Juma Marruá is the hero that Brazil needs

The saga of a patriarch who arrives in an isolated place to make his place in the world, full of family trauma, fantastic realism and names that are passed down from generation to generation. It could be “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, but it is “Pantanal”. Keeping the due proportions of the joke, Globo’s telenovela manages to capture many characteristics of Gabriel García Márquez’s masterpiece while adapting the plots of the original 1990 version to the current reality without losing the essence of the plot.

Being the most interesting protagonist and character in the midst of a story that involves people becoming animals, revenge, mute that is not mute, hidden families, rivalry between sisters, ambitions to be a digital influencer, lost children and so many complex and rich characters is a difficult task. , but which Juma Marruá fulfills with great success.

The role of “soap opera girl” is usually accompanied by stereotyped characteristics, such as suffering, good and passionate, Juma is all that and at the same time it’s not just that, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts in her case. A demonstration of talent and good construction by the author, the production team and the actress Alanis Guillen, who could have fallen into a cliché approach to the archetype of the wild woman, but who build a complex woman, very strong and also with her weaknesses.

Who is Alanis Guillen?

The 23-year-old actress, born in Santo André, São Paulo, was named in honor of singer Alanis Morissete, has been working since she was 3 years old doing advertising and graduated from the Escola Nacional de Teatro in her hometown. Her first TV role, and the only one before “Pantanal”, was Rita, protagonist of “Malhação: Toda Forma de Amar”.

Avowedly feminist, she is engaged in social causes, such as the defense of the environment and has already taken a position several times in opposition to fascism and the Bolsonaro government. She says she considers it important to be a person who gives visibility to the LGBT cause and to serve as a reference for other people to identify with. About her sexuality, she declares on her social networks that she is multiple: “if you have a heart that connects with mine, it is with this person that I will relate”.

For the construction of Juma, he tried to understand the character in his first version, but also always remembering that he is in a different time, in a different Brazil, and that inevitably his Juma will be a version of him, from his experiences: “Try to escape this comparison to go to this place where Juma wants to take me”. To integrate more into the character, the actress, who was vegan, returned to eating white meat and began to practice kung fu, but the visit to the Pantanal was the most fundamental part to really feel like Juma Marruá.

Is it human or is it an animal?

The humanity of Juma’s family is being robbed by a great cycle of violence that forces them to isolate themselves hidden in the Pantanal. After losing their eldest son, Chico, murdered at the behest of a landowner who takes possession of the land on which the family lived, Gil and Maria Marruá take refuge in the Pantanal, where Juma is born. But violence catches up with them and she ends up alone, with little contact with other human beings and only her mother’s teachings.

From Maria Marruá, Juma inherits its main characteristics: being self-sufficient, not trusting anyone, the connection with nature and becoming a jaguar as a protection mechanism.

Juma is wild, skittish and suspicious and at the same time sweet, welcoming and naive. He has the habit of receiving unwanted visitors with a shotgun in his hand, but he also accepts Muda in his house, not knowing that she is responsible for his mother’s death, and does his best to integrate her into his life. At the request of the Velho do Rio, she takes care of Joventino when he is bitten by a snake, even though she has never seen him before and runs the risk of suffering reprisals from José Leôncio, a powerful farmer and the boy’s father.

The lack of social skills is, at times, comic relief, but the viewer is led to laugh with Juma and not make fun of his country style. The relationship with Muda, her first friend, generated phrases like “she doesn’t say anything, Muda” and “I like Muda because she doesn’t talk much” that were successful on the internet. The affection between the characters can break a cycle of violence imposed on their lives.

She does not need to have contact with other people, but she is open to the approach of characters who are not interested in “fixing” or “taming” her, but in understanding and accepting her as she is, helping her to of their demands and interests. She has good relationships with Jove and Tiberio, who flee the stereotype of aggressive and sexist masculinity present in other men who have approached her previously.

Male woman and female man

His relationship with Jove is also an interesting plot point. The first kiss between the couple takes place in chapter 32, both were developed as independent characters before meeting and starting to build their relationship, which started with a mutual interest before reaching love. The relationship with Juma also exposes the character’s weaknesses, both have a lot to learn from each other.

Juma’s sexuality came from her own curiosity and not from something imposed on her. The first time she becomes a jaguar is to defend herself from a man who wants to rape her, but this is associated with violence and not sexuality. Despite some points where Jove seems to go too far for her liking, such as when he decides to take a bath in a river naked without warning her first, and reaches the limits of consent, in general, he is written as willing to respect her time, like when she asks him to teach her to read.

Their relationship also defies gender stereotypes. José Leôncio is very confused by the couple’s “male woman” and “female man” dynamic, as he does not understand how the child can be a man if he escapes his sexist conception of masculinity and also has difficulties with Juma’s independence, to whom he thinks they should “tame”. They are characters with complex sensibilities that find themselves in each other.

the brazilian heroine

There are, of course, points where the plot or character could be better addressed, no work is completely perfect, but it is important to highlight that the existence of a safe, complex female protagonist character that does not need to be changed, but who makes the decision to open up to the world and to love without leaving your essence and from your own curiosity. And, above all, that she seeks to live in harmony and respect nature in a biome as threatened as the Pantanal. In the multiverse of Latin American fantastic realism, Juma is a great heroine representative for Brazil.

If Rede Globo intends to follow the Hollywood path of revisiting classics, let it be with this care and quality, attentive to changes in society. There are other actresses standing out in the soap opera, check out who they are here.