(Português) Amado, Jorge - Portal Contemporâneo da América Latina e Caribe

Itabuna, 1912 – Salvador (Brazil), 2001

By Flávio Aguiar

Bachelor of Law, in 1935 (Reproduction) Left-wing militancy is credited with the many nuances that the vast work of the Bahian writer acquires, beginning with his debut novel, O país do carnaval (The Country of Carnival, 1931), written during his first year of law school. This militancy justifies the confiscation of his books Cacau (1933) and Capitães de areia (Captains of the Sands, 1937) and his imprisonment in November 1937. Jorge Amado’s involvement with the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) grew, leading him to serve as a federal deputy from 1945 to 1947. When the party was declared illegal, he left Brazil and traveled through various European countries, including Czechoslovakia (where he lived from 1950 to 1952), as well as Latin American countries and the United States.

Throughout this period of itinerant exile from 1937 to 1952, Amado focused on political themes, evident in ABC de C

astro Alves (1941), O cavaleiro da esperança (The Knight of Hope, 1942), a biography of Luiz Carlos Prestes written during his stay between Uruguay and Argentina, Seara vermelha (Red Harvest, 1946), and in the trilogy Os subterrâneos da liberdade (The Subterraneans of Freedom, 1954) (Os ásperos tempos, Agonia da noite, and A luz no túnel).

Starting in 1955, after his return to Brazil, Amado distanced himself from political militancy without leaving the Communist Party. With Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon: A Chronicle of a Provincial Town (1958), he explored new nuances aligned with socialist vision, aiming to write for the masses. At this stage, his literature shifted focus. “He depoliticized it, purging it of ideological assumptions and pedagogical temptations, opening it to other aspects of life, from humor to the pleasures of the body and the games of the intellect,” says Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, with whom his work shares dialogues.

This was followed by a series of titles featuring popular characters — pious women, prostitutes, land barons, and handymen — embroiled in plots with both melodramatic touches and syncretic religious manifestations unique to Brazil. Children’s literature, short stories, theater, poetry, autobiographical and biographical texts were also part of the writer’s production, who worked as a journalist and translator. He joined the Brazilian Academy of Letters in 1961, and his works achieved commercial success in Brazil and abroad.

Among his numerous awards are the Stalin Peace Prize (Soviet Union, 1951), Pablo Neruda Prize (Russia, 1989), Luís de Camões Prize (Brazil-Portugal, 1995), and Jabuti Prize (Brazil, 1959, 1997), as well as the Ministry of Culture Award (Brazil, 1997). He received honorary doctorates from ten universities in different countries, the last being from the Sorbonne in France in 1998. Other works: Tieta do Agreste (Tieta of the Agreste, 1977); O Gato Malhado e a Andorinha Sinhá: Uma História de Amor (The Swallow and the Tomcat: A Love Story, 1995).