Daniel, Herbert 1946-1992

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Daniel, Herbert 1946-1992
(Herbert Eustáquio de Carvalho)

PERSONAL:

Born December 14, 1946, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil; died of complications from AIDS, March 29, 1992, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Education: Medical student at the Federal University of Minas Gerais.

CAREER:

Writer, journalist, and revolutionary. Former member of the Armed Revolutionary Vanguard (later called the Popular Revolutionary Vanguard), Brazil, c. 1969-72; worked as a journalist in Portugal on a women's magazine; former candidate for state deputy for the Labor Party of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association (ABIA), former director; VIDDA-Respect, Integration and Dignity of the AIDS Victim, former president. Formerly worked in France as a masseur, waiter, cashier, bouncer, manager, and porter in gay baths.

WRITINGS:

Passagem para o próximo sonho: um possivel romance autocritico (personal essays; title means "Passage to the Next Dream"), Editora Codecri (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1982.

A fêmea sintética (fiction; title means "The Synthetic Female"), Editora Codecri (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1983.

Jacarés e lobisomens: dois ensaios sobre a homossecualidade (title means "Alligators and Werewolves"), Achiamé (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1983.

Meu corpo diaria um romance: narrativa desarmada (fiction; title means "My Body Would Give a Novel"), Editora Rocco (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1984.

A três moças do sabonete: um apólogo sobre os anos médici; peça em dois atos (title means "The Three Young Women of Soa"), Rocco (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1984.

(With Patrick Modiano) Ronda da noite (fiction), Rocco (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1985.

Alegres e irresponsáveis abacaxis americanos: romance (fiction; title means "Happy and Irresponsible American Pineapples"), Espaço e Tempo (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1987.

Vida antes da mort (title means "Life before Death"), Tipografia Jaboti (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1989.

(With Richard G. Parker) AIDS, a terceira epidemia: ensaios e tentativas (title means "AIDS, the Third Epidemic"), IGLU Editora (Sao Paulo, Brazil), 1991.

(With Richard G. Parker) Sexuality, Politics, and AIDS in Brazil: In Another World?, Falmer Press (Washington, DC), 1993.

Contributor to books, including Health and AIDS in Brazil, 1982-1994; Coleção Desvios, numero 3 (title means "Magazine Deviations, number 3"), 1984; Coleção Desvios, numero 5, 1986; Partido Verde: Proposlas de Ecologia Politica (title means "Green Party, Proposals of Political Ecology"), 1986; O bigode (title means "The Mustache") by Emmanuel Carrère, 1986; SaúdeLoucura (title means "Health Madness"), 1991.

SIDELIGHTS:

Herbert Daniel began his career as a medical student, but left medical school to join a revolutionary movement in Brazil. He participated in robberies and kidnappings before leaving Brazil for Europe around 1972. He returned to Brazil in 1981 and began his career as a writer of novels and political books focusing largely on homosexuality and AIDS. He collaborated with Richard G. Parker on the book Sexuality, Politics, and AIDS in Brazil: In Another World?, which presents previously published essays by both authors. The various essays explore such topics as male sexuality, how discrimination against homosexuals has affected AIDS efforts, and how AIDS can be demystified. The authors also discuss the general social background in Brazil. Writing in MAN, Sophie Day commented that "the book provides a useful undergraduate text for courses dealing with Brazil, sexuality, medical and ‘applied’ anthropology. In particular, it provides a cogent introduction to the relevance of anthropology … for an understanding of AIDS." Stephen Bailey, writing in the American Anthropologist, noted: "The authors underscore Brazil's complexity and ‘differentness,’ to challenge AIDS discourse shaped in and for the U.S." Bailey went on to note: "The book's intellectual center concerns sexuality" as it is reflected in the Brazilian people.