IMPRESSIVE SCULPTURES IN MUD

From the depths of the Mangue, lost in time and space. Fantastic, extraordinary beings whose very existence is debated to this today in Recife bars, among glasses of beer and other additives. Some of these obscure characters (who are, however, relevant to Chico's life and the development of Mangue) are now shown, exclusively, by TRIP. Impressive sculptures in mud to be found in the profiles below.

CHICO SCIENCE, the real thing
In the beginning of time, back in the 1970s, the codename "Chico Science" was not yetr owned by Francisco França. The holder of the handle which later became famous the world over was another character, whose real name is Carlos Antônio Ramos Braga, uncle to Renato L., one of the articulators of the Mangue movement. Bald, father of four girls, Carlos was into science fiction and the cheesy theories of Erich Von Däniken, author of Were the Gods Astronauts?, a work that postulated that beings from outer space had paid us a visit in remote times. Because of this obsession, his family dubbed him Chico Science. In the 1990s the nickname migrated to the musician, partly in jest. Today, the original Chico Science lives with his family in Espinheiro, Recife, and still looks for evidence of extraterrestrial visits.
RISOFLORA
(from Rhizoflora mangue, just one more plant in the mangrove ecosystem, according to botany) Celebrated by a homonymous track in the Da Lama ao Caos album, this is the codename of Maria Eduarda Belém, originally from Pernambuco and now lending her charms to São Paulo. Science was always the prototypical Pisces, one of those who have an atavistic tendency to fall in love - and to suffer, a natural consequence of loving. Graceful, with a head of hair curly like an angel's, full-breasted, languid, capable of setting fire to a dance-floor, she was the girlfriend who made Chico happy for a couple of years.
JEAN PAUL
No, the Jean Paul in question is not the famous French philosopher, the father of existentialism and little remembered by average newspaper cultural sections. The Jean Paul found in Mangue Chronicles is quite another, connected to his foreign namesake by the passion for beach philosophy, fed by works such as The Nausea, The Wall and other literary adventures of Simone de Beauvoir's husband. His legendary mind trips charmed Chico Science's and Jorge Du Peixe's ears and he ended up in the chorus of Nação Zumbi's last album ( "Pela Orla dos Velhos Tempos"). Jean Paul was never involved in music and became a public servant who goes to church and sings Padre Marcelo's hymns. And, unlike his French counterpart, he keeps his wife safely home when he goes out at night.
ROGER, "Rogê"
Roger de Renor doesn't have a French bone in his body. His grandfather picked the name from a french circus freak he saw someplace. The chorus in "Macô", the informal anthem for the Recife-Olinda axis - "Cadê Rogê, cadê Rogê" - the man owned Soparia, the entertainment, alcoholic and sentimental headquarters of the mangueboys, which later moved and became Pina de Copacabana, after a song by Otto. A restless mover and shaker, Roger is in charge of some events at Malakoff's Tower, the first astronomic observatory in Latin America (currently a cultural center) and watches over Armazém 14, a Recife theater set up inside the vastness of a former sugar warehouse, from the time when Pernambuco was a global economic influence.
DEL CHIFRE
This is not a character, but an enchanted place. This was where - goes the legend - Chico and his Nação friends were initiated in the mysteries of surfing. We will never know how this came to happen: on the border of Olinda and Recife, Del Chifre is a dirty, craggy beach, apparently the worst place possible for such a venture. But the boys' love for the place is such that Del Chifre became a song in Rádio S.AMB.A: a latin surf-song that closes Nação Zumbi's first album, composed without assistance from the master of surf, musical collage and loaded repente-rap, Mr. Francisco Assis de França, aka Chico Science.
THE FIFTH BEATLE
Every pop-scene worthy of its name has its own fifth beatle: the guy like, Pete Best, misses the train of history and is left behind, drowning in anonymity, away from fans and the possibility of making millions. In Mangue, the role was played by a skinny man of few friends known as Bob Mofo. His "not-quite-pop star" biography is a collection of small and great tragedies: his father committed suicide when he was four, his stepfather always discriminated him, his family showed unparalleled ignorance, SATs became an insurmountable hurdle. The outcome of such bad luck was the appearance of Bob Mofo, the most radical punk in the Pernambuco chapter of the movement. When Mangue appeared, Vinícius Enter, his new alter-ego should have been part of the first collection. But the project never came through, Vinícius got lost in self-effacing and his whereabouts are currently unknown.
LIKE FATHER...
Style is in the DNA. Louise Taynã Brandão França is 10, loves to sing and dance and is a sucker for elegance, displaying as much concern as her father over a provocative, innovative wardrobe. The offspring of an affair between Chico and Ana Luiza Brandão, a young lady from suburban Olinda, the same region out of which came the Nação Zumbi bum, louise was born before her father became Science, when he was 24, but already carried a bunch of black music LPs wherever he went.