The most important book yet to be written by a new and necessary Gilberto Freyre will describe what happened in Rio de Janeiro in the last century. Such a work, if undertaken seriously, will be the most significant of the century. It is a perhaps unprecedented human catastrophe that separates the Rio de Janeiro of Machado de Assis from the Rio de Janeiro of the 2000s, and even though it is scandalous, it is difficult to trace the succession of events that made it possible. To do so, it would be necessary to gather documents and delve into history with unusual awareness and acumen, capable of identifying the psychological roots of a physically crystallized phenomenon. Someone will have to do it. From a destruction like this, something very important must be learned. Possibly, Brazil’s destiny depends on the success of such an undertaking.