Reflections from Brazil

November 27, 2002

Here I am back in the America’s, and everything is not as it was. On this voyage, even though we spend only a very brief time in each country, it has become more apparent that we in the U.S. tend to lump together groups that are too different to even be thought of together. Latin America is one example: it is not all Latino, or Hispanic. Not all Latin Americans have Spanish as their native language, or heritage. Brazilians, who are of Portuguese heritage, are not the only non-Hispanic people in Latin America. Even among those Latin American countries that do have a Spanish heritage, there is a great diversity, too. A global perspective on diversity gives us a sense that the world is much more rich in differences than we in the U.S. may typically think, while also giving us a greater appreciation of the likenesses that exist as well.

In Brazil, I was eager to see if I would find any similarities between here and what I experienced in the Azores thirty years ago, beyond the language, of course. In Salvador, where we arrived on Black Awareness Day, I did notice architectural similarities in the recently restored Pelourinho district, an historic area of brightly colored colonial buildings, churches, and craft shops. The festive celebration that evening, focusing on a march for liberty lead by four hundred percussionists from Salvador’s Afro carnival groups, also included a rousing, music-filled service at Rosario dos Pretos, the church on the square built by slaves and free blacks for African descendants. This service was a bit of a glimpse into candomble`, a mixture of spiritual elements drawing both from the Yoruba and Bantu traditions of West Africa and from Catholicism, what might be considered the purest expression of Afro-Brazilian culture today.

As has been the case with each of the other countries visited, the 600 some students spread out all over this huge country for their field experiences, from the Amazon, to Iguassu Falls, to the Pantanal, to Rio, and to small islands along the coast. We, another faculty couple and Cynthia and I, spent most of our time in Cachoeira, a 16th century colonial riverside town in the heart of Brazil’s oldest sugar cane and tobacco plantation area. Because of its status as a UNESCO World Heritage site, it retains its charm and is largely untouched by the 21st century. This region of the state of Bahia still expresses its rich African legacy, where, for centuries, thousands of slaves, mainly from West Africa, kept the plantations going that were the center of Brazil’s economy.

In this colorful, quiet, traditional town, we spent two nights in a 17th century monastery, converted into a pousada, or guest house. On an early morning walk, we found ourselves in the midst of groups of children on their way to school, so we followed them to the school and then got the idea to stop in to see if they had an English class they might like to have some guests for. After much explaining, in his Spanish-Portuguese, Larry, the other faculty member, and the vice-director arranged for us to meet with a group of students who were taking beginning English. We had a brief but fun exchange of names and a bit more with them, but found that their English class had not really prepared them that well for a conversation. Most interesting, though, was that the timing of our visit to the school allowed us to see the posters hung in the hallways commemorating Black Awareness Day that the students had made from surveys they had participated in. One of the posters depicted the results of a survey asking the question, “Does racism exist in Brazil?” This is a country where there have been many more inter-ethnic marriages for much longer than there have even in the U.S. This is a country where it is much more difficult to visually identify the particular ethnicity of people, because of their “mixed” heritage. This is a country where those we tend to refer to as Latinos, or Hispanics, call themselves white. Brazil has long thought of itself as a “racial democracy,” but when it was pressured by a United Nations anti-racism conference to undertake affirmative action quotas, partly because in 1990 blacks earned 40% less than whites in the same jobs, one of their problems was determining who was black. Only 5% of Brazilians self-identify as black, while 40% self-identify as “brown.”

So I found it quite interesting that the pie chart in the poster on the school wall said that 83% of the students believe racism does exist in Brazil. The majority of the students in this school would probably identify themselves as brown, or mixed. They also created a poster illustrating a track race with the white runners having a clear path ahead of them while the darker skinned runner faced hurdles and curves in his path. We got a perspective, however, that would be more of the “racial democracy” view from one of the mixed race teachers we spoke to. Race relations are complicated even more in Brazil by class issues, which are determined by a multitude of factors, not just ethnicity.

Another interesting local cultural element of Cachoeira is the Sisterhood of the Boa Morte, or Good Death, a 170 year-old self-proclaimed secret society that is characterized by its syncretism, or blending together of different religions and practices. The sisters, all older women of African slave descent, are practitioners of candomble`, and hold an annual festival that takes over the streets of the town with massive, colorful, liturgical processions for a two-week period. Though they have had a less than amicable relation with the church and are not officially recognized by the church, two of the sisters, wearing their striking black skirts, shawls lined in red, and white blouses (each color significant for their Yoruba meaning), proudly showed us around their recently restored center, with a chapel and gallery-performance hall that was indeed very impressive.

The Saturday morning market, where farmers from nearby villages bring their produce in to town in huge woven baskets on both sides of the backs of donkeys, another reminder of the Azores, went on for blocks and blocks throughout the town, with stalls for fish, meat, cheese, veggies, fruits, and many other dry goods. Brazil is, as their tourism literature says, “a land mystical, exotic, colorful, and enchanted,” another of our stops that would have taken weeks or months to fully appreciate.