RAPIDINHAS

Behavior

Pretty
Baby

Brazil's latest sex symbol is still a teen. Deborah Secco, the star of Suave Veneno (Mild Poison)—the top TV novela (soap opera) on Brazil at the moment, seems like an old pro, but she is a mere 19. As precocious as they come, she has a ten-year career on TV, has been married for almost two years and has just been given what in Brazil is a seal of achievement and coming of age: the cover of Playboy magazine. She is in the August issue, gracing not only the cover but also 24 pages inside.

Deborah seems to be puzzled by all the fuss around her: "It's funny to see myself as a sex symbol. I don't feel like I am one. I am still the same little girl. I have nothing to complain about though. I'm living the best phase of my life."

In an interview with Rio's daily O Dia, Secco declared: "There are millions of women more sensuous than myself. One day I was looking in a magazine at a list of the 100 sexiest women in the world. I didn't think I would make it. And I couldn't believe it when I saw myself in 11th place between Sharon Stone and Cindy Crawford. After me there were Meg Ryan and Liv Tyler. All gorgeous women. We haven't the slightest idea what we mean to people. I always thought about myself as a normal girl. I know millions of women who are prettier than I am."

Secco traveled to Los Angeles recently to have her pictures taken in the nude. She was photographed by celebrity photographer J. R. Duran, who among other things made her pose with a rubber frog on her belly (the caption: A modern fable. Is she going to lick the frog?) and sucking on a baby bottle (the legend in English: Oh! Pretty woman!.. )

Did she feel embarrassed or ill at ease with the Playboy experience? "Not at all," she says. "Posing was easy. I loved it. I thought all the pictures were gorgeous. The difficult part was to choose the best among the three thousand. Of course to pose in the nude is very good for your ego. It means that you are desired."

Deborah has already bought an apartment and a car with the money she got, but has not decided what to do with the pay from Playboy. "I never in my life thought I would be able to make so much money." How much? She will not reveal. "I cannot say due to the contract I've signed with them."

Her only worry now is that her image can be damaged by so much exposure. She has been cutting down on the interviews she gives and intends to take a break from TV as soon as she ends her participation in Globo's Suave Veneno, where she is Marina, a character whose main goal is to nab a rich husband. Marina da Silva Coelho spends most of her days on the beach, showing off and trying to catch the big fish. Deborah's character has caused a stir among some soccer star women who feel ridiculed by Marina.

The soap opera written by Aguinaldo Silva was—according to the author—inspired by Shakespeare's King Lear. Waldomiro, the main character, is a businessman from Pernambuco known as the Marble Emperor who has to share with his three ambitious daughters all the wealth he amassed.

Obituary

The Day Samba
Stopped

Semente de amor sei que sou desde nascença,
mas sem ter brilho e fulgor, eis minha sentença

Love seed I know I am since birth
Without shine and glean though, it's my sentence

Cartola and Carlos Cachaça

"No thanks, I only drink cachaça." Tenente Couto, who was throwing a bash at famed Praça Onze in Rio for a group of musician friends, couldn't take anymore of the refusals of his guest to drink beer and sent someone to buy the cachaça. When the popular strong sugarcane liquor arrived, Couto asked, "Where is Carlos?" Carlos who?, people wanted to know. There were three different Carlos at the party. "The one of the cachaça," said the host. The name caught. Carlos Moreira de Castro from then on would be known as Carlos Cachaça. He was then 17.

There is no more cachaça and no more Carlos. The poet, composer and sambista whose story blends itself with the history of escola de samba (samba club) Estação Primeira da Mangueira has died in his sleep—the way he said he would like to go—on August 16, two weeks after his 97th birthday. "Today is party day in heaven," said Dona Zica, widow of legendary Cartola, who was his most frequent partner.

"He does not only tell the history of Mangueira," his friend Fernando Pimenta used to say, "he is the history of Mangueira." Together with Cartola, Cachaça founded the Bloco dos Arengueiros, a samba group that gave birth to Mangueira samba school.

Despite the closeness of Cachaça to Mangueira he was not there at the Buraco Quente (Hot Hole) meeting to sign the book on April 28, 1928, the day the escola de samba was founded. It's said that he missed the historic moment because he went out with a woman, another one of his vices. A different story places him working late at the Rede Ferroviária Federal railway company, where he was an employee. Because of his absence, Cachaça is not considered a Mangueira founder officially. Among the names signed in the book there are Abelardo da Bolinha, Marcelino, Pedro Caim, Saturnino Gonçalves, Seu Euclides, Zé Espinguela, and Cartola.

Despite this bureaucratic detail, no other man symbolized Mangueira so well. For starters he was born on August 3, 1902 in the area that became the shantytown neighborhood that gave name to the samba school. The name was inspired by an important factory in the area, the Chapéus Mangueira (Mangueira Hats).

The composer had abandoned cachaça for decades, but adopted beer and continued having it against the advice of doctors who encouraged him to quit. His best argument: "Why should I? Three of the doctors who advised me to do that are already dead."

Having started as a samba composer in 1923, Cachaça is the author of little jewels like "Não quero mais" (I don't want anymore)—

Não quero mais amar a ninguém
Não fui feliz, o destino não quis...

I don't want to love anyone
I was not happy, fate didn't want...

—"Quem me vê sorrindo" (Who sees me smiling), and "Tempos idos" (Gone times). These are some of his most popular creations, but many of his compositions (more than 300) were never recorded and many got lost.

In what is considered one of the prettiest odes to Mangueira, he wrote "Alvorada" (Dawn) in partnership with Cartola. Alvorada has lyrics like:

Alvorada, lá no morro, que beleza
Ninguém chora, não há mais tristeza
Ninguém sente dissabor

Dawn, up on the hill, what a beauty
No one cries, there is no sadness anymore
No one feels troubled

The composer co-authored almost every samba-enredo (samba plot) of Mangueira during the '30s and '40s. He was also the one who wrote "Homenagem" (Homage), the 1934 tune that's considered the first samba enredo ever. Some of Cachaça's work came to light through the voice of his best friend and partner, Cartola. There is still plenty of never recorded tunes composed with Hermínio Bello de Carvalho waiting to be made public.

Famous, although poor till the end, he had a privilege of few living men: his name (Carlos Cachaça) graced the street he lived in. Loved by his fellow composer he recently had been paid an homage by composers Moacyr Luz and Aldir Blanc who celebrated him with the samba "Gênio da Raça" (Genius of the Race).

Menininha (Clotilde da Silva) was the love of his life. She not only admired and adored him but also danced, sang and went with Cachaça to the riffraff bars he enjoyed so much. They were married for 45 years until Clotildes's death in 1983.

Friends said that despite his ill health and difficulty in moving Cachaça felt loved and was happy for having received as a gift on his birthday on August 3 a hearing aid allowing him to listen to sounds he couldn't hear for years. One month before his death he had moved from Mangueira to the house of his daughter, Inês Moreira de Castro, in the Engenho da Rainha neighborhood.

Memory

Life of Our
Birthdays

Brazilians don't know her anymore, but Bertha Celeste Homem de Mello was very famous in 1941 when from among 5,000 participants her verses were chosen to be sung with the melody of the American song Happy Birthday to You. The song every Brazilian sings at birthday parties goes like this:

"Parabéns a você / Nesta data querida / Muitas felicidades / Muitos anos de vida"
(Congratulations to you / On this cherished date / Much happiness / Many years of life),

a little more imaginative than its Yankee counterpart created by Mildred (the melody) and Patty Hill, two Louisville teachers.

The American ditty was composed in 1893 as a classroom greeting called "Good Morning to All," with the happy birthday verses added in the 1920s when the song was published by Robert H. Coleman.

Born in 1902 in Pindamonhangaba, in the interior of São Paulo, Bertha was 97 years old when she died of a pulmonary infection in Jacareí—also in São Paulo—where she had lived for the past 40 years. The author was graduated in Pharmacy and earned a Ph.D. in Literature. Under the Léa Magalhães penname, Bertha wrote a great number of poems celebrating country life and country folks. Among her better-known poems are "Canção do Imigrante" (Immigrant Song) and A Capelinha do Arraiá (The Burgh's Little Chapel).

She was already a writer when at the age of 38 she sent her happy birthday verses to a competition promoted by Almirante on his radio program at Tupi, a Rio de Janeiro radio station. The submissions were judged by Cassiano Ricardo, Olegário Mariano, and Múcio Leão, all of them members of the very exclusive (40 members only) Brazilian Academy of Letters. Her prize: one thousand cruzeiros, the recording of the song by Continental, and fame. Fame vanished though. Not more than 200 people followed the casket to the cemetery of Pindamonhangaba, which declared an official day of mourning.

Remembering

The Suave
Dom

"Are you going to heaven?", a reporter asked him once. "I have great hope," answered Dom Hélder, a man who liked to be called just with the honorific title for bishops, Dom, and whose main virtue wasn't humbleness. He loved to tell this little joke about himself: "Dom Hélder died, went to heaven and there was Saint Peter waiting for him at heaven's gate. Already impatient that the bishop didn't make up his mind to enter, the gatekeeper saint asks: "Why is he taking so long?" To which one aide answers: "He is waiting for the media to cover the event."

And cover they did. The bishop whose name could not even be mentioned in the media during the darker years of the military dictatorship (1964-1985) and who was derisively called "Red Bishop" by one of the most influent Brazilian papers, conservative O Estado de S. Paulo, found his death making front cover headlines across the country.

As witness to the love people had for him, more than 2000 people walked for two hours under the sun following the Fire Department truck that carried his casket through the streets of Recife to Olinda where Dom Hélder was buried at the mausoleum of the Alto da Sé Church. Thousands more had come to the daylong wake. On their way to the mausoleum the faithful sang the national anthem, church hymns, as well as Roberto Carlos popular songs "Jesus Cristo" and "A Montanha".

Diminutive (he was 5"2') and gaunt, Hélder Câmara was big enough to face the powerful and condemn the atrocities they committed in the name of national security. An admirer of Fidel Castro, he used to attack capitalism and the United States. An inspirer of Liberation Theology he didn't want to be linked to any ideology however. Contrary to the Liberation Theology, which condemns the giving of alms, he used to give to the poor. Talking about his dilemma with the military he declared in 1964: "If I give food to the poor they call me a saint. If I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist."

During the Second Vatican Council in 1963 he suggested to his fellow bishops they should abandon titles of nobility like eminence and excellency and to exchange their valuable crosses for bronze or wood ones. He wrote: "Let us end once and for all the impression of a bishop-prince, residing in a palace, isolated from his clergy whom he treats distantly and coldly." Following his own advice when he took his post as archbishop of Pernambuco state's Olinda and Recife, on April 12, 1964—less than two weeks after the March 31 military coup against President João Goulart—Dom Hélder chose to live in a little house behind a church instead of the Episcopal mansion. He also took out the gilded throne his predecessor had and adopted a wooden chair in its place. Dom Hélder kept his Franciscan habits until the end. Instead of the embroidered frocks favored by his peers he preferred an old worn white cassock.

At his inauguration homily he talked about his beliefs: "On Judgement Day, we will be judged by the way we treated Christ represented by those who are hungry, thirsty, and go through life dirty, hurt and oppressed."

What he called "preferential option for the poor" was Dom Hélder's life-long undertaking. In the 1950s as Rio's auxiliary bishop he had already developed two programs to help the poor: the Saint Sebastian Crusade (1956) and the Providence Bank (1959). His intent to go to the roots of what caused poverty gave origin to the CEBs (Comunidades Eclesiais de Base—Grassroots Church Communities), an institution much maligned by the military, which accused him of being a communist.

Late controversial rightwing playwright and journalist Nelson Rodrigues, who often criticized Dom Hélder, wrote: "He would like to make the headlines of Kennedy, the frontpages of Guevara and get the promotion of Martin Luther King." Combative and renowned journalist David Nasser also used to write against Dom Hélder at the end of the 60's and beginning of the 70's, calling him "our Lenine in frock", "little father Hélder", "hypocrisy globe-trotter".

Searching

As a young priest, Hélder Câmara was a fascist, a youthful sin for which he paid his whole life trying to explain why he opted for that extreme-right movement inspired by Benito Mussolini (1883-1945). "This was a short political experience from which God freed me totally," he declared once, adding: "I think everything in life can be used: the things we've done right and the mistakes. When integralismo (Brazilian fascism) appeared announcing God, country and family, it seemed to me that those ideals were very similar to the ones I'd learned as a Christian."

At the end of the 40's he opted for the left. In 1947 Dom Hélder organized the ACB (Ação Católica Brasileira—Brazilian Catholic Action), which in turn inspired the creation of CNBB (Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil—National Conference of Brazilian Bishops) from which Câmara was the first general secretary.

The archbishop used to receive phone threats and shots were fired against his house once. In May 1969, Father Henrique, one of his main aides, was kidnapped, tortured, stoned and shot to death. Dom Hélder, with ten priests, led a 10,000 people procession to the cemetery for the burial. He used to say at that time: "In Brazil, today, a bishop can say things that a student, a worker, a teacher or an intellectual would not be able to say."

Forbidden from giving interviews and with newspapers prohibited from mentioning his name (even to criticize him) the archbishop continued to talk outside of Brazil. In 1970 he denounced tortures and the plight of political prisoners in Brazil during a speech to 20,000 people at the Paris Sports Palace.

He explained once: "If I talk overseas it is mainly because the media is closed to me in Brazil." His muzzle was removed only in 1977. But then there was already a different climate in the country, even though the military dictatorship would remain in power for eight more years.

Simply José

Hélder Pessoa Câmara was born in the interior of Ceará state, on February 7, 1909, the eleventh of 13 children of accountant João Câmara Filho and elementary school teacher Adelaide Pessoa Câmara. While the mother wanted to name him José the father was able to have it his way, naming the son for a little Dutch harbor. Later, he would sign "Padre José" at the end of the meditations he used to write. He also affectionately called his guardian angel José. "You cannot accuse those who are thirsty for just justice," he once said. "In the Northeast, Jesus Christ is called José."

From age four he showed an interest in the priesthood playing mass when children of his age had less religious interests.

Young Hélder entered the Fortaleza Diocesan Seminary in 1923. He became a priest on August 15, 1931 and a bishop on April 20, 1952. In 1985, when he reached the age of 75 he was compulsorily retired.

Hélder Câmara won 25 international peace prizes and was nominated several times for the Nobel Prize. Secret documents published in the just-released book Dom Hélder Câmara—Entre o Poder e a Profecia (Dom Hélder Câmara—Between Power and Prophecy) by Nelson Piletti and Walter Praxedes, show that General Médici's regime (1969-1974) tried to sabotage his Nobel candidacy by spreading calumnies about him. Dom Hélder also won 32 honorary doctoral degrees titles from Brazilian and foreign colleges. Among the books he wrote were Revolução Dentro da Paz (Revolution Within Peace), Espiral da Violência (Violence Spiral), O Desejo É Fértil (Desire Is Fertile), Mil Razões para Viver (One Thousand Reasons to Live), and Sinfonia dos Dois Mundos (Symphony of Two Worlds), the latter one with Swiss musician Pierre Klein. He wrote 22 books that were translated into 14 languages.

L'Osservatore Romano, Vatican's official newspaper, compared him once to Saint Francis of Assisi: "He is a man of God, a man of Christ, a man of the poor." But most typically he was bombarded by the left and right alike.

Hélder
Câmara's
Thoughts

Misery

"I think that the world's biggest problem is the ever widening gap between the rich and increasingly richer countries and the huge mass of poor, increasingly poorer ones."

"Poverty is an evangelical virtue. It's different from misery that goes against God's plans. What we have is misery."

Capitalism

"I believe that an economic system, whatever its name (because today there are capitalisms, it's important to stress the plural), whose main concern and sometimes exclusive concern is profit, is also an intrinsically materialistic, inhuman system."

Social Justice

"People ask me why and when I started to get interested in social justice. I could answer that this is a duty of every priest. But I cannot forget that I personally knew hunger and misery. That I saw my mother crying and my father silent with bitterness when there was nothing to eat, when there was no bread to divide among the children."

Guerrilla War

"I'm not tired and I'll not get tired of proclaiming that when we denounce violence, pointing to the reaction of the oppressed or the youngsters who try to act on their behalf, this violence is already number 2. I'm not tired and I'll not get tired of proclaiming that violence number 1, the violence mother of all other violence, is the injustice that exists all over."

Revolution

"I don't fear the word revolution. I'm only very careful when I use it. As much as I respect those who are fighting for a deep and fast social change, forget democratic methods and use armed force, in bloody revolutions and guerrilla warfare, I don't believe in hate."

Subversive

"Sometimes, extremists tried to call me communist bishop, red bishop. I never had the slightest link with any communist system. After 1964, it seemed that to preach about agrarian reform was to advocate communism. But this has been refuted so much that today no one has the courage to call me a communist."

Christianity

"If tomorrow the Latin America masses open their eyes ... they will distance themselves from Christianity because it will seem to them that their religion is allied to the exploiters."

Persecution

"The privileged groups and the governments never fight against Christianity. They would never do that since they are the defenders of the Christian civilization. What they fight is the `communist infiltration' inside the Church. What seems to be a clever stratagem."

Criticism

"You can criticize me as much as you wish. Everyone has the right to do this. You can attack if you feel like it. But, be honest. Don't raise the gravest suspicions just on the basis of imagination. Don't judge me by what the newspapers and magazines say that I said. Attack me only after checking first if I will have a real chance of defense: it's not fair to beat someone who has his arms tied."

US Politics

"The difference between Reagan and Carter is the same that exist between Coca-Cola and Pepsi."

Some sites about Dom Hélder on the Internet:

http://www.domhelder.com.br/
http://www.oneworld.org/ccj/noticias/domhelde.htm
http://www.hotlink.com.br/users/jurandir/Helder.html
http://www.elogica.com.br/users/assuero/dom.htm  

Media

Apocalypse
Hysteria

It might be the colder than usual temperature, the lack of political scandals at home or up north in the US, or simply mere laziness. The fact is the Brazilian media went overboard during the recent solar eclipse, mixing in the same bag, astronomy and astrology, scientific observations and Nostradamus (1503-1566) predictions, April fool jokes and astronomical observations, making some people believe that the end of the world was imminent.

The American press virtually ignored the fact since the phenomenon could not be observed here. The last solar eclipse of the millenium couldn't be seen in Brazil either, but the national media seemed intent on bringing it home with a vengeance. Television was the guiltiest in this game, bombarding the air with catastrophic predictions dressed as news that ended by not only scaring adults, but children who didn't take it as a big joke.

Rio newspaper O Dia reported several stories of terrorized kids including 11-year-old Cíntia Rodrigues, who, already resigned to the approaching end of the world, asked that her mother, grandmother and her dog Miúcha be together with her, explaining, "We need to be embracing when everything ends."

Another girl, Marisa Medeiros, 10, locked herself in the bathroom for hours until her mother, a doctor, found her and with the help of neighbors was able to open the door. Marisa was convinced that she was going to lose her family and crouched on the shower box waiting for the end. Words of comfort weren't enough to calm her down, and she had to be taken to a hospital.

Janice Figueira Medeiros, Marisa's mother, blamed TV for what happened. "It is irresponsible for television to broadcast news of the end of the world during times accessible to children. The reports say that the end is going to be on a certain day without making it clear that this is only a prediction made by a crazy man."

There was no proof of cause and effect but there were at least three cases of suicide in the northeastern state of Piauí attributed to the news about the apocalypse. Even publications considered serious entered the Armageddon frenzy. Weekly newsmagazine Isto É went to the extreme of dedicating a cover to the subject. Over a black circle representing the sun the magazine wrote on the cover: "August 11, The Century's Most Feared Eclipse _ Next week, two days before a Friday 13, sects all over the world will be waiting for the Apocalypse. Astrologers foresee conflicts and rebellions." Six pages inside echoed the same theme. Época, another news weekly, was just a tad sober, writing on the top of its cover: "The Century's Last Eclipse: Science and Mystery in the Sky."

TV itself, which led the doomsday paranoia, was making fun of the media in the end. TV Globo's anchor ended the news bulletin the morning the world was supposed to end with this remark: "In this edition, you learned that the world has not ended. Gosh, what a relief. Everything goes ahead then, life continues! End of the world, for now, only our media."

Correio Braziliense, the Brasília daily, was very critical of the frenzy and their editors seemed to be having fun. They found a clever way to explore the subject the day the world was supposed to go up in smoke. Over a front page completely black they wrote in a very small type: Acabou? (Finished Yet).

Some restaurants and nightclubs used the occasion to throw a party. In Rio's beach neighborhood of Ipanema, the Hippopotamus nightclub organized the "End of the World Party" and the host was no less than Nostradamus (actor Leonardo Arantes dressed as the prophet) who gave fortune cookies to those who dared to come to the last party. Rhapsody, also in Rio, offered what it called the "Last Supper," with bread and wine and a reenactment of Christ's last meal. In Copacabana, the Le Boy nightclub cooked up a party called "If it is going to end, may it all end in happiness." And in the neighborhood of Santa Teresa, a club, not sure about the outcome, named its celebration: "In case the world does not end."

The telephone at the National Observatory was never so busy, the same thing with confessionals. Even the CNBB (Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil—National Conference of Brazil's Bishops) dealt with the subject on its Internet page. In the bulletin, "The End of the World," Dom Raymundo Damasceno Assis, CNBB's general secretary, wrote: "Nostradamus's predictions made in the 16th century can be interpreted in several ways and should not be seen as divine revelations."

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