Jorge Amado

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Image:Jorge Amado caricatura.jpg Jorge Amado de Faria (August 10, 1912 – August 6, 2001) was a Brazilian writer of the Modernist school. He was the best-known of modern Brazilian writers, with his work translated into some 30 languages and popularized in film, notably Dona Flor and her Two Husbands in 1978. His work dealt largely with the poor urban black and mulatto communities of Bahia.

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Biography

Amado was born in a fazenda ("farm") in the inland of the city of Itabuna, in the southern part of the Brazilian state of Bahia, son of João Amado de Faria and D. Eulália Leal. In the large cacao plantation, Amado knew the misery and the struggles of the people working the earth, living in an almost slave condition, which were to be a theme always present in his future works (for example, the notable Terras do Sem Fim of 1944).

When he was only one y.o. the family moved to Ilhéus, a coastal city, where he was to live his childhood. He attended high school in Salvador, the capital city of the state. In that period Amado began to collaborate with several magazines and took part to the literary life, as one of the founders of the Modernist "Rebels' Academy".

Amado published his first novel, O País do Carnaval, in 1931, at age 18. Later he married Matilde Garcia Rosa and had a daughter, Lila, in 1933. In the same year he published his second novel, Cacau, which increased his popularity. Amado's leftist activities made his life difficult under the dictatorial regime of Getulio Vargas: in 1935 he was arrested for the first time, and two years later his books were publicly burned. His works were banned from Portugal, but in the rest of Europe he gained a great popularity since the publication of Jubiabà in France. The book had enthusiastical reviews, including that of Nobel Award winner Albert Camus.

Being a communist militant, Amado from 1941 to 1942 was compelled to exile in Argentina and Uruguay. When he came back to Brazil he separated from Matilde Garcia Rosa. In 1945 was elected in the National Constituent Assembly, as a deputate of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) (he was the most voted candidate of the state of São Paulo). He signed a law granting freedom of religious faith. In the same year he married again with the writer Zélia Gattai.

In 1947 he had a son, João Jorge. The same year his party was declared illegal, and its members arrested and persecuted. Amado chose again the exile, this time in France, where he remained until he was expelled in 1950. His first daughter, Lila, had died in 1949. From 1950 to 1952 Amado lived in Czechoslovakia, where another daughter, Paloma, was born. He also travelled to Soviet Union, winning the Stalin Award for Peace in 1951.

At his return to Brazil in 1955, Jorge abandoned the active political life, leaving the Communist Party one year later: from that period on he dedicated himself only to literature. His second creative phase began in 1958 with Gabriela, Cravo e Canela, which was described by Jean-Paul Sartre as "the best example of folk novel": Amado abandoned in part the realism and the social themes of his early works, producing a series of novels mainly focusing on feminine characters, devoted to a kind of smiling celebration of the traditions and the beauties of Bahia. His depiction of the sexual customs of his land was much to the scandal of the 1950s Brazilian society: for several years Amado could not even enter Ilhéus, where the novel was set, due to threats received for the alleged offense to the morality of the city's women.

On April 6 1961 he was elected to Brazilian Academy of Literature. He received the title of Doctor honoris causa from several Universities in Brazil, Portugal, Italy, Israel and France, as well as other honours in almost every South American country, including Obá de Xangô (santoon) of the Candomblé traditional religion of his state.

Amado's popularity as writer never decreased. His books were translated into 49 languages of 55 countries, and turned into movies, theatrical representations and TV fictions. They even inspired some samba schools of the Brazilian Carnival.

In 1987, the House of Jorge Amado Foundation was created, in Salvador. It aims the protection of Amado's estate and the development of culture in Bahia.

Amado died on August 6, 2001. His ashes were buried in the garden of his house four days later.

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