A Brazilian Afternoon in Vinicius’ Itapua

by Eleanor Stanford
Someone has removed Vinicius' spectacles. He sits in the praca (the plaza), staring blindly out at the ocean, perhaps pondering a poem or the lyrics to a Bossa nova, a style of Brazilian music.  Poor Vinicius, cast in bronze, portly and rakish, his loose shirt unbuttoned to mid-chest; perhaps it's better that he can't see the shopping center that's sprung up behind him, the nail salon and surf shop, the pizza place and newspaper kiosk.
Vinicius de Moraes, famous Brazilian poet and Bossa nova lyricist, lived in Itapua in the late 1960s and early 70s. At the time, this bairro...