Who is Brazil?

Coming to Brazil, my only understanding of Brazil was my Brazilian friends who no longer lived in Brazil. One of my best friends, Laura, is Brazilian but she only lived in Brazil when she was very young. I spent a lot of time with her family, who would speak Portuguese in their home. I would try and learn some Portuguese from them, calling her mom “Tia Rosi” and telling them all “Eu falo Portuguese”. They were all so excited that I was trying and were such an expressive and welcoming family. I felt comfortable eating pão de queijos with her extended family who only spoke Portuguese because they were all so kind and excited to hear me trying to speak their language. I understood Brazilian culture as upbeat and hospitable to anyone willing to make an effort to understand. When I went to Northeastern, I became friends with another Brazilian named Barbara who was very different from the Brazilians I knew. She was blunt and open about how she felt about a situation, never suppressing her own opinion for fear of being rude or disruptive. I knew that not all Brazilians would be like the ones that I knew, but I still had prior expectations of an open culture willing to express themselves to people who were willing to learn while also being upfront and honest. One of my largest goals in coming to Brazil was to absorb all that I could from the people and experiences I had to opportunity to participate in and to learn all that I could about what Brazil was.

As my trip continued and I learned more and more about Brazil, I learned the complexity of the society and cultural structure. I was able to gain a feel for São Paulo through speaking to people around the hostel and on our excursions, but I only learned about the other states (other than Curitiba) in the classroom. Without having spoken to the people from each area and experienced each of their unique cultures, is it fair to say what Brazil is, or can I only say what Sao Paulo is? All I can express is what I have perceived as who Brazil is, with my limited knowledge but intent on learning about as much of the culture as possible.

I find it hard to define someone else’s culture without being a part of it. However, what I have experienced is one huge nation filled with many subcultures that are connected from by a sense of being Brazilian. Being Brazilian is more than simply a title to connect people, it is a part of you that you take wherever you go. If a Brazilian does not live in Brazil, it does not make them any less Brazilian. When I think of Brazil I do not think of one person who represents everyone, I think of a group of people. Brazil is more than one action or one stereotype of the beautiful happy person. It is an environment and a feeling. Brazil consists of people who reach out to help you when you look confused and others who stare and scoff at the fact that you are a tourist. From the woman at the futebol game who taught Mike how to perform the cheer to the capoeira instructors intend on teaching us, I have experienced a willingness to express their culture to others, which is similar to what I knew before coming on this trip. This openness comes from the idea of remembering where your culture came from and expressing that.

The root of Brazil is in the various aspects of the culture that blended together but still remain unique and split in many ways. Brazil emerged from the combination of Portuguese settlers, indigenous people, slaves brought from Africa, and European immigrants. However, there is a certain sense of self comes with being Brazilian, one that cannot be determined by where you came from before. For example, although the basis of samba (simba) came from Africa and was brought with the slaves, samba was completely created in Brazil. The unique beat of the music and combination of voice, instruments, and dance, is uniquely Brazilian. When I went to the samba club and heard the singer put every part of herself in the song with such pride, I could tell that she was not just singing but adding emotion and understanding in the music. Brazilians understand the beginning of many of their traditional dances or customs from injustice, but have preserved them in their culture. Capoeira came from the slaves in Brazil not being able to openly learn to fight, so they created the sort of fight dancing. Visiting the coffee plantation helped me to view the living conditions of the slaves. When learning capoeira, I was able to make the connection of the hunched nature of the dancing and the tiny compartments where the slaves were forced to live.

Much of Brazil is passion, not in a passionate Latin lover way, but in the sense that Brazilians actually care and are genuinely invested. Futebol is more than a game here, it serves as an art form and a way to bring together people from different places. At the futebol game in Curitiba, people went wild and cursed when the game went badly for their team and got so excited when there was a possibility of their team scoring a goal. A unique pride comes with being Brazilian, a willingness to be blunt when something is not right, but an acceptance of the fact that some things cannot be changed. There is a frustration with the current system of corruption without a solution that is more feasible to turn to, resulting in the riots that are occurring. When I spoke with some Brazilians about the World Cup and Olympics taking place in Brazil, they expressed concern that Brazil’s government would try to brush all of the injustice that is occurring in Brazil under the rug. There is an indifference to the existence of favelas, with the government allowing them to govern themselves.

Brazilians have the ability to take something simple and give it a specific important purpose. Such as pão de queijo, which is only cheesy bread but it is such a staple of so many lives and is so delicious. It is rare for a corner store to be out of pão de queijo, but it brings together an entire meal. Or the excitement over a well made feijoada that takes an entire day to prepare, but originated from the remains that slaves could find and put into a pot for a day (odd parts of animals, beans, rice). There was the painting called “Saudade”, which depicted the simple expression of missing someone. The woman in the painting showed so much sorrow and pain that you could feel through the canvas. It was a simple idea but it opened up a complex stream of emotions.

"Saudade"

Brazil is not one person or one understanding. It is the combination of the differences and the similarities, the passion and the indifference, the past and the future, the negligence and the drive. The country is so immense that in must be made up of contradictions that all combine to one people, united by their impossible to define culture based on the main factor that they are Brazilians, not Europeans or Africans or North Americans.

Futebol: Coritiba in Curitiba

Before coming to Brazil, I knew that futebol was a very important aspect of life to Brazilians, but I had not realized the extent the spirit that came with futebol until attending the game in Curitiba. In class we discussed the teams and the the way that futebol connects people in Brazil in the clubs. I have never been a person who was invested in playing or watching sports, but when I was in the stadium I found myself become excited whenever Coritiba was about to score and devastated if they missed. When the Coritiba team entered the field, the Coritiba fans went wild. They yelled chants and played drums with so much energy that it made we want to yell and jump as well. The outer appearance reminded me of a baseball game in the Boston where the people are walking around and selling food and drinks. However, in the futebol game, the fans all seemed completely invested in the game more than the atmosphere. Cheering was important in order to fuel the game play, but the entire crowd would focus when there was important action occurring in the game. 

I remembered noting in class the assumption that I had heard from people about Brazilians having a natural talent, but not the teamwork aspect of futebol as much. When watching the game, I saw a lot of teamwork from both teams, thus disproving what I had heard from others. The players maneuvered the ball with an enormous amount of skill, but I know that the crowd and spirit was what made the game. When a player from Coritiba shot and missed so many people in the crowd would get upset and throw their hands in the air and curse. Whenever a player on the opposing team would miss or make the ball go out of bounds, the crowd would also go wild and curse them out as well.

When I was watching the players and the game of futebol, I thought back to class and how there were the “rice powder” teams. Looking at the Coritiba team, I noticed most of the players were white, and I saw few that were not white. I thought that maybe they were a "rice powder" team, so I decided to look up the demographics of Curitiba so see if they reflected the population. The population in Curitiba is actually 78.9% white people and 19.7% pardo and black people, so the difference in race in the team made more sense. However, it was interesting to note most of the non-white people on the team were of lighter dark skin. 

I felt so lucky to be able to experience a Brazilian futebol game, with all of the energy. Even though our team lost, it was easy to see how so many Brazilians are committed to their teams and get completely invested. 

Visit with Secretary of Energy in Sao Paulo

Today we all visited the Secretary of Energy and Mining, João Carlos Meirelles, however, the presentation to us was given by Antonio Celso de Abreu Junior, the subsecretary of Renewable Energy. The presentation was very informative about the energy consumption and plans for the state of São Paulo. 

I had not realized how ahead of the rest of the world Brazil was in renewable energy use. I also had not made the comparison between the state of São Paulo and the rest of Brazil in renewable energy use. Hearing Antonio speak about the various types of energy that went into the use of renewable energy in São Paulo and Brazil helped me understand the immense impact the biofuels and ethanol have on the renewable energy of the country and state. The main issue with creating energy from sugarcane or other plants is the sheer amount of space that it takes for the plants, but São Paulo has the land and climate that makes it favorable to create biofuels from sugarcane. The Antonio mentioned that there was a lot of potential in increasing the efficiency of biomass production, rather than creating more plants. 

After Antonio finished showing us the presentation, he opened it up for questions. I thought the most interesting part of the presentation was the questions time, because we were able to look toward the future and possible issues with the renewable energy technology. There was an intriguing question about where in the future São Paulo's resources would go in renewable energy. Antonio spoke a lot of the potential for increasing the use of solar power so that in the case of a drought, the power would not fail. I found that interesting because of the previous knowledge that I had about the differences in the scale of capacity for solar power in comparison to hydropower or biofuels. Antonio also addressed the fact that in the case of a drought, hydropower was not the only type of renewable energy that was affected due to the fact that all of the sugarcane plants required water to grow. It was also important to note that with the onset of global climate change, droughts will become more common thus forcing São Paulo to place their energy into new forms of alternative energy. 

Police Legitimacy in Favelas and "City of God"

Erika Robb Larkins describes her experience with the relationship between the police and the people of the El Dorado favela in Rio de Janiero in "Performances of Polic Legitimacy in Rio's Hyper Favela". The police that Larkins describes are very similar to the police in the film "City of God". "City of God" demonstrated the violence and corruption within the favelas and with the police through the point of view of Rocket, a child from the City of God favela. Not only does the film show the coming of age of Rocket and his generation, but it shows the complex relationship between the people of the favela and the police. 

Larkins speaks of the police trying to find the "perfect image for the front page of the morning paper", where the police make a larger deal out of a small bust in order for themselves to seem powerful. This reminded me of the arrest of Knockout Ned in "City of God". Knockout Ned was paraded in front of cameras when he was arrested. He calls out the police on camera saying that they only try to arrest him a and never the real leader of the drug game, Lil Ze, showing that the police do not aim to eliminate the issue in the film, but rather hope to make it seem like they are making enormous strides with minimal effort. 

The interesting aspect of the film relating to the morning paper is that Rocket works at the newspaper, and their goal was to gain the most raw footage. In the end of the film, Rocket takes photos clearly incriminating the police of corruption, which are spread to the newspaper. This shows the police as the source of the corruption, rather than mass media as a whole. It is still important to note the effect of media on public perception. When Knockout Ned speaks on camera in the film, as noted above, he becomes a more personable character. In comparison Lil Ze' wants to be in the paper in order to prove his position of power in the favela. 

The hyper- definition of favelas comes from the over generalization of the location and people that are there. The beautiful aspect of the City of God was the sheer number of different storylines and characters throughout the movie that all came together in the favela. Although there were similarities in some storylines (both Shaggy and Benny try to leave the City of God and are killed), each character is unique in their experience and purpose in the film. 

Reflection on Alternative Energy

Before coming on this trip, I only had a general idea about different types of alternative energy and their respective advantages and disadvantages from taking an environmental science class in high school. Throughout this course I have been able to gain a larger amount of knowledge about the technology involved in the creation of alternative energy from sources. Previously, I had not thought of the sun as the source of energy for wind or hydropower, but looking at the process as a whole shows the clear link between the sun and the possibility for energy use such as changes in air pressure or water flow. 

I also had not realized the scale difference between the various types of alternative energy. For example, the hydropower plant we visited had a maximum capacity of 900MW while the maximum capacity for power of all of the solar plants in Brazil is only 17MW. This helped me understand the need to look into increasing the efficiency of harnessing some forms of energy. It also made me understand why some forms of alternative energy may be more worthwhile to put time and force into due to the output.  Visiting the various power plants allowed me to deepen my understanding of the energy by seeing the physical process that the raw materials go through resulting in energy. 

I still fully support the use of alternative energy, however, this course has helped me to practically view these energy sources. It is easy to idealize alternative energy as one whole idea instead of the reality which is many different systems of gaining energy. I now feel comfortable with the differences and similarities between the different forms of alternative energy technology. I can see the similarities in the turbine spinning to generate electrical energy, but the differences in what causes the turbine to spin, whether is is water from hydropower or steam from solar power. Seeing the plants also helped me to understand how much work is taken into using these alternative energy technologies and why people argue about how worthwhile these technologies are. 

Roots of Brazil related to "Que Horas Ela Volta"

In the Roots of Brazil, the typical Brazilian is shown as the “cordial man”. The cordial man is described as an individualistic person who focused more on a family than the community. In the film “Que Horas Ela Volta”, a woman named Val works in a home with a family and goes through a shift in her priorities throughout the film. She begins the film by placing the needs of the family that she works for before her own and the needs of her family, which seems contrary to the idea of the cordial man. As the film continues, she shifts into a more cordial man mentality eventually leaving the family that she works for to live with her daughter.

Val had worked for the family for many years and sent money home for someone else to take care of her own family. This results in a difficult relationship between Val and her own daughter, Jessica. Meanwhile, Val developed a closer relationship with Fabinho, the son in the family. This reversal of relationships is contrary to the individualistic idea of only thinking about the direct family. Val sincerely cares about the family that she works with, as shown in her initially giving Doña Barbara a very nice gift for her birthday. Val prioritizes the needs of both her biological family and the family she cares for above her own, and does not take a lot of time to have fun.

Jessica, Val’s daughter, embraces the idea of the cordial man with her emphasis on her education and her disregard for class differences. In the beginning of the film, Val tries to control Jessica and take away her sense of the cordial man so that she can focus on societal order and status instead of the individualistic approach. Eventually Val comes to realize that she can take pleasure in her life, slowly letting herself become the cordial man. She first steps into the pool even when she had previously told Jessica that she was not allowed to step foot in the pool. At the end of the film, Val finally takes ownership of the “cordial man” within herself when she quits her job and decides to take care of her grandson (thus the focus on her own family) and stops worrying about the family that she works with.