Perestroikas, glasnosts and dissidences

It must have been around 1989 or 1990 and he decided to spend an extended weekend at an inn at the beginning of the climb, already inside Itatiaia National Park, with his then companion.

Arriving there, to his surprise, Evo Brito was also staying there, with his wife and other family members. Evo was a former professor who brought him good memories. They quickly got into the group and he learned that part of the Brito family had arranged a small gathering, occupying almost the entire inn.

During the first day, he realized that the owner of the inn, Fernando, was also Evo’s cousin and that the whole family was, historically, connected to the so-called “communist” parties, judging by the subjects of the conversations, at the bar, at the billiards table, by the pool and certainly in the rooms.

Very interesting subjects were discussed, mainly the news coming from the then “Iron Curtain”, the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) and its satellites, which had already begun the “Glasnost” (openness) and Perestroika (restructuring) movements, mainly in Poland.

Was it the convention of a branch of the party? Was it the organization of a new aristocracy in formation through family ties and heredity? The “New Class” announced (or denounced?) by the Yugoslav Milovan Djilas?

It seems that the Brito family had arranged for each person to bring something for a “barbecue” beside the inn’s bar, at nightfall on that mid-season Saturday, when a pleasant little cold began to make the area near the embers cozy.

The two “foreign” couples ended up joining in, even for lack of options, since these inns are relatively isolated. As we all know, there is nothing more democratic than a bar, not least because “in vino veritas”.

Not knowing the rules and bureaucracies of the “international left”, the guests who were there by chance opened the proceedings with caipirinhas and whiskies near the cozy heat of the barbecue embers.

As the Britos and their hangers-on began arriving, the distilled drink changed to vodka. Wyborowa vodka, Polish, imported, legitimate, with import seal and everything. Nothing from Paraguay.

And the barbecue went on, everyone happy and fraternizing, already with much alcoholic inspiration, involving the militants and the other guests. There must already have been about 24 people, all happy and “high”, when about 7 more guests arrived (3 couples and one single man), who were staying at some other inn nearby. These 7, also militants, although related to the Britos, were “attached”, that is, with another surname, let us say they were the “Sweatshirt” family or something like that.

The Sweatshirts arrived, also already “high”, bringing a crate of bottles of Stolichnaya vodka, Russian, imported, legitimate, with all the legal credentials, export and import seals.

When the Britos offered the newcomers the Wyborowa vodka that was already circulating, the single Sweatshirt said loudly and clearly:

_ with the political changes in Poland, the vodka from there is no longer made with the purity of spirit of a good communist, and he refused to drink the Wyborowa offered by the Britos.

“Things got tense”, as everyone noticed, especially those who had “dropped in by parachute” into that setting, that is, the two couples not yet catechized and the inn employees.

Things began going from bad to worse because the Britos, in retaliation, refused to drink the Sweatshirts’ Stolichnaya.

Half an hour later, suddenly, Evo and the single Sweatshirt were rolling on the floor, knocking over chairs and tables, and Evo’s wife, desperate, was trying to separate them. It was a “dissidence” taken much too far.

The “foreigners” and the inn employees had to interfere, energetically, to avoid the worst because, as is known, at barbecues there are many knives and skewers.

Since someone had called the police and, surprisingly, they arrived very quickly, the most agitated ones (about 4) were arrested and taken away, offering great resistance because they still wanted to attack one another.

The military dictatorship in Brazil had handed the government over to civilians in 1985 and leftists could already move about freely; had it not been for that, the Itatiaia police chief could have requested a promotion for the quantity and quality of “subversives” arrested. Well, between the dead and wounded, everyone was saved.

With the total withdrawal of the Sweatshirts, the barbecue was concluded calmly and successfully by the calmer and more “high” remaining ones. As is known, alcoholic drink is a vasodilator and tends to calm the overwhelming majority of people. Do not fool yourselves, when it is not so, it is because it is not only alcohol.

The booty of some 18 bottles of “legitimate” vodkas was seized by the owner of the inn who, although a Brito and although a commie by religion, there was “the businessman”, the lucid one. So lucid that he prevented the police from confiscating them and shared them with the two couples as a reward for the help and for the trouble. Half Russian, half Polish, so no one would be upset.

It was later proven that both were well made, certainly to keep customers and for their own consumption, by some businessman from there, on his own account or with authorization from the politburos. Just like what is done around here.

Conversation back and forth, our friend left there convinced that the fight was not only for ethyl-political reasons. As a good observer, he deduced that there was a woman involved in the mess. As anyone who studied Greco-Roman mythology knows, everything has already been catalogued in fables. Troy did not end 4 thousand years ago, nor did human beings, with their beliefs, their illusions and their stupidity.

Miguel Fernández y Fernández, engineer, chronicler and columnist, member of the National Academy of Engineering and of the Institute of Engineering # written in Nov/Dec 2024 R2025 Dec Rc, 5,486 characters.