I heard about Silvestre Gorgulho a long time before I met him in 2010 in Brasilia.
All the way through my contacts with Elaine Ruas, the latter often evoked this man whom she nurtured some relations of friendship and mutual esteem with ; the way she spoke of that man made me understood that if things were to happen in Brasilia in relation to my pictorial work some day, this enthusiastic and benevolent Brazilian man would certainly have something to do with it.

As Elaine progressed in her administrative proceedings between 2007 and 2010, Silvestre Gorgulho’s role became clearer and more assertive : the man was indeed a grand amoureux of Brasilia (on this subject, please consult Silvestre Gorgulho’s Facebook page Memória de Brasília : its says it all).

Moreover I felt Silvestre as being the man of one thousand lives. His love for Brasilia -as well as his other passions- seemed to be nourished by thirty-five years of journalism, during which the graduate in Social Communication from the University of Minas Gerais had successively created his own newspaper (the Folha do Meio Ambiente), had then been editor-in-chief of several magazines (Veja,  Quatro Rodas and Escola), and a columnist for the Jornal de Brasília during a decade.

On an entrepreneurial level, I learned that Silvestre had worked for different branches or ministries of Regional Planning (generally related to the development and management of Agriculture, Trade and Industry), and finally on an institutional level for the Presidency of the Republic. And, when I first met him, he was serving as Secretary of State for Culture of the Federal District.

This latest position did make sense in his career, given Silvestre Gorgulho’s interest in writing, art and poetry.