ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like first to thank the many hardworking professionals who have dedicated themselves to researching and writing about the history of Brazil: their works were of immeasurable value as I wrote this book. The wealth of historical writing today is extraordinary, thanks to the serious and skillful research that now has covered nearly all eras of the country’s history. Perhaps there is still much to do, but our historians have already been on the job for some time, and have delivered exceptional work.

I would like to acknowledge here the origin of three episodes in this book: the story of Hans Staden, of which Tebereté’s tale is one of many versions already written; the story of the soapstone, which can be found in a report by Yeda Brandão about one of our common ancestors, and which was sent to me by Dulce Pedroso; and finally one afternoon in 1970, when Maria Lúcia Torres, without realizing it, tossed her poetry, together with fliers protesting the military dictatorship, from the top of a building on Praça João Mendes in the historical center of São Paulo.

I would also like to thank several friends for reading this manuscript, and for their valuable suggestions and encouragement: Maria Lúcia Torres, Peg Silveira, Neide Rezende, Rodrigo Montoya, Alípio Freire, Virginia and A.C. Scartezini, Laura Duque, Maria Lucia Alves, Maria Luiza Torres. To Octavio, Px, Flavio and Denise, Jacinta.

And especially to Felipe who, “from the end to the beginning,” made this book possible.