‘Paulo Gustavo would be very important in this terrible Brazil’, says Mônica Martelli

Before heading to the sambadrome for the São Clemente parade in honor of actor Paulo Gustavo (1978-2921), some of his best friends (and there are many of them) gathered at a hotel in the city center for a “warm up”.

It was a celebration that had at times “a weird atmosphere”, according to Patrycia Travassos, one of the stars of the cast of the movie “Minha Mãe é Uma Peça 2”. “Everyone was partying, waiting for the time to come, and he wasn’t there. It was a strange absence”, she says.

The school took to the avenue the plot “Minha Vida é uma Peça”, which recalled the life and work of the actor from Niteroi, who died by the coronavirus last year, at the age of 42.

The Sapucaí parade was attended by more than 50 of Paulo’s friends — and there was not a single one who was not moved on the avenue. “I even have a swollen face from crying,” said Ingrid Guimarães, adjusting the collar à la Luma de Oliveira that she wore around her neck. In place of Eike’s name, she displayed Paulo Gustavo’s initials.

Samantha Schmütz and Regina Casé had a similar opinion about everything they experienced on Carnival night. “It was a mix of emotions: nostalgia, sadness and revolt. Paulo died in Brazil, due to a lack of vaccine. It is a time to celebrate, but not to forget. And we need to change what is happening here, because this government is not in favor of life”.

For Regina, the show was a catharsis, “the most mixed thing” she has ever felt in her life. “There were times when I cried a lot, and times when I laughed a lot, just remembering the antics he used to do. It was a whole journey of memories.”

Paulo’s lack was evident in the details of the clothes — Monica Martelli’s dress had a “Friendship is love” embroidered on the back, in small crystals — and in the crying of everyone there. Some were in tears, like Katiuscia Canoro, who looked like she was in a trance when she got out of the car.

She cried from start to finish of the parade and said, over and over again, “It’s a lot of love. It’s a lot of love, that’s all.” Heloísa Perisse also had difficulty defining what she felt. “At the time it seems that we are anesthetized dancing, but I just thought about the joy he would have”.

There is still a good deal of indignation among Paulo’s friends, for the circumstances in which he died – after the discovery of the vaccine, amid accusations of corruption, and in a country that, at that moment, in March 2021, already had more than 400 thousand victims of the coronavirus.

“I always ask myself: Why, my God?”, Monica Martelli is indignant. “He would be so important in today’s terrible Brazil, Paulo was a symbol of acceptance, of love, of lightness. I can’t understand or accept that he’s gone.”