Blog Marcos L. Mucheroni Filosofia, Noosfera e cibercultura

Manuel Alegre is a contemporary Portuguese poet when he was a military man in the then colony of Angola, he participated in the first rebellion that tried to free Angola from the yoke of his country (he was arrested by the PIDE, Salazar police), he won several awards, including the Camões Prize in 2017, he wrote “Jornada da África” in 1989, “Alma” in 1995 and “The third Rose” in 1998, between others of course, but his book that we reference here is “Raphael” (in picture used in figure of its cover).

During his period of exile after his arrest, he lived in Algiers, which is why he will refer to Rafael in the novel as someone who lived under different pseudonyms, sometimes he feels Spanish, Portuguese or Algerian, but Manuel Alegre’s deepest feeling is of a citizen of the world, nameless and looking for references.

In the Book Rafael goes from house to house, from hotel to hotel, changes his name, lets his mustache grow, wears glasses without lenses, uses a passport in hotels where he hides his citizenship and another to travel, in each new document a name and a different profession, he is clandestine within himself, he has lost his references and his own personal identity, he already is and he is not, he does not use his first name, he has four or five pseudonyms that he prefers, whether he is French, Spanish or Algerian, he is alone, not in the proper sense, as a solitary literature might wish, but as a member of an international brigade, he feels solidarity with it.

Ser e não ser has already been written by William Shapespeare, but in Manuel Alegre it acquires a contemporary meaning, the citizen of the world in solidarity with all peoples, I make here a mystical incursion, which is not in your book and which I consider important, not to be is also part of Being when we are in solidarity with other peoples, customs and cultures, and in my case without losing our own, also the name of the archangel Raphael is significant for me, in Hebrew origin El is God and Rafa is healing, so Raphael has the meaning God heals, here in the sense of a socially and culturally sick world for not recognizing other values ​​and cultures.

I know 23 countries, 4 in Latin America, 19 in Europe, especially Spain and Italy because of my ancestry, and Portugal where I saw more clearly all the influence in Brazil, but I still feel Brazilian and today’s debut day of the national team in the World Cup around the world I will be with neighbors and friends cheering for the national team, without this meaning hatred or contempt for other peoples and cultures.