Reaching for the Moon (movie)

I saw a movie called “Reaching for the Moon”, in Portuguese “Flores Raras”. It is a movie about the stay of the American poet Elizabeth Bishop in Brazil. In Brazil, she had a love affair with a woman landscape gardener called Lota. Initially, the cultural differences were evident because Lota was rude in Bishop’s point of view, but they fall in love because of this.

They lived together on a farm where Lota built a bucolic place (a pretty little cottage in the countryside) where Bishop could have inspiration to create poems. Lota was friend of a politician called Carlos Lacerda. He was elected to be the governor of the Rio de Janeiro State. As governor, he decided to build a big park called “Aterro do Flamengo” and invited Lota to work on the project.

Lacerda and Lota supported the coup d’état in 1964, but Bishop didn’t agree with it.

Lota and Bishop broke up. Because of it, Bishop went back to the US and consequently, Lota became very depressed. When Lota was a little better she decided to visit Bishop in New York where she committed suicide.

If you want to learn Portuguese I can teach you in individual lessons by Skype at Cafetalk .

Paulo Coelho: A Brazilian Alchemist

Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist. He was born in Rio de Janeiro to a traditional Catholic family. Paulo Coelho liked to write at a young age, but he was discouraged by his father who wanted his son to be an engineer. Because of that, Paulo had depressive episodes requiring hospitalization during adolescence. During the 60's, he devoted himself to theater, and in the 70’s, he joined The Hippie Movement, at which time he composed songs for popular Brazilian singers like Rita Lee, Elis Regina, Raul Seixas, the latter being an important partner. In 1980 Coelho married the artist, Christina Oiticica, who remains his life-long support.

In 1986, Coelho walked the 500-plus mile Road of Santiago de Compostela, a turning point in his life. On the path, Coelho had a spiritual awakening, which he described in the autobiographical book, The Pilgrimage.

His work, The Alchemist is the best-selling Brazilian book of all time and is considered an important literary phenomenon of the twentieth century. As of 2016, The Alchemist has been translated into 70 languages. This gave Coelho the position as the world's most translated living author, according to the 2009 Guinness World Records. According to his wife, the book was written in 15 days. The Alchemist follows a young Andalusian shepherd on his trip to Egypt after having a recurring dream of finding treasure there. The main theme of the book is finding your own destiny. 

In another book, Veronika Decides to Die, Paulo Coelho tells the story of 24-year-old Slovenian, Veronika, who appears to have everything in life going for her, but who decides to kill herself. This book is partly based on Coelho's experience in various mental institutions. According to the author, the Veronika character is himself, hospitalized three times in psychiatric hospitals, from where he extracted elements for his realistic and touching accounts of depression in this book.

Despite being a popular author whose books are between the romance and self-help genres, he won a chair at the Brazilian Academy of Letters. The academy is considered the foremost institution devoted to the Portuguese language in Brazil.

A Noite - the first skyscraper in Latin America

The building "A Noite", in English “the night”, is the first skyscraper in Latin America. It is located in Rio de Janeiro and built in an Art Deco style. When we look at old pictures of Rio de Janeiro this building stands out. The head office of many companies, including the radio Nacional which broadcast famous programs and soap operas, used to be in this building. These programs were used from the 30s to the 50s by the president of Brazil, Getúlio Vargas, as a propaganda tool. The last occupant of "A Noite" was the National Industrial Property Institute.

Nowadays the building is empty because of maintenance issues. There are plans to renovate it, but none have materialized. As a consequence of the Olympic games, the area surrounding the building was restored; this included the renovation of the Port area and the construction of the "boulevard olimpico". Unfortunately, "A Noite" continues to be neglected.

If you want to learn Portuguese I can teach you in individual lessons by Skype at Cafetalk.