Today there's a party in the sky for the Witches who watch over our island. And farewell on Magic Island.

Gelci José Coelho left us today ((10/08/1949 -16/03/2023). The museologist, known as Peninha, a friend of Franklin Cascaes, was a great figure in the history of Floripa.

He perpetuated the Cascaes ideology on Magic Island. He spent his life defending the stories of the great flanerie who was his mentor - as well as preserving the stories.

It perpetuated popular history - our drudgery.

Above all, he challenges those who interpret the witches of Desterro as a hideous figure.

“That's just to deceive, because they're very beautiful, and usually the green-eyed brunettes are suspicious, but they can't identify themselves because they might lose their fame.”.

Our folkloric wealth is a product of the research carried out by Cascaes, who in the 1970s argued that the essence of the island was being lost and that its culture was corrupted.

And Peninha perpetuated his legacy, “because in my land the authorities are culturally deaf; to this day no one dreams of heeding my cultural call,” Cascaes told his friend.

Peninha dedicated his life to keeping alive the legacy of Cascaes, who always loved folk stories and popular life. His stories reconstructed the history and mysticism of the island, from the dances of the animals, the boitatás and the procession of Our Lord Jesus of the Steps.

The secrets and peculiarities of the fishermen, the sorceresses, the papaya ox, benzedura, the art of the lace makers and dozens of other attractions on the cultural scene.

For them, the island is not just a little piece of land lost at sea, this was the Meiembipe of the Carijós, the tenth island of the Azores Archipelago and Our Lady of the Desterro. Sra. do Desterro de Dias Velho.

Today it is Florianópolis, which has the adjective quality of life attached to its name. Visited by the whole world, this very well located paradise on the Brazilian coast is not just made up of beautiful beaches and landscapes.

Its history was built by the hands that produced rock art, ceramics, the most beautiful lace, fishing rods and prepared the land for the production of flour.

And may this legacy live on and may we make the most of each of these legacies that have been left to us.

I end this text with a poem written by him.

Witches' prayer

By Gelci José Coelho