Arara's Pages
(For those of you not familiar with Arara, she's our correspondent in Brazil...able to squawk in flawless Portuguese and capable of ingratiating herself with all our potential interviewees, the bird's a tremendous asset to Maria-Brazil.)
Alpiste
Great news for choro fans around the world. This delightful music is back in fashion and booming again in Brazil. There are rodas de choro in clubs, restaurants and bars in Rio, almost every night. There's even a magazine about the choro: Roda de Choro, with subscribers around the world (got to find out how to subscribe to this one...).
Paulo Moura's PrΩmio Sharp winner CD - all Pixinguinha music! - is now available from Blue Jackel Entertainment.
Marlui Miranda, the consummate interpreter of Brazilian Indian music, has released two CDs, Ihu, Todos os Sons, and Ihu: Kewere: Rezar: Prayer, in the US. If you haven't seen that page, check it out before you read on.
We spoke with Marlui in early November of 1996. She was in southern Florida, visiting the Seminole Indian Reservation, before her performances in Miami and New York City. Marlui is a sensitive, fascinating woman; very bright and articulate, and, as Brazilians would say, muito simpßtica. She graciously submitted to Arara's questioning...actually, the bird mostly listened, in total and absolute awe of this extraordinary artist. Thanks to Jack O'Neill of Blue Jackel Entertainment for arranging the interview and supporting our efforts to give the Web the best of Brazilian culture. Marlui will be back on tour in the US in 1997.
Update on December of 1997: Marlui's new CD is called 2 Ihu Kewere: Rezar. It's a Mass that celebrates the 400th anniversary of the death of JosΘ de Anchieta. This is also a Blue Jackel release. Marlui is now immersed in her next project: ten more CDs! The next is a ballet, to be performed by Ballet Stagium from Sπo Paulo, with sets by Japanese-Brazilian artist Tomie Ohtake (isn't Brazil the most amazing melting pot?). We'll keep you posted!
Arara - Marlui, we don't know where you come from...
Marlui - The Amazon, but I live in Sπo Paulo, I really never lived in the Amazon, I just go there very often...I just got back from a trip to an Indian village in the state of Rond⌠nia...I have a lot of friends in Rond⌠nia, so I go there very often...My family started in the sixteenth century, with a Jesuit and an Indian woman, in the state of Parß...
Arara - And this Indian music thing...did that come from your childhood, from hearing Indian songs?
Marlui - No, it happened after I grew up, I worked with music, I listened to some songs...and this thing, when it happened, I was in my 20's, and it all presented itself to me, ready...
Arara - Do you spend much time in these villages, to do your research?
Marlui - No, at the most two months, longer than that, we start to bother people...
Arara - And how often do you go?
Marlui - It depends, this last trip for instance, I should have gone earlier this year...but they asked me to postpone it...because of problems......the boat breaks...the river is too dry...things like that happen and you cannot really plan it...you go when all things come together and it works out to go...it's very difficult to get to these places...there are practically no roads...to one of these villages, it took us a day and a half to get there, from this town where we were...and we were very lucky this time...sometimes it rains and we get stuck in the mud and we have to walk...sixty kilometers...
Arara - So, it's not an easy thing, this work of yours...
Marlui - No...(laugh)...the Indians here (in the US) have no idea...there are Indians in Brazil that live in the Stone Age...and the other thing people don't realize is that the access to these areas is restricted...we need permission to enter the Indian areas...from the FUNAI or even from the chief of the tribe we want to visit...Indians in the US are three, four centuries ahead of Indians in Brazil...the distance is huge..it's a matter of centuries...
Arara - How do you communicate with the Indians?
Marlui - These places where I go, there's no problem, because they speak Portuguese...and we learn the basics of their language, there...and we use a word here and there...but in reality, we don't need to speak it, because most people speak Portuguese...they have a life, connections, outside the village, so everyone ends up learning Portuguese...these groups I visit are not isolated, they can't be, they're surrounded by colonists...and, in the case of the Tuparis, they used to be enslaved by white rubber tappers...
Arara - But that has changed...
Marlui - Oh, yes, now they own the land...They worked with IAMA - an environmental and anthropological institute - that helped them with the legal aspects of land demarcation...of their reservation...but this is only in Rond⌠nia...everywhere it's different...it's a very complex situation even in Rond⌠nia...but the Indians did it with their help...they went to Brasφlia...people have no idea...it's the wild West, a frontier land, this area of Brazil...
Arara - And what do they live of?
Marlui - Brazil nuts...IAMA...they have a project in conjunction with Unesco and the World Bank...there's a new project of economic alternatives for the Indian communities of Rond⌠nia...to harvest Brazil nuts, to make farinha de mandioca (manioc meal), to collect copaφba oil, things that are viable, that they know how to do...urucum...their handicrafts, which are marvellous..
Arara - I imagine that way they will be able to stay in their land...
Marlui - Yes, so they don't have to emigrate...no one goes hungry...there's a lot of land and the land is very rich...the whole area is beautiful...it's huge...all the reservations in Rond⌠nia are official and legal, there are no problems there...there's plenty of food...there's very little malaria where I go...and TB...there are other areas where there's a lot of TB...but there no...and the population is growing...
Arara - I read somewhere that the Indian population is growing all over Brazil...
Marlui - Yes, that's true. They're maintaining their traditions, passing them on to the younger generations, there are projects to educate the younger generations...the majority of the Indian tribes take care of themselves...they're trying to build a viable relationship with the world of the whites...the only negative thing is the way the whites relate to the Indians...the Indians are trying to understand how the outside world works...it's very difficult, because they have such a different way of thinking...
Arara - And what's the role of the FUNAI (the official Brazilian organization)?
Marlui - They give them basic assistance...a pharmacy, for example...FUNAI sometimes works, sometimes doesn't...but you can't leave the Indians without any assistance...you open a door for other organizations, like churches, to come in and brainwash the Indians...they do some good, but come in and convert them to their god...for instance, someone I know, a pajΘ (shaman), is a converted Baptist...he lost his expression...he doesn't value his own mythology, his own Word, because the Bible...well, it's written, you see, and all they have is an oral tradition...it's very sad...it's the pits!
Arara - When you're in Sπo Paulo, do you teach or lecture?
Marlui - No, I don't have much opportunity to do that. Sometimes, people ask me to, but I can't, because everything is so difficult in Brazil, my work takes a lot of time...and also, people only remember when it's Indian Week...then I have lots of invitations...but the rest of the year...the Indians don't exist...so, if you want to do a show in December...forget it...nobody wants to do it...(laugh)...so my work, it's very difficult, extremely difficult...
Arara - And that's all you do?
Marlui - Yes, that's all I do...so I survive with grants (Marlui won a Guggenheim Fellowship)...but, there are times when things are difficult...I'm creating a market that never existed before...
Arara - This American tour, Marlui, are you going to do it again?
Marlui - Yes...I'm just getting organized to start touring...I could come and visit the universities, but I haven't had a chance to do that yet...I'm getting ready to do something very professional...We're trying to organize a tour with a large group of singers and musicians for May of 97...This show is very beautiful, and something different to come out of Brazil...nobody has seen that outside of Brazil...
Arara - I read something Gilberto Gil said about the Indian influence on Brazilian music...
Marlui - There's none...nothing...Brazilian Indian music is a cultural secret...nobody knows it...It's so specific, so dependent on certain creative factors, themes. vocal expression...
Arara - Not even an instrument, a percussion?
Marlui - No, all that influence is African...What the Indians influenced was the language, the food, the customs...the way Brazilians are, the sweetness...(laugh)...
Arara - And why is that, Marlui? Why did it happen that way?
Marlui - Because of the distance between the Indians and the rest of the population...the Africans were very close, inside the homes of the white people...The Indians were ignored because they represent something very primitive, they were savages...the relationship with the Africans was very different...you could not enslave, bring the Indians inside the homes, to be servants...the few who were enslaved died away, disappeared...so nobody heard their music...there was no knowledge, no information...and the Africans, it was a different type of music, there was the religion also...we ended up absorbing all that...we were captivated by all that, which is very beautiful...
Arara - We started with the Jesuits...might as well end with them...What happened with the Jesuits and the Indians, in the beginning of the colonization of Brazil? The stories one reads about the music in the Mass...
Marlui - The Jesuits protected the Indians...they tried to convert them, that was their objective, but they also protected them...and they could play their flutes in the Mass...that's true.
Arara - Marlui, what's ahead for you?
Marlui - I'm continuing this work...It's my life...We just published a companion book to this CD...in Brazil...And my new project...by coincidence...it's a Mass...a Jesuit has asked me to do an Indian Mass...but it's something new, not based on the work done in the 16th century...I still don't know how it's going to be, exactly, but it'll have Indian music...
Arara - Thanks, Marlui...hope this makes people around the world aware of your work...maybe someday you won't be needing all those grants...
