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We start the year offering you a smorgasbord of intriguing and enriching subjects on Brazilian culture. From Brazilian writer Eleonora Duvivier Dodds trying to explain America to hurricane singer Daniela Mercury taking on the world, from Brazilians having a hard time to learn English to novelist Joyce Cavalcante unveiling the mysteries of the female psyche, from the New Year's celebrations to the Brazilian who returns home and doesn't feel at home, from the crazyname game to the thrills of hanggliding over Rio, from the drugs taking over our streets and homes to the
10 Cover
last Gilberto Gil's song. We had a very special and rewardin 1996 ourselves. We changed our name from News from Brazil to Brazzil i order to get a catchy and easy name for those surfing the Internet. Our http:/ www.brazzil.com address is getting 30C visits a day from more than 20 countries around the world. The magazine is virtu ally in its entirety on the WEB, includ ing the ads. 1996 was also the year i which Brazzil was included in the Eth nic NewsWatch database, a CDROM that is available in academic, public anc school libraries across the United States We would like to thank all of those who made possible one more year of Brazzil. Thanks to the readers who silently or through letters have encour, aged us. Thanks to the readers who have scolded us, but kept reading Brazzil anyway. Thanks to the advertisers who don't
CONTENTS
A new Medellin in the Amazon jungle
http://www.brazzil.com even consider taking their ads out and just keep sending in their checks every month. Thanks to my children who were so patient with a father who never leaves the computer. And a special thanks to all the volunteers — Brazzil is made entirely by volunteers — who helped me put it all together, writing, suggesting, proofreading. And ifBrazzil is not better it's just because the days — including Saturdays and Sundays — have only so many hours and because I still have so much to learn. R.M.
34 Travel
Language
Rio de Janeiro for beginners Part IV
Learning English, a serious business
Impressions
18
36
20 Immigration
Lottery for the green card is open
21 Behavior
Brazilians' weirdname game
23 Book
Eleonora Duvivier and the Yankee civilization
29 Short story
Joao Antonio's Jocrzinho da Babilonia
Cover by Aylan Mello
DEPARTMENTS 6 Rapidinhas 14 Letters 45 Short Takes 46 The Cultural Pulse 47 Por al 49 Classifieds 50 U.S.A. Calendar 52 That's Brazilian
Back in Brazil, Brazilian doesn't fit
38 Profile
Joyce Cavalcante's erotic world and resigned women
42 Music
Daniela Mercury wants the world
54 Special
Celebrating the New Year throughout Brazil TIME TO RENEW?
Send mail to: P.O. Box 42536 - Los Ange es, CA 90050-0536 Sorry, we don't send Ads/Editorial: (213) 255-8062 - Subscr .: (213) 255-4953 reminders. Look at the label to know when your Fax: (213) 257-3487 - WEB page: http:/ ww.brazzil. corn subscription ends. E-mail: brazzil@brazzil.com & brazilnews @aol.corn Publisher and Editor: Rodney Mello / Editorial Assistant: Graciela Castellanos / Entertainment Editors: Sam & Harriet Robbins / Book Review: Bondo Wyszpolski / Music Editor: Bruce Gilman / Representatives: MIAMI : Nqsso Guia (305) 374-0096 - WASHINGTON, DC: csawaia@br. homeshopping.com.br Wilson Velloso (Correspondent) (301) 585-6549 - BRAZIL: Celso Sawaia (011) 885-9288 EBRAZZIL (ISSN 1091-868X) is published monthly by Brazzil -2039 N. Ave. 52, Los Angeles, A, 90042-1024. Periodicals Postage rate paid at Los Angeles, CA. Single copy sold for $2. One year subscription for 12 issues is $3 (three dollars) in the U.S., $15 in Canada and Mexico, and $18 (surface mail) in all other countries. No back issues sold. Allow 5 to 7 weeks to receive your fi st 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. Brazzi/ assumes no responsibility for any claims made by its advertisers.
POST MASTER: Please, send address changes to: BRAZZIL - P.O. Box 42536 - Los Angeles, CA - 90050-0536 BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
5
00011-11AILICIC NI II ILA, If IIIJ e wives' revolt ?red i of their husbands' 'Sexual escapades and fearing that their consorts might have AIDS, the women from Palestina, a little town of 3,500 in the Alagoas backlands, are on a sex strike. They say they will not have sex with their partners until they show the results of a blood test proving they are HIV negative. The AIDS scare started when Joao Arnaldo Carvalho, 30, left the city to be treated in Sao Paulo for a disease that, according to rumors, was AIDS. In the months before his departure Carvalho had sex with at least two women in Palestina. Panicky, many husbands Opened their mouths and 'confessed that they had gone to bed with the same women whom Carvalho had bedded. That's when the wives who were told about adultery or just suspected it, decided to deny any sexual to their partners. Since then, the Public Clinic Health has been inundated by men asking for the AIDS blood test. Before, women from Palestina would look the other way when their men committed adultery, but now some are even threatening to cut their men penis if they "jump over the fence". In December, what was a rumor became a reality. Carvalho died in Sao Paulo from the complications of AIDS. Some women like Maria Lacia dos Santos are decided to hold the strike to the last consequences: "I am dy and willing not to
Photo
have sex again in my life," she says menacingly to the husband, who still hasn't made his blood test.
For the world's body shops
Thrashing bestiality
Released in November with the usual hype, the 1997 Pirelli calendar is first of all a Richard Avedon's portfolio . This time, the famous New-York-based American photographer has chosen two Brazilian models to represent the months. One of them is
Mellanie Bitti, 22, born in Espirito Santo, Brazil, who now resides in Milan, Italy. Bhti got the cover of the calendar, but she is not happy because the picture doesn't show her face: only her torso and derriere. The other Brazilian was luckier, getting two of her photos in the August page. She is Paulista (from Sao Paulo) Giselle Zelauy. "She is the daughter of a famous neurosurgeon," informed Pirelli, without details, leaving an air of mystery around the girl.
"My heifer is acting very weird, and she is very agitated since she was raped by my neighbor.' This was the complaint filed by the MP soldier Moises da Silva at Petrofina's (state of Pernambuco) police station. Da Silva alleged that his young cow was a, virgin. Joao Cavalcantti Petrofina's police chief; wasn't impressed however. When journalists started calling about the incident, he ex-, . plained, non-chalantly: "This is very common here. And it happens with she-goats, cows, mules and even sows." What happens to the perpetrators? "The Ibarria-: (Institut° Brasileiro de Meio Ambiente - Environment Brazilian Institute) should be dealing with this. All well do is give the guy a good thrashing hoping it will do him good."
1story
Dead or alive? The notion seems preposterous to anyone, but his author. What Jose Gerald° Aguiar, a photographer from the state of Minas Gerais, is proposing in his book Lampido, o Invencivel (Lair pia°, the Invincible) is that the infamous backlands' br.gand Virgulino Ferreira da Silva, the Lampiao (Lantern), hasn't died in 1938 at the hands of the police as history books state. Virgulino was beheaded and his head was put in public display. No, says Aguiar, Lampiao only died in 1993 at the age of 96. According to this outlandish story Virgulino Ferreira changed his name to Antonio Maria da Conceicao and ended up being buried as Antonio Teixeira de Lima in Buritis, a little town in Minas Gerais. Aguiar wants to exhume the body of Teixeira de Lima, but a judge said no. Antonio Amaury Correa, a Lampiao's biographer who's been studying the Rei do Cangago (King of the Backlands' Bandits) for 46 years, commented: "The human mind has no limits to invent stories."
Had your guarand today? Americans are finally discovering what makes Brazilians so Brazilian: the guarana., a cocaine and caffeine next-of-kin substance. Known and used by the Brazilian Indians for centuries, the little red Amazon berry is. used as the main ingredient for a very popular soft drink called, you guessed, guaranci. Smart drug, sexual stimulant?
BFtAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
4,
:The US will soon find out. Guarana Beverage imports the brand "Guarand Antarctica" — the Brazilian best-seller —and is now distributing it in 18 states. PepsiCola is selling its own version of the product throughout the country. It's called Josta. Seagram wants to include guaranci in a vodka and Miller is brewing Iguana Light, a beer that has a touch of the Amazon wonder fruit. Extreme Tea, on the other hand, is going after the college crowd offering them a guaranci version for those who love caffeine but don't want coffee. Guaranci has its own home page in the Internet: http:// www.symmetrix.chi public/guarana/
Atomic secrets In 1981 and 1982, during general Joao Baptista Figueiredo's presidency, Brazil, ignoring norms from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sold uranium dioxide to Iraq. The Iraqi government received a , total of four tons of the 7substance used to pack 4.tuclear fuel rods. In February 1995 the Brazilian Foreign '7Ministry received a tough letter from the US Embassy trying to 'dissuade Brazil from cooperating with Argentina's atomic program. These are just two of the Brazilian-, nuclear secrets that
Histórias Secretas do ;Brasil Nuclear (Secret Stories of Nuclear Brazil) unveils with abundant details. Journalist Tania Malheiros, the author, comments:
BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
IM21 Rowdy Ze Cariocas Uncle Walt is not happy at all with the little pdsts brazil has been sending to Disney World in Orlando. D spite the fact that 400,000 Brazilian visit "the happiest pl ce in the world" every year only Britain sends more people — the Disney company decided to give them an earful nd teach some manners to Brazilians even before they leave the country. For that, they prepared a video tape teac Mg basic good manners and giving some warnings of the e: trash goes in the trash can, cutting in line is a no-no, creaming while playing is not welcome, and stealing merchandise means trouble. Two thousand copies of the ten-minute le son were distributed to 2,300 tourist guides with the recommendation that it be shown to the little troublemakers j st before boarding the plane. "Brazilians are noisy, und. ciplined, disorganized. That's why we decided to teach em some good manners," a spokesperson for the company xplained to weekly newsmagazine Veja. The statement, co pled with ' the excruciatingly boring tape, was on its way to ecoming a PR nightmare for the Mickey gang when the Dis ey World nannies went back, recognizing they hadn't sh wri good manners themselves in treating the problem. "The video doesn't intend to teach good b havior to anyone, much less to Brazilian tourists who are ong the best behaved visitors we have," amended Luci o Garcia, Disney's publicity manager for Latin America Nobody, however, did convincingly explain why only razilians have been targeted by this "don't be naughty" c paign. Luiz Fernando Benedini, Brazil's consul gen ral in Miami, has already protested against the harsh trea ent given Brazilians by the Disney people when there is sh lifting or just suspicion of such behavior. In these cases e guilty person or suspect, even in the case of a smal child, is handcuffed, taken to jail and can only leave afte paying a $500 bail. "The treatment," Benedini said, "is a di respect to the thousands of Brazilians who visit the park e ry year." Not every Brazilian is outraged, however. S me travel guides recognize that Brazilian youngsters are a ways getting out of hand. As one of these guides said," ey throw cups and trash all over, they steal towels and evenl ps from hotel rooms, they cut in line, go out of the lin to buy a sandwich and claim their place back in line, and t ey tear up plastic bags and steal what is inside so the alarm w n't sound when they get out of the shop." Paulin° Masc enhas, a tourist from SA° Paulo, added: "The only thing I see wrong here is that the Disney people had to start this campaign. The Itamaraty (the Brazilian Foreign Relations Ministry) should have started it a long time ago." Anthropologist and sociologist Alba Zaluar believes that the rich-class children who fill up the planes to Orlando are generally overbearing. Says she, "We live in a country in which we respect very little each other's space. We have a middle-class and an upper middle-class children arriving in other countries and behaving like they own the world. They forget that they have to respect the rights of others and the customs of the host country."
"It's unbelievable that the society has no control over a project that costs so much."
Darci Alves Pereira, one of the killers of rubber tapper and labor organizer Chico Mendes, is back in jail in Brasilia with his father Darli Alves da Silva, also condemned to 19 years of prison for the December 1988 crime. Pereira had escaped from prison and for six months he was the target of a dragnet over six states. When the Wel Police caught hird,leaving his cousin's home in Guaira, state of Parana, he had changed his name to Altair Gomes and was sporting a long
beard.
Steven Lamm, a NewYork based endocrinologist, after a battery of ; tests including one for HIV, concluded that < singer-composar Milton Nascimento, 54,, has type II diabetes and hot AIDS as the rumors in Brazil c ave it. Nascimento was taken at the end of 3 ober to Lamm's office
pro
ebeyr oRfuN ssaTi sctim elemnatno:
I
MiliOWa;votning album. Titelrnan became worried when he learned that the singer was more than 40 lbs. below his normal weight. A ig not the first time there are reports about Nascimento being HIV sitive. In 1990, Amiga magazine wrote that 4 Milton, Caetano Veloso and Ney Matogrosso, all had AIDS. The magazine was taken to court and At that time,
7
acations Nascimento had to make a blood test and send the results to his family in Tres Pontas (state of Minas Gerais) to prove he was HIV negative. Nascimento is on vacation now, after finishing his Brazilian Amigo tour in December. He is coming to the US in March to launch his new album, Nascimento.
Fla-Flu no more The Fluminense Football Club (in its original English) had a glorious history: national soccer champion in 1984, 28 times Rio's champion, famous fans like former
Pela Internet Gilberto Gil Criar meu web site Fazer minha home-page Com quantos gigabytes Se faz uma jangada Um barco que veleje Que veleje nesse infomar Que aproveite a vazante da infomare Que leve urn oriki do meu velho orixa Ao porto de um disquete de um micro em Taipe Urn barco que veleje nesse infomar Que aproveite a vazante da infomare Que leve meu e-mail ate Calcuta Depois de um hot-link Num site de Helsinque Para abastecer Eu quero entrar na rede Promover um debate Juntar via Internet Um grupo de tietes de Connecticut De Connecticut acessar 0 chefe da Macmilicia de Mild° Um hacker mafioso acaba de soltar Urn virus pra atacar programas no Japao Eu quero entrar na rede pra contactar Os lares do Nepal, os bares do Gabdo Que o chefe da policia carioca avisa pelo celular Que la na praca Onze tern urn videopoquer para se jogar
8
Heating up In Brazil there is no real summer without some titillation. The sun is full blast in the tropics now, which means that's time to retire old habits and that one-year-too-old beach outfit. Rio continues to decide what is in and what is out in the country. The fib dental (dental floss) bikini has disappeared. Hot this year are the tricot and crochet tangas (string bikinis) covering just the minimum necessary no to get the sun worshippers in trouble with the law. The all but invisible models can set you back as much as $70. Golden is the favorite color for bikinis, shorts and blouses. Another hot item — and this one is free — is the 2004 Rio Olympics pin, even though at this time Rio is only one among several candidates to hold the Games in 2004. On the steps of a hit novela (soap opera), Salsa e Merengue, the hottest music band on the sands of Copacabana is called Salsa with its mix of non-Brazilian Latin rhythms. As for sport, the latest craze on the beaches is female soccer. Law
Ode to the Net Gilberto Gil's next CD, Quanta (How Much) will be released only in March, but "Pela Internet" ("On the Internet"), one of the album's cuts, can already be heard by anyone linked to the Internet. Gil has his own domain (http:// www.gilbertogil.com) on the Net, and has apparently become the first world renowned singer to launch a new song over the World Wide Web waves. The ditty will be available for download at the singer's site until January 14. The song is an homage to "Pelo Telefone" ("On the Phone), Ernesto dos Santos Donga's 1917 tune that is considered the first samba ever recorded. Parodying the "Pelo telefone" that says 0 chefe da Policia / Pelo telefone / Mandou me avisar / Que na Carioca / Tern uma roleta / Para se jogar (The Police Chief! On the phone / Told me / That at Carioca / There is a roulette / For us to play), Gil wrote: 0 chefe da policia carioca avisa pelo celular que id na praca Onze tern um videopdquer para se jogar. (The Carioca (from Rio) police chief tells me on the cellular that there's a videopoker to be played at the Onze square)
President general Joao Baptista Figueiredo and singer-composer Chico Buarque de Hollanda. Bad administration, however, has taken the team founded in 1902 close to financial insolvency. And, unable to win a game — it came in the last but one place in the latest national championship — the Fluminense has suffered the supreme humiliation: it has been demoted from the special division to the second one. With this, not even their arch enemy Flamengo is happy. Fla-Flu (Flamengo x Fluminense) used to be a magic word to fill up soccer stadiums.
On the Internet To create my Web site To make my homepage With as many gigabytes As you need to make a raft A boat that will sail That will sail in this infosea That will go out on infotide tide That will take my invocation of my old Orisa To the port of a diskette of a micro in Taipei A boat that will sail in this infosea That will go out on infotide tide That will take my E-mail to Calcutta After a hot link In a site of Helsinki To refuel I want to get in the Net To start up a debate To link via Internet A group of Connecticut's fans From Connecticut to access Milan's Macmilitia's chief A Mafioso hacker has just released A virus to attack programs in Japan I want to get in the Net to contact Homes in Nepal Bars in Gabon That the Carioca (from Rio) police chief tells me on the cellular that there's a videopoker to be played at the Eleven square
BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
It's a world's first for this kind of private club. The conservative Academia I3rasileira de Letras (Brazilian Academy of Letters), which will be celebrating its centenary on June 20, has chosen a woman to be its president. The French inspired 40 member Academy is now the kingdom of ,Carioca (native from Rio) Nelida Cuifies Pinon, 59, the daughter of Spaniard immigrants. With this, the Miami 'University is going to lose its Hispanic-American Literature professor, since Piffon is taking her new position as a fulltime job. ' -"It was time for a woman to come cook here and add her own seasonings," said immortal Oscar Dias Correa and one of the 38 who voted for Pinon. Nobody seems to have . taken the observation as sexist and the new president didn't get elected unanimously because of another woman. Writer Rachel de Queiroz refused to vote. One of Pifion's goals is to computerize the Academy's 100;000volume library. However, to author her book — she has 13 published — Nelida uses handwriting.
Punishment and reward Brazil spends every month $5.1 million paying for special pensions to more than 2,500 people who have been politically perse
BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
Punished nudity Brazilian novelas (soap operas) have become a super show and a daily guessing game in which the quiz is always the same: who is the next actress to take her clothes off on camera? Xica da Silva, Manchete TV network's prime-time novelu, is a perfect illustration of that. After four months in the air, the soap about a black slave who gets the affection of her master during the very prude empire period, has already disrobed seven of its characters. The strip-tease of Xica herself, played by Tais Araujo, was surrounded by months of hoopla. Even before the novela started everyone in Brazil knew Tais would show it all. The problem was her age: she was a minor. The July 1990 Estatuto da Crianca e do Adolescente (Child and Adolescent Code) forbids anyone who isn't 18 from appearing naked on the media. Exactly three days after her much ballyhooed birthday celebration, Tais appeared in all her glorious nakedness and took a waterfall shower. The scene lasted 2 minutes and 20 seconds, an eternity on TV. Ratings-wise the show with the strip-tease was a flop. Unwisely, Manchete scheduled the showing for the same day and same time TV G lobo was broadcasting Palmeiras x Portuguesa, the national soccer championship final game. Xica da Silva got 8 points in the lbope (the Brazilian Nielsen) compared to the 9 to 12 points it was getting previously. A picture published in the press one day after Tais birthday, was the proof judge Siro Darlan from Rio's Child and Adolescence First Court needed to rule that the filming of the bare-it-all scenes had been made before Tais was of age. Darlan punished Manchete with an exemplary slap on the wrist: a fine that might be as little as $300, and never to exceed $2,000.
cuted during the military regime that lasted from 1964 to 1985. The average check is $2000. But some make much " more like soap opera writer Dias Gomes who gets a monthly $13,000 pension and there are people even getting $36,000. This in a country where 12 million 'retirees receive a monthly $100 pension. In many cases these persecuted citizens weren't tortured or even jailed. Among the awarded with the pension prize is former presidential candidate Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, who gets $2,195.40 per month. Most Brazilians seem to think that the reparation gesture in these cases went a little too far.
Magic bullet Still there is no laboratory producing it, but LDE is a very promising anticancer therapy which , has just won a patent from the US Commerce Department. Invented by Brazilian endocrinologist Raul Maranhao, the LDE particle is useful to reduce the chemotherapy's side effects. In some cases these effects completely disappeared. Injected in the blood, the product causes the / cancerous cells to absorb .7 more of the chemotherapic medicine. "I have created a Trojan horse," explains Maranhao. "The tumor cells swallow the LDE as if they were a gift, but they, are bringing the enemy ' in."
oarome the world's for cocaine. Sixty crt." aline consumed in s•I • com es from the , a.region order areas in pc:I Peru. With all Combat drug ri Colombia, Brazil is role as a,producer of white powder. Some Brazilian orities tear that a new Medellin growinglright now deep in the rtzilian Amazon jungle. For all the ragedies they bring, drugs on the her hand also guarantee jobs to least a quarter of a million razilians. They are those wor q.marijuana fields in the s of tt east and thedoilin o drugs the ands he big cities. Crack, New to the world, has also razil. Started in 1988 Lilo suburbs, the crack n d status and is used the country in bigger eller towns. NASCIMENTO
10
BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
seizures have ben increasing, and despite what the ight before the United States US would like us to believe, Brazil is one of the brought ex-Panamanian leader most aggressive countries when dealing with the Manuel Noriega to trial in Miami, problem of drugs, having no known high authority in 1992, Carlos Lehder Rivas, the involved in drug trafficking. Medellin Cartel chief, in his antiDrug traffi king is a yearly $300-billion busiimperialistic laden deposition inness in the wor d, which surpasses the $206 billion riminating Noriega, mocked the of the pharmac utical industry. The United States, US: "We, the poor people of Latin America," he world leader n drug consumption, spends $30 said. "We have been exploited for years by Yankee billion a year t fight drugs and treat drug addicted imperialism. But the day of reckoning is coming. people. It even offered Brazil $600,000 to help the Your Honor, cocaine is our revenge, it is Latin country comba drugs, amount considered so laughAmerica's atomic bomb." able by the Br zilian authorities that they decided He was referring to the widespread use of coto pass up the offer. Brazilians still had another caine in the States. And Lehder was right. He only reason to rejec the meager aid: they don't agree on forgot one detail: the effects of the nuclear bomb he how America s want to control the traffic. While so competently had helped to unleash aren't conBrazil's Justic Ministry wants to concentrate its fined to the American territory. The device is makefforts at the amn entrances of the drug in Brazil, ing victims throughout the exploited countries from the US would like a better control of the airports which he contended to be an avenger. Among from where the drug is leaving the country to the them, Brazil has become an important character in States and Europe. the drug scene as a middleman, a producer and a In the last two years, the so-called "white triconsumer of drugs. angle," — an Amazon basin area comprising terriEloy Salino da Costa, 55, is in jail at the Cabo tories from Peru, Colombia and Brazil — has beFrio (Rio) police station, after having called the come the worl 's main producer and distributor of police and confessed to having killed his young son cocaine, respo ding for 60 percent of the Yankee Leandro Bocater da Costa. On November 25, Costa cocaine trade According to Rosendo Temoche shot his drug-addicted son four times at the Costa Lara, from th Iquitos (Peru) Customs, cocaine is family's bar. "How could a father raise a child for being produce s along riverbanks in all three coun23 years and then murder him?", he asked himself tries. Lara sa s that many boats in the Amazon in a conversation with a reporter. The elder Costa river have bee found carrying ether, acetone, and says he is less worried about the 30 years in jail he other chemica s needed to produce cocaine. Part of can get for his crime than the misery that he has this load, he g arantees, is being delivered to labs brought to his family. According to him, Leandro along the Jay ri river, an Amazon tributary. was addicted to cocaine for many years and he had already sold properties to proBRAZILIAN vide for the son's addiction. MEDELLiN? The killing occurred when No More Jail Leandro asked for more money Commissioner Mauro Sp6to pay his debts to drug trafA bill approved by the lower hou sito, the Amazonas state Fedfickers. Eloy took a baseball of Congress in December introduces eral Police Superintendent and bat and then a revolver to force several new concepts to Brazilian dru a member of the GAN (Grupo the son to leave. "Kill me," legislation. Among them: de Informacao sobre o Narcosaid the son, "or I'll kill you." trafico - Group of Information "I had no choice," says Costa. I. The drug user is not a poli • on Narcotraffic), fears that "But now I want to kill mycase anymore, but a medical-social these riverbank labs might soon self." problem. (The present law punishes 4, be the base for a Brazilian Costa's problem with drugs drug users with six months to two Medellin. He denounces that is not that uncommon anymore. years in jail.) The new law would, the drug lords expelled from The use of cocaine and crack impose fines and community service, Peru and Colombia through the once limited to street kids is 2. Drug -traffickers who are part efforts of the American Drug now widespread throughout of a gang would be treated more Enforcement Administration Brazil. In 1995, 12 tons of mariharshly. Now, traffickers who are con(DEA) are settling down in the juana were seized in the whole demned get from six to 15 years ofjail Brazilian side. Thanks to bank country, while the same amount time. With the new legislation the accounts tracking and informwas reached in July in 1996, penalty would increase to up to 25 ers' help, GAN has prepared a according to the Federal Polist of 300 Brazilian politicians years, without the possibility of palice. In 1995 the police have and businessmen involved in role, bail or sentence reduction due also seized 5.3 tons of cocaine, drug trafficking. According to good behavior.,:k'i, 25 lbs. of crack, 15 lbs. of hashSposito in an interview with 3. All public and private schools ish, a half ton of coca paste Rio's daily 0 Globo, the comust include drug education in their and destroyed 2.5 million maricaine transportation is led by curriculum, starting on the first gra juana plants. And despite not Ant6nio Mota Graca who is being reported in police statisthe brother of Floriano Ramos tics, heroin (which costs $280 Graca, the nayor of Benjamin Constant in the a gram in Sao Paulo compared to $20 in the US) is Amazonas state. making serious inroads among the well-to-do. Drug BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
11
Press reports indicate that the Manaus — the capital of Amazonas — Narcotics Department is also the headquarters for FIRMA, a group of drug traffickers and hit men formed by policemen and businessmen. FIRMA is allegedly behind more than 50 murders. Carlos Coelho, a Manaus prosecutor says he has proof that Jose Cavalcanti Filho and his deputy Antonio Chicre Neto, the men in charge of Narcotics in Manaus are also in the command of drug distribution. Says Coelho, "I cannot put this gang behind bars because the civilian police is not cooperating with the investigation nor helping with finding the victims' bodies." Brazil has become the world's biggest corridor for cocaine transportation. Tricks to carry drugs across the country are varied and ingenuous. In the state of Rondonia, for example, cocaine is often hidden among coffee bags, a measure that prevents the loot to be whiffed by even the best sniff dogs. A careful inspection is always time consuming and would require an army of inspectors. Even in the US, according to the Departments ofJuslice's DEA, not more than 3 percent of all incoming containers is duly examined. Brazil has been an important conduit for drugs since the 80s, but only recently its role has been adequately assessed. The country has been so neglected in the world drug economy that there was no Brazilian representative at the Antidrug Summit in Cartagena (Colombia) in 1990 and then again in San Antonio (Texas) in 1992. The main Brazilian stops in the cocaine route on its way to Miami and Europe are towns located on the border with Bolivia as well as the ports of Itajai in Santa Catarina and Santos in sao Paulo and the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio. Some small municipalities without any important economic activity have become key-cities for the traffic. They are places like Ladario in Mato Grosso do Sul and Caracarai in Roraima. With the monetary stability brought by the Real, the domestic traffickers who work as middlemen between Bolivia and the US and Europe are getting their payment in kind. This has substituted the dollar which was the main currency for drug dealers in the region. For every ton of cocaine transported, the national courier gets between 100 to 200 kg. The cocaine that arrives in Brazil is not always the powder ready for consumption.. In the 90s, more and more Brazilians are being involved in producing co.12
caine from the coca paste. The labs in charge of this process are spread mainly in the states of Amazonas and Mato Grosso. A HUGE EMPLOYER Drugs guarantee jobs to at least a quarter of a million people. Around 100,000 workers are employed by the marijuana plantations in Pernambuco in the Brazilian Northeast and another 150,000 sell marijuana, crack and cocaine in the streets of Rio and Sao Paulo. It's the drug trade that makes the Fourth-World poor and drought-stricken Poligono das Secas (Drought Polygon) in the Brazilian Northeast an island of prosperity encircled by abject poverty. The area comprising some 30 municipalities spreads over 256 small islands in the Sao Francisco river and includes towns such as Oroco, and Cabrob6, which was once known as the Brazilian onion capital, but has now become the cannabis capital of Brazil. Poverty hasn'tdisappeared in the area and 50 percent of the active population has no jobs, but there is no mendicancy in the streets and those who received a monthly $50 government check to work in the so-called frentes de combate a seca (drought fighting fronts) can now make $30 for a day's work in a marijuana plantation. For similar work at an onion field he can't make more than $3 a day. For the land owner—even though many pot fields are on government land — the pot culture is also much more lucrative. While he gets $30 for a kg. of marijuana, he can't charge moreithan 50 cents for a kg. of beans. Joao Freire, mayor of tabrobO, says that he understands the problem. Talking ito weekly newsmagazine /sto E, he noted: "The goverpment doesn't finance the production of food, neither guarantees a minimum price for the crops. The rural land owner has no choice but to plant marijuana." The president of Cabrobo's Rural Workers' Union, Joao Nenem, agrees with the mayor: "We are against it, but we cannot deuy that marijuana has helped to solve social problems in the region. People here end up working in the maconhais (marijuana fields). The alternative would •be to steal so they on feed their families." CabrobO's military police seem resigned to their role of passive onlooker. To be able to do anything they would need a helicopter, a powerful boat and personnel. They have nothing of the sort. The little boat they got, has a broken engine and there's no prediction for when it will be fixed. Even with a powerful boat the MP soldiers wouldn't go out in the treacherous Sao Francisco water. •Most of the two dozen soldiers don't know how to swim. • Many of the workers in the plantations live in a regime of semi-slavery, during the five months they spend working the cannabis fields. These men have a silence code and are armed, acting as their own security guard. According to Aecio Francisco Coelho, CabrobOs' police commissioner, ever' month a worker is murdered after leaving the plantation to go to the city. The Maconha Polygon should produce 1.5 million tons of marijuana in 1996. The Federal Police says that the production will be less than 1 million tons since they have destroyed 2.7 million cannabis plants in recent months. Inspired by the Paraguayan marijuana producers, Pernambuco has been pressing its pot before shipping it. Police has already apprehended 100 pound marijuana "bricks", but normally these packages don't weight more BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
For Alberto Corazza, one of Denarc's director, the problem with drugs in Brazil starts CRACK INVASION with the authorities: "We Following the New York inner city lead, Sao Paulo's don't have a napoor suburbs were the first to use the cheap and very tional policy for addictive crack starting in 1988 and smoked it in improcombating drug vised tubing pipes. In about two years the Yankee inventraffic," he says. tion had spread throughout the city. Downtown, street "Our police kids used plastic cups and bottles. Yogurt cups seem to be cannot be trusthe favorite pipe for the middle-class youngsters. Today, ted and our poit seems that the cocaine stones are known all over the licemen are ancountry. They can be found in every major city including t i democratic, Rio, Brasilia, and Belo Horizonte (capital of Minas Gerais) overbearing and and more and more in smaller towns across the nation. corrupted. BeSao Paulo's Denarc (Departamento de Investigacao sides they are sobre Narc6ticos —Narcotics Investigation Department) not worried estimates that there are 150,000 crack addicts in Sao with human Paulo city alone. Many of them are middle-class and they are rights and have upper middle-class people. The little stones a history of lawlessness." known by points and point 8 is considered a good size — Sao Paulo's crack problem seems much worse can be bought in 5,000 spots around town for a price than in any other Brazilian city. In Rio, the drug is between $5 and $10 each. For $30, a person can use the much less spread. Newspaperman Marco Uch6a in disque-pedra (dial-stone) service calling a pager number his book Crack, o Cam inho das Pedras (Crack, the and then choosing a spot where to receive the delivery. Road of Stones) contends that crack is not being The crack-addicts spend $200 million only in Sao Paulo. sold in Rio following a decision of the area's drug According to the Denarc, 61 percent of drug depenMafia. According to Uch6a, Rio's drug lords know dents in Sao Paulo have crack as their drug of choice. how devastating the crack habit can be, something Cocaine comes in second with 10.3 percent. The Denarc that would weaken their control over their subordihas also found that ninety percent of crack addicts end up nates. losing their jobs, leaving school and selling everything In Rio, the sale spots for drugs are supplied by they have in order to buy the stones. In six months, people a vast and informal network of matutos (hillbilusing crack start having hallucinations, show extreme lies). They work under the drug lords at Rio's North aggressiveness and might start a life of crime. For cocaine Zone five/as which sell drugs: Acari, Alemao, users this deteriorating process might take three years. Mangueira, Parada de LuMore than half of the minors caught cas and Vigario Geral. The by police for committing a crime in mat uto —there are several the first six months of 1996 conHigh Notes of them in each of the big fessed they acted under the influIn line with their counterparts in the US takes care of the favelas ence of crack. like the rap band Cypress Hill which sings entire process of getting the "Today in Sao Paulo, from every "I Wanna Get High", Brazilian rockers drug to the consumer start100 people looking for drug addicaren't shy about their love for pot and ing with a trip to Santa Cruz tion treatment, more than 90 are coke. The group Planet Hemp, for exde la Sierra in Bolivia where hooked on crack," says psychiatrist ample, was a hit with their first album he goes in his own car. AfRonaldo Laranjeira, coordinator of called Usual-to (User) in which they sang ter paying for the product, the Escola Paulista de Medicina's "Legalize Já" (Legalize Now) with lyrics he gets the merchandise (a Alcohol and Drugs Research Departsuch as: Legalize já / porque uma erva maximum of 30 lb.) in ment. He compares crack to fast food: natural neio pode te prejudicar. (Legalize Corumba. (Mato Grosso do "Crack has done for cocaine the same now / because a natural herb cannot do you Sul), already in the BrazilMcDonald has done for the hamany harm). In Giientando a oia, the latest ian side of the border. He burger. It made the drug popular and release by Som Livre one of the cuts, divides the product into 3 turned it into a hit among the middle "Leonor", is a hymn to cocaine. The very lbs. bricks with truck drivclass." According to Laranjeira, 80 successful rock band Raimundos is always ers who are used to hide the percent of those asking for help at singing about drugs too as well as Chico cocaine inside their cargo the public health system are middleScience & Nacao Zumbi who have inand who charge from class youngsters. In many Sao Paulo cluded in their latest release the track Maco $2,000 to $3,000 for the drug rehabilitation centers the pro(an abbreviation for maconha, the Portuservice. Once in the favela file of the patients has changed draguese word for marijuana). one pound of pure cocaine matically in the last year and a half. is multiplied by five While before the majority of inmates through the addition of talc were the poor and those addicted to or corn starch to the drug. several drugs, today crack monopolizes the attention of The Rio drug lords are doing very well. A recent the centers and brings in people from all social classes.
than eight lb. The marijuana leaves the fields for $50 the kg and increases more than 30 times in price when it gets to the final consumer, who pays $1,600 for a kg of the product.
BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
13
estimate by the Federal Police, following a five-year investigation, tells that four of Rio's main drug gangs are worth $30 million. They own farms, purebred horses, mansions, apartment buildings and all kinds of businesses spread throughout several states. These gangs were led by Paul Lir Alexander, Americo Carlos Fuchs (A lemao - The German), Luiz Fernando da Costa (Fernando Beira-Mar) and Ernaldo Pinto Medeiros (Ue). All of them are in jail after being condemned by the Justice for drug traffic. Alexander, 40, was the wealthiest, with an estimated $20 million in assets, most of it in real estate. He was caught after a combined operation by the American DEA and the Brazilian Federal Police. Born in Santa Catarina, Alexander was a DEA agent before becoming a ring leader. He created several export companies in Rio and for three years sent dozens of tons of cocaine to the US inside electric transformers.
would treat users much more kindly. "The drug-addict needs to be treated and not jailed by the police," says Murad, who has submitted ten bills about the subject. The congressional special commission on drugs has put together a bill utilizing five different bills dealing with the same subject. The bill has received 35 amendments most of them suggested by Justice minister Nelson Jobim who has been open to the decriminalizing of marijuana. Sociologist Ruth Cardoso, Brazil's first lady has also added her two bits to the discussion indicating that she is also in favor of decriminalizing pot smoking. Legislation approved in December by the lower house (Camara dos Deputados) would eliminate any time on jail for drug-addicts. The new bill, which still needs to be approved by a reluctant Senate and then signed into law by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, doesn't make any difference between light drugs as marijuana or stronger like cocaine or heroine. For Fernando Gabeira, a congressman who has become a vocal defender of the legalization of marijuana, the bill still represents too little. His intention is to launch a national campaign as part of his .strategy to legalize the use of cannabis in the country. CHILD STUFF
Mariana grew up on the streets of downtown Sao Paulo. Six years ago, when she was only 11, she started selling crack. For every 50 stones she sells for an average price of $10 she can keep 5 to use them the way she pleases. Mariana smokes them, "but only at night after I have finished my job," she told a reporter. According to SOS Crianca (SOS Child), Mariana is just one of the 3,000 homeless children who walk around Sao Paulo, 90 percent of which have a drug problem. Most of them are between the ages of 7 and 15. The Homicide Division of the Sao Paulo police stated that drug traffickwri,4, 4 CONGRESS PROPOSALS ing and the use of crack have caused the deaths of 97 street children — or children in a street situation as is the The DEA has criticized Brazil for not paying attention politically correct way to refer to them —(75 boys and 22 to all the drug money being laundered in the country. At girls) between the ages of 11 and 17 in the first six months the beginning of 1996 the US State Department released of 1996. a document complaining of the feeble participation of In Rio, the use of children for selling cocaine and Brazil in fighting drugs. The report talked about the marijuana has increased fourfold in the last four years. refusal of some Brazilian authorities to back the Yankee They account for roughly half of the gangs that control drug-fighting initiatives. The Drug Enforcement Admin200 favelas in the whole state. Minors have been sought istration calls Sao Paulo and Rio the two largest money actively because they cost much less for the drug bosses. laundries in South America. The country washes $20 They receive less to work and if they are caught by police billion of drug-tainted money a year, according to US or killed they don't leave a family that has to be taken care estimates. "That's just a wild guess," says Getfilio of. A manager of traffic in a favela, however can make They Bezerra Santos, deputy director of the federal as much as $2,000 a month. can Police Narcotics Division. Rio's police data reveals that up to 1992,45 help The bicheiros (illegal animal lottery percent of crimes committed by children Narc6ticos Anonibosses from Rio), according to the US were thefts, compared to 29.7 percent of mos (NA) -- With chapters government, are one of the main the holdups and 5.2 percent of the drug throughout the country. Tel: (5511) go-betweens in this scheme, using trafficking. Nowadays, more than 40 242-9733 ghost companies to clean drug percent of the children's problems with NAR-ANON -- For the families of money and charging around 15 perpolice have to do with drugs. From Janudrug addicts. There are groups in 160 cent of the money laundered to do the ary to October 1996, from the 2,756 chilcities. Tel: (5521) 263-6595 job. Brazil has no specific laws to dren detained and taken to Rio's Segunda NEPAD (Mc leo de Estudos e punish money laundering even though Pesquisas em Atencao ao Uso de Vara da Infancia e Adolescencia (Child Congress has been debating the subject. Drogas — Center of Studies and and Adolescence Second Court), 44 percent Research Concerning Drug were dealing with drugs. They were olheiros Justice Minister Nelson Jobim has been Use) from the Universidade (scouts), vapores and bocas-de-furno (drug pushing for the new law. Estadual do Rio de Janeiro. distribution spots) managers. The Brazilian drug law was written in 1976. According to it, any user caught by Tel: (5521) 589-3269 In an interview with Rio's daily 0 Globo, police even with a baseado (little joint) in B. (Brazilian law forbids the media from namhis pocket can get up to two years in prison. Curiously, an ing minors involved in crimes), 15, a drug manager in the anti-drug activist, congressman, doctor and chemist Elias favela do Arard, talked about his work before getting Murad is the one championing a new legislation which caught by police: "If a guy has what it takes, he can make 14
BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
Gloetary : Avit7O7-(lit„piatieimiddleman Baba • • ,gOocyMotieY Badaga'-- shoemaker's glue Bctdagueiro,-- glue sniffer Bagulho joint Banhista7,(bather) someonew a friend'
Barato L.,<high Baseado, li,artirha;:Boinba — Bater — Bater cocain
Bocada— oM ark ca-et03''
0, goat) urge t Bfiode POPin " alpha, bodi ff _rqhcaBreCd* 0 Cdgdete c Can o aleta (gutter.) — — craziness or bb Chocolate — hashish Crockeiro, craqueiro.. a crack user 'frisk ,someone -whj Dar o confere
stealing
Dar o gogo — (give catch by the throat
Dar uma 1 D„r amar14z7-. (to(g4ve" de-fu pour) 9 little theft Descuido SP ' 'g Docinho .*- (little Etc-rza do diabo — de 'slZvseeerd)jcpoatcid umol ganth ho. — (to.Make a profit) to a" Finer__ ' st 0, .4n one) " F 0
' C4t'k'ree' °t' 13-e(tr il"'..„ Froi4o-+, ger o) Pfr°y4a .F ! ritaepear ,41,,,-k Stone) ttvsmoke cra mloa/istO*= passerby who nabs a mugger ' Ir para Londres -- (to go to Letidon)ot hawl sexm bra, ,7 4th
Plardlta7p MariOa
any
grass
Motu fok Rio
Malhada
' 4 totold
bi111)ill10 .
starch
oe Of
.
Mela, merla
0OC.41 PIP Mesclado , c Meter steal Metranca gUn or niCb MincJia- metal bartbp,p
Moc4,-,-Iilace to sleep h 0/4-44. in'itie) person w bus or plane paranoia) Nola (fr om Noiado - a high' patha —fksitntaw) bad quality pot Pedra —(s.tone) crack ' Pico —(prick) injectio _ra tO smoke a d. d
Pp a-7- (dust) z— mugging Pl prgto z (black) P..c;t • the Tutni
taneous -0113a'tiolm provoked by oramike in Ty$0n),strOng4 kno Tyson _ (as riot ing-down pot favela_ Vapor takeS the drug to the d?onsun?eLxioa,te4 by , (to (rave1).lo be ioFq viajar
-
BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
money with p t. Each load of marijuana has 120 little packs. The ow er of the place got 100, the vapor and I got 10 each. I cou d make $20 a day selling my share for $2 each. Isn't tha good money? (The minimum wage is $100 a month in Br zil.) But you can't get high when you are working. Bec use if you steal any money you get killed." Paulo Ces r Barroso, a prosecutor at the Vara da Intancia e Ad lescencia, asks: "How are you going to be able to hold own a poor boy who wants to climb the social ladder, ho is full of ambition, and suddenly starts making more oney than his parents because he is selling drugs?" More than hree years after the massacre at downtown Rio's Candel a church that left eight street children dead and horr fled the world, there is a new generation of kids in the are. There are maybe 300 of them. They have nicknames like Bacteria, Bel, Camara() (Shrimp), Cebolinha (Little Onion), Menor (Minor), Menorzinho (The Smallest One), Ninha, Pit, Pretinho (Little Black One), Sor6 ax4I Xuxa. Some things have changed. Today, only those ithout any money continue sniffing shoemaker's lue to get their high. Cocaine has become the drug of c oice. But they still spend the day playing, mugging and getting high. A recent study conducted by IBOPE (Instituto Brasileiro de Opinido Publica e Estatistica — Brazilian Institute for ublic Opinion and Statistics) in Rio, Sao Paulo, Camp Grande, Salvador and Porto Alegre, among children and oung adulst between the ages of 9 and 21, revealed that 3 percent of them used drugs or had a friend who used the . The IBOPE work also showed that among 9 to 12-year- Id children, 31 percent had already experimented with lcohol, 8 percent had smoked and 2 percent had tried pot. mong the older kids, the majority admitted having used ome type of drug before the age of 15. In an effo to take away some of the glamour linked to drugs, the artnership Against Drugs Association — a group forme by 20 ad agencies and media outlets — has started a TV, adio and magazine campaign against drugs. The anti-dru message is urgent. According to NEPAD (Nude° de studos e Pesquisas em Atencao ao Uso de Drogas — C nter of Studies and Research Concerning Drug Use), c ose to 10 percent of Brazilian teens smoke pot regularly. Elementary and high school students ages 12 to 16 wh go pr ate to schools in • io have told rep •rters that any tudent knows OW to get a j int without ha ing to deal wit a estranger. pad's study has shown that 0.4 percent of the Zona Sul the more affl ent side of Rio) students smok pot and 1 percen use cocaine. Th average age in which they tart their habit i 14. 15
saudades of Brazil. Roy P. Wooden Sunland, California
WE GET PANNED I ave just inis e 4 rea4 ing t e atest issue of your magazine and as in the past I couldn't avoid having a feeling of indignation. For a publication whose objective is to divulge the Brazilian culture to foreign people, articles like the one on bureaucracy (Brazzi/November '96—Cover story) don t seem to serve any purpose at all. I agree that the journalism's aim is to divulge reality, but what are your objectives when you maximize our warts citing extreme examples as if they were the norm and the situation that any tourist who is brave enough to come here would find. That doesn t look productive to me. The overseas tourism bureaus and departments must be effusively applauding your effort. Even more shocking is the fact that such an article that denigrates our country has the sponsorship of companies like yang Airlines. Frankly, that s beyond comprehension.
Michael T. Comber Rio de Janeiro, Brazil WE GET PANNED II Your article on • ureaucracy ("Re Tape Addiction", Brazzil November '96) was questionable, ill-grounded, superficial and backed by isolated cases that in no way reflect Brazil's present reality concerning bureaucracy. It is enough to walk around traditional places known for its bureaucracy as the Policia Federal building or the Instituto de IdentificacAo (the only place where we can get an ID card in SAo Paulo nowadays) or Detran to see the disappearance of dozens, hundreds of despachantes offices that have always existed there. Moreover, a magazine about Brazil published in the US is something that profoundly disturbs me. Especially a magazine that writes incorrectly the name of my Country.
Yasam Pane Slio Paulo, Brazil WE GET PANNED III Your WEB site *esign is pain u . t reminds me of all the computer science students who want to put every bell and whistle possible because they know how to, without considering that the viewer is not really that all impressed due to the fact that they can't access the information in an easy manner. Check out Discovery Online. Who do you think has better programmers? So why are they so low key?
Andrew Gold San Francisco, California
NEXT TO GOD I have not received my November copy of your great magazine. I miss it. What happened? Please, rush copy if oversight. I don't want to be a pain, but your magazine is so great and next to the Bible, it is my main reading material to matar You are invited to panicipate in this dialogue. Write to: Letters to the Publisher P.O. Box 42536 Los Angeles, CA 90050-0536 or send E-mail to: brazzikWbrazzilcom brazilnews'ieaol.com Please, include a phone number in the event we need to reach you. Thanks! 16
food, our people, our music and mainly the Brazilian happiness. I hope you will continue with this marvelous work that so much helps make my saudade less painful.
GRANDPA'S DREAM o essor eorge Patton Jr. is the grandson of General Patton and he told me that his grandfather used to say: "My army is so strong that the way we are going, we can make it all the way to Brazil!" Unfortunately, General Patton never made it to Brazil, but his grandson is going with me there this January. As they say, It's never too late to make old dreams come true!"
Thivia Mayrink Cincinnati, Ohio STOP! I WANT OUT! Please, stop running my personal ad. I can't respond to all the letters I've received.
Steve Newcomer West Hollywood, California
Prof Esdras Othon Leila° Los Angeles, California
CHEAP, CHEAP I ,just found your website yesterday I WANT MY BRAZZIL and I m absolutely amazed that there is a My subscription runs t rough next Nomagazine about Brazil that can be so easily vember 1997, but I am moving to Rio in a! afforded and accessible. My money is enfew weeks. How can I activate a change of closed and I send all my best wishes to my address to my office or apartment in Rio Brazzil. and how much money should I send by Casey O'Hara check to cover the difference in postage? I Camden, New York like your publication so much that I was BRAZZIL-ADDICTED wondering whether I could receive it by Please, renew my subscription. I adore airmail from here or through a local Brazil- k, your magazine, it's my cachaca (liquor) ian distributor. Please let me know by return and lean t live without it any more. Thanks E-mail. for your excellent work. Urn grande
John Weinkopf San Francisco, Cali ornia
YOU'RE 'WELCOME I wish to t ank you or a wonder ul year of Brazzil! I have found my past issues to be a valuable resource. I would like to ask other readers for help in locating a source to purchase current issues or a subscription to Isto E, Veja, Manchete, Caras, as well as surfing magazines asFluir,Inside,Hardcore, Trip or Now. Please accept my renewal for another year of Brazzil.
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abraco. Adelaide Davis Lakewood, Colorado
HELP ANYONE ' I have an interest in recreating . Theodore Roosevelt's 1913-1914 expedition down what was then River of Doubt ' now named Rio Teodoro. Do you know where I could find information on how I this trip could be arranged? Do you know if there has been anyone who has tried to recreate it with historical accuracy and documented the journey?
VADE MECUM I always have your magazine with me. We got a lot of Brazilian publications, but most of them are 'no good . I enjoy reading Brazzil because you always publish interesting stories in your pages.
Robert Mann Via E-mail ASDZ12A@prodigy.com
SEARCHING RONDONIA I am interested in articles dealing with your Amazon province of Rondonia. I have a friend who lives there in Cacoal and I would be most interested in any informaMike Wright tion at all. I have tried on several occasions Pompano Beach, Florida : to find information, but all I have been A LINK WITH BRAZIL able to find out is that the province is I adore your magazine. This is the secactually "cut" into the Amazon to make ond time I receive it and I am super happy to way for homes and the like. learn the news from my beloved country. I Douglas D. Merkel am an exchange student and I am dying of Via E-mail saudade of everything that's Brazilian: the dinerkel@mail 1 .il. net
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Tongue Twister Despite all the shortcomings — unprepared instructors, and lack of labs and multimedia equipment, for example — Brazilians are trying to learn English in record numbers. English is so pervasive nowadays that even a collection of booklets aimed at solving Portuguese questions being published by traditional daily_O Estado de Sao Paulo is called "Help", in English.This invasion has provoked a backlash in some quarters and some people are boycotting stores with Anglicized names. KATHERYN GALLANT When the New Year rolls around, the most popular resolution of Brazilians is to learn English. Twenty million Brazilians of all ages are currently learning the language of Shakespeare — and of international business — in over 3,000 registered English schools. Never have so many Brazilians attempted to learn a foreign language. Few of the students, however, find themselves at year's end with better English skills than they started. "English is a hot potato in my mouth..." We are at the theater, watching a scene of the play Cinco Vezes Comedia (Five Times Comedy). In it, a woman, portrayed by the actress Debora Bloch, describes her attempts to learn the English language. "My English is so bad," Bloch's character tells the audience, "that when I got lost in [New York City's] Central Park and had to ask for help, I said ' Who am I?' instead of 'Where am I?' People ran away from me, thinking I was crazy." Finally, after trying every kind of English class without success, Bloch's character decides to take one last chance. She begins a course called Sleeping Learning and takes English lessons in her sleep. Her dreams become populated with people named Peter, Paul, Mary, Bill and Joan, who get her involved in a mystery that would do Agatha Christie proud. Only in the last lesson, when she is accused of murder and sent to the electric chair, does the woman finally become fluent in English. However, it was not a dream. This is an exaggeration, but Sleeping Learning does exist. It is a course of 13 tapes which should be listened to every night in the second half-hour after falling asleep. The tape recorder, which has a clock attached, turns on automatically. According to Sleeping Learning, students who faithfully follow directions for 70 consecutive nights will wake up well-versed in English. "Students learn more while they're asleep because their concentration is greater," Luis Carlos Arruda, director of Sleeping Learning, told Brazilian weekly newsmagazine Veja in an August 1996 article. A study conducted by Rajendra Rangi Singh, a South African specialist in teaching foreign languages to Brazilian businesses, has shown that half the English schools in Brazil are of poor quality. These schools emphasize grammar instead of conversation and lack resource materials, such as labs, multimedia equipment and libraries. Their instructors are poorly paid and usually do not have college degrees (much less graduate degrees in teaching English as a second language). Some instructors are tourists from Anglophone countries who have resorted to illegally teaching English to prolong their stay in Brazil. It is no surprise that the turnover ofthe faculty in these English schools is quite high. Another 35% of Brazilian English schools are somewhat better, but do not have enough money to buy many computers or reference books. Singh considers that only 15% of English schools in Brazil are of high quality. These schools not only have qualified, well-paid faculty, a low teacherstudent ratio and large libraries. They also have ready access to language labs and up-to-date software that supplement the lessons. Students in Brazilian high schools must take classes in at least one foreign language to graduate. But despite the popularity of English words 18
BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
(such as house, bus, delivery, bighead, yeeeees!) in the slang of Brazil's young people, most of them continue to be functionally unilingual. Every year, about 120,000 Brazilian college-bound students take the English test of Fuvest as part of their vestibulares. On a scale of one to ten, the average for students taking the English test is a lowly 3.5. Alceu Goncalves de Pinho, director of Fuvest, told Veja that the poor scores were even worse than they seemed, since "the test is very easy." The use of English-language words in names of businesses has become more common in Brazil. Most of the stores are franchises of foreign establishments. The exotic names of the stores can even help business, according to Heloisa Paranhos, 45, an employee of the frozen yogurt store I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! "Lots of people don't know what we're selling and come in just out of curiosity," she told Sao Paulo newspaper 0 Estado de Silo Paulo. A backlash has developed against this in some quarters. Maria do Carmo, a 26-year-old confectioner, does her best to avoid stores with Anglicized names. "As much as I can, I opt for the national one," she said. Besides, she sees the rage for foreign words as a superficial gimmick. "It's all marketing," she said, using the English expression. Lexicographer Maria LOcia Daflon, a member of the team that is currently preparing the third edition of the Dicionario Aurelio (whose English-language equivalent in prestige would be the Merriam-Webster Dictionary), has noticed the increasing number of foreign words in the Brazilian Portuguese vocabulary, especially in the technical field. Nevertheless, Daflon believes that the dictionary will not include computerrelated neologisms like printar (to print) and deletar (to delete). "The tendency is that those words will
disappear," she told 0 Estado de Silo Paulo. Business executives and other people who have the time and money to learn English abroad have made it an increasingly popular option. In the past two years, the number of Brazilians who have gone to the US to study English has increased an average of 60%, according to Veja. In 1995 alone, an estimated 20,000 students °fall ages left Brazil to learn English. According to Celso Luis Garcia, the operations director of the Brazilian Educational and Language Travel Association (Belta), a month-long English immersion course in an Anglophone country corresponds to an average year of English classes in Brazil. Nevert eless, instructors in English as a Second Language r commend study abroad only for those who have a basi knowledge of English before they leave. "A student ho doesn't know the language goes through so many d fficulties that he ends up being traumatized," ex lained Irene Felman, of the Associacao Alumni (A mni Association), a learning and exchange center for razilians learning English. Arman o AmbrOsio, a 47-year-old sales manager for Johnso & Johnson, is a typical example. Despite his positio in a US-owned business, he spoke almost no English After his superiors sent him to a week-long intensive nglish course in the US, AmbrOsio took his wife to Sari Francisco to show off his new-found skills in the language. When they went to dinner at a restaurant, however, AmbrOsio discovered that his fluency was nowhere near as profound as he had thought. To order a meal, he had to mimic the sounds of the animals he wanted to eat. "It was really humiliating!" he recalled. Ambrosio wanted to have shrimp, but he didn't know the English word. After some American customers tried to help him, AmbrOsio found himself with a • er dinner 0
According to the US Department of State, for the fourth year in a row, natives of Brazil who are in the US or anywhere else in the world will have a chance in 1997 to try their luck with the Visa Lottery. The winner of the Visa Lottery gets a chance to become a US lawful permanent resident along with his or her spouse and unmarried children under 21 years of age. The Lottery application must be received by the National Visa Center beginning at noon on February 3, 1997, and ending at noon on March 5, 1997. There is no advantage to apply early or late during the processing period. REQUIREMENTS: I. Native of a Qualifying Country To participate in the Visa Lottery a participant must first be a native of a qualifying country. Brazilians will basically compete for 2,476 Lottery visas that are allotted to South America. The natives of the following countries cannot participate in the Lottery, unless they are legally married to a native of a country which does qualify for the Lottery: Canada, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, India, Jamaica, Mexico, the People's Republic of China, the Philippines, Poland, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam.
Place Your Bets During the whole month of February and the first week of March the Immigration and Naturalization Service will be receiving applications for those willing to by 'their luck at the Visa Lottery. There will be 2,476 spots for all of South America, including Brazil. EDGARDO QUINTANILLA
(3.75 cm by 3.75 cm) clear photograph of the applicant. Do Not Staple the Photograph. The photo must be taped with clear tape. IV. Where to Send the Visa Lottery Application Each applicant must apply only once. Husbands and wives may and should apply separately. Applicants who apply more than once will be disqualified. Lottery Applicants must send the Lottery application in a plain envelope size 6 inches to 10 inches (15 cm to 25 cm) by 3 1/2 inches to 4 1/2 inches (9 cm to 11 cm) that contains the following information on the upper left hand corner: * applicant's native country (or country to which applicant will be charged to) * applicant's full name * applicant's mailing address (as shown on the application). Only Brazilians (and natives of other qualifying South American, Central American and Caribbean countries) must send the envelope to the following address: DV-98 Program National Visa Center Portsmouth, NH 00211 USA Natives of other countries need to use a different zip code. The envelope must be sent via regular mail or air mail. Only the Lottery winners will be notified beginning sometime in mid1997. Each winner should immedi-
What's in a Name?
As their country industrializes, Brazilians seem to be losing their touch and flair in following a long-standing and firmly established national tradition: giving their children the craziest names ever. Sometimes for historical, political or religious reasons, or to make some kind of statement, or to show their imagination & creativity, or — quite often — for the sheer hell of it WILSON VELLOSO When I was a bright-eyed self-centered student in Brazil, I fancied being a Latinist. For that reason, I was attracted to people of like mind, which in the backlands meant the oddball well-read priest, who kept up with his Cicero and Suetonius. And who was specially appreciated when he didn't try to rope me back into the Catholic herd. . It so happened that I took a vacation (from smoking and boozing) in an obscure little fruitgrowing town in central Sao Paulo State, where Aunt Tina, one of my mother's sister, was a schoolteacher and a model mother. Her husband was a CPA who worked hard at helping local small farmers turned industrialists to pay as little as possible in taxes without actually cheating. Since his clients were mostly immigrant Turks-- a catchall denomination for Syrians, Lebanese, Palestinian, Jordanian and other former subjects of the former Ottoman Empire — his job was to explain in every day words the meaning and implications of the convoluted Brazilian tax code ponderous articles. A task Uncle Theo had made considerably easier and doubtlessly profitable as he knew how by cultivating the friendship and the camaraderie of the Federal IRS man in town. Evenings, Uncle Theo ran in his dilapidated former parlor a school for budding accountants, thus ensuring batch after batch of bookkeepers capable of serving the needs of the newer immigrants, collectively known as Hun gareses, an easy handle for anybody coming from Central and Eastern Europe: Bulgarians, Czechs, Estonians, Letts, Lithuanians, quite a few Poles and a smattering of real Hungarians (whose nationality, in Italian, was Ungherest). Do not ask me why in the interior of Brazil an Italian term had come to apply to hundreds of thousands of Eastern Europeans. This was before television, when the evening and weekend entertainment consisted mostly of card games in the dismally decorated "men's club" while the then called "weaker sex" amused themselves with many baby showers, savory gossip, and occasional evening re:as and noveBRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
nas in the imposing matriz, the main Roman Catholic church serving a wide area of fruit orchards and vines ofmaracuja (passionfruit). The only movie house, owned by a tight-fisted "Turk," had but a single projector. A circumstance that afforded intermissions every so many minutes for trips to the mictOrios (urinals, toilets) or, in the raw unheated winter, quick gulps of passable pinga (sugar-cane firewater) or quentdo (a hot and bodywarm ing mixture of pinga, lots of sugar, grated ginger, and sticks of canela, or cinnamon. Having transformed himself into a kind of Calvinistic businessman, the erstwhile Muslim, seu (Mr.) Salim Arrabaache, kept under his rovng eye the duration of the ntermissions, always con. rtioned to the pace of the sales of edibles and potables. There was never much hurry to start the next reel of film. The town was positively and definitely boring, my aunt and her husband busy the live-long day and I could weep with so much sleepiness. My personal savior was the kind and aging parish priest, Father Vieira, who was quite a scholar and longed to converse about literature, books in general, philosophy, the arts. And Latin. I soon became not only a daily visitor but a frequent lunch guest. And his young Portuguese wine, his vinho verde, was often a most rewarding addition. I also enjoyed going with Father Vieira on his walks around the town and to the church for his daily business. On a given day he invited me to go to the matriz for a christening and I went along. The yet unnamed child was the daughter of a prosperous redneck couple who had driven from their farm bringing godfather and godmother with them in their truck. "What name have You chosen for this baby?" the celebrant asked. "Hemorrhoids, reverend." The priest opened and closed his mouth a few
times, disguising his embarrassment. "Where did you find that name?" he asked, " still swallowing air. "In a magazine," said the father. "In an advertisement," the mother added. "Isn't beautiful?" "Well...it's quite...interesting," said Father Vieira. I was dying to get into the act and help my friend out. So, sure that he would understand my high school French, I offered: "In France, hemorrhoids are often called emeraudes, a less clinical and gentle euphemism," I pointed out. "Perhaps you might suggest the Portuguese name for emerald." The curate winked at me and turned to the parents: "Look. It's a pretty name, but it is foreign. It will create spelling problems. Can you spell it?" At that time, between the two World Wars, the Portuguese language was still loaded with the deadwood of double consonants, th's and • ph's and unaspirated useless aitches peppered all over the place. There is no aspirated h in the language), e ther. The couple confessed sheepishly that they were unsure of the spelling. "Then, why not use Esmeralda, the Portugnese version of the name? It's equally pretty, it's the name of a lovely green precious stone, and anybody can spell it. It's very nice." The baby was baptized Esmeralda and I congratulated myself on my good deed. Many years later, however, I began to wonder whether anybody had a right to interfere with parents bent on giving their offspring names that were less humdrum than most. So, from being childishly judgmental and righteous, I grew to accept a tradition that had its roots in folklore and history. And I got overjoyed when a particularly felicitous name cropped up. Such was the case, for instance, of Miroel Silveira, one of my best friends in Brazil. His name, not found in any directory, religious almanac, dictionary or encyclopedia, resulted from the juxtaposition of the last two letters of his mother's name, Isabel, and the last two syllables of his father's name — Valdomiro. Valdomiro Silveira was a well known Sao Paulo poet and writer and, for a while, State Secretary of Education. The resulting name was a quaint but harmonious creation that gained recognition as Miroel grew to become an award-winning musician, writer of stories and plays, translator, and college professor. I know of at least another Miroel, named after the original one, who died a few years ago. Miroel was the tamest display of what used to be a Brazilian national hobby. The same formula was frequently replicated in names such as Geisa (George & Louisa), Julcir (Julio and Cir instead of Cri of Cristina), Etelson (Etelvina & Nelson), Odolina (Odorico & Carolina), Raymilson (Raynha & Vilson), Helenice (Helio & Beatrice). Also gracing the records of civil registries are other concoctions of names, not necessarily formed of fragments of monikers: Absidiola, Aldomiro, Altificio, Amordeiza, Aldomiro, Alvodia, Amordeiza, Anabela, Himalaia, Helespontico, Ilhazul, Itocravo, Migclonio, Milamores, and so forth. As President Woodrow Wilson of the US 21
reached the height of his popularity when I was born in 1918, I got his name. Fortunately for me, as more and more boys were named Wilson in Brazil, I was saved a lot of ribbing from my peers, for my gringo name. From time to time, the Brazilian Census Bureau (IBGE) contributed to the nominal oddities by putting out press releases listing some of the strange names its enumerators had come across. Unwittingly, the IBGE fed a fierce competition among parents. Heroes both historical and fictional were frequent sources: Radames (from Verdi's opera Aida), Atahualpa (an Inca Emperor who succumbed to the conquistadores), Praxiteles (famous Greek sculptor), Desdemona (the victim in Shakespeare's Othello), Tamerlao (a strange corrupted form of Timur the Lame), Kosciusko and Pulaski (Polish heroes), Kossuth (Hungarian hero), Ciro (Persian hero), Ben-Hur, Gutembergue (Brazilian version of the name of the inventor of movable type), Anibal (after the Carthaginian general Hannibal), AristOteles, Aristides, Edison, Loreley, Aristarco (Aristarch, Athenian literary critic), Arqui-medes (Archimedes), Roosevelt (as a first name), Lullaby, Julios Cesar galore, Guilherme the bigge Tell, Dartanhd (d'Artagnan of Dumas), hasjuat tel Garibaldi (Italian hero), Jasao (the ArgoPropr(oe Proper Nan naut) e Circe (from the same Greek legend), Xantipa, Natacha or Natasha, Katia, by Edic_,olek state, lists too and a flood of names beginning with W "tverlithin (sometimes pronounced in the German says SOuto M way as V, such as Valter, Valquiria), Y. X, and Z. Barrigndinita Autochthonous appellations also have Seleidit had their days ofglory: Bartira or Bartyra, Jose Arnititeio Guaraciaba, Iracema, Tupinamba, GoitaJose Atnineio,caz, Pery and Cycy (main characters of Jose CaSo the operallGuarany by A. Carlos Gomes), Married in Y-Juca-Pirama, Tupac Amaru, Sucupira, Magnesia ArarigbOia, Jacy, Ubiratan, Jupira, bunatd Ararima, and hundreds of others. /slaida Nit* With the spread of American moving ing, Omit* pictures, a new harvest of names took Napoledu S place. Often mispronounced and/or Fearless axu spelled, they were slowly incorporated Otavi0 Otaviu into the tradition of out names and are now as common as in If you wai America. Such is the case with William buy his book, and Wallace or Wally, frequently morphed into Valace and Vali, Darcy (pro-nounced Mario Sot Dahrcy or Dahrseeh), Douglas (proGe nounced Dooglas). Shirley got into the 53030language in various forms: Sirley, Cirley, Brazil Cirlei, Xirlei, cirlei , and usually is pronounced Cirlay. None has yet achieved the wide popularity of Maria (generally with another name tacked on, Luisa, Madalena, Lena, Helena, Lurdes, Conceicao, Graca, Angelica, Lucia. Biblical enthusiasts have chosen many Hebrew names: Debora, Sulamita, Jonatd, Josafa, Hannah, Myriam, sometimes written and pronounced Mirid, stressing the last syllable. For a while, the fad was for Russian names: Ivan, Igor, Sonia, Anya, Lara, Larissa, a few Raissas, Tatianas, as well as surnames: Lenine (French spelling of Lenin), even Karamazov, Timoshenko, Lermontov, Dostoyevsky, Strogoff (a Jules Verne hero). Including a few unfortunates whose parents' revolutionary zeal branded them as Stalin. However, although a legal name change is one of the most difficult things to obtain in Brazil, several Stalins have quietly become Estevdo (Steve), as the authorities looked the other way. France and Germany weighed in much more lightly with Odette, Brigitte, Annelise, Willy, Franz, Fritz, Wagner, Ariane, Heloise, Gertrudis, Edviges, Isolda and Parsifal, Liselotte, Yvelise, Eliane, Etienne, Blaise, Dieudonne, Rabelais, Wotan, Goethe, 22
Mozart, Beetho4en, Bismarck, Foch, Joffre, etc, etc. Spanish names are so similar to Portuguese ones that most Brazilians think that Carmen, for instance, is a native. Actually, the home variety is Carmo (as in Maria do). Originally both versions come from Latin and mean "song" like Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, Bavarian Songs.["Carmina" is the Latin plural of"Carmen".] That notwithstanding, a few Spanish names have seeped in, often with a slight modification, like the nickname Dardo, for Eduardo. In fact, the traditional Brazilian equivalents are Duda or Dudu. Pepes (for Jose) are few, while the Brazilian nickname for Jose — Juca— is used by legions. For Francisco, who in Spanish are dubbed Pancho or Paco, Brazilians have Chico. And there are quite a few Hermanos and Elmanos. Abstruse variations, considered "high class", are rather common names with Latin endings, such as Josephus, Paulus, Claudius, Terentius, Johannes (and its female version Johanna). For some unknown reason, Brazilians love names with the initial H. The eighth letter of the alphabet used to add "a touch of class" to names not originally containing an H. Consequently, in Brazil you may meet people called Halda, Helda, Holga, Hela, Hula, HOscar, Hanover, Hieronimus, Hebe, Horacina, Horalinda, Horamor. Even my brother Thersio (who 000 Odd 11. should be called Tercio as he was the documen ted Tertius boy in the family) had his offie of the jewel cial handle doctored up by father. The "explanation", dad said, was that he had made "two small corrections: sticking an H in it, and changing the C into S. This way, said father, he became the pair of our own sister Theresa (the two other pairs being Neusa-Newton and Wilson-Washington, the eldest and the odiunt Bic youngest). ,Pereira Much more strange than any of this :reira imitations and small surgeries are the Sem Mit9u cases of an ingenious family in which poloon each daughter or son has a number in - Dry Buttc French as his/her name: Un, Deux, Trois, Quatre, etc up to Dix-Sept and Dix-Huit. The only exception is a male called Eleven. Why Eleven? Because this number is called the same in French and in Portuguese, Onze, so it couldn't possibly do. Another laurel in the same line was earned by the family who engineered the name Um-Dois-Tres de Oliveira Quatro (One-Two-Three of Oliveira Four). All this may appear interesting to readers who never bothered with other people's names. The fact is that, at the moment, Brazilian are losing by a whole mile to the Americans, who lately have broken the mold of John, Joe, George, Robert, Michael, Matthew, Ashley, Don and Ron. Or Ann, Catherine, Kathleen, Nancy, Patricia, Jean, Joan, June, and Janet. According to the Florida Department of Vital Statistics, for instance, there live in the State real people, citizens, veterans, voters and other registered individuals known legally as Belle Peppers, Sweet Tart, Cherry Daiquiri Sour, Silver Ware, Jr., Bonnie Bowlegs, Bright Berger Butz, Mac Aroni, Ima Hog, Waldorf Astoria Johnson, Lemon Ham, Candy Box, Okla Homa Mills, Cherry Pye, Cigar Stubbs, to say nothing oftwin pairs named D.C. & A.C., Pete & Repeat, Beginning & End, Nip & Tuck. Can any oddly named Brazilian family hold a candle to the above Floridians? If you thing they can, and are able to prove it with documented facts, tell it to Ron Word (a real life reporter of the Tampa Tribune). Or contact Prof. Albert Mehrabian, of UCLA, the author of The Name Game. BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
Explaining America Eleonora Duvivier Dodds, an Illinoisbased Brazilian writer, had_years of scholastic training at the Catholic University of Rio, the Cambridge University's King's College in England, and the Boston University. In The Spectacled Angel she develops the thesis that whatever is superlative in America is the fruit of a melange of childishness, religiosity, and technology. Duvivier had a worthy precursor: French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville. WILSON VELLOSO
BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
After a spate of books and social studies trumpeting that greed still is the great driving force of US life, politics, and business, that Americans no longer trust the government or each other, that politicians are often mere accomplices of big industry, that several do-good nonprofit entities are mired in scandal, and ministers of religions are behind bar for sexual harassment, The Spectacled Angel is a welcome perfumed, cathartic, optimistic breeze. The opus of Eleonora Duvivier Dodds, a Brazilian writer now residing in Illinois, deserves to be read. It opens not only a brave new vista — "the religion of technology" — but also records quite a few positive sightings of what good America certainly still has to offer. Duvivier arrives at her conclusions after several years of scholastic training at the Catholic University of Rio, Cambridge University's King's College in England, Boston University and much extensive personal observation which she worked on with the tools of her trade. Her thesis is that whatever is superlative in America is the fruit of a subtle mélange of childishness, "religiosity," and technology. Of the three elements, only technology has a clear definition for the man in the street. As a Brazilian — and more than that, a Carioca, a citizen of Rio — Eleonora loves the current intellectual buzzwords in her national milieu, specially the term Itidieo. [Some of the other words: aliquota, maniqueismo (Manichaeism) and fariseismo (phariseeism)]. No selfrespecting Brazilian journalist, reporter, news analyst, writer of fiction, economics, politics would ever dream of writing anything without the fashionable terms. Much like in America we cater to Anschauung, nomenklatura, demarche and done deal. Nothing new in that. Similar terms pop up within the upper classes every 20 years or so. But in Brazil, hidico has its special charm and several shadings of meaning, qualities much appreciated by the intelligentsia and politicians, two obviously overlapping groups. However, as it frequently happens, highfalutin terms, as well as many lowfalutin ones too, lose and/or gain in translation. A Brazilian dictionary has a straightforward definition for lUdico (adj): "referring to games. plays, and sports." On the other hand, ludic in English, according to The Random House Dictionary of the English Language (2nd edition, unabridged) means: "Playful in an aimless way: the ludic behavior of kittens." It also notes that the term entered the English language in the early forties, probably coming from the French ludique. It stems from the Latin ludere, to play. My 1987 OED (Oxford English Dictionary) is silent about the term, perhaps because it was not yet current in the UK. In her The Spectacled Angel, a volume published by the Vantage Press of New York, Duvivier seems to like ludic-Mdico in all its lexical faces and shapes. And perhaps a few other not yet officially recognized and recorded. In it, in addition to postulating a new thesis for the American civilization phenomenon, the author gives some credit for it to a ludic spirit, which blends together childhood, religiosity, and technology. With many colors of innocent awe, she paints a larger than life mural of these United States as a time when the lights of the 20th century begin their inexorable five-year blinking out. A similar task was done, some 150 years ago, with identical mural-wise élan in Democracy in America, by Alexis Charles Henri Maurice Clerel de Tocquevi I le, a French nobleman, historian, and philosopher. A worthy precursor for Duvivier as philosopher, sociologist, author of French extraction. 23
OK, few sane people would argue that the United States is not Number One, Ana Maria Bahiana notwithstanding. And it would be "oversizing" to claim that America is ahead because it defeated the Reagan's Evil Empire. It is ahead, says Duvivier, because of the power of its syncretic triad of games of all sorts, mysticism, and technical know-how. A triad that "obliterates time and space." No less. Of course, the Brazilian writer mentions neither the Cold War nor Vietnam. But her thunderous silence about recent history seems to hint that in fact it was the Soviets that just shot themselves in their communopluralistic foot. Why? Probably for their solipsistic contemplation of the "system's" own navel, the unlimited and concerted praise for its own virtues, strengths, and advantages. Naturally added to its systematic suppression of dissidence, differences of opinion, and new ideas. All guidelines pointed emphasized in The God that failed, a little melancholy anthology edited by my friend Richard Grossman, a British M.P., crushing together essays by Norman Podhoretz, Arthur Koestler, Ignazio Silone, Richard Wright, Andre Gide (as presented by Enid Starkie), Louis Fischer, and Stephen Spender — all former stars of the Marxian firmament. Neither does Duvivier attach it to any comment about the worldwide triumph of Market Economy, the free market, the unfettered operation of capitalism, and the ancient and deep Calvinistic belief that the rich are rich...well, because they deserve to be rich. All the rest being mere Marxist tripe. Which, of course, it is. There is no remark, either, about how the American Market Economy is rapidly becoming also the Market Society. And may the devil carry the hindmost. The apparent American Solution is recruiting Superman ("created by the world's necessity") and changing him into a guy "who enters a stage where a determined role already waits for him." That is, the fategenerated Superman, in contrast with God Almighty, "is powerful for being the leader of a more advanced civilization... [endowed with] more developed physical powers, for living in a planet more advanced than ours..." Now we know. As a result, Superman is also called "the Christ of technology," a man who "never had to discover the will of God in his heart: his mission, given the world and its physical needs, was not born from a personal relationship with God." A Spanish atheist might call Superman as characterized by Duvivier an espontineo, a wannabee bullfighter who suddenly vaults the barrier into the ring because...because... Porque Si. Not for Money or for Glory. Or because he was inspired by the Holy Ghost to perform a miracle on command. Just porque si. Since these are Superman's premises, it follows, according to the author, that "there is no separation between matter and spirit...just as there is none between mind and world. He [Superman] does not think." Doesn't the espontaneo description fit him like a glove? But what would Superman's world have to offer to you, gentle reader, and to me, this antiquated Buddhist who tries very hard but seldom succeeds to follow the 25 centuries-old precepts of right thinking, right living, understanding, forgiveness, charity, compassion and "loving kindness?" Well, we can all go to Disney World and marvel, really marvel, honestly marvel at how technology has morphed the creatures of the world's lore — Cinderella and Mickey Mouse, Peter Pan and Captain Hook, Pinocchio and the Talking Cricket, Snow White and Donald Duck (which in the late 30's was a pet subject of a number of scholarly essays by Brazilian psycho-analysts and writers) — and placed within our reach. Not only that: all these celebs have been hired to
mingle with s, the hoi polloi, the ordinary mortals, although we can never aspire at flying. At Disney World, in addition to paying for fun and/ or fright in umpteen versions of the old mine train rides, the Jules Verne's Nautilus U-boat, and kindred attractions, we can choose to play Dumbo, or Prince Charming, Beanstalk Jack/Giant, the Beauty, or the Beast. Yet, in the midst of all we still wonder: why isn't Charles Perrault ever given a teensy-weensy literary credit? Mauricio de Souza, a Sao Paulo, Brazil, artist and businessman whose comic strips appear in hundreds of publications at home and abroad, and who has produced successful full-length films of his simple and simplistic stories, has been toying for years with the dream of building a "non technological park." Or at least a "low technology park" which he is designing with loving care and practical imagination. He plans to people it with his own children characters and perhaps those of Monteiro Lobato, Erico Verissimo and others. But without ogres, witches, devils, and other European phantasms —just Clean Decent Fun. Does Mauricio have a chance? Probably. Because, as Duvivier herself writes, "any object is a potential toy or something to be transfigured, a means through which [a child's] fantasy is manifested in action...a toy is a vehicle of magical action." Period. Animation not necessarily essential. But imagination — fundamental. Ah, but will visitors to Monicalandia be as happy, without all the wiring, the chips, the LED's, the motors, the myriad lights, and the tape players crammed into the Disney creatures in America and in Europe? Perhaps. Wouldn't it be a laugh if M6nica wrestles Minnie Mouse to a draw? And foreign tourists flock to Sao Roque or Sorocaba, Itaquecetuba or Atibaia, to have fun with clumsy wooden redneck marionettes of Mauricio's? Just like the Collodi's original Pinocchio, even when given such atrocious moniker as "Ze Pinho," as he is called in Portugal? Eleonora, granddaughter of French rural gentlepeople who emigrated to Brazil during Brazilian Emperor Pedro ll's watch, has been around in the Americas and in Europe. Her name, Duvivier, indicates that the family has solid roots in farm country: the name used to be "du Vivier" (ofthe fish-hatchery). It was as Duvivier, though, that the family did so well in Rio de Janeiro, where they became owners of prize Copacabana acreage. (The family mansion stood on the ground now occupied by the Copacabana Palace Hotel, at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Duvivier Street.) She had her share of tribulations in her young life as a well-bred, well-dressed, heiress. An attractive and sexy young woman, as she looks in sultry portraits, Eleonora must have attracted many suitors. She married an Englishman and as his wife she lived a while in England. NowMrs. Steve Dodds, an American entrepreneur whose Dobuque IA firm has been doing business with Brazil for a long long time. Two lovely children grace their home: a boy, Christophe, now 7, and a newly born baby girl, Olivia Ariel. Already quite addicted to the movies, in America Eleonora quickly added TV and Cable TV. She traveled a lot in the United States, studied, observed, and made notes. Her earlier experience of America ripened into 0 Anjo de Oculos, a book published in Brazil a few years ago. That book is the direct ancestor of The Spectacled Angel, yet the new version includes large parts that were rewritten, anthm , uch added material. Yet, basically, the book preserve0 the same thesis and themes of 0 Anjo. No fool or couch potato, Duvivier is obviously aware that heavy doses of hyperbole color television news, which has created a totally new journalistic ethic. The advent of a TV camera often leads crowds to odd behavior such as gathering and demonstrating spontaneously BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
for or against an instant "hero". She knows that TV reporters are not above staging a lively riot for the benefit of home viewers. [It is almost like auditorium audiences led to applaud and laugh at the urging of enormous lit-up signs.] Interviews can be, and often are, carefully rehearsed. And in foreign venues, the stars are people who manage to speak some English, even if their individual uneducated opinions are not worth too hoots. This is how majorities and minorities are quickly put together by TV. How Coca-Cola came to be such a popular soft drink all over the world illustrates, for Duvivier, the manner in which — "the more powerful the product, the more capable it becomes of transforming the consumer [to become] universal." That is, the consumer is made as "abstract as...a fiction hero...[and]...through the oneiric power of the industrial object...[can live an] infinity of situations.. .without ever having to experience them." Meaning that the famous drink may inebriate more than stronger stuff. Poor silly commentators who mocked Karl Marx for writing (in his Critique of the Hegelian Philosophy of Right, 1844) that "religion...is the opium of the masses!" Later, others prescribed Valium and Librium instead of opium. But Coca-Cola? But the point has been made that "...technology strives to achieve immortality as if it were a child's game. Eternal life here on earth, technology's most audacious fantasy, results inevitably from the transformation of space and time into entities more and more abstract, the existentiality of which is gradually forgot-
ten and the finiteness of which is less and less accepted." Further on, the author focuses on the effects of rock music on its public. But here her classical upbringing raised its eyebrows and she came out with: "but affirming that [rock] permits the manifestation of a universal youthful soul is not necessarily praising its musical quality." After all, "the music of Bach or Beethoven also reaches beyond the limits of nationality and race, at a more sophisticated cultural level." She should know. Her brother Edgar Duvivier is a fine musician with several CDs to his credit. The songs Edgar composes, though with legitimate roots in the soil of the Brazilian African lore, are delicate, diaphanous, spiritual. It might be called elitist. Then, suddenly, the reader is brought back to earth, to the old and past, to the dila vu by a chapter on "Dogma & Ritual." Duvivier changes caps and soars lyrically about communion, for instance, shedding for a while both spectacles and technology. And she succeeds beautifully when she produces the most valid pages of her book. Then the high society young woman shares with the poorest blacks who flock the Rio beaches on New Year's Eve to pay their respects, on this "opportunity of reconciliation," to the African ancestor goddess, Yemanja, the queen ofthe waters. This lace-like writing, this miniessay that reads as a loving vignette. Later on, the larger theme is resumed — with technology taking a back seat for a few lines — and Duvivier introduces another of her icons, Marilyn Monroe. Not only as well-worn symbol of sexuality but also of impunity because "[she] is not aware of what it is to sin. She is not condemned for it" (in the movie Some Like It Hot). The unexpectable conclusion, however, is that "Marilyn... is a technological idol, not for being a Hollywood creation, but because she fulfills simultaneously the ideals of a sensual woman, a scheming female, and an innocent girl." In another worthy chapter — 7, "The Mystical Millionaire" — elegantly bundled in an exquisite terminological filigree pays homage to Uncle Scrooge. Not the harsh Scrooge of Dickens. The fanciful Scrooge of Disney's, as interpreted by Duvivier. The millionaire BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
who is "pc itent" because making money is a "cult of anguish an pain" and an "expiation of his sins". Being th priestess of a new, technological, religion, Duvivier a fully develops a curious conclusion that "money an technology are aspects of abstraction...but abstraction an also be redemption" as it elevates "life into a fictio when freezing it from concreteness, being, in this way a religion of angels." Which prompts a Brazilian p onto (penniless) to groans: "Yeah, tell that to the Mari es!" On the other hand, one wonders what Clausewitz ould have said about this doctrine. Toward ts end, this book of many conclusions tackles fashion. ashion which keeps us under its yoke... not only as an cute of consumerism but also industry's aesthetic in antation to resurrect us, to rescue us from the leftover of tired routines, to transform us as characters in a fan asy dream, providing us with new scripts." Eleonor Duvivier is at work on a novel. Let's hope she can make it as interesting, thought-provoking, titillating, provocative, imaginative — and ludic — as The
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Por Altim dei para zanzar, pegando o rumo da praia. Ando, cat a direita, para a praca Serzedelo Correia. Jornal que co pro nao abro, vai debaixo dossoyaco. Lerdo, pesado ate a edra do Leme, quietamente. A frente nao hd luzes, mas o ar escuro; passo o calcadao, as areias e me sento nas bei adas. Mando ao diabo uma lembranca. Mas sinto um medd. Um vento frio batendo na cara e me vem urn samba, dos antigos, besteirada, engrupimento, gemido Id no inferninho: "Ve , amor, que é fria a madrugada E eu d nao sou mais nada Sem seu c lor."
We went out once, twice, in the third one, I don't know, she offered me money. I took it, naturally. I gave her some advice. She should think twice. patistao was a horse, but angry and jealous,. always boasting about his machismo, always close to his Mauser pistol. She became furious and scolded me: — You guy, you have no business giving me advice. JOAO ANTONIO "Se os meus suspiros pudessem Aos teus ouvidos chegar. Verias que uma paixao Tern poder de assassinar.- Modinha do tempo da corte portuguesa de D. Joao VI no Brasil "... apesar da idade. tinha tanta coisa para me ensinar na cama que eu perdi o remorso.- Urn pensamento de Joaozinho BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
Num minuito, a cabeca nas maos, devo ter chorado. E se Guiomar me v sse assim, agachado, encolhido nas areias, me acharia desengoncado e menor do que sou. Nao iria acreditar, sao quatro horas e nao bebi uma gota. Se chorei, se nao chorei, ninguem via. As costas das maos, enormes, vao limpar a cara. E a madrugada geral vai continuar. Bastava uma casa no suburbia quarto e cozinha. Nao jogo, tenho bebido pouco e quando a noite acaba e me raspo do Danabio, no rabo da manha, nao you pra casa. Enfio pelo comprimento de uma rua e fico, tocando, de bobeira. Muita vez, all pelas cinco, topo os pescadores que saem pro mar, no Forte de Copacabana, topo mendigos e moleques, corpos suados, arriados aos barcos, estirados em folhas de jornal. Aqueles nao tern para onde ir, dormem na praia. E sao os que fazem Co acabana aquela hora. Cedinho, elhos barrigudos e caquerados fazem ginastica, custosamente. Correm nas areias, correm frouxo, bufado. Velhas sacod m celulite e pelancas nos maios fora de moda, largos. Aborr co a velharada; para o Arpoador e fico tempo sem fim. Do a to das pedras da Praia do Diabo, sentado, vejo a garotada ver elha, crioula e de sot nas pranchas, meninos, rapazinhos, cabelos voam no surfe. Outra gente de dinheiro. Pranchas rdpidas brincam, equilibram, caras, perigando, lisas, ariscas ganhando a frente da crista das ondas. Mas aborreco. Uma casa no suburbia quarto e cozinha. Chegava. Ou ja. seria urn comeco de vida. Coisas de que gostava, me irritam; jogo e bebida me cansam, acho que ando so. E bem. Curto isto por dentro, me tranco. E me pesa numa pancada so, numa porrada so. De novo, como urn merduncho, pego o calcadao de Copa. Quatro horas nenhum conhaque. Xingo a lua. Assim de repente, num susto, penso em Guiomar, no caido bonito e cabeca para tras e para os lados. Olho o mar, onde meus ol os afundam e dou corn uma porcao de coisas doces, menos esadas, nenhum medo, limpas, boas, nenhuma sacanagem, c aras. Lembro o samba do inferninho. Fico virando uma orcao de coisas na cabeca, sem sentido. Dou um tempo de ara para o mar. Barulho d mar nada resolve. Tinha mais misterio Id, na parte de cima a sua cara, do que nesta merda de mar grande que eu vejo ainda agora. Tinha mais segredo e provocacao Ia no canto da s a boca do que no quebrar das ondas. Tinha mais perfume all, na risca do seu cabelo; tinha mais cheiro, chamado e vi lencia au, quando ela beliscava no canto da boca o dedo rInirno, do que quando o mar tenta gritar, de encontro as edras no preto-escuro das madrugadas que curto, eu e so. Tinha mais de tudo au, dentro dela, corn sua mao pequena, corn seu sapato sofrido corn a bolsa que sO poderia ser s a, corn seu agasalho marrom surrado, suas ilusoes, manh s, preguicas, gatices, corn os olhos sonsos que lam e vinham riam e espetavam, do que em todo o barulho que o mar ten . E nao tem. Caido bon ito de cabeca, Guiomar. E o mar nao parece tenha mais s gredo que o seu recado — batia curtido e recurtido, direto vindo neste peito largo ejá cansado, a que urn bem nao chega e nao chega e nao chega: E chegou e ja acabou e esta frio, e esquenta de novo e de repente — agora nao entendo mais, sem uma gota de alcool na cabeca. E me 29
pergunto se corn mulher nova nesta vida a gente pode nascer de novo. 0 mar nao tern, esta longe disso. Ela torna conta das pedras, do mar e de mim. Fica ate pequenininho e bem, diante daquelas duas coisas quase no alto de sua cabeca — aguelas duas luzes au, debaixo da fronte e antes do seu nariz. Ate pena desses ca. ras que me disse terem passado por sua vida—nao enxergaram esses dois mares. Babacas dos babacas! Eu me contenho diante do mar. Os seus olhos cram dois. Escuros, sonsos e onde o cais? Aperto o passo, ando esta Copacabana, me consolo. Seus olhos, dois mares. Copacabana, Copa dorme, ronca como uma porca enfarada, entupida — escrota — de sacanagens e gentes. Nem assobio, nem durmo, ja devo ter parado de chorar. Andei da pedra do Leme ao banco da praca do Lido. Acho que perdi e espero, morto, mortinho, o sol da manh. Desacompanhailo como quem se preza. Sol, mar, os claros do ceu. Tudo doi e redOi nos olhos que nao dormiram. Os camaradinhas observam. Dia desses, um dos musicos da casa me largou a liberdade: —0, cara, que encabulacao! Isso mulher. Luz nascendo la no horizonte em cima do mar, luz de verao. Seja o que Deus quiser. Estou no rabo da manila e a hora é esta. Pego urn Onibus, pego um trem, you esticar minha solidao, na cama, em casa, la em Madureira. Entdo, o mthico: —Mulher é como folhinhada parede. Voce puxa urn dia, tern outro atras. Estando no Rio, Batista° pula cecio da cama e se manda a vagabundear. As nove, vai de velho na rua. Desce no centro e comeca a bebericagem all pelas dez da manhd, no Bar Carioca, faz Ia o primeiro expediente corn chone ou cerveja gelada. Pausa pra almoco. E de se ver. Batista° toca para urn restaurante antigo da Buenos Aires, quase Primeiro de Marco, desses que ainda tern mesas de marmore e cadeirinhas austriacas. Pede file malpassado. Zangado corn a demora, bebe ufsque coin agua, coloca Os oculos e olha o jornal na coluna do Estado do Rio. Pee cara importante; compenetrado e entendido, torce o nariz, reprova tudo. Vem o file, quase cru, dispensado de arroz ou acompanhamento. Mas o velho nao come. Masca, masca, mastiga. Chupa a came malpassada e devolve corn a boca ao prato, como gomos esmagados de laranja. Come feito urn gato velho, agachado, 30
no usa garfo ou faca, se a boca. Ate garcaos se viram para nao assistir.
velho Batista é dos que convidam, •oferecidos e gaiteiros. Manda forrar a mesa. Uma que outra mulher, mais vivaca Depois da came mascada, vai a ru ou farninta, aproveita e janta. Batista° do Ouvidor, na Casa Para compra tres' paga, precisa de auditerio para as trovas. holandeses da marca Duc George. Inaugura o primeiro charuto do dia e Ali. unico lugar de beber dos que segue, lerdo e atento, sondando pernasi conheco onde se encontram o que la que passam ate a porta da Colombo, wide entre eles se chama os errados da trova. Se empertiga, importante, piadista e Porque a maioria so babacas entoando. gaiteiro, bulindo corn as mulheres, Mas no Regio, dando uma colher a trova, jogando galanteios a antiga para as hi os de juizo: que chegam a fazer trova menininhas comerciarias da Goncabies dettochando dela. Da boca desses Dias. Ali arrasta a tarde, se insinuando chapolas, saem marotices engracadas, para as mulheres da rua ou financiando corn alguma picardia divertida. Tern algum lanche card no interior da peraltices. Batista fica tiririca corn os confeitaria, aide os lustres e os espelho errados, quando dizem que estao fazendo laterais mostram empregados de libre quadrinhas. Ele e dos serios, dos gordos certa classe antiga. Nurna mesa, ao lado trovadores, direitinhos, comportados. de urna garotinha que come e tomafrappe Fica fulo corn um dos errados que ali de coco, Batistdo já meio bebado, pelas tantas engrossa a voz e diz para vermeil)°, gOrdalhudo, suado no pescoco todos ouvirem: enrugado e na testa, entornando cervej -- A trova 6 a bolotinlia de cabrito da gelada, falando alto e gross° aos garcao poesia. solicitos, quietos e aporrinhados. No Regio ndo pinta malandro. A gente Na rua Chile, urn bar charnado Regi tira pelos garcaos, dois: urn, estranja e recebe a tardinha Batista° e outros' otirio, esta bem longe de surrupiar ou veteranos, comidos -e dorrnidos. Uns marmelar nos trocos; o outro é urn vivito cochilaram em casa; °taros, no cinema. e so de me olhar, tomando o meu chopinho Tomam o reduto coin risos, papos e la na mesa dos fundos, já sacou. No joguinhos de palavras escritqs em papeis, entanto, cordial. que chamam de trova. E ponto de A ocupacao dura ate as onze, entre apontamento dessa cOmpanheiragem de vozerio, chope, conhaque, batidas. certa faixa da boemia. A maioria grossa Ufsque tambem. Nessas beiradas das .daturma é dos que vao para casa as onze. onze, mulher que aparecer toma-lhe a Outros, poucos, estendem a noite ate grana. Uma noite, pinta no Regio, uma Amarelinho. Os mais acordados vdo s vedetinha de televisdo toda de longo, embebedar ainda nos giros ao que rest lambuzada de pintura, pendurando da Lapa e ao que ha em Copacabana postips. Batista, rapido. Traz para o seu Perturbar. Bebemorar e esticar, corn cob. Já é otario ofertado. dizem. — Lá um beijo no Batista°. A artistinha bica e o velho lhe Essa veteranice malcomportada se escorrega uma nota de cem. mistura a marafonas cansadas e a urn e — Agora da outro aqui — e vira a outro biriteiro de verdade. A variedade bochecha. de tipos incli sujeitos corn trinta anos Ela belisca mais cem. de janela, muita lenha para bebida e papo, Do Regio, Batista Pamplona desliza gente aposentada corn bastante sede de carro particular ate a Cinelandia, dali histeria. Porem, sempre na condicao d ' ao Passeit) PUblico. Parando. Da porta do boemios alegres da noite. S6. Malandr carro, da espetaculo, cumprimenta nenhum, nem de passagem. Uma boemi conhecidos e gente que nunca viu para calejada e fanada, feita por coroas cliamar a atencao. Desce e, absoluto, erradios e vadiadores. E o tipo do luga pisa o meio-fio. onde o camaradinha já sabe, antes d chegar, quem encontrara ia. 4 depois, ao que der e vier. Copa, Ha gente de trova emtodos os grupos Fatima, Leblon, Estacio, praca Maui, Rimando, vozes empastadas de cigarro e onde houver uma boca aberta, la Batista de bebida. HaurnacurriolaquesO aparece Pamplona. Entorna ate o sol raiar, vai as sextas feiras. E uns quatro-cinc dorrnir mijado num hoteleco corn alguma veteranos, quase setentees, que se mune piranha. Mesmo deixando Guiomar no todas as sextas. Arrotam que fazem iss apartamento do Flamengo. ha uns trinta anos, mudando de bar, 0 velho nao dorme, desmaia. pulando de ponto, conforme a ciclad muda. Firmes. Mania de batucar na coxa, dar no nas Mas das oit0 as nove da noit cadeiras, cheia de marra. movimento é diferente. E al, Batista Se muito, me chega a altura dos apita. ombros, pequetitinha. Mas tern urn caldo de cabeca cheio de vida. Doce de mulher, Vem chegando, para ficar ate fecha peda9o, gatatinhosa, isto aqui de picardia. o Regio, os que tondaram antes outro E esti aliviando a granolina do coroa, a pontos do centro ou quem sabe onde pivete Guiemar. Chegam ja mordidos e beliscados e ficam, plantados ate as pOrtas de ferro descerem. Saravei meu santo nas aguas da Barra. Entio, uma e outra bandida arrasta as Voy6 Catarina estalou os dedos e fui asaS em busca doS patr5es de bebida. 0 benzido pela passagem do ano. BRAZZIL -JANUARY 1997
1 Regulou. A mare raiada me sorriu. Fui ganhando de chorrilho. Levantei seis mil pacotes, nascidos duma insignificancia apanhada numa centena que multipliquei, com juizo. Por al, na madrugada, tomo canja de miados de galinha Id no Capela, topo uma dessas bandidetes de rua, que faz a vida nos hotelecos e nos escuros da Mem de Sá. Muita vez, ate contra as arvores e contra os carros, nas curvas dos paralelepipedos da rua Joaquim Silva, como quem faz que vai subir a ladeira para Santa Teresa e acaba ficando na Lapa. Porque a fome é mais brava nas ruas para a gente da noite. Ali, batalhando como as outras, chamando homem e botando para dentro. Mas tern urn que. Os mocorongos s6 Ihe viam o rosto. E ela faz um jogado de cabeca para tras e para os lados quando ajeita a melena toda preta. Aquilo poucos enxergam. Uma crianca, urn quindim desta vida. Matreira na zanguinha para dobrar os otarios exigentes e metidos a mandOes. E toma-lhes tudo, a mulata Guiomar, dezessete anos. S6. Pule alta. Jose Rojas, treinador, me passou a egua Laid, picada de injecao, num terceiro pare° da noturna. Um roubo. Noventa e cinco a ponta. Mare grande, fui buscar um tufo de dinheiro. Um ledo-de-chacara dos antigos me disse que, nos tempos dos cabares da Lapa, so urn sujeito tinha credit° naquele corrimento de casas. Ali tratando marafona como rainha e estourando bebida importada, o fregues bebeu duas fortunas, levantadas corn imoveis em TeresOpolis. 0 homem era Batista Pamplona, doutor Jose Batista Pamplona, o Batista falado do Estado do Rio. Batista°, como gostava de ser tratado pelas mulheres. De outubro para ca., por umas transas marotas nas corridas, passei a dormir pouco em Madureira, que os aprontos eram cedinho e eu me mandava para a Gavea, saido do inferninho, o Bare Boate Damlbio, onde continuo sendo Jodozinho da Babilonia, ledo da casa. Numa dessas estiradas da noite, dando urn tempo entre as quatro e seis da manha, antes dos cavalinhos e comendo buchada no Capela, achei Guiomar de coronel a tiracolo. Sacava o veterano, que tive de aturar numa madrugada de mau jeito em que ele entrou beijando mdo de pistoleira como se fosse princesa ou dama de sociedade. Pediu champanha francesa e acabou estranhando o pistonista da casa. Dificil explicar que o music() rid° tinha nada corn a sua dancarina, uma piranha aguada e branca como lagartixa, que Ihe parecia beldade e paquerava, pelo prazer de entregar o ouro. Acompanhei, maneirei o porre e a esb6rnia, nao me esqueci de cumprimenta-lo pelo born gosto e pela beleza de seu par constante. Endeusado assim, o cavalo deslumbrou e a gorjeta veio dobrada. RecomenBRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
dei, jeitoso, que aparecesse. Dali para frente, conhecidos. Grandalhudo, balofo, um desengobco. 0 velhao Batista, de dentadura postica, papadas e cabelos tingidos de caju, era uma peca. Tinha a mania cie bravo, charuto no bico e uma Mauser qtre ndo tirava do cinto nem para ir ao banheiro — coisa dos graudos Id do Estado do Rio. Urn moloide saido a manddo. Aquilo, numa briga, nao prestava nem para correr ou recolher as cadeiras quebradas. Divertido, palhaco quando bebia, vermelho do pescoco enrugado, onde ,a mulatinha se pendurava, corn fingimento. 0 mulherio aproveitava, se servia, depenava o veterano. Manjei aquilO, cabeca no chdo. Batistdo era um endinheirado das salinas do Estado do Rio, em Sdo Pedro D'Aldeia. Urn forte de grana, esbagacador, havia sido home da lei, na mocidade; agora, vereador e outras palas. Desses importantes, mand tudo que viaja para Brasilia e resolve. Soberbo na vida, coronelao em cirra da carne seca, virava um nenem na m o do carro novo Guiomar. Ali, uma do 4a de carnes firmes, pescoco fino, canelinII Ia de sabia. Umatanajura— e sabia. Batist , coronet e gamado. Ela indo la, firms, zanguinha, arrancando as coisas. Apaixonada°, da gama preta, puxando urn bonde por Guiomar. Vestindo, calcando, comprando duanas e presenteando coin joias, dando um banho de loja na mina. Saquei. Mas bico calado, vi corn os olhos e Iambi com a testa. Bandidete de rua, malhada da vida, traquejada na muamba, como sempre meio corrida da policia, vivendo corn urn olho nos trouxas e outro no camburao. Ndo falava a lingua dos bacanas, quanto mais de urn abonado, urn refestelado que anda ate de avid°. Diacho. Came é came, peixe é peixe. Eta quem me buliu, dando no nas cadeiras, sacaneando, na cara do velhb. Tenho, relando, relando, quase dois metros; uma destas mdos, duas ce Guiomar. No aperto de mdo, esfreg u um dedo na minha palma. E se mandara os dois. Ele, capiongo de bebid ; Guiomar, Id ia Guiomar requebrando pa a eu ver. Tern urn codigo na noite — mulher ofereceu, malandro ndo comeu, pau nele. Mulher oferecida é comida. Levantei a pista da boca de urn garcdo. 0 velhdo era zangado, se roia de ciume, querendo a mulher s6 para ele. Tambern por isso, montou apartamento, que a mulata devia virar bacana numa rua do Flamengo. Sim. Telefone e outros leros. Sim. Mas para vigiar, ligar de °nide estivesse, azucrinar as noites, saber e estava dormindo. Batista.° viviabo Estado do Rio ou viajando, seus negociqs. Avisava que ia chegar e ndo chegava. $O susto. Sim. Dava-lhe decisdo: catasIse corn macho, cortava Guiomar aos pedacos. A mulata emburrava, cabre ra da vida saia pra noite. la zanzar por Co a ou perturbar na Lapa. Aprontar, rever s amigas fuleiras, queimar o pe na bebi a. Sim. Parava, quando em quando io
Capela e bem mamada se abria coin os garcdos e as amigas. Mem de Sa, la depois dos Arcos, de onde o velho Batista a arrancou, marafona qualquer do pe lambuzado. Sim. Uma maria-judia fanada da vida. Batista enciumava, the jogava na cara e aquilo doia. Entao, eta cai pra rua, vai perturbar, fariscar alegria. Pus capricho na gorja do garcdo que me deu o servico. Toquei para a Central e peguei o caminho de casa, Madureira. la encalistrado. 0 velho a largava em casa, sozinha. E metia bronca pelo telefone, ameacando arrepiar a vida dela se a achasse fora. Sim. Que ele sustentava. No apartamento do Flamengo — eta e Deus. Cada vez mais calado, no trem, comecei a olhar as coisas de baixo para cima. Daquele tipo de boa vida, nem condenado gosta — na rua da A legria s6 tern tristeza e na Saide so dá doente. 0 veterano Batista° merecia urn born par de chifres. — Venho da pescaria. Molhado de praia ejá bebido, aparece de calcdo de banho, sacudindo as gorduras as onze da noite e falando grosso na porta do Balalaika. Descendo do banco de tras do carrao corn motorista particular e ar refrigerado: — Chegou Batista°. Chegou o dinheiro. Me traga aqui o gerente desta espelunca. 0 pessoal tern de se virar. Arrumar roupa enxuta, roupa de baixo e o diabo, sapato, paleto, gravata, aquela hora da noite. Para o coronet Batista() continuar molhando o pe nas bebidas caras e apalpando as mulheres. Deixasse pra Ia, ndo era negocio meu. Mas tinha coisa. De longe em longe, meio da noite, aturando urn otario, pegando friagem nas pernas, me lembrava da melena e do caido de cabeca para os lados e paratras. Um quindim, uma graca. E dei para seguir Batista, a troco nem sei de que. Talvez pensasse em the aprontar urn chd. Havendo grana, malandro farej a. Fui apalpar Josefa PopopO. Popopo, gritalhona. Piranha cinqiientona e faladora, das que hoje pastam, curtindo fome e vadiando pelo centro da cidade, depenou coroneis e fez tanto cafetdo, na mocidade. Fala das glOrias, esconde os fiascos, pistoleira cansada. Mas, por urn mingau de aveia e dois ovos quentes, abre o bico. A troco disso, na Leiteria Silvestre, do largo da Carioca, me conta, numa tarde, que o coroa é doente. Depois do terceiro copo, desanda a urinar nas calcas. Al, zangado, chama o. garcdo e pede chope. Faz que leva a boca e 31
derrama, de proposito, onde se mijou. Dissimula, entao, seri°, aliviado: — Traga uma toalha para Batista°. Popopo garante que o velho vai dormir mijado. Todos os dias. Quizumbeira é a mae! Brigam, brigaram feio, de paralisar o edificio. Embocetarn-se, quebram vidros e pratos, quase botam abaixo o apartamento. Guiomar cata o sapato de salto alto e malha o velho, na cabeca. Vao parar na delegacia da Pedro Americo, levados pelo tintureiro. Escandalo no predio de bacanas. 0 comissario quer enquadrar Guiomar por agressao e o resto da encrenca. Mas o velho, pelo caminho, no camburao, ja perdoava e quer as pazes. Mente que caiu no banheiro e o arranhao nao dOi. A mulata recebe o livra-cara corn uma careta de nojo. Vao os dois, de braco dado para dissimular, no banco de tras de urn taxi. Ao curativo e as chapas no Sousa Aguiar. Mal entram na Bento Lisboa, Guiomar solta uma praga: — Bunda mole, chupador! Batista° alisa, atura, pede calma. Ela mostra a esfoladela no antebraco e continua xingando a mae. Fica encolhido e no largo do Machado tenta beijar o ferimento, dizer que nao foi nada. Toma novo esporro. 0 motorista ri. Uma madrugada, acho Guiomar no Lido. Meio bebada, cambaia saindo do Alvorada e sapecando um esculacho no trouxa que a acompanha. No que me viu, dispensou o gajo. Comeca me lacrando que o corno velho esta em Brasilia. Maneirei: — Que é isso, comadre? — E isso al. Guiomar remata que comadre é a madrinha dos meus filhos. Al, sorrimos. 0 que aquela crianca estava vendo num sujeito como eu, enorme, quase dois metros, corn vinte anos de janela, os cabelos pintando de branco? Despistei, ainda. 0 velhao lhe dava boa vida e urn daqueles nao se arruma todog os dias. Devagar corn o andor. Cortou rente — tinha nojo de Batista°. Mijava na cama. Atento na guria. Fala a minha fala, malandroca; tern lenha e dengue e esta coisa nos junta — vivendo de otarios, na humilhacao e no vexame, tendo de suportar as vontades para levantar o tutu dos trouxas, a gente tern bronca dessa rap. Diferenca seria, raiada; enrustida, represada. Quando a gente pode e nao depende, eles que tern que fazer as vontades, uma a uma. Ali. Todas. Pudessemos, seriam esfolados vivos. Todos e sem pena. • Aticava urn homem. Estava al: gente minha, eu estava sentindo amizade. A 32
provocacao ia em frente, chamando resposta, me jogando que Batista a deixava em falta. Graca no jogado de cabeca, uma menininha. Meus olhos nas pernas, nas ancas. Urn de seus dedos bulia no umbigo, que a camiseta da moda deixava de fora. A mao, depois, foi batucar na coxa. Ia machucar. 0 beijo foi na boca, gemid'o. 0 sol comecando a clarear o mar IA do Lido, urn frio me correndo. Na boca, sugado e barbaro, amassado, molhado de durar, chupao de novo, minha mao trazia, passeava, conhecia, demorava, a brisa da matinabatendo e levantando folhas secas no chao da praca do Lido. Joaozinho da Babil8nia, apesar de falado, sabe so uma coisa na vida. E bem. Acho que rid° aprendi outra— lidar corn malandro, trabalhar °taxi° e adocar mulher da vida. Quando Joaozinho quer, cuida como princesa. No hoteleco, a ponta dos dedos me correu o peito: — Vida, paizinho. — 0 neguinho nao toma conta de mim. Andamos uma vez, duas, na terceira, sei IA, ofereceu dinheiro. Que catei, claro. Recomendei. Tivesse juizo, Batista° era um cavalo, mas zangado e enciumado, metido a homem, vivia coberto de Mauser. Ficou tiririca; tornou a ralhar, de torn mudado: — 0 neguinho rasa toma conta da mamae. Mas nao foi isso. Foi que na noite, semana sem me ver, corn a cara de chorar, machucada, Guiomar passa de carro defronte ao DanAbio. Desce e vem dizer ao pe do ouvido. 0 halito quente me rocando a orelha. A vida sem mim nao pode set. Criancada.Nao botava f naquilo nem jurado de Os juntos. Urn cara como este aqui, vinte anos na noite, viu o diabo a quatorze. Criancice, fogo de palha. Meti a mina no carro, prometi para mais tarde. Sossega. 0 choro serenando; ganha moral, joga o cabelo para tras no caido bonito de cabeca. Bato a porta do carro. Brinco: — Exagerada. Engrosso, engordo uma birra. Gana esquisita fisgando por dentro ultimamente. Pegar de jeito, dar urn pau ern Jose Batista Pamplona. Mas pau arretado, de placa, exemplar. Desses de baixar pronto-socorro. 0 folgado. Madrugada tinha chegado na praca Jose de Alencar e aquele lado do Flamengo dormia. Os autos corriam, poucos, no asfalto que a iluminacao clareava mal. Os oitis das calcadas estavam pretos que pareciam vultos magros, enormes. A estatua, IA em cima, era uma mancha escura para quem tocasse para a praia. Nos apartamentos, nenhum olho aceso, ninguem na bomba de gasolina. Havia botequim aberto, urn so. Fui apanhar cigarros. Flagrei o velho. Bebiasozinho, ultimo
fregues, de costas para a porta. 0 garcao portugues, bigodes virados, gravataborboleta, aguardava para fechar corn o ferro na mao. Aporrinhado, arriado numa cadeira dos fundos, quase ressonava. Fui chegando manso, devagar, no lance de dar o bote. Batista nao me via. 0 garcao nao me via. A noite corria sem barulho. Chegando. Podia Ihe dar uma porrada de cima pra baixo, empapucar a cara balofa no copo e completar servico corn uma cadeira. 0 cachorro nao teria tempo de dar a Mauser. Quatro e tanto da manha. Ele estava sonado, meio triste ou enfarado, corn explosOes de alegria que duravam, cabeca pendida no vinho. Vontade me crescendo. Podia lhe plantar urn muquete na cabeca. Ouvi que rosnava qualquer coisa, de dentro do peito, quando em quando abrindo os olhos ja ressecados. Provavelmente havia passado a noite num bordel. Mamado, chumbado, derreadinho. Onde eu estava que nao Ihe enfiava o cacete? Ficava menor do que era, encolhido ali. Encoruj ado. Engrolava na voz pastosa e sumida. Sozinho: — Chegou Batista°, alegria das mulheres. Chegou o born, chegou o dinheiro. Entao, pedi cigarros, paguei, ganhei a praca. Dama de boca. Corro a mao na mesa, olho de vies os parceirinhos. Vou jogar outra vez, de mao. Ganhando alto na ronda, quatrocentas pratas na parada. Agora, tinha de arrumar jeito e desguiar, antes de algum, mais malandro, tentar a forra. Boca quente, estavamos na ladeira dos Tabajaras, bem no pe da favela, bocada perigosa, esquisita demais. Sair do jogo ganhando, deixando gente mordida, seria arriscar a pele. Mas a mare era grande, ganhava ha uma semana. E mais: vacilou, dancou. Encarei os parceiros e atirei: — Paro. Nao se ouvia um nada. Um mulato correu a mao no nariz num desaponto. Outro mamou o cigarro e urn deles sorriu frio. 0 de olhos raiados de sangue. Fez, no risinho cinico: —JA, parceiro? Maneco do Pinto, dono da mesa, cansou de me tomar dinheiro na ronda. Espreguicou-se, gordo, nas costas da cadeira. Tarde, a gente havia varado noite jogando. Os olhos dos parceirinhos se abotoavam em Maneco, perguntavam. Tarde no barraco, iamos as cartas sonados, lerdos, olhos ardendo, tontos de canseira, de fumaca de cigarro. Maneco I iberou, cabeca baixa no baralho, os dedos gordalhudos tamborilando: — TA no re, cara. Te manda. Aparecesse logo mais para a forra. Dei de olhos nos caras. Ali tinha coisa preparada? No que abotoei ajapona, senti a maquina na cintura. Bern. Meti o cigarro no bico, desguiei. 0 que Deus quisesse. Palavra de Joaozinho da Babilonia nao volta atras. Iriam me dar um chd? A descida dos Tabajaras escura, um breu. A esquerda, num canto do predio, nego me campaBRAZZIL -JANUARY 1997
nando. E uma sombra, um vulto, meus olhos nao precisam. Luzes s6 la embaixo, no comprimento do asfalto da Siqueira Campos. Algum medo, podia ser cobra mandada. E eu que marquei de dormir corn Guiomar. Cinco da matina, ceu clareando, nao passava um carro. — Meu chefe. Meto a mao no bolso, apalpo o berro. E marcho, firme, fay° nao ouvir. — Seu Joaozinho. Diabo. Uma hora dessa dar uma dessa. E urn molecote, uns treze-quatorze anos. Bermuda, camiseta imunda, magrelo, urn pivete da curriola de Maneco. Estou reconhecendo o bichinho, naquela idade já atravessando erva. Vai me dizendo que esti roendo uma beirada de penico, tesinho, numa pior de fazer gosto. Bern. A mae na cama, o pai na cadeia. Ou nem deve ter. Falando que, como eu havia levantado uma nota, estava tomando liberdade. Bern. Pede um livra-cara. Quem sabe eu podia the abonar corn uma nota para as bocas do seu barraco. La embaixo, ronca um 8nibus dos que saem do bairro Peixoto e vao para a Estrada de Ferro. Bern. Olho o moleque, podia era the abonar urn tiro no pe, cadelinho mordedor. Mas iria levantar uma lebre sem necessidade. Bern. Ate as postes me conhecem na Favela dos Tabajaras. E .13 molecote podia me servir mais tarde. Da corn o meu silencio, comeea a gaguejar. Bent. Engrola que C emprestado e vai devolver. Endo, passo-lhe duas de clez. Sigo. 0 menino solta alguma coisa, que nan pego. Deve estar agradecendo. Diabo. Como resolvo q enrosco corn Guiomar? Jogador nao empresta dinheiro, dd. Ou nao da. De mais a mais, silenciei; o moleque nao tera mais peito de suplicar outra vez, no futuro. Batista°, balofo, vermelho de beber, apalpa as micholas do Dalian° e entorna bebida francesa. Depois, da urn espetaculo na pista de danca. Fala corn a ma° no ar: — Esquece. Isso morreu. E chega em casa mijado, quando chega. Cato urn taxi, em vez de me enfiar num onibus para a Estrada de Ferro, pee° a Lapa. Vou corner urn bagulho antes de Guiomar, no hoteleco da rua do Resende. Onde C que enflo essa mulher? Fosse s6 bandida, eu nao vacilava, botava a trabalhar para mim. Tomava o que pudesse do velho e me mandava. Mas acho graca nela. Diabo. Estou muito puto dentro das calcas, nao sei se toco para a rua do Resende, se como no Capela ou torco tudo, esqueco, desguio para a Central. Menina, pintando os dezessete anos e tinha borogodo. Esses morros por al sao umas miserias. Quan'do ganho no jogo me vem a vontade de ser born, prestar favores, ajudar algum merduncho da vida. Uma vontade que procuro empurrar logo para fora de mint Sou um homem corn mulher honesta, uma filha, onde 6 que Guiomar vai entrar? Fosse urn cabra-safado, um boiquira, um ponta-firme e tirava essa mulata da vida. Encarava Batista°, enfrentava. E dai? A mulher é minha, BRAZZIL.-, JANUARY 1997
qu'eu tornei. Tern mais: em vida 'e marido te mulher ninguem meta a colh r. Quer guerra? A sua C Mauser, o meu 6 3 — 0 neguinho nao toma conta e mim. Logo me vejo, fantasiando machez Tapeio-me, entao, corn uma certeza; no passo de leao-de-chacara, o Joaozin o da Babilonia, porteirinho chue so Danfibio que levanta algum no jog., quando a mare 6 de sorte. Nao posso t r mais de uma familia. Pela janela vai e batendo vento na cara e quando pegam s a praia, olho o ceu e vejo o dia, que se a de, sol. A japona esti incomodando. ic chorrilho, multiplicand°, mordendo u tufo. Seis milhas de lucro em menos e uma quinzena. Joguei, joguei de ma° e belisquei. Havia dobrado capital naron a da Boca do Andre, la no Estado. Volt 1, ganhei, tres noites. Os parceirinh s estranhando a onda de sorte, me yen • o de lado, triscado, canto dos olhos, se bandear a cara. 0 velho gosta del? Largava o lucro em casa, metia no fun o do bail velho, la corn a mulher e Madureira. Descia para a cidade corn u capitalzinho, dava filhote. Estava rezad ? Guiomar nao para quieta. — 0 neguinho nAo toma conta e mim. Pens° umas coisas da vida. Quan o menino, no Morro da Babilonia, a gen e brincava corn os cachorros, jogava-lh s pedaeos de came amarrados a uma lin a forte, branca; o bitch° engolia ea gen e puxava. A came voltava do est8mag Bicho estfipido, queixo duro. A gen e jogava de novo, eles vinham abocanh r. Aquilo devia doer. Eta tira a roupa e se s pelos ficam mais pretos. Dezessete an uma parada; e me dando algum na ma para o paizinho, chamando de machuc o na cama, agrado; apesar dos cabel s brancos, diz que sei dar o recado. Batist gosta dela? Alivio a grana do velho rrtijA Deve sobrar grana. Rezado? Nada. Ma 6 de sorte 6 isso. Nadar de bracad estracalhar, ganhar de chorrilho, apront r facanha, tomar mina do alheio, perturb. ganhar outra vez. Dezessete anos, n o chega A altura do meio peito, porreta nos agrados, mulher. Guiomar, apesar a idade, tinha tanta coisa para me ensin r na cama que eu perdi o remorso. Al, eu era impossfvel no morro e fiquei Jolozinho da Babilania. Olho o taximetro correndo na bandeira dois. — Chefe, pelo tend l Santa Barbar A patuleia, a ratatuia, a curriola, a patota se arruma no Capela. A gente b Quase seis datnanha. 0 Capela ain a ferve na Mein de SA, restaurant s embaixo, infeminho no primeiro pa 1mento. Aquilo aninha uma cambada be sortida a esta hora, urn dos poucos pont s do centro da cidade onde a maioria e conhece na misturacao marafon , band idetes, travestidos, jogadores, ge e da noite, da policia, picaretas, jornalist velhos, gente descarrilada, otarios, coroneis, safados, cafet8es, homens fanados e corn sono, bebados — da gene abonada e alegre na bebida aos merdu chos e bic8es da noite, sentados, enc Ihidos, esfomeados, tesos, sem pedir na4la
e vendo os outros comer. Mulher entrando e saindo, sassaricando para os homens, fazendo fricotinho, subindo ou descendo da boate para o restaurante pela velha escadaria de madeira, remexendo as corpos;piscando os olhos pintados, chamando, torcendo as caras cansadas, empetecadas de pintura, que as primeiras horas do dia comecam a desmascarar sem pena. Aqui, o mais bobo acende o cigarro no relampago. A porta de vidro do Capela abre, fecha, abre. Um formigueiro. Guiomar me esperando no hoteleco. A porta nao tern sossego. Passa-me a ideia besta, tirava a mulata do velho, arrumava uma casa no sub6rhio. Talvez desse pe, s6 quarto e cozinha, a mare 6 de sorte. Diacho, Joaozinho da Babileonia tern janeiro na noite, nao se ilude feito urn menino. Estou pegando amizade, Logo rio, baixo, cinico no canto da boca, engolindo conhaque e mordiscando pao, enquanto a comida nao vem. Batuco no copo: — Ao enterro do sabido vao quatro vifivas. Uma nao conhece a outra. Urn crioulinho sustenta um peso no brae° esquerdo, de encontro aos rins e vem que vem curvado. Mas anda rapid°, arisco varando a manha. Corn seus jornais, entra no Capela e grita o name do primeiro matutino da cidade. Compro e esfrio na primeira pagina. Urn frio na nuca, urn afogo na barriga. Depois, amargo na boca. Acima das letras pretas, enormes, a cara de Guiomar tirada do retratinho do documento. E eu que nunca botei fe no clime do Batista. A vontade me bateu quente, no comeco, num sufoco. Levantava, saia de mesa em mesa no Capela, gritava para a cambada que foi ele, o velho, o cavalo se metendo a macho. Soquei a mesa e o conhaque voou. Mas fico, sem fazer nada, numa Ponta da rua do Resende. Os 8nibus comem a manila e os radios de pilha tocam musicas caipiras. Tinha urn caido bonito de cabeca para tras e para as lados, me ficava pequena, menina que nao chegava A altura dos ombros. Encho as bochechas, sopro, o bolo do peito diminuindo. Procuro cigarro. Estou ligado — fosse ao hotel, daria uma pista aos ratos da policia. Aparecesse no Instituto Medico Legal, au i pertinho, as homens me iriam prensar: Contasse direitinho o meu interesse pelo presunto. Primeiros pardais passam entre os oitis da Mem de Si. Vai ser dia de so!. This short story was originally published as "Joaozinho da Babilonia" in 25 Contos Brasileiros, a special edition of Status Magazine, No. 23, Ed itora Tres. 33
Ilha do Paqueta This island in the Baia de Guanabara was once a very popular tourist spot and is now frequented mostly by families from the zona norte. There are no cars on the island. Transport is by foot, bicycle (there are literally hundreds for rent) and horse-drawn carts. There's a certain dirty decadent charm to the colonial buildings, unassuming beaches and businesses catering to local tourism. Sadly, the bay is too polluted to safely swim in and the place gets very crowded. Go to Paqueta for the boat ride through the bay and to see Cariocas at play—. especially during the Festa de Sao Roque, which is celebrated over five days in August. Boats leave from near the Praca 15 de Novembro in Centro. The regular ferry takes one hour. The hydrofoil is worth taking, at least one way. It gets to the island in 25 minutes. Joquei Clube There's lots to see at the race track. The stadium, which seats 35,000, is on the Gavea side of the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas at Praca Santos Dumont 31 (take any of the buses that go to Jardim Botanico). It's a beautiful horse-racing track with a great view of the mountains and Corcovado. It's rarely crowded and the fans are great to watch — it's a different slice of Rio life. Racing usually takes place every Saturday and Sunday afternoon, and Monday and Thursday night. City Sunset Sunset is a nice time to be around the central plaza in the city. The sky can be beautiful and floodlights illuminate the big buildings like he municipal theater and national library. Surfing In Rio city, surfing is very popular, with the locals ripping the fast, hollow beach breaks. When the surf is good, it gets crowded. Arpoador, between Copacabana and Ipanema, is where most surfers congregate, though there are some fun beach breaks further out in Barra, Grumari, Joa and Prainha. Boards can be rented in Rio, but they're so cheap that you'd be crazy not to buy one, especially if you've planned a surfing expedition down the coast. Galeria River (pronounced heever), at Rua Francisco Otaviano 67 in Arpoador, is an arcade full of surf shops. Hang-Gliding If you weigh less than 80 kg (about 180 lb) and have $60 you can do the fantastic hang-glide off Pedra Bonita on to Pepino beach in Sao Conrado. This is one of the giant granite slabs that towers above Rio. No experience is necessary. To arrange a double flight (voo duplo) go 34
Where everyone ie@yes his heart This is the fourth in a series of articles on Rio de Janeiro. Rio is also the place for surfing, for hiking and climbing and for hang.-gliding and-sunset watcffing. Part IV
out to Pepino and the pilots will be waiting on the beach. We're told that the winds are very safe here and the pilots know what they are doing. Guest riders get their bodies put in a kind of pouch that is secured to the kite. Our pilot, Assad, picked us up in his beat-up Volkswagen with the asa delta (hang-glider) rack. The climb up to the take-off point was awesome. Pedra Bonita looms over Sao Conrado's Pepino beach like Fantasia's Bald Mountain. The road winds up through the lush green Tijuca forest. Assad' s driving was not soothing in fact if his driving was any indication of how he was going to pilot the hang-glider, I didn't want to have anything to do with him. We were waved on through the private entrance to the hang-gliding area and the engine whined as we climbed the extremely steep hill. When we reached the top, Assad assembled the glider, untangled the cables, tightened the wing nuts and slipped elastic bands over the wing struts. Up close the glider looked flimsy. We put on our flight suits and practiced a few take-off sprints near the platform, literally a fivemeter-long runway of wooden boards inclined 15 0 downhill. We were 550 meters above sea level and a few km inland from the beach. If I were a rock and Rio were a vacuum, it would take me over 10 seconds to kiss the dirt. I wore old sneakers for traction and two good luck charms to amuse the ambulance crew I anticipated would be piecing through the tangled ball of crumpled metal, torn nylon and mangled flesh down below. With the glider resting at the top of the runway, we clipped ourselves onto it and checked the balance of the craft as we hung side by side. Assad adjusted his weight belt, all the straps, the velcro leg cuffs and helmet and gave me very brief instructions: hold on to the cuff of his shorts, keep my hands to myself, resist the temptation to hold the control bar or cables (this can throw the glider, so don't touch), and when he gave the count 'urn, dois, tres, já!', go very fast. Assad checked the windsocks on either side of the platform, the surface of the sea and the rippling of the leaves to ascertain the direction, speed and flow of the wind. He wanted a smooth wind coming inland from a flat sea. 'Urn, dois, tres, já!' Four bounding steps and we were flying. It's not the free-fall sinking feeling you get from elevators, but a perfect calm. I closed my eyes and felt as if I was still the only movement, a soft wind caressing my face. Miraculously, it seemed I was susBRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
pended between earth and sky. To our left was Rocinha, the most famous of the zona s favelas, to the right Pedra Bonita, and below us the fabulous homes of Rio's rich and famous. We floated over skyscrapers and Pepino beach, made a few lazy circles over the water and before I knew it, it was time for the descent. Upon landing we stood upright, Assad pointed the nose up, the glider stalled and we touched down on the sand gentle as a feather. It wasn't until after the flight that Assad told me that he is not without recourse. In an emergency, like a sudden change in weather, a hangglider pilot can fly down to the beach in less than 90 seconds. Assad also carries a never-used parachute which is designed to support the weight of two passengers and the glider itself, which is supposed to fall first and cushion the blow. Flight Information Assad can mount a camera with flash, wide-angle lens, motor drive and a long cable release on a wing tip to take pictures of you in flight. Other flyers too provide this service. If you want to take pictures yourself you must realize that takeoff and landing pictures are impossible since you can't be encumbered with equipment. Your camera must fit into the velcro pouch in the front of your flight suit. It's a good idea to have the camera strap around your neck and a lens cover strapped to the lens or you will risk beating a Carioca on the head and losing equipment. Flights are usually extremely smooth so it's possible to take stable shots. Hang-gliders themselves are dramatic shots, especially when taken from above. Know your exact weight in kg in advance. Ideally your pilot should be heavier than you. If you're heavier than the pilot, he will have to use a weight belt and switch to a larger glider. If you're over 80 kg, you're out of luck. You don't need any experience or special training — anyone from seven to 70 years can do it. Cautious flights depend on atmospheric conditions. Assad reckons he can fly on all but three or four days per month, and conditions during BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
winter are even better. Arrive early and allow for plenty of time to get things assembled, move things around, etc. If you fly early in the day, you have more flexibility with delays. The best way to arrange a flight is to go right to the far end of Pepino beach on Avenida Prefeito Mendes de Morais, where the fly-boys hang out. Ruy Marra is another excellent tandem glider pilot. For more information call the Associacao Brasileira de Voo Livre (220-4704), which also offers Flasses. Popular Hikes & Climbs Excellent hiking is possible surprisingly close to the city. There are three national parks with trail systems in Rio state: Parque Nacional da Tijuca, Parque Nacional da Serra dos Orgaos and Parque Nacional do Itatiaia For anyone interested in climbing and hiking, Rio's clubs are the single best source of information as well as the best meeting place for like-minded people. The clubs meet regularly and welcome visitors. All of the following clubs are well organized and have bulletin boards listing excursions on the weekends. Centro Excursionista Brasileiro Avenida Almirante Barroso 2 - 80 Andar, centro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 20031. CEB has a membership of 900, meets on Wednesday and Friday evenings and is geared toward trekking and day hikes. CEB also runs a small restaurant which is open from 6 PM, Monday to Friday, where people meet informally to plan excursions. Centro Excursionista Rio de Janeiro Avenida Rio Branco 277/805, Centro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ CEP 20040. CERJ, with an active membership of 50, meets on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. CERJ offers the greatest diversity of activities ranging from hikes to technical climbing. •Clube Excursionista Carioca Rua . Hilario de Gouveia 71/206,*Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, RJ CEP 22040.(227-8398). Meeting on Wednesday and Friday evenings at 10.30 PM, this club specializes in difficult technical climbing. Tijuca The Parque Nacional da Tijuca is a 120-sq km park with an excellent trail system. It is also home to different species of birds and animals including iguanas and monkeys. The Alto da Boa Vista section of Tijuca forest, which is part of the national park, has several good day hikes. Maps of the forest are obtained at the small artisan shop just inside the park entrance, which is open from 7 AM to 9 PM daily. To get there take bus 221 from Praca 15 in the center to Praca Afonso Viseu in Alto da Boa Vista. Pao de Acucar On Pao de Ackar (396 metres), Rio's Sugar Loaf, there are 32 established climbing routes. Climbers are often seen scaling the western face below the cable cars. One of the best hikes is up the back side of Pao de Acucar. Besides the breathtaking view of the ocean below, one is also compensated by not having to pay for the cable-car ride. The hike takes 1 1/2 hours and doesn't require equipment or a lot of climbing experience, but does have two 10 to 15meter exposed parts that require agility and commonsense. The hike begins on the left-hand side of Praca General Tibilrcio (the same praca where the cable cars are boarded), where a paved jogging track runs for 1200 meters along the base of Morro de Tijuca and Pao de Acucar. At the end ofthe track pick up the trail on the other side of the cement tank in the tall grass. Follow this trail (always taking the uphill forks) for 100 meters. At the old foundations, some
30 meters above the water, the trail ascends steeply for 60 meters until leveling off on the narrow ridge. From the ridge, the broad eastern flank of Pao de Acucar is seen. The trail to follow is up the far left-hand side ridge. Corcovado Corcovado (710 meters) offers technically difficult climbs with fantastic views of Pao de Acucar and Lagoa Rodrigo. Private guides and the clubs are the best means for unraveling its many diverse routes. Well-equipped and experienced climbers can easily climb its eastern face on the route K-2 (rated 5.9). Bateau Mouche On New Year's Eve 1988, 55 people out of the 59 on board drowned when an overloaded Bateau Mouche bay cruise capsized in Baia de Guanabara. This private company still runs cruises, and they're much more careful with the number of passengers they let on board. Their modern boats cruise the bay and go out into the Atlantic. The scene is too slick-touristy for my taste but the voyage out into the ocean is undeniably beautiful. Don't take their bay cruise, because for a 50th of the price you can take a ferry or hydrofoil to Paqueta island and cover much of the same ground while traveling with the locals. Ferry to Niteroi This is the poor person's Bateau Mouche. It's dirty cheap and the views are great, particularly returning to Rio around sunset. Over at Niteroi you can walk around a bit to see Rio's poor relation or catch a local bus to Niteroi's beaches. Leaving from Praca 15 de Novembro (in Centro), the ferry goes every 20 minutes and is always full of commuters. Excerpts from Braz.il A Travel Survival Kit 2nd edition, by Andrew Draffen, Deanna Swaney and Robert Strauss. For more information call Lonely Planet: (800) 275-8555. Copyright 1992 Lonely Planet Publications. Used by permission. 35
I'm visiting Brazil after a long time away. As a tourist with saudade in her heart, I thoughj1 could blend, connect; but ut instead, I am treate as affluent" because I am, comparatively. Newspers here do not talk of tile super-highway, ban cashiers terssie ha old typewriters, And much me roadwo is done wit pick and sledgehammer. have conneeted to my heritage, put not in the way I imagined. KATHLEEN DE AZEVEDQ
(Text and Photos)
he bus is traveling north on the narrow two-lane highway from Salvador, Bahia to Maceio, Alagoas. It honks its horn as it tries to pass a flatbed truck hauling butane tanks. The truck with its red slat sides, moves to the right, the bus starts to pass, and a car coming the opposite way reels over to the clay shoulder. Then the bus, called Born Fim which in Portuguese means "good death," sails ahead, squeezing between the two other vehicles. People who live in nearby towns or in lonely huts shrouded by banana trees, are busy working. Women harvesters in a cornfield use bright colored umbrellas for shade and an old man swings a scythe through the stripped stalks. On the dried grass of the town square, a farmer grazes his trio of donkeys — each with a pair of baskets strapped to the saddle. As the bus pulls off the road and into a small terminal, child vendors jump up and slap the bus' metal sides; they lift makeshift wood racks so bags of peanuts and nets of peeled lemons float past the windows, and others tap the window glass with coke cans and bottled water. A small boy climbs onto the bus and wanders down the aisle with a pot of cooked chicken, and chirps out his sales pitch. The passengers look forlornly at him because it is impossible to eat such a tempting but messy dish on the bus, with no plates or utensils. At the next stop, the bus picks up a man who has been waiting at a roofless produce stand. He is lean and dryskinned and his clean white shirt has an L-shaped tear in back. His bony
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36
shoulders shift as he waits for the driver to open the side luggage hatch, then he tosses in a large waxy burlap sack of mandioca (manioc), a long root with rough brown peel, a food staple. I'm visiting Brazil after a long time away. I was born in Rio, but lived most of my life in the US. My images of Brazil used to be the palm trees of postcards, and memories of relatives having loud emotional conversations. As a tourist with saudade in her heart, I thought I could blend, connect; but instead, I am treated as "affluent" because I am, comparatively. I was raised in a country that is perceived to be paved in gold. Brazilians talk of going to Miami as if it is Oz. Brazil is a country where the separation between the rich and poor is adamantly preserved, and its people constantly remind me of which side I stand on. The state of Alagoas in northeast Brazil is one of the oldest developed regions of the country and has a history of exploitation of the land and its people. This heritage accounts in part for the drastic class divisions. In the 1500's, much of the coastal tropical vegetation was cleared out for sugar plantations. The sugar growers tried to enslave the Indians, but found them too "nomadic" for plantation work. The booming plantations, or fazendas, then turned to Africa for their slaves. In the 1630's during the Dutch invasion of the Northeast, many of the slaves took advantage of the unrest and escaped from the plantations and formed independent Black republics, or quilombos, the most famous being Palmares in Alagoas. But the quilombo in Palmares was gradually crushed by Dutch and Portuguese expeditions and it breathed its last in 1647. Today, Maceio draws tourists to its beaches and resorts and has the design of a small Third World city. The luxury beachfront hotels are toward the outskirts and seem like they sprouted among the coconut palms. The hotels' empty balconies stare at the ocean and the outdoor patios slump as sun umbrellas snap in the wind;
these places are deserted. Some empty lots have the framework of new luxury hotels that have been abandoned for lack of money. For the rest, there is the city of Macei6, covered in a brown haze, a sweaty city of brick huts on hills and on dismal streets. It is a good city, a cab driver tells me, not violent like Rio. This could very well be true as it doesn't seem to move fast enough for fleet feet. Businesses are only open from 10-4. In the marketplace are stands of languishing food: the olivegreen pinha covered with small bumps, grapes, green oranges, warm sunken cheese, sugary lemon cakes, coconut brittle, and jaca. The jaca sitting in a wheelbarrow is as big as a watermelon and looks like an ocher armadillo. The vendor with his machete, chops its yellow pulp in pieces while fighting away the flies. Forro, a popular Nordeste music with its guitar and accordion, seeps from shops and small radios. Many from Rio dismiss its upbeat chank-achank sound and melancholy lyrics of love as unsophisticated music of the poor. But what bliss to dance it! Couples dance toforro close together with the woman astride her partner's leg. I saw a couple dancing on the beach in the late afternoon, the woman with her dress way up past her knees, the man holding his hand on her joyous hips. The work in Maceio is labor-intensive. Newspapers here do not talk of the super-highway, bank cashiers have old typewriters, and much of the roadwork is done with pick and sledgehammer. I feel guilty for being captivated by manual labor and its BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
graceful movements, in part because in the US I see it less and less as machines take over. I also have the luxury of observing labor because I don't have to do it myself. Still, in some cases, work done in a group is its own synchronized ballet. Near the shore at the Praia de Pajucara, a fishing net floats in the water. The children stand in the water, grab the edge of the net and try to pull in the booty. The net gets heavier as it drags on the sand, and the older men move in as the kids splash off to the side. The net is finally brought in, and it seems like a pile of seaweed and garbage, but then small silvery fish glitter. Kids pick up the tiny fish and put them in bags for bait, and they swipe up the small crabs, pull apart their legs, and give the pieces to an old fisherman standing by. The older men unravel the net and toss away the seaweed and coke cans and plastic bottles to get to the bigger fish. Someone drags a basket toward the net and people throw in fish and eels. One man pulls out an ugly stubby fish with gills which fan around the head like a ruff. He takes out his small machete, slices off the gills and head, and throws the body in the basket and the head out to sea. The section of Alagoas coastline that runs north to south is called the litoral, and some of the best beaches are supposed to be on the Ilha da Croa, a small narrow peninsula. My intention is to shun the tour buses, and get there on my own. However, the buses outside the city are elusive, and only the natives seem able to track its path. The raspy-voiced clerk at the hotel says she knows a taxi driver who is honest and who can take me to the litoral for the day. She has large hooded eyes and wears frosted eye shadow. I remembered her throaty laugh when I decided to stay at the hotel, she was almost triumphant, her discount bargaining refined to an art. Her long black hair spills down the back of her blue uniform. She is with another employee who has curls round and dark like her eyes, and both women, with honest intensity, claim that this driver is the best, then they both look at each other and giggle. I tell her I will hire her taxi driver friend. I'm lucky to come from an affluent country, yet I somehow like to pretend it doesn't affect me. Argentines and Paithstas (from Sao Paulo) go on packaged tours and seem to move through Brazil without much guilt, probably because the world tries to make South America feel guilty enough. As an American, it is hard to detach myself from the "powerful," and yet I have that mind set. I don't have servants and I find it hard to ask someone to do my bidding. But the Brazilian business of jeitinho — unofficial deals sealed with a nod of the head — makes me uneasy and suspiBRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
cious, as if someone is trying to trick me. I am relieved when I meet the driver. He seems non-assuming and honest. He also is a bit distant. His stocky body is brick-like arid he grips the wheel with thick hands. As we ride along, I try to form a bridge between us, Brasdeira to Brasileiro, and that is a start. My simple rambling Portuguese seems to open his standoffish Nordeste manner. Now, hopefully, he will take me to a "secret" place devqid of tourists, and perhaps we can work out ajehInho. He says he wants to show me something as he drives through a busted up side streei. We pass by a large resort, and I'm a bit concerned he'll Club-Med me. Yet we end up on Pratagi Beach, lined with barracas, which are outdoor snack bars. One of the barracas has a large cage of blue crabs fighting each other. The driver has friends who work here and he sits and plays cards while I descend the wood stairs that lead down to the beach. About 20 yards beyond the shorelin is a finger of land made up of weathered rock. 4t the tip of the finger, is a large statue of a mer aid, the sereia, a gift from the govern& of Pernambuco — the state directly to the north — to the governor of Alagoas. The governor of Alagoas is known to be fond of mermaids„ and the sereia is a gift from one woman-apprIciating man to another. Unlike the demure mern aid at Copenhagen's harbor, this mermaid sit upright scrunching her tail, and her solid bodk and has two large bullet breasts which boldly point out to sea. After we get back in the car, the driver passes through a coconut plantation wher the hills are a mass of green fronds and delic tely slender trunks that remind me of the lets of young boys. The coconut, he says is a gift o us, it is our survival. Everyone knows about the coconut meat and milk of course, but the leaves make fibers for mats, and people dry out the hulls and use them for bowls and scoops, We stop by a coconut stand, run by another one of his friends. Green coconuts are stored in coolers so the juice keeps cold. The top of the coconut has a natural indentation, and the vendor stabs a hole and slips in two straws. As I drink the milk, which is more like sweet water, our driver extols the fruit's vitamin content. I walk out to the beach at low tide. A blue fishing boat, tilted to one side and parked in the sand, waits for the sea to rush in again. Around my feet, scuttle thousands of little bug-like crabs with one overgrown claw; they dig small burrows, leaving behind tiny piles of sand. Down where the sand is saturated, women and children shovel for clams. The women work on hands and knees and drag buckets as they•go. When they see me watching and drinking a coconut, they seem to glare behind the huneh of their shoulders. Finally I arrive at Barra de Santo Ant6nio, a small town with boats that go to Ilha da Groa. For $10, the boatman gives rides across the Istrip of water to the peninsula. His boat is powered with an old gasoline outboard motor. The boatman has no top teeth so his voice sounds watery as he shouts to the two fisherman in a nearby wood pirogue. One of the fisherman nods as he pushes the pirogue forward with one large oar, while another crouches and tosses out a small round net. The Ilha da Croa is an extended beach and the wet sand stretches toward the sea like al rge
silvery sheet. Small children crowd around and chatter, where are you from, are you a Pauhsta? From Argentina? They all want to be hired to do something and they urge me toward a barraca. One small boy with a head of brownish red curls, has pursued me a bit more vigorously and offers to sit at my table to "watch my stuff." Another pushes by a portable bar with fresh pineapple and bottles of rum. Others peddle copper decorations, leather thongs with btizio shells. The driver knows the owner of the barraca, and sits and has a beer. The owner of the barraca hovers around to make sure I order something too, as if he is afraid I'll run off. The food here is ice cold beer and shrimp slathered in yellow dende oil. I couldn't resist, even if I wanted to. The sand bar stretches for about a quarter of a mile, and has pockets of warm pools where small children play. The bathwater churns up to my knees, and I crush with my toes the tight ripples in the sand. A balsa raft floats by, heading out to sea. By the time the water gets waist high, the shore is far away, and the straw of the barraca roofs is a brown strip in the white sand. I try to imagine what it's like to be an early explorer staring out of his ship gazing upon the beautiful remote land. I wonder how long a foreigner can stand such beauty, before the urge comes to manipulate the beauty into the homeland left behind. On the way home, I asked the driver about the World Cup, is he a fan of the famous Brazilian champions? I assume all Brazilians are crazy about futebol. No, he doesn't have time, he says. He has eight people to support: his wife, four sons, a younger brother and his mother so he works weekends. He tells about his sons who were kicked out of school because he was late paying their tuition. The two most important things Brazil needs, he says, are education and health care and one can't be spared for another. He adds, with sadness that 80% of Brazilians have no health insurance, and if he misses 30 days of work, he might as well die. As we approach the city, we follow a bus that is dragging a rat tied by a string to the bumper, a kid's prank. By now, the driver is silent, tired. He has done his job well. He has showed me the beauty in a land of hardship, yet the hardship seems to give the beauty an edge. I will travel back to America, to a much easier life, to a more successful plantation of sorts. I have connected to my heritage, but not in the way I imagined. I can only integrate so far, having lived my life so far from where I was born. Nevertheless Brazil's aching beauty, like a ghost, follows me home. • 37
that Joyce's latest Oook makes a significant contribution." (Claudio Willer, pet, translator, essayist). Later, her fourth book,
Discurso de 21171(1 Pulher A bsurda (Discour;e of an Ab-
ituations in life, as seen through the eyes of a storyteller, can reveal powerful truths that spark the reader's curiosity and provide both entertain ment and education. Writer Joyce Cavalcante's fiction combines an edge of humor with perceptions on the reality of contemporary culture in Brazil. In her lively and often hilarious literary style, Cavalcante deftly portrays the lives of women raised to do little more than pray, marry and die. There is an instinctive understanding of the surrealism and entrenched social mores in the country of her birth, which Cavalcante brings to life through the novel's strongly drawn and recognizable main characters. Joyce Cavalcante was born in Fortaleza, state of Ceara, in the northeast of Brazil and currently resides in Sao Paulo. She has published six books and has collaborated on anthologies of short stories. Cavalcante's works have been used in artistic presentations such as videos, performances, and plays. Speaking on Brazilian literature, she has participated in various conferences around the world, and her writing is part of university curriculums in Brazil, France and the USA. She has lectured extensively in many international universities and is currently writing a book titled Brazilian History of Female Literature. Her writing has been praised by the critics as a work that "... innocently describes an erotic context. This innocence stems from a lack of guilt or prejudice, and a complete acceptance of pleasure and of the physical being. Joyce has worked as a stone Irreverent, seinsua without being crass, sculptor, reducing ; author Joyce Cavalcante the block to its essential core, and like has focused her writer's eye on the a painter, symbolizresigned lives of women bred for ing and translating generations to pray, marry and die. She has the external reality woven these elements into all her books, into the text as ifinto while living in Rio de Janeiro, where she a large canvas... learned about life in the big ciht, as well as There is no doubt
surd Woman), was applauded by the critics: 'This work brings together Joyce's life and literature, two things she always makes a point of merging. This book is beautifully embracing and translucent. in New York City, Washington D.C., and Sao Written by a woman as a couPaulo, where she currently lives and works. rageous incentive to those who become intimidated by life and by the world, these who get CELINA LEITE lost in the corners and eventually give up. This Dook distinguishes her as one of the great writers of ,this maltreated country in terms c f true literary creativity." (Alvaro Alves de Faria, poet and joirnalist). Her recent tic vel inimigoy intimos (Intimate Enenves), won the APCA (Associacao Pallista de Criticos de Arte —Sao Paulo Associatioa of Art Critics) award in 1993 for best fiction. This novel combines all of her achievements and experiences. Cavalcante's hun- orous approach to this intricate plot, where four women circumstantially share the same roof and lover, exposcs the h,idden pain in a twisted scenarb of provincial life. Inimigos Intimos is the first novel of a tetralogy describing the path of Brazilian society's newfound upward mobility. In May of 1997, her most recent romance, 0 Cdo Chupcndo Manga (The Devil's Mango Parade), the second novel of the tetralogy, will be published. This book tells the story Df a northeast BraziliEn from the hinterlands, who comes to Sao Paulo, a city of 1 7 million inhabitants. He makes a dishonest fortune, but loses the woman he loves and part of his wadeserved profits in the process. Joyce Cavalcante's novels are currently in translation, and will he available in the US market in the near future For further &tails on Cavalcante's work you can visit her hornepage at http://wwvv.neihomes.com/joycava The author can be contacted at joycava@ibm.net 38
BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
Retalhos misticos
Mystic Fragments
Joyce Cavalcante
Joyce Cavalcante
Para Amandio, esses salmos.
For Amcindio, these psalms.
Indisciplinadamente meu olhar passeia e sempre passeia por My undisciplined gaze wander, often wandering where it onde nao devia, se por acaso existisse coisa que se devesse ou shouldn't as if things that should or should not be existed. My nao. Meu olhar instigado pela imaginacao, se desprende do real gaze, moved by imagination detaches itself from reality and e se transporta desse mundo e dos outros que existirem, pois travels beyond this and other worlds that may exist besides these existem mundos muito mais do que esses permitidos. allowed to us. Posso ver o que quero quando crio. Aventura constante é o I can see whatever I want when I am creating. Incessant ato de inventar. Concretizar o abstrato por meio de algum sentido, adventure is the act of invention. Materializing the abstract como por exemplo, o sentido do olhar. through one of the senses, of sight, for 0 mundo enxergado d intenso e forcado instance. ao silencio. 0 nao declarado domina. The perceived world is intense and Apenas mirar o que o pensamento admitir, forced to silence. The undeclared is domie legitimo sera tudo. Assemelhar-se aos De 0entto para Ford, (From Within nating. Simply looking at what thought deuses ou mesmo ser urn deles. Assombrar Outward) , can witness will turn all genuine. Resemos mortais dispondo de seus corpos, bling the Gods, or even being one of Cavalcante's first novel. Story of a alisando-lhes tudo corn os olhos, tomando married couple in which the husband.is them. Daunting mortals, using their bodposse de seus instintos como se fossem ies, caressing them all over with the eyes, a paraplegic and the wife becomes nossos. taking over their instincts as if our own. involved it a platonic relationship with Contar historias enganosas, fatos Telling deceitful stories, events which man. Theloader may choose acontecidos apenas no desejo da memoria. happened in the desire of memory. Ext endings. Explicar os sons a partir da oitava nota, as plaining the sounds beyond the eighth cores aldm das presentes no espectro solar, note, the colors beyond the solar spec#a de Evau C6 as tetras pelas que cairam fora do alfabeto. who suffers because of trum, the letters through those which faded Z — t Corn indecencia ou modestia, olhar, nao s6 out of the alphabet. Gazing at everything, her beauty. Congresswoman ,,tteida corn os olhos, mas corn todos os sentidos, indecently or modestly, not only with Stodirt commented: 4u S is an tudo e muito mais do que o cristalino puder one's eyes but with all the senses, well igdietment'r4ThlY aspects of Brazilian desenhar. beyond what the crystalline lens is capresence of a ,a Sonhos e propostas. Opcao. Assisto ou skillediOvelist pable of revealing. wntetswho , ,4 ligfcMale 1tstaenonthe task of nao a esse espetaculo de coxas unidas e Dreams and proposals. Option. Should pernas controladas? Apesar de teu pudor or shouldn't I watch this performance of revealing the silent anguish of women inoursocrety. teu gesto imita urn falo. Olho e cobico tudo joined thighs and controlled legs? Deque vejo para meu regalo. Quero. Voce spite your modesty your gesture resembles receptaculo, eu projecao. Depois poderea Phallus. Staring I desire it all for my Free & Object) mos inverter nossos conceitos, nossa own delight. I want. You a receptacle I a Published projection. Later we may alter our conposicao. when books Were1,ile b tiallig Feito espelhos complementares serao cepts, our position. There will be two made it d eMi laili sOre ctd s • Lhe erotic Past duas superficies lisas e iguais a refletir equally smooth surfaces like complemencensors. the scrutiny jogos ancestrais como se fossem novidades. tary mirrors reflecting ancestral games as if they were novelties. Convencionemos que nao quero ver flis64:0 da tAei teu rosto. Quero teu busto. E quando desse Let's establish I do not want to see so Of th,A.?:,,-`11.rt modo te contemplo, acredito que o mundo your face. I want your breast. And when erotic' short Stories. A ettl1Poti '4ill inue: that ali esta em teus mamilos rosados. (Fitarei in this way contemplating you I believe Critics the book brought s6 urn deles para deixar o outro enciumado). the world is there, contained within your together1)- ine and literature. th ho asa A seguir recolherei tuas sensacOes ern rosy nipples. ( I will gaze at only one of couragepus W oses who minhas pupilas e as distribuirei como uma them to provoke jealousy in the other). e intimidated by life d by the bencao, visando urn mundo de sossego Then I will gather your sensations in my wrote poet, critic journalist baseado na poesia carnal. pupils and as a blessing I will share them, Meus olhos giram e gira teu corpo aiming a world of stillness founded on artesanado em curvas, definicao absoluta carnal poetry. ical Details) My eyes go round and around goes do belo. Tua cintura atrai possibilidades Created in partnership with Elvio, your body crafted in curves, the absolute fantasticas. Se mostrando assim voce Becheroni, an italian artist who made definition of beauty. Your waist attracts aquiesce a minha gula. Entende meu desejo the serigraphs. Bilingual edition fantastic possibilities. Showing yourself alterado. Permite. Se deixa contemplar (Portuguese and English) with only 180 like this you feed my lust. You undercomo uma escultura paga, apontando-me o copies published. The original plates stand my altered desire. Consent it. Alobjetivo de minha insanidade. have been destroyed, lowing to be contemplated as a pagan Apenas mais alguns graus mais ,para stone cut: woman, aim of my insanity. esquerda esta exposto teu traseiro. E ele inimigas Enemies) There, only a few degrees to the left, uma porcao de teu corpo para ser admirada Chosen as the best literary fiction work your behind is showing. It is a part of de joelhos pela semelhanca que tras corn o in 1993 by the Si° Paulo Association your body to be admired on one's knees, altar das mais improprias catedrais. Nao Of Art CtitieS,„ Set in the Brazilian so similar it is to the altar of the most concordo que esse teu pedaco seja s6 Northeast; it deals with sex, violence, improper cathedrals. I cannot agree that musculos e lipidios. E muito, bem muito and politicalcorruption. The story of a this part of you is only muscles and lipids, mais. Trata-se de um retalho mistico. man who lives with four women under it is more, much more than that. The Dirijo meus olhos agora para teus the Sallie r0Of. matter here being a mystical detail. acidentes frontais. Umbigo, Obis, buracos, I now turn my eyes to your frontal depressOes, caixas de ressonancia dentro 0 Cäo Chitpando Mango (The Devil's shapes. Navel, pubis, holes, depressions, das quais se deveria gritar oracOes: —Te Mango Parade) boxes of resonance, inside which prayers penetrarei por algum orificio imaginario, To be released in May 1997, should be shouted. To penetrate you especie de local por onde entra e sai o through an imaginary orifice, the kind of diabo. E como de subito e so corn meu olhar conseguir teu repouso. place through which the Devil goes in and out. All of a sudden, with my gaze only, I soothe you. There your Ali teu corpo molhado, extenuado, ofegante, cansado. Teu coracao batendo. Enfim, uma mulher agradecida em minha frente, apos o body, wet, exhausted, panting, tired. Your heart beating. In front of me a grateful woman, after the game between human beings. jogo de gente corn gente.
Bibliography
BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
39
Daniefá Merc mdvng berirJ Càrnaval lea axç ghatfo, b doWn the bor aking. on the Realizing Merctir otential, Sorty4E3razi fe ed her, cintract International.
D
aniela Mercury broke into star dom at the beginfling of the 90's rippling her petite body and wavy elbowlength reddish-brown hair from the heights of the trios eletricos (wired-for-sound trucks). She became the muse of axe music. The press referred to her as the "Queen of Axe," the "Queen of Salvador," and the "Queen of Samba-reogae.- Now she is moving beyond the disposable euphoria of Carnaval, is disconnecting these labels, and is leaving the axe music ghetto. With familiar purpose and with her sights on the international market, Daniela Mercury has released her fourth disc, Feria° CO Arra:. The title literally translates as "Beans and Rice," 40
though colloquially the title suggests something like "Soul Food." Metaphorically, however, the title hints at a recipe with two main ingredients and at a dish that would be incomplete without both — one white, one black. Feijdo coin Arro: delivers the simplicity and complexity suggested by the title: straightforward arrangements that follow regional influences which have been thoroughly prepared. Like the beans and rice in any Brazilian home, the dish is traditional but has flavor and substance. From the sound to the visual, Feijao corn Arra: reveals a different Daniela Mercury, more elaborate and attentive to the details of production and with a clear desire to attain a work of international quality. The new disc unveils a personal quality that was absent on Daniela's last three discs. She has observed more closely and measured more carefully the spicing of this platter. To arrive at the 15 tracks, Mercury researched for over a year and a half, collecting and scrutinizing hundreds of compositions that display an inventory of unique Brazilian rhythms. For her new repertoire, Mercury invested in "new
generation" composers who, like the new disc, are surrounded by soaring expectations. The treatment of "A Primeira Vista" (On First Sight) by Paraibano (from the state of Paraiba) Chico Cesar makes it just one of the many tunes on board with prominent hit potential. This romantic ballad has become the striking theme that accompanies the character of Liliana in Brazil's leading prime time novela (soap opera) 0 Rd i do Gado (King of the Herd). Including a Chico Cesar composition was no accident. Cesar has been the most spectacular revelation of MPB (Milsica Popular Brasileira — Brazilian Popular Music) over the last two years (see BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
Brazzil November '96). Daniela met with Cesar at her studio in Salvador where they spent hours analyzing over 40 of his songs. Cesar was not the only "new generation" talent to be hooked by Daniela. Saxophone player and lyricist for the Mineiro (from Minas Gerais) pop group Skank, Chico Amaral, contributed "Minas com Bahia." The tune is a duet with Skank's guitar player, Samuel Rosa, sharing vocals with Daniela. Carlinhos Brown wrote two tracks for the project, the samba "Vida Gal" and the animated "Rapunzel," a wild frevo with a screaming guitar introduction. The track destined to be the disc's first hit is Ramon Cruz's searing "Feijao de Corda" (String Beans) performed by Tony Mola and Banda Bragada in an arrangement that embraces sizzling fife and flute breaks in a forro groove. Following closely is the samba-reggae "Vai Chover" (It's Going to Rain) by Boghan Costa and Gustavo de Dalva, two residents of the same favela (shanty town) where Carlinhos Brown was born. "I've chosen music that makes me sing from inside," Mercury explained. With this "Who's Who" group of "new generation" composers, Daniela has realized her goal of exhibiting the extraordinary talent of her peers, of giving these artists an exposure that has been long overdue. Enthusiasm for her new partners, however, did not prevent her being any less demanding nor did it prevent her from recording the samba "Voce Abusou" rearranged as pagode. The tune was originally a hit of the duo Antonio Carlos and Jocafi, big hit makers in the early to mid 70's who just vanished in a haze. While Mercury exacts levels of performance that can create a certain amount of anxiety, one of her finest talents is her ability to work with this anxiety and channel it positively into the music. When she is in the studio, a little before the musicians start to play, she closes her eyes near the microphone and imagines a multitude of excited fans moving in front of her. At the moment that the music starts, Daniela is already diving in a trance. She sings, she dances, she punctuates each word with the strength of a performer that is setting fire to a huge crowd. This exercise in visualization produces exciting results. Her studio recordings never fail to create the sensational energy level of a live performance, one of the widely recognized merits of her work. Fans would find it hard to imagine the fiery Daniela Mercury singing lilting melodies into the microphone, and I doubt they will ever be able to disassociate her from the accentuated Bahian percussion that vibrates through most of her music. And the new disc does have its moments of vibration starting with the first track, a reggae called "Nobre Vagabundo" (Noble Vagabond) by Marcio Mello. But overall, Daniela is calmer. You can tell she has approached this new project introspectively. The rhythmic grooves are meticulously locked in and performed with a clarity foreign to her past works. The slow tunes reveal a Daniela whose spirit has settled. Mercury has prioritized the melody, the feminine side of the music. "Vestido de Chita," (Cotton Dress) her own composition, talks about a submissive, oppressed, unloved woman. The entire work reflects a certain equilibrium and tranquillity. Recently Daniela commented that Feijcio corn Arroz is a representation of the definitions in her own life. During the last five months of the project Daniela lived more in the studio than at home. Daily she remained 12 to 14 hours locked in her 24 channel studio recording and rehearsing. The studio, Canto da Cidade (named after Daniela's second release), is where all the music for the new disc was recorded with the exception of Carlinhos Brown's samba "Vida Gal," which was recorded in Rio, with a razor sharp horn section and Carioca (from Rio) percussion. In the final phase of the recording, Daniela canceled all shows and interviews that were not directly related to the recording. Although Mercury does not play an instrument or read music, she gave the final word on all the arrangements. To demonstrate to the players how she wanted a particular arrangement or a chord voicing, she would sing the line; with the percussion parts she would play the pattern on a surdo. Every detail of the project, from the actual recording process to the exquisite graphic layout and photography, was closely monitored. Daniela insisted the photos be taken by Mario Cravo Neto, the photographer and BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
Fa. 'Ito de Cords
String Beans
Ramon Cruz Corn aria o mundo inteiro 6,pra ter voce • ds,o diuheiro iv oi (toe me tattoo ei 'Ossa mania • De te querer hem
4
on de trem ° Eu chego aó seu lado 0 uma chance De te falar en todo amor do, em men peito
onuis
Ps 0 nosso
av wouldn , bt ut hyi s tohbes eswshioo lne wol On rYidtdoohave You But I Have the money live with m you very mach IT Oan love eet or by train I arrive f stay b your side an i Waiting a chance To talk to you M love my is alleast yours held in We conquered our
mean 'earv ith°10ebie re eidoo
F U Ininrtsdhteerkeltsar hsolsyemtroem esin g
linos o scot
We toasted the sun
áb b d a de feira Saturday market day o de corda They have string beans e me aniarroti You tied me up uph do de luz fora A handful of light through peneirar a strainer V. u beber agua I am going to drink water er meu amor And see my love
Vai chover
It's Going to Rain
Bog an Costa and Gu tavo de Dalva Nao ilude Nao se mude Nao ilude Nao se inude
co
Don't make illusions Don't change Don't make illusions Don't Change
ue tenho prazer 1 enho voce o posso viver
There are things in •y life that please me But if I don't have you How can I live
nao corno se pensa, nao nao 6 como se r, quer, quer,
Things are not as you think Things not as you want 0 i n 8
chover, amor N madrugada vai •c hover chover, amor adrugada vai chover
It's going to rain, love At dawnare,going it to It's going to rain, love At dawn it's going to rain
a luz acender Se 0 luar aparecer P. de se preparar chover, amor
If the light comes out If the moonlight appears Prepare yourself, It's going to rain, love
V chover, amen* madrugada vai chover Vai chover, arnor Na madrugada vai chover
It's going to rain, love At dawn it's going to rain It's going to rain, loVp At dawn. it's going , to rain
41
color specialist who added so much to the layout fot Carlinhos Brown's Alfagamabetizado. Cravo Neto's ex4 quisite close-up color detail and visual concepts are by themselves worth the price of the disc. From the posed shots of Daniela and a stunning black Baiana intertwined on the disc's front and back cover, through the 16 page booklet delineated in the bright colors so typical of Bahia, to the photo of Daniela standing arms raised inside the back cover; the packaging of Feijiio corn Arroz is lavish. One can easily see that Mercury loves the process of creating a recording and why she makes parallels with child raising. "Working with music is similar to the up-bringing of a child. You take care of him, offer him the best education, but you cannot determine what is going to happen in the future. The same thing happens with a recording. The artist makes everything, orients her work according to the available information and her sensitivity, and is always looking for a dialogue with the public. But after the release, she no longer has any control over it. The lord of its destiny is the public." The entire process involved with making Feildo corn Arroz, including tune selection, arrangements, and rehearsals, made the supporting tour that much easier after the disc's release. And Daniela Mercury knows how to entertain a crowd. She performs every show like it's her last. Her total commitment to the audience, something she first demonstrated aloft the trios eletricos, is what is magical about Daniela and something that comes to her naturally. It is also part of the reason Daniela Mercury got to the top and has managed to stay there for over five years. An enormous following packs all her shows. Her spontaneous happiness is an injection of vitality for her listeners. Each performance shines with brilliance and magnetism. The music is contagious. And with Brazil now in her hands, Daniela has opted for the international arena. She wants each show to have a broader universal appeal in order to compete outside Brazil. "When a cook in Scotland asked me for an autograph, I realized that my music was capable of communicating with cultures that are completely different." Aurora Miranda once said that Carmen left no heir; she may have been mistaken. From the time of Carmen's first explosive appearance in the 1940's with her turban of fruit and her heaps of jewelry, no other Brazilian singer has come as close to attaining the diva's international recognition as Daniela Mercury. The New York Times called Daniela's music "international pop with finesse and power." Billboard said that she made Bahian music accessible without compromising its artistic essence. In Argentina she was awarded a gold record for 0 Canto da Cidade Que ntto — over 900 thousand copies sold even before her first performance Se it, quadradi •k"' dos tueus versOs there and during an absolute reVai de encontro tos cession. intelectos There is a new "bombshell" Que nao Usam and she's a Baiana and not from CO Como Marco de Canavezes, Portugal. 42
Realizing Mercury's potential, Sony Brazil transferred her contract to Sony International. In addition, she was the only Brazilian artist invited to attend the annual Sony Music party in 1994. It was the first time in her life Daniela had to coax an audience to get up and dance. The crowd was enthusiastic and politely applauded but remained glued to their seats. She tried explaining that her music is about happiness and for dancing, but nothing changed. Eventually Sony's president stood up and a wave instantaneously followed. The guests had been waiting for permission from the "big boss." Propelled by the all impulsive Sony label, the axe dynamo continues to have enormous sales in Asia. Her third disc, Mitsica de Rua, was such a tpwering success in Japan that Mercury agreed to record a song in Japanese. The tune, "Sukiaki," is still in its adaptation phase. It is certain, however, that "Sukiaki's" rhythmic foundation will be totally Baiana. This year Mercury performed two shows in the United States and has intensified her performances in Mexico. As mentioned, she is already well accepted in Argentina. Next summer her efforts will be concentrated in Europe where she has good penetration and a large following, especially in Italy. Until then, she plans to position herself well enough to capture the attention of the most important international producers. Reaching an ternational market appears certain for Daniela Mercury Her schedule is filled with shows in Latin American, and h international invitations to perform leave her little time for much else. The new ambassador of Brazilian music has become a major commodity in the Brazilian market place. She appears in TV commercials for yogurt, beer, shampoo, and a product that assists mothers in preventing the dehydration of their infants. Furthermore, she was the star of Antarctica's Carnaval advertisements and of an add campaign by the National Bank. While she is well on her way to becoming a shining star of World Music, she is unfailingly loyal to Salvador and says that she owes everything to Bahia, where her music originated. Even with all her triumphs and a life style that is frantic at times, her love for Salvador has not diminished. She adores Carnaval and its clamorous music. Her performances continue to bring money and tourists to the state. Since her first appearance in the Bahian Carnaval, tourism has jumped from 1.9 million in 1991 (the year of her first release) to.2.7 million in 1996. She recently finished writing the preface to the book Carnaval Baiano: Business and If the scitz Opportunities, to be published Verses by the Servico de Apoio as Clashes with the Micro e Pequenas Empresas intellects (Service of Support for Small Who don't Businesses). In this preface, she talks about the enormous adBRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
vantages Salvador has for entertainment and for mixing media. She hadn't told anyone about the surgery, yet the culture with business. In fact, it was through Mercury's press somehow discovered the details. Her family received guidance and vision that Bahia's Carnaval was revolution- up-dates on her condition through the papers. ized. In 1996, abandoning the traditional trios eletricos Initially, her reaction to fame was similar to other artists routine of remaining in the center of the city, she adopted an whose lives are often interrupted by their fervent fans. She alternative shoreline circuit that went to the Farol da Barra would go to the shopping centers with an icy feeling in her (Barra lighthouse) and continued all the way to the Ondina stomach prepared to face an assault of the multitude and district where the biggest hotels are concentrated, thereby media. Today, sh0 no longer feels suffocated and receives creating two official circuits, one that opens space for local responses to her work and affection from her fans cordially. investments. Bahia's industry, after all, is an industry of She doesn't want o be outside of everyday reality. To avoid pleasure, culture, and tourism. the delirium of fame she clings to spirituality by attending The expansion of Carnaval has created a domino effect. candomble cere onies. Private restoration of the Pelourinho — the cultural center At 31 years of ge, separated from her husband, Daniela's of Salvador — has increased, and the governor of the state priorities are her work and her two children, Gabriel, 11 and was moved to combine the positions for Secretaries of Giovana, 9. Satisfied with her new single status and pamCulture and of Tourism. In addition, the Bale FolclOrico da pered by Sony Music, Daniela has few worries. "I am now Bahia has been rejuvenated and now has an agenda that is in a more rational moment of my life, less intuitive." Her booked until 1999, with 90% of their love life is in second place to her devotion shows in Europe and the United to her family and her passion for Salvador. Discography: States. "Everything is guaranteed to Brazilian music may not be in its most return to Bahia," confirms Bel brilliant phase, but anyone can lay a sure FezjãocomArroz 1996 Sony Marques, the singer for Chiclete corn bet on Daniela's success. She has transMzisica de Rua 1994 Sony Banana and now the Secretary of 0 Canto da Cidade formed and impassioned Bahian music Daniela Mercury/ 1992 Culture for the city of Salvador, a Sony and is in tune with her people, her city, and Swing da Cor 1991 CellulOid position that was once occupied by the sentiments of the market. The only Gilberto Gil. difficulty lies in gauging how far she can Originally from the backlands, Daniela is no stranger to travel on the international path. For now, everything is in the melancholy of life. Before reaching the top of MPB, she the hands of Sony Music, but will happen only because of was forced to make many sacrifices. Her career has been so a charismatic talent that Brazil hasn't seen for a long time. uncompromisingly planned that the "boomerang of success" has dramatically affected her once solid family strucBruce Gilman plays cuica for Mocidade Independente Los Angeles (MILA), received his MA from California ture. Fans used to stand outside of her home and stare at it Institute of the Arts, and teaches English until two in the morning. She often had to eat with the lights and ESL in Long Beach, California. You can reach him off. In March of 1993 when she was admitted to the hospital through his E-mail: cuica@interworld.net for an operation, her hospital room was invaded by the
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BRA7_7IL - JANUARY 1997
Short Takes JORGE DA SILVA It's been just over a year now since Brazilian saxophonist Leo Gandelman left his wonderful home near Jardim Botanico in Rio to embark on his re-discovery of the new world, via New York city. Gandelman, who has an impressive history of recording here in the US, made his decision to concentrate on new aspects of his career with the focus on his international image. With the mastery of his instrument has come the recognition from his native country, unusual for an instrumental artist, but substantial and well deserved and a perfect launching pad for his goals. With six solo albums to his credit, Leo Gandelman has the ability to expand the horizons of Brazilian music through the resurgence of contemporary jazz worldwide. His latest recording, currently available in the US only as an import is called Perolas Negras (Black Pearls) and showcases Leo's favorite songs written by Afro-Brazilian composers. In it you'll find jazzy versions of "Mais Que Nada" by Jorge Ben, "Nana" written by Moacyr Santos and Mario Telles with its driving, infectious beat, and Milton Nascimento's "Clube da Esquina No. 2." One of the album's favorite tracks is a reworking of Monsueto and Ayrton Amorim's "Me Deixa em Paz" with singer Luis Melodia. The song carries all of the passion of unrequited love, and is a wonderful interpretation of a Brazilian classic. And much like other saxophone players here, Gandelman's decision to use a singer to anchor his recording of the song has had the desired effect: it's a big radio hit in Rio. Included are other songs penned by Cartola, Jamil Jones, Djavan, Gilberto Gil and Pixinguinha. And with a nod to the northeast, Leo includes a spirited, modern version of Pauliho da Viola's "Choro Negro," and it comes off with a satisfying sense of respect and the same playfulness that the song has always held. Stevie Wonder's "Overjoyed" is included as "the exception that proves the rule," as Leo would say. His gratitude and appreciation of Wonder's incredible musical skills has always been evident and the song is presented as a lovely ballad with a Brazilian touch that's unmistakable. A true Carioca, Gandelman began to study piano and flute at an early age, and benefited from a musical family. While his father's background was as a conductor, his mother's talents were more instructional, literally, as a piano teacher. He studied classical music extensively during these years and became quite adept at the form, playing with various Baroque groups and also as a soloist with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra. This early direction soon led to the saxophone and Leo left Brazil for Boston and the Berklee College of Music during the 1970s. The close of that decade found Gandelman back in Rio, armed with an advanced talent and the BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
creative skills to support it: arranging, composition and the ability to perform on all of the saxophones, from soprano to baritone, as well as his earlier favorites, his keyboards and the flute. He also had a plan, and began to record with everyone: Simone, Djavan, Elis Regina, Toninho Horta and Ricardo Silveira. He also took part in the popular Rock in Rio festivals and the Montreux Jazz Festival as his name and reputation grew. Sometimes playing two or three sessions a day, Leo set aside his savings for the project that would catapult his career to the next level. A solo album. His self titled album was finally recorded and released in 1987 on CBS in Brazil, and while it was ahead of its time for the Brazilian music scene, it was on the cutting edge of contemporary jazz in the US, were word of his creativity caught the eye of Verve Forecast, a Polygram label in New York. The label was growing by leaps and bounds, and signing new Brazilian jazz stars was part of the game plan. Verve signed Leo to a multi-release agreement, and did likewise with Ricardo Silveira, Joyce and Toninho Horta. With the strong support and backing of this music powerhouse behind him, Leo's recognition grew in the US and back home in Brazil. He quickly recorded Western World and Solar for Verve, both of which gained quick, lasting radio play with smooth jazz stations. When Verve changed directions in the 1980's Leo continued on with Polygram Brasil and his success continued as well with Visions (1991) and Made in Rio (1993). While neither of these two albums received widespread exposure here in the S, both are excellent choices for your ollection. What you'll find with these two CDs re the effects of Leo's continuing growth s a jazz master. Visions represents Leo's irst advance into the international arena, ith a well produced collection of tunes ncluding the flowing lines of "Pirates" and "Point of View" with a stylish touch of Tower of Power thrown into the mix. Joao Bosco appears on "Dance in the Woods" Ind "Spirits of the Forest" is restructured and elevated from its beginnings as a novela (soap opera) theme song. Made in Rio is ore pop flavored, with takes on Paul cCartney's "Long and Winding Road," ascimento's "Quay," Ary Barroso's "Baia" and Rio's unofficial theme song Vidade Maravilhosa" (Wonderful City). Today, Leo calls the New York suburbs is home, having made a promise to build e next stage of his incredible career as a usical giant in a culture that heavily faors vocal music. His eight years ofawards Brazil's top instrumental player pay tribute to his talent and dedication; holding a limpse of what the future might bring. atch for Leo Gandelman's upcoming rojects, including his work with Oscar astro-Neves and the group Globo later t is Spring. •
is
45
Books
best-sellers Rio 0 Burgues Ridiculo (Ridiculous Bourgeois) - Adapted from a Moliere's comedy. Directed by Guel Arraes and Joao Falao with Marco Nanini and Betty Gofman. Como Encher urn Biquini Selvagem (How to Fill Up a Wild Bikini) - A comic view of loneliness in the big city. Boy wonder Miguel Falabeila wrote and directs. Starring Claudia Jimenez. Aluga-se urn Namorado (Boyfriend for Rental) - In a traditional Jewish family young man falls in love with a gentile girl. The family is opposed to the romance. Written by James Sherman, directed by Andre Valle. With Juliana Martins and En i Johnson. Ninguem Me Ama, Ninguem Me Quer, Ninguem Me Chama de Baudelaire (Nobody Loves Me, Nobody Wants Me, Nobody Calls Me Baudelaire ) - Written and starred by Ivan de Albuquerque. With participation of Leyla Ribeiro and Lacio Marto Filho. While getting ready to present a conference on Vampirism, a group of college students is visited by the vampires themselves.
Sao Paulo Bar Doce Bar (Bar Sweet Bar) Musical Comedy. A group of friends discuss and sing their lives under the watchful eye of a caring waiter. Written by Luis Alberto de Abreu, directed by Ednaldo Freire. Aldo Avilez, Fernando Petelinkar and Tico d'Godoy star. Dnicula e Outros Vamp iros (Dracula and Other Vampires) - A collection of comic and thrilling characters. Created and directed by Antunes Filho with Grupo de Teatro Macunaima. E Continua Tudo Bern (Everything is Still Swell) - The story starts when a couple celebrates the 25th anniversary of their first adultery. Written by Bernard Slade. Directed by Marco Nanini. Gloria Menezes and Tarcisio Meira star. Vacalhau & Binho - Sketches based on Ze Fidelis, an old-guard radio comedian. Carlos Alberto Soffredini wrote, adapted and directed. With Isser Korik, Luzia Meneshini, Edvaldo Barreto and Moises Inacio. 46
American films just released: Jingle All the Way (Um Heroi de Brinquedo), Trees Lounge (Ponto de Encontro), The Phantom (0 Fantasma), Palookaville (Doces Criminosos), The Fan (Estranha Obsessao), The Crow: City of Angels (0 Corvo: A Cidade dos Anjos), Dead Man (Dead Man) Doces Poderes (Sweet Powers) - Brazil 1995 - A TV drama during an electoral campaign. Directed by Lacia Murat. With Marisa Orth, Antonio Fagundes and Otavio Augusto. Como Nascem os Anjos (How Angels Are Born) - Brazil 1996 - Two children from the favela (slum) take an American family as hostage. Starring Priscila Assum, Silvio Guindane, Larry Pine e Andre Mattos. Directed by Murilo Salles. Corisco e Dada (Corisco and Dada) - Brazil - 1996 - The story happen in Bahia in 1927. Cangaceiro (backlands outlaw) Corisco kidnap Dada who is still a child. She will grow up to love him and to be a real cangaceira herself. Directed by Rosemberg Cariry with Chico Diaz, Dira Paes, Antonio Leite and Regina Dourado. Fica Comigo (Stay With Me) - Brazil 1996 - The difficult relationship between parents and teenagers. Directed by Tizuka Yamasaki. Starring Antonio Fagundes, Luciana Rigueira, Vitor Hugo and Liicia Alves. 0 Judeu (The Jew) - Brazil/Portugal 1995 - The story Luso-Brazilian playwright who was persecuted by the Inquisition in the 18th Century. Directed by Jom Tob Azulay. With Felipe Pinheiro, Dina Sfat, Jose Lewgoy, and Fernanda Torres. 0 Monge e a Filha do Carrasco (The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter) - Brazil/ EUA 1994 - Directed by Walter Lima Jr., starring Murilo Benicio, Karina Barun, Patricia Pillar and Paul Dillon. A young Franciscan monk deals with faith and desires in 18th century Germany. Quem Matou Pixote? (Who Killed Pixote?) - Brazil - 1996 - The film tells what happened to Fernando Ramos da Silva, the boy who starred in the worldwide acclaimed film Pixote. Jose Joffily directs. With Cassiano Carneiro, Luciana Rigueira, and Joana Fomm. Tesis (Morte ao Vivo) - Spain - 1996 When preparing a college thesis about violence on movies and TV, Angela becomes a victim of the violence that she is studying. With Ana Torrent, Fele Martinez and Eduardo Noriega. Directed by Alejandro Amandbar.
Fiction 1. Novas Comedias da Vida Privada Luis Fernando Verissimo 2. 0 Mundo de Sofia Jostein Gaarder 3. Ponto de Fuga - Morris West 4. A Escolha da Dra. Cole Noah Gordon 5. Corredor da Morte V.I. (Duas Meninas) - Stephen King 6. 0 Homem que Calculava Malba Tahan 7. A Dama do Lola coo Nelson Rodrigues 8. Mas Serd o Benedito? - Mario Prata 9. N'do Es Tu, Brasil Marcelos Rubens Paiva 10. Uma Pulga na Camisola Max Nunes
Nonfiction 1. Noticia de urn Sequestro Gabriel Garcia Marquez 2. Tabacaria e Outros Poemas Fernando Pessoa 3. A Assustadora Historia da Medicina Richard Gordon 4. A Arte da Guerra: os Documentos Perdidos - Sun Tzu 5. 0 Rio do Meio - Lya Luft 6. Antonio Maria - Noites de Copacabana - Joaquim Ferreira dos Santos 7. Vislumbres da India - Octavio Paz 8. A Ferro e Fogo - A Histaria e a Devastacdo da Mate: Warren Dean 9. Cara a Cara corn as Drogas Caho Lopes 10. Zico Conta a Sua Histaria Zico
Self-Help/New Age 1. Inteligencia Emocional Daniel Goleman 2.A Profecia Celestina - James Redfield 3. A Decima Istofecia - James Redfield 4. So o Amor E Real - Brian L. Weiss 5. 0 Monte Cinco - Paulo Coelho 6. Muitas Vidas, Muitos Mestres Brian L. Weiss 7. A Cura Atraves da Terapia de Vidas Passadas - Brian L. Weiss 8. As Sete Leis Espirituais do Sucesso Deepak Chopra 9. Almas Gemeas - Monica Buonfiglio 10. Minutos de Sabedoria Simples Torres Pastorino According to weekly newsmagazine Veja BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
PEA
CHORO SPOKEN HERE 000 000
ANGELS' BALL For the 16'h year in a row, Samba e Saudade Productions is bringing to the West Coast what they call "the largest and most authentic Carnaval outside Brazil today". In previous years, the event has brought together up to 5,000 people, all eager to jump and samba the Carnaval. The organizers promise a huge display of costumes, flowing feathers, plenty of glitter, Brazilian food, beautiful women, young people and lots of Carnaval music. Once again the all-night-long party that's called Carnaval dos Angeles this year, will happen at the Hollywood Palladium. The party starts at 8 pm on February 8 and goes till 3 in the morning. You can buy your ticket through Ticket Master or call (213) 852-7119. For information you can call (213) 653-8848.
MONEY BY WESTERN UNION Thanks to a new service by Western Union — world-famous for its pioneer role in telegraph services and money tranfer — customers of Brazilian banks can now have direct deposits made from anywhere in the US to their checking accounts in Brazil. For $18, anyone can make these money transfers within 24 hours. The account holder in Brazil will be notified by phone as soon as the money transfer is completed. No membership or pre-registration is necessary. To use the service, depositors have to bring cash to any of Western Union's 20,000 plus locations in the US. There is a little form to be filled up with the name of the account holder in Brazil, the account number, as well as the name and the address of the Brazilian bank. For information in the US call (800) 325-6000. Ask for operator 77 if you want assistance in Portuguese. In Brazil, the toll-free number to call is 0800-11-9837. BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
Mandolin virtuoso Mike Marshall has proven once again that choro is alive and well. Widely known for his performances and recordings with The David Grisman Quintet, Montreux, The Modern Mandolin Quartet, and Choro Famoso, Marshall has just released his Brasil Duets on the EarthBeat label. The disc is a must for devotees of acoustic music and for those with a passion for choro. A cornucopia of choro, Brasil Duets features works by Brazil's greatest choro composers including Hermeto Pascoal, Egberto Gismonti, isixinguinha, hal do Bandolim, and Severino Ara6jo. Innovative arrangements and a stellar line up of guest artists like Jovino Santos Neto, Bela Fleck, Andy Narell, and Michael Manring make Brasil Duets a vital link in the long choro tradition of virtuoso instrumentalists that stretches back to the. turn of the century when European immigrant musicians blended their musical traditions with the African and indigenous rhythms of Brazil. This recording belongs in the collection of every serious listener of Brazilian music. Celebrate choro with Mike Marshall's Brasil Duets. For more information call 1 (800) 346-4445 or send E- mail to: mlp@igc.apc.org
Learn Another Language on Your Own! Learn to speak a foreign language fluently on ycur own and atyour own pace with what are considered the inest in-depth courses available. Many were developed by the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. Department of State for diplomatic personnel who must learn a language quickly and thoroughly. Emphasis is on learning to speak and to understand the spoken language. A typical course (equivalent to a college semester) includes an album of 10 to 12 audio cassettes (10 to 18 hours), recorded by native-born speakers, plus a 250-page textbook. Some of our Courses: $160 0 Serbo-Croatian $195 $185 0 Latin o Arabic, Saudi $185 0 German I $185 $185 0 Slovak $155 0 Latvian 0 Egyptian $185 0 Gemian II $185 $245 0 Greek $185 0 Lithuanian $135 0 Spanish! 0 Bulgarian $165 $185 0 Spanish II $185 0 Haitian Creole $225 0 Mandarin 0 Cantonese $185 $185 0 Hebrew $255 0 Norwegian $125 El Swedish 0 Catalan $225 $185 0 Swahili $195 0 Persian 0 Czech $125 0 Hungarian $295 $185 0 Tagalog $185 0 Polish 0 Danish $185 0 Italian $195 $185 0 Portuguese $215 0 Thai 0 Dutch $125 0 Japanese (Brazilian) El Turkish $195 $295 0 Khmer $22 0 Estonian $195 $115 0 Ukrainian $195 0 Romanian 0 French I $185 0 Korean $185 $225 0 Urdu $215 0 Lakota $185 0 Russian 0 French II $225 0 Vietnamese You can order now with a full 3-week money-back guarantee. Call (203) 453-9794, fax (203) 453-9774, e-mail: 74537.550@compuserve.com Or clip this ad and send with your name and address and a check or money order— or charge to any major credit card, by enclosing card number, expiration date, and your signature. Ask for our free 56-page Whole World Language Catalog with courses in 96 languages.
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213 255-8062 BRAZZIL -JANUARY 1997
FEIRA LIVRE OPEN MARKET BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
Own your own full or part-time business. Entrepreneurs sought for billion dollar US network marketing company expanding to Brazil. Highest paying company in industry. Call 1-800-9946238 for information. [133] CLASSES
Looking for a very fast, efficient, and pleasant way to learn Brazilian Portuguese? (415) 9913476 [141] COOKING
Delightful Brazilian Cooking by Eng Tie Ang, two for one sale $14.95, plus $5 shipping and handling. Over 130 authentic, quick and easy recipes. P.O. Box 30818 - Seattle, WA 98103 Phone and Fax (206) 789-3693. [142] GOURMET TRAVEL
Visiting Brazil—and planning to eat there? A great pleasure of travel is experiencing cuisines of faraway lands. The authoritative "Eat Smart" guidebooks cover foreign cuisines for travelers who enjoy learning about a culture by exploring its culinary delights. You'll find they add an extra dimension of pleasure to your travel and take the guesswork out of exotic, unfamiliar foods. EAT SMART IN BRAZIL: HOW TO DECIPHER THE MENU, KNOW THE MARKET FOODS & EMBARK ON A TASTING ADVENTURE. Ginkgo Press, Inc., PO Box 5346M, Madison, WI 53705. $14.95 postpaid. Tel: 608-233-5488. Fax: 608-233-0053 [134] HEALTH & FITNESS
Do you want to lose weight? Increase your energy? Shape and tone? Achieve your goals with a certified fitness trainer. You deserve it! Falo Portugues. Call Stephen (818)278-1330. E-mail: coopfitness@earthlink.net [133] Westside Acupuncture Clinic — Chinese herbs for sexual enhancement, weight loss and sports injuries. (310) 914-1624 [132]
English speaking communicable people. $$ 2000-4000 p/t, $$ 4000-8000 f/t. Call (310) 4702506 [133] MISCELLANEOUS
Divido conteiner para Salvador, Bahia. Junho ou julho de 1997. Deixar recado para Paul (415) 641-4254 [133]
Music Brazilian Music in its totality. Samba, bossa nova, chorinho, balk., axe, and more. Merchant Express - (800) 589-5884 Norma Blase - soft Brazilian jazz, bossa, samba. Vocal/guitar duo to larger ensemble. Oakland (510) 451-3639 [135] NEWSPAPERS & MAGAZINES
Jornais e revistas do Brasil. Recebemos jornais diarios etodas as principais revistas, incluindo masculinas e femininas. Tel. (800) 589-5884 PERSONAL WOMAN SEEKS MAN
Americana corn coracao brasileiro, bem educada, que adora a mUsica, o samba, a cultura, a linguae o povo brasileiros, queria conhecer um brasileiro solteiro de 40 anos ou mais, em boa forma, morando em New York City ou pertinho. El1en2125@aol.com [130] Attractive, sophisticated economically independent Brazilian lady seeks nice Americano 4560 for serious commitment. Write to Claudice, SQN-308 Bloco "H" Apt. 605 - Brasilia DF 70000 Brazil [124] Single Brazilian lady, 35, studying English, happy, seeks honest, outgoing American guy over 35 for friendship or more. Valeria - Rua Jaguarari, 2544 - Lagoa Nova - Natal - Rio Grande do Norte 59064-500 - Brazil [133] PERSONAL MAN SEEKS WOMAN
Extra cash! Companhia nutricional americana procura pessoas dinamicas. Junior (818) 5088753 [132]
Americano, 31, professional, physically fit, happy and outgoing seeks Brazilian Lady 20-30 who is loving, happy, attractive and willing to relocate do the USA. Thomas Graff, 6705 Horsepen Road, Richmond, Virginia, 23228. tgraff@erols.com [130]
Urgente! Wanted Portuguese-
Americano, young 44, honest,
JOB OFFERED
BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
FEIRA LIVRE RATES: 50e a word. Phone is one word. DISCOUNTS: For 3 times deduct 5%, for 6 times deduct 10%, for 12 times deduct 15%. POLICY: All ads to be prepaid. Ads are accepted at our discretion. Your canceled check is your receipt. Please, include address and phone number, which will be kept confidential. DEADLINE: The 25th of the month. Late material will be held for the following month if appropriate. TO PLACE AD: Send ad with check, money order or your Credit Card number to: BRAZZIL P.O. Box 42536 Los Angeles, CA 90050-0536. romantic, seeks brasileira 27-39. Has toured Brasil. Likes your people, music, soccer. Falo Portugues. Letter/photo to Douglas, 18 Grand Rio Cir., Sacramento, CA 95826 [125] Blue eyes, 6' tall college grad, business owner, traveler near Marina Del Rey, California, seeks a sharing, caring, sensual relationship with a petite, ethnic, Brasileira — Barrett (310) 3902586 [124] Brazilian Gaucho, 32, 5'4" tall, 118, protestant, educated, romantic, likes music, soccer, photography, seeks caring, honest, pretty lady 20-28 for friendship/ romance. Letter/photo to William, PO Box l7'l — Des Plaines, IL 60017-l'41[129] Kind, stable, passionate, American, MD, 38, seeks lady under 35 in LA area. (310) 2713168 [133] PERSONAL WOMAN SEEKS WOMAN
Brazilian lesbian looking for other lesbians for fricindship and more! Please call (213)871-8537 [132] PERSONAL MAN SEEKS MAN
Goodlooking athletic American M 32 6 185 brn/blue seeks other goodlooking Brazilian/Argentine guys 18-30 for friendship or more. I traveled to Argentina and Brazil for 6 months and loved it. Letter and photo to: Peter Eliason; 4960 Almaden Exp. #179; San Jose, California 9511 —E-mail: sjsharks7@aol.com or 1-800761-4983. [128] PERSONAL FRIENDSHIP
Quero corresponder-me corn pessoasbrasileiras para am izadc. Maria Brawley - PO Box 14632
- Las Vegas, Nevada 89114 USA (702) 432-3824 [130] Sou brasileira, tenho 16 anos, quero me corresponder com mops e rapazes. Luciene Pinto — Rua Leonardo Da Vinci, 13 — Senador Camara — CEP 21831-100 Rio, Brazil [122] PSYCHOTHERAPY
Chronic & Life Threatening illnesses, A.D.D. & dyslexia, life transitions, bicultural & relationship issues, sexual identity conflict — Edison de Mello, M.D.; Ph.D./MFCC — Portuguese/ Spanish/ English. (310) 656-6987 [137] Emotional & psychological help -Elizabete Almeida MFCC licensed psychotherapist. English/Portuguese. Reasonable rates. (310) 281-7536. [133] RELIGIOUS
Babalawo Zezito d'Oxum — 25 anos no Rio. Rua do Carmo, 15 - Parque Amorim - Belford Roxo (021) 761-1682 [133] RENTAL
Carnaval in Salvador, Bahia! Rent a room in my apt, Rio Vermelho Beach. Gilda (415) 285-3084 [133] TRANSLATION & INTERP.
English to Portuguese, technical translation. Precise, fast turnaround - Ricardo Paoletti (716) 839-5310. Fax: (716) 839-5410. E-mail: paolett@ibm.net Portuguese Service Center in Chicago - Translations, Interpretations, Trade Shows, Brazilian Portuguese Classes (312) 525-0678 [132] Tocantins Communications Portuguese translation services. Fast, reliable, affordable translations. (818) 248-3667. [134] 49
ax y our Calenda r info to (213) 257-3487, E-ma ilit to brazilnews • aol.com - ma il to P.O. Box 42536L.A., CA90050 or ca ll (213) 255-8062. Dea dline: the 5t
calendar - january 97 - u.s.a. :LIIal O.:WM=
TV & RADIO COAST TO COAST SHORT WAVE RADIO Radio Nacional da Amaz6nia - Daily, especially on evenings and early morning - 6,180 & 11,780 Khz Radiobras - All universal time - From 12 noon to 1:20 PM, in English and from 1:30 PM to 2:50 PM, in Spanish 15,445 Khz BOSTON Coragao Brasileiro - Every Monday, 8:00 PM - 10:3 PM with Dennis Miller 88.1 FM - WMBR Brazilian Style of Music Every Friday, 11:00 am 2.00 pm, 91.5 FM, WMFO with Marlon Catao CHICAGO The Sounds of Brazil - Every Saturday, 10:00 pm Midnight, 95.5 FM, W1VUA with Scott Adams Show Brazil - Every Friday, 8:00 am - 11.00 am, 91.5 FM, WMFO with Edna Moreno LOS ANGELES TV Brazil TV - Continental, Channel 38 (Fri - 9.30 pm), Buena Vision, Channels 6 & 56 (Mon - 8:30 pm), CVILBCTV, Channel 65 or 57 (Wed - 6:30 pm / Sat. - 8:00 Pm) RADIO Sounds of Brazil - Every Thursday, Noon - 2:00 pm, KPFK, 90.7 FM with Sergio Mielniczenko Brazilian Hour - Every Saturday and Sunday, 9-00 am - 10:00 am, KXLU, 88.9 FM with Sergio Mielniczenko MIAMI RADIO Brazilians Love Jazz - Every Sunday, 8:00 pm- 10:00 pm with Gina Martelli -93.9 - Love 94
so
SAN FRANCISCO
LOS ANGELES 9:00 PM -Constellation Band at Zabumba
8:00 PM - Damien's Intercambio Trio at Sol y Luna -475 Sacramento
St (415) 595-2274
BERKELEY, CAL. 9:00 PM - Adriana & Carlos Oliveira at Nino's
LOS ANGELES 9:00 PM - Constellation Band at
Zabumba
HOLLYWOOD, FLOR. 9:00 PM - Clauduarte SA at Brazil Samba
Café - (954) 920-4426
COCONUT GROVE, FLOR. 11:00 PM - Live Brazilian music at Grove Place - (305) 448-2553
LOS ANGELES 9:00 PM - Bahia Night at Zabumba 9:30 PM - MILA Samba School at Café
iimatingaimmo COCONUT GROVE FLOR.
Danssa
11:00 PM - Live Brazilian music at
7:00 PM - Sergio 2000 at Ginga Brasil
Grove Place - (305) 448-2553
111111111116/AglayMMEMIEM
HOLLYWOOD, FLOR. 9:00 PM - Clauduarte SA at Brazil
Samba Café - (954) 920-4426
LOS ANGELES 9:30 PM - MILA Samba School at
Café Danssa
ANAHEIM, CAL. 7:00 PM - Lois sings Brazil at Ginga
Brazil
EMIVI:11 FORT LAUDERDALE, FLOR. 8:30 PM & 10:30 PM - Raizes do Brasil and show de mulatas at Bra-
zil Brazil - (954) 561-8200
ANAHEIM, CAL. 7:00 PM - Lois & guest at Ginga
Brazil
LOS ANGELES 9:30 PM - Constellation Band at
ANAHEIM, CAL. FORT LAUDERDALE, FLOR. 8:30 PM & 10:30 PM - Raizes do Brasil and
show de mulatas at Brazil Brazil -(954) 5618200
ANAHEIM, CAL. 7:00 PM - Sergio with guest at Ginga Brazil
SAN FRANCISCO 9:00 PM - Entre N6s at Bahia Cabana
LOS ANGELES 9:30 PM - Constellation Band at Café
Danssa 10:00 PM - ULA Samba Band at Zabumba
LONG BEACH, CAL. 7:30 PM - SambaLA at Tony's
ummiviukil isdritaimm POMPANO BEACH, FLOR. 9:00 PM - Ricardo Fabio & Show de Mulatas at Brazilian Tropicana Restaurant
-(954) 781-1113
SAN FRANCISCO
Café Danssa 10:00 PM - ULA Samba Band at
6:00 PM - Entre Nos at Coconut Grove
Zabumba
LONG BEACH, CAL. 7:30 PM - Samba LA at Tony's
POMPANO BEACH, FLOR. 9:00 PM - Ricardo Fabio & Show de Mulatas at Brazilian Tropicana
Restaurant -(954) 781-1113
SAN FRANCISCO 6:00 PM - Entre NOs at Coconut
Grove y
• 6 LOS ANGELES 8:00 PM - Axe at Zabumba
11111.1. 11MILIMMIE
SAN FRANCISCO 8:30 PM - Gaijin at International
Film Series Venue 9 - 252 9th St. (415) 626-2169
111: [Ill azi BEW-11.111 BERKELEY, CAL.
9:00 PM - Adriana & Carlos Oliveira at Nino's
LOS ANGELES 8:00 PM - Axe at Zabumba
i :iui
ii
BERKELEY, CAL. 9:00 PM - Adriana & Carlos Oliveira at
Nino's
LOS ANGELES 9:00 PM -Constellation Band at Zabumba
.1111111116121thillitall...
HOLLYWOOD, FLOR. 9:00 PM - Clauduarte SA at Brazil Samba
Cafe - (954) 920-4426
COCONUT GROVE, FLOR. 11:00 PM - Live Brazilian music at Grove
Place - (305) 448-2553
LOS ANGELES 9:30 PM - MILA Escola de Samba at Café
Danssa
ANAHEIM, CAL. 7:00 PM - Lois sings Brazil at Ginga Brasil
111.1.1111MV
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FORT LAUDERDALE, FLOR. 8:30 PM & 10:30 PM - Raizes do Brasil and
BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
9:00 PM - Entre N6s at Bahia Cabana
POMPANO BEACH, FLOR.
ANAHEIM, CAL. 7:00 PM - Ana Robles at Ginga Brazil 9:30 PM - Constellation Band at Café Danssa
LONG BEACH, CAL.
9:00 PM - Ricardo Fabio & Show de Mulatas at Brazilian Tropicana Restaurant - (954) 781-1113
97.Naiallil
7:30 PM - SambaLa at Tony's 11111111111111162111MIAMIIM
LOS ANGELES
POMPANO BEACH, FLOR.
9:00 PM - Constellation Band at Zabumba
9:00 PM - Ricardo Fabio & Show de Mulatas at Brazilian Tropicana Restaurant -(954) 781-1113
LOS ANGELES 8:00 PM - Axe at Zabumba 1111111111.1121
POUGHKEEPSIE, NY 7:00 PM. Nego Gato, Afro-Brazilian dance and music at Bardavon Opera House - Call Ticketmaster
11111111111111
LOS ANGELES 9:00 PM -Constellation Band at Zabumba 111111.=1141gAWLIMIMIN
HOLLYWOOD, FLOR. 9:00 PM - Clauduarte Sá at Brazil Samba Café - (954) 920-4426
COCONUT GROVE, FLOR. 11:00 PM - Live Brazilian music at Grove Place - (305) 448-2553
LOS ANGELES
HOLLYWOOD, FLOR. 9:00 PM - Clauduarte Sa at Brazil Samba Café - (954) 920-4426
COCONUT GROVE, FLOR. 11:00 PM - Live Brazilian music at Grove Place - (305) 448-2553
LOS ANGELES 9:30 PM - MILA Escola de Samba at Café Danssa
ANAHEIM, CAL. 7:30 PM - Lois sings Brazil at Ginga Brasil
9:30 PM - MILA Escola de Samba at Café Danssa
COMING IN FEBRUARY
ANAHEIM, CAL. 7:30 PM - Sergio 2000 at Ginga Brasil
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLOR. 8:30 PM & 10:30 PM - Raizes do Brasil and show de mulatas at Brazil Brazil -(954) 5618200
ANAHEIM, CAL. 7:00 PM - Sergio with guest at Ginga Brazil
SAN FRANCISCO
01:1 SAN FRANCISCO 8:00 PM - The 28th Brazilian Carnaval Ball at Galleria (415) 334-0106
LOS ANGELES
LOS ANGELES
8:00 PM - Carnaval dos Angeles at Hollywood Palladium (213) 8527119
9:30 PM - Constellation Band at Café Danssa 10:00 PM - ULA Samba Band at Zabumba
8:00 PM - Brazil Carnaval '97 at US Grant Hotel (619) 566-3965
9:00 PM - Entre N6s at Bahia Cabana
ANAHEIM, CAL.
SAN DIEGO
MIAMI
S0B - 200 , Varick St. (212) 3077 17 1 Supper Club - 240 W. 47 St. (212) 921-1940 Scala Brazil - 35-50 31st St. Astoria (718) 937-0352
LOS ANGELES
Brazil Samba Cafe - Hollywood (954) 920-4426 Scala Miami -(305) 371-5604
Yoshi's -6030 Claremont Ave. (510) 652-9200
14 Below - 1348 14th St., Santa Monica -(310) 451-5040 Cafe Danssa - 11533 W. Pico BI. West L.A.- (310) 478-7866 Tony's -701 Long Beach Blvd.
NEW YORK
S. FRANCISCO
Blue Note - 131 West 3rd St. (212) 475-8592 Cafe Wha - 115 MacDougal St. - (212) 254-3706
Bahia Cabana -(415) 861-4202 Chambord - 152 Kearney St. (415) 434-3688 Coconut Grove-(415)776-1616
Ginga Brazil - 821 N. Euclid. (714) 778-0266
BERKELEY Ashkenaz - 1317 San Pablo Ave. (510) 525-5054 Nino's - 1916 Martin L. King Jr. (510) 845-9303
BRA7_ZIL - JANUARY 1997
(310) 628-9789 1,a Ve Lee - 12514 Ventura Bl. - Studio City - (818) 980-8158 Zabumba -10717 Venice Blvd Culver City - (310) 841-6525
OAKLAND, CAL.
TV & RADIO TV BTN (Brazilian TV Network) 11.00 pm - 1:00 am, DCI ch. 40, S South ch 51, Adelphia ch. 52, Gold Coast ch 99 Luqui Corporation - Jornal Bandeirantes - 11:00 pm 1.00 am, Dynamic ch 20, S South ch. 41, Gold Coast ch 44, DCI ch. 45 NEW YORK RADIO Brasil corn S - Every Saturday, 9:00 PM with Judith King, 88.3 FM - VVBGO Brazil Street Samba - Every Friday, 10.00 PM with Leo Costa & Alberto Lopes -89.9 FM - WKCR Radio Amaz6nia - Every day, 6:30 PM on short wave -6.185 MHZ TV Brazil Update - Every Saturday, 3.30 PM - Channel 69 Brazilians in America-TV Every Sunday, 5.30 PM -Channel 16 Media Flux: Brasil - Every Saturday, 4:00 PM - Ch. 16 S. FRANCISCO Brasileirinho - Every Wednesday, 9:30 PM, KZSC, 88.1 FM with Renato Frota Brasil Musical - Every Sunday, 1.00 PM - 5:00 PM, Radio Bilingue, 91.5 FM via satellite, with Ricardo and Amarina Pugh - Fresno Canta, Brasil - Every Sunday, 6:00 PM - 8.00 PM - KKUP, 91.5 FM, with Xuxu, Maria Jose and David Heyman Programa de Domingo - Every Sunday, 1:00 PM - 2.00 PM, KSQQ 96.1 FM with Lino Bugatti A Taste of Brazil - Every Sunday, 11:00 PM - 12.00 AM, KKSF, 103.7 with Dick Conte SO Da Brasil - Every Friday, 8:00 PM - 9:00 PM, KUSF, 90 3 with Jorge Lima & Simone Odom
e 3 Jo09006 VO
SAN FRANCISCO
LONG BEACH, CAL. 7:30 PM - SambaLS at Tony's
4/9Zal-14:au!•ea 7908-99Z £
show de mulatas at Brazil Brazil -(954) 5618200
. 9£9Zt, xoe 'O'd 01 pew-W00 10e•smaulgeiq col 1! New-g `L 8 t7E-L9z (c 1,z ) cq olu! Jep ualeo InoA xe
calendar - january 97 - us.a.
WASHINGTON, DC Waves of Patropi - Every Saturday, 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM, WDCU, 90 FM with Andre Lacerda
51
Boston Area Books Livraria Plenitude (800) 532-5809
Consulate Consulado G. do Brasil (617) 617-542-4000
Dentist Sylvio P. Lessa (617) 924-1882
Food & Products Aqui Brazil (617) 787-0758 Brasil Brasil (617) 561-6094 Jerry's Cachaca (617) 666-5410
Instruction Approach Student Ctr (617) 787-5401 Braz. & Amer. Lg. Inst. (617) 787-7716
Music Brazil CDs (617) 666-3747
Publications The Brazilian Monthly (617) 566-3651 Bossa: Braz. Jazz Guide (617) 262-9997
Restaurants Café Brazil (617) 789-5980 Ipanema (508) 460-6144 Tropicilia (617) 567-4422 Pampas Churrascaria (617) 661-6613
Chicago Consulate Consulado G. do Brasil (312) 464-0244
Translations Portuguese Lang. Ctr. (312) 276-6683
Los Angeles Accountant Sheila Shanker (310) 836-3436
Airlines yang (800) GO VARIG Vasp (310) 364-0160
Arts & Crafts Bakari Art Studio (213) 938-0523 Folk Creations (310) 693-2844 Culture Planet (310) 441-9808 Zebi Designs (310) 391-6530
Auto Repair Cosmo Auto Parts (213) 259-9818
Banks Banco do Brasil (213) 688-2996
Catering Joy's Catering (310) 438-3415
Churches Comunid. Evang. Bras. (310) 793-8745 Ministerios Renascer (888) RENACER 52
lothes Samba (310) 628-9789 Summer Brazil (310) 455-1772
Translation/Interp. Brazilian Int. Affairs (310) 854-5881 Tocantins Communic. (818) 248-3667
Clubs & Associations
Travel/Tours
Brazil-Cal. Chbr of Corn. (213) 975-9237 Centro Cultural Gaucho (213) 256-6548 MILA - Samba School (310) 391-6098 SambaLi -Esc. de Samba (310) 628-9789
Around the World Tn. (800) 471-6333 Brazil Air (800) 441-8515 Brazil Tours (818) 767-1200 Cheviot Hills Travel (310) 202-6264
Consulate Brazilian Consulate (213) 651-2664
Dentists Gilberto Henriques (213) 464-0524
Events Promotion Brasil 'N You Prom. (310) 928-1770 Brazilian Nites Prod. (818) 566-1111 Pegasus - Parties & Ent. (818) 549-0383
Health & Fitness Herbs from Brazil (213) 851-7016 Westside Acupuncture (310) 914-1624
Import/Export N & R International (909) 626-3656
Instruction Brasil Brasil Cult. Ctr (310) 397-3667 Modern Lang. Center (310) 839-8427
Legal Services Meiojas 8c Ferraz (310) 360-0901
Music Braz. Jazz /All Occasions (310) 839-3788 Jazz - Richard Samuels (818) 798-5424
Physician Paulo Coharte (310) 285-9670 Decio Rangel (310) 828-7454 Ingrid Rodi - Gynec. (310) 451-8144 Nilson A. Santos (213) 483-3430
Psychother/Counsel. Elizabeth Almeida M.A. (310) 281-7536 Dr. Jefferson Si (818) 592-0402
Publications Brazzil (213) 255-8062
Real Estate Cent. 21 - Solon Pereira (310) 633-0787 Cold. Banker-J. Freitas (818) 304-9562
Restaurants & Cafes Bossa Nova (310) 657-5070 Brazilian Tropical (714) 720-1522 By Brazil (310) 787-7520 Café Brasil (310) 837-8957 Ginga Brasil (714) 778-0266 Lulu's Alibi (310) 479-6007 l'olie's Brazilian Steak (714) 251-0722 Zabumba (310) 841-6525
Miami Airlines Transbrasil (800) 872-3153 yang (800) 468-2744 Vasp (800) 732-8277 Banks Banco do Brasil (305) 358-3586 Banco Nacional (305) 372-0100 Banco Real (305) 358-2433 Banespa (305) 358-9167
Clubs & Associations ABFC - As. Bras. da Flor. (407) 354-5200 Cam. Corn. Brasil- EUA (305) 579-9030 ARARA - Amazon. As. (813) 842-3161 Consulate Consulado do Brasil (305) 285-6200
Dentists Arnaldo Souza (305) 595-3238 Hidimo de Si (305) 262-8212
Food & Beverages All Braz. Imp. & Exp. (305) 523-8134 Guarani Esteves (305) 345-1540 Via Brasil (305) 866-7718
Physicians Dr. Jorge Macedo (305) 271-7311 Dr. Mario Sanches (305) 541-7819 Dr. Neri Franzon (305) 776-1412
Publications Florida Review (305) 374-5235 Green Card (954) 772-7600
Restaurants Brazilian Tropicana (305) 781-1113 Brazilian Delight (305) 374-0032 Brazilian Pie (305) 866-1001 Cheese Bread House (305) 443-5358 Gula Gula (305) 532-3636
Travel Agencies Brazilian Wave (305) 561-3788 Discover Brazil Tours (800) 524-3666 Euroamerica (305) 358-3003 International Tours (800) 822-1318 Luma Travel (305) 374-8635 Monark Travel (305) 374-5855
New Port Tours (305) 372-5007 Venture Travel (305) 379-7678 Via Brasil Travel (305) 866-7580
New York N. Jersey Books Luso-Brazilian Books (800) 727-LUSO
Clubs & Associations Brazilian Ch. of Corn. (212) 575-9030 Brazilian Corn. Bureau (212) 916-3200 Brazilian Trade Bur. (212) 224-6280
Consulate Brazilian Gen. Cons. (212) 757-3080 Food & Products Amazonia (718) 204-1521 Colas Nossa (201) 578-2675 Merchant Express (201) 589-5884
Publications The Brasilians (212) 382-1630 Brazilian Voice (201) 955-1137 OCA Magazine (516) 596-1853 Portugal-Brasil News (212) 228-2958 Samba Newsletter (718) 937-0574
Restaurants Brasilia (212) 869-9200 Brazil 2000 (212) 877-7730 Brazilian Pavillion (212) 758-8129 Cabana Carioca (212) 581-8088 Indigo Blues (212) 221-0033 S.O.B. (212) 243-4940 Tapaj6s River (201) 491-9196
Travel Agencies Barb Tour Service (201) 313-0996 Odyssea Travel Service (212) 826-3019
San Diego Attorney Ivan Porto (800) 314-4826
Clubs & Associations Clube Bras. San Diego (619) 295-0842 Sunday Night Cl. Brazil (619) 233-5979
Import/Export Brazil Imports (619) 234-3401
Money Remittance Vigo-California (619) 479-VIGO
San Francisco Airlines Varig (415) 986-5737 Vasp (800) 732-VASP
Attorney
Manoel Faria (510) 537-3533 Ralph Baker (510) 444-8100
Auto Nilson Auto Body (415) 255-6717 Marts Auto Body (415) 565-3560
Beauty Salon Bibbo (415) 421-BIBO Carmen's International (415) 433-9441 Neyde's (415) 681-5355
Clubs & Associations B.A.S.O. (415) 661-2788 Bay Area Brasilian Club (415) 334-0106 Brazilian Cult. Movem. (415) 437-6991
Computer Micronet (415) 665-1994
Consulate Brazilian Consulate (415) 981-8170
Dance Instruction Aquarela (510) 548-1310 Brazil Culture & Arts (510) 215-8202 Ginga Brasil (510) 428-0698 Escola Nova de Samba (415) 661-4798 Samba do Coracao (415) 826-2588 Samba, Swing & Suor (415) 282-7378
Dental Care Roberto Sales, DDS (510) 451-8315
Events Promotion F. B. C. Events (415) 334-0106 Nativa Productions (408) 286-9798 Food Brazilian Coffee Dist. (415) 648-5966 California Produce (415) 586-6200 HGC Imp. Wholesale (408)947-85!!
Instruction Portuguese - A. Frame (510) 339-9289 Portuguese Lang. Serv. (415) 587-4990
Money Remittance Brasil Express (415) 673-0262 Vigo (415) 863-0218 West Brazil (415) 695-9258
Music Celia Malheiros (415) 738-2434 Damien's Intercimbio (415) 595-2274 Fogo na Roupa (510) 464-5999 Marcos Silva (510) 945-0138 Terra Sul (415) 752-9782 Viva Brazil (415) 342-8508 Voz do Brazil (415) 586-2276
Musical Instruments Tamborim & Samba
(415) 871-2201
Physician Dr. Guilherme Salgado (415) 832-6219
Printing M. C. Printing (510) 268-8967
Publications Brazil Today (510) 526-1115 Brazzil (415) 587-4990
Restaur./Night Clubs Bahia Cabana (415) 861-4202 Balboa Braz. Rest. (415) 387-1118 Café do Brasil (415) 626-6432 Café Mardi Gras (415) 864-6788 Canto do Brasil (415) 626-8727 Colusa Restaurant (415) 526-1500 Joao's Restaurant (408) 244-1299 Little Rio (415) 441-3344 Michelangelo Café (415) 986-4058 Mozzarela Di-Bufala (415) 346-9888 Nine's (510) 845-9303 Paulo's Juice Bar (415) 437-0839 Stelladoro (415) 928-2662 Tropicilia (408) 471-0294
Translation Port. Lang. Services (415) 587-4990
Travel Agencies Rio Roma (415) 921-3353 Santini Tours (510) 843-2363 Travel Americas (415) 334-0404 Tropical Travel (510) 655-9904 Tucanos Travel (415) 454-9961 Winship Travel (415) 863-2717
ashington DC Area Airlines Transbrasil (202) 775-9180 yang (202) 331-8913 Vasp (202) 822-8277
Banks Banco do Brasil (202) 857-0320 Banco do Est. de S. Paulo (202) 682-1151
Clubs & Associations Braz. Am. Cult. Inst. (202) 362-8334 Inst. of Brazil. Business (202) 994-5205
Embassy Embaixada do Brasil (202) 745-2700
Travel Agencies Intern. Discount Travel (703) 750-0101 Washington Travel (703) 527-6977 BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
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An excerpt
Ringing in the new year Nowhere in Brazil are the New Year's eve celebrations more awe-inspiring than on Copacabana Beach in Rio where the Festival of lemanja, the goddess of the sea, is celebrated. Throughout the country people have different traditions to start the new year. On New Year's Day, many towns held a boat parade honoring Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes (Our Lady of Sailor). Then there are the Folia de Reis (Festival of Kings), Con_gada, pastoris and Burnba-meu-Boi, all celebrated in rural areas. REBECCA A. LAUER In Brazil, New Year's Eve is called the Reveillon, a name that comes from the French word reveiller, meaning "to awaken." The Revelllon, as the term is used in Brazil, literally means — "to awaken the new year" — and Brazilians set out to do just that. While Christmas in Brazil is a private and holy occasion, New Year's Eve is ushered in with a loud, public, and spectacular bang in a colorful mixture of American, European, and African celebrations. On this night there are a host of things to do, a wide variety of activities to enjoy. All-night celebrations take place throughout Brazil, including formal balls and dinner parties in the cities, as well as more casual get-togethers in rural and urban areas alike. Along the coast, spectacular fireworks displays light up the beaches. The city of Sao Paulo stages an international running marathon with a cast of thousands, while Rio de Janeiro offers an all-day and all-night festival in honor of Iemanja., an African goddess of the sea. There's truly something for everyone in Brazil on this special night. Many Brazilians believe that eating a portion of lentils exactly at midnight on New Year's Eve ensures prosperity for the upcoming year, so lentils are often found on New Year's Eve menus and on buffet tables. Wearing new clothes on New Year's Eve is also a tradition in Brazil. In the evening, some of the more affluent Brazilians enjoy spectacular balls and formal parties hosted by large hotels and nightclubs, or celebrate with friends at private parties. In the large cities, many people get all dressed up for the Reveillon festivities. The women wear colorful ballgowns or elaborate dresses with headdresses, some reminiscent of Carnaval costumes. The men wear formal "black tie" attire. Like New Year's Eve celebrations around the world, Brazil's R8veillon is a festive, all-night affair. Popular Brazil-
54
ian music is played by lively musicians, while people toot on party horns and bright-colored confetti falls on the crowd. As the customary New Year's Eve countdown begins, the crowd falls silent. When the clock strikes midnight, custom dictates that every Brazilian woman greet three men before she greets another woman. The same holds true for the men — they must greet three women before they acknowledge another man. This custom is meant to ensure that the person will be lucky in love. Afterward, everyone welcomes the new year with loud shouts of laughter and joy. People throw themselves into each other's arms, hugging and kissing and wishing each other Feliz Ano Ncvo, which is Portuguese for "Happy New Year." Spectacular fireworks displays can be seen — and heard — outside. Church bells ring in the new year, and shrill blasts from car horns and sirens add to the joyful din. From every direction, Roman candles shoot high into the sky, firecrackers bang, and brilliant flares light up the night. The singing and dancing go on until the wee hours of the dawn — and not till then does anyone even consider going home. After all, it is the Reveillon, and nobody loves a party more than the Brazilians. For man), the Reveillon is actually the start of Carnaval — Brazil's most spectacular festival. Carnaval is famous worldwide for its elaborate parades, costume balls, and frenzied, nonstop festivities. Although this grand celebration does not officially start until four days before Lent, many Brazilians get in the Carnaval spirit early and celebrate New Year's Eve with the same joyous abandon. This is especially true at many of Rio de Janeiro's big nightclubs and hotels. Jazz and popular music are played in the early evening, but after the stroke of midnight, the Carnaval music begins. From then till dawn, the people dance to the rhythmic beat of the samba and the lambada The samba is the national
BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
music of Brazil, while the lambada is a newer rhythm, but both are very popular throughout the country. On New Year's Eve, however, the vast majority of Brazilians forego these elaborate affairs and opt for something more informal. Many people simply get together at a friend's house for an intimate, private party. They generally dress casually — blue jeans and T-shirts for the men, and often for the women as well. It is very hot in Brazil at this time of year, and loose, lightweight clothing is preferred. These impromptu parties, which start around 8 or 9 o'clock in the evening, are no less festive than the grandest celebrations in the best Brazilian hotels and nightclubs. Brazilians are masters at creating their own entertainment. Whenever more than three or four people get together in Brazil, there is always someone who can play a musical instrument, someone who can sing, and someone who can dance. The festivities start when one person strums a guitar or bursts into song. Others join in with musical instruments made with whatever is on hand. For example, beans are shaken in a glass jar or an aluminum can, and forks will be tapped against glasses or plates. Even matchboxes can be shaken to add a rhythmic rattle. Many everyday household items are thus transformed into percussion instruments by the innovative Brazilians. Also, in any gathering, there is always someone who had the foresight to bring along an acoustic guitar, or And another partygoer is sure to arrive with a pandeiro, or tambourine. This is all Brazilians need to get the music, and the party, started, and everyone joins in the singing. Shyness is the one thing that is frowned upon, and no one is allowed to sit on the sidelines. Usually the infectious music of the samba proves irresistible, and everyone is soon singing and dancing. There is plenty of wine and champagne to accompany the music. As midnight draws near, the party may move to the beach. A fire is built on the sand, blankets are spread out, and snacks are served. Then champagne is poured, and everyone waits for the fireworks to start. This is a simple yet beautiful way to celebrate the Reveillon — under the stars at the ocean's edge. While only those living along the coast can spend New Year's Eve on the beach, Brazilians everywhere enjoy fireworks displays in local parks or fields. But nowhere in Brazil are the outdoor celebrations more flamboyant, rambunctious, and just plain awe-inspiring than on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. To fully grasp the splendor of these festivities, it helps to know something about the area. Rio de Janeiro enjoys one of the
BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
most spectacular geographical settings next day. For believers, it is a time to in the world. The city lies on beautiful give thanks to lemanja for all the blessGuanabara Bay and is rimmed by sandy ings of the past year and to ask for her beaches and a sparkling blue lagoo . good will during the upcoming twelve Forested mountains rise to the north an months. As many as 200,000 celebrants west. Rio de Janeiro has more than 5 may flock to Copacabana Beach carrymiles (80 kilometers) of beaches, ing candles and flowers. cluding the world-famous Copacabana Almost everyone is dressed in white and Ipanema, names synonymous wit — the color of prosperity, peace, and sun and surf. And, dominating the Ian good luck. Many of the women wear scape, the famous cone-shaped Sug r billowing white skirts adorned with Loaf Mountain rises from a peninsula i ruffles and lace and wrap white turbans the bay. Then there's the city of Ri around their heads. Others wear simpler itself, energetic, thriving, and devote white robes. Flowers may be worn as to pleasure. necklaces or used to adorn the hair. Amid all this natural and artifici 1 Sometimes the person actually performbeauty, the people of Rio hold one ofth ing the ritual to lemanja is dressed in nation's largest and most distinctly Br blue. zilian celebrations — the Festival o As night falls, thousands of white Iernanja. This festival is an African spini candles are placed in the sand, turning tualist ceremony that honors lemanj the famous crescent-shaped bay of the goddess or queen of the sea. Copacabana Beach into a shimmering In Brazil today, African spiritualism carpet of light. Drums begin to roll. is a major religion, and African spiritu- Believers dance, sing, and convulse alist beliefs are intermixed to a large when, according to myth, Iemanja endegree with those of the Roman Catho- ters their bodies and possesses them. lic faith. Followers of these mystical', Everybody, believers and nonbelievcolorful faiths hold elaborate rituals in ers alike, pays tribute to Iemanja by which the spirits of the dead are said to bringing her gifts. Iemanja is a vain communicate with the living through a creature who likes to receive jewelry, medium, or living person. Spiritualism mirrors, flowers and money. Often, Brawas originally brought to Brazil by Af- zilians put their gifts in little wooden rican slaves hundreds of years ago. boats — some painted white and up to African spiritualism in Brazil today two or three feet (60 to 90 centimeters) includes several different sects. Can- long — and then cast them out to sea. domble, reputed to be the "pure" Afri- According to legend, if your gift floats can religion, is found mainly in Bahia, out to sea, lemanja finds it acceptable state in northeastern Brazil often con and you will have a good year. If your sidered the "soul" of Brazil. Umbanda, gift washes ashore, however, it is not a a sect that blends African beliefs an good sign, and the following year will Roman Catholicism, is found mainly i not be a happy one. Usually the waves the south and central regions ofthe coun wash all the gifts out to sea, and Braziltry. ians go home happy and relaxed, confiMany people who view themselve dent that the new year will be a good as Catholics participate in Umbanda o one. Candomble rituals. A well-known jok Of course, to gain Iemanja's favor, it about religion in Brazil says: "In Brazil, is necessary to give her generous gifts 80 percent of the people are Catholic — a stingy offering simply will not do. and the remaining 90 percent are So, more often than not, the little boats Umbandists." This reflects the degree to are laden with fine combs, brushes, which African spiritualist beliefs, once bracelets, earrings, and perfume— gifts forbidden by Europeans, have gained that a proud, beautiful woman would acceptance in Brazil. like to receive. Iemanja is also given The Festival oflemanja may be called expensive wines, as well as bouquets of an Umbanda ritual, since it combines white roses, lilies, and other flowers. African and Catholic beliefs. Over the Sometimes boats are weighed down with centuries, belief in the goddess lemanja bananas, grapes, pineapples, waterhas become intertwined with devotion melon, and other tropical fruits intended to the Virgin Mary. In pictures and stat- to please the fickle Iemanja. ues, lemanja is often depicted much like At the stroke of midnight, when Christ's mother, dressed in a white gown Iemanja receives her gifts, thousands of with a blue robe draped over her head. people run into the ocean carrying their On New Year's Eve, a colorful celebra- presents. Some simply toss their gifts tion is held in Iemanja's honor. Early in into the foamy waters, while others cast the morning on December 31, hundreds them forth in the wooden boats. Then, of thousands of her followers gather with great joy and exuberance, the people along the shore at Copacabana Beach. run into the water, clothes and all, alMany people who do not subscribe lowing the waves to splash them seven to the African religions nevertheless turn times. According to tradition, you can out for this unusual and incredibly beau- ask Iemanja for a favor or make a wish tiful celebration that lasts till dawn the each time a wave hits you. To some this
55
may seem to be sheer superstition, but have the stamina to go the entire disto others it is lots of fun and just might tance. Still others are professional runbring good luck and prosperity in the ners who have traveled far to compete in this event. Then there are those who coming year. Some Brazilians say that if you do decide to run at the last minute and, not believe in Candomble or Umbanda unless they are in very good physical before you go to the festival of Iemanja, condition, will find it difficult to keep up with the pros and seasoned runners. you will believe in them afterward. I Friends and relatives also turn out in It's hard to resist the raw energy and droves to watch their runners and cheer universal joy of this event. As if all this were not enough, the them on. Avenida Paulista is awash in a night sky, usually peaceful, suddenly sea of people at this time, and streets roars from its slumber with the sounds along the race's route are blocked off to and lights of a hundred fireworks. To accommodate the runners and crowds. The runners — highly visible in everyone's delight, the big hotels along Copacabana Beach compete with one bright-colored shorts, tank tops, and another to see who can put on the most professional running shoes — stretch, impressive display. The end result is at jump, jog in place, and do last-minute least half an hour of bursting, brilliant warm-up exercises before the race officially begins. The energy level is high as fireworks. In recent years, Rio's Festival of starting time draws near. Finally, the signal is given and the lemanja has been imitated by other coastal cities interested in attracting runners are off with a joyful roar. Like more tourist business. However, none horses penned up too long, they bolt of the others can match the glorious from the starting point, breaking through spectacle at Copacabana Beach. Every the fragile ribbon. Soon they are all year, people come from every part of sprinting at a steady pace, while the Brazil and from all over the world to crowd, caught up in the excitement, shouts encouragement. Great athletes witness this event. No matter where the Festival of from all over the world can be seen Iemanja is held, the dancing and music jogging next to normally sedentary continue long into the night. Some of businesspeople. When the race is over, the winners the celebrants do not leave the beaches till early dawn. When they do go home, receive prizes. Awards are given to the exhausted, they may sleep well into the first man and the first woman who finish the race, and to the runners-up. next day. Although this marathon still draws On New Year's Eve in Brazil, another popular event, known as the tremendous crowds, the race has underCorrida de Sao Silvestre (Saint gone a change in recent years that has Sylvester's Race), takes place. The race, proved unpopular with many Brazilians. held in downtown Sao Paulo, is an Since its inception, Saint Sylvester's international marathon that attracts race had always started exactly at the thousands of runners every year. No stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve. special qualifications are required to Recently, however, the starting time was enter. Every man, woman, and youth changed, and now the marathon is held age 16 and up is welcome, and the in the afternoon. Runners and residents of Sao Paulo handicapped can also participate. The Corrida de Sao Si/yes/re, first have criticized the change. Runners preheld in 1924, became an international ferred to race in the cooler early morning hours, rather than in the race in 1945. The marathon, which heat of the afternoon sun. starts and ends on Avenida And many bystanders Paulista, Sao Paulo's main enjoyed the comavenue, is a circular race Thousands of bined festivities of (a race in which the runwhite candles are placed in the sand, Saint Sylvester's ners start and end at turning Copacabana Race and New the same point). The Beach into a shimmering Year's Eve. run participants carpet of light. Drums Over the slightly more than 8 begin to roll. Believers years, however, miles (13,500 meters), dance, sing, and Saint Sylvester's almost twice as far as convulse when lemanja enters their bodies Race has become the original length of and possesses a popular televised the race. em. event, with millions Thousands gather eaof viewers watching it at gerly to take part in the event home. It was thought that more or cheer on the runners. Participants may have prepared for weeks or even viewers would be able to see the race months — rising in the early dawn and if it was run in the afternoon, and inrunning 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) a day to deed, this has proved to be the case. Whether or not Saint Sylvester's get in shape for the marathon. Many have used every spare moment to jog, Race will ever move back to its tradiexercise, and work out so that they will tional time slot remains to be seen, but
for now, the Corrida de Sao Silvestre is held in the afternoon. Of course, the new scheduling allows people to enjoy the race in the afternoon and take part in night-time festivities too. There is much to do on New Year's Eve in Brazil — many parties to attend and activities to enjoy. No one gets much sleep on New Year's Eve. And why should they? It is the Reveillon, and the very word reveillon means "to awaken the new year." If the new year was ever asleep, it is surely awake now — after Brazilians have finished celebrating it as only Brazilians could. THE PARTY GOES ON What do Brazilians do after all the excitement of Christmas and New Year's Eve is over? Do they relax and unwind? Well — yes, but not for long. In this South American country, the celebrations continue for up to a week after Christmas and New Year's Eve have come and gone. On New Year's Day, for example, a boat parade honors Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes (Our Lady of Sailors). Then there is the Folia de Reis (Festival of Kings), a month-long religious festival celebrated in rural areas of central Brazil. There is also the Congada, an end-ofthe-year festival held in many Brazilian cities. Then there are the pastoris, theater productions of the Nativity scene that are descendants of old Portuguese traditions. And finally there is the Bumbameu-Boi, a play based on a folk tale about a slain ox. While most of these affairs are local celebrations that reflect the customs of the people living in a particular region, the boat procession in honor of Our Lady of Sailors is celebrated in many areas of Brazil. Held on New Year's Day, this gala fete marks the time when seafarers everywhere pay tribute to Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes, who watches over them. This Roman Catholic ceremony is widely attended in Brazil, not only for its religious significance, but also for its entertainment value. It is a flamboyant, lively affair that attracts viewers of all ages. On New Year's Day, hundreds of boats of every size and shape appear on the nation's rivers and coastal waters. Nearly every kind of boat is represented — from simple schooners and fireboats to luxury yachts, from sailboats to motorboats and speedboats. And every one is dressed for the occasion — festooned with flowers, bright with banners and Brazilian flags, and often adorned with colored lights. Brazilians crowd the shoreline by the thousands, all eager to get the best view. They spread out their blankets, break open the cold drinks, and enjoy the parade. The weather is usually ideal for this occasion — bright, hot, and sunny — and children especially enjoy
this colorful water parade. It is a magnificent sight, with one beautifully decorated boat after another floating leisurely by. It is not unusual for 100 boats or more to take part in this procession. In no order whatsoever — the humble schooner next to the elegant yacht — they sail proudly by. Each boat maneuvers at will, finding its own place with no thought of an orderly line-up. For several hours they sail side-by-side, each one offering up thanks to Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes for protecting it at sea during the year. To ask for her blessing and protection during the upcoming year as well, a Catholic ceremony is held at the end of the parade. The boat processions end near a church, preferably one called Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes. A street procession begins where the boat parade left off. Several Brazilians carry a statue ofNossa Senhora dos Navegantes to the church on a platform, accompanied by a cheering and joyful crowd. Many people sing songs and hymns in honor of this very special day for those who sail the sea. As the street procession makes its way toward the church, the statue is carried up to the altar with great ceremony. The statue of Our Lady of Sailors is blessed, and a special Catholic ritual is performed in her honor. Onlookers crowd the church to witness the blessing ofNossa Senhora dos Navegantes. After the ceremony, some people may linger, singing and dancing in the streets, while others go back to their boats and sail home — content in the knowledge that it will be another safe year at sea, now that they are once again under the protection of Our Lady of Sailors. The feast of Our Lady of Sailors has always been an important celebration in Brazil, for several reasons. First, Brazil was originally discovered by Portuguese seafarers, and second, most Brazilians still live along the coast, so boating and sailing are a big part of their lives. It is only natural, then, that they would seek the protection of Our Lady of Sailors against the sometimes treacherous Atlantic Ocean and the mighty Amazon River. In the rural areas of central Brazil at this time of year, people celebrate a quite different tradition. Known as the Folia de Reis (the Festival of Kings), it is both an end-of-the-year celebration and a tribute to os Tres Reis Magos (the Three Wise Men). In addition, the Folia de Reis is a time when each village or town pays homage to its patron saint. In Brazil, nearly every city and village has elected a particular saint to watch over their city, and custom dictates that homage be paid to that saint at this time. The Folia de Reis festival officially starts on December 24th and ends on
BRA7_7_11. - JANUARY 1997
January 6th, Three Kings' Day. In somb way through the village, stopping at areas, however, the singing and dancing every house to ask for donations to premay begin as early as December 20th pare for the Santos Reis (the Saints' and last until January 20th, St. Sebas- Kings' Party) on January 6th. The tian's Day. Reisados are given food and drink at During the month-long festival, each house they visit. Sometimes these religious groups known as masked revelers travel on horseReisados parade back through the countrythrough the streets, side to reach their next Usually the playing musical ininfectious music of destination. Other times the samba proves struments and they go on foot. irresistible, and everyone singing songs. At the first house is soon singing and These religious they visit when they dancing. There is plenty of groups are made arrive at a village, they wine and champagne to up of local celare served food that is accompany the music. As ebrants, and it ofmidnight draws near, the specialty of that rethe party may move ten seems as gion or town. Typical to the beach. though every man, Brazilian favorites may woman, and child in also be served, such as the village has joined in feijoada and churrasco. the revelry. The Reisados put Feijoada, the national dish of Brazil, on a show that rivals some of the best was originally created by Brazilian theatrical presentations in Brazil. Wear- slaves. Black beans are the basis of this ing bright costumes and masks of al- dish, and dried beef, bacon, salted pork, most every variety and color, they strut, ox tongue, and pig's ears may be added. jump, and leap into the air as they parade The mixture is spiced with garlic, bay down the street. The masks—sometimes leaves, and onions, and is often accomscary, sometimes animal-like — are al- panied by white rice, farofa, kale, and most always innovative creations of the oranges. Churrasco too is a very popurevelers themselves. Some are elaborate lar Brazilian dish. It consists of a variety creations featuring feathers and face- of barbecued meats. paint, while others are simple masks Afterward, there is more singing and made of paper or plastic that can be dancing. Often the songs are about the easily taken off. Even the children wear birth of Christ. In spite of all the merrymasks or have their faces made up to making and theatrical overtones, the disguise their true identities. And some primarily religious nature of this festirevelers wear elaborate cone-shaped hats val is apparent. Whenever the Folia de and other colorful attire. Reis takes place on Christmas Eve, the Still other Reisados go a step further Reisados take part in a procession with and dress up as clowns. The clowns four distinctly religious parts. interact with the bystanders, playfully The first of these is the tradition of entertaining them, and sometimes teas- attending midnight Mass on Christmas ing the crowd into joining the parade, or Eve. At exactly midnight, the Reisados coaxing people to sing and dance with offer up a song in front of the altar or the them. Nativity scene. As they approach the The Reisados use a wide variety of altar, the Reisados make the sign of the musical instruments during the Folia de cross and kneel down in reverence. They Reis. Many people play apandeiro (tam- then sing a Christmas hymn, and afterbourine), zabumba (big round drum), or ward, as they are leaving the church, tamborim (a very small drum played they join in a farewell chant. Their conwith a long stick). Others may squeeze tribution adds considerable charm to the lively sound from a sanfona, a small Missa do Gabo and is enjoyed by all. accordion. In addition, there are always The second part of this ritual procesmen and boys who add the sweet music sion is called The Chant of the Door. of a Brazilian violin, known as a rabeca, The revelers go from house to house to the street parade. Everyone plays with during Christmas night to awaken and great exuberance and often with great greet the people. According to tradition, skill. The Brazilians are a very musical the head ofthe household is the only one people, and no one would think of stand- who may open the door to the Reisados, ing on the sidelines when they could and he may do this only after they have join in the festivities and start dancing finished their first song or chant. There and singing themselves. are two exceptions to these rules, howDuring every Folia de Reis proces- ever. If it is raining, or if the door is sion, no matter how small, there is al- already open, the Reisados need not ways an estandarte, or saint's flag. wait for a formal invitation — they can Sometimes several estandartes are car- just walk right in! They usually enter a• ried aloft in one procession. Usually it is house singing and dancing, to the dea great honor to carry the estandarte, light of the entire family. They are exand every village has its own unique pected and welcome guests, and an abunsaint's flag. dance of food and drink has already The Reisados gradually make their been laid out for them. The Reisados,
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who have worked up quite an appetite also a delightful variety of food and after all that singing and dancing, eat drink available at the Congada. At the heartily from the feast set before them. end of the festivities, a huge dinner is Sometimes they even receive small gifts prepared and served for all the musifor their efforts. cians and other participants. Again, the The next part of this procession is dishes offered include the specialties of known as The Chant of Saluting the the city or region, as well as other popuStable. The Reisados go to the village lar Brazilian dishes. The Congada, like stable, or presepio, where they kneel the Folia de Reis, is an exotic and playdown and pay their respects to the baby ful affair —the kind of religious festival Jesus. Then everyone joins in a short that could only be found in Brazil. chant. After the religious traditions have Another event unique to Brazilian been observed, everyone breaks into a culture is a sort of folklore theater known sort of tap dance known as the Lundu — as the pastor!!. Derived from old Portuthe fourth and last part of the proces- guese traditions that celebrated the Nasion, and one that is obviously enjoyed tivity, the pastoris today are theatrical by all. The Lundu is a happy dance, presentations that revolve around the perhaps the most free-spirited and ener- pastoras,. or shepherdesses, who have getic part of the Christmas Eve proces- the lead roles. The pastoras sing songs sion. The Folia de Reis may attract any- and perform dances that may be either where from a dozen people to more than religious or secular in nature. For ina thousand, depending on the size of the stance, a dance called "The Seduction" village or town. portrays the devil trying to influence a Another festive celebration similar little shepherdess toward evil. Then there to the Folia de Reis is the Congada. Like are three free-spirited dances known as the Folia de Reis, the Congada is a the "Butterfly Dance," the "Gypsy religious festival that commemorates the Woman Dance," and the "Ribbons end of the year. However, it differs from Dance." The pastoras may also sing a the Folia de Reis in that the Congada is series of songs known as the Chulas celebrated primarily in the cities rather Like everything else in Brazil, these than the rural areas. The Congada is folklore productions are colorful, sponalso an occasion when a city's patron taneous, and uninhibited. They are persaint is honored, and it is every formed throughout the Christbit as flamboyant, lively, and mas season in many regions free-spirited as the Folia of Brazil, and are much What do de Reis. The celebraenjoyed by the BraBrazilians do after tions include a street zilian people. the excitement of procession made up of Perhaps the Christmas and New musicians, singers, Year's Eve is over? Do most significant they relax and unwind? and dancers. Many of festivity of the Well --- yes, but not for the same musical inseason is the Bumlong. The celebrations struments are used, ba-meu-Boi, or continue for a week after and many of the same Beating of the Bull. New Year's Eve has songs are sung. Also come and gone. This theatrical event like the Folia de Reis, takes place throughcrowds of people particiout Brazil, and is espepate in the Congada. Men and cially elaborate in the Northwomen may wear straw hats with muleast. Of all the events of the holiday ticolored streamers so thick and long season, the Bumba-meu-Boi is the one that they cover the wearer almost from that most clearly shows the blending of head to toe. Many people play a musical the African, Indian, and Portuguese ininstrument as they make their way fluences on the Brazilian culture. through the city. The Bumba-meu-Boi is a story about Like rural people at the Folia de a bull. There are many variations of the Reis, urban dwellers carry the estandarte story, depending on the region in which or saint's flag of the city's patron saint, it is performed. In one version, the bull, and anywhere from one to a dozen who dances and leaps among the audiestandartes are carried in the proces- ence, is killed by a cowboy to prepare a sion. City people enjoy their Congada meal for his lover. When the cattle owner every bit as much as rural folks enjoy discovers that his bull is missing, he their Folia de Reis, and thousands of demands that the cowboy produce it, people turn out for the celebration. Hun- threatening to kill the cowboy if the ox dreds more actually participate, includ- is not returned. A folk doctor, called a ing many children. This combination curador, revives the bull and saves the end-of-the-year and patron saint's cel- cowboy's life. ebration is especially enjoyable for The bull costume is a structure made young children — a time to wear color- of wood, wire, and cloth. Velvet or flowful hats, dress up, and participate in a ery cotton covers a mesh foundation. musical parade. Even those who don't The bull's head is usually made of actively join in the Congada enjoy painted papier-mache, and flowers or watching it from the sidelines. There is ribbons often adorn the horns. The play
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lasts for several hours. Costumes may be extremely elaborate, and music, rhyme, and dance are often incorporated. In some regions, the play is known by another name, such as Boi-de-Mascaras, Boi-de-Orquestra, or Folguedo do Boi. With the arrival of Three Kings' Day on January 6th, the Christmas season in Brazil is officially over. Schools and businesses are closed in observance of this holy day, sometimes called Epiphany, which commemorates the visit of the Magi to the holy infant Jesus. In some parts of Brazil, an old Portuguese custom is still practiced on the eve of Epiphany. On this night, children put their shoes beside the window or outside the door, hoping to find them filled with treats in the morning. Usually they are not disappointed. According to myth, it is the Three Wise Men who fill the shoes with goodies, though cold logic might suggest that this task falls to the parents. Regardless, on January 6th, children find their shoes filled with chocolates and other goodies — a fitting end to the Christmas season. Three Kings' Day is also the time when many Brazilians take down their Christmas trees and presepios. Street decorations and Christmas lights are dismantled, and shopping mall and boutiques replace their Christmas displays with something new. The Christmas season is over. There are no more end-ofthe-year celebrations, no more special Christmas observances to keep, and no more rowdy pastoris. This does not mean, however, that the festivities in Brazil are over. On the contrary, now that the Christmas season is over, there is only one thing for Brazilians to do: start preparing for the next big celebration — Carnaval. Carnaval is the culmination of all the summer festivities — including Christmas, New Year's Eve, and the various end-of-the-year celebrations. This four-day extravaganza is famous the world oVer for the sheer size and extravagance of its street parades, costumes, and balls — to say nothing of the nonstop singing and dancing. Although it won't take place until February, Carnaval is a perfect way to end the summer season, and it gives everyone something to look forward to now that Christmas is over. And in Brazil, everyone needs at least one more festival to look forward to. After all, what is life without a celebration? This excerpt has originally appeared in Christmas in Brazil by Rebecca A. Lauer, published by World Book, Inc., Chicago, IL, 1991.
BRAZZIL - JANUARY 1997
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