Renato Manfredini Jr. was born at 4am on March 27, 1960, at Clínica Santa Lúcia, in the Humaitá neighborhood, south zone of the city of Rio de Janeiro. Renato Russo, the singer and composer who captures our soul and always leads us to fruitful reflection, would celebrate 50 years of life this coming Saturday.
In fact, I believe that this verb used above in the future tense has no reason to exist. In fact, Renato Russo celebrates his 50 years of life and we with him, as he is still alive in the minds and hearts of his family, friends and millions of fans from north to south of this country and abroad. The poet once wrote that we do not die, we are enchanted; As a Christian I do not believe in death, I believe in life, in this and beyond, because "he who believes in me has passed from death to life", said Jesus. He also said that whoever believes in Him, even if he dies, will live.
I feel very comfortable applying the Christian faith to the permanence of life, even when there is no longer a physical body, in the case of Renato Russo, as he, countless times, declared himself a Christian. Even if he weren't a Christian, I would extend to him my faith in permanence in life because poets don't die; in fact, no human being dies while living in the memory of those they love. Let us therefore celebrate the life of Renato Russo and his half century of existence!
I remember the first time I heard Renato's unmistakable voice and his poetry. It was in 1985, I was eleven years old, I was in the sixth grade of first grade: "Is it just imagination? Will nothing happen? Is it all in vain? Will we be able to win?" A year later, in 1986, came "Eduardo and Mônica", "Daniel in the lion's den" (title taken from a well-known biblical text from the Old Testament), "What country is this?", "Chemistry", in 1987.
I was, at that time, a very Christian kid. I read the Bible, attended church, prayed to God and sang hymns every day, but I also sang the hymns that Renato Russo composed and that I learned from Legião Urbana's LPs. I couldn't understand why I heard the pastor in church talking bad about rock and singers like Renato Russo. I couldn't understand why my mother said that rock was "hell's bells", because no matter how much I looked for something "demonic" in Renato's lyrics, I couldn't find it.
I remember that one Sunday morning in 1988, I caused a stir in my church, during Sunday School, because that time I didn't shut up when I heard, once again, the teacher speaking badly about Legião Urbana's rock, among others. The professor as "proof" of what he was saying, cited a biblical passage that reports Jesus' encounter with a young man possessed by a "demonic spirit" who, when asked by the Man of Nazareth what his name was, he replied: "Legion ".
I remember saying vehemently: because I see absolutely nothing about the devil in Renato Russo's songs, on the contrary, I quoted "Daniel in the lion's den" to "prove" that Renato Russo also read the Bible, because where else did he Would you know such a story? A year later, my "thesis" would be proven with "Monte Castelo", a song that is still sung in the four corners of this country by "boys and girls" and which brings a new flavor to chapter 13 of the First Letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, New Testament text.
The album "As Quatro Estações" (1989), which made me discover and sing "Monte Castelo", also brought me "Meninos e Meninas" and questioned me in such a forceful way in relation to my sexuality that I was never the same. A year earlier I had had my first sexual experience with a person of the same sex, although I was dating a girl at the time and I sincerely liked her. Renato Russo, without knowing me, like so many others like us, made me know: I was not alone, others felt what I felt, others were like me and had the courage, like him, to say it openly, without fear of be happy. From then on and for a long time until I had the same courage to come out, it was by singing "Boys and Girls" that I found my way of not being invisible or confused. Renato gave me a voice.
Ever since I understood Renato's lyrics, I started defending him when I heard someone call Legião Urbana "demonic". He said: how can a song that talks about love be demonic? Is there more "gospel" than the phrase: "is it necessary to love people as if there were no tomorrow?" No, there isn't! Today I am a theologian and I can guarantee that this verse is the essence of the Gospel taught by Jesus.
Renato was my "theologian and pastor" when I, to live my homosexuality without guilt, moved away from the institutionalized church. However, it was in his lyrics that I found what I learned to love since childhood and which, therefore, constituted me, the Gospel. I know that to this day, many girls and boys who are now experiencing the same conflicts that I was experiencing then can find the essence of the Gospel in his songs and this makes Renato immortal.
Renato always spoke about God and His Son Jesus Christ in his interviews. In one of them, he declared: “the important thing is to look at Jesus”. In another, he declared: "I believe in God" (1987), and further, "God is everything, he is life, he is love" (1988). However, he was never a religious person in the negative sense of the word, as he understood, as we can conclude from his statements, that Christianity is not a religion, but a path, just as Jesus himself declared: "I am the way". Yes, Renato understood and made me understand that religion produced and still produces what the essence of the Gospel condemns: division, separation, legalism, lack of love between human beings.
Regarding the insane "holy war" between Christians and pagans in the Crusades and between Jews and Palestinians yesterday and today, in fact, about any and all "holy wars", whatever their protagonists, Renato declared: "no war can be holy! ", words that we can, without fear of "sin", attribute to Jesus Christ.
When the wheel of my life's story turned, Renato Russo turned with me. At the end of 1995 I met Manoel, my partner for almost ten years from then on. Like Renato Russo, he was HIV positive. Like me, he also loved Renato's poetry and music. "The Stonewall Celebration Concert" (1994) and "Equilíbrio Distante" (1995) were the soundtrack to my love with Manoel.
On the fateful Friday, October 11, 1996, Manoel and I were in our car, leaving Ilha do Governador – the Rio neighborhood where we lived and in which Renato Russo spent his childhood and part of his youth before living in Ipanema – in towards Barra da Tijuca. We were very happy, we would watch the anthology "Âmbar", by Maria Bethânia; The voice of the JB FM radio announcer took our smiles from our lips and brought tears to our eyes when he announced that that morning, our Renato's physical life had ended. We stopped the car, still inside Governador Island, hugged, cried and swore our love. On the radio, the unmistakable and beautiful voice sang: "If Tomorrow Never Comes".
For Manoel, physically, tomorrow stopped coming a few years later and it was and still is in the poems and music of Renato Russo that I find solace in the longing: for both.
Happy birthday, Renato! In me, in thousands of fans, in your friends who are still here, in your family, you still live and are your life, your 50 years that we celebrate, thanking God, everything you are to us.
* Márcio Retamero, 36 years old, is a theologian and historian, master in Modern History from UFF/Niterói, RJ. He is pastor of the Bethel Community of Rio d
