Friendship

Vinicius de Moraes was a poet surrounded by friends. Friendship has been the subject of many of his poems, chronicles and songs. He was a poet who got famous for both to create his work from the affections of his women, and as much as the love for his friends. There were decades of constant changes between his peers of literature and music, building affective alliances and life histories. With his cultural and social versatility, since his youth Vinicius was surrounded by people of the most different classes and origins. They were anonymous and famous who contributed in some way to his life and work. We can mention, among many of them, names like Otavio de Faria, Mário de Andrade, Oswald de Andrade, Antonio Maria, Pablo Neruda, Oscar Niemeyer, Di Cavalcanti and Portinari. Here are just some of the greatest friends of this journey.

Carlos Drummond de Andrade

Drummond and Vinicius have never been close friends, despite their togetherness. They had similar personalities. The difference in lifestyle – Drummond being a calmer poet and Vinicius being the extremely restless one - already tells us plenty of them. Nevertheless, they have always been around, exchanging letters and mutual admiration. Drummond, by the way, coined some of the best quotes about Vinicius. None of them, however, sums up as much friendship as the definitive statement: "I wish I had been Vinicius de Moraes."

Carlos Leão

The architect Carlos Leon got into Vinicius’ life, when He, Vinicius, got married with Tati, his first wife. Or better saying, Carlos introduced her to Viniciys, but with the marriage, this acquaintanceship became constant, since Carlos was Tati’s brother-in-law. He became, in the 1940s, Vinicius’s best friend of the bohemian tours through the streets of Rio. Besides, they were partners in several projects, books and publications. It was at Carlos Leon’ home, in Cavalão Hill, Niterói, where Vinicius began, still in 1942, the text that, years later, would become the play “Orfeu da Conceição” (Orpheus of the Conception).

João Cabral de Melo Neto

Vinicius and João Cabral were different and, somewhat complementary. The coldness of one balanced and was nourished from the lyricism of the other. They met each other in 1942, during the visit of the American writer Waldo Frank. In Recife, the two poets began a deep friendship, which became closer by the common life of diplomacy. It sas the "man who does not like music", as João Cabral became notorious, who, in 1949, published in his press “ O Livro Inconsútil” (The Seamless Book), 50 copies of the poem “Pátria Minha” (Homeland of Mine). It was also he who suggested the title “Orfeu da Conceição” (Orpheus of the Conception) for Vinicius’s play.

Manuel Bandeira

Vinicius and Manuel Bandeira’s friendhip begins precisely in 1936, when the carioca poet was 23 years old and the pernambucano one was 50. The age gap was not an obstacle to build one of the strongest friendships between the Brazilian poets. Vinicius called him “poet, father, rough brother."

Rubem Braga

The capixaba writer, Rubem Braga, was for a long time, one of Vinicius’s closest friends. The friendship was consolidated during the cheerful years of 1940s, when both actively participated in the bohemian circles of Rio de Janeiro. The duo became renowned, mainly in the circle of friends who gathered together at Bar Vermelhinho, downtown. The circle was famous for reuniting architects, artists, writers, playwrights, and the cream of Brazilian modernism from that time. Years later, Braga, alongside Fernando Sabino, became editor of some of the carioca poet’s books, published by his two publishing houses, Do Autor and Sabiá.

The “Mineiro friends” (Friends from the state of Minas Gerais)

Otto Lara Resende, Paulo Mendes Campos, Fernando Sabino and Helio Peregrino formed, over a long period, a quartet of inseparable friends in Rio de Janeiro. Their friendship had its origin in Belo Horizonte, before all of them moved to Rio. It was still in 1942, on a visit to the state of Minas Gerais, that Vinicius met them. He became friends with the group during a trip to the state capital at the invitation of the then mayor Juscelino Kubitschek. From afterwards on, he made a very special and lifelong friendship with each one of them.