Catacombs of Freedom

Catacombs of Freedom ( Portuguese : Os Subterrâneos da Liberdade ) is a trilogy of novels by the Brazilian writer Jorge Amado , which - written in Paris , Moscow and Prague - was published in São Paulo in 1954 . The translation into German by AT Salatrégui came out in 1955 and 1958 as a reprint in the Volk und Welt publishing house .

Brazil 1937 to 1940: the banker José Costa Vale fears for his property. He thinks that the have- nots instigated by the communists want to expropriate him. Together with the millionaire Comendadora da Tôrre - who is a factory owner - and the large landowner Venâncio Florival, he wants to put an end to the Brazilian communists - this bunch of idealists. Secret police persecution, arrest, extremely embarrassing torture and several years in prison on Fernando de Noronha are everyday means in this struggle for survival of the three representatives of the big bourgeoisie mentioned .

The title of the novel refers to hidden places in Brazil, where members of the Communist Party of Brazil (KPB) fight against the “New State” of the dictator Getúlio Vargas from November 1937 . In Volume I of the two-volume German edition of the novel, for example, Jorge Amado tells about an illegal printing company: “An old man and a young man, old Orestes and young Jofre, guarded the people's printing works; old age and youth forged the future in the catacombs of freedom. "

Stalinism

The protagonist Mariana - communist figure of light in the novel - is prepared for the class struggle by her terminally ill father . The dying man tells her "about the Soviet Union , about Lenin and Stalin ". At the father's grave a little later a speaker unknown to the grieving daughter said: “The flag that he [the now dead] has bravely carried forward, the flag of Marx , Engels , Lenin and Stalin, will be carried forward by the proletariat until victory . "And the Soviet people are mentioned as those" who are happy to build a new world. "

Jorge Amado admits: “The catacombs belong to the phase in my life in which I was a Stalinist .” Many modern readers will already put the first of the two bulky volumes aside, at the latest after reading: “Zé Pedro .. read in a work by Stalin ... He devoured the words eagerly, as if he were looking for answers to the questions in the book of the great leader of the Soviet people ... "Or: The worker Joâo wants" for a long life for his comrade Stalin leading the struggle of the world's working people from his distant workplaces in the Kremlin , ”drink. And another highlight: “Just think of Stalin. Who in the world works more than him? He is responsible for the well-being of millions of people. I recently read a poem about him in which the poet describes how in Moscow, in the Kremlin, late at night, when everyone is asleep, one window is still lit - Stalin's window. The happiness of his fatherland and his people allow him no rest. "

All quoted passages are from Volume I. In the second volume, Jorge Amado applies even more heavily. The reader's patience is put to a severe test; Here is just one example: "He knew the party was smarter than a single person, and his daily experience had shown him that the party was always right ."

content

I.

The noble Getúlio Vargas opponent Artur Macedo da Rocha would have become Minister of Justice under Armando Sales. But the latter did not come to power. The widower Artur worries about his son Paulo. The young embassy secretary was ordered back to Rio from the Republic of Colombia because of a scandalous woman's story. Since the death of his wife Angela, Artur had become the home of the banker José Costa Vale as a second home. Vales wife Marieta had raised the half-orphan Paulo. Now the 43-year-old, whose ailing husband is busy with his banks and factories, the blasé young diplomat who studied literary history , has “fallen in love with all of his senses”. Futile labor of love; he turns to the attractive, much younger Manuela.

At an evening party in Costa Vales, the host gives the impressions of his last trip to Europe. The banker acknowledges " Hitler's achievement". Artur observes the guests - among them the well-known physician Prof. Dr. Alcebiades de Morais, the large landowner Senator Venâncio Florival from Mato Grosso and the fat poet Cesar Guilherme Shopel - listen reverently. Only the old Comendadora da Tôrre - widow of a Portuguese industrialist - remains unimpressed. The old woman started out as a laundress and rose to become the richest factory owner in Brazil. She bought her Comendadora title. Because of their childlessness, the two nieces will inherit. The Comendadora would like to see the noble Paulo as the husband of one of her nieces. Father Artur defends himself internally against the request, but the da Rocha family's finances are in bad shape. The host goes to bed early. Before that, after the subject of Europe, Getúlio Vargas' relationship to the Integralists will be examined. Arthur thinks little of their head, Plínio Salgado .

In addition to the striving for power of the upper social class outlined above, the careers of their appendages are also discussed; for example the rise of the previously insignificant clerk Lucas Puccini to civil servant. Lucas is sponsored by his former school friend Eusébio Lima. The senior civil servant Lima enriches himself with the trade unionists. When workers demonstrate against Getúlio Vargas in São Paulo, Lima shoots them. A worker is shot. Puccini's sister Manuela is trained as a dancer - with her steeply aspiring brother in tow. Paulo promises marriage to young Manuela. The reader knows from a conversation Paulos with the pious poet Shopel that the budding dancer is only interesting as a lover. Paulo wants to marry the extremely rich Rosinha da Tôrre.

The fight against Getúlio Vargas, who overturned the Constituent Assembly in a coup , is on. Leading communists, such as Carlos and Zé Pedro, firmly reject aristocratic Artur because the gentleman is against the arming of the workers. The phalanx of communist underground fighters appears manageable. Getúlio Vargas had most of them locked up. One of his most experienced and also active bailiffs - Barros, chief of the political police - hunts communists right across the novel; boasts of listing perverted torture practices.

The love of the 22-year-old textile worker Mariana de Azevedo for the Communist Party functionary João - actually his name is Aguinaldo Penha - is told in a memorable way. The couple are getting married. Mariana, dutifully close to giving up herself, has followed in the footsteps of her communist father, who was assassinated by Barros. As a member of the strike committee in a factory of the Comendadora da Tôrre, Mariana had cold-bloodedly rejected an attempt at bribery by the sly factory owner. The Communist Ruivo, party secretary of São Paulo, who is slowly dying of consumption , takes Mariana under his wing. Mariana becomes the courier. In this position of trust she knows all the addresses of leading communists in São Paulo. These fearless underground fighters have a sympathizer - the architect Marcos de Souza. His villa serves as a focal point. De Souza supports the communists financially.

A number of storylines run through the work: One that surrounds the journalist Abelardo Saquila is one of the more important because it is continued in Volume II. The “Salon Bolshevik” Saquila is expelled from the ranks of the communists as a Trotskyist dissent. This group of outcast petty bourgeoisie also includes the police spy Camaleão ( chameleon ), who betrayed the São Paulo location of the illegal printing company to Barros and thus has the death of the mestizo Jofre Ramos and his anarcho-communist colleague Orestes on his conscience. Before his death, Jofre had saved Mariana from being discovered by Barros. The young woman lives dangerously as a courier. When she suspects a secret police officer is behind her neck, she jumps out of the moving tram and has a miscarriage .

The fight against the exploitation of the manganese deposits on the Rio Salgado in Mato Grosso, which is important for the war effort , is also told across both volumes . An expedition with prospectors is repulsed by the indigenous impoverished rural population on the river. The communist José Gonçalo organized the resistance as a lone fighter who went into hiding in the Brazilian bush. Large landowner Venâncio Florival from the neighborhood is powerless against the resistance. Both the gringos and the Germans look eagerly at the deposits. Banker Costa Vale has received the license to exploit the deposits from Getúlio Vargas and sends Shopel as a front man.

The story of the strike of the showers in Santos must also be mentioned . Getúlio Vargas wants to give Franco a shipload of coffee. The dockers loaded the Nazi ship from Germany not. During the argument, a horrible man is killed. At his funeral, the pregnant negress Ignacia, a resistance fighter, is ridden down by cavalry and dies. Among other things, the police chief Barros was incited to the crime by the Comendadora da Tôrre.

II

It comes, as it must. The petty-bourgeois-chaste Manuela, in her innocence, allows Paulo to get pregnant. As announced in Volume I, the talented dancer will not be married. Because the young diplomat is about to close a brilliant deal. He will marry his fiancée Rosinha, the niece of the Comendadora. The factory owner humiliates the young gentleman during the negotiation of the marriage contract in her directly vulgar laundress language, but money doesn't stink.

In addition to the well-known Abelardo Saquila and the police spy Camaleão (see above), Jorge Amado introduces the careerist “communist” Heitor Magalhães. He is the son of a minor civil servant, an unemployed doctor in São Paulo who, as a Trotskyist and the most influential divider after Saquila, is expelled from the CPB as a party cashier for infidelity and who takes terrible revenge for being expelled. Heitor Magalhães, together with Camaleão, betrays a number of communists to Barros. The chief of the political police had those arrested at the end of September 1938 tortured.

Manuela's brother Lucas Puccini asks the banker Costa Vale in vain for credit for his dubious business ideas. Nevertheless, Puccini's rise is unstoppable. He lays the foundation for this during an unsuccessful coup by the Integralists. Getúlio Vargas remains in power thanks to Puccini's energetic commitment and patronizes his loyal follower. Later, Costa Vale has to take note of Puccini's rise into the inner circle of finance capital and becomes more accessible. The banker introduces the young climber to the Comendadora. Her single niece Alina is to be married.

When Manuela confesses her “misconduct” to her brother, the careerist persuades his sister to have an abortion . In the clinic, Manuela meets a fellow sufferer: Mariana. The acquaintance turns into friendship over time. Manuela turns away from both Paulo and her brother and turns to the communists. The highlight of this turn is Manuela's love story for the much older architect Marcos de Souza. Jorge Amado offers the reader a happy ending. After his release - the architect had been imprisoned - Marcos will marry Manuela in the early autumn of 1940.

Paulo's father, the former Getúlio Vargas opponent Artur Macedo da Rocha, not involved in the above-mentioned conspiracy against Getúlio Vargas, becomes Minister of Justice under the dictator. Towards the end of the novel he resigned and practiced again as a lawyer in São Paulo.

The story of the exploitation of the manganese deposits on the Rio Salgado in Mato Grosso is discussed in detail in Volume II, as already indicated. Banker Costa Vale and his accomplice Venâncio Florival get barrages from the mestizos on the river, guided by the communists. But one day the long-established settlers ran out of ammunition. The winners - first and foremost the banker - celebrate through the night together with the financially strong Americans and fly back to São Paulo from Mato Grosso in the morning.

Paulo goes to Paris on a diplomatic mission with his wife Rosinha. The couple cheat on each other in the Seine metropolis. Paulo witnessed the Wehrmacht's march on Paris . He has long since given up on Marieta. The banker's wife, deeply depressed by this, is successfully reminded of her representative duties as a wife by her husband.

Mariana gives birth to a son. The secret police Barros manages to arrest over forty communists, including Ruivo and Joâo. Mariana takes over the KPB district management in São Paulo. In her work she can only rely on a handful of people. Joâo is sentenced to eight years in prison. Mariana, unbroken, continues to fight. On November 7, 1940, by chance, the intrepid intruders into the courthouse, followed the trial against Prestes and loudly spoke out against the communist leader. The young mother goes to prison for this.

reception

• Pablo Neruda jumps into the breach for his long-time friend Jorge Amado: The revelations on the XX. At the CPSU party congress , Jorge Amado also opened his eyes and afterwards he said goodbye to Stalinism in his own way - with Gabriela like cinnamon and cloves , a “masterpiece that is ... exuberant with sensuality”.
• Alfred Antkowiak criticizes the "colorless, artistically rather implausible figures". In addition, the text is "planed schematically over long distances."
• Ronald Daus calls the work the last Marxist novel Jorge Amados. The dominance of communist propaganda clichés in this “almost exclusively political treatise” is obvious.
• Jorge Amado portrays the communists as largely flawless “supermen”.
• Tobias Gunst wrote in October 2013 at literaturkritik.de that Jorge Amado later distanced himself from the “political-propagandistic pamphlet” with “pro-communist, even partly Stalinist impetus ”.

German-language literature

First edition

• Jorge Amado: Catacombs of Freedom. Novel. First volume. Translated from the Portuguese by AT Salatrégui. With woodcuts by Renina Katz . Volk und Welt, Berlin 1955. 657 pages (used edition)
• Jorge Amado: Catacombs of Freedom. Novel. Second volume. Translated from the Portuguese by AT Salatrégui. With woodcuts by Renina Katz . Volk und Welt, Berlin 1955. 673 pages (used edition)

Secondary literature

• Erhard Engler : Jorge Amado. The magician from Bahia . edition text + criticism. Pp. 150–153 (series of writing elsewhere , ed. Renate Oesterhelt) Munich 1992, 180 pages, ISBN 3-88377-410-3

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Edition used, p. 109, 12. Zvu
2. ↑ Engler, p. 168, last entry
3. ↑ Engler, p. 119 middle
4. ↑ Edition used, Vol. 1, p. 341 middle
5. ↑ Edition used, Vol. 1, p. 65, 16. Zvu
6. ↑ Edition used, Vol. 1, p. 100, 3rd Zvu
7. ↑ Engler, pp. 113,10. Zvu
8. ↑ Edition used, Vol. 1, p. 318, 7th Zvu
9. ↑ Edition used, Vol. 1, p. 380 middle
10. ↑ Edition used, Vol. 1, p. 600, 2. Zvo
11. ↑ Edition used, Vol. 2, p. 109, 14. Zvo
12. ↑ Port. Armando Sales
13. ↑ port. Rio Salgado
14. ↑ Pablo Neruda anno 1957, cited in Engler, pp. 114–115
15. ^ Alfred Antkowiak, Berlin 1966, quoted in Engler, p. 115 Mitte
16. ↑ Ronald Daus, quoted in Engler, pp. 140, 21. Zvo
17. ↑ Ronald Daus, Hamburg 1968 and Dortmund 1968, cited in Engler, p. 115, 12. Zvu and p. 140, 14. Zvu
18. ^ Engler, p. 110, 2nd Zvu
19. ↑ Tobias Gunst: Brazilian classics in a new edition I: Jorge Amado

Remarks

1. ↑ The subtitles of the three-part original edition are translated into German: Bittere Zeiten , Nocturnal Agony and Light in the Tunnel (Engler, p. 112, 14th Zvu).
2. ↑ Big bourgeoisie is a Marxist term.
3. ↑ The Roman numerals I and II refer to the volumes of the edition used.
4. ↑ A Classe Operária (Portuguese: The Working Class ), the central organ of the KPB , is printed there .
5. ↑ The old communist Orestes would like to solve every major problem with a self-made bomb and eventually dies.
6. ↑ Mariana was admitted because of her inflamed appendix , but her fellow sufferer is true: Both women lose their first child.