Monthly Archives: September 2010

After 1808 Comes…1822!

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You may recall a post I did last year on a wonderful history book I read by Laurentino Gomes called 1808, about “how a crazy queen, a fearful prince, and a corrupt court deceived Napoleon and changed the history of Portugal and Brazil”. Well, he sold 600,000 copies in Brazil and another 50,000 in Portugal, quit his job and dedicated the next few years to researching material for 1822. Initially, he read 100 books in order to write 1808 and for the follow-up, he read another 70! In an interview, he says that reading is fine and dandy but it is also important to visit all the places that he reads about because while many have changed in the last 150 years, there are still small signs of the past that remain for those who know what to look for.

1822

His follow-up is about “how a wise man, a sad princess and a money-hungry Scotsman, helped Don Pedro to create Brazil – a country that had everything to go wrong”.

“In this new adventure through history, Laurentino Gomes, the author of the best-selling book “1808″, directs the reader on a journey through the independence of Brazil. The result of three research papers and composed of 22 chapters, interspersed with factual illustrations and characters of the time, the work covers a period of 14 years, between 1821, the date of the return of the Portuguese Court of Dom João VI to Lisbon, to 1834, the year of the death of Emperor Pedro I. This books looks to explain how Brazil succeeded in maintaining the integrity of its territory and establishing itself as an independent nation in 1822″, explains the author. “The independence resulted from a notable combination of luck, chance, improvisation, and also from the wisdom of some of the leaders responsible for driving the destiny of the country in that moment of grand dreams and dangers.”

More Info

1808 – EOB
Laurentino Gomes – official site
Journey of a Voyage to Brazil – Maria Graham

Newspaper Headlines – Read All About It

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I stumbled across a website that displays the principal newspaper manchetes (headlines) of Brazil, and a few other places, via showing an image of the front page of each newspaper. It’s slightly interesting at face value and quickly becomes less interesting when you realize you can’t read the articles from their site. The site finds redemption, though, in the fact that once the frontpage is downloaded in PDF format, the articles can be read (by amplifying the image a few times).

Manchetes dos Jornais (in PT)

The Amerindian Perspective

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While reading a short paper on Amerindians in Brazil, I came across this interesting concept and thought I’d share it.

“According to Viveiros de Castro (2005), the Amerindians believe that each animal species sees itself as human. Being as such, the leopards would see humans as prey (as if they were, for example, wild pigs) and, because of this, they attack them. This is what is called an “Amerindian perspective”. In accordance with observations, Amerindians perceive animal groups as if they were societies, with social organization, chiefs, shamans, etc. In other words, they understand that these animals are organized and think just like them, the humans. Viveiros de Castro explains that, while we, Westerners, perceive that we share nature with the animals – due to being animals ourselves – that we also differentiate ourselves from them by possessing culture. The Amerindian understands that they share a common culture with the animals but that they differentiate themselves from them via nature, by being a different species.”

“Segundo Viveiros de Castro (2005), os ameríndios acreditam que cada espécie animal se vê a si mesma como humana. Assim sendo, as onças veriam os humanos como caça (como se fossem, por exemplo, porcos selvagens) e, por isso, os atacariam. A isso ele chama de “perspectivismo ameríndio”. De acordo com suas observações, os ameríndios percebem os grupos de animais como se fossem sociedades, com organização social, chefes, pajés, etc. Ou seja, eles entendem que esses animais estão organizados e pensam da mesma forma que eles, humanos. Viveiros de Castro explica que, enquanto nós, ocidentais, percebemos que temos uma natureza comum com os animais – por sermos também animais – mas que nos diferenciamos deles por possuirmos cultura, os ameríndios entendem que compartilham com os outros animais a cultura e que se diferenciam deles pela natureza, por serem de espécies diferentes.”

TV Show on New Middle Class

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“Get to know the story of Brazilians who through business-minded attitudes, found a way to solve their problems and climb the economic ladder. Find out what this new middle class thinks about the future.”

- Source (second video here, in PT)

My Take

What I’m curious about is how many have improved their own economic class (versus comparing it against their parents), if the perimeters for each economic class have changed in recent times and, as I just hinted at, how many cases are those of the next generation living better than their parents. Also, shouldn’t this new middle-class be evaluated in terms of the consequences rather than the catalyst? Meaning they are all becoming consumers of products that, in most cases, will leave them in debt. Knowing whether they are really improving their own situations is not so cut and dry because in the short term, surely they are, but in the long-term, who knows.

Brazilians in San Diego to Study and Play

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“The Census states most authoritatively 3,091 Brazilians live in San Diego. But the fine print says plus or minus 962. So exact and yet, so … so inexact.

Sergio Machado who came to San Diego for a few weeks in 1987, fell in love and has stayed for 24 years guesses around 5,000. He says similar weather and surfing conditions to Brazil draw many to the beach communities. Lots come to study, as he eventually did, at San Diego State or other colleges and end up staying, he added.

Paulo Batuta, producer of Brazilian Day, looking out over his crowded and very successful event, and in an expansive mood estimates there are as many as 30,000 Brazilians in San Diego.

It isn’t the number that’s important, says Claudia Lyra of the Brazilian Cultural Center in Point Loma. “It is their passion for the culture,” she says, “how they treat each other as brothers and sisters.” She adds to that, enthusiasm for music, dance, the Capoeira martial arts, even soccer.

One of her Portuguese language students, Michigan native Lindsey Brown, was drawn to the culture by a boyfriend and stayed for that familial feeling. “Claudia is passionate about all aspects of the culture. Her lessons turn into conversations about the people, culture, music and life,” says Brown.

When she wraps up her masters degree at University of San Diego she wants to go to school in Brazil and work in the poorest sections of its cities.

Pastor Roberto Marques of the fledgling Foursquare Gospel Church, which ministers to Brazilian Pentecostals, estimates 12,000 of his fellow citizens are in the county. His church draws followers from Vista, Poway and el Cajon as well as San Diego.

Most Brazilians are concentrated on the East Coast and Florida, he says. That’s where they go to work. They come to California, he said with a smile, to study and play.

Don’t tell that to Gabriela Dedolph, a petite blonde whirlwind of energy and enterprise from Carmel Valley. With her American husband, James, she has launched a Brazilian real estate agency, a Brazilian business yellow pages and a Brazilian family play group, with 150 members.

Brazilian population in San Diego? “It’s large,” said James as his wife dashed about with arms filled with Brazilian flags for the parade. “Just look around.” – Source

My Take

I used to live in San Diego towards the beginning of my studies on Brazilian culture and while I wouldn’t say there’s 12,000 Brazilians as the Pastor suggests, there very well could be around 5,000. It’s not hard to see why Brazilians love San Diego and it’s definitely not hard to find yourself hearing a familiar accent on the bus and trolley lines while passing through certain neighborhoods. There are Brazilian nights at clubs, Brazilian delis, Brazilian…well, just about anything you can think of. The trick is knowing the secret handshake to gain access into the community ; ) As I find true in most US cities where Brazilians are, there’s a difference between being invited to a party or two and being thought of as “one of the guys”.  While US Brazilians maintain their openness in social situations, it takes some work to enter their community (just like any other foreign community in the US). Have any of you had similar or non-similar experiences?

More Info

NaCalifa (San Diego Brazilian Community)

The Indian Museum – Pará

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Back when I was living in Pará, I had a chance to visit the Museu do Índio (Indian Museum) in the Solar da Beira building (initially for tax collection), near the famous Ver-o-Peso open-air market. As you walk in, the left side showcases enlarged photos of the indigenous tribes of the Amazon region, most notably, the Xingu people. On the right side, you will find handmade indigenous artifacts for sale in the ‘Koisas do Índio’ store which are retrieved from expeditions undertaken every three months. A trip to visit the tribes that make the artifacts, according to the museum curator I spoke with, requires one to travel by air, boat and foot and routinely take 12 hours one-way.

I came close to going on the next expedition but the plan never quite came together. In any event, I found it to be a nice little part of Belém that I’m sure visitor’s don’t get to see when they visit Ver-o-Peso market.

More Info

For some reason, both sites that have to do with the museum are static pages with dead links.

Museum site (in PT)
Ipiranga Foundation (in PT)

Landless Liberation Movement Leader’s House

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No way to know if this figure is right, but the blog that linked to where I found this picture (in PT), said Bruno Maranhão makes R$6,000/month. The house is apparently in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods of Recife, called Casa Forte. While being ironic, some commentators have said it doesn’t necessarily make it wrong as long as he fights for people who don’t have a home although I’ll leave it there since I’m not too knowledgable on the MST (Landless Movement).

Vitor Ramil – Noite de São João/Ramilonga

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Here are two songs by the talented gaúcho singer Vitor Ramil. The first is from a Fernando Pessoa poem. If you’d like to hear one in Spanish of him and Caetano Veloso singing a poem by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, I’ll post it below as a link. The more I hear of his music, the more I want to listen to more.

More Info

Official Site
Milonga de los Morenos (w/ Caetano)
Short Documentary (in PT & ES)

Sesame Street in Brazil

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Good Morning, Kids! So, today I learned the names of Sesame St. characters in Brazil. By name alone, I wouldn’t have a clue about who they were if a Brazilian were to have asked me about the subject. Let’s review some of the names. There’s Garibaldo (Big Bird), Gugu (Oscar the Grouch), Funga-Funga (Snuffy) and Ênio e Beto (Bert and Ernie) .

The Brazilian version, known as Vila Sésamo, has characters that look different because the Brazilian version was only based on the American version, not just a dubbed-over version. As for why it wasn’t called Rua Sésamo (a direct translation), that’s because the vila (town) carried a more friendly, familiar connotation than ‘street’ by itself. The Portuguese version, however, is called Rua Sésamo.


(a young Sonia Braga on top right)

The Brazilian Sesame Street (which was the first in the world to copy the original) went on the air with Rede Cultura in 1972, the same year that color came to Brazilian television, only the show was produced in black and white for the first two years. All the kids that watched it during those initial years wondered what colors the characters were. Big Bird, or Garibaldo, was blue because it is thought that yellow didn’t contrast well with black and white television. In 1973, the main Brazilian characters were created (Garibaldo, Gugu and Funga-Funga) when the Brazilian adaptation was completely nationalized. One year later, though, in 1974, the Globo network took over and that’s when color came to Vila Sésamo. As for Ênio e Beto, they were the only two characters that were taken straight from the original show and dubbed into Portuguese. Just a few years after Globo took over, the production costs became too big and the show was cancelled in 1977.

As of 2007, Vila Sésamo came back to the airways in Brazil. This time, with more clips from the American version and a slightly updated cast, adding Elmo, Grover and Come-Come (Cookie Monster), among others. Anyways, I’ll leave you with a link to the song that the show opened with called ‘Alegria da Vida‘ and a classic Ênio e Beto.