In an interview printed on July 1, 1992, in Rio de Janeiro’s leading newspaper, O Globo, the interviewee, Renato Russo, became incensed. Aside from being a Brazilian rock superstar, national celebrity, icon for youth culture, and acclaimed poet of his time, Russo was also openly gay. Yet after he patiently answered several questions about his sexuality, he bristled for a different, albeit related, reason. When asked if there was any truth to the spreading rumors that he was HIV-positive, Russo erupted, “Such bad vibes! I don’t have AIDS. What an idiotic question. They once asked me that at Circo Voador [an avant-garde venue for Brazilian artists in Rio], and I never went back there (Russo et al 150).”

Russo’s outburst speaks to a larger tension that he experienced: as a mouthpiece for an entire generation he, on the one hand, became a spokesman for homosexuality, but on the other hand denied his seropositivity and perpetuated an attitude of disgust and fear around AIDS, speaking to the deep complexities of sexuality and public discourse that marked his music and public persona.

Russo talks with Vladimir Carvalho, director of the documentary Rock Brasília–Era de Ouro, during his days as frontman for Legião Urbana. Courtesy of Agência Brasil.

The Voice of the “Coca Cola Generation”

Russo, the lead singer of the smash-hit rock band Legião Urbana (Urban Legion) had—despite his appearance as dowdy, uncouth, bespectacled, and un-athletic—a cult following of magnificent proportions, so popular that Legião Urbana came to earn the nickname Religião Urbana (Urban Religion). Russo is an iconic representative of his generation who also exemplifies the complexities and contradictions that played out on the ground level with regard to the advent of AIDS and its relationship to homosexuality. Russo, while openly and proudly gay, never admitted to being HIV-positive, even as it became clear to everyone around him that he was.

Renato Manfredini, Jr., the son of Italian immigrants, was born on March 27, 1960, in Rio de Janeiro. He was raised in the capital city of Brasília, and lived in New York City for two years as a boy. Bookish, timid, and fluent in Portuguese and English, from an early age Russo drew inspiration from great intellectuals (his adopted last name of Russo pays homage to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Bertrand Russell, and Henri Rousseau).

Traditionally known as a rock musician, Russo’s eclectic taste and aesthetic caused him to refine this classification. No matter how his band was categorized, it is clear that from the outset Legião struck a deep chord with Brazilian youth, who sought to join in rock music’s critiques of society. In interviews Russo repeatedly described Legião Urbana as a band that addressed the social complexities and anxieties of youth in urban areas living in Brazil since the 1970s. Writing lyrics that spoke to the angst that Brazilian youth felt as their country lived through numerous social movements and upheavals—such as the slow re-democratization from a 21-year-long military dictatorship—Russo soon became a spokesman for an entire generation, a role of which he was acutely aware.

Russo’s idolized position as a representative for a whole generation owes itself largely to Legião Urbana‘s success. Legião‘s success, in turn, is indicative at least in part of how music has the unique ability both to serve as an escape from societal struggles and as a critique of the very society that produces such troubles. As exemplified in one their most acclaimed songs, “Geração Coca-Cola” (“Coca-Cola Generation,” which encompasses in its very title an attack on multinational, imported consumer culture), Russo decried the state of urban youth and the choices available to them:

When we were born we were programmed

To receive what you push on us

Now our time has arrived

We will spit the garbage back on you

We are the children of the revolution

We are the bourgeoisie without religion

We are the future of the nation

Coca-Cola generation (“Geração Coca Cola”)

For millions of Brazilian teens listening to these lyrics, Russo seemed like someone who finally could articulate their feelings, their angst, and their confusion. Russo’s fans agreed with his main point that Brazilians lived in a godless country rife with political corruption, skyrocketing inflation, drugs, and disease.

Homosexuality and Public Image

Russo’s tendency toward politicization translated to his personal life as well. At 18, he had come out of the closet to his family. Over a decade later he came out publicly:

I don’t believe that a person defines his sexual life until age 25. A person isn’t formed [until that point]. For me, this is something absolutely normal. Once and for all: what exists is sex. I was raised to be honest and sincere. There came a moment in which I decided not to write any more music, receiving fan letters and cheating my public. If I am a certain way, accept me as I am. If you don’t like it, it’s your problem (Finatti).

When his mother expressed fear at his choice to announce his homosexuality, Russo claimed, “Mom, it is precisely to put an end to this prejudice that we need to speak out.” This bold statement exemplifies Russo’s sense of responsibility. He believed that as a role model for a whole generation of Brazilians, he could not be closeted about his sexuality. In this regard, he had no intentions of fulfilling anyone’s expectations—except his own—of what a rock star should be like.

Yet Russo knew that some people might frown upon his sexuality. In one revealing interview Russo said, “The worst danger is to the public. One fine day they are going to discover that their idol is vulnerable, and it’s very painful because messiahs don’t exist.” Russo’s awareness of his own failings and imperfections, real and imagined, shaped the core of his policy to always deal with his public with honesty and authenticity. Claiming that Brazilian youth were “in panic and in need,” and perhaps judging himself to be as well, Russo sought to be a guiding light. At the same time, however, Russo expressed extreme discomfort with his assumed role as the mouthpiece of an entire generation. In one particularly vehement interview, for example, Russo expressed exacerbation with his responsibility, albeit self-assumed, to dispel cruelty such as homophobia: “I don’t want to do any more gay activism. In my head, I decided, very humbly, that who needs help are heterosexuals” (Russo and Assad, 121).

Fears of Contracting AIDS

As nobly as he fought to encourage self-respect and respect for others, his proclaimed policy of honesty left one gaping hole: Russo never admitted to being HIV-positive and remained largely reticent about the disease in broad terms. In fact, when he died of complications of AIDS on October 11, 1996, it was in seclusion in his Rio de Janeiro apartment, having denied his illness until the day he died. His family members continued to deny his illness even after Russo’s death. In interviews during his life Russo had advocated for safe sex and condom use, but when asked whether he had ever tested himself for HIV—an indispensable tool to prevent the spread of AIDS—Russo claimed, “I don’t talk about that. It’s scary, a terrible thing” (Passos, 1995).

Russo’s discourse on AIDS seemed to border on disgust, colored with intense fear, as he lamented the loss of the sexual revolution’s proclivity toward carefree sex, while simultaneously calling for healthy living and safe sex:

I am part of a generation that was caught in the middle of the way. I had to eroticize using condoms. If not, in the moment in which you’re looking for one, you’re not turned on anymore. So that people don’t have to use one, people started having sex without penetration, think that they weren’t going to catch AIDS. It all became a gay porno, you know? That whole deal with pulling out. But I don’t need this whole thing with the test and when I did it, it was … horrible to wait for the result. I have a check-up every year and I had discovered that I had Hepatitis B. The doctors asked me to do a test for AIDS. I did three exams until I was sure of the result, which came out positive in the first test and was a horror. You have to talk to your friends and everyone had to do an AIDS test … [the other two tests I did] came out negative … but I act as if I were seropositive. Totally safe sex. I’ve already been through so much. I always mistreated my organism. You know, it isn’t cool to say this, but the people who are really healthy are less likely to contract AIDS. I don’t do all the crazy stuff I used to do. And there are certain things that fall into an area of doubt, like oral sex (Passos, 1995).

Renato Russo proved that his inner complexities and fears of dealing with AIDS overshadowed whatever other public considerations he might have had in admitting to having the disease. Russo’s choice to deny having HIV/AIDS, however, speaks to larger social events that colored the Coca-Cola Generation. Ultimately, the symbols for which homosexuality stood in Brazil at the time—social and personal liberties finally coming to light in the wake of an oppressive military dictatorship as the Coca-Cola Generation came of age—had a greater chance for public sympathy and discussion in the 1990s than AIDS did. Where Russo’s criticisms of homophobia aligned well with the Coca-Cola Generation’s criticisms of multinational corporations, AIDS was not treated with the same sense of openness nor the rights of its sufferers duly considered.

Sources:

• Chnaiderman, Miriam. “Suicídios traem Russo.” Folha de São Paulo, 19 October, 1996.
• Dapieve, Arthur. Brock: o rock brasileiro dos anos 80. Rio de Janeiro: Editora 34, 1995.
• —Renato Russo: o trovador solitário. Rio de Janeiro: Relume Dumará, Secretaria Municipal de Cultura, 2000.
• “Legião redescobre o caminho do palco.” Zero Hora, 20 May, 1994.
• “Mãe do cantor Renato Russo afirma que ele não tinha Aids,” O Estado de São Paulo, 12 October, 1996.
• “Não falo sobre isso. Dá medo, é uma coisa terrível.” Maria Helena Passos, “Roqueiro Brasileiro – Renato Russo.” Marie Claire, January 1995.
• Russo, Renato, Júlio Vasco, and Renato Guima, ed. Conversações com Renato Russo. Campo Grande: Letra Livre Editora, 1996.
• Russo, Renato and Simone Assad, ed. Renato Russo de A a Z: as idéias do líder da Legião Urbana. Campo Grande: Letra Livre, 2000.