Gregg Brandalise was inspired to tell the story of how Dorothy Stang, a Catholic nun, fought for 40 years to save the Amazon rainforest and its people after watching the documentary, “Cowspiracy.”
The film detailed how the animal agriculture business, particularly the beef industry, has played a part in the destruction of the rainforest. But what really got Brandalise’s attention were the details about how Stang’s protests ultimately led to her death 20 years ago.
Stang was murdered at age 73 by contract killers, said Brandalise, a musician who lives in Poway. The two men convicted of her murder were paid $50,000, according to court records.
After viewing the documentary, he thought about writing a song, and then a play.
“All of a sudden I had written 4,000 words and that’s how it staircased into writing my first book,” the 70-year-old said. “It took on a life of its own.”
“The Death of Us All,” his self-published biographical novel based on Stang’s life, came out in January.
Brandalise has written songs on 28 albums over the years, mostly pop-rock and rock songs, he said. He has owned recording studios since 1973 and currently has a professional recording studio at his Poway home, Blindfold Studios.
He also provides audio and sound effects for corporate clients, and has worked with well-known clients such as Intel, Intuit, Qualcomm and Cox Communications in addition to Lexus and the Padres baseball team.
When it came time to put pen to paper to tell Stang’s story, Brandalise said he realized two things. First, her story was a dark topic for a musical. And second, he had so much material from videos and documentaries about her that he realized he could turn it into a book.
Instead of traveling to Altamira, Brazil where his novel is set, he read Stang’s biographies and interviewed two Catholic nuns who had known her for a decade – Judi Clemens, 87, and Joan Krimm, 94. The interviews were conducted remotely by Zoom.
Brandalise also interviewed Stang’s brother, David Stang, who shared family stories that provided a more complete picture of her life.
“The book spans Dorothy’s life from a 6-year-old wanting to be a missionary to her tragic murder by hired gunmen, and her story of love and comion weaves in and out throughout the book,” he said.
Stang, who was born in 1931 in Dayton, Ohio, was a citizen of both the United States and Brazil. After being raised on a farm in a traditional Catholic family, she entered the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur community in 1948 and took her vows in 1956. She began her ministry in Brazil in 1966.
Stang worked as an advocate for the rural poor beginning in the early 1970s, and dedicated her life to defending the Brazilian rainforest from depletion by agriculture, Brandalise wrote. She helped peasants earn a living by farming small plots without deforestation, and worked to protect them from criminal gangs working on behalf of ranchers who were after their plots, he wrote.
Her philosophy, written in Portuguese on T-shirts she used to wear, was “The death of the forest is the death of us all.”
On Feb. 12, 2005, less than a week after meeting with the country’s human rights officials about threats to local farmers from loggers and landowners, she was shot by hired gunmen and left to die on a country road, according to her biography by the Sisters of Nortre Dame de Namur.
Stang was posthumously awarded the 2008 United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights. She is also the first North American woman whose relics are included in the Shrine of Modern Martyrs at the Basilica of St. Bartholomew in Rome.
Although the rainforest is the backdrop for many scenes in the book, the overall story is about Stang’s message of unconditional love and the goodness in people, Brandalise said.
He attended a celebration of Stang’s martyrdom in Cincinnati in February, and spoke during a discussion. At the event, sponsored by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, people who knew Stang and some who contributed to the novel, including Clemens and Krimm, celebrated the 20th anniversary of her ing at a Mass.
Clemens and Krimm recalled Stang’s devotion to helping the people of Brazil have equality and rights to their own land that was threatened by thugs, Brandalise said.
“These women, who are frail old ladies now, had been living in the Amazon habitat and survived it, along with disease and abuse from farmers and loggers,” he said. “It was pretty intense that they survived that and could be as sweet as pie.”
The group reflected on the struggles Stang experienced in combating the destruction of the rainforest. Loggers and ranchers slash and burn trees in the rainforest and replace them with grasslands for cattle to graze on, Brandalise said.
“Brazil is the biggest exporter of beef in the world,” he said. “Loggers and ranchers are working hand-in-hand to make cattle land by destroying the forest, and corporations are ing all of this. Most of it is used for animal agriculture — the beef industry devours up the land.”
The effect is that about 10,000 acres of rainforest are being destroyed daily, which is ultimately impacting weather patterns worldwide, he said.
In addition to recounting Stang’s work, “The Death of Us All” celebrates the strength and determination of women, Brandalise said.
“There are three strong female characters involved in Dorothy’s story who go through male domination and patriarchy and rise above it and find their own way,” he said.
The book, released on Jan. 6, is sold on Amazon in hardback, paperback, ebook and audio formats. The net proceeds will be contributed to the Rainforest Trust and the Sustainable Development Project (PDS), said Brandalise.
“I’m not looking to making a profit, it’s sharing the message that’s important,” he said. “People who buy the book are doing their part toward saving the rainforest, too.”
