Antonio by Beatriz Bracher

Author:Beatriz Bracher
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780811227391
Publisher: New Directions
Published: 2021-03-02T00:00:01+00:00

Haroldo

Duty calls, my boy! Even though I’m retired my services are still in high demand. Whenever she wanted to get one of her kids’ attention, Dona Silvia would quote her grandfather, saying, “Man is captive to his duties.” And Xavier would object, and say, “As I am captive to my pleasures!” And that’s pretty much how it was: his great-grandfather left them big farms and had a hand in the construction of the railway system. His father built hospitals, made a name for himself in academia. And my friend Xavier? He wrote articles, translated and wrote incomprehensible novels long since destroyed by mold and moths, put on plays that were gone with the wind. In certain recondite circles he might still be remembered, but not for much longer. He never had the courage to be a real artist, and that’s the truth.

São Paulo is unforgiving: it takes what you never accomplished and rubs it in your face so that your life just gets worse and worse, and proof of your failures keep getting more obvious: You never made it! You never came close! That’s what the blinking neon lights on Avenida Paulista always seem to say. Xavier felt those blows and died young. He couldn’t stand any confirmation of his failures once he was left with an empty nest, that big house without any kids. They were the only lasting thing he’d ever done. But anyway, I’m sure it’s only in São Paulo where that’s remarkable, at least if we’re talking in terms of Brazil — and there’s no use of thinking about the rest of the world because then we’d be entering the realm of abstraction.

No matter how hard you work in Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, or Porto Alegre, you won’t get very far unless you pass through São Paulo from time to time. Because the decisions are all made here, this is where the money is, where ideas are exchanged. It’s where the rubber hits the road, where you work a lot and make a name that will stand the test of time. Here it’s our work — and not the kids we have or the lives we lead — that matters in the end. From up here you look down and see the city. Our first office was over there, in the city center. It’s been fifteen years since we moved here, to Avenida Paulista. Now everybody wants to move again, over there off Avenida Berrini. I’m glad I’m almost retired. What would I do down there, with that river and those cars and trucks and without this view of the horizon? But that’s the new frontier. The problem is that we’re always burning out the old ones, leaving scorched earth.

I was born in the Campos Elíseos, and the first office was in Líbero Badaró. They were decent neighborhoods, even somewhat chic. Paulista might last, but I get the impression that once we all start to move out, the rearguard will be in retreat and decay will take over.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.