como o Mulato Porciancula • Descarregou o Seu Defunto" • 1965 — "As Modes e o Triunfo de • Rosalinda" • 1997— "0 Milagre dos Passaros" • Poetry • • 1937— A Estrada do Mar • Co-author in • 1930 — Lenita with Dias da Costa and • Edson Carneiro. • 1942— Branddo entre o Mar e o Amor • with Anibal Machado, Graciliano Ramos, • Jose Lins do Rego and Rachel de Queiroz. • 1962 — 0 Misterio dos MMM with •• Viriato Correia, Dinah Silveira de • Queiroz, Lncio Cardoso, Herberto Sales, • Jose Conde, Joao Guimaraes Rosa, An• torn° Call ado, Origenes Lessa and Rachel • de Queiroz. • 1965— A Nava° Grapizina with Adonias • Filho. • 1986— 0 Capeta Calybe with engrav• • ings by Carybe. • ••••

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BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

You are invited to participate in thisdialogue Write to Letters to the Publisher P 0 Box 50536 Los Angeles, CA 90050-0536 or send E-mail to brazzil@brazzil.com BELOVED AMADU

It saddens my heartto read of the passing of Jorge Amado. I have read every book he has written and have seen every book turned into film. He was inspiration in turning me onto Brazil and its culture as a teenager. Please express my deepest sympathy to his family. Today the "Eyes of Chango" close and so closes the life of one of Brazil's greatest authors. Celestine Heard Brooklyn, New York THAT GLORIOUS MOMENT

I just read your article "To Cheat is to be Smart in Brazil" and I would agree. But, for a brief (shining) moment, I believe that Brazil did have national pride. In the early seventies, after the administrations of Yank) Quadros, and during the military governmentof Medici, there was the Brazilian miracle. The economy was booming! Pele was a super star. People were truly enamored over their country's perceived dominance. They really imagined that they would be a superpower; "Brasil merece o nosso arm" signs were all over. The movies showed propaganda "movie reels" for thirty minutes before every movie. It was an interesting time to be there for this "pro-Castro" flower child. Thanks for an interesting article. Nancy Via Internet A CALL TO HEROES

Please help us! My 23-month old granddaughter has just been diagnosed with a very rare and deadly form of leukemia and she desperately needs a bone marrow transplant. Because her mother is Brazilian, the best chance of getting a match would be someone of mixed ethnicityâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Brazilian/white. I am looking for ways to get this message to the Brazilian community. I have already contacted the Brazilian consulate, but I have not yet received a reply. It isn't often that we have the chance to be a hero and save a life, but that is exactly what those people that are willing to be screened as bone marrow donors have the chance to do. There is no cost to be screened for individuals of Brazilian ethnicity, and all that is needed is one small vial of blood. I have attached a flyer for your information. We have so little time to save Kayli's life. Thank you for your help. Linda Young (858)622-8881 linda.young@agouron.com IN BRAZIL FOR GOOD

After reading Dolores Jenkins opinion in the July/ 16

August issue, I felt the need to express my opinion. As an expatriate from Indiana, I have been to Brazil many times and have retired to Bauru, Brazil since last October. 1 am married to a Brazilian, who is typical of most Brazilians. She is full of life and energy, always with a big smile and a hug for everyone. Brazilians are family oriented and very close to all members. It is amazing for me still, to watch a family say goodbye after a get together. First it is time to go so they hug and say goodbye and talk awhile, then they go to the door and do it all again....then to the car and once again they hug and say goodbye. It seems they just do not want to leave each other. The love for each other is obvious, There are energy problems, crime and poverty, but the Brazilians take it all in stride, It is just the way it is! We (I include myself now) live for vacations. We work (if necessary) to earn money to take a vacation. In the States you work to buy stuff and more stuff. I love it here and would not consider moving back for anything . I go back every year to visit my six kids and nine grandkids but Brazil is my home! Tom Forbes Bauru, Brazil THE REAL BRAZIL I love your magazine and can't wait for each new issue. I don't think that the sometimes sexiness of some of the articles merit any criticism. I take it that your magazine is a cross-reference of Brazilian culture as we accurately see ittoday. I don't want to read a pseudo Brazilian magazine, glossed over with American politically correct viewpoints. I bet the critics don't write letters of complaint to "Cosmopolitan" or"Men's Health" magazines about them showing a bathing suit or two. Why should they to yours? A word on "No Apologies Necessary." On being American by birth and Japanese by lineage, I am aware that I may be considered a child of two of the, 'economic engines of the world'. I cannot place my feet in the shoes of the Brazilian executives of the mentioned article, but faced with ones business peers of such prosperous nations may seem a daunting atmosphere. I just ask that these good men and women consider the next time that they are in a similar situation, to first ponder: What would the world be like without Brazil and Brazilians? David Harada Berkeley, California HE RACE CARD It's was interesting to read abouta black Amencan s experiences in Bahia in "Down in Black Bahia". Being Nigerian-American myself, the similarities experienced on my last two trips to Brazil (Sao Paulo, Rio, Tocantins and Goias) are all too uncanny. Right on about Church in Brazil. Seeing words like acaraje, 116 Aiye and Olodum and recognizing their Yoruba origin, filled me with muita saudade for Nigeria. The bonus was discovering last

year that I had a cousin in Sao Paulo. Despite my last five weeks in Brazil (over Camaval), injury prevented me from visiting Salvador, much to my vexation. Regarding ethnic discrimination in Brazil, I agree with Mark that there are Brazilians in "denial" or (in my opinion) just not cognizant of their history. I once had a Paulista make a derogatory remark about Baianos. I knew enough Portuguese to call her on it. Her explanation was that everyone referenced Baianos that way. I dug deeper to discover the source of her discrimination was that Baianos were more African in origin that other Brazilians. When I reminded her where I came from and that her own linage was probably WestAfrican she began to reconsider. Tope Oluwole Boston, Massachusetts BRAZILIAN PRIDE

No other country is like Brazil. And I'm aware I'm from a unique place filled with so much beauty and

happiness. Of course, my country has its weakness as all other countries do, but in may opinion, as I do often, all Brazilians should invite their friends to come visit one of the most beautiful countries in the world. As Ms.

Dolores Jenkins said, the beauty is not only in the nature but within every Brazilian. Daniele Dias Ferreira Via Internet SERENDIPITOUS MAIL

You can imagine my surpnse when I opened my mailbox yesterday morning and found a copy of your online magazine there since neither myself or my wife (who as it happens is Brazilian) had never heard of it before. Having said this it seems already like a nice read and my wife was especially interested in finding out more about the current electricity situation there. It would be nice to see future copies of your online magazine appearing in my mailbox in the near future, both myself and my wife will look forward to reading it now. Jock & Carla Brasil Rebelles Watson Edinburgh, Scotland BRIGHT IDEA

I just read your amazing article on government aid for AIDS with condom awareness. I have a suggestion to add to the already creative ideas. Use a model or cartoon character in print and/or in parades wearing a gorgeous headdress of blown-up condomsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in keeping with Rio's Mardi-Gras Carnavall Flowers and bells and jewels and feathers and blown-up condoms would be sensational and extremely effective. Does Brazil (or its source for) manufacture condoms in colors? 1 think so. My "antennae" are out for headdress ideas because lam the coord inator of the Carmen Miranda-inspired annual Gala Food Bank Headdress Ball here in Hawaii on the Kona Coast. This year's wild Gala Ball is happening August 25th. C. 0. Erger

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And Now, Salvador? The pace of reform is slow, and 'grass roots' initiatives have failed to organize themselves into a cohesive, politically powerful social movement. PHILIP MIZEWSKI

I used to think at violence in the Middle East was an effective metaphor fo what was wrong in Brazil. I concluded that the antagonism be ween Palestinians and Israelis offered a glimpse into what c uld evolve from the class schism that defines Brazilian so • iety, if not addressed. A sort of 'samba intifada' complet with bandana masked, stone wielding favelados hunkere • down behind corrugated tin barricades as crack Brazilian tro ps bore down upon them. I imagined fearful middle and upper *lass citizens torn between their fear of the intifada sambistas nd their contempt for the evil empire storm troopers who were rotecting them. But the recent violence that erupted when poli in Salvador went on strike manifested itself in a curiously focused way and surfaced unanticipated perspectives. The 'hoards' t at poured out of the favelas did not wreak mayhem and venge ce on all of Salvador; they were selective. They targeted ups ale shopping malls and other sources of conspicuous cons ption with suspect synchronicity. One has to wonder how th ir reaction to this 'opportunity' had been molded by the age ftelevision; by the nightly novelas that have fueled their fantasi s of living in a better world. And the federal 'storm troopers', w en they arrived, were largely not viewed with contempt, at least ot by those living outside of the favelas. In phone con ersations, Brazilians in Salvador, or who returned shortly a er the violence, consistently expressed similar sentiments to m-. The populace was generally safe provided they were not in ar like the upscale shopping districts ofBarra, the Aeroclub com lex or the Iguatemi shopping center in Pituba. Arid they echoed s rprise at their own reaction to the arrival of federal troops thai had been sent to quell the violence. "I never imagined", said o e "that we would be welcoming the military into our city, but e felt glad that they had arrived". That individual added, phil • sophically, "Well, these military weren't even born until after the • ictatorship. They aren't the same ones at all." So where does Sal ador and the rest ofBrazil go from here? How has the psyche of Salvador been affected by what happened? Listen to this firs hand account:

"The strike h ended, yes. You already know don't you? But the feeling o the city is a little depressed after all these things. Evelybo, knows that the inequality and poverty is very deep here. everybody knows that there are people living here unde the most-unhappy conditions. But now this has come to real , now we know that these people are just under control an, when we don't have this control we see, face to face wha we just knew for hearing. Hate and violence were ju 'tin the favelas, but now they have come to the surface of ou immovable middle class. I think nobody is comfortable wit this situation and if something good has come from this s rike it is this feeling; I can see it in many faces now. "Nobody must b comfortable when there's so much hunger. A woma that was robbing a store on Avenida Carlos Gomes w .s killed with a shot, in the presence of her children. She w looting a furniture store. Many will say "but she was no robbing for food". And I remember Titans: "A gente nab q r s6 comida, a gente quer comida, divers& e arte. gente nap quer s6 comida, a gente quer saida para qual uer parte." (We don't want just food, we want food, amu ement and arts. We don't just want food, we want food and a outlet to any part). I' m very sad with these events and there's a domino effect on all of Brazil fter what happened in Bahia (as much as our press would try o hide it, in the name of our governor). Many strikes are expl sding in many important cities and people are getting crazy ev rywhere. Just today, three cities employed the intervention o I the shock police to contain people (Belo Horizonte, Rem e, Maceiri, along with something in Sao Paulo and the everyda violence in Rio). BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

"Broadcasts are showing the bad military police acting in morros cariocas, requiringpayment for not arresting drug criminals. It's always that way. IfGlobo—or any big press—doesn't agree with something they find away to demoralize it. Military Police are not what we call saints, but it was that waywith public workers (like me) when we required better salaries. They would show workers from Brasilia, who never go work, receiving their high salaries, like it was the majority. That turned the population against public workers and, of course, served the interests of the governor". The problems remain. The Brazilian class schism continues, as before, to be marked by the flaunting of inherited wealth or influence and the weight upon society of all who suffer the indignities of serving it. Anonymous mothers and fathers still struggle to break the cycle of perpetual miseries. Prominent citizens still live in gated communities and fear having to relinquish advantage. Inequitable land distribution and the relatively passive, but chronic maintenance of African Brazilians, native Brazilians and, to a lesser degree, mulattos and other genetic admixtures on the margins of society still casts a pall over Brazil's cane fields, coffee fazendas, skyscrapers, tourist Mecca's and industrial centers. Individual Brazilians still focus largely on survival, refusing to trust that government will function in the national interest. And leadership continues to vacillate between serving that interest and serving itself. The citizens and leadership of Brazil have made strides in the right direction. 'Constructive social engagement' is being embraced by an increasing number of individuals and groups in Brazilian communities. That's a hopeful sign. So is the increasing, though still modest, government responsiveness to public demands for more accountability. But the pace of reform is slow, and 'grass roots' initiatives have failed to organize themselves into a cohesive, politically powerful social movement. The sins of omission may no longer be so aggressively consuming the

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future hopes and dreams for a better Brazil, but Brazil's cancer isn't in remission either. Brazil's economic condition has declined from stable to serious after earlier being upgraded from critical. Any collective sigh ofrelief has been tempered by harsh reality. Brazil has still only recently embarked on its road to economic and sociopolitical recovery. And recoveries are almost always attained in "fits and starts"; in iterations of "two steps forward, one step back". The question is "have the problems grown beyond the point where they can ever be effectively redressed". Recovery should be pursued with sure, steady, steps. Clear vision and quiet determination should drive that recovery. Consolidating progress to date would be a good start. It would also be good for Brazil, and all of Latin America, to continue to demand more attention from their powerful northern neighbor. The Bush administration needs to improve its flagging credibility at home and Latin American diplomacy offers a unique opportunity for it to do so. President Bush relates easily to Latin America in an era when Latin American influence is rapidly spreading across the North American continent. Relationship building is a pivotal component of self-respect. Selfrespect enhances confidence and encourages effective decisionmaking. When confidence is lacking, hesitation leads to procrastination; problems then fester and worsen. Martin Luther King said that people should be judged "by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin". Content and character go hand in hand. Character is the substance of what a citizen is. But character is defined by content, what a citizen does. What Brazil, and Brazilians, do next, if anything, will speak volumes about their character. What we in the United States do, if anything, to support them will speak volumes about ours. You may contact the author at brazzil(&,brazzil.com

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Since the end of the annual July recess, Brazil's Congress ish members in man ways, including with the loss of a seat dehas been considering what has come to be known as the "Ethics pending on the offe se; 5) Representati e Commission—this would make it easier Package"—a series ofmeasures meant to do away with, or at least tone down, a number of improper procedures and inexcusable for organized group like labor unions, residents' associations advantages not normally enjoyed by parliamentarians elsewhere and NGOs to submi citizens' bills—proposals that would then be considered by Congress. To do so in the world. At first glance, it sounds ideal: if now requires a complicated document there's an institution in Brazil that could use that must be signed by one million regheavy doses of ethics, discipline and morality, istered voters before being considered; that would be Congress. Such changes would 6) Public funding for political camcome not a moment too soon. But a closer look paigns—already approved by the Senreveals more of an opportunistic stab at a seriate, this proposal, if passed by the ous set ofproblems, with limited chances oftrue Lower House, would grant parties R$7 success. (about US$3) per vote received in the The "package" covers aspects of Brazilian past election, to fund the next camCongressional life that have been severely critipaign. The money would be distributed cized for a number of years. Most are the obby each political party among its canject ofbills or amendments already introduced, didates, and no other funding would be which have been sitting where Brazilian elected allowed in an election campaign; officials like to put what they don't care for— Taken together, these steps repreThere are elected members of in the bottom drawer of a back room somewhere in Brasilia. These existing motions have now Brazil's Congress who spent sent massive changes to Brazil's political establishment, ofthe sort most membeen pulled together in one neat bundle to crebers of Congress want no part of, even heavily to win a seat, and avoid ate the so-called "package". if most don't have the courage to step There's no denying the convenience of appearing to do something at this particular time being nailed by the law. forward and say so in public. Which is about the most questionable aspects of Brazil' s Brazilians are well aware their why this entire package must be looked upon with grave doubts about the true Parliament. The image of Congress is as far intentions of the man portraying himdown in the dumps as can be, especially follow- honorable elected officials are self as the driving force behind this ing the long, in-the-gutter battle for the Senate not about to kiss off this effort—Congressman Add° Neves of presidency between Antonio Carlos Magalhaes and Jader Barbalho, and its telling aftermath: mother of all parliamentary the PSDB, the recently elected President of the Lower House of Congress, two resignations to avoid expulsions—includparliamentary best known for being the grandson of goodies: ing Magalhaes', plus Barbalho licensed from Tancredo Neves, who would have been the presidency to answer serious charges of cor- immunity. Brazil's first civilian president after 21 ruption and also expected to resign to avoid years of military rule but died without being expelled. taking office in 1985. Specifically, the image-cleansing "pack"Aecinho", as he's also known, was age" deals with the following issues and prothe object of quite a deference by Presiposed measures: dent Fernando Henrique Cardoso re1) Secret ballots—currently, any vote in Congress can be secret if a member so moves, and the motion cently. On a briefp esklential visit to neighboring Bolivia, VicePresident Marco Maciel traveled obtains a simple majority. A great way for a along—normally, Maciel would stay congressman to hide inconsistent, unexplainbehind and be the sitting President able positions from voters; during Cardoso's absence. With 2) Parliamentary immunity—often deMaciel out of the country, the next scribed as "parliamentary impunity" because in person down the line to temporarily Brazil's Congress, it protects members not just sit in as President was Aecio, which from possible legal action because ofwhat they he did for a couple of days. It was a say on the floor (as is the case for elected offisymbolic way of having a Neves in cials most anywhere else in the world), but the presidency to honor the memory also—amazingly—from being penalized for of Tancredo, who defeated the milicommon criminal acts like embezzlement and tary regime in a Congressional vote even murder; in a tense moment in recent Brazilian 3) Party loyalty—members would have to history, but never got to taste his vicbe affiliated to a party for at least four years tory. Allowing Aecio to embody his before running for office under its colors. Curgrandfather actually got people rently, the law calls for only two years' affilithinking about what might have been ation before a party member can be a candidate. had Tancredo become President, This allows for unlimited party-hopping, with instead of his very limited running politicians jumping ship at will, often immedimate, Jose Sarney. ately after election results are known, in a clear The younger Neves might even show of disregard for party lines, ideology, or be pursuing his "Ethics Package" out the voters who just elected them. With only a two-year affiliation period in the law books, they'll be eligible of the goodness of his heart, and the true belief that such measures are the very least that must be done to moralize Brazil's again when the next election comes around; 4) Code of Ethics and creation of an Ethics Committee—the Congress, all of hich is rather obvious. He has gone to great Senate already has both, but not the Lower House. If introduced, lengths to explain in various media appearances that he wants the Code would be enforced by the Committee, which could pun- to improve the put: lic image of the federal Legislature, and even BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

went so far as to consider an R$8.5 million (about US$3.5 mil- to be considered and voted on so far; - Public funding for political campaigns? Well... this would lion) advertising campaign to "publicize positive measures" approved by Congress, since the media only seem to spot the , make it a lot more difficult for candidates to accept financial negative stuff... To defend the expense, Aecio Neves argued that., backing in exchange for positions they will defend once elected. cost cuts he introduced since becoming President of the Lower Not only do politicians not want to give this up, but voters tend House have saved taxpayers R$133 million (about US 551 'to see the proposal as more taxpayer money in the hands ofpeop le million). Presumably this gives him the right to spend R 5 who walk away with far too much as it is. Very limited chances ;of approval... million in any way he wishes... You might be wondering why Add() Neves would make so Unfortunately, all this goodness and sudden urge for morality stumbles on a simple fact: there is hardly a chance Congress much noise about his "package", if its chances are so limited. will give up on many ofthese aspects, however absurd they might Surely he knows what he is surrounded by in Congress... We appear. The fact is there are elected members of Brazil's Con- wondered for a while too, until the past week, when Aecio was gress who spent heavily to win a seat, and avoid being nailed by the honored guest of a dinner meeting with high-powered busithe law. So while little is said out in the open about the item deal- ness leaders in sao Paulo. The high point of the gathering: an ing with parliamentary impunity... er, immunity that is... Bra- emotional pitch to those in attendance, about what an ideal zilians are well aware their honorable elected officials are not presidential candidate Adcio might be in 2002. That might just explain it all, but it's not as simple as it appears. about to kiss off this mother of all parliamentary goodies. It's not that Aecio would have a real shot at becoming the How big is the problem? The Lower House is currentl government candidate, let alone winning the presidential elecpossession of 28 requests from the Brazilian Supreme Co tion. At this point in his political career, aside from his famous formally charge elected members. This is what current prof dure calls for: the Supreme Court must ask permission, and .grandfather, he is really a political lightweight with not much Congress must allow one of its own to be charged. The Consti- else to go on. But throwing another name into the fray fits what tutional and Justice Commission of the Lower House has ten seems to be President Cardoso's strategy at this point: to have more such requests—eight of them involve alleged fraud, em- several possible government candidates being considered, so the bezzlement, influence trafficking, use of false documents and opposition doesn't have a specific name to focus on with its improper use of public funds or property. All of it involving criticism. At a time of low government approval ratings, what with the elected members, none of it having anything to do with what parliamentary immunity was meant to protect elected officials threat ofblackouts because ofthe energy crisis, and trouble emafrom in the first place. Some requests have been awaiting a nating from Argentina hitting the economic scene, this is not a good time for the government to be clear about who its candidecision for as many as ten years. Perhaps Add() Neves meant for his "package" to mobilize date will be next year. At the same time, the government doesn't public opinion in such a way that Congress would have no choice want to be entirely out of the picture. So Add° Neves becomes but to move forward on all items. Perhaps. If this was his inten- the fifth possible government standard-bearer on the scene, along with Health Minister Jose Serra, Finance Minister Pedro Malan, tion, it simply hasn't materialized, and there's no reason wiz Ceara state Governor Tasso Jereissati, and Education Minister should have: all of these items—however blatant they n1 Paulo Renato de Souza. appear to readers who are elsewhere in the world, and ac Aecio might just come out of this smelling like roses, as the tomed to legislative procedures that couldn't possibly include this sort ofblunt protection of wrongdoing—are old hat in Brazil. one in favor of "clean hands" and "ethics" in Congress who It is not new or surprising that someone with a bad rap gets elected couldn't get his way because members simply wouldn't have it. He has promised to put each and every aspect of the "Ethics to avoid the law. True, recently several cases have been un Package" up for a vote, as a way to expose those who are against ered and members have been expelled and even arrested. S change. Assuming the item banning secret ballots can be apety and the media are certainly more aware of the problem ved ahead of the rest, this could get interesting. The most when the evidence is there, something has been done abo mportant aspects of the "package" have yet to be considered outside Congress. Which only serves to encourage the e and voted on, so there's time for the government to try and stir corps that will more than likely kick in, and stop the up pressure on Congress from society to get these measures Package" from doing further damage to such a cozy s Aside from the extremely limited chance that parliamentary through—assuming the government actually wants these meaimmunity will be changed in any way, here's a look at the other sures in place. Without this, most ofthe key items will either fall measures and their chances of approval or, at least, change for by the wayside entirely, or end up heavily amended—all sharp teeth carefully removed—and then passed. the better: - Secret ballots are under pressure, and other legislatur Related sites: throughout Brazil, at the state and municipal level, have d Congressman Aecio Neves' website (Portuguese only): away with them. There's a 50-50 chance this one can pass at the http://www.camara.gov.br/aecioneves federal level; - Party loyalty is a tough one, always mentioned whenever Adhemar Altieri is a veteran with major news outlets in political reform comes up—then again, political reform has been Brazil, Canada and the United States. He holds a Master's promised since the 1994 campaign when Fernando Henriqq Degree in Journalism from Northwestern University in Cardoso was first elected. He never really took the lead on Evanston, Illinois, and spent ten years with CBS News and Congress certainly won't. Party-swapping is a great way toF "negotiate" one's position in Brazil's Congress, so this one is- reporting from Canada and Brazil. Altieri is a member of the Virtual Intelligence Community, formed by The Greenfield seen as serious damage to what being a congressman is all about. ; Consulting Group to identify future trends for Latin Chances of approval are very limited; America. He is also the editor of InfoBrazil (http:// - Creating a Code of Ethics and an Ethics Committee mi www.infobrazil.com), an English-language weekly e-zine just make it, since similar structures already exist in the Sen with analysis and opinions on Brazilian politics and - The Representative Commission, which makes it easier for economy. You can reach the author at citizens' bills to get to the Lower House for consideration, was editors@infobrazil.com actually approved on August 8th, and described as a "direct connection" with society. This is the only aspect of the "package" 20

BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

There is by now a laundry list of public benefits that have inured to Brazil because of its recent electric energy shortage and consequent implementation of rationing. In Brazil the news remains mostly recriminations. The hard damage is yet to come, or 'so they say'. The recent damage that is evident— higher interest rates and slowing growth— are effects of the neighboring Argentine depression and general global economic conditions. Nationalist and populist opposition politicians and press seize on the electric as "incompetent" government management; on the global slowdown, as proof Brazil should turn inward in its economic and institutional development— become "less vulnerable" to global trade and finance. It is as though uncovering electric sector weaknesses and finally giving some substance to distinctions between the economic vitality of Brazil, at least compared with Argentina, was not progress at all. The most important consequence is not new, but of the type that grows stronger with use. Brazilians gave and continue to give the electric shortage their entire cooperation. Almost everywhere ration quotas have been surpassed. There are three times the rebates for under quota use than there are impositions of 'super rates' for non-compliance. Important reservoirs are slowly accumulating depth before rainy seasons even begin because most individual residences have cut usage. Forty four percent of industrial users too met quotas in only the first month, reporting 'no effects on production' according to a Getfilio Vargas Foundation report. Business investment plans still show a 6 percent increase for this year over last, only a 1 percent drop from previous reports. All around, citizens are acquiring productive habits they could retain when the rains return to normal. (The awaited cooperative numbers from nature converge at 80 percent of normal rainfall to June of 2002 before rationing can be put aside.) This evident price sensitivity is giving the sector new inspiration. An industry trade group for investors in infrastructure (Abdib) reports member plans for a new US$ 90 billions in the electric sector through 2004. The political dilemmas that have paralyzed investment have not disappeared of course, but they have been exposed, and hopefully the government will need less political capital to resolve them. Generators and distributors will lose US$10-US$12 billion yet this year and only realistic tariffs can keep them healthy. Aneel, the independent governBRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

Living with Shortages No one doubts that increased, more supplier friendly tariffs are necessary if Brazil wants electricity to fuel its handsome desires for economic growth. CONRAD JOHNSON

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ment regulator, has proven itself weak indeed. Decision makers have been appointed politicians protective of consumer votes, pet industries and government generators where most ofthem used to work. They have been hiding long-standing industry user subsidies behind tough language on privatized distributor rates to placate the same residential consumers who pay double to cover the subsidies. The wholesale market is still weak but now opinion makers understand competitive conditions can never be introduced into the sector without a strengthened regulatory structure. The two most financially important issues on the regulator's plate (Aneel's refusal to pass through the increased costs of ltaipu's dollar denominated generation and resolution ofthe socalled 'Annex V' clause in distributor franchise contracts) may end-up in judiciary resolution, but no one doubts that increased, more supplier friendly tariffs are necessary ifBrazil wants electricity to fuel its handsome desires for economic growth. Annex V gives a good sense of both Aneel's importance and its deficiencies. Franchise contracts provide that in the event of rationing, the generation companies will buy back from distributors, on the wholesale market, a percentage ofthe generated power distributors are under contract to buy from generators. The clause, if enforced, would yield an over US$2 billion dollar reliefto distributor cash flow by December. Since most generation is by government owned companies, and since the government is under self-imposed and IMF fiscal pressure to keep inflation controlled, and moreover as the administration is so far without the political capital to carry through on privatization of generation, the resistance within government agencies to living by the terms of the contracts is formidable. Just as Aneel was unwilling to force Furnas to pay its contractual obligations to distributors under the wholesale market agreement for failure to deliver Angra II nuclear energy, Aneel has been impotent in solving this even more consequential problem. The same kind of endless rounds of government sponsored meetings between distributors and generators, with imminent promised solutions, now take place about Annex V—though this time at the highest Ministry levels. The President of the CBIEE (the electric energy investment trade group) Roberto Lima says, "they [the generators] have to ,comply with the contractual clause to guarantee the complete opening of the market in 2003. Right now the model is 21

failing. They think they are beyond good and evil. Furnas is only paying the energy for Angra II now that the excess energy is profitable. An affirmed contract can't be thrown in the trash can." The contrast between electric regulation and the performance in the oil and gas sector by ANP is every day more striking. ANP is fed-up with Petrobras. They have studied exhaustively Petrobras performance and conclude, according to its President David Zylbersztajn, that "natural gas" is "the crucial point in breaking the monopoly in the whole line from wellhead to the gasoline station". They have contested Petrobras behavior in the gas sector repeatedly. They have even begun to name names ofthe gas sector executives who ANP can prove engage in anti-competitive behavior, presumably behind the back ofthe Petrobras board. They have referred the recent acquisition by Petrobras of Enron shares in the two Rio gas distributors to CADE, the investigating and enforcement authority for monopoly practices. ANP has effectively exposed to the public how Petrobras defiantly protects gas distribution against even ANP orders as evidenced in the Bolivian pipeline disputes with Enron and British Gas. No one has yet concluded that Petrobras predatory practices in gas retarded the priority program to institute natural gas generation of electricity and was a significant cause of the energy crisis, but the facts are there to support the inference against Brazil's most popular economic institution, at least for those willing to put nationalist sentiment aside. ANP is asking that legislation be amended to keep Petrobras out of further bidding on gas distribution lines, including a new contemplated connection to Bolivia. Still not one cubic centimeter ofnatural gas has yet been consumed in the country except

that produced or bought by Petrobras, though BG has announced a 5 percent reduction in their price to consumers anticipating finally, after over two years of hassle, receiving Bolivian Gas through the Petrobras controlled Gasbol pipeline. If Brazil comes out of its crisis with better competitive conditions in the electric and oil and gas sectors because the electric shortage focused public attention on institutional and regulatory insufficiencies, historians might wonder how else the conditions might have been constituted. In tracking down the enormous slowdown in 2000 by Aneel in letting bids on transmission projects (the major cause ofthe energy crisis since areas with full reservoirs cannot send energy to deficient regions) one notes that in that year one of the world's most competent transmission specialists, National Grid, pulled out of the electric transmission business in Brazil while retaining its telephone interests. In discussing the pull out, executives revealed that the contrast between Anatel, the telecommunications regulatory agency, and Aneel was sharp indeed. Both were seen as technically competent and tough managers, but at Aneel, "things just didn't get done." For Brazilians the contrast in the sectors is more concrete: long distance rates to the U.S. are as low as 2 cents (U.S.) per minute, the future in electric is higher rates for the foreseeable future. If generation and transmission had been timely privatized, there might be bright lights even for consumer electric prices. Conrad Johnson, the author, is an American attorney, permanently residing in Brazil. He writes for various publications on development and legal issues in Latin America. You can reach him at conradalternativa.com.br

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Since the beginnings of the histories of the Americas, Brazil and the U.S.A. have been very fortunate in their mutual relations. In the Spanish-American War, that most sticky and dubious of all historical American events (at least in terms of the development of foreign relations in the Americas), Brazil to the seeming eternal consternation of American Spanish speaking countries, was the only Iberian American country that supported the U.S. in finally throwing colonial Spain Out of the hemisphere. Brazil too was the only American nation, outside the U.S. and Canada, to fight and lose citizen soldiers warring against fascism in Europe. Commentators from Brazil and the U.S. are currently however, observing growing tension between the two countries on trade issues. Tensions in one area often get expressed in others. (Brazil and Canada have much more in common than the disfigured state of their present relations would indicate) Brazil, for example and compared to the U.S., has only an infant environmental movement. Brazilian environmental activists say so every day. Brazil has recently taken to painting Americans as unconcerned about preserving the environment, when in fact everyday Americans invest more preserving the Brazilian environment than everyday Brazilians do; they invest and invent more each month in preserving environments everywhere than Brazilians have historically spent to date. Out of the enjoyable exercising of such free, uninformed (and not totally unwelcome to the growing anti-Bush movement) critical holidays can result in misunderstandings that grow into troublesome relational environments in general. Particularly between democratic countries, issues like trade and environment need wide public attention if the institutional offspring ofmutual desires are to flourish. It would be sad indeed if Americans quit giving to the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) because it spends too much in Brazil, for example; glad indeed if Brazil became the deserved destination of choice for North American ecotourists. FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) could do for relations between Brazil and North America what NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) did for those with Mexico. It is in that spiritâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the spirit of substantive and continuing relational events between American culturesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; that treaties might reflect mutual understandings between nations. On the other hand, the Brazilian public is being properly educated to believe that FTAA negotiation will have little impact unless the U.S. swallows a good deal of its own "free trade" propaganda, especially in the agricultural sector. The story goes that unless the U.S. allows much cheaper, sometimes better and always more varied Brazilian agricultural product into its markets there will be few deals at all from the Brazilian side. Part of the conflict is put aside at the moment however because Brazil, Canada and Argentina are part of a larger group of nations that have lobbied, mostly unsuccessfully, for general freer international trade in agricultural commodities.

Need to Negotiate The U.S. is a sometimes friend to this group; for sure at least in its battles with the granddaddy of all agriculturally regressive policies, the Common Agricultural Policy ofthe European Union. Logically perhaps, within the EU (in all its versions) the CAP too is its most prominent and contentious divider. But new rounds of negotiations in the World Trade Organization will occur some day, Seattle notwithstanding. The Americas therefore have to negotiate new trade deals between themselves with WTO negotiations in mind. Seeing U.S. agricultural policy as villainous, as some of Brazilians best trade minds tend to paint it, will only help the U.S. not to see the error of its ways. BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

rail!! the U.S.A., and the FTAA President Cardoso has to waste too much of his time just teaching his country's opinion makers so much about the democratic process. Why don't Brazilian diplomats learn that North American trade policy is a lot bigger than the labor, or the environmental, or the steel or the dairy lobbies? CONRAD JOHNSON 23

In no circumstance is it a charitable interpretation. Are not those exactly the circumstances that mutual understanding and agreement always need if communication could be expected? Do Brazilians really think that good agreements are reached under other conditions? Too bad they never had to admit tragic error in the treaty that ended the First Great War; it certainly was one of Europe and the U.S. 's greatest ones and nearly every U.S. school child knows some of its faults. With whom do they think they are talking?' Must U.S. public policy learn only from the Brazilian version of its economic case what the IMF or trade invented along development lines might do for Brazilian-specific development and maybe development everywhere (not even opening the question ofpreserving democratic institutions)? The depression, the Second World War, the Korean tragedy, the Cold War recount errors all around. Neither you, nor I—nor even nations— will correct errors without changing and reinventing among other things—themselves. That is the intractable problem in the Middle East. The Brazilian press rushed to paint Bush as too greedy, too involved with hegemonic economic preoccupations, to become involved in devoting time between the Arabs and the Jews when his common sense told him that mutual understanding would be extremely difficult there. The tract of the Irish problem as part of North American history seems not to count for Brazilian interpretations of U.S. actions or decisions not to act. Maybe Brazil really is as new to democracy as Fernando Henrique keeps saying? No wonder he has to waste so much of his time just teaching his country's opinion makers—and its dense, truly uninterested-in-the-details that can't be given a macro economic spin Brazilian public press—so much about the process. Why, `por amor de Deus', don't Brazilian diplomats know that North American trade policy is a lot bigger than the labor, or the environmental, or the steel or the dairy, etc, etc, etc, lobbies? When U.S. citizens claim that their legislative processes are corrupted by special interests they don't use 'corrupt' in the way it occurs in Brazil speech. They simply mean corrupted on the way to getting good results. We should all know that no good treaty or legislation can be invented without the involvement of those most immediately concerned with the problem. If Brazilian public officials do, why do they talk otherwise for their opinion makers? There can be no changes in any effective respect in trade politics that isn't mutually understood between nations. And if Brazilians think this is disrespectful—coming from even proven Brazilian lovers—with what beyond their personal lives and their kibitzing and wisecracking would they take into battle (to follow their metaphors) against the CAP? While those negotiations proceed, Brazzil has decided to run a series of articles on free trade in the Americas. This first article is to give some structure 24

to the historical and institutional circumstances of understanding the two principal parties. Across the history ofU.S. trade policy, at least since the Great Depression, agreements with other nations have been fashioned relying on a public and common sense use of the theory and results of commercial transactions based on comparative economic advantage. If one can buy from someone else something that is better or equal in quality for a lesser price than I can make for myself, I can then invest the savings I enjoy into my own production of goods or services advantaged in other exchanges. Not incidentally, I can also spend it to increase my standard of living and sharpen my consumption skills, regardless ofwhether I am rich or poor.

Fair and Unfair Trade agreements recognize that these differences in productive capacity across national borders result in advantages enjoyed on both sides. Freer trades are almost never zero sum events. Thus these agreements, like the authority needed to negotiate them, are 'unfair' to domestic producers who can't match the price or quality of 'fair' foreign production because consumers on both sides of the boundaries are advantaged: the sums saved in the transactions increase productive capacity all around; everyone is 'better off' because his pocket book of consumption and investments in production 'goes farther'. It has never been politically easy to satisfy 'unfair' producers under these arrangements. Seen within the political constituencies of national physical market borders, the social value of citizens' otherwise protected production yields lower and therefore unfair returns to home producers to the extent 'foreign goods' have penetrated 'home markets'. Although there are cases where cheap producers actually expand markets as an effect of their entry (Venezuelan roses into the U.S. as an exotic example), such marvels are not the everyday basis of trade negotiations. Such cases are however everyday occurrences in dynamic, chaotic trading environments where political economies have so arranged them that such spontaneous events can occur. Political negotiators unfortunately have to assume that 'unfair' producers lose economically; they have constituents to answer to. 'Unfair' producers are and will continue to summon political reasons beyond the cruel dictates ofprice and quality ofgoods and efficient investment of savings. 'We cannot rely on foreign sources for our food or steel because these are "strategic" commodities'. 'Steel workers and the mostly elderly of the farm sector are not positioned to obtain other employment' and 'our nation's family farms are disappearing', or 'U.S. companies pay less taxes', etc. In all events nevertheless, a good deal of a nation's wealth depends on silencing the losers in lifting barriers to comparative advantage; a good deal of a nation's self-respect relies on recognizing and compensating these 'unfair' losses. But beyond doubt, much ofNorth American's unequalled productive capacity has been achieved, at least in part, by fashioning these lately rare trade pacts and then biting the fiscal bullet ofmitigating their 'unfair' losses. What is proposed in the Free Trade in the Americas Agreement, ALCA for Brazilians, is that North, Central, Caribbean and South Americans enter into a comprehensive trade agreement that over time will increase the productive capacity of all the American nations. Increased productive capacity increases national wealth; increased capacity makes alleviating poverty less costly, both politically and economically. Other American nations with less skills and resources will be asked to placate their own 'unfair' producers and workers with the democratic political capital at their disposal that all fairly competitive American BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

producers, workers and consumers will be advantaged. Except to economists (and not all of them), the advantages for all nations with such treaties are not obvious to all citizens. Nevertheless this theory of understanding drives all trade negotiations and treaties; and, all efforts to sell their results to the voters and consumers who care to understand. Trade is by its nature a wealth spreading sequence of events. The written purposes ofthe WTO record this understanding as its main purpose for existence. No doubt the effects of FTAA negotiation should be the same. Most American citizens are unaware that it was first Canada, then Mexico who approached the U.S. in order that all three could create NAFTA. Because of political advancement, the 'unfair' loss claims of U.S. citizens-producers are more easily heard and less often financially addressed because the less expensively an economy can absorb these causal effects of freer trade, the more it has to invest in productive capacity. All trade is regulated. Trade agreements are complex and all good ones have painful political results. The U.S. has been slow to achieve them for many decades. (In few places has progress been slower than in Brazil. Its intuitions have always told it collecting tariffs on foreign goods is not just good tax policy but even better politics.) It was first Canadians and then Mexicans (and not the enlightened public opinion that usually precedes any reform in the U.S.) that were persuaded of the comparative advantages of freer trade between the North American neighbors. Both countries are developmentally ahead of the U.S. in that proportionally much more oftheir commerce is globalized' In macro economic fact, the U.S. economy, despite its history of economic size and growth, is only slightly more developed than Brazil in terms of the share of its GNP that is globalized. Both the U.S., and especially Brazil, are among those nations with the lowest proportions of international trade/GNP. The dynamics of both of these economies look historically and presently ever to their own respective home markets. If Brazilians think Americans seem obsessed with foreign markets (and most of them think just that) they are certainly out-of-touch with the American economy. Brazilian opinion makers who contribute to that picture are intellectually lazy. Too, the American economy relies much less on traditional multinational companies than Brazilians seemingly can even imagine. Of course the deficiency is understandable given Brazilian addiction to them. In summary: in all U.S. trade treaties to date, portions ofhome markets remain protected as a cost of achieving wider trade in others. Some 'unfair' producers are left to compete under circumstances where subsidies are being paid by higher domestic consumption costs and lower investment returns for 'foreign' producers. Some 'unfair' producers progress, or are forced by competitive conditions to live, on a decreasing share of their target markets and a corresponding loss ofprofit. Whether these protection arrangements are created out of tariffs or other trade barriersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;like quotas as provided for in bargained agreements, or in domestic laws like anti-dumpingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the results are the same: some domestic "unfair' producers, for one reason or another and by one means or another, are left to continue tending grimy steel mills or the soil. 'Fair' return to domestic consumers and foreign soybean and steel producers suffer the cost. Whether one likes it or not, what advantages the U.S. has received from trade agreements has only been purchased politically at the cost of subsidizing domestic productive capacity in areas such as textiles, metals and agriculture. Without these subsidies, new productive capacity, like in technology and financial services and intellectual property, would not have been freed to demonstrate its wealth building potential by introducing efficient products and services for foreign clients in other nation's respective 'home' markets. The U.S. political economy has BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

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brought greater we 1th to all of its citizens by privileging these innovative industri s in trade negotiations. This has also meant paying off older, ore 'basic' industries.

Basic Products The U.S. labor force is more highly compensated over all, for example, beca se a decreasing number of workers and less national savings e committed to productive capacity where margins are low. abor and capital costs are marginally less important in mark ts that reward innovation and surprise. In Latin America by ontrast, and particularly in Brazil, most of its productive cap city is concentrated in agriculture and basic industries. Even mire than Canada and Mexico, most of Brazil s wealth has been ac umulated selling basic products like steel and food into its own arge domestic market. In other words, the industries that will upply the money component ofthe political capital that needs ti be paid to liberalize markets and reform the economy in Brazi ,are crucially related to the very domestic claims the U.S. ha had to 'pay-off to increase its own over-all wealth or product've capacity. Of course neil er the U.S. nor Brazil planned this basic conflict into their espective economies. But as one Brazilian observer who is f iliar with both economies observed, U.S. agricultural trade p i licy is so designed that (outside coffee which thanks to Brazil op rates with an archaic and international 'commodity agreement ) it "surgically" damages Brazil agriculture exactly where it h s developed, and could develop further, its comparative stren :ths. So in discussin the future of ALCA or FTAA it is clear from the beginning that alliances or bargaining power aside, differences between th structures of the U.S. and the Brazilian economy need to be addressed if negotiations are to spread wealth around the ericas within a single basic legal structure or treaty. The fact t at they are also the largest economies on their respective contine ts is purely coincidental, at least beyond the fact that they are a so two of the world's richest nations in natural resources and illing-to-work labor populations. Please tune in again next month. Conrad ohnson, the author, is an American attorney, permanently residing in Brazil. He writes for various p blications on development and legal issues in Latin America. You can reach him at conrad(&,alternativa.com.br

thers. As the country Brazil takes its place among the major nations in the world, Brazilians will have to become more aware oftheir history. The Brazilian media should help educate the population about Brazilian history. This education can be done by starting to develop movies and historical educational television programs to present to the world the great men of Brazilian history. They can start with a movie about the life ofthe greatest of them allâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva. Why is Jose Bonifacio so important to Brazilian history? Jose Bonifacio, the architect of Brazilian independence, is known as "The Patriarch of Brazilian Independence". Jose Bonifacio was the source who gave the orientation, the form, the doctrine, the guidance, the intellect, and strategy, the combination of which resulted in the liberty and unity of the new Brazilian nation. Without Jose Bonifacio the country Brazil in its current form would not exist today. The French had a major impact on Brazilian culture since 1555 when Villegaignon established a French colony in Brazil close to where Rio de Janeiro is located. The greatest French influence on Brazilian culture came as a result of the French Revolution. Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva was studying in Paris at the Royal School of Mines in the years 1790-1792. He was studying under many world famous scientists of the time, including Vauquelin, Antonio Lourenco Jussie, Jean-Antoine Chaptal, Antoine Francois Fourcroy and Antoine Laurent Lavoisier. Jose Bonifacio got to know Lavoisier well because both of them were interested in geology. He also had a personal friendship with Vauquelin, Fourcroy and Chaptal and through them he met their good friend The Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Maximilien Robespierre. These men had Silva Center for Brazilian History one thing in common: they were members ofone ofthe most influential political clubs Studies intends to foster awareness ofthe French Revolution: the Club Breton. Later their members became known as the and appreciation of Brazilian history Jacobins. The Jacobin Club counted as a national archive from 1500 to among its early members the Comte de Mirabeau, Abbe Sieyes, Antoine Barnave, 1900. Its Internet database should Jerome Petion, the Duc d'Aiguillon and Maximilien Robespierre. Jose Bonifacio become the preeminent resource for had direct exposure during this period to

On September 7, 2001, Brazil commemorates the 179th anniversary of Brazilian Independence from Portugal. But even today with our modern systems of instantaneous communications there is a major lack of knowledge about Brazilian history in Brazil. The Brazilian media is not doing its part in developing and promoting an appreciation of the major Brazilian historic figures who helped bring into existence the great nation which scholars, students, and Brazil is today. willing to study Brazil. During the research process of my book Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva-The Greatest Man in Brazilian History I spoke with a number of high school and college history professors from around the country in the United States, and not one knew who Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva was, nor did they know much about the history of Brazilian independence.

anyone

Different Perspectives There is a sharp contrast between the United States and Brazil in the recognition that they give to the respective founding fathers of their nation. In the United States, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison, to mention a few names, are held in the highest esteem by its citizens. However, in Brazil the founding fathers of the Brazilian nation, such as Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva and his brother Martim Francisco Ribeiro de Andrada are not appreciated by the Brazilian people with the same level of reverence, recognition and enthusiasm that Americans have for their founding fa26

BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

the best intellectual minds of that time, who were having a major impact on the events of the French Revolution. Jose Bonifacio traveled a lot around Europe during 17931800, but his favorite place was Paris and he stopped in Paris every time he had the chance. This decade (1790-1800) is the period that had the major influence on the formation of his intellectual, cultural, scientific, and political thoughts, which helped him in the fulfillment of his destiny as a great statesman. In 1823, the Andrada brothers (Jose Bonifacio, Martim Francisco and Antonio Carlos), with their leadership, had a major impact on the Constituent Assembly. They guided the proceedings of the process of framing the first Brazilian Constitution. This Constitution was effective December 13, 1823. They used as a model the French Constitution of 1816 which is also referred to as the "Lamartine Constitution". In 1808, when Napoleon's army invaded Portugal, the Portuguese Royal Family moved to Brazil and they stayed in Brazil until 1821. This move by the Portuguese Royal Family had a very positive impact on Brazil. The Brazilian legal and judicial system is based on Roman law and theNapoleonic Code. There is no doubt that French culture had a major impact on Brazilian culture; to this day many Brazilian company executives know Paris much better than they know New York City, and they can speak French and not English. The Brazilian nation has reason to be proud of its intellectual roots; its roots are connected to the French Revolution and its intellectual minds. France was the major power in the world during that period oftime (1750-1815), and Paris was the major artistic, scientific, and intellectual center ofthat time. The French Revolution had a major impact on world history; it changed the world. The process of the independence of Brazil did not happen just by chance. Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva was fully intellectually prepared to guide Brazil with his leadership and superior intellect through that very important turning point in Brazilian history.

The Brazilian Cultural Society Today, I am in the process of incorporating and organizing the Brazilian Cultural Society (BCS), a nonprofit organization under IRS Code Section 501 (c) (3) nonprofit tax-exempt status. This organization will make a major contribution to the cultural life in the United States, in Brazil and in the world. The Brazilian Cultural Society is a new organization, which is designed to open up new horizons on the American cultural landscape. The Brazilian Cultural Society (BCS) is a nonpolitical organization, whose purpose is to foster educational, literary and benevolent activities, to preserve and advance the Brazilian culture, customs, language, and Brazilian arts. The Brazilian Cultural Society will seek to expose American audiences to Brazilian performing and visual arts. The members of the society set the preservation of Brazilian culture as their goal. Another objective is to provide an atmosphere for social interaction by Brazilians living in the New York/ New Jersey/Connecticut metropolitan area and to promote a positive understanding and appreciation of Brazilian culture. The Brazilian Cultural Society has six distinct areas of activities: 1) The Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva Center for Brazilian History Studies. 2) The Brazilian Public Library Initiative. 3) The Brazilian Literature Translation Initiative. 4) The Brazilian Lecture Series. 5) The Brazilian Performing and Visual Arts Initiatives. BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

6) The Brazil an Writers Association (BWA) Uniao Brasileira de Escri ores (UBE). The Board of Eirectors of The Brazilian Cultural Society is being drawn from select group of elite academia, government, and business lead rs. The board already includes among its founding member some world renowned intellectuals such as 1) Nelida PinO . She is a world renowned Brazilian intellectual and one of razil's most important contemporary novelists. She is a me er ofthe Brazilian Academy of Letters. She was the first wom n to hold the position of president of that prestigious organi ation. She has received the highest prizes in literature in Brazil nd also in Latin America. Many ofher books have been internati inal bestsellers such as Caetana's Sweet Song and The Republic if Dreams. 2) Professor G egory Rabassa. American translator who was largely responsible for bringing the fiction of contemporary Latin America to the E glish-speaking world. Of his more than 30 translations from Spanish and Portuguese, perhaps the best known is Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude (1970). r. Marquez was a 1982 Nobel Laureate in Literature. He alsi has translated works of Machado de Assis and Jorge Amado los Guilherme Mota. One of the most im3) Professor portant Brazilian istorians today. He is a prolific writer and has published a long list of history books. 4) Ambassadi Flavio Miragaia Perri, an Honorary member of the board. Currently he is the Consul General of the Brazilian Consul te in New York. Ambassador Perri also has pursued one of th passions of his life in the field of literature, and his works inc ude various books of poetry. Ex-President if Brazil, Mr. Jose Sarney, is the latest person to accept an invi iation to become a member of the board of directors of the B azilian Cultural Society. It is an honor to our organization to ha e such an illustrious man as a founding board member. Mr. Sarney' sl â&#x20AC;˘ ng career in public life started as a Deputado Federal (1956- 1 66), then governor of the state of Maranhao (1965-1970) ,the Senador representing the state of Maranhao (1970-1986) and the President of Brazil (1985-1990). After ending his presid tial mandate he returned to political life after being elected Sen tor. Currently, Jose Sarney is a Senator representing the Sta e of Amapa. Mr. Sarney is a member of the Brazilian Acade y of Letters, and he has been a prolific writer and has a long Ii' of published books. He also contributes to major Brazilian ewspapers, and he writes articles for such newspapers as 0 Globo.

The Jo ĂŠ Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva Cente for Brazilian History Studies The mission f the Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva Center for Brazilian History Studies is to foster awareness and appreciation ofB azilian history and to serve as an international scholarly resour e for research through the collection, preservation and disse ination of materials relating to Brazilian history. The goal is to become a "national archive" of Brazilian history from 150 to 1900 with a strong focus on the period 1800 to 1900; a perio which will cover Brazilian Independence in 1822 and the Pr clamation of Republic in 1889. The objective is to create an Internet database to document this period ofBrazilian history, and its holdings will become the preeminent resoUrce for scholars, students, filmmakers and publishers who want to study or document Brazilian history from this period. ThiS database will be available and accessible, without charge, n the Internet to anyone around the world with an Internet conn ction. The objective is to further the study of Brazilian histor by creating an international forum in which 27

scholars of other countries can interact with other scholars and share the results of their research with their peers. There will also be a newsletter where the scholars will be able to publish the results of their research, in turn, enriching further the Brazilian history experience. Conferences and seminars for historians will be organized, and lectures for general audiences will be offered. The Website will make available as many books as possible related to Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva. There are a large number of books covering that subject. These books have been published since the 1840's and they comprise a vast body of literature important to scholars interested in studying Brazilian history and development. There are not only biographies of Jose Bonifacio's political career, but also books that cover other subjects which were so important to him as a politician, poet, scientist and humanist. In this Website the database will include all of the works of Jose Bonifacio, from his scientific papers to his book ofpoetry. It will also include major documents important in the formation of the new nation, such as all the government decrees prepared and made into law by Jose Bonifacio. Many articles will be included that were published by the Andrada brothers in their newspaper 0 Tam oyo. When historians refer to "The Andrada Brothers" they are referring to the three brothers, as follows: 1) Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva (1763-1838), 2) Martim Francisco Ribeiro de Andrada (1775-1844 ) and 3) Antonio Carlos Ribeiro de Andrada Machado e Silva (1773-1845). The Website also will include the document"Declaration of Independence ofBrazil." Martim Francisco Ribeiro de Andrada was entrusted with the job of drafting this document. After reviewing the details of the document with Jose Bonifacio, the document was immediately sent to Prince Dom Pedro. On September 7, 1822, Dom Pedro was in the outskirts of So Paulo by the I piranga River when a messenger overtook him with the dispatches and letters from Jose Bonifacio, Dona Leopoldina, and the document from Martim Francisco. After reading the dispatches Dom Pedro declared the independence of Brazil. The first Brazilian Constitution prepared in 1823 by the Andrada brothers also will be included. This Website will become a very important place for scholars doing research on Brazilian Independence and the Proclamation of Republic. This great project will be made possible by a partnership between the Brazilian Cultural Society, and contributions from corporate and foundation supporters. This project will make Brazilian history available not only to the American public, but to the entire world.

The Fairleigh Dickinson University connection We are in the process of inviting the president of Fairleigh Dickinson University to also become a founding board member of our organization, but that will depend on Fairleigh Dickinson University's willingness to make a small investment in the creation of the Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva Center for Brazilian History Studies at the University. Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) is an ideal place for this Center of Brazilian History Studies, since I graduated from this university with a BA in Economics and MBA in Finance and I am an alumnus of the University. FDU's new president, J. Michael Adams, understands the importance of learning about other cultures, and he is a heavy supporter of FDU's strong international programs. He believes each student should have an international experience. There's been an acknowledgment at FDU that the University has a responsibility to prepare the students with a global outlook. FDU's distance-learning program has been gaining national 28

attention. Stories and broadcasts featuring the news that Fairleigh Dickinson University has become the first traditional university to require students to take online courses have appeared in local arid national media, including CNN, MSNBC, USA Today, The Boston Globe, US. News and World Report, the Chicago Tribune, The Associate Press, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Chronicle of Higher Education and Voice of America. Every Fairleigh Dickinson student will know how to learn online, but more importantly, they will discover how the Internet can be used to connect people and to open doorways to new worlds and new cultures. Toward that end, the University has begun recruiting a cadre of distinguished scholars and practitioners to serve as world faculty. Another reason why I am choosing Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) is because FDU is becoming a prestigious institution and it is gaining a reputation for innovation and educational excellence in the USA. The University has been ranked by Success magazine one of the "Best Entrepreneurial Schools" in the country. FDU is the only New Jersey institution to earn this distinction. The study, published in the February/March issue, ranked schools on a number ofcriteria, including the caliber ofstudents, faculty, curriculum, outreach to the community, innovative programs and reputation among fellow schools. Established in 1989, FDU's Rothman Institute of Entrepreneurial Studies is part of the Samuel J. Silberman College of Business Administration, which is accredited by the prestigious . AACSB International, The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

An extraordinary organization The Brazilian Cultural Society will be a great asset to Brazil, because the organization will promote Brazilian history and culture in a positive manner to the U.S. market. The organization will promote the best that Brazil has to offer from its culture, including its major literary and other artistic figures, but also it will try to explore the extraordinary intellectual minds of the figures who provided Brazil with its intellectual base. The organization will present to the world the high caliber of the intellectuals involved in Brazilian history, such as Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva and his brothers Martim Francisco and Antonio Carlos; these men helped to build the foundations of the great nation. Brazil became a great nation not by chance, but because it had some great men in its history who provided the guidance and direction to a better future. The president of Fairleigh Dickinson University ( FDU ) in Teaneck, New Jersey, has been receptive so far to the plan for the Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva Center for Brazilian History Studies, but the major obstacle that we have to overcome right now, is to find the seed money for this project. If you know of a source of funding which will be willing to fund this type of project, please contact me at the following address: Ricardo C. Amaral - PO Box 110302, Nutley, NJ 07110-0906 or by email at the following address: ricardocamaral@hotmail.com Ricardo C. Amaral, the author, was born in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. He attended Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, New Jersey, USA, where he received a BA degree in Economics and later an MBA degree in Finance. He continued his Academic studies towards a PhD degree in Economics at Fordham University, but then elected to immerse himself totally into a professional corporate career. Ricardo Amaral is among a very feW remaining living descendants of both Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva and his brother Martim Francisco Ribeiro de Andrada, the founding fathers of Brazil. You can contact the author at ricardocamaralhotmail.com BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

TI'e Trouble th Siroca As Siroca was ot very talkative and rarely laughed, Boris wasn't ab e to learn practically anything about her during the time of their courtship. Body of a made woman, eady for whatever would come her way till the la t consequences. Just looking at those rumps, t ose hard big boobies, would send an appeal goi g down from your noodle to your balls. JORGE AMADO Jorge Amad , who died August 6, 2001, four days before celebrati g his 89th birthday, began writing Boris, o Vermelho (Bor s, the Red One) in the early '80s, but was never able to fini h it. We publish here a draft for the first chapter and his xplanation for one of the several beginflings he wrote or the book. The following text and the Siroca episode a peared in Playboy, August 1982. You can also read the en irety of Amado's book A Mortee a Morte de Quincas Be ro D'Agua on Brazzil Online at http:// www. b razzi I . co /shose 01.htm

A little explanation: "Boris, o Ver elho ainda é apenas uma ideia minha: a visao, aindapouco nitid de um jovem de nossos dias e de seu inevitavel choque corn a soc edade. Uma iddia que esta ern suspenso, mas que me atrai. Vol arei a ela em breve, corn certeza. "EpisOdio de Siroca" ë urn os diversos comecos corn os quais tentei colocar em pe a hi tOria ainda imatura de Horis. Cumpro, assim, uma promessa qu fizera a Playboy ao ceder-lhes os primeiros capitulos de Bori . E entrego aos leitores uma curiosidade em materia de ficcao: tentativa de um primeiro capitulo de romance que de futuro ser ou no aproveitada. A figura de Siroca, corn seus problemas d jovem domestica, seu obstinado amor, sua estranha lealdade sua sabedoria de vida, persistird no romance quando eu voltar trabalhar na historia de Boris? S6 Deus sabe. Eu de nada sei: penas escuto a risada de Boris, a gaitada irresistivel, e te to decifra-la, descobrir o significado da adivinha." (Jorg Amado)

Episodio de Siroca Tudo come ou, segundo afirmam alguns, no dia do desaparecimento de Siroca. Outros discordam. Tais divergencias sao comuns e tre cidadaos liberais que nao costumam impor Econy certoiccOes; que o debate é o sal da convivencia. suas, policia andou na pista de Boris, por ordem expressa do juiz d Menores. Ap6s ter lido a descricao do suposto raptor, o juiz, do tor Alceu Benevides, disse ao Comissario: "E ele, nao é outro. h! se eu ponho a mao nesse marginal, ele vai ver o que é born! ' Velhas contas a saldar, refletiu o experiente BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

Comissario, enquanto o juiz acrescentava: "Para seu govern°, fique sabendo que o individuo se chama Boris e atende pelo apelido de Vermelho. Tipo perigoso". No foi o imico motivo, somou-se a outros talvez mais poderosos mas teve peso na inesperada decisao de Boris. 0 rapaz continuava perturbado corn a atitude de Siroca, era evidente— onde ja se viu desfacatez igual? Alem de no se dispor a novo encontro corn o doutor Alceu, encontro ao qual faltaria cordialidade. Boris era cordial por natureza. Entre o xadrez e a caserna, preferiu a farda, garantia, como se sabe, de impunidade para os bravos que a envergam. A guerra ainda Iran foi declarada, mas devemos estar preparados para enfrentar o "solerte inimigo estrange iro que ameaca a seguranca de nossas instituicOes", como repetem as proclamacoes dos chefes militares. Enquanto o aguardamos corn serenidade vamos treinando as armas e a pontaria na populacao, a pobre, bem entendido. Para alguma coisa essa gente ha de servir. A policia em seu encalco, o comportamento de Siroca ainda a confundi-lo. a divida de honra contraida no antro do Profeta Maome, sem falar em ocorrencias menores e anteriores, contribuiram para a surpreendente resolucao. Mas a razao defmitiva e superior foi o elevado sentimento patriOtico de Boris, exaltado pela passagem do desfile militar que inaugurava festivamente a semana do alistamento. A banda vibrando no dobrado, o rufar dos tambores, os clarins e as bandeiras: visa() fisica da Pavia, colorida e musical. Boris nao vacilou, nao era de vacilar. Riu pensando na cara do juiz, bateu continencia, tomou posicao atras do soldado, marchou para o posto de recrutamento. Se tudo comecou corn a fuga de Siroca, éjusto relembra-la e A sua compacta carnacao, tao dura que era impossivel beliscala. Na escuridao do muro, sob a amendoeira, Boris tomava entre os dedos os bicos dos seios, duas pequenas pedras negras. Siroca emitia um ruido rouco, entreabria os labios para o beijo. Mais sensivel o bico do peito esquerdo, quern sabera a razao? Boris nao buscava saber, apenas comprovava. Metia a mao pelo decote da blusa, fazia o seio saltar, buscava corn o labio o bico tumid°. Siroca contorcia-se, apertava-se contra ele. Corn a mao livre, Boris suspendia-lhe a saia. Ela nao se opunha, entregue. Entregue? Permitia tudo quanto ele ousasse, tudo menos o principal. Quando Boris pensava que soara a hora exata, Siroca o afastava corn urn empurrao: —Tire a mao dai. —0 que é que tern? —Tire a mao, ja disse. Isso tern dono. Besteiras de donzela, surpreendentes, pois hoje nenhuma se importa corn cabaco, os tempos sao outros. Boris repetia a tentativa, ela o repelia, zangada: —Isso tern dono, já disse. NA° adiantava pedir, querer dobra-la corn argumentos ("nao tern vergonha de ainda set virgem?"), corn caricias, fazendo-a perder a cabeca, esperando que ficasse fora de si, sem tino nem capacidade de resistencia. Tampouco ameacas de violencia ("é melhor dar logo antes que te derrube e bote a pulso"). Pot mais excitada e desejosa, nao se abalava: —Tern dono! Quando ele tentava agarra-la for-9a, Siroca separava-se num repelao: —Me larga ou nunca mais tu me ve... Possuia uma forca inusitada; seriam necessarios pelo men tres homens para domina-la e possui-la, mas curra era coisa que Boris lido topava, fato pUblico e non:51.i°. Todos se recordavam da briga corn Bastinho e Dagoberto, muito comentada na 30

ocasiao. Sendo Siroca de pouco falar, de riso raro, Boris nao chegara a saber praticamente nada a seu respeito durante o tempo de namoro. Corpo de mulher feita, prontapara o que desse e viesse, para as Oltimas conseqiiencias. Quem batesse os olhos em cima daquelas ancas, daquela peitaria rija, sentia urn apelo descendo do tutano para os ovos. Antes de Boris aparecer e assumir o posto, muitos a rondaram e urn gringo—a maioria das casas do loteamento estava alugada a tecnicos estrangeiros que trabalhavam no Polo Petroquimico—lhe deu uma cedula de quinhentos cruzeiros quando a encontrou na praia, de biquini. Nunca se soube se corn segundas intencOes ou simplesmente para agradecer tanta beleza exposta. Corpo de mulher, mas bastava reparar mais atentamente e via-se a pouca idade, quase men ina. Viera de completar dezesse is anos e, por coincidencia, no dia do aniversario recebeu noticias de Jose Daniel em carta de Rosenira, presente melhor nao poderia ter desej ado. A prima—prima?—contava que Jose Daniel voltara e ficara uma fera ao saber que ela viajara para a Bahia corn os patrOes. Dois dias depois outra carta, dessa vez dele prOprio, a letra firme e o jeito autoritario, apenas o endereco no envelope fora escrito por Rosenira para nAo chamar a atencao. Jose Daniel explicavatudo tin-tim por tim-time exigia sua volta, marcava data para a chegada, vinte dias de prazo: you te esperar na rodoviaria, durante tees dias, a partir de dezoito de abril, na parada do onibus da Bahia. Nao dizia qual deles, mas sO podia ser urn dos 6nibus sem leito, os de passagem mais barata. Precisava saber o prep. Baratinada corn a carta, o pensamento em Jose Daniel, no primeiro impeto resolveu acabar o namoro corn Boris. Matutou, porem, enquanto passeava o menino pelas ruas vazias, nao costumava agir precipitadamente. Uma turma da companhia de eletricidade estava substituindo a lampada do poste da esquina. Boris apagara a outra corn uma pedrada certeira no comeco do namoro. Pensou no rapaz corn afeicao: gostava dele, bonitao e muito educado, para urn namoro passageiro nao podia haver melhor. Jose Daniel a fizera sofrer, merecia um castigo e ademais agrado nao tirapedaco, o que era dele o bicho nao ia corner, isso nao. A inda tardaria mais uns dias a embarcar, nao tinha por que perder a folganca, os beijos, os apertos e, quem sabe, poderia vir a precisar da ajuda de Boris. 0 que, de fato, aconteceu. Quem a visse, a face parada, silenciosa, carregando o menino, jamais a imaginaria capaz de planejar e decidir. Moleca boa, aquela, diziam todos, devotada crianca, asseada, nao incomoda ninguem, nao ë respondona, sempre de boa paz. Por vezes corn o olhar perdido, oar ausente, ate havia quern a achasse um pouco debit mental. —Em que sera que essamenina esta pensando?—perguntou dona Nazar* a patron, ao marido Luiz Te (Tetriadovsky, isso la sobrenome que se use?), engenheiro, poeta nas horas yagas.—Sera no tal sujeito? —Aquele j a era, minha filha. Arranjou outro aqui, um grandalhao de cabelo vermelho, muito atencioso. Na outra no ite, aquela em que cheguei tarde e ainda por cima o pneu pifou no comeco da ma, veio me ajudar; para falar a verdade fez tudo sozinho. Quis gratificar, quase se ofendeu, —Espero que, tendo escapado de urn, nao caia na boca de outro... --Na hora, pode set, depende dele saber se posicionar. De joelhos ou sentado, nao tern problema. Nao vejo jeito é para o resto. Comer uma virgem de pe nao é tarefa facil. Falo corn conhecimento de causa. Quando era jovem, tentei sem resultado. --Cinico! La vem voce corn suas patifarias... —enroscouse no marido, adorava ouvi-lo contar aventuras anteriores ao casamento. BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

Virgindade comprovada. Caloca, doutor Carlos Imbassay, ginecologista amigo da familia, que acompanhara a gravidez e fizera o parto de Nazar& comentou, corn sua lingua suja, ape's o exame: — Mais pura do que a Virgem Maria antes do Espirito Santo. Nunca vi babaca mais fechada, nem sei como passa a urina. Siroca se sujeitara ao exame sem protestar, carrancuda, respondendo corn monossilabos as perguntas do medico, que nao Ode conter urn leve assobio de admiracao quando contemplou o corpo damoca—esplendorpara destaque de Escola de Samba. Nazare decidira levar a afilhada ao consultOrio medico apOs aquela infernal semanadurante a qual Siroca sairatodas as noites sem pedir licenca, voltando cada vez mais tarde. A patroa, alarmada, ficava a espera, de plantao. Quando Luiz Te, cansado do dia extenuante no canteiro de obras, protestava contra aquela vigilia absurda, Nazare, dramatizava sua responsabilidade: — A mae entregou essa peste em confianca, foi criada la em casa, ainda por cima sou madrinha dela, imagine se aparece de bucho grande, prenha! Nao adiantava sermao, conselhos, gritos, ameacas—ate de pancada ameacara, sem resultado: —Pode me bater se quiser, madrinha. Nao you deixar de gostar dele... Nem morta... Ouvia os sermbes em silencio e quando Nazare exigia resposta as perguntas precisas, contava corn voz inexpressiva: — A gente tava aqui pertinho, sentado num banco, na praia, conversando. Nao tava fazendo nada de mais. —Sozinhos? --Rosenira tava junto, pergunte a ela se quiser. Nazare tinha horror a Jose Daniel, encanador de profissao, nao que ele fosse pior que os outros varios candidatos a estreita virgindade de Siroca, mas por sabe-lo casado, pai de filhos. Que futuro poderia oferecer a rapariga, alem de come-la e larga-la na vida? Nao ajudara a criar Siroca para que ela terminasse fazendo a vida em Copacabana, pegando homem. De sua casa, devia sair para casar corn urn born rapaz, vestida de noiva, corn veu e grinalda. Luiz Te acabava por perder a paciencia: —Naza, minha filha, isso nao pode continuar. Voce nao dorme, nao me deixa dormir, ficanessa lenga-lenga corn Siroca ate de madrugada. Voce anda corn olheiras, e alimenta mal e sabe ha quantos dias a gente nao pitoca? — Sem vergonha, nao sabe pensar noutra coisa.. 0 que queres que eu face Siroca criada la em casa, me deram ela de afilhada quando eu completei nove anos, como se me dessem uma boneca... Nao posso consentir que ela se desgrace. Nao tern juizo. —0 melhor é voce mandar ela de volta para a casa dela, a mae que tome conta. —E onde a gente vai arranjar outra? Uma que cuide de Tinho corn o desvelo que elacuida, que sej a limpa, um trem no trabalho, obediente? —Obediente? — Antes, era. F'oi esse Jose Daniel quern virou a cabeca dela. Assim mesmo sO desobedece quando se trata dele. —Manda ela passar uns tempos corn a mae. Ate esquecer... —Mandar para onde? Faz mais de dois anos que a mae dela se mudou para Botucatu nunca mais deu noticias. —Entao deixa a molec a seguir o destino dela. Larga de mao. —Ah! Isso nao! Enquanto eu tiver forcas, esse canalha nao vai abusar da pobre. Nem que eu tenha...—sentindo a mao do marido por debaixo da camisola, foi perdendo as forcas, ndo terminou a frase. Depois do desvario habitual, aquela tempestade, fechou os olhos adormeceu. Acordou pela madrugada, aflita. Levantouse, enfiou a camisola—dormira nua, a mao de Luiz Te, mao BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

viciosa, tocando-lliie os pelos. Pe ante pe, dirigiu-se ao quarto de empregadas, no fundo do apartamento. Na porta semi-aberta, forcou a vista: no leito de baixo, descomposta, a combinacao deixando ver os peitos enormes, arfava Laura, a cozinheira, rosto suado. "Como con seguem dormir nesse forno? No fim do mes, quando Luiz receber, compro urn ventilador para elas." Ergue a vista para a cama de cima, nao tinha sido ocupada. "Que horas sao?" A sorte é que iroca nao tardou a chegar. Nazare apenas a mediu corn os ol os e, apesar da indignacao, constatou a formosura da afilh da: as calcas jeans apertadas, oprimindo-lhe as ancas, o volu e dos seios, soltos sob a blusa florada que herdara de Nazare a carapinha assentada e veludosa. "0 cabelo veludo", dizia o velho Matias, fregues do dessa negrinha almoco dominical; baixava a mao do cabelo para assentar urn tapa na vastidao a bunda, prazer de velho é coisa a-toa. Tao linda e merecedor de melhor sorte; urn rapaz direito que tomasse O casamento. Parada junto porta de entrada, Siroca esperava o esporro habitual ("bater s i que nao vai me bater nunca, é xingo e nada mais; preferia qu batesse"), as palavras asperas, as queixas amargas e, pior q e tudo, os conselhos. Terminou por romper o silencio: —A gente fic u conversando, nem viu as horas passar. —A gente, q em? —Eu e Jose aniel, hoje Rosenira nao veio. —Amanha, v u levar voce ao medico. —Ao medico madrinha? Mas se eu tido estou doente... —Nao pedi s a opiniao. Siroca falou p a dentro: "Isso que a madrinha estapensando, quem me dera fos e verdade, era tudo o que eu queria". Parecia urn anjo, a face d inocencia. Nazare teve vontade de chorar. Quando a si acao parecia atingir urn ponto insuportavel, tudo se resolveu d veze pelo melhor. Primeiro aconteceu aquele verdadeiro mila e que mudou por completo a situacao do casal: a oferta feita a Lu z Te, por intermedio de um colega de renome, seu professor da iversidade. Colocado a frente de uma grande indnstria nas pro imidades da cidade da Bahia, necessitava de engenheiro corn etente, que nao se assustasse corn trabalho, fosse responsave e de confianca, para ser seu assessor imediato. Pensara no anti • aluno, cujo talento o impressionara e que vegetavanaquel construtora sem futuro. "Que lhe parece, caro Te, ir para a B ia?" Proposta fei a, proposta aceita. Luiz Te embarcou em seguida, precisa assumir o posto imediatamente, Nazare ficou corn o encargo e liquidar o apartamento, passar o contrato adiante, e embal e despachar os pertences. Da Bahia, o marido telefonava entus asmado; a empresa fornecia casa mobiliada numa"praiades1 brante, nunca vi nada igual", a me io caminho entre a cidade e a fabrica, e financiara em boas condicOes a compra de urn a tomOvel, absolutamente indispensavel. "E o paraiso, Nazar —E o parais ,Siroca, Luiz esta empolgado. Diz que para Tinho vai ser ma avilhoso, tern onde passear a vontade, ar puro, nao vai ficar con nado num apartamento como aqui... E nOs duas vamos aprender fazer pratos baianos, Luiz ja conseguiu uma cozinheira espe ialista... —Nao you ara a Bahia nao, madrinha —Como na vai? —Nao you ao —Tu vai, qu Ira ou nao queira. Tu nao tern querer. Te levo a forca. — A senhor nao é minha mae nem doutor Luiz meu pai — Enquanto fores menor tens de me obedecer. —Nao tenh nao senhora. Vou ficar em casa de Rosenira, 31

arranjo emprego. —Tu vai é atras desse miseravel. Vai se perder corn ele —"E so ele querer", concordou Siroca em pensamento, enquanto dizia: —Vou sentir falta de Tinho Depois dessa conversa, afilhada e madrinha deixaram quase de se falar. Mas Siroca cuidava do menino corn desvelo, limpava e arrumava o apartamento e assumiu a cozinha quando Laura, contratada por uma familia do mesmo edificio, foi embora sem esperar pela viagem da antiga patroa. Nazare decidira consultar urn advogado para saber que meios legais podia usar para reduzir Siroca a obediencia, quando certa manha, inesperadamente, a moleca comunicou-lhe: —Madrinha, you ir corn a senhora. —Esta falando a verdade, Siro? —Tou, sim senhora. —E... e...Jose Daniel? —Se acabou.. —Terminou corn ele? Viu que ele nao prestava? —NA° foi assim, nao. Ele é que foi embora. Se acabou. Voltou as costas, recomecou a trabalhar. Nazare saiu naquela mesma tarde a procura de Rosenira, arrumadeira num apartamento das vizinhancas. Era dia de folga da moca, mas a dona de casa, simpatia de pessoa, conhecia e forneceu o endereco da parenta de Siroca—parenta ou simples conterranea?—num suburbio distante. Nazare nao vacilou: enfrentou o trem, andou um born pedaco a pe, finalmente encontrou a casinhola numa rua de canto—nunca vira tanto menino em sua vida. Chegou esperancosa; Rosenira e Siroca eram amigas Intimas, saiam juntas, e se alguem estava a par do que se passara, esse alguem era Rosenira. Saber, sabia, mas nao muito. Siroca nao se abria, menos ainda quando se tratava de Jose Daniel. Nao fazia confidencias nem ouvia conselhos. Ela, Rosenira, se cansara de alertar a prima— se tratam de primas, é como se realmente o fossem—para o fato de Jose Daniel ser casado, viver corn a mulher e os fithos, duas meninas e urn menino, e de j a ter feito o beneficio a varias que andavam por ai de menino no brag°, filho sem pal. Adiantou? Dona Nazare bem que sabe que nAo. Eta, Rosenira, fez o que Ode: saia corn eles, ate namorou o tat do Mundinho Cabecao, amigo inseparavel de Jose Daniel, para melhor cuidar de Siroca. —Pois fique sabendo de um coisa, dona Nazare: de pouco isso iaadiantar porque se ele quisesse fazer mal a eta, tinha feito, quern estava doidinha por isso era eta. Ele é que nunca propos. —Nao venha me dizer que era namoro--ia dizer platonic°, nao disse—... namoro de caboclo... —Nao you mentir pra senhora: era de tirar faisca, cada beijo, cada chupao de dar invej a. A senhora sabe que o apelido de Jose Daniel é boca de mel? Fez corn eta o que bem quis mas no comeu nao senhora. Por que teria sido, dona Nazare? —Como posso saber? E agora, acabou mesmo? —Pois é: to apaixonado que estava, vai e manda uma carta dizendo que tinha de fazer uma viagem para resolver um assunto, ia sumir durante uns tempos, Siroca que fosse desculpando. Urn dia, se desse jeito, voltaria para casar corn eta. —Casar corn ela? Ele nao é casado? —Pois é, veja a senhora. —0 que foi que eta disse? - de pouco falar, a senhora sabe. "Me largou, nao quis de mim", foi tudo que disse como se nao fosse dez vezes pior se tivesse querido e depois largado—fez uma pausa—Eu so queria saber, dona Nazare, porque Jose Daniel nao comeu eta. Tern cada coisa no mundo mais sem explicacao. Quando Siroca acabou de falar e sorriu, Boris olhou para eta, 32

pasmo. A lAmpada nova, acesa no poste, iluminava urn rosto calmo, tranquil°. —Tu esta me pedindo para te ajudar a fugir para o Rio, para se encontrar corn outro, o que é o dono de teu cabaco... E isso mesmo? Siroca balancou a cabeca, concordando: —Tu vai fazer, nao vai? Quern the metera tat iddia na cabeca? Pensava que ele era o que? —Eu sei que tu vai fazer. Deixara de sorrir, agora parecia inquieta, os olhos sUplices. 0 riso se desatou, a incrivel risada de Boris, gaitada imica e indefinfvel, alegre e ir6nica, depois dela tudo podia acontecer. Aqueles que a escutaram jamais puderam esquece-la. A maioria nao conseguiu decifrar seu significado, os que tentaram exp I leala nao obtiveram sucesso. Boris na, as maos nas cadeiras, esse mundo louco. Ah! Esse mundo inconseqUente! "Que born que ele no riu assim quando estava querendo que eu desse", pensou Siroca. Nenhuma resistiria quanto mais quem estivesse amolecida de agrados, o corpo nmido. Igual a elajunto ao poste. —0 que eu tenho que fazer? Fez tudo que ela the ordenou, sem reclamar, sem pedir explicacOes, sem querer saber os motivos. Inclusive, naquelas Ultimas noites de namoro, nao se aproveitou de Siroca estar toda agradecida, dengosa, acesa num fogo nunca visto, para tentar colher os tits vintens que eta Ihe negara por te-los prometidos a outro. Perdera o interesse e se apertou contra o peito, se beliscou-lhe os seios e alisou-the o ventre, se buscou corn os dedos os pelos do xibiu e tocou a brasa acesa, foi paranao °fend& la, pois o desejo passara; Boris se dedicara totalmente ao piano de fuga. Recolheu a malaque eta the passou de madrugada, tinha onde esconde-la muito bem escondida. Compareceu a rodoviaria para comprar a passagem no 6nibus sem leito que saia As 19 horas e como o dinheiro que the dera fosse insuficiente—as passagens agora sobem a cada quinze dias,—teve de ir tomar emprestada a quantia que faltava Durante duas noites foi visto rondando os muros da casa do engenheiro para receber os ultimos pertences. A cozinheira sabia do namoro mas, se desconfiava da fuga, calou o bico. Depois abriu a boca, quando a policia ameacou. Nessa altura, Siroca já ia longe, o onibus saira no horario e sO no dia seguinte foi dado o alarme e consignada a queixa. Siroca deixara a casa pela porta da rua, vestida corn o uniforme do trabalho, Boris a esperava no ponto combinado. Na praia mudou de roupa. Antes que se pusesse nos trinques para a viagem, ele a viunua, inteirinha, quando a moca retirou o uniforme que usava em cima da pele. A lua desceu para espia-la e houve urn fulgor de estrelas. Boris nao se moveu se bem tivesse sentido o coracao pulsar mais forte. Tinha dito que ia fazer, nao voltava mais. —Vam'bora Nua como estava, Siroca se prendeu contra ele num beijo derradeiro. —Se nao tivesse dono, eu tinha de dado. Tu foi born demais. Tomara emprestada a moto de Toquinho, colocou a Siroca na garupa, a mala sobre as coxas; pôs maquina em marcha e la se foram. Corn o escape aberto, urn barulho dos demonios, passaram em frente a casa do engenheiro, pela janela a cozinehira os viu. "Uma gloria!"—pensou Siroca nagarupa da motocicleta. Amanha estaria nos bracos de Jose Daniel, por fim ia ser dele. Boris esperou que o onibus partisse, respondeu ao adeus. Depois voltou a rir, aquela gargalhada indescritivel, gaitada incomensuravel, na de que? Passage iros olhavam-no assustados, sem entender. Maluco, corn certeza. BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

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Mineral Spa Towns Soares, right next to the Hotel GlOria. Telephone calls can be The southern mineral spa towns of Minas are well-developed health resorts whose excellent mineral springs made from Rua Major Penha 265. Parque das Aguas have various therapeutic applications. Of the 13 spa towns, The Parque das Aguas is like a Disneyland for the Caxambu, with its century-old Parque das Aguas, and So rheumatic. Given the proper temperament and surroundings, Lourenco, surrounded by the green hills of the Serra da Mantiqueira, are of most interest to the traveler. Been trav- nursing your ailments can be fun. People come to take the mineral waters, smell the sulfur, compare liver eling hard and fast? Recovering from a tropispots, watch the geyser spout every couple of cal disease? Sick of seemingly idyllic beaches? hours, rest in the shade by the canal and walk in Overdosing on baroque? If the answer is yes the lovely gardens. to one or all of these questions, the spa towns The park is not only good, it's good for you. await you. Liver problems? Go to the Dona Leopoldina CAXAMBU magnesium fountain. Skin disorders? Take the Brazilians debate the origin of the name sulfur baths of Tereza Cristina. Anemic? The Caxambu. Some claim it is a combination of Conde d'Eu e Dona Isabel fountains are rich in two African words: cacha (drum) and mambu iron. VD? The Duque de Saxe fountain helps (music), A cacha-mambu or caxambu is a calm the bacteria that cause syphilis. For stomconically shaped drum from the Congo, which ach troubles, drink the naturally carbonated the founders of the city likened to the knolls waters of Dom Pedro (there's a water-bottling of the area. Others believe it came from the Liver problems? plant on the premises). The alkaline waters of Indian cata-mbu (water that bubbles), in refthe Venancio and Viotti fountains are good for erence to the medicinal fountains. Most Go to the Dona dissolving kidney stones, while the Beleza wacouldn't care less where the name came from. Leopoldina ters soothe the intestines. The multipurpose It wasn't until 1870 that the springs were water ofthe Mayrink fountains 1,2 and 3 is good first tapped. Realizing the curative properties magnesium for gargling, eye irritations, and table water of the waters, medical practitioners flocked (without the bubbles). to the town. In 1886 Dr Policarpo Viotti fountain. Skin The park is open daily from 7 am to 6 pm, founded the Caxambu water company (nadisorders? Take and admission to the grounds is $1. Separate tionalized in 1905). fees are required for paddleboats, the rifle range, The water of Caxambu was celebrated on the sulfur baths of hydrotherapeutic massages at the bath house, the international water circuit, winning gold Tereza Cristina. the Jacuzzi, sauna, clay tennis courts, swimmedals long before Perrier hit Manhattan ming pool, skating rink and chairlift to the top of singles bars. Caxambu took the gold medal in Anemic? The MOM) Cristo. Rome's Victor Emmanuel III Exposition of Other Attractions Conde d'Eu e Dona 1903, and another gold medal in the St Louis The eight-meter-high Morro Cristo hill has International Fair of 1904, then the Diploma an image of Jesus. On Rua Princesa Isabel is the of Honor in the University of Brussels ExpoIgreja de Santa Isabel da Hungria, built by sition of 1910. the princess once she conceived due to the These water Olympics were discontinued during WW I, and Caxambu's history was uneventful until 1981, when miraculous waters of Caxambu. Take a horse-and-buggy tour into the countryside; a Supergasbras and Superagua, private firms, took over the government concession. Caxambu is sold throughout Brazil, 11/2-hour ride from the park entrance will only set you back and in Miami, Florida, where the US Food & Drug Admin- $15 for two. The standard tour includes a mini-zoo, the istration has approved it. Caxambu is the only Brazilian Fabrica de Doce and the Chacara Rosalan. The mini-zoo at the Hotel Campestre has caged monkeys, a witting peacock, mineral water thus honored. Caxambu is a tranquil resort for the elderly and the and a siriema bird, which looks like an eccentric European middle class, who come here to escape the heat ofRio and the aristocrat disgraced and in exile. The Fabrica de Doce has madness of Carnaval. Some couples have been coming here locally-produced honey ($3), liqueurs ($0.50) and preserves ($2). The last stop is Chacara Rosallan, an old farm with a every summer for 30 years or more. flower orchard and fruit grove. Rosallan is famous for two of Information her fruit liqueurs: jaboticaba and bottled tangerine. Empty Tourist Office bottles are passed Obtain maps and other infor- over the tiny tanand mation from the gerines strapped to the tourist office in tree; the tangerine Praca 16 de Setembro, open grows within the from 8 to 11 am bottle and, weeks and noon to 6 pm. later, is made into Post & Tele- a liqueur. For Places to phone The post Stay and to Eat, office is on read the book. Avenida Camilo

Roller Waters

BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

Getting There & Away Seven daily buses make the 49-km trip between Caxambu and Sao Lourenco on a winding, wooded road. There are four buses a day to Sao Paulo ($9,672 hours), and two to Rio ($8, 5 V2 hours), at 8 am and midnight, via Cruzeiro and Resende. SAO LOURENCO Sao Lourenco is another pleasant city of mineral waters. Just south of Caxambu, it's 275 km from Rio de Janeiro. 296 km from Sao Paulo and 401 km from Belo Horizonte. The principal attraction is the Parque das Aguas, featuring waters with a variety of healing properties, a sauna and a lake with paddle boats. It's open daily from 8 am to 5.20 pm. Other diversions include goat-cart rides for children and horse-and-buggy rides for adults. Information Tourist Office In front of the Parque das Aguas, the tourist office is open ever} day from 8 to 11 am and 1 to 6 pm. Staff have a list of hotels and a map of the attractions. Post & Telephone The post office is on Rua Dr Olavo Gomes Pinto. The tele' nica is at Rua Coronet Jose Justino 647. Circuito das Aguas , Volkswagen Kombi half-day tours of the Circuito das Aguas (Water Circuit) can be arranged for $20 per person. If possible, organize it the day before. The vans will take up to eight people. and normally visit Caxambu, Baependi, Cambuquira, Lambari and Passa Quatro, but you can also talk (bribe?) the driver into taking you to the mysterious stone village of Sao Tome das Letras (80 km away). Taxis and vans congregate at Avenida Getillio Vargas. You could also visit Pocos de Caldas a city built on the crater of an extinct volcano; this mineral spring town was settled by crystal-glass blowers ofthe island of Murano, near Venice. There are full-day tours to Pocos de Caldas that cost $35 and leave at 7 am. Templo da Euboise Members of the Brazilian Society of Euboise believe that a new civilization will arise in the seven magic cities of the region: Sao Tome das Letras, Aiuruoca, Conceicao do Rio Verde, ltanhandu, Pouso Alto, Carmo de Minas and Maria da Fe. You can visit their temple on weekends from 2 to 4 pm, but you won't be allowed in if you're wearing shorts or sandals. For Places to Stay and to Eat, read the book. Entertainment Sao Lourenco's nightlife is pretty tame. In the evenings, teenagers and young adults dress up and hang out on the fence and around the entrance of the Hotel MetrOpole. The club there has dances, a bar and music video on a large screen. If that's not your scene, there's a cinema on Avenida Dom Pedro IL Getting There & Away There are six buses daily to Rio de Janeiro ($7, five hours), six daily to Sao Paulo ($8, six hours) and 11 daily to Caxambu ($0.75, 45 min-

utes). SAO TOME DAS LETRAS In southern Minas, 310 km from Belo Horizonte, Sao Tome das Letras is a stone village at an altitude of 1450 meters. The name refers to the inscriptions on some of the many caverns in the region. If you're into mysticism or superstition, this is the place to go. Considered by local mystics to be one of the seven sacred cities of the world, the town is filled with hippies, strange stories of flying saucers, visits of extraterrestrials, a cave that is the entrance to a subterranean passageway to Machu Picchu in Peru, and more. This is also a beautiful mountain region, with great walks and several waterfalls. Things to See & Do Most of the town's churches and buildings are old and made from slabs of quartzite. One that isn't is the Igreja Matriz de Sao Tome, dating from 1740, in the main square. It contains some excellent frescoes by the artist Joaquim Jose da Natividade. Right next to the church is the Gruta de Sao Tome a small cave, which, as well as its shrine to Sao Tome has some of the strange inscriptions. The lgreja de Pedra, made of stone, is worth a photograph. The lookout, only 500 meters), up from town, provides great views and is a good place to watch the sunset or sunrise. The caves Carimbado (three km away) and Chico Taquara (3.5 km) both contain the puzzling inscriptions. The popular waterfalls to walk to are Euboise (three km), Prefeitura (seven km) and Veu de Noiva (12 km). Festival In August, the Festas de Agosto attract lots of pilgrims. For Places to Stay and to Eat, read the book. Getting There & Away The town is best reached from Tres CoracOes (which happens to be Pele's birthplace and has a statue of him), 38 km to the west. Buses leave daily at 6 am and 3.30 pm. The dirt road up the mountains is precarious and buses are cancelled during hard rains. Hitching is possible, but not easy. To try hitching from Tr'es CoracOes, cross the river next to the bus station and turn into the first street on the right, the one with the train track down the middle. About 50 meters, down on the left-hand side, there's a bus stop. Take the 'B Ventura' bus to its final destination. It'll save you a long uphill walk through town. Sao Tome das Letras can also be reached from Caxambu, 60 km to the south, but not by local bus. National Parks PARQUE NACIONAL DE CAPARAO This park is popular with climbers and hikers from all over Brazil. The panoramic views are superb, taking in the Capara6 valley that divides Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo.

\N, BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

Capara6 contains the highest mountains in southern Brazil, including the third-highest peak in the country: the Pico da Bandeiraat 2890 meters. Other peaks include Cristal (2798 meters) and Calqado (2766 meters), All three can be reached via a good network of trails that exist within the park. Climbing gear isn't necessary. Despite being ravaged by fire in 1988 and by human interference for the last 300 years, the park has a few lush remnants of Mata Atlantica, mostly in Vale Verde, a small valley split by the Rio Caparao. Wildlife in the park is not exactly plentiful, but there are still some opossums, agoutis and spider monkeys to be seen. Birdlife includes various eagle, parrot and hummingbird species. Between November and January, there's lots of rain and it's too cloudy for good views. The best time to visit the park is between June and Augustâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;although these are the coldest months, the days are clear. Bring warm clothes! The Park is open daily from 7 am to 5 pm and costs $0.50 to enter. Make sure you pick up a map. It's possible to camp inside the park. There are two official campsites. Getting There & Away Capara6 can be reached via Belo Horizonte or from Vitoria, in Espirito Santo. You'll need to catch a bus to the town of Manhumirim, and then another local bus to Alto do Caparao, a further 25 km away. Unfortunately, the bus timetables work against the budget traveler. There are two buses a day to Manhumirim from both Belo Horizonte and VitOria. From Belo, they leave at 10 am and 5 pm, from VitOria at 9.30 am and 3.30 pm. The trip from either takes around five hours. The problem is that there are only two local buses a day to Alto do Capara6: at 8 am and noon. To avoid staying in Manhumirim, catch one of the many buses going to Presidente Soares and ask to be dropped off at the Capara6 turn-off, then hitch the rest of the way. Alternatively, ifyou can afford it, take a taxi from Manhumirim to Alto do Caparao ($15 to $25, depending on the mood of the driver and your own bargaining ability). PARQUE NACIONAL DA SERRA DO CIPO Formed by mountains, rivers, waterfalls and open grasslands, the Parque Nacional da Serra do CipO is one of Minas' most beautiful. Its highlands, together with an arm of the Serra do Espinhaco, divide the water basins of the sao Francisco and Doce rivers. The park contains no infrastructure for tourism. Most of the park's vegetation is cerrado and gassy highlands, but the small river valleys are lush and ferny, and contain a number of unique orchids. Animal species include the maned wolf, tamarin monkey, banded anteater, tree hedgehog, otter, jaguar and there are large numbers of bats. Birdlife includes woodpeckers, blackbirds and hummingbirds. The park is also home to a small, brightly colored frog, which secretes deadly toxins from its skin. Brazilians call it sapo-de-pijama (the pajama-frog), Other attractions of the park include the 70-meter water-

fall Cachoeira da Farofilla and the Canyon dos Bandeirantes, named after the early adventurers from Sao Paulo, who used the area as a natural road to the north in their search for riches. A traveler to Parque Nacional de Serra do CipO writes: "It was a great experience. I would call the lack of infrastructure an advantage. Some people stay near the Rio do Cipo, but few actually go into the park itself. To camp in the park, stay on the bus for about 20 km past the hotel near the Rio do Cip6. There are two small stone bridges just 100 meters from each other. Ask the driver to let you off at the 4WD road to the right, just past those bridges. Follow the track (all quartz and quartzite) for about five km until it becomes a footpath through the bushes. Don't lose the track because the vegetation is dense. After three to four km more you get to a small, very dry plateau where you'll be completely alone and have a superb view over the canyons to both sides. Just pitch your tent for a few days and take day trips down into the canyons or wander over the mountains higher up. There are waterfalls and pools down in the river, which are very nice to swim in. There is marvelous vegetation and nasty beasties, including snakes, giant spiders and scorpions. When you return to Belo Horizonte, make sure you make a short stop just past the Rio do CipO. There's a great pub opposite the hotel, about 50 meters to the right. It's actually an old watermill, the mood is great and the owner speaks English. It's worth a visit!" Geert Van de Wiele (Belgium) Getting There & Away Located about 100 km northeast of Belo Horizonte, the park is reached by catching a bus to Lagoa Santa, then another bus to Conceicao do Mato Dentro. The road passes next to the park and Cardeal Mota, the nearest town. PARQUE NACIONAL DA SEFtRA DA CANASTRA In the southeast of Minas Gerais, the Parque Nacional da Serra da Canastra is the birthplace of the Rio So Franciscoâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the river of national unity. With altitudes varying between 900 and 1500 meters, the vegetation is cerrado with grassy tablelands. Although the fauna has been devastated by hunting and bushfires over the years, the park is a reasonable place to see animals, especially early in the morning. Deer, armadillos, banded anteaters, jaguars and maned wolves may be spotted, as well as eagles, vultures and owls. Another big attraction is the 200-meter high Casca d'Anta waterfall. The best time to visit the park is between April and October. For Places to Stay and to Eat, read the book. Excerpts from Brazil - I Travel Survival Kit 3rd edition, by Andrew Draffen, Chris N1cAsey, Leonardo Pinheiro, and Robyn Jones. For more information call Lonely Planet: (800)275-8555. Copy right 1996 Lonely Planet Publications. t:sed by permission.

BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

During my frequent trips to different parts of the world, I have met any people who even though they have a good deal of formal education seem to know little or nothing about razil or the Portuguese-speaking world. My aim is simply to get more people interested in knowing more about t is universe. Hopefully, some might even want to learn Portuguese and visit one of the countries where the lan uage is spoken. A conservative estimate is that Portuguese is spoken by 180 milli n people and some specialists claim that the total may be as high as 220 million speakers in the world. In rank g, Portuguese is in sixth place with more speakers that Bengali, Russian, Japanese, Korean, and surprisingly German and Italian. This inform ion points to the fact that Portuguese, spoken in Europe, Africa, the F East (West Timor,) and in the Americas is a force in the world. Based on statistics from the ear 1999, Mozambique has a population of 20 million people while An ola has approximately 13 million inhabitants. The three other Portu uese-speaking nations—Guinea-Bissau, The Cape Verde and Saint Th mas & Principe Islands together have a population of about 2 million, any people do not know that there exists an association of these nation whose official language is Portuguese. This entity bears the initials PA OP (Paises Africanos de Lingua Oficial Portuguesa—African Nations ith Portuguese as Official Language). With so many speakers, certain those who want to learn Portuguese will have plenty of people to talk "th. There are other facts that pint to the importance of Portuguese as a major world language. In the ye 1999, over 43,000 titles were published in Brazil alone. In this country, more than 6,000 titles were translated to Portuguese from six different 1 guages: English, French, Spanish, GerThose learning Portuguese will man, Italian and Japanese. In B zil approximately 290,000 copies were find good-humored words to deal sold. The figures cited here are imited to Brazil. To be sure, if we add the other Portuguese-speaking nat ons, the totals would be higher. These with major or minor "headaches." numbers taken from a study by e Camara Brasileira do Livro (Brazilian A small problem may be described Book Chamber) may appear to •e low compared with the number of books published in France, Germany Britain or the USA but they do indeed in Portuguese as urn pepino ("a indicate that a lot of ideas and a wealth of facts and information are being cucumber") while a big one is concommunicated in Portuguese. e sheer volume of material in Portuguese might very well be used as a ood reason to invest in the study of the sidered to be urn abacaxi ("a pinelanguage. It is also important to remember that Brazil is the largest Portuguese-speaking country ii the world with a population in 1999 of apple"). 164 million people. In ten ye ' time the population will no doubt pass the 200 million mark. JOHN ROBERT SCHMITZ For those who speak Spanis , it is fairly easy to learn Portuguese. But those who have studied Spanis will have to work hard for Portuguese has its own specific grammar, di tinctive vocabulary, pronunciation and intonation. Those who begin their study of Portuguese should not be • eluded by the similarity between the two languages. The differences are often subtle. Spanish speakers indee have to make a concerted effort when learning Portuguese for there is the danger in their case of the de lopment of a fossilized "intermediary" language called in Brazil "portunhor , a mixture of Spanish and Po guese.

Portuguese Spoken Here

BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

Spanish pronunciation has been characterized in popular terms as sounding like the marching of soldiers in a parade or the noise of a heavy thundershower on a tin roof. Portuguese to some ears may seem more mellifluous than Spanish. For those who like to study different languages and enjoy grammar (or syntax) Portuguese will provide some interesting surprises. In formal written Portuguese, in passive expressions in the future tense such as "it will be said", "it will be stated", the pronoun "se" (which signals passive) is inserted between the root of the verb and the marker of the future: "dirse-a" (it will be said) and "dar-se-d uma ordem" ("an order will be given"). This process is called mesoclise in Portuguese or mesoclisis in English. Another interesting characteristic of Portuguese is the fact that infinitives can be conjugated. Some examples with personal endings conjugated (shown in bold type) are: "ideias para eles considerarem" ("ideas for them to consider") "um assunto para nos refletirmos" ("an issue for us to think about"). English grammar does not have this refinement. It is indeed a fact that English has only one first person plural pronoun— "we" as in: "We the People" and Martin Luther King's famous "We shall overcome". Portuguese happens in this instance to be more expressive with two subject pronouns --"n6s" for formal use and "a gente" for informal use. Thus, there are two possible ways to translate the English, "we work all day long": N6s trabalhamos o dia inteiro" and "A gente trabalha o dia inteiro"."A gente" is very flexible and functions as well as an object pronoun. An example taken from the I 9th Century Brazilian novelist Aluisio Azevedo's 0 Mulato, (The Mulatto) "...despeca-se da gente" ("Say (farewell) good-bye to us"), [Aluisio de Azevedo, 0 Mulato. Sao Paulo: Martins, 1959, p. 109]. In informal Portuguese, a gente functions as a personal pronoun: "urn amigo da gente" meaning" ("a friend of ours"). Portuguese, similar to its sister language Spanish, can handle subtle semantic and pragmatic distinctions with the choice of two verbs, "ser" or "estar", while English has to get along with just one— "be". So, to render the Portuguese "folio esta feliz" and "Joao feliz" in English, with the presence of only one verb, more information would have to be provided. For the first, "John is happy today/ right now" and for the second, "John is happy by nature or always that way". Quite different from its sister Romance Languages, Brazilian Portuguese has shown its originality by adopting a strategy called "prodrop" (pronoun dropping) by linguists. Many of the world's languages employ this strategy to simplify communication. In English or Spanish, speakers are obliged to employ object pronouns. For example, English speakers say, "Give me the book" or "Give it to me". Spanish speakers say, "Deme el libro" or "demelo". Speakers of informal Brazilian Portuguese say, "Me dá" or "d6". Quite different from English, Brazilian Portuguese is quite economical for its speakers are not obliged to insert object pronouns "I like it" or "I want some" in responding to questions like "Do you like ice 38

cream?" or "Do you want some coffee" for they can simply answer respectively "Gosto" e "Quero". Those who have studied Spanish, Italian or French are familiar with the names of the days of the week. Monday respectively in these languages is lunes, lunedi, lundi. Many people are not aware that Portuguese breaks this pattern with numbered days, "segunda-feira" (second market day = Monday), "terca-feira" (third market day = Tuesday), "quarta-feira" ( fourth market day) and so on. The point of my description of Portuguese is to show that the language is linguistically distinct and original. As in the case of other languages, it is very rich with an impressive number of words, ranging from very formal and cultured ones to very expressive and colloquial vocabulary items. A very dramatic example in the formal language is the expression tomar providencias meaning "to take measures to get something done". Very expressive indeed for sometimes to get something done quickly requires "providence", and for some, it may be a question of Divine Providence! Portuguese also has a nice word for the English "ordeal" — the word peleja is heard quite frequently in the beautiful, quite mountainous heartland state of Minas Gerais (General Mines), famous for its small towns with exquisite baroque churches. Those who enroll in Portuguese language courses will meet some very good-humored words and expressions to deal with major or minor "headaches" of every-day existence, especially in our dealings with other people. A small problem facing us may be described in Portuguese as um pepino ("a cucumber") while a big one where a solution is too difficult to reach is considered in Portuguese to be um abacaxi ( "a pineapple"). This word is picturesque indeed for to peel a pineapple is a real chore and no doubt this is why Americans prefer their pineapples in cans. When a person who displeases us finally decides to go away, we often mutter the words "Good riddance". In Portuguese, one often says, já vai tarde or "he is leaving late"! Only those who have learned Portuguese can appreciate the very pithy idiomatic expression "golpe do bait", which describes the situation in which one not very well-to-do individual finds a very affluent marriage partner and lives "happily ever after". This expression, literally "the coup of the trunk" reveals its age for it refers to a time when rich spouses kept their money and jewels in trunks rather than in safety deposit boxes. A look at color terms in the different languages of the world will indicate their specific nature and provide a glimpse of different cultures. In Portuguese, when things are going great and life is fine, Brazilians say Tudo Azul! Quite different from English where the color "blue" designates just the opposite. In Portuguese one can buy "red eggs" or ovos vermelhos while in English they are brown. People who are jealous of their neighbors' goods in Portuguese are roxas de inveja ("purple with envy). In English, jealousy is associated with the color "green", that is, "green with envy". All languages show distinctiveness in their use of numbers in idiomatic expressions. The number 13 is not unlucky as in English. In Brazil, the thirteenth floor of apartment houses and office buildings are duly marked. In some countries the 13th floor is simply skipped. A nice name for a business that sells lottery tickets is "Bola 13" ("Ball 13"). There is also a chain of supermarkets in Sao Paulo (the largest city in Brazil) that bears the name "Bazaar 13" . The English expression "half a dozen of one and a BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

half dozen of another" is eight or eighty ("oito ou oitenta") in Portuguese. Cats in Brazil are tougher than their counterparts in Britain and in the USA for they get along very well with "seven lives" rather than nine. There are many other reasons for leaning Portuguese. The most obvious reason is that knowing another language can open up job opportunities in a variety of fields. Candidates for employment in the USA who know Portuguese can find a variety of jobs in tourism, social work, sales and services, translation and interpreting and in teaching. The Brazilian Ministry of Education (MEC) offers in July or December of each yearâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a proficiency exam for the Certificate of Proficiency in Portuguese as a Foreign Language (wvvw.mec.gov.br). This test has both a written and oral component to evaluate linguistic and communicative competence in Portuguese. Many people believe that globalization at the present time is slowly undermining cultural, economic and political distinctions. While it is true that the varied forces of internationalism are contributing to the inter-dependence of nations, fortunately there exist in the world pockets of resistance to globalizing tendencies. Groupings of different nations such as the Hispanic countries in Latin America in addition to Spain, the Francophone nations that include a number of African countries, Quebec, France and Haiti (among others), and the different Portuguese-speaking countries all with their different heritages serve to offset, to some extent, the threat of cultural domination and homogenization. A knowledge of things Luso-Brazilian, of the Luso-Brazilian world, replete with its varied cultural practices and identities provides those who are interested with a vast storehouse of information. Those who work in the area of Luso-Brazilian studies often specialize in one region or set of nations or in a particular discipline, be it literature, anthropology, economics, music or art. An important journal in this field is the LusoBrazilian Review published at the University of Wisconsin (Madison). [http :wvvvv. as.mi ami edu/las/review.htm In the field of literature, Portugal has given the world the epic poem, the famous Lusiads penned by Luiz de Can-0es (Camoens). This poem celebrates the adventures of the Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama. The Portuguese have their own Charles Dickens, the writer Eca de Queirns, whose novels have been translated to English. A recent Portuguese writer well known in literary circles in the USA is Jose Saramago, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998. The Portuguese-speaking nations of Africa have produced as well a vibrant literature in Portuguese that has been translated to English, French, German, Spanish and other major world languages. To cite Angola as a case in point, one can enjoy the writings (poetry and fiction) of Pepetela (Artur Mauricio Carlos Pestana dos Santos), Manuel Rui, Uanhenga Xitu and many others. But, to be fair, it has to be recognized that without the existence of Brazil and its linguistic and cultural input, the Portuguese language would not be as important as it is at the beginning of this twenty-first century. To gain influence in the world, languages need to increase their number of speakers and widen their geographical space. Continental in size, Brazil is larger than the USA if Alaska and Hawaii are not considered in the comparison. Brazilian Portuguese is indeed distinctive with its mix of European, African and Indian cultures. Worth citing is the volume "Brazilian Civilization" (A Cultura Brasileira) first published in 1943 by BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

the Brazilian edu ator and writer, Fernando de Azevedo. The famous N w York City-based publishing house, Alfred Knopf for many ears specialized in the translation of the Brazilian writers Machado de Assis, Jorge Amado and GuimarAes Rosa to English. No other South American nation has received this distinction. Some Brazilians are somewhat fearful about the effects of gl obalization, the increasing penetration of English words and expressions into their language, and the threat of Americanization of their culture. My belief is that as long as Brazilians continue their specific cultural production, their heritage will not be in danger. The identity of a specific nation lies not in words but in people and their cultural production. Villa Lobos, Caetano Veloso, Vinicius de Moraes, Chico Buar ue, Milton Nascimento, Chico Cesar in the area of music, as well as Clarice Lispector, Lygia Fagundes Telles, Cecilia M irelles and Joao Ubaldo Ribeiro in the field of literature are e representatives of Brazilian cultural hertage. Of course, e cultural contribution of these individuals has to be dissem ated, that is, "exported" to the four corners of the world. Dipl mats, cultural specialists, linguists, teachers of Portuguese as a Foreign languages, university professors and educators in eneral in the Portuguese-speaking countries indeed have thei work cut out for them in the coming years. In a recent vi 't to Europe, I came into contact with people from all parts of e world. Surprisingly, many people who I thought were in rmed about world affairs, asked me quite ingenuously: "w at crops are grown in Brazil?" My answer to all those who q eried me was the following: "Airplanes, automobiles, co puters, refrigerators, armaments, shoes, clothes, medicin , and many other items". I believe that my answer helped any people to see Brazil from a different perspective. I hope I hay convinced my readers that the Portuguese language and Lu o-Brazilian studies offer vast opportunities for study, resear h and cultural enhancement. It is also my fervent wish that this article might encourage readers to visit Brazil, Portugal d other nations where Portuguese is spoken. John Rob rt Schmitz is a member of the Department of Applied Linguis ics of the Institute for the Study of Language at the State U 'versity of Cam pinas, Campinas, State of Sao Paulo. He as lived in Brazil for 30 years. He holds a BA degree from B ooldyn College of the City University of New York, an MA from Teachers College, Columbia University and a doctorate in Applied Linguistics from the Catholic University of Sao Paulo. He was a Fulbright exchange student at the Uni ersity of Sao Paulo (1961-1962). His research interests are in he fields of lexicography, translation studies, Brazilian cultur , contrastive analysis and language teaching. He has pu lished papers and reviews in Hispania, Meta, Language Prob ems and Language Planning and Discourse & Society. You can contact him at Schmitz(&,iel.unicamn.br 39

of Inspector Javert (remember Jean Valjean?), who has been assigned to protect the journalist and pacifist Jean Jaures. Inadvertently, Dimitri distracts Javert from Jaures' real killer. The incident will put Dimitri in the hospital (where he's aided The second novel by Brazilian author J6 Soares follows the by Marie Curie) and it'll put Javert in the doldrumsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;which leads to an ending you're already familbasic formula that paid off in A Samba for iar with if you've ever read Les Sherlock, a formula in the tradition of Forest Miserables or seen the musical. Gump, Zelig, and even Ragtime, that blends The episodes that follow are both real people, real events, with fictive characters zany and surreal. In Paris, Dimitri finds and situations. work as a taxi driver, and is later requiWe can say this of JO Soares: He casts a sitioned to drive six soldiers to the front. wide netâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;across three continents and half a Trusting his faulty instincts, he makes a century. His protagonist, twelve-fingered wrong turn, and the ensemble ends up in Dimitri Borja Korojec, is born in 1897 in the opposite direction. That night they Banja Luca, Bosnia, his mother a Brazilian stay up late arguing about the best Brie contortionist of mixed blood and his father a in France. Subsequent vignettes find Serbian linotypist. The latter has ties to a Dimitri surviving a U-boat attack off somewhat peculiar anarchist group. For exthe coast of Portugal and striking up a ample, after birth, his son's right testicle is friendship with budding actor George removed and eaten by the father so that the boy Raft. will have leftist leanings. The two get bit parts in the silent While still a teenager, Dimitri is taken by version of Ben-Hur, and nearly cause a his old man to a clandestine meeting of the Roman-sized debacle oftheir own. Raft Union of Death, or the Black Hand, and favorwill later pawn off Dimitri on Chicago ably impresses Dragutin Dimitrijevic, the mobster Al Capone, who accepts him founder of this terrorist sect. Their goal is the into his gang. Much later still, after unification of the Serbian people, by whatever being thrown into a prison on Ilha means necessary, i.e., by murder and/or inGrande, offthe coast of Angra dos Reis, timidation. Dimitrijtvic takes the lad under not far from Rio, Dim itri even becomes his wing, and places him in the group's Assaspals with writer Graciliano Ramos. The sins' School. latter says he'll include Dimitri in the However, despite the extra digits (two inbook he'll write if he ever gets free (the dex fingers on each hand) and his mother's one we know as Memorias do Carcere/ flexibility, Dimitri has a clumsiness that will Prison Memoirs), but Dimitri begs him surface at inopportune times, leading to sevnot to. And so it goes. eral pratfalls, both intellectual and physical, Sounds like there's a gag a minute, that are reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes in doesn't it? Sure, there are one-liners that Soares' first novel. work, but Soares is no Woody Allen or The original Portuguese title of Twelve Groucho Marx. Also, strange as it seems, Fingers is a little different, roughly translating one may be put off from time to time by to The Man Who Killed Getfilio Vargas. Prethe slightly crass, indelicate humor. Early sumably most North Americans have little on, in what is a comic chain of events, the idea ofthe complex role GetOlio Vargas played wrong patient gets his kidney removed. in Brazilian politics, and that he was first a Not the sort of thing you'd slap your knee dictator and later a democratically-elected while reading, in any imaginable conpresident. Also, they probably do not know text. It reminds this reader of Jack the that he committed suicide in 1954, when things Ripper's unusual 'signature' in Soares' In Jo Soares's Twelve were looking bleak for his government. Since A Sambafor Sherlock(Vintage), in which all Brazilians know that Vargas shot himself, Fingers there's a gag a the killer would cut a flap of skin from his the title becomes quizzical, as if someone here victim's inner thigh while leaving a viowere to write a book about the guy who knocked minute. Sure, there are lin string curled up in her pubic hair. off Ernest Hemingway. Still, there are snappy exchanges, to On the day that Archduke Franz Ferdinand one-liners that work, but wit: is gunned down in Sarajevo, an event that Soares is no Woody Allen "I rolled on the floor with her, like a precipitates the first World War, Dimitri is madman, possessing her again. What an lurking along the parade route, and in fact has or Groucho Marx. Strange insatiable woman! It was seven, eight a brush with Gavrilo Princip, whose bullets times a night." will change history. Had it not been for his as it seems, one may be "All of them with you?" trademark clumsiness, however, the dubious put off by the slightly To lend some verisimilitude to this honor would have fallen to Dimitri. Instead, purported biography, the author has and this book hops around considerably, the crass humor. added a smattering of photos and drawyoung man is sent by Dim itrijevic to Paris via ings, most ofthem contemporaneous with the Orient Express. While on board the legendthe events described, reminiscent of what ary train he'll have a serious flirtation with BONDO WYSZPOLSKI we find in the 'novels' of W.G. Sebald double-agent and knockout babe Mata Hari, (The Emigrants, Vertigo), but here deand at the same time incur the wrath of her cidedly more tongue-in-cheek. dwarf assistant, who will pursue Dimitri for It takes Dimitri close to two-thirds of the book to arrive in years to come. The Mata Hari escapade is intermittently amusing, and sets Brazil (his goal from the start, actually), and the reader who the pace (smatterings ofboth humor and silliness) for the rest of knows a thing or two about, for instance, Luis Carlos Prestes the book. In Paris, Dimitri arouses the suspicion ofthe grandson or Carlos Lacerda, will get more from these pages than those

Twelve Fingers: Biography of an Anarchist, by J6 Soares, trans. by Clifford Landers (Pantheon, 303 pp., $23)

Too Many Fingers

BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

who don't. Nonetheless, throughout Twelve Fingers Dimitri never forgets—in his words—that "my life is dedicated to the overthrow of tyranny, whatever the cost." Of course, one botched assassination attempt after another does undermine his self-confidence: "An intense depression descends upon Dimitri. Fate insists on putting him in the right place at the wrong time." What may undermine the reader's confidence are the handful of proofreading errors, none of which mar the usual superb translation by Clifford Landers, but which may elicit a frown where a smile is in order. For example, "a immense" (p. 105); "Union or Death" should be "Union of Death" (p. 113); "review" would be better off as "revue" (p. 139); there are missing words or letters on pages 139 and 180-181; "in the Big Sur" should be "in Big Sur" (p. 237); and "at the corner of Flamengo beach and Rua Silveira Martins" could be more consistent, i.e., "at the corner of Praia do Flamengo and Rua Silveira Martins" (p. 287). Picky, picky, I know, but such things do stop the flow of traffic. Twelve Fingers: Biography of an Anarchist doesn't run out of steam and manages to touch more corners of twentieth century history than any novel in recent memory. For my palate, however, there are too many shenanigans, and nothing to engage the passions or inflame the intellect. Still, Jo Soares has written a clever, comic roller coaster ride of a book, and I can imagine that there are many readers who'd like to line up and take a front seat. Bondo Wyszpolski also heads up the arts and entertainment section of the Easy Reader, a weekly newspaper based in the South Bay of southern California. He can be reached at bwvsznolskiearthlink.net

The following day, as they leave the dining hall, Dimitri approaches Mathurin. "I got the money for the escape. I'm just afraid they'll decide to search me." "Don't worry about it. On Devil's Island I learned a way to hide things that will get by any search," Mathurin assures him. "How?" "I'll show you. Come with me.' Henri takes Dimitri to the bathroom and asks him to watch the entrance. Lowering his pants and squatting next to the wall, he begins contorting himself as if he were about to evacuate. Suddenly, a polished bamboo tube approximately six inches long and two inches in diameter emerges from his anus. It is divided into two parts that screw into each other. Twisting both ends, Mathurin opens the unusual cache. From inside the tube he takes out a delicate gold chain and four rolled-up pictures of his mother. "It's my little safe." Dimitri contemplates the menacing cylinder. Henri explains, "I've made one just like it for you. You have to stick it in really far, up to the colon in the large intestine. All you do is take a deep breath and it goes right in. Even if they strip you and spread your legs, there's no way to discover it." After a long pause, Dimitri says to his companion, "On second thought, I think I'll stay here. The Colony isn't really so bad. The food's tolerable at best, but the place has a lovely view, the air's clean, and I need to look after my roaches." Henri is amused at the terror the bamboo inspires in Dimitri. "Don't be silly. If you're that scared of the tube, I'll carry yours too." "Is there room?" Dimo asks, amazed. "Of course!" Mathurin answers, slapping his buttocks goodhumoredly. "Where there's room for one, there's room for two."

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The following interview was conducted with Mr. Nelson Mendes, Cultural Coordinator of the internationally known Bloco Afro Olodum of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Mr. Mendes has worked with Olodum for over a decade and develops projects and organizes communication between Olodum and other Afro-Brazilian institutions in Bahia, as well as other national and international organizations. This conversation took place on March 15, 2000 in Mr. Mendes' office at the "Casa do Olodum" located in the Pelourinho neighborhood of Salvador. The interview was completed entirely in Portuguese and tape recorded. At the time I was in Salvador completing an Independent Studies course on Bahian Carnaval and the blocos afros of Bahia. In the translation process, I took some liberty in creating a "flow" to the conversation, as opposed to a direct translation, which, in my opinion, sometimes creates text difficult to follow. I was more interested in the "feeling" of what was being discussed rather than a word for word translation. This project was funded in part by a Research, Projects and Travel (RPT) grant from the University of New Mexico.

Olodum Power

Filhos de Ghandy—A famous afoxe group of Bahia Povo —"Common people," understood to mean the less privileged classes Mestre —Musical leader, director or teacher of a Brazilian band, or musical style Camarote—Grandstand of sorts used during Carnaval for people to sit above the festival in the streets below. Sometimes quite expensive Trio Eletrico/Bloco Trio—Common Carnaval group in Bahia, distinguished by a more pop orientated sound, sometimes sponsored by big businesses in Bahia

Brazzil—S peak about the history of the bloco. How was it formed? What was the vision at the beginning? NM—The Bloco Afro Olodum is a group that originated with the inhabitants of the MacielPelourinho, where we are right now, which was the most marginalized area [in Bahia.] There were just poor people, these houses The Bahian, by him- were abandoned, but many families lived in At the end of the 1970s, the Bloco Afro self, lives very poorly in them. Olodum appeared as a cultural expression of social terms. He lives the inhabitants of the Maciel-Pelourinho, to take to the streets and express their Afrowith poor transporta- Brazilian identity. In the beginning the group tion, housing, educa- united people principally from the Centro flistorico neighborhood. Later it grew and tion. It's difficult to expeople from other neighborhoods came to participate. At this time, Olodum was one of Definitions of some Portuguese terms plain how a population the first [Carnaval] groups to bring together, used during this interview: that has such a precari- over three thousand people. It was founded Maciel-Pelourinho/Pelourinho— ous social situation is ori April 25, 1979. Their first Carnaval was 1480. Neighborhood in central Salvador where able to be happy, in their Siiice then, during the 1980s, we grew into a Olodum originated. Previously run down Organization (NGO) to and ignored by the city government, day to day lives as well Mtn-Governmental include discussions about the fight against today it is the center of tourism in the racism... we became an NGO with the objecas Carnaval. city tive of centralizing and to give a perspective Centro Historico—Another term for the of consciousness for black culture in Bahia, Pelourinho JEFF DUN EMAN fot people who lived principally in the Centro Largo do Pelourinho—"Pelourinho Iltstdrico, but also for the entire city of SalvaSquare" located on a steep hill in the dcir. We organized lectures about Africa, about where Olodum Pelourinho center of the blackness, what racism does, how racism used to play free weekly concerts and manifests itself. We did seminars, film exhistill performs on occasion bitions, and created a newspaper, all at the beginning of the headquarters, located in the Casa Do Olodum—Olodum's 1980s. Pelourinho Bloco Afro Olodum—Formal name of Olodum. A bloco afro Later our work grew and we formed a band—the percussion is simply an Afro-Brazilian based Carnaval and/or commu- thit accompanied the Carnaval group already existed— later, we formed a band for shows and private parties as a nity group way to earn money to sustain the organization. This band he A iye—Another famous bloco afro of Bahia was very successful in Bahia and Brazil. They were able to Male Debale—Another famous bloco afro of Bahia

BFtAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

do shows all over Brazil. Then Paul Simon arrived in Bahia to shoot a video for a song from an album of his, called "The Obvious Child." So this video was done here in Salvador in the Pelourinho and afterwards Paul Simon invited Olodum to play in New York's Central Park during one of his shows. This was when Olodum first appeared in the international scene. (Note: When asked about the date, Mr. Mendes wasn't sure as he was out of the country at the time. He thought it was in the early or mid-1980s. "The Obvious Child" by Paul Simon was released in 1990, so this show in Central Park was probably 1990 or 1991.) From that moment on we received several invitations to have Olodum play outside Brazil. Today, Olodum is a band that has done shows in Europe and the USA for over ten years. The United States is more difficult—we've done several shows there, 1998, 1999, this year we should be there also, we're more organized now. But in Europe, continually for the last ten years, Olodum goes to Europe in June and July— the European summer—to play there. The reception is very good, the European public, for Olodum. Besides Olodum, we also created an education project called "Olodum's Creative School" (Escola Creativa Olodum) which in the beginning was set up to take care of the children of the band's percussionists—those [kids] who also wanted to learn how to play percussion. But.., we thought this was insufficient, too little, just percussion classes. [So we also created] a project so that these kids could also get immersed in the art of percussion, dance, theater, and also citizenship classes about what it means to be a descendent of Africa. This project now has been going for eight years. Several percussionists who today play in Olodum as professionals graduated [from this school.] We've also just started a computer course. Our concern now is that these kids, these adolescents from seven to nineteen years also learn, besides percussion and dance, learn how to use computers. It's important for them to have a profession so that if they leave Olodum, if they don't want to play anymore, that they have a way to enter the work market. So today we're seeing a lot of this. We've set up [computer] courses, in a short period of time, to train these kids. Also, we're setting up a course for the adult percussionists. It's also necessary. Today, much world communication is done via computers. So this is our concern. We also annually organize an "Olodum Music & Arts Festival" (Festival de Masica e Artes Olodum- 1 FEMADUM) during which we select the songs for Olodum 's Carnaval appearance and to record on the albums. Some of the songs come out of these festivals. They're public festivals, free, that occur once a year in January here in the BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

Pelourinho. To • rticipate in this festival songwriters register and partici • ate in a pre-selection process. Until the final arrives whe we give out the prizes, select the mestres, money, etc. This 's the "Olodum Music & Arts Festival." Brazzil—So in t ese festivals the songs that are recorded and played in C rnaval are written? NM—Yes. The p ocess is like this: the songwriter signs up here at the "Hou e of Olodum" (Casa do Olodum), brings copies of his lyri s. We have two categories of compositions. "Samba-Pa etry" (Samba-Poesia), which is an open theme—he can t lk about Bahia, about being black, about racism, about 0/o 'urn. This is called "Samba-Poetry." Then there's the "Samb -Theme" (Samba-Tema), which is a samba about the theme t at Olodum is going to use during Carnaval. For example, thi year we marched with the theme, "From Egypt to Bahia: he Road to Eternity" (Do Egito a Bahia: 0 Caminho da E ernidade). So the songwrite need to write about this theme. How do they write? We pr pare a written example, a research project, and we deliver i to them. They read about this research project and then ompose songs around this theme. This is the "Samba-The e." Each songwriter can write one composition in each cat gory. Also, they generally like to write a "Samba-Poetry," hich is the open theme. This year, 2000, we had one hundr d and fifteen compositions written for the "Samba-Poetry" and forty-seven written for "SambaTheme." So these composi ions go through a process of public evaluation in the Lar • do Pelourinho, with a commission of judges made up o people from the community, musicians, the percussionists We select fifteen compositions... for the day of the festival here they are presented publicly on stage in this big festiv. I, which is the "Olodum Music & Arts Festival." So you have this concert of Bahian bands—afro groups, samba gr ups, pagode, reggae. Then we have this contest, it's a gr at night. [We] select three songs, three "Samba-Theme" nd three "Samba-Poetry." These are the big winners of th festival. Brazzil—Why w s the name "Olodum" chosen, or what does the name" lodum" mean? NM—"Olodum" is a simplification of the name "Olodumare", which signifies "God of the Gods." It's a Yoruban word that means "the creator." So we use the simplification of "Olodumare," just "Olodum." Brazzil—For Olodum, what does Carnaval represent? NM—Carnaval represents a space for the expression of Afro-Brazilians. We've lived in a Brazilian/Bahian society in which the presence of black people is the majority, in terms of population, however 43

our expression in the spheres of power, in the media is still small. We still don't have a dignified expression of our black Bahian population. So this given, we understand that there still exists racial discrimination in Bahia. Carnaval signifies the occupation of that space. It's when we sing, when we wear African clothing.., we already wore more African-type clothing. Today due to the reflection, or the adaptation to Bahian Carnaval [we don't use as much African clothing]... We haven't lost our Afro-Brazilian identity, but we don't dress anymore—at least in Olodum—in traditional African clothing, we already did that. But it's the space where we sing our songs talking about racism, speaking about black pride, about black consciousness, about black beauty and we wear clothes with African themes. This year we marched with a theme that was divided into three phases. The past, which is the Egyptian past. Because Olodum is one of the groups responsible for discovering that Egypt is in Africa! And we passed this information along to all of Bahian society. Many people here in Bahia did not know that Egypt was in Africa! Nor that many black people built the pyramids in Egypt. So through Carnaval we can express this idea. So many people obtain historical information through the themes of Olodum. On the Friday [of Carnaval] we marched with the theme of Egypt. On Sunday and Monday we reflected Brazil, which signifies the present, with the theme, "Five Hundred Years of an African Invention." Brazil is celebrating five hundred years of discovery. But we want to valorize, we want to speak about the contributions of blacks in the construction of Brazil. So for us, Brazil is also an African invention. Then on the last day we marched with a costume referring to the future, of what is to come, the next millennium. Nobody knows how to predict it. There exist some predictions but nobody is the owner of the future. We predicted that there would be a bug in the computers and it didn't happen, right? So the truth is that human beings don't have control of their destiny because we don't know what is going to happen. The main proof of this was when everyone said that at the end of the year, "the computers are going to crash, they're going to crash!" Banks, etc... and nothing happened. So we are without knowledge of what's going to happen to us. Within that theme, we wanted to say this about projecting ourselves into the next millennium. So Carnaval for us is a moment of the plastic expression of African-ness. A moment of political expression as well because Carnaval has a political element in the fact that there are groups of non-black people with more economic power, that have more privilege in the space of Carnaval. And there are black groups that have less economic power and also have less space in Carnaval. Brazzil—I spoke with Vovo [the president] of Ile Aiye this morning and he was saying how difficult it still is for the blocos afross to gain their own space, although they are the heart of Carnaval. They don't march until two or three in the morning, or not at all because there's so many trios eletricos and the city gives more preference to the trios. I myself was there waiting and waiting to see the blocos afross and... another trio.., another trio.I was like, "What is this?! Where are the blocos afross?!" NM—Yeah. The dominant population in Bahia is black. But we have problems of sponsors to produce the blocos afros. Many of the blocos trio start to organize one year before Carnaval. It's because they have the help of big business, money to help organize Carnaval. And sometimes the blocos 44

afros—not Olodum, he Aiye, Male Debale, who are more organized and have more economic leverage—all the same, we still don't even receive that much assistance, but we're able to organize and create ways to have resources to organize Carnaval. But the majority [of blocos afros] organize fifteen days before Carnaval. It's very difficult. It's very difficult. The problem is that big businesses don't want to associate their images, their brands with a small, poor bloco. But these groups have a plastic expression that is very beautiful. Olodum, he Aiye, Male Debale, Filhos de Ghandy, we're more established and more daring, so we have more capacity for articulation and we're able to create something to present ourselves in Carnaval. All the same, it's still too little. Brazzil—W hat do you feel Carnaval means to the common people (povo) of Bahia? NM—Carnaval to the common people (povo) of Bahia signifies a party... the common people of Bahia are very happy people, very extroverted, communicative, and Carnaval is the expression of the communication of the Bahian. The Bahian, by himself, lives very poorly in social terms. He lives with poor transportation, housing, education. It's difficult to explain how a population that has such a precarious social situation is able to express happiness; is able to be happy, in their day to day [lives] as well as Carnaval. The whole world recognizes that we're considered the biggest popular festival in the world. I don't think there exists any other festival in the world similar to that of Bahia's! This is because... so many people in the streets, more than a million people in the streets. And this party is so large because of the popular participation. The common people of Bahia who go into the streets and celebrate Carnaval, celebrate with costumes, music, dances... it was because ofthis that it became an internationally recognized festival. Well world. whole the throughout known Nonetheless, the mayor and the businesses are restricting this space. It used to be just a huge popular festival. Today, you should have noticed a very strong presence of private businesses that are privatizing Carnaval. Taking up spaces with the big stands (camarotes) for the middle class, the people who have money, to watch Carnaval. These spaces used to be more popular, but this isn't happening anymore. Those who created the party, or who gave it the greatness— the common people (povo) of Bahia—are losing space. This is a problem because the public powers—those who organize Carnaval in Bahia are the mayor's office and the state government; they invest the money and create the infrastructure. There have been improvements in the organization of Carnaval, in terms of stages—they have various stages set up for shows, public bathrooms, which they didn't have before. So there has been some improvement in the organization of Carnaval. It's- just that as a consequence we're seeing less space for the common people, the principal actor of this party! You have Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro, which is a Carnaval for tourists—fancy, money, only for those who can pay. Here in Bahia, and also in Pernambuco, are the only places that have a more public Carnaval, more participatory. People take the streets with costumes, without costumes, joke around, have fun twenty-four hours, all night long until morning. So the government is in some ways limiting this space. It's necessary to take another look at this so that the party returns to one that has more public participation. BRAZZIL -SEPTEMBER 2001

Brazzil—In your lifetime have you seen a change in how the blocos afros are viewed, or how the black population in Bahia is viewed here in Bahia? Compared to how the situation was before, before the blocos afros emerged? NM—The change is still very small. Bahian society still views black people as poorly educated, like bums who don't have good manners or good education. Nonetheless, beginning in the 1970s the organized black movement in Bahia did consciousness raising work, as a result of which a good part of the black population today has more black consciousness. And this made society, governmental organizations, the universities, come to see blacks in a slightly different manner. There is still prejudice. But the situation is getting better because today we can publicly express ourselves to society, to the government, to institutions.., in a way for which we're not punished. For example, in Bahia we commemorate May 13'h as the day of the liberation of the slaves. But we were able to change the dialogue and go into the streets to suggest that May 13th is not our day. We had big marches and we weren't repressed [by the police.] This, to mark our presence regarding the history of Bahia because until then, before the blocos afros you had a history of repression. You didn't use to talk about Zumbi of Palmares, who was an important black leader who wanted to found a republic in Brazil. You used to praise the document of Princess Isabel—who was a princess of imperial Brazil— who, due to people in the English government, signed the law giving freedom to 'blacks. It's just that the freedom she gave was not unrestricted or extensive. The social situation of blacks in Bahia is still bad. You can't give "freedom" without education, without housing, without a proper diet, what kind of "freedom" is that? So the people in schools, in clubs, used to speak highly about Princess Isabel. After the black movement, after the emergence of the blocos afros, we came to criticize the official history and say, "May 13th is not our day." And we also came to praise, to honor Zumbi of Palmares, and to honor the 20th of November, the National Day of Black Consciousness. So throughout Brazil, the nongovernmental organizations (NG0s) of the black movement, of Afro-Brazilians like Olodum and he Aiye set up activities to honor and pay tribute to Zumbi of Palmares. This contributed to these organizations [of the government] coming to see blacks a little differently, to respect us a little more. The proposals, the political activities, the legislative assemblies... so, for a short time we became protagonists in this history. Actors, not showing up only to have someone speak in the name of the black community. The difference is that now we have a discourse, we have representation and we can speak in Parliament about our history. We no longer need some studious type, be he black or not, going to speak about our history. This changed a little, improved the vision that people have about blacks in Bahia. Nonetheless, the social situation is still really bad. Because we're lacking the political will that would give us equality and a true "racial democracy" in Bahia. Because we are the majority and we don't have representation. BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

Brazzil—It's in eresting, the difference in how people speak about rac sm, equality.., for example, many white Brazilians who ravel to the USA say, "ah no, we don't have racism in razil." Because in the USA it's really bad. All the rac s are pretty separated... its really bad. So these people re saying, "No, in Brazil we don't have this," when the truth is very different. It's because of this that I thin your work is so important. NM—Well, thes people don't live here [in Bahia.] Brazzil—How h s your music and your vision changed or evolved sinc the beginning? NM—The musi of Olodum emerged as popular music from the streets of Bahia. It's simple music, extremely percussive, with 'ts base in percussion. Also in the 1970s and 1980s, mainl in the 1980s we were.., it was the height of the black mov ment. [A lot of] political protests because we lived in the ilitary dictatorship, at the end of the military dictator ip. And so this contributed to the songs, the content of t e songs had a lot to do with protest. Speaking out aga nst the situation of poverty, of misery, of racism, the lack o help against corruption, all of that. So the composers of 01 dum created songs with a lot of political significance. It's just that when democracy arrived—our democracy is on paper, we have a ong ways to go to have an actual democracy—these song• lost a little of the context. These same people, here in th Largo do Pelourinho during Olodum 's rehearsals, came to not worry so much anymore about protest music. N • that the vision of Olodum changed, just the social situati • n. However, because of the political and cultural situation the same composers, without guidance from Olodum—n t like, "write like this..." It wasn't like that. It was under ood that they were writing songs more to the liking of the p blic, with less political content. But the music didn't stop talking about racism, about discrimination. Just in a le s intense way. But it continues being [political.] There were some concessions because of the recording of albums.., generally the record companies aren't interested in having music with social messages. Because the vision of a record company is commercial, to sell records. To sell records, you sell songs with a sort of easy acceptance. So there were some concessions on part of the group to record, because it's necessary to record albums to gain the resources for the organization; to register the work of Olodum, to professionalize the musicia s. So the music of Olodum did suffer a lightening, a sligh change in the sense of content. Nonetheless, the percussi e base remained all the way to the last album, Liberdade. The press' assessment of this album [25 Anos] is that it ha less percussion. We have a new record company who als , for economic reasons, suggested that we use less percus ion, to use more technological resources instead of percussi n. This is something that we're thinking about for the next album because it wasn't to our liking. Because the style Olodum is the percussion. And because of the record com any and the economic questions we had 45

to reduce the percussion a little, it has more electronic sounds. Brazzil— What do you feel or what does it mean to see Olodum pass by during Carnaval? NM—I can't speak as a spectator because I'm inside the group, but what I hear people say, those who are outside the group say that a good, positive energy passes by. Strong percussion, people singing together, giving the idea of unity, of strength, of pride to be Afro-Brazilian. This is important for the consciousness of people. That we bring the idea of unity—in Olodum not just black people march, it's blacks and non-blacks. We're not worried about that. If we struggle against racism, we can't practice racism. Even so, we have a predominance of Afro-Brazilians in the group that gives a certain unity in the dancing, the singing. The people who hear this percussion in Carnaval are very excited, very enthusiastic. The proof of this is every Friday when Olodum marches out of the Pelourinho, the first day of Carnaval, Friday we march out with the percussionists and see so many people from Brazil, from outside of Brazil, Bahians... to watch the entrance of Olodum, which they say is very powerful, very emotional. Brazzil—The first time I saw Olodum, it was just the rehearsal... but all the drums... it was very impressive. I bought that T-shirt that says, "Olodum é bala" (Olodum is a bullet) because... it's right on and it's the truth. Because the power of the percussion is impressive. The other blocos afros as well, Male Debale... they really blew me away during Carnaval. NM—Yeah, it's the African beat. We have the pleasure of maintaining this African root. Not to remain in poverty or return to Africa, but to affirm our African heritage in today's society. Brazzil—Of all the things that the group has done what gives you the most pride? NM—Without a doubt, it's "Olodum's Creative School." To teach adolescents African pride, to teach percussion. Because this is the continuation of our work. We've already done a lot with this work, we're not tired and we won't stop. But we need this continuity so that the next generation also does this work. So the most pride, the most pleasure is to see the adolescents, the new generation, kids from ten to fifteen years old playing, singing the music of Olodum, learning how to work with computers, learning about the history of Afro-Brazilians. Brazzil—If you could say one thing, about the music, the culture, the work of Olodum, to the people of the United States, what would it be? A message to the people of the US? NM—We have a really good relationship with AfricanAmericans, and American people in general. Last year we did a tour for twenty, no thirty days in the United States, in fourteen American cities. Colorado to New York, to Boston, Washington... and the reception was very good. So 46

what I would say is this: that African-Americans and Americans in general continue enjoying Olodum, respecting our work. Because we also really enjoy American culture. We have common ground because we have important references like Malcolm X, Martin Luther.King who taught us that it's important to have pride in our race, that it's important to maintain our traditions, our roots, without losing our identity. So the American people are also a people that have contributed to our struggle. We're always very well received and we really enjoy having these exchanges, the sharing of experiences between black American culture, particularly, and Bahian culture, in particular, black culture. Brazzil—One thing I always see, as a musician... wherever I go I always seek out the music I like, music with a lot of percussion. One thing that always unifies the countries [of our hemisphere], I feel, is the African influence in popular music. From funk, hiphop, blues, jazz, reggae, samba, mambo, salsa... * NM—Yeah, there's always that African link. Independent of whatever person, there's always that feeling, that link between these rhythms. Brazzil—I think, as a musician... if you're a musician in the Americas, of whatever color, you have to believe in this African power. NM—Yes, this is very important because you musicians identify a lot with each other. You bring your experiences and also want to absorb our experiences. There's always an exchange between musicians. We perceived this in the United States at these festivals. Musicians would come to talk to us about the songs, the percussionists. When you all come here, you take the percussion workshops. We had the experience of this American musician who lived in Bahia for more than two years. I don't remember his name, but he played percussion with Olodum and marched with us during Carnaval for several years... Brazzi/—Yeah...we'll see if one day I march with you all! ...Brazilian music fascinates me and, as a drummer it's kind of like.., the heartbeat. Well, that's everything I have, if you have any other comments or anything to say... I'm very satisfied! NM—I'm satisfied also. Thanks for the attention and I hope that your work is very successful. This contributes to register Afro-Brazilian music in the world. Your work, like all the others, is important because it's a reflection of what we're doing. This will be around for eternity. We're going to die but the work is going to stay! Jeff Duneinan is currently finishing his Masters thesis on the Mangue music and cultural movement of Recife, Brazil. He is in the Latin American Studies department at the University of New Mexico. Jeff is a musician (drums & percussion) and full-time music fanatic. Originally from the Midwest, temporarily transplanted to New Mexico, he has lived and traveled extensively in Mexico as well as visiting other parts of Spanish Latin America. Recently Jeff spent several months in the Brazilian states of Pernambuco, Bahia, and Rio de Janeiro studying Afro-Brazilian music. You can reach the author at: IdunemanAvahoo.com BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

Minstrels Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes: for two generations, their songs have been the real Aquarela do Brasil. PETER ROZOVSKY

BFtAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

Vinicius de Moraes, born n Rio de Janeiro, was a figure of the kind t e United States seems never to produce: poet and musician, movie critic and pla ight, proFascist then almost-Communist law student then journalist, an internatio al diplomat and a bon vivant who condu ted meetings and worked from his legen ary bathtub. Antonio Carlos Jobim, one o Brazil's greatest 20th-century compose and an immortal in the history of popul r music, spent time in Los Angeles, die in New York, loved American compose , and incorporated a healthy dose of erican music—jazz—in the bossa nova sound he helped create. Together, the two friends an creative partners ga e birth to wo cis and im ges of Br il so strong that many outside the country ca at think of Brazil without hearing "The Gir From Ipanema" or recalling the images, col rs, feelings and sounds of the movie Black Or heus, which was based on a play by de Mo aes and which introduced Jobim's music to t e world. he two began collaborating in 1956, when de oraes, then in his 40s and freshly returned fro a diplomatic post in Paris, was looking for omeone to put music to his play Orfeu da Co ceicelo (Orpheus of the Conception). De Mo aes' brother-in-law suggested Antonio Car as "Tom" Jobim, a young musician and son;.writer who had had his first hit two years befe re. The two met at the Casa Villarino bar in 'o de Janeiro, where de Moraes converted Job' from beer to whiskey and where, accor ing to one account, Jobim asked "tern din eirinho?"—would there be a little mo ey?—in the project de Moraes was proposi g. here was more than money in the project, and ere was something more than just music in e pairing. In 1959, the French director Mar el Camus filmed a version of Orfeu da Con eicao as Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus). The ovie won the Golden Palm at Cannes and an car as best foreign film. It was a retelling of he OtpheusEury ce sto Y set in Rio at Carnaval time, and its color, chaos and music—along ith the city's natural beauty and a pretti dup version of its poor hillside nei hborhoods, orfave/as—created ima es of Brazil that many people still h Id today. De Moraes and Jobim stayed b sy in the years between the play's corn osition and the movie's release. In 19 7, Jobim played piano on a Jobim de Moraes composition called "Eu Ao Ex isto sem Voce," included on a mo ie soundtrack Jobim had written. he singer was the great Elizeth Cardo o. The guitarist was Joao Gilberto. The history of bossa nova is t 47

long to tell here, so imagine some of its sounds: Joao Gilberto, Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz on "The Girl From Ipanema." Jobim matching Frank Sinatra cool for cool on another version of the song. Ella Fitzgerald on "Jazz 'n' Samba" ("SO Dance, Samba" in the original Portuguese). Shirley Horn on the wistful "Once I Loved" ("Amor em Paz"). All are Jobim-de Moraes compositions, and all are among the sexiest, coolest, most suave and most enduring examples of that generation-defining sound called bossa nova. As familiar as these sounds and images are, most English speakers know de Moraes' work at second hand, through the English-language renderings of his lyrics by such songwriters as Norman Gimbel and Gene Lees. Some of these renderings are wonderful in their own right. Here, for example, is Gimbel's "The Girl From Ipanema": Tall and tan and young and lovely The girl from Ipanema goes walking And when she passes, each one she passes goes "a-a-ah! When she walks she's like a samba that Swings so cool and sways so gentle, That when she passes, each one she passes goes "a-a-ah! Gimbel has made of the song a marvelous evocation of cool sound in a hot climate and a wistful sigh of erotic longing. But if Gimbel's "Girl" is about languid self-pity, de Moraes' "Garota de Ipa.nema" is about something much richer: the power of beauty to save the world. Here is how Gimbel ended his version of the song: "And when she passes I smile, but she doesn't see, no she doesn't see." And here is what de Moraes wrote: Ah, se ela soubesse que quando ela passa 0 mundo sorrindo se enche de graca E fica mais undo por causa do amor

(Ah, if she knew that when she passes, The world smiles, fills with grace, And becomes more beautiful because of love.) Jobim, though best known as a musician, wrote lyrics that rise to the level of poetry, and de Moraes, the poet, was also a musician. In the best of their collaborations—as in the best poetry words are not combined with music; they become music. The word "A" in the title of their "A Felicidade," keynote song of Black Orpheus, means simply "the." Yet the rhythm of the melody draws the definite article out into a sigh for the fragility of happiness—the fragility of felicidade—and the simplest word imaginable becomes, by its sound and its rhythm, a vehicle of deep meaning. Vinicius de Moraes died in 1980, in his famous bathtub, it is said. Antonio Carlos Jobim died in New York's Mount Sinai Hospital in 1994. And how has fate treated them since? Tribute records have abounded, by jazz musicians, by rock musicians, by Brazilian musicians, by American musicians, by Canadian musicians, even by musicians from Finland. Black Orpheus was remade in 1999. Bruno Barreto dedicated his 1999 movie Bossa Nova to Jobim, and he filled its soundtrack with Jobim and Jobim-de Moraes classics. On the printed page, a Brazilian publisher brought out a 1,500-page edition of de Moraes' poetry and prose in 1998. But perhaps the most fitting tribute of all was to Jobim, who wrote beautiful music inspired by the view of Rio de Janeiro from high above, from an airplane about to land. Today, anyone enjoyingthe same view will land shortly thereafter at the airport newly renamed in his honor: Rio de Janeiro International Airport Galeao—Antonio Carlos Jobim. Peter Rozovsky is a copy editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer who believes that "So Tinha de Ser corn Voce" is the greatest pop song ever written. You may write to him at pieronr(&,aol.com

EDGARDO QUINTANIIIA/ Esq. ATTORNEY AT LAW/ABOGADO/ADVOGAD

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BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

Christiane Tricerri who also has the role of Patty. Morte e Vida Severina (Severino Death and Life)—Adapted by Rossini Castro from the poem of Joao Cabral de Melo Neto of same name. Northeastern migrant Severino runs way from the drought and ends up in a slum. With Fabrica Vivas, Joao Miller and Edna Lima.

Qualquer Gabo Vira-Lata Tern uma Vida Sexual Mais Sadia Que a Nossa (Any Stray Cat Has a Healthier Sexual Life than Ours)—Girl asks a scientist to help her get back her fiancé. Written by Juca de Oliveira, directed by Bibi Ferreira, with Rita Guedes, Thierry Figueira and Andre Garolli.

Davies Just-released American movies:

RIO Copenhagen—Scientists Niels Bohr, from Denmark and German Werner Heisenberg get together to discuss the construction of the atomic bomb. Both were awarded the Nobel Price. Written by Michael Fryn, directed by Marco Antonio Rodrigues. 0 Gordo e o Magro Vdo para o Ceti (Larry and Hardy Go to Heaveri)—A couple and their adventures to build a wall. Written by Paul Auster. With Isabel Cavalcanti and Ronaldo Serruya. Bugiaria—Joao Cointa and his misadventures before the Inquisition. Considered the best play by the jury of respected Governo do Estado award. Written and directed by Moacir Chaves, with Ora Figueiredo, Claudio Baltar and Candido Dam. Serntdo da Quarta-Feira de Cinzas (Ash Wednesday Sermon)—Preacher Padre Ant6nio Vieira (1608-1697) tries in seven different ways to prove that the only truth we can be sure of is that we all will die one day. Text from Padre Ant6nio Vieira, directed by Moacir Chave, with Pedro Paulo Rangel and Josie Antello.

SAO PAULO Eu Falo o Que Elas Querem Ouvir (I Say What Women Want to Hear) Comedy. Politicians kidnaps a theater director so he can help him win the election. Written by Mario Prata, directed by Roberto Lage, with Paulo Gorgulho, Javert Monteiro, Angelo Paes Leme and Maria Clara Fernandes. A Mulher Macaco (The Ape Woman)— Written by Paulo Faria. A fortuneteller comes to a circus and makes amazing revelations about the past of Cida, the Ape Woman. Written and directed by Paulo Faria, with Daniel Alvim, Eliseu Paranhos and Silvia Borges. Patty Diphusa—From Pedro AlmodOvar book of same name. The tale of an insomniac pornostar who spends her nights writing her memories made mainly of hilarious and bizarre sex fantasies. Adapted by BRAZZIL-SEPTEMBERWM

Tailor of Panama (0 Alfaiate do Panama), Moulin Rouge (The Moulin Rouge—Amor em Vermelho), Down to Earth (0 Ceu Pode Esperar), Tomcats (Gatos numa Roubada), Driven (Alta Velocidade), Atlantis: The Lost Empire (Atlantis-70 Re/no Perdido), Saving Grance (0 Barato de Grace), Bridget Jones's Diary (0 Diario de Bridget Jones), Sweet November (Doce Novembro), Dr. Dolittle 2 (Dr. Dolittle 2), Fast Food, Fast Women (Fast Food, Fast Women), Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (Final Fantasy), Jurassic Park III (Jurassic Park III), Onegin (Paix 'do Proibida), Planet of the Apes (Planeta dos Macacos), One Night at McCool 's (Que Mulher E Essa?), Swordfish (A Senha: Swordfish), Shrek (Shrek), See Spot Run (Spot, Urn Co da Pesada), Thirteen Days (Treze Dias Que Abalaram o Mundo) Memorias Postumas (Posthumous Memoirs)—Brazil/Portugal, 2000—An adaptation of Machado de Assis's Men-lea-las POstumas de Bras Cubas. Already dead Bras Cubas tells about his adventurous and then sad life filled with passion and money problems. By Andre Klotzel, with Marcos Caruso, Walmor Chagas, SOnia Braga, Milena Toscano, Vietia Rocha, and Otdvio - www.memoriaspostumas.com.br Copacabana—Brazi1/2001—The theme: old age in the most famous beach of Brazil: Copacabana. Alberto, an old photographer getting ready to celebrate his 90th birthday, reminisces about his past. By Carla Camurati, with Marco Nanini, Ida Gomes, Myrian Pires and Laura Cardoso. Tainri—Uma Aventura na Amazonia (Taind—An Adventure in the Amazon)— Brazil/2000—Indian girl Taind lives in the Amazon with her little monkey Katu. Some smugglers give her a hard time trying to get her animal. By Tania Lamarca and Sergio Bloch, with Eunice Baia, Jairo Mattos and Caio Romei. 0 Grilo Feliz (The Happy Cricket)—Bra-

zi1/2001—Cartoon. Grilo Feliz cannot be the joy of the party anymore when lizard Maledeto decides to steal his guitar. By Walbercy Ribs o Sonho de Rose, 10 Anos Depois (Rose's Dream, 10 Years Later)—Brazil/2000— Documentary. By Tete Moraes. The director, in 1987, filmed the story of Roseli da Silva, who with many other families had occupied the Annoni farm in Rio Grande do Sul. This new movie shows the family da Silva, after the matriarch's death. They lost their lot and moved to a city close to the farm. Bicho de Sete Cabecas (Seven-Head Beast or Puzzle)—Brazil/Switzerland/Italy/ 2000—Drama. A rebel student is sent to a mental institution by his father when he starts smoking pot and tagging walls. Based on autobiographical Canto dos Malditos, a book by Austregesilo Carrano Bueno. Directed by Lais Bodanzky with Rodrigo Santoro, Othon Bastos, Cassia Kiss, Gero Camilo, Altair Lima and Caco Ciocler.

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possible relationship. In the Bay Area/San Francisco, California. My interests are soccer, motorcycle, outdoors, travel, and BrOzilian cultural enrichment. E-mail: acsmeteng@hotmail.com Frances-Americano, 45, delgado, atraente, olhos azuis, professor, falo franca's, Ingres, espanhol, um pouco de portugues, procuro brasileira delgada, 18-38 morando em Los Angeles. William (310) 305-2090 [181] Brazilian man, lam looking for American person. I am single, I am 28 years old. E-mail: lindos@msn.com [178] Brasileiro-Americano, -36 anos, romantic° e atraente, procurando relacionamento corn brasileira ou americana. (818) 344-1881 [166]

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"The King ofPortugal had given the region, with its savages and brazil-wood trees, to one Jorge de Figueiredo Correia. This gentleman however, preferred the pleasures of the court at Lisbon to the hardships of the wilderness. In his stead he sent his Spanish brother-in-law, who, at his suggestion, placed the region under the protection of the donee 's namesake, St George. Thus it was that the holy killer of dragons astride hishorse on the moon had been ollow ing the history of this land for more than four hundrearyears. He saw the Indians massacre the first colonists and in turn be slaughteredand enslaved: He saw the building ofsugar mills and a little planting of coffee. And for many years he saw his land unprosperous and stagnant. Then came the first cacao seedlings, and the saint, seeing them, ordered the kinkajous to undertake the large-scale propagation of cacao trees. Perhaps he was tired of looking in the same landscape for so long and had no purpose in mind other than to change it a little. Quite possibly it never occurred to him that cacao would bringwealth and a new era in the history ofthe .lorge Amado giving a remarkably succinct history of his hometown, in his celebrated novel Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon.

Ilheus, the way I want to remember it

No Clove, No Cinnamon My skin positively glowed. Good food, a beautiful girl called Gabriela, and I am in Ilheus. What's missing to make the Jorge Amado story complete? JOHNM

Jorge Amado 's house

I don't know what! expected of Ilheus; perhaps a stroll around the placenames that roll off Amado's novel; maybe a visit to the master's childhood home so that the vibes could permeate my mind and bless it with inspiration. But then. true adventure presumes an uncertain outcome. The words you'll need:

kinkajou = a local forest mammal which wraps its tail around a branch and hangs upside down. The word is of Algonquian origin. pousada, pensao = smalF hotel, B&B. sertaneja = backlander, from the interior of Brazil redacao = grammar and composition cunhado = brother-in-law passarela na copa das orvores = canopy walkway Cidade Alerta = Alert City, a TV program Ilheus was shutting down shop when I arrived in early April. The restaurants facing Pontal had drawn their curtains and the crafts market in front of Praca Dom Eduardo was running out of stalls. The town beaches—which I can never imagine to be clean like Maceio '5, popular like Rio's or majestic like Fortaleza's—were home to a few downtrodden surfers; I bet they wished they were somewhere else rather than the Cocoa Coast. I just HAD to put that tongue-twister in: Cocoa Coast. That's how I Iheus markets itself nowadays—they should change their image consultants forthwith. For Ilheus, despite my fears of being stuck in a 1920s backw ater for the sake of Jorge Amado, is pretty and rather fetching in a subtle, non-invasive way. Excuse me. Did I say non-invasive? Whatever possessed me? The famous character from the book—Amado s sertaneja protofeminist beauty with the wide heart and even wider leg span—is as conspicuous as a politician kissing babies during an election. There are Gabriela fashions, Gabriela beauty contests, Gabriela foodstuffs and liqueurs, a Gabriela lottery, Gabriela pousadas and T -shirts even a Gabriela petrol station 2 luns out of town on the road to Olivenca (free showers offered). That excludes secondary personalities. Let's not beat about the bush. Ilheus has been made famous from Brazilian literature's best internationally known novel and as Jorge Amado's hometown. The inhabitants know it, which is why Vestivio, Nacib's bar, was having a blue paint over and inner modernization facelift. The whole town had a regenerative feel: streets were being asphalted choking down the Guarani market place where all roads seemed to be converging; the cocoa museum was shut for refurbishment; the church of Sao Jorge appeared to be permanently locked and—and I was the only tourist in town. This hasn t happened to me since I had to spend a night in Campo Grande. Pity, because I'd really, really like to know if travelers come to Ilheus for its beaches rated one- and two-star by the Guia Brasil Quatro Rodas: I could point them to several three-stars a little further north. That first afternoon in Ilheus, which provided my first Bahian sun since the Reconcavo, I walked around the Avenida 2 de Julho which wraps itself around the southern tip, offering glimpses of the harbor and its distinctive twin long warehouses, the Ponte Lomanto Jr— another baptized bride—and eventually. Pontal. 11 is there, where the strange geography of Ilheus is revealed; or the town was built on a large, alluvial island at the conTluence of the Rio Almada, the Rio Itacanpeira, the Rio Funddo, the Rio Cachoeira and the Rio Santana. However Recife it ain't, for Ilheus and its surroundings are hillier, sturdier and less man-made than the capital of Pernambuco. There is also a sense of small-town-ness about it which is strange given the fact that it's the most important commercial center in the South ot Bahia; maybe it s because its heart is clear, distinct and well-preserved, maybe it is because of its winding nature, which gives you glimpses of the city from a variety of vista points, or maybe it's because unlike other urban successes, it has a mentality steeped in the 1950s, all probity disguised as coquettishness. I was rather curious by the sign on my map for a Christ Redeemer statue at the curve of the Avenida 2 de Julho. I Just had to go. It was rather disappointing; life-size and crude miles away (literally, I suppose) from its godlike namesake on the Corcovado. Still, the view across the sandbank to Pontal was eye-catching. I took out my Minolta SLR with the 200nun,

BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

Sigma zoom lens. Hey, is that the most famous sandbank on the world? But wasn't it dredged? What happened at the end of Gabriela? I forgot. I noticed a movement in the grass below. Suddenly two teenage bodies emerged. The guy wore_ glasses and was rather handsome in his Nike sportswear. The girl, who although could- be called pretty, was already on the way to being a fat, bossy matron seemed very upset at the clumsiness of her boyfriend who had torn off the middle of—was that a tablecloth spread on the ground? The boy looked dejected and ashamed. The girl was staring at me with murderous hostility and, a look that cried out "PERVERT". I followed her gaze which was fixed at my camera. Oh. I walked away towards the Centro HistOrico again not looking back. I think I messed up over there. The sky loomed menacingly in the distance. "Will it rain?" I asked Euclides, my driver. He looked at the sky and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, it is the rainy season" he replied. He might have added to remind me: "And we are going to a rainforest after all", but he did not, for Eucl ides was glad for having a tourist, any tourist at all, out-of-season. Brazil is famous for its other rainforest in the Amazon basin, which has attracted all the media attention. But not many have cared much about its other huge ecosystem along the Atlantic seafront. When Cabral arrived and later, when the Portuguese carved the land for their various aristocrat capitalists, the coast of Brazil, certainly in this area of I lheus where we were driving, was covered by the Mata Atrantica„ the Atlantic rainforest. It's a perfect reminder of what can happen to the 'Amazon, as very little remains of it, and what remains is kept museum-like in ecological reserves. We were heading towards the ecoparqzfe of Una, one of the few pockets of virgin rainforest in Bahia. Here, amongst the hilly, unpassable terrain, the 16`h century Ilheus grant to Jorge de Figueiredo Correia faced-a group of Tupiniquins who revolted in the late 1550s and destroyed the sugar plantations. But they faced the iron governor of Brazil, Mem de Sá, who had been successful in decimating the Tupinambas of Northern Bahia. His campaign against the Tupiniquins of Ilheus was terminal. He used on one occasion eight black slaves as decoys to attract the lupiniquins who attacked and killed them—and found themselves surrounded and annihilated as a result. He ambushed them in the woods in the dead of night, slaughtering men, women and children as they were asleep. He chased them into the swamps and the sea—in today's beautiful beach of Cururupe—and sent his Tupinamba allies, their mortal enemies, to swim after the Tupiniquins and kill them. When the massacre had finiShed, 'the beaches [were] covered with bodies without souls and the ocean surf that washed them turned to the color of blood', as the 17th century historian Sirtido de Vasconcellos informs us. This was one of the crowning achievements of the Iron Governor: he prayed in a thanksgiving ceremony in Ilheus and was carried on the shoulders of the colonists in gratitude. As John Hemming, an expert in native

BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

American history calculates, by 1570 Ilheus had 400-500 settler families and eight sugar mills. Euclides stopped my rambling thoughts by turning sharply right. "The ecoparque"c he announced as he parked in a makeshift awning. And then almost immediately: "What's this?" In ' front of us, a tall, white-haired, sunburnt American in his sixties was facing a Brazilian TV crew complete with boom mike, camera, director and presenter. They were from the ComAm organization (Comuni cacao para o Meio Ambiente, best translated as "Environmental Communication") based in sao Paulo with a web site at http//wvvw.meioambiente.org.br. And the elderly American? "Hi, I'm Ian—Ian Green", he said to me in that confident, genial American way. "I represent Anheuser/Busch and, oh boy, I'm so excited". I did not catch it immediately. Anheuser/Busch? "Budweiser" he said. "We are the company behind Budweiser. Have you heard of that?", he asked in all sincerity. Errm...yes. "This is so exciting" he repeated. What was exciting? What was he doing there? "Mr Green we are starting", said the director. "Oh boy", said Ian and took his seat. Americans are such naturals behind TV cameras, as if they've been taking lessons in Media Communications since kindergarten. It's THOSE genes that made America. "I come from St Louis, Missouri" started Ian in response to a question. "and I work for Anheuser-Busch. We at Anheuser-Busch care a lot about environmental issues and in particular the disappearing rainforest. We have a dedicated Ecology Department, where I work, and we turned our attention here when we discovered that the Atlantic rainforest had shrunk to about 8% of its former size. One of the pockets of the rainforest is here, in Una". A hotel bus with Brazilian tourists stopped behind us. "When I arrived here with my team in 1997„my grasp ofthe Portugueselangtwe was nil. I was holding a tool and was asking its name. I had made a list of words and expressions I needed. You know: 'What's this?', 'Water', 'Rain', 'Dig here', 'Get inside the truck'. Phrases like that. When we arrived we had to face the rains so we built a portable bridge made out of fumber to move our truck. Whenever there was an unpassable part, we unfolded the bridge, forded the path, then folded the bridge back to our truck and continued." The Ecoparque bus arrived. "We brought battery-operated tools surveyed the ground gave lectures and started the project. I was the manager until the local Bahians were able to finish the project themselves, but this was the highlight of my working life". "Have you seen the finished work?" asked the presenter. Ian grinned cheerfully. "No, I haven't. I have only seen the plans and built the first foundations. And oh, boy, I am so excited. Today, I will see the end result for the first time". "What is he talking about?", I asked Euclides. "In the ecoparque", he explained, "you

will walk on a canopy walkway. It's the main attraction". I looked at Ian. "And this guy built it?" I asked. "It looks that way", Euclides confirmed. Linde was another god gringo—this time from Germany. -Tall, gaunt and attractive in her jungle gear she directed the proceedings with authority and gave us a short, but unforgettable introductory lecture. She was a biologist, adventure backnacker and safari guide in one. "This is not the Una reserve", she informed us in faultless Portuguese. "This is the Una Ecopark. Only scientists are allowed in the reserve. There are several animals that only exist in this region and are endangered. She stood in front of a tableau of pictures. "This is the most famous of all", she pointed, "the golden-headed tamarin monkey, more commonly known as lion monkey—mico-ledb-capa-dourada. ltis a beautiful creature, with a very distinctive golden mane, the symbol ofthe biodiversity of the Mata Atlantica. But we also have the yellow-breasted capuchin monkey, the maned sloth and the thin-spinedporcu_pine, the rarest of allAmeri can porcupines. There are also margays—or Brazilian jungle cats, gatos-do-mato, several rare frogs and treehoppers. Any questions?" A Brazilian raised his hand. "Yes?", she asked. "Where did you learn Portuguese?" She laughed. 'I am a biologist working in Bahia. I had to learn Portuguese. After hree years in Una, I learned. Anyone here oes not speak Portuguese?" Ironically, Ian was the only one. Linde epe,ated it all for him. "You have heard about the Amazon, ou have heard about the Pantanal. But the iodiversity of the rainforest in Southern ahia—the number of species per `iectare—is astonishing. For tree biodiversity Southern Bahia holds the world record: 456 species/hectare". Sadly this means nothing to the local landowners. During the 1980s half of the population of the golden-headed tamarin monkey's was exported for pets and two thirds did not survive the trip. As the rainforest shrinks, and as a family of 6-7 individuals (interestingly enough, only one f male in a group ever breeds) requires bout 40 hectares to live in, the population ecessarily drops. The capuchins—and the yellowreastO variety was only .recently r cognized as a species--.--exhibit great c riosity and are considered highly i tell igent—although, I'm told that unlike o her monkeys they don't recognize t emselves in the mirror, but we'll pass on at. By the way, they raise their eyebrows hen they want sex: I will never watch a J an Crawford film with the same c nentration again. The maned sloths, masters of camouflage, are slow and solitary—only the mother with her kid make up a lasting pair—although after about six months, the mother abandons her young rather abruptly. One unique characteristic of a maned sloth—which like all other sloths moves in slow motion—is its ability to swim. Having spent many happy hours watching the tree sloths of the main square in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, move about one yard, I can't figure ot.t how they managed to master such an effort-consuming sport.

"Do you like your job?", I asked Linde. Linde was in full flood. It is rare to loassarela na copa das arvores Ian had She breathed out still looking at Ian have a fully-fledged biologist guiding you built—lan with Anheuser-Busch, he would who was enjpyingevery inch of the walkway in this, one of the newest Brazilian have corrected me. He ran to the front next to Linde with like a Gucci model on a catwalk. UNESCO Heritage sites, for the Mata "I wouldn't do anything else. My work Atlantica reserves havenow become such his sixty years suddenly shrunk to sixteen. is my life and I enjoy it". "So, there it is" he said. a rarity they need protection like Machu You don't miss Germany?" The walkway starts on a small hilltop— Picchu and Pelourinho. "Europe! " she scoffed. "We have "What is the most common animal you don't have to climb a tree to enter; and forgotten how to live. We are spoiled." here?", asked one of the Brazilians from it hovers over 20-25 meters over the jungle Ian wasn't walking; he was (lancing in the Transamerica Hotel in Una—which, of floor for a good 100 meters. In the entrance slow motion. course, doesn't mean 'One' in Portuguese there is a small wooden cabin for rest. "Stuck in our offices. Playing with our "That's when I left", said Ian proudly. (this would be 'Ulna') but 'Dark' in Tupi. After we finished this cabin. Built with a computers. Dehumanizing ourselves with The Forest of Una means 'Dark Forest . factory farming. Bleeding our planet to Linde waved and one of the drivers local palm tree." death. All for the sake of comfort. We are "Piassava", popped in Linde. passed around a bottle. "Yes, piassava", he said. "Rather even losing the power to communicate "The mosquito", she replied. "That's sturdy. I remember putting the foundations face-to-face, to socialize, now with the why we're giving you free protective advent of the Internet. We have lost touch for this cabin". lotion". with reality." He ran on the side and a family of bats We obeyed quietly before we marched "What is reality?", I asked. off to the trail. As I plastered mine on, I saw flew out from below the cabin. "Reality", she said, "is hard physical "We had to dig those holes on the side one of the drivers—the one with that work". by hand", he said excitedly. "And they had squeaky voice—pick some twigs from a I see what she meant: Ian was elated, tiny bush and tie them clandestinely in a to be deep enough for stability. In the US because he had tamed Nature with his we'd have automatic nailers, pneumatic bundle. brain and his own hands and with the help Was that allowed?—but there was drills, motorized diggers—here we only of other people. That is what our species is had machetes". . something else I wanted to ask instead: . He was gesticulating like a South designed to do: triumph over adversity in a "Are there any jaguars here?" group and there's not much left to triumph "Yes, there are', Linde replied. "But American. "I tell you what", Ian continued. "They over in the West any more. they are nocturnal and they don t normally We reached the end of the walkway all say Bahians are lazy. Gee—believe you attack if outnumbered. ians love to work. too quickly, every single visitor in deep I counted. There were about a dozen of me, they're not. The Bah us marching in single file behind her lofty, They lack knowledge and infrastructure— thought. Even the small kids seemed taken but you show them howsomething is done in by Ian's elation. commanding figure. A Brazilian came up to us. "This means that in a convoy the last and they never say 'that's too much for "All this without the help of the one is the one most in danger", she added. me', no sir. These gnys can do wonders "If a jaguar attacks, it attacks the laggard". with their machetes:They dug these holes Brazilian government or the state of Bahia?" he asked. We all turned around. Ian was huffing in 30 minutes. "Entirely/ private capital", said Linde. The Brazilians were watching and puffing several yards behind. He looked I remembered something I'd read at up and he saw us stopped, our faces turned mesmerized. "Those poles—those 36-foot poles. I the entrance. at his direction. Oh clear, I was the oneAnheuser-Busch. Hotel Transamerica. had no idea how we could raise them; in before-last. "Who built this again?", I asked. the States we would simply order a "What?", he asked. "A Consortium called Conservation We all turned our faces away and helicopter. We ended up clamming heavy three-in-one pulleys. Twelve people started International". continued walking. "Who are they?" "What?". he repeated. He looked at pulling like a crane and one had to go down "Anheuser-Busch, Hotel Transamerica and risk his life, while he guided the tip me. "What?" / Grnpo Alfa de Investimentos/(US-AID) "Nothing important", I replied, in case into the hole by hand." and Ford Motors. There are two more such He breathed in proudly. he speeded up his canter and overtook me. "I've done things in my life, but this canopy bridges they have built. One in Ghana and one in "What about the oxygen?", someone tops it all". Indonesia". We sat around asked. "There is a Hotel - Rainforests do not in general silently. Transamerica in Una", I "Go ahead", we contribute to the oxygen supply,Linde said. "These people.." replied. "Most oxygen produced during offered. "You go first". It all clicked. I spoke "No", he replied. "I the day is consumed during the night. What slowly intoningevery word. generates oxygen is swamps; mangrove want to stay behind a .People.Have.Come. swamps. These are the major oxygenFrom.Hotel.Transamerica.On. The walk from tree to producers on our planet". A.VisitTo.A.Canopy.Walkway. tree on this aerial bridge She paused. The. Hotel .Has.Built". "No, the destruction of the rainforests was fun; the rainforest lay I turned to Linde. will bring desertification and the below us, its leaves thick "Do you use the annihilation of our supplies of water. The and impenetrable like a walkway for scientific biggest problem of the 21' century will be deep green marsh. The purposes r.'" water. In twenty five years' time drinkable top branches were full of "Oh no", said Linde, water will be a most precious commodity. small yellow, red and "But there are plans to". In fifty years' time, we will see wars. And green leaves and ... "So, so, this is all a "Bromeliads", said do you know how you can save the planet?" tourist attraction!". Linde following my gaze. "How?" "It' s mostly for tourists, "There are twelve species "Eat chocolate". yes". of bromeliads just on the What? I felt betrayed. Ian had "Eat more chocolate. Cocoa trees need canopy. Birds bring the only just finished. I shook the shade and the wetness of the rainforest. seeds and they sprout my head but said nothing. The Mata Atlantica survived for as long as wherever they can. Ian and the passarela His great achievement there could be made profits from the cocoa was a friggin' gimmick! We looked at Ian who plantations. It was afterwards, when the price of cocoa collapsed that the farmers was enjoying his slow The most impressive construct in Ilheus canopy walk. started logging". "You are lucky", she said. "Having Ian is not a church—the centrally located The thought of eating chocolate for our church of Sao Sebastiao (with its threeplanet brought tears to my eyes. Protest here". He stopped in the middle and looked dimensional temple which pretends it's never is so enjoyable. down, up left and right. He took another 2D) is far too recent (1968) to attract the I heard Ian cry behind me. step and 'looked left, and then right and eye;. nor any of the. Amado locations: "Oh, boy!" then behind, like Tweety checking out for Nacib's bar had its twin floors demolished I turned licking my lips. A jaguar? and the result is a hangar-like Bierstuben No. We had reached the entrance to the Silvester.

BRAZZIL - SEPTEMBER 2001

only suitable for long Olctoberfest tables; and the mildest that can be said about the Batacla night club is that it is not quite its namesake, the Parisian Bataclan in boulevard Voltaire. The fin-de-siecle Palace of Paranagua,. built on the foundations of an old Jesuit College which serves as the Town Hall, is neo-classical, austere and restricted in the confines of the Praca Seabra; not even theeccentric statue of Sappho (what?) in the square outside saves it. As for Amado's patrimonial house, which has become Casa de Cultura Jorge Amado—it is an unassuming two-floor colonial house with a grand central staircase, period floors and not much more. Yes, it's full of memorabilia by the author— including some sculptures, pictures, posters and videos, but loses out architecturally and in terms of exhibit appeal to the grander Casa Amado in Salvador's Pelourinho. Yes, this is where the author spent his youth from 1920 onwards, before becoming a University student here is where he first put,pen on paper and wrote his first novel, Pats do Carnaval, but there's no redeeming household touch, no sofa, bed or even chamber pot to liven up the place. No, by far the most striking and distinct building in the whole of BMus is a school. I had noticed it on my first day, as I was walking down the sloping circuit of the Avenida 2 de Julho. It stood opposite, on the Alto da Piedade, its neo-gothic spires dominating the landscape, sharp as if drawn like a film backdrop, clean and shiny as if it had been built yesterday. It is the old convent ofNossa Senhora da Piedade which now houses a Catholic school run by Ursuline nuns. Today I stood in front of it gasping for air. The hill was steep and my legs hadrun out of steam. I had an hour to kill and had decided to go for the view-by-sunset. The school was still open and the porter let me in after I gave him a tip. I ,didn't quite understandhow it was open at that advanced hour, but didn't complain either, as the views towards the old city center, the ocean and the river mouth calmed my breathing softly. This is a large complex housing also a chapel and a museum of Sacred Art; it was the work of a French nun, Mother Thais, who founded the convent back in 1916. Nuns seem to go a long way in Brazil. and this one had the whole street named' after her. It was getting dark. I started walking slowly in the direction ofmy hotel. I passed the open space of a cemetery seemingly built at the edge of a cliff. I could not resist a final view. I jumped the low colonnade wall and got in. I wasn't alone. A kid was playing leapfrog with the crosses, and two women, both dressed in white, an old mulatto woman thin as they come and a young fat girl who looked familiar were tending a grave. I walked towards them to take a picture of the landscape. The young one raised her head and saw me holding my camera. She was kneeling, lit white candles and plates of food scattered pell-mell around her. I had seen that look before. Was 1. t ..? I knew at once what was in store. "Be careful gringo. This is a dangerous area after dark , shouted the old woman. Was that a threat? I looked around. The kid had stopped running and was watching me with curiosity. I smiled bowed respectfully, turned around and left.

Perhaps I can make up a story out of this. As I walked down the road round the cemetery, I looked up. The boy was still watching me silently. I smiled. He took this small gesture of friendship and magnified it like only a poor Brazilian boy could: he jumped up and down and beckoned back. I took out my camera and asked with my eyes. The boy's face beamed as he waved. I snapped. That's how I want to remember Brazil. Back in my hotel room I came out of the shower and turned on the TV. My stomach started rumbling. There was only one place to go for dinner in Ilheus. I had seen it by the sea-side: Os Velhos Marinheiros again straight out of a Jorgg Amado book tide. That man again. And that book. I've complained elsewhere that the greatest living Brazilian storyteller has not been granted the Nobel prize—unlike his two friends of old, the two famous writers of Spanish America Pablo Neruda and Miguel Angel Asturias. The trio emerged as the continent's left-wing propagandists, who had joined the Communist party and had suffered as a result. Amado was born in 1912 in the fazenda Auricidia in the district of Ferradas in Itabuna son ofcoronel Joao Amado de Faria and Eulalia Leal Amado, the oldest of several children, but moved to Ilheus in January 1914. In 1922 he went to Salvador., where a Jesuit College teacher spotted his literary talent and introduced him to the Portuguese classics. He became a journalist in several papers, until he movedto a smallpentho in Rio off the Avenida Copacabana (he later shared a flat in Ipanema). There, in 1931, he enrolled in the Law School to satisfy his father, but simultaneously published 0 Pais do Carnaval, in a small nublishing house owned by Augusto Frederic° Schmidt who became his lifelong friend. It was in Rio he networked himself—and shared apartments with many big names in Brazilian literature such as Oswald de Andrade Filho or Alberto Passos Guimaraes. In 1934 he joined the Communist party. When the dictatorship of the Estado-Novo was established in the following year, he went into exile; Cacau, his story of the bad landowners and good cocoa workers was first published in Argentina. He returned clandestinely in Brazil, but was arrested in Manaus and spenttwo months in jail; his books were publicly burnt in Salvador. Eventually he fled the country again. All of his early novels are seeped in the social realism so beloved—some would say dictated—by the Stalinist Communist party. Luis Carlos Prestes, the secretary of the Brazilian Communist Party in the 1930s became the subject of an Amado hagiography which was banned in Brazil. Even the books that were published were brushed over: there is, for instance, ,a passage in Suor (Sweat) where one of the characters says 'This appears like a subversive party cell" instead of "This appears like a Communist Party cell" which he wrote originally. So much had his novels changed that he has spent many of his later years—and he is now in his late 80s with a 1997 heart surgery in Paris behind him— revising his books against his manuscripts to restore the original text for eventual republishing: the Author's Cut one would

say. He was so loyal and disciplined, he wasput forward by the party as a candidate for the Constitutional Assembly in 1946— and elected. His crowning achievement as a Communist Party member must surely be his winning of the Stalin Peace Prize in 1951. Then Stalin died. Khrushchev told the world about the tyranny, the secret police, the show trials. lie gulags and Jorge Amado in his own wo, ds, became sick of being told what to think. He abandoned the party, but not the political philosophy; 'The socialist countries gained freedom indeed, but their people did not have the material capacity to enjoy that freedom". And something remarkable happened when that author with a talent to draw multidimensional portraits of Bahian society threw away the restraining chains of discipline and wrote from the heart and head for the first time for the heart had room for the whole worid and the head had wizened up from disillusion. Amadopublished Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon in 1958, his first work after he left the Party. 20,000 copies were sold in a fortnight. By 1962 there had been 20 editions and 160,000 copies sold just in Brazil. It had also been published in France, rgentina, USA, Germany, the USSR, ungary, Holland, Romania, Bulgaria, oland, Portugal, ltalyand Czechoslovakia. t is the best-known -Brazilian novel ever, urned into a movie with Sonia Braga in the ead, and gained Amado international ecognition and fame. Why? Not just •ecause it is a novel steeped in optimism, tut also—as if to shake off the cardboard haracterization of his early revolutionary ork—because it is a novel in which no haracter is fully good or fully evil, for aws and redemption are twin aspects of e human character and Amado roves all f them like a benign Almighty. And the sweep of his vision was grand: o less than 250 characters—some of them ilent or passing—are mentioned in the ovel and the protagonist, Gabriela doesn't pear until a quarter of the way through. hat the novel is about is even grander: t e breakdown of the old patriarchal oralityyvhose destruction is brought about y Gabnela's twin weapons: clove which r presents her scent for she is the most autiful woman in Ilheus and cinnamon hich represents her culinary ability, her etier, for she's the best cook in town. If location, location, location is the s cret of a successful establishment, the r staurant Os Velhos Marinheiros has won t e lottery; no, it's not a particularly scenic sot it occupies, but one of convenience. I son and of fthe beach; close to the center b t not too far; large enough to have the n mbers but small enough to have good a mosphere. Like most places in the N rtheast, it's outdoors, but thankfully p otected by thatch against the downpour w ich started as soon as I arrived. When I sat down, I froze. Tonight was vi eoke night. Oh, the spread of the J anese curse; Latin America has been hi hly prone to its influence: stand up th re, open your mouth, shake your booty and you are a star for the night. I remember someone proudly boasting in Santa Cruz (f nny how memories of that city have co e back twice in a chapter) that it was th karaoke capital of the world with no le s than 50-odd bars offering non-stop en ertainment. Now there's a city I will ne er return to.

Thankfully, there were only about seven song about boys and or eight tables full on this Thursday night; girls and love, their and as far as entertainment goes,. it was cheeks aglow as rather educational. In Brazilian videoke, their bodies shook they show the videos on a back screen, and to the rhythm. We as the lyrics appear simultaneously, the all clapped for ages. But Gabriela whole set-up was rather instructive for my Portuguese so I sat it out. In fact, I stayed on the stage. recommend it for learning any language She looked at me deeper. Many a Brazilian youngster can and she sang a mouth "/ wilt always love you to the Dark song—in English. It Side of The Moon ,Scaramouche, was one of the few Scaramouche do the fandango, Billy Jean Caetano Veloso is not my lover", by listening to pop songs. songs I knew: They might be mouthing nonsense, but at London London. leastit's nonsense in English. In the same I'm wandering way, Kerosene Jacare might not be poetry of Marina de Dirceu quality, but every round and round nowhere logo little phrase helps. I'm lonely in The waitress took a shine on me. "Where are you from?", she asked as London, London's she took my order. She was very pretty, in lovely so cross the streets without fear her early. twenties, with shoulder-length Everybody keeps the way clear black hair and smooth copper skin; she I know! know no one here to say hello wore her distinctive waitress uniform with I know they keep the way clear innocent sensuality. I'm lonely in London without fear "I'm from Athens via London", I said I'm wandering round and round here, orderinga moqueca de camardo. "Oh' , she Jumped up. "What are you nowhere to go. doing here?I nearly hid my face in the cataplana for 'Passing through. I've been traveling in Bahia for a few weeks. I'm otT embarrassment. When she finished, she acknowledged the prolonged applause and tomorrow". came up to my table. "Where to?" "Now it's your turn" she said. "The South. Curitiba". I would have none of' it. Her wide almond eyes sparkled with "I know no Brazilian songs", I admiration. countered. "What's your name?" "We have some English pop songs, "I'm John" , I said. "And yours?" too". She giggled "No way", I said curtly, and I know "Gabriela". how to say no. I raised my eyebrows. She didn't insist. "Like..." "How did you learn English?" "Yes. Like the book. There are many "I study tourism. lam finishing soon", of us in Ilheus named after characters in the book. My friend there "she pointed at a she replied. "You have a good voice. You should girl sitting at a table amongst a gang of become a singer". surfers—"is called Malvina . "No", she said. "I want to be better I made a mock sniffing noise.. than that'. "No aroma of clove" She laughed. "And certainly no cinnamon. I don't I was one of the last clients to go. By like the taste. I don't like sweets". "No clove, no cinnamon", I said. "As if midnight everyone had had a go at the you can find them anyway now with the mike, bar me, and everyone had eventually gone home to sleep. Gabriela brought me disappearing rainforest". my bill and I left her a large tip. She laughed. "That passarela", she started as I was . "You get them in the market", she Jested. -You have been to the ecoparque de leaving. "What about it." Una then?" "I knew someone who built it. It was I had. "What did you think of our pasarela na difficult. You shouldn't laugh about it". "I'm sure it was difficult to build, but copa das arvores?" what purpose does it serve?" I grinned in disappointment. "It brings in tourists". gimmick", I said. "A mockery". "So?" "Wy?" "So" she said with seriousness, "fewer "It's just for the tourists. It serves no purpose. To hear some people make so trees get logged. The idea behind it was to much out of it as if it were a big show the landlords surrounding the area that it is to their advantage to keep the achievement". forest pristine, because there is money to Gabriela had to go. be made out of eco-tourism. It may not "I'll see you later". She brought me several large Brahmas seem much to you, but the farmers in this and my moqueca which could lead one to area would rather chop off the trees and a spiritual experience, like the sourpuss make money and space for their farms. Danes in Babette 's Feast: fresh king And if the government doesn't like it, then prawns, thick tomato sauce, orange-yellow they burn the forest. But if we can attract dende oil and divine-smelling warmfarofa. enough tourists, and they can make money My skin positively glowed. Good food, a another way, then the forest is saved". I looked at her speechless. beautiful girl called Gabriela, and I am in "It's true", she said. "Thispassarela is Ilheus. What's missing to make the Amado the best thing that happened to Ilheus and story complete? I saw Gabriela get up with her friend the Mata Atiantica". She was right of course. I did check out Malvina—and they sang a song together; a

the conservation.org's site later. The most difficult part of saving the rainforest has been the change in mentality of the farmers in the region who used to see it as a commodity to be exchanged, not as an inherited heirloom to be passed on to the next generation. As the site says diplomatically: "By studying the options available to landowners in Southern Bahia, we were able to formulate a conservation strategy in tune with the prevailing economic political and social realities". It is only when the locals start seeing that they can make money out of their heritage that they may change their attitude towards it. Gabriela was right and I was wrong. The canopy walkway. was not a ecogimmick; it was not a Disney rollercoaster ride; it was a noble construction, a lifebuoy to the golden-faced lion tamarin and all the other unique rainforest species. Incidentally,1 also found out why there is so much biodiversity in South American rainforests. It was the Indians with their nomadic lifestyle and their small cultivated gardens here and there v!ifip contributed to this marvel. The Tupintquins and the dreaded Aimores, now extinct, played their part in producing those. 4.5 0 species per hectare .which we, the civilized, are busy extinguishing. "Ifyou want to save the rainforest, tell your friends to come here and visit us", she said as I departed. "And eat chocolate", I added. She laughed. "And eat more chocolate", she agreed. . See an expanded version of this story in our site: http://www.brazzil.com/ blasep0 I .htm JohnM is a computer programmer and occasional journalist working in London, England using his earnings to travel between contracts. A fluent Portuguese speaker, he has traversed the whole of Brazil from Manaus to Porto Alegre and from Recife to the Pantanal sampling the life and history in the course of four separate journeys. The author can be contacted at iohn(alscroll.demon.co.uk This is an extract from his extensive Brazilian travelogue, which includes numerous fine pictures, in http:// www.scroll.demon.co.uk/brazilindex.htm His personal site is in http:// www.scroll.demon.co.uk/spaver.htm

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