Hermosa Márcia: the unwavering courage of a Brazilian mother

There is a moment in the history of the comic

(Astiberri, 2022) in which the protagonist finds a disc of

lying on the ground , a musical genre of sentimental ballads that arose from the second half of the 18th century. and which achieved notable success in Portugal and Brazil

The fortuitous discovery of a song that bears her name, Márcia, casts a renewed look at herself on the surprised listener and causes her a

of energy and self-esteem to continue fighting: "I didn't even know how to sigh before I met you, but after seeing your eyes, I know how to sigh, I know how to die."

The song has the same title that Marcello Quintanilha (Nitéroi, Rio de Janeiro State, 1971) has chosen to tell the story of overcoming a Brazilian woman who clings to life in an environment where violence is common.

Márcia is a nurse in a large hospital in Rio and combines that job with taking care of a woman suffering from Alzheimer's.

Both live in the same city, but in completely different worlds.

The lady, in a large apartment overlooking the beach;

Márcia, in a favela where the air is always stuffy and relationships are tense.

It is at the house of that lady whom she has cared for and appreciated for years that Márcia discovers

song.

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The comic exploits its blackest side

For Quintanilha, who has lived in Barcelona for more than 20 years and answers questions from EL PAÍS by phone, the discovery of this piece of music serves as a catalyst for the protagonist to recover her attachment to life.

“Art has the capacity to put us in touch with ourselves because it awakens mechanisms that excite us, that develop our humanity,” she says.

And she adds emphatically: "Art is extremely important at the present time."

The book shows with realism and harshness close to social cinema how drug gangs, police corruption and institutional abandonment leave the population of the favelas unprotected from multiple forms of violence.

In the case of the protagonist, also that of her own daughter Jaqueline, with whom she maintains a pulse of enormous affective and physical tension.

“Márcia's story”, says Marcello Quintanilha, “is that of a woman who must make an extremely difficult decision.

She even has to subvert a mother's nature at one point.

That aspect of a person who has to

interests me a lot because she is not very treated in the comic.

I see Márcia as a person who has not had the opportunity or the right to experience her own fragility”.

Marcello Quintanilha, author of the comic 'Listen, beautiful Márcia'.COURTESY OF ASTIBERRI

This imbalance is well reflected in a work with spectacular plot depth.

In a time where dehumanization and unwanted loneliness abound, Márcia's story reflects the struggle of a brave woman to avoid the void.

Quintanilha believes that this perspective of individual improvement is key when "finally" Bolsonaro has left the presidency of the largest country in Latin America.

The author, who wrote and drew the story during the confinement due to the pandemic trying to find an "answer to the disconnection from reality" that society was going through, is enthusiastic about the results of the elections in his country: "The most important thing is that the democratic forces have come together to defeat fascism, and this makes me very proud as a Brazilian.

It has not only been the forces of the left,

but also some of the right”.

And he elaborates on the challenge that opens with Lula's victory: “You have to rebuild a country that is in a situation of extreme moral weakness.

Brazil is divided almost down the middle.

We have come this far by promoting an arms policy that should never have happened”.

This culture of weapons and the contempt towards a part of the population promoted by Bolsonaro has produced a huge social gap.

For the author, the challenge that the country of Rio de Janeiro faces from now on is "to create State policies that care about the people, this is the great challenge."

We have come this far by promoting an arms policy that should never have happened”.

This culture of weapons and the contempt towards a part of the population promoted by Bolsonaro has produced a huge social gap.

For the author, the challenge that the country of Rio de Janeiro faces from now on is "to create State policies that care about the people, this is the great challenge."

We have come this far by promoting an arms policy that should never have happened”.

This culture of weapons and the contempt towards a part of the population promoted by Bolsonaro has produced a huge social gap.

For the author, the challenge that the country of Rio de Janeiro faces from now on is "to create State policies that care about the people, this is the great challenge."

Listen, beautiful Márcia

tells the story of a major challenge, that of a

who, together with her husband and a daughter from a previous relationship, struggle to survive in a context crossed by the daily violence of a macho society where femicide is constant.

Between March 2020 and December 2021, according to a study by the Brazilian Public Security Forum, 100,398 girls and women were victims of sexual violence.

In 2021 every ten minutes there was a sexual abuse, 56,000 women were raped and every seven hours a woman was murdered.

In total 1,319 sexist crimes registered in the last year.

In such a devastating atmosphere, the work of Quintanilha, who began his career as an illustrator in 1988 and accumulates an interesting diversity of works in comics, is presented with a powerful chromatic variety.

to humanity “like Trump or Bolsonaro”.

The book with a complex and fascinating script, very well translated into Spanish by Mercedes Vaquero, is a breath of strength in extremely harsh conditions.

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