Petraglia’s work through the lyrics of an “enemy”

Damn that May of 2002, when Mario Celso asked me: “Are you my friend or are you my enemy?”

Without giving me the right to choose, my spirit as a journalist increased. My life was never the same again. It is explained there that after that day, with very rare exceptions, we only meet in courtrooms mediated by male and female magistrates. All processes ended with a sentence, no agreement.

During all this time and before last Christmas, we only exchanged one message. That was when I suggested that he hire a legal opinion Marcal Justen Filho about the Arena da Baixada case. Mario Celso accepted.

Mario Celso Petraglia, 80 years old.

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I greet him with sincere authority and feeling, translated by the personal and professional independence that has always guided my conduct, a rare virtue in the majority that surrounded him during these 30 years in the Athletico.

A reflection on Mario Celso makes the narrative of his story complex. Moving away from the complacency of narrating the facts, I understand that his mark is not in the material work of brick and mortar, however majestic as Athletico’s is.

The mark is the lasting impression that his work makes on society as a whole, typical only of great men who act in such a way in life that they change the course of history.

+ See all columns by Augusto Mafuz

On the back cover of the work “The best speeches of Winston Churchill”, after exalting the man of the 20th century, the notable writer Arthur Dapieve writes: “Churchill was not a saint either: temporal leaders cannot afford that luxury”.

Here, it fits like a glove. I publicly pay my respect to Mario Celso Petraglia.