Book, Mário de Andrade by himself[LS]

Language: Brazilian Portuguese. Mário de Andrade's book, which has not yet been fully published, is already recognized as a literary monument, worthy of appearing with pride in any language. This multiple character, who defined himself without modesty as "three-hundred", "three-hundred-and-fifty", was also the protagonist of an unprecedented experience, that of director of the Department of Culture and Recreation of the city of São Paulo between 1935 and 1938. letters he sent to Paulo Duarte, his companion on this political adventure, are burning, confessional and very enlightening of the conditions in which an unlikely intervention of political power in the public machine was implemented to promote access to culture for individuals devoid of leisure in a city that worships the work. Paulo Duarte conceived the Department of Culture and had the additional merit of summoning Mário de Andrade, Sérgio Milliet and Rubens Borba de Moraes to lead it. He reserved the role of tutor for the project, installed as head of the cabinet of the enlightened mayor Fábio Prado. It was three vibrant years of a lot of dedication, discovery and achievement. However, the experiment did not pay off. It was sterilized by the Estado Novo dictatorship. Mário in his letters will regret not having been able to institutionalize the Department of Culture. Would this have been possible in a country that never completed inserting its population into a society with basic rights? Mário de Andrade experienced the drama at the Department of Culture as a personal defeat. And he even declared: "The Department is my tomb". This book is by Mário de Andrade, but also by Paulo Duarte, united in a common passion for the power of culture as a factor of social emancipation.