In my Poetry Corner June 2024, featuring a Brazilian poet, I would like to call attention to a climate change disaster that struck the people of Porto Alegre, capital of Brazil’s southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul.

The contemporary poet and translator Angélica Freitas is no newcomer to my Poetry Corner. In May 2019, I featured her poem “the woman is a construction” from her poetry collection a uterus is the size of a fist / um útero é do tamanho de um punho (2012). This month’s featured poem “porto alegre, 2016” is from her third collection Songs of Torment / Canções de Atormentar (2020). In this collection, she takes a wider view of injustice, machismo, and her disillusion with the Brazilian dream that’s still out of reach for the majority.

Born in Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, in 1973, Angélica Freitas began writing poetry at the age of nine, but her journey to finding herself as a poet took a long and circuitous route. Her discovery, at fifteen years, that she was gay made it difficult to fit in with her peers. Bullies found her and easy target. Then, her father’s sudden death when she was eighteen upended her dream to study in Glasgow, where she spent six months with a Scottish girlfriend.

With her mother’s insistence that she earn a university degree, she opted to pursue a career in journalism at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre. She remained in the capital after graduation, where she could be invisible. In 2000, an unexpected acceptance as a trainee with O Estado de São Paulo, one of Brazil’s largest newspapers, led her to the metropolis of São Paulo.

Freitas confessed that she wasn’t a good reporter, but that the experience exposed her to the other realities of life. During a period of depression in 2005, she attended a poetry workshop conducted by Carlito Azevedo, a poet from Rio de Janeiro, that changed the course of her life. At 31 years old, she realized she was on the wrong path. During an interview for the Public Library of Paraná, she said:

“Okay, I want to write, but it’s not journalism, it’s poetry. You see, that was in my face the whole time. It was what I had been doing since I was little. So that’s it. Best to quit my job and dedicate myself to literature. I called my mother and said I was thinking about spending time in Pelotas. She supported me. Six months later, I resigned, handed over my apartment. Then I returned to Pelotas to organize and finish writing what became my first book, which was called Rilke shake.”

The six-stanza poem “porto alegre, 2016” deals with events worldwide that soon become a reality in one’s neighborhood. The poem could well be describing our world and lives in 2024.

when you saw it on TV
those people queuing in the rain
at night on a road
on the border of a country that doesn't want them

For those among us who might have forgotten, 2016 was the year that thousands of Syrian refugees, fleeing the civil war in their country, amassed at the borders of European countries. Here in the United States, the number of migrants on our southern border with Mexico have ballooned into thousands. On June 4, 2024, President Biden announced new executive actions to bar migrants who cross our southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum.

and when you saw the bombs
fall on distant cities
with those houses and streets
so dirty and so different

In Syria in 2016, Russian and Syrian government forces unleashed a fierce bombing campaign on the rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo. They made no attempt to avoid killing women and children. Using cluster and incendiary bombs, they targeted medical facilities, search and rescue teams, and aid workers. Sounds familiar?

Fast forward to 2024. Following the Hamas October 7, 2023, attack that killed more than 1200 Israelis and took hostage more than 240 people, the Israeli government has rubblized the Palestinian Gaza Strip and killed an estimated 34,622 civilians as of April 30, 2024. The fully identified death toll is comprised of 7,797 children, 4,959 women, 1,924 elderly, and 10,006 men.

and when you saw the police
in the square of the foreign country
attack the protesters
with tear gas bombs

In September 2016, the fatal police shooting of a 43-year-old man in Charlotte, North Carolina, sparked overnight protests and unrest. Protestors threw rocks at the police, injuring 16 officers, while police wearing riot gear fired tear gas into the crowds.

you didn't think twice
nor change the TV channel
and went to get food
in the fridge

How easy it is for me to become numb to hatred, violence, and war that threaten and destroy the lives of others in faraway places. I am comfortable in my personal space. I want for nothing. My refrigerator is stacked with my favorite food and drinks. I am safe.

you didn't notice what was coming
that it was just a matter of time
you didn’t interpret the news as a sign
you didn’t need to stock up on groceries

By the end of 2016, nearly 5.2 million refugees and migrants reached European shores, undertaking treacherous journeys from Syria, Afghanistan, and other countries torn apart by persecution and war. That year in the United States, a presidential candidate promised to build a wall on the border with Mexico to keep out the caravan of refugees fleeing violence and hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean.

now the spoon falls from the mouth
and the sound of a bomb is outside
and the police come after your belongings
armed with swords, on horses

In 2016, thousands of protestors filled the streets in major cities across Brazil, following the impeachment and removal from office of the country’s first female president. The interim all-male and all-white government, established on August 31, 2016, began dismantling the social policies and institutions that had lifted millions of Brazilians out of poverty. The newly elected president who rose to power in 2019 was a climate change denier like his counterpart in the United States.

Between April 24 and May 4, 2024, over 16 inches (420 mm) of rain fell across the State of Rio Grande do Sul, breaking the historical record. More than 90 percent of the state was hit by flooding, an area equivalent to the US State of Wyoming or the United Kingdom. The capital of Porto Alegre, with a population of 1.3 million (Census 2022), was not spared. More than 300,000 homes were flooded, as well as the port and airport.

Essential services were also disrupted across the state, leaving 418,000 households without electricity and over a million consumers without water. Several municipalities lost telephone and internet services.

In a Press Release on June 14, 2024, the Governor of the State of Rio Grande do Sul reported that 478 cities were affected, 422,753 people displaced, and over 2.3 million affected. Thankfully, the confirmed missing (39), injured (806), and dead (176) are relatively minimal. An estimated 20,000 cats and dogs were also rescued.

Meanwhile, here in Los Angeles, I’m preparing for another summer of excessive heat. Staying cool and well hydrated are key to avoiding heat stress or heat stroke. Outdoor activities are best reserved for the late afternoon when temperatures fall. I can do this.

To read the complete featured poem “porto alegre, 2016” in its original Portuguese, and to learn more about Angélica Freitas’ work and awards, go to my Poetry Corner June 2024.