Pedro Bloch

I met him in a curious manner. I had just graduated from Medical School and went to an Otolaryngology Meeting held here in São Paulo. This happened in 1956.

I had heard about him before that. I had been to a theater to see “The Hands of Eurídice”, one of the many plays that he wrote. It was a one-man show – the first monologue in Brazilian theaters – and made many actors quite famous. Now I know that it was played approximately 80,000 times in 45 different countries. The Brazilian actor Rodolfo Mayer performed it more than 3,000 times. The play was shown on Broadway, at the Booth Theater, in 1952. The Spanish actor Enrique Guitart also performed it 3,000 times in Barcelona and Madrid. In England the play was produced by Sean Connery and in Sweden the director was Ingmar Bergman. But I did not know these things at that time, I only knew that I had found the play absolutely fantastic.
I did not know, at that time, that he was a physician, so I was quite surprised to find him at the Meeting. And one of my father’s associates introduced him to me, saying: “This is Professor Mangabeira’s son.” He held my name tag in his hands and said, “No, he is Pedro Luiz Mangabeira.” I was quite impressed that this important man would show so much consideration for my own individuality. 
After that we met in many different meetings and became good friends. And then I started visiting him every time I went to Rio de Janeiro. And he and his wife Miriam were the godparents of my youngest daughter.
He was a Brazilian pioneer in the field of Phoniatrics, a subspecialty of otolaryngology that deals with voice – not only diseases of the organs that produce the human voice but also problems that affect voice quality, from breathing to vocal folds and resonance characteristics of the vocal pathways. People who use their voices professionally, such as singers, actors, teachers, preachers, etc., often need phoniatric help. Since he was also a playright, many actors and singers were his friends and he treated many of them when they had voice problems. The Brazilian Singers Roberto Carlos, Gal Costa and João Gilberto, and the opera singer Luciano Pavarotti, were among his patients. 
Besides being a playwright and a physician, he was also:
A newspaperman – he interviewed many famous persons, among them many important Brazilian writers and poets (Guimarães Rosa, Cecilia Meirelles, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Manuel Bandeira, Jorge Amado, Clarice Lispector, and the songwriter Dorival Caymmi, and many others, including Golda Meir, Albert Sabin, William House ... Most of the interwiews were published in a magazine that no longer exists, called Manchete.
A musician – he played the piano professionally for a short period of his life; his father often invited popular composers to his home and Pedro became a friend of many of them. One of his great friends was Fernando Lobo, a composer of beautiful Brazilian popular songs.
A writer of books for children and young adults – he wrote more than 100 books. I remember seeing him at work with his old typewriter when I visited him in Rio,  sometimes he would write three different books at the same time. 
A writer of medical texts – he wrote several books and many papers about speech pathology disorders and their treatment.
As a playright, he wrote approximately 30 plays. Two of them – Dona Xepa (Madam Xepa) and Os Inimigos Não Mandam Flores (The Enemies Do Not Send Flowers) – were adapted to TV series which became very popular.
Together with a famous Brazilian classical composer, Francisco Mignone, he wrote an opera, Godó, based on one of his children’s books.
Even though he was born in Ucrania and Russian was his first language, he had a fantastic command of the Portuguese language. His style was fantastic, he wrote beatifully.
When I started doing cochlear implants in 1977, he gave me total support and came to all of our implant meetings. I should add that most otolaryngologists, including some that are now performing implants, were at that time totally against the idea of operating totally deaf patients.
The last time I visited him in Rio he asked me, “What are you writing now?”
I said, “A few medical papers, nothing special.”
“Why don’t you write a book about religion?”
The idea had never crossed my mind. I think I remained silent for a couple of minutes. Then I said, “I will. If you help me.”
And then I began to write my book called “Em Busca de Deus” (In Search of God). I would mail him each chapter and he would call me on the telephone and either approve it or make suggestions to make it better. 
I asked him to write a preface to the book. He promised me that, as soon as the book was complete he would, send me the preface.
Then, one day, he sent me the preface, by mail. No explanations on why he was sending it before the book was finished. 
He died two weeks later, from an acute respiratory disorder.
I think the preface that he wrote for my book was the last, or at least one of the last things that he wrote.