Brazilian journalist, short-story writer, and playwright
João do Rio was the pseudonym of the Brazilian journalist, short-story writer and playwright João Paulo Emílio Cristóvão dos Santos Coelho Barreto, a Brazilian author and journalist of African descent (August 5, 1881, Rio de Janeiro – June 23, 1921, Rio de Janeiro). He was elected on May 7, 1910 for the chair # 26 of Brazilian Academy of Letters.
Life.
Son of Alfredo Coelho Barreto (a Mathematics teacher and positivist), and Florência dos Santos Barreto (housewife), Paulo Barreto was born in Hospício St., 284 (current Buenos Aires St., in Rio de Janeiro's downtown). He took Portuguese classes in the traditional Colégio de São Bento (São Bento School), where he started to exert his natural endowment for literature. At the age of 15, he was admitted in the "National Gymnasium"; today, Colégio Pedro II (D. Pedro II school).
On June 1, 1899, with less than 18 years, he had a text published for the first time in a newspaper, "A Tribuna". Signed with his own name, it was a review entitled "Lucília Simões" about Ibsen's play "A Doll's House", performed in "Santana Theater" (currently "Carlos Gomes Theater").
Prolific writer, between 1900 and 1903 he collaborated under various pen names with some prominent publications of the time as "O Paiz", "O Dia" (not the same newspaper of today), "Correio Mercantil", "O Tagarela" and "O Coió". In 1903, he was appointed by Nilo Peçanha for the newspaper "Gazeta de Notícias", where he would stay until 1913. It was in this periodical that his most famous pseudonym was born, João do Rio, when on November 26, 1903 he signed an article called "O Brasil Lê" ("Brazil Reads"), an inquiry about the literary preferences of the Carioca reader. And, as indicated by Gomes (1996, p. 44), "from this time forth, the name that fixes the literary identity swallows Paulo Barreto. Under this mask he will publish all his books and cultivates his fame. Next to the name, the name of the city".
Paulo Barreto, journalist.
According to his biographers, Barreto represented the outgrowth of a new type of journalist in the Brazilian press of the beginning of the 20th century. Until then, the literary and journalistic practice by intellectuals was regarded as of little account, a lesser activity for people with many vacant hours (e.g., public servants). Paulo Barreto moved the literary creation frontwards and started to live from this, using his pen names (more than ten) to attract various audiences.
The religions of Rio.
Between February and March 1904, he carried through a series of news articles entitled "As religiões no Rio" ("The religions in Rio"). Beyond its character of "investigative journalism", it constitutes an important anthropological and sociological analysis, early recognized as such, particularly by the four pioneering texts about African cults, which precedes in more than a quarter of century the publications by Nina Rodrigues on the subject (beyond that, the works of Rodrigues were in large measure restricted to the academic circles of Bahia).
Scholars had pointed out similarities between "As religiões no Rio" and the book "Les petites réligions de Paris" (1898), by French writer Jules Bois. However, the similarity seems to be much more in the general idea (an inquiry on the manifestations of religious minorities in a big city) than in the plan of the formal accomplishment.
The news articles series aroused such great curiosity that Barreto published them in book form, and sold more than 8,000 copies in six years. This achievement is still more impressive in view of the restricted reading public of the time, in a country with high illiteracy rates.
Some biographers criticize Barreto for the fact that, when he realised the bonanza he could obtain by the publication of collections (something that would become common in Brazil in the second half of 20th century), he developed a "formula" to inflate his own bibliography.
Paulo Barreto, immortal.
Elected for the Brazilian Academy of Letters in his third attempt (1910), Paulo Barreto was the first person to be admitted there wearing the now famous "fardão dos imortais" (the "robe of the immortals"). Years later, with the election of his adversary, the poet Humberto de Campos, Barreto moved away from the institution. According to some biographers, when informed of his death, his mother ordered that the funeral service should not be held at the Academy hall, as usual for members, because her son would not have approved the idea.
Paulo Barreto, homosexual.
Since early, the sexual preferences of Barreto brought forth suspicion (and, later, gibe) among his contemporaries. Bachelor, without girlfriend or known mistress, many of his texts transpire a sufficiently explicit homoerotic inclination. The suspicion was eventually confirmed when he presented himself as promoter in Brazil of the "cursed" Oscar Wilde, whose works he translated into Portuguese. Historians have labeled him as a "notable black homosexual writer".
An odd person, dressed like a "fashion plate" (Rodrigues, 1996, p. 239), Barreto never dared to defy the stereotypes of that era. However, for aspiring to defend new ideas in social and political fields, his "voluminous, thick-lipped and dark figure with a very smooth coat" (as registered by Gilberto Amado) became a perfect target for all sorts of reactionaries, homophobics and racists like Humberto de Campos.
His presumed "flirt" with Isadora Duncan in 1916 (when she was performing in the Theatro Municipal of Rio de Janeiro), expresses this sexual ambiguity. Duncan and Barreto had met previously in Portugal, but it was only during her performance in Rio that they became close. The exact level of this intimacy is a mystery. Rodrigues (1996) talks about a factoid or hype, an expedient to attract the attention of the press, whilst other sources cite a supposed dialogue where the dancer would have questioned Barreto about his pederasty, and he would have answered in French: " Je suis très corrompu " ("I am very corrupted").
Paulo Barreto, paladin.
In 1920, Barreto established the periodical "A Pátria" ("The Fatherland", ironically called "A Mátria"–or "The Motherland"– by his detractors), in which he sought to defend the interests of the "Poveiros", Portuguese fishermen from Póvoa do Varzim that supplied with fishes the city of Rio de Janeiro. Threatened by a fishing nationalization law decreed by the Brazilian government, the "Poveiros" went on strike.
The activity of Barreto in favor of the Portuguese colony brought to him a lot of enemies, numberless moral offences ("leaf lard with two eyes" was one of the lightest) and even a despicable episode of physical aggression: entrapped alone when he took a meal in a restaurant, he was beaten by a group of nationalists.
The death of João do Rio.
Overweight, Barreto was feeling ill during all June 23, 1921. He took a taxi and, with the increase of the malaise, he asked the driver to stop the car and bring him a glass of water. However, before help could arrive, he died of a sudden myocardial infarct.
The news about João do Rio's death quickly spread all over the city. A guessed number of 100,000 people went to the burial of the writer that years before, under the pen name of Godofredo de Alencar, had registered his preferential option for the diversity:
"In organized societies only the elites and the scoundrel are of interest. Because they are unpredictable and alike in the courage of their resources and their absence of scruples. " (Gomes, 1996, p.69).
The name "Paulo Barreto" christens an ordinary street in the quarter of Botafogo, in Rio de Janeiro. As Graciliano Ramos pointed out, "the homage made is modest: they had offered a short street to him" (Gomes, 1996, p. 11). His name is also the name of a square in Lisbon, Portugal, where there is a small monument in his honour (containing the following citation "The Portuguese owe me nothing for loving and defending Portuguese people, for that way I love, worship, and long for my motherland twice."/"Nada me devem os portugueses por amar e defender portugueses, porque assim amo, venero e e quero duas vezes a minha pátria.").
João Do Rio in the Mass Culture.
 João Do Rio has been portrayed in Brazilian cinema and television. He was played by José Lewgoy in the movie "Taboo" (1982) and by Otávio Augusto in the movie "Brasilia 18%" (2006).
References.
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