A reflection for today by my friend Jorge Bandeira, fellow naturist and artist, and co-founder and current president of the ten-year old naturist group GRAUNA based in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. My translation:
On the 96th Anniversary of the Birth of Luz del Fuego
[Luz del Fuego, or “Firelight,” was the stage name of Dora Vivacqua, 1917-1967, considered to be the founder of Brazilian naturism. She owned a naturist island in Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay called Ilha do Sol or “Sun Island.”]
What is the legacy of that naked woman?
How many Ilhas do Sol saw the dawn?
Has the Sun been set and gone from 1967 to 2013?
So many dreams have resonated and still vibrate on our natural human skin,
and children and adults alike share this Naturism that fills us with pride
against a calloused world. Perhaps Thoreau’s Walden can serve
as a tonic for our society. Or maybe, if in every country from West to East,
we had a Spencer Tunick to photograph the harmony of nude bodies wrapped in joy,
to encourage all into nude community, women and men alike.
What is the legacy, the sloughed-off skin, of Luz del Fuego, that snake dancer?
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| Luz del Fuego on the cover of her 1950 book promoting nudity against societal hypocrisy |
The legacy is Abricó, Pinho, Massarandupió, Colina do Sol, Barra Seca, Galheta, Tambaba, and other beaches and clubs that make of Luz del Fuego’s brilliance a constant presence along the shore or throughout the beautiful countryside. The nudity of Dora, that cabaret dancer and actress who did so much for the benefit of all those who reject even the smallest vestment covering their bodies. The woman who dared to create a Naturist Party in Brazil, a country so thoroughly machista; the woman who was a tenacious protector of animals and nature, who paid with her own life for the defense of her noble ideals. Luz, I want Luz (light), I know that behind the curtains are blue squares and an infinity of curtains (to paraphrase the singer Chico Buarque de Holanda), she’s the Luz/Light that still guides us when others ask for the reason behind our desire to be naked, as if Naturism were nothing more than nudity. We embrace and adore nudity because we adore Planet Earth and its creatures; we love freedom and mutual respect; we love the right to come and go nude as we choose. We are not only our flesh and exposed skin: we are joyous transcendental souls that move about in our bodies in any direction and to any place where NUDITY is our guide. Sojourners of happiness is what we are, or what we try to be, in the singular truth of our nudity, which hides nothing from no one, which does not raise a scandalous finger to point out one body as superior or another as more beautiful. Everything all together, in the eyes of the good.
So what exactly was the legacy of that woman called Luz del Fuego, Firelight?
An ethereal flame that outshines impertinent complaints.
A naked blaze that burns off the clothing of shame, the disguise of false morality.
A pyre that burns like a searchlight so we can find the nudity robbed from us in childhood.
A conflagration of goodness, of peace, for the ardent multitude that goes by the name of Naturists.
And wherever there is more than one nude, there she will be among them.
LUZ DEL FUEGO
Manaus, 21 February 2013
Jorge Bandeira – Naturist and Co-founder of Graúna
nudescribe 
Will, you are part of the legacy of \”Luz\” as am I and as are all those who cherish naturism, who cherish nature and find the human body to be the true, one and only spiritual temple where one celebrates creation, the creator and life.
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Thanks for your comment and kind words. I like how Dora Vivacqua chose \”light,\” \”fire,\” and \”sun\” as parts of her stage name and island's name. In naturism we uncover our body-temples to the sunlight, and many of us live that experience as a powerful practice for attaining spiritual truth. The translated title of her book (photo above) is in fact \”The Naked Truth.\”
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