Innocence and experience in the song “O meu guri”, by Chico Buarque

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of the song “Meu Guri”, by Chico Buarque de Holanda, focusing on the tension between childhood innocence and the experience, or loss of childhood, in the vortex of social inequalities and urban violence. It also points to the invisibility of poor women, their vulnerable condition in the face of social oppression. Based on a theoretical framework supported by Adélia Meneses, bell hooks, Walter Benjamin, Grada Kilomba, Djamila Ribeiro, among others, the analysis tries to apprehend the impact of Chico's irony, his poetic resources, his language game, while defying the pathetic suffering of the persona of the song. Forty years have passed and the song has not lost its relevance, quite the contrary. Sadly, we live in a country where social inequalities, intolerance and disrespect for women and children have only increased. The poet's denunciation is valid, the call to look: “Look there! Look!"