The minister of Culture and the deep Brazil

Por ser de lá / Because I came from there
Do sertão, lá do cerrado / From the outland, from the cerrado [Brazilian savanna]
Lá do interior do mato / From the inlands of the country fields
Da caatinga do roçado / From the caatinga scrubs of plantations
Eu quase não saio / I hardly go out
Eu quase não tenho amigos / I nearly have no friends
Eu quase que não consigo / I barely can make it
Ficar na cidade sem viver contrariado / Stay in the city without feeling upset

Por ser de lá / Because I came from there
Na certa por isso mesmo / Certainly because of it
Não gosto de cama mole / I do not like a soft bed
Não sei comer sem torresmo / I cannot eat if there is no pork scratching
Eu quase não falo / I barely talk
Eu quase não sei de nada / I virtually know nothing
Sou como rês desgarrada / I am like stray cattle
Nessa multidão boiada caminhando a esmo / Blended in this cattle-like people randomly wandering

“Lamento sertanejo”
Gilberto Gil and Dominguinhos

When he took office in 2003, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the first blue-collar worker elected to our presidency, picked Gilberto Gil as Culture minister. The choice for a strong name in Brazilian culture, affiliated to the Green Party [PV, in the Portuguese acronym], sounded off to a few.

Yet, what followed in the next years was a true marvel of public administration of Culture and Arts. Gilberto Gil is a Bahia native from Salvador— a city out of the Rio-São Paulo circuit—raised in Ituaçu, in the caatinga scrub, Bahia state.

At his inauguration address, Gil mentioned the concept of deep Brazil: a country with continental dimensions and a cultural diversity, in need of visibility and respect to its complexity.

“The election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was the most eloquent manifestation of the Brazilian nation for the need and urge of changing. Not for a superficial or merely tactic change in the chess of our national possibilities…

“… but for a strategic and essential change, which dives deep into body and spirit of the country. The minister of Culture understands as so the message sent by the Brazilians, through the popular consecration of the name of a worker man, of the name of a deep Brazilian…”

“… simple and straightforward, of a Brazilian seen by each one of us as an equal, as a fellow. It is in this horizon that I understand president Lula’s wishes for me to take office in the Ministry of Culture. It is a practical, but also symbolic choice…”  

“… of a man of the people just like him. Of a man who engaged in a generational dream of changing the country, of a black-mestizo committed to the moving of his people, of an artist born out of the most generous grounds of our popular culture…”

“… who, with its people, never gave up adventure, fascination and new challenges. Which is precisely why I make a commitment, as one of my main duties, here, of bringing the Ministry back from the far spot it is today, away from the daily life of the Brazilians.”
Gilberto Gil

The efforts to give visibility to the cultural and artistic manifestations of the municipalities, forgotten up to that moment, were not spared.

In an exclusive interview, in 2020, Juca Ferreira, executive-secretary of the Ministry of Culture in Gil’s term, recalls the objectives guiding the work of the Ministry of Culture [MinC, in the Portuguese acronym]: 

“We had an attitude of not standing still in a chair running the Ministry, because we were aware that the broadness, the diversity of Brazilian culture demanded multiple relationships, I would say endless relationships, with such complex universe…”

“… and having Gil as a leader, we had a mighty weapon to act, to convince, to cope. As we were very invested in listening, these connections were beneficial to us.”

One of the first trips by the MinC team, in 2003, was to Chapada Diamantina, for the inauguration of the Public Market of Lençóis City, restored by Monumenta, a strategic program of the Ministry of Culture. Juca Ferreira recalls it:

“At Chapada Diamantina, we held a public hearing attended by a large number of people. During Gil’s speech, a woman sat in the back said: ‘I am a representative of the Ministry of Health here in Chapada Diamantina…”

“… one of the main goals is to consolidate breastfeed. There is a tradition around of feeding flour to the babies, because they perceive heavier children as heathier children. I am unable to convince people and have a feeling that we, the doctors, do not count on the cultural dimension as a reference…”

“… for the building of values, for the changing of behavioral paradigms, and you people could help us.” There, the idea of an intersectionality that could be built was born, i.e., health, culture and land reform together.

The discovery of cultural heritage as a source of knowledge and financial profitability have turned several cities into cultural hubs, boosting economy through the fostering of cultural tourism and employment generation.

The Monumenta Program had the support of states and municipalities, so that its interventions would affect, direct and indirectly, economy, education, and local culture, making easier, thus, the cultural, social, and economic inclusion of the population.

Touring the corners of the Northeast, the minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil and his team, traveled to Juazeiro do Norte, in the cariri micro region, Ceará state, to attend the 1st Encounter of the Cariri Cultures (2005).

They also joined president Lula in visits to the cities of the Reconcave Region of Bahia, such as Cachoeira and Cruz das Almas, and Lauro de Freitas, in the greater-Salvador, located at the North cost of Bahia state (2006).

In Minas Gerais, Gilberto Gil performed “Eu só quero um xodó,” composed by Dominguinhos and Anastácia, while visiting the town of Serro, where historical buildings were restored at the once-called Vila do Príncipe city.

The minister has been crowned as King Congo at the Our Lady of the Rosary Church, The honor was granted by the presidents of the 17 fraternities of congada [an African-Brazilian cultural-religious manifestation that recreates the crowning of a king of Congo] from the Divinopólis Kingdom (2005).

In the North, Gilberto Gil inaugurated the Usina de Artes João Donato, in Acre state, a center with the mission of offering technical formation in communication and arts, with facilities to support the educational system and the community, the production of programs, events, and artistic services (2006).

In the city of Belém, Gil launched the public announcement for the Culture Points and More Culture programs, in partnership with the State Secretary of Culture and the State Government of Pará. At the opportunity, he was welcomed by a delegation and joined a walk in Belém’s historic center, in 2008.  

The walk started at Feira do Açaí, with the performance of a Roda de Carimbó [Amazonian region typical genre of dance and music], went on through the Dom Frei Caetano Brandão Square, or Sé Square, all the way to Castelo Fortress, where he gave a speech officializing an agreement with the State Government.

The agreement was designed to fuel more resources into the sector in the region. Along with local politicians, he was welcomed by representatives of the traditional local culture, such as indigenous, quilombolas and carimbó masters.

The executive secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Juca Ferreira, comments on the initiatives: “For the candid nature of these dialogues, a lot of what was integrated into our sensitivity had been built with people of this deep Brazil, to whom Gil would talk…

“… We used to talk a lot about creating a cartography of the Brazilian culture, that is, to develop in Brazil the thinking of cultural geography, to stimulate the progress of universities. Because, this diverse, broad, complex Brazil has a built historicity…

“…This construction had generated specific processes that are a part of the entire Brazil, yet they are, at the same time, singularities.”