Jorge Mautner: “Gil and Caetano determined democratization”

I went to exile in 1965 and stayed in New York for seven years. For two years I was at the United Nations and, for the rest of it, I was a secretary to poet Robert Lowell. I would only get to know Gil in exile, when a friend of mine, Arthur de Mello Guimarães, married to Marilena Guimarães, lived in London.

They called me saying: “Caetano and Gil have arrived here; they really want to meet you. Come over.” I, at the time, was living at the Chelsea Hotel, with my wife, Ruth, and my father.

We went off, then, to London, and there I met them for the very first time. My father came along and we had a lot of fun. 

We turned into good friends, Gil turned into a brother. Using money I had saved in the United States, I shot O Demiurgo. In the movie, Gil is the Pan god, Caetano is the Demiurge, and I play Mephistopheles. Péricles Cavalcante also appears, in addition to all of the folks who were there.

Our relationship is eternal, he is my brother. At that time, in London, Gil recorded two songs for which I wrote lyrics: “Three Mushrooms” and “Babylon.”

This song was written after we were back in Brazil, many years later. First, I wrote the lyrics and he, then, added melody. “O rouxinol” is a permanent symbol of joy, of resurrection, of mystery. Because a nightingale sings. It all happened in Bahia, in our long conversations in Bahia.

In 1958, I, José Roberto Aguilar, and Arthur de Mello Guimarães created the Kaos Party, and I wrote “A bandeira do meu partido”. Kaos has four different definitions: Kamaradas Anarquistas Organizando-se Socialmente [Socially Organized Anarchists Comrades]; Kristo Ama Ondas Sonoras [“Khrist” Loves Sound Waves]; Kolofé Axé Oxóssi Saravá [expressions from Candomblé].

Everyone was free to come up with their own forth definition. Our Kaos [chaos] is written with a “K.” We had a headquarters already and Mario Schenberg, who had worked with Albert Einstein, went to visit it by the time we already had 7,000 supporters. He came inside and said: “You people are right, everything is a myth.” The deepest depth of mythology.

He invited us and I went, then, to the Central Committee of the Communist Party, along with Aguilar, Dulce Maia, the most tortured woman during dictatorship, and an Israeli communist.

Our conversations with Schenberg were about philosophy, mythology, science, and everything in between. Umberto Eco paid us a visit and so did Luiz Carlos Prestes. We were a cultural cell.

Figa Brasil came way later on. It was a concert featuring me, Gilberto Gil, and ingenious percussionist Reppolho. On their way out, people would receive forms to they could join up Figa Brasil Movement. A lot of people did.

There were dozens of concerts, the last one being in Cuba, but I did not make it because I was sick. Flora Gil, who had met Gil a short while before, exquisitely made the stage lights. Gil was madly happy for having found Flora.

The values of Figa Brasil were the importance of blackness and a sort of socialist anarchism.

During exile, we were in Catalonia, me, Gil, Sandra, Caetano, Dedé, Ruth, and Violeta Arraes. Violeta then invited me for a walk away from the “boys,” as she used to call Gil and Caetano.

She showed a document from the military stating that armed guerrilla had to stop so dictatorship would come to an end. It also said Gil and Caetano had to head back. She asked for my opinion, but my opinion was the opinion of a supporter of the Communist Party.

She thought they should not head back to dramatize dictatorship, but I said otherwise and she agreed. They did not hear any of it. To me, it was the return of Gil and Caetano that determined democratization.

Brazil, which is a continental country, is the only one democratized by the popular music of full mythological, philosophical, and literary depth.

The ministry of culture under Gilberto Gil was the most important, depth, and amazing ministry of culture. I seldom went to Brasília to meet him. I would stay in the field, performing concerts across Brazil, irradiating this culture, and I got to see astounding things.

For instance, a place of vulnerable small children transformed into a space to “learn how to play rebec.” A greatest regret I feel up to this day is that, after Gil left the chair, Ana de Hollanda terminated all of what he did.

Before all of it, Gil was elected councilman in Salvador and I was given the role of chief of staff. I lived in Pelourinho neighborhood, talked a lot to artist Rogério Duarte. All I had to do was climb down the Pelourinho to get to the City Council. One of the most interest things I recall is:

Attacks of Pentecostals against Candomblé were already happening back then. Gil, on a huge stage, gathered several priests and priestess and a large audience, also comprised of Pentecostals.

It was interesting because the deep and mythological language of Candomblé was such that they could not care less for the shallow political debate. Bahia is Bahia.