[Marxism] Oscar Niemeyer Reaches 100 (Granma)

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

GRANMA
December 14, 2007

Oscar Niemeyer Reaches 100
The famous Brazilian architect is a lifelong friend of Cuba.

MIGUEL COMELLAS

Tomorrow, December 15, the brilliant Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer
turns 100 years old. The remarkable man'?s work not only transcends by way
of
its expression in concrete and granite, but also by his political actions
and his solidarity with just causes of his time.

BRASILIA AND NIEMEYER?S IMPRINT

?I met Cuban President Fidel Castro in 1959 at the Planalto?s Palace in
Brasilia. President Juscelino Kubitshek introduced him to me,? says Niemeyer
in recalling the memorable encounter.

Since then, a friendship and relations of solidarity emerged. In those days
Oscar Niemeyer was working with great determination and passion on the
gigantic project that was the dream of president Kubitshek: Brasilia, the
new capital of the South American giant. ?It was a delicious adventure. 
I lived several happy years there sharing my table with the workers,?
recalls Niemeyer.

?Fidel is an impressive human figure, extremely significant. He is,
undoubtedly, the great leader of Latin America. He is our natural leader,?
said Niemeyer with profound emotion, when I interviewed him that evening of
June, 1992, a few days after his meeting with the leader of the Cuban
Revolution on the ninth floor of his office-studio at Atlantica Avenue,
opposite Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro.

?We talked a lot. He told me about his concerns and about the debates that
had taken place at the Rio de Janeiro Summit (attended by dozens of heads of
state to tackle the issue of the environment), about the situation in Cuba,
and Cubans? willingness to face new challenges,? said Niemeyer, without
concealing how happy he felt with that visit.

It was a journalistic privilege to dialogue with the creator of Brasilia;
the Latin American Memorial in Sao Paulo; the Cultural Center and the
headquarters of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in France; the
Great Mosque in Algiers; and the huge Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro (an
amphitheatre of large proportions where the famous Rio carnival is
celebrated each year, between February and March). He was also one of the
designers of the UN building in New York, and of dozens of other
architectural works.

Oscar Niemeyer, along with Luis Carlos Prestes, was among the founders of
Brazil?s Communist Party. He was the first president of the Cuba Friendship
Association and, in 1960, part of the Brazil-Cuba Institute. 

Born in 1907, this exceptional friend who usually speaks slowly and in
undertones, spoke fluently with us about his memories and, with the greatest
modesty imaginable, about his relations with world figures, his works in
France, Algeria, Japan, the United States, Italy, and other countries.

Niemeyer said that during his first conversations with Fidel they spoke
about the possibility of doing some architectural works in Cuba, but also
about his strong dislike of airplanes. ?I was invited to visit Cuba a long
time ago. The Commander even suggested the journey by sea (he laughed a lot
about this episode with Fidel).? He is also the designer of the project of
the Brazilian embassy building in Havana.

His long list of awards includes the Lenin Peace Prize, the Jose Marti
National Order, and the Felix Elmuza medal granted by the Cuban Journalists
Association. 

On December 12, three days before his 100th birthday, Niemeyer was honored
with the rank of Commander of the Legion of Honor ?the highest civil and
military award granted by France? during a ceremony held at his workshop in
Copacabana. During the ceremony, attended by his relatives, he walked
arm-in-arm with his wife Vera Lucia Cabrera. France?s ambassador to Brazil,
Antoine Pouillieute, greeted the maestro on behalf of his country.

Between the 1960?s and 1970?s, the military dictatorship in his country
persecuted him, put him in prison, repressed him, and finally sent him to
Europe into exile.

A few days ago, president Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva visited Niemeyer in the
office where he goes to work everyday. Lula wished him a happy birthday, and
told him that 2008 will be the Year of Oscar Niemeyer in Brazil.

Since 1992, the Granma International weekly newspaper is reprinted in Rio de
Janeiro. At all times it has had Niemeyer?s enthusiasm, support and
solidarity for that task. ?You have many friends here, and this will expand
the space for solidarity with Cuba and information on the island,? he had
said at the time.

May these lines of recollections, respect and revolutionary affection get to
our very close friend, to whom we wish health and happiness on the occasion
of the 100th anniversary of his fruitful life.


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