Open letter to a judge from Paraná

His Excellency Judge Mário Helton Jorge,

Allow me, Your Excellency, this humble Northeasterner – I am from Bahia – to address Your Majesty... ah! excuse me, I was using the wrong expression, Your Excellency, in order to observe some aspects concerning the relations between Paraná and our poor, culturally backward people of the North and Northeast. I believe that, with this, I will be able to raise my cultural level to a much higher level.

I must say, as a starting point, that I have nothing against Paraná. On the contrary, it's a state I admire, and I've visited it many times. I even lived in Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo, two neighboring states, as well as Rio de Janeiro. So I've traveled back and forth many times by bus, and I've also flown over it in the same directions. I can say I know Paraná. I went to the west to see the beautiful Iguaçu Falls, as well as the coast, and traveled on the beautiful railway that leads to Paranaguá, stopping in Morretes to savor a succulent and delicious barreado. Once I passed through the center of the state, fleeing the Rio Grande do Sul political police – it was a military dictatorship – escaping through Erechim, then to Ponta Grossa, from where I managed to reach São Paulo unnoticed. As for your capital, I've visited it many times. I remember some of those visits. In one of them, during the State Amnesty Congress, around 1978/79, I participated in several panels, one of which I still remember and I must have newspaper clippings to prove it, with renowned intellectuals, among them the sociologist Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Also shortly afterwards I went to the second largest city in your state, Londrina, at the invitation of the writer Domingos Pellegrini Júnior, discussing our common struggle for freedom and amnesty.

Allow me a digression, Your Excellency. Thinking of Londrina brought to mind another large city in your state, Maringá, where they raise ducks. But I must be frank: I prefer to savor a duck in tucupi sauce than a duck from Maringá. It's quite true that the duck from the north has its origins in primitive cultures; indeed, the duck itself must be wild, there's even a certain jambu herb, typical of that uncultured region, but, you know how it is, as a Northeasterner, I prefer these ancestral flavors. Besides, excuse me, even barreado has its origins in colonial times when cowboys roamed the fields in search of animals raised freely in the vast pastures. Wasn't that how it was?

But let's leave the cuisine aside and return to the superior cultural level of Paraná residents compared to those from the North and Northeast. I hope you don't take back what you said, so that I don't find myself saying something inappropriate. Don't do like that fellow countryman of yours from Maringá who said that the slander against the Supreme Court minister was just a June joke... I didn't quite understand, but you live and learn: here in the Northeast and North we really like to celebrate Saint John's Day, but we do it in June. If it's now moved to April, we'll have to correct our ignorance and stop dragging our feet in June at our forró dances, raising dust that might even reach pure Paraná.

Your Honor, excuse my rudeness, but I wanted to ask you a question. Have you ever heard of the ENEM (Brazilian National High School Exam)? Do you know how many people, in the last edition, got a perfect score of 1000 on the essay? Were there any perfect scores in Paraná? From what I understand – excuse the ignorance of those from the Northeast – there were 19 with a perfect score. And do you know how many "dumb" – and certainly "mule" too, young men and women – people from the Northeast got it? Only 11! What a terribly ignorant bunch...

Let's move on to another one. Let's talk about the History Olympics. Honestly, I know this history thing is a worthless story, because what's past is past. What's important is the present, technology, to make a lot of money and leave northerners and northeasterners further and further behind. Let's see what I've managed to gather from the last History Olympics, Your Honor: the number of gold/silver/bronze medals is as follows: Bahia, first, 4, 8, 6 medals; São Paulo, the most populous state: second, 4, 8, 4; Pernambuco, third: 4, 5, 5; Ceará: 4, 2, 6. Next is Minas Gerais: 2, 2, 3; then Rio Grande do Norte: 2, 1, 10. Paraná, Your Honor, the most cultured state: with only 1 silver medal, it even lost to Piauí and Sergipe with one silver and one bronze medal each! Oh, those people from the Northeast of Brazil who don't study, who have no culture...

I want to go back to history, Your Honor, to recall three relevant facts that bring honor to the people of Paraná: the Seven Peoples of the Missions (also called the Christian Communist Republic of the Guaranis), which was partly from Paraná; the Contestado War, and the peasant resistance of Porecatu, both demonstrating the bravery of its people in defense of their land. These are relevant examples of Paraná's history.

And speaking of politics, it's good that you acknowledge: "Because it's widespread thievery. And this in Paraná, which is a state with a higher cultural level than..." Hold on there, Your Honor! Acknowledging corruption in your state is your right, but respect the North and Northeast! And regarding your state, I ask that you make an exception; as for the other governors, I wouldn't vouch for them: in Paraná I have a namesake, Requião, he's a patriot, an honorable man, he deserves respect!

Finally, Your Honor, I would like to ask one last question: have you ever heard the song "Maringá"? And do you know who colonized the North and Midwest of Paraná? Well, Your Honor, it was these people of low culture, from the Northeast! They cleared the forests to create Maringá, Londrina, Apucarana, and so many other cities in Paraná. The song? Well, the song is intertwined with the city, or rather, the city's name originates from the song. At the government's request, due to the severe drought of the 30s, Joubert de Carvalho, when composing the song, envisioned a character named "Maria" from the city of "Ingá." From there came the sonorous expression Maringá, a mixed-race woman who left the city of Pombal, in Paraíba, in one wave of migration. The song gained fame, won hearts, spread throughout this immense Brazil, and was widely sung by the Northeasterners who colonized the northern Paraná lands; hence the city's name. Did you know that, Your Honor?

Well, Your Excellency, the people from the Northeast who pioneered much of their state are today treated as men of little culture. And then you try to retract what you said in a session of your court, that your words had no prejudiced meaning. But what is prejudice, Your Honor? Isn't it something already conceived in our minds, something we say naturally without much concern? Isn't it a preconceived notion that we use in common? Surely you must have expressed this notion on many other occasions, never realizing that you were committing... let's say, a slip, only noticing it when the press blew the whistle? Stand by what you said, don't back down, Your Honor. 

And finally, allow this Northeasterner, this humble Bahian, from a land of such little culture that it only had one Castro Alves... one Ruy Barbosa, that little one with the big head, who one day represented our country in The Hague. Regarding the episode of his speech in Europe, if my memory serves me right, they addressed a quatrain to him, like this: “Ten minutes is enough time / for a speaker from all over the world / but it is stinginess and outrageous / when a Brazilian speaks.” And I add: especially a Bahian. But finally, Your Honor, allow this humble Bahian some advice: think twice before speaking, especially when speaking in public; review the concepts established in your mind, so you don't have to humiliate yourself later by apologizing for the nonsense you said.

Best Regards,

Roberto R Martins