Jorge Amado

From left to der.: Jorge Amado, Gabriel García Márquez and Adonias Filho.

Jorge Leal Amado de Faria (Itabuna, August 10, 1912-Salvador de Bahía, August 6, 2001) was a Brazilian writer, member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. He was the cousin of the diplomat Gilberto Amado.

Biography

He was born on the Auricídia farm, in the municipality of Itabuna, in the south of the state of Bahia. His father owned a cocoa plantation. When he was one year old, his family settled in the town of Ilhéus, on the Bahia coast, where Jorge spent his childhood. He completed secondary studies in the city of Salvador, the state capital. In this period he began to work in newspapers and participate in literary life and was one of the founders of the so-called Academy of Rebels . His works show a mestizo Brazil.

Jorge published his first novel, called El País del Carnaval, in 1931, at the age of 18. He married Matilde García Rosa two years later, and with her he had a daughter, Lila, who was born in 1933, the year he published his second novel, Cacao.

He graduated from the National Law School in Rio de Janeiro in 1935. A communist militant, he was forced into exile in Argentina and Uruguay between 1941 and 1942, a period in which he traveled through Latin America. Upon returning to Brazil, he separated from Matilde García Rosa.

In 1946 he was elected a member of the National Constituent Assembly by the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB), being the representative with the most votes in the state of São Paulo. As a representative, he was the author of the law that ensures freedom of religious worship. In this same year he married the also writer Zélia Gattai.

In 1947, the year Joel Jorge, his first son with Zélia, was born, the party was declared illegal and its members were persecuted and imprisoned. Jorge had to go into exile in France, where he stayed until 1950. His first daughter, Lila, died in 1949. Between 1950 and 1952, Amado lived in Czechoslovakia, where his daughter Paloma was born.

Upon returning to Brazil in 1955, Jorge Amado distanced himself from political militancy, but without leaving the Communist Party. Since then he devoted himself entirely to literature. He was elected on April 6, 1961 to the Brazilian Academy of Letters. He received the title of doctor honoris causa by various universities. He also received the title of Obá de Xangô in the Candomblé religion.

His work has been adapted for film, theater and television, and has also been the subject of several samba school performances at the Brazilian Carnival. His books are translated into 49 languages and published in 55 countries. There are also Braille publications and recorded audiotapes for the blind.

In 1987, the Fundación Casa de Jorge Amado was inaugurated in the Largo do Pelourinho, in the city of Salvador de Bahia, which houses and preserves its collection for researchers. The foundation also helps the development of cultural activities in the state of Bahia.

Jorge Amado died in the city of Salvador on August 6, 2001. He was cremated and his ashes were buried in the garden of his home on August 10, when he would have turned 89.

Awards and titles

The literary work of Jorge Amado received several Brazilian and foreign awards, standing out:

• Lenin Peace Prize (Soviet Union, 1951)
• Jabuti Prize, 1959
• Latinity (France, 1971)
• Nonino (Italy, 1982)
• Order Carlos Manuel de Céspedes (Cuba, 1988)
• Dimitrov (Bulgaria, 1989)
• Pablo Neruda (Russia, 1989)
• Etruria Literature Award (Italy, 1989)
• Cino del Duca (France, 1990)
• Mediterranean (Italy, 1990)
• Luís de Camões Award (Brazil-Portugal, 1995)
• Ministério da Cultura (Brazil, 1997)

He received the titles of Comendador and Grand Officer of the orders of Argentina, Chile, Spain, France, Portugal and Venezuela. He also received Doctor Honoris Causa degrees from universities in Brazil, Portugal, Italy, Israel and France. The French title was the last one he received personally, in 1998, when he was already ill. On December 4, 2014, João Mangabeira received (post mortem) from the Legislative Assembly of Bahia the Title of Benemérito Citizen of Freedom and Social Justice. Due to his career in defense of social interests, the highest distinction of the State.

Works

Novels

• The Country of Carnival, 1931
• Cacao, 1933
• Sudor, 1934
• Jubiab, 1935
• Dead Sea, 1936
• Captains of the sand 1937
• Lands of the endless, 1943
• San Jorge de los Ilheus, 1944
• Seara red, 1946
• The Undergrounds of Freedom (3 volumes, 1954)
• Gabriela, Clavo and Canela1958
• The old sailors or High captain1961
• The shepherds of the night1964
• Doña Flor and her two husbands, 1966
• Shop of miracles1969
• Teresa Batista tired of war, 1972
• Tieta de Agreste, 1977
• Uniform, frac and nightgown1979
• Big Tocaia1984
• The disappearance of the saint1988
• How the Turks Discovered America1994

Stories

• The Death and Death of Quincas Dágua1961
• From the recent miracle of birds1979

Children's Books

• The Cat Mallado and the swallow Siñá1976
• The ball and the archer1984

Biographies

• The ABC of Castro Alves, 1941
• The Knight of Hope (Biography of Luís Carlos Prestes), 1942

Theater

• The love of the soldier1947

Memories

• The child is grapiuna1982
• Post navigation1992

Brief analysis of his work

Jorge Amado adopted a social commitment to the poor, the dispossessed, the marginalized of society: workers, peasants, harlots and homeless people populate his novels, become protagonists and heroes.

Over the years, Amado changed his conception of good and evil, of poverty and wealth: in moments of communist militancy, he accepted good identified with poverty and evil with wealth, little by little Little did he understand that good and evil are not the fruits of poverty or wealth, but are born of the will and character of each person.^{[citation required]}

The success of Latin American literature in the 1960s had a precursor in the work of Jorge Amado, in whose works he mixes social realism with a successful dose of humor, eroticism and sensuality, with the heroism of tradition romantic of the 19th century, and with the passions, loves and hates typical of melodrama.

Novels from Bahia

This denomination, given by the writer himself, refers to the novels that have Salvador de Bahía as their setting. Jorge Amado denounces social injustices and oppression in a world divided between good and bad, black and white, oppressed and oppressor, poor and rich: O país do Carnaval, Suor and Capitães da areia.

Novels linked to the cocoa cycle

In Cacau, São Jorge dos Ilhéus and Terras do sem-fim denounce the exploitation of rural workers by cocoa exporters in the farms of southern Bahia; Amado narrates lyrical stories of miscreants and vagabonds elevated to the category of romantic and soap opera heroes: Mar morto, Gabriela, cravo e canela, this one from 1958, became one of the greatest editorial successes of Brazilian literature. The novel A morte e a morte de Quincas Berro d & # 39; Água also falls within this trend, in which Jorge Amado creates one of his best characters, the sailor Quincas Berro d & # 39; Water. In these novels the protagonists are great heroines, well known to the Brazilian public: Gabriela, Tieta do agreste and Dona Flor.

Other works

Jorge Amado also wrote two important novel biographies: ABC de Castro Alves and O cavaleiro da esperança in which he narrates the life of Luís Carlos Prestes, the first president of the Brazilian Communist Party.

In 1992, Amado published Navegação de cabotagem, whose subtitle is "apuntes para un libro de memorias que nunca escribire", a book of writings dated but not ordered chronologically, in in which the author recounts passages from his personal life and his literary career.