1. Marshall Eakin’s (our Nashville, TN Fulbright Hays director) Brazil – Brief Biography: studies in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Kansas University M.A., then Latin American Studies in 1960s. Latin American Study Centers (18 centers): 40-45% study Mexico, Brazil 10-15%, cluster of others such as Cuba, Columbia, Argentina, Chile, Caribbean. Foreign language studies funded: Portuguese, Arabic, Pashtun . . . FLOS fellowships – Brazilian Studies Institute.
2. One out of every three Latin Americans is Brazilian.
3. Ginger’s reasons for Brazil: Courses in Global art and culture [student travel] as well as non-Western art, Portuguese heritage, Colors of Culture among Brazilian multicultural groups, indigenous culture, rainforest and sustainability, art and adornment in Carnaval and its influences from varying cultures, gender, etc.
4. Brazilian Studies: Brown University [Luso-Brazilian Dept.], Texas, UCLA, Vanderbilt [since 1940s], University of Illinois [Endowed Brazilian History], Louisiana [Tulane]. Important to Brazilian History: Alexander Marchant born in Rio [From Barter to Slavery], Earl Williams [Spoken Brazilian Portuguese]
5. Brazil has never been part of Latin America. Larger than 48 contiguous states. Portuguese constructed a seafaring empire and is closer to Africa than it is to Peru. They are interested in ports and trade. Slavery takes off in the late 16th century in Angola. Has its back to Latin America. 85% of Brazilians live within 200 miles of the Atlantic coast. Uruguay is the buffer zone between Argentina and Brazil. Brazil is a European Atlantic country. There are twenty six states and a Federal District in Brazil. Northeast – sugar and slavery, gold and diamonds. Sâo Pao – coffee. Brasilia – late 1950s was made the capital. Amazon region – 40% of the country and 7% of the population, very sparsely populated.
6. What makes Brazil, Brazil?
A. Myths [anthropological], Rituals, Beliefs –
I. The Stereotypes
Futebol (Pelé). Soccer – Five World Cups
Music (samba, bossa nova)
Carnaval (Carmen Miranda). Mainly Carnaval in Rio is best known with staged performances cemtered around samba. Salvador is much more formal. Carnaval is very different wherever you go.
II. Shared myths
Racial mixture
No ethnicities? One ethnicity?
B. Three Core Points
I. Poverty amidst great wealth [very very wealthy]
Eighth largest economy, massive inequality
Complete interpenetration of both wealth and poverty
II. Western and non-Western
Land is American, the façade is European [western European language], the soul of Brazil is African
III. Color and Race
Color spectrum or two-tiers? In the U.S. we have racial categories like Hispanic. In Brazil they go by color [more than 200 adjectives to describe the color spectrum of skin hues]. There is an intense internal debate regarding this in Brazil.
C. From Racial Pessimism to Ethnic Pride
I. Largest slave society in the Americas – from the 16th century for the sugar trade [40% of all slaves went to Brazil]. Slavery was judged inhumane by the British
II. In Brazil, there was a slave majority until the 19th century. Life expectancy was short so the country constantly brought in more slaves rather than the birth of new slaves especially since mainly male slaves were imported to work the plantations and the mines. More than half the population “ black” in 1890 in Brazil [census of black, white, mixed]. In 1872 – the Law of Free Womb was passed – every child born to a slave by the age of 8 became free. In 1885 – all slaves became free; in 1888 slavery was abolished [last country in the Americas], however, slaves had been leaving the plantations in droves in 1887/1888. Brazilian society by then was overwhelmingly non-white.
III. Racist social evolutionism
IV. “Whitening” and immigration – Various solutions considered taking the black population back to Africa, having more whites colonize Brazil [immigration]
V. What is “black” – based on color of skin and the degree of coloration. Not like the U.S. definition of African-American or Black population until very recently where if you have any black you can claim being totally African American.
Gilberto Freyre (b. Recife 1900-1987).
In 1917 he arrives in Waco, TX. Freyre finishes college in 2.5 years. He goes to Grad school at Columbia University, studies with Franz Boaz (race and culture). In 1930 there is an uprising in Brazil so he then goes to Portugal. After this he goes to Stanford and teaches the culture of Brazil.
A. Luso-tropical civilization = Portuguese in the tropics. The greatness of Brazilian culture comes from a mixture of African and Portuguese by the end of the 20th century. Official ideology by the 1950s feels this as well.
B. Racial mixture and racial democracy. Having a racial democracy is different from saying you are mixed racially. Freyre constantly contrasts Brazil with the U.S. In Brazil there was no lynching, all one people, no Jim Crow. In the 1930s, Brazil wants to organize Carnaval in Rio and they glorify the official ideology of all one people as a democracy, not like the United States; this becomes an integral part of Brazilian culture
C. Racial pessimism to cultural optimism
D. Casa Grande e Sensala (1933) The Big House in the Slave Quarters. Freyre recreates his own childhood in this book with food, songs, and sex. Mix of people = Africans and Portuguese
E. Masters and the Slaves (1946) Translation of The Big House
F. Both the state and the elite support Freyre’s ideas after the 1930s. Affirmative action however, was implemented only very recently.
“Traditional” Values
A. Religion? Corporatist worldview?
Hierarchy, patriarchy, and paternalism (Catholic world view). Brazil was a plantation society (God is a man, slaves). The human body is fundamentally differently from the U.S. Society in Brazil is an organism, the body is healthy when you do what you are supposed to do and it is profoundly communal. Everyone is connected to everyone else in Brazil.
In Brazil all is organic, communal, and collective. You take care of your peasants even though it is unequal. In the U.S. we have a great emphasis on individuality. In Brazil it is communal with the influence of Africa where you see it in religious practice but also everywhere else. No matter who you are, you share the same cultural myths.
Influence of Africa (mystical). Everything mixes together like music, myths, and religion. There is an incredible cultural mix of Brazilian Catholicism which is much more mystical than European Catholicism because of the African assimilation.
B. Web of personal relations vs. universal rights. What matters is who you know. You invoke those personal connections every chance you get.
C. From tradition to modernity?
D. Roberto Da Matta, Carnivals, Rogues & Heroes (1978). Controversial figure, very combative.
Core of being Brazilian – Portuguese are the butt of all jokes. Look at deep rooted values. Society is deeply profoundly Catholic world view. Brilliant essay of two worlds operating in Brazil – 1) There is the liberal democratic principles of the individual, and 2) there is the reality of the web of personal relationships. What matters is the person and who you are connected to as a person. In Brazil, there is impunity for wealthy people who do not have punishments for wrong doing. Phrase for the U.S. – “Who Do You Think you Are?”
Modernity?
A. From personal to impersonal? People without power are considered as individuals but others with connections that are personal get jeito
B. Jeito/jeitinho = cunning, a way out, a loophole out of the rules
C. Family firms to global corporations
D. Rule of law – contracts and courts
E. Bureaucracy and the “Brazil cost” - cost of doing business because it operates on the system of personal connections. Nothing is as it seems. The Brazil cost is generally 50% more than you think because of having to pay to get things done with personal favors.
Recent Really Popular writers
A. Jorge Amado (1912-2001)
Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon (1958) Sonia Braga is the quintessential mulatto Brazilian
Dona Flor & Her two Husbands (1966) takes place in Salvador
B. Paulo Coelho (b. 1947)
The Alchemist (1988) - 65 million copies sold, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, Zahir, The Eleven Minutes, Veronika Decides to Die, The Devil and Miss Prym, The Fifth Mountain, The Warrior of Light, The Witch of Portobello, The Valkyries: An Encounter with Angels, Brida
Carnaval – the mulatta becomes the central character in Rio
Codified in the 1950s, samba is the music that matters, samba creates the parade in a certain way, it brings in outsiders to observe and is an official way to stage the world
There may be 250,000 Indians left in Brazil – most are in traditional areas in the Amazon, how do Brazilians identify them; how do the Indios identify themselves? There is assimilation and identity with indigenous people – mestizo is a mixture of Indio and European (Portuguese or other). Central and northern Brazil is made up of Indios or a mixture of Indios and Europeans. Most of our guest speakers however, have focused on the Afro-Brazilians or the other aspects of Brazilians rather than on the Indios. Anthropology and archaeology of the Indio populations is difficult as it is prehistoric and materials are made of perishable materials such as fibers, feathers, wood, etc.
Brazilian Education – no money has been historically spent on education in Brazil, Private educational systems are the best so the rich are educated. The best universities are federally funded or privately funded by the Catholic church. The University of Sâo Paolo is the best university and it is free but you have to pass entrance exams to get in.
Portuguese lesson with Heather McKae (see handout and power point)
History of Brazil (Celso Thomas Castilho, Assistant Professor of History, Vanderbilt University)
“Today’s Brazil and the Re-shaping of the Brazilian Past”
Brazil of 2011 is radically different from Brazil fifteen years ago. 2009 The Economist – “Brazil Takes Off.”
Revisiting Brazil’s multicultural past – political, social, economic mobilization. Now is the time of trying a force a wider analysis of multiculturalism, abolition of slavery and the centennial of abolition in 1978. When did the Brazilian civil rights happen? Mandated in Brazilian curricula the study of African history.
Reconceptualizing Brazilian Origins
January 2003 – Law 10.639. Requires of primary and secondary school curricula to teach the History of Africa, Afro-Brazilian struggles and culture, and the African heritage of Brazilian identity. November 20th - “Official Day of Black Consciousness”
Franz Post, Brazilian Landscape with Sugar Mill, ca. 1668 Brazilian Landscape, Pernambuco? 1669
The Portuguese made landfall in Brazil in 1500. 1549 Portuguese establish colonial capital in Bahia. Relationships established, most cities established early on along the eastern coast. In the late 20th century a larger percentage of the Brazilian population lived 50 miles along the coast. The largest slave population was in Brazil – sugar experimented with. Efforts to use native slave labor but didn’t work. A South-Atlantic model was in place. At an exit point in Angola the Portuguese started to export slaves to work in sugar. By 1620, 60% of the slaves in Brazil were African based. The slave force started in the northeast and is a national phenomenon and not a regional characteristic. Slavery survived through a replenishment of laborers – ports in west central Africa were controlled and contrasted with the U.S. experience. From 1608 to 1751, recuperation of money spent on getting slaves from Angola went from 8.5 months to 30 months.
Early to mid 17th century -- for 25-30 years the Dutch occupied Brazil. The Dutch attempted to assume power over the Portuguese. Some Brazilians took their expertise as plantation managers and went to the Barbados and established sugar plantations. Some Brazilians went to New York. Some former Brazilian owners established sugar plantations in Cuba.
Brazilian Wealth –
• 16th and 17th centuries -- sugar was the leading source of wealth. Brazil produced over 85% of the world’s sugar. People in Brazil, trading networks controlled the vast amount of the slave trade which fueled the labor force for sugar plantations. Pernambuco was the center of sugar plantations.
• 18th century -- the century of gold and diamond mines from 1690s through most of the 18th century which completely transformed Brazil especially from the Minas Gervais region –more slaves were imported. Mass scale urban settlements developed around the area of Minas Gervais and its mining areas with rapid urbanization.
• Coffee plantations begin around 1820s; by 1850, Brazil was producing more than the 2nd and 3rd countries highest producing coffee countries
Portuguese/Brazilian relations – Perceptions of rule and power.
Lisbon had a devastating earthquake in 1750 -- the money for rebuilding came from mining interests in Brazil. Life expectancy in the mines for the slave laborers was much shorter than in the sugar plantations. However, working in the mines allowed the slaves to make extra money and buy their eventual freedom because slavery in Brazil was based on the Roman legal system rather than on the U.S. slavery system where slaves became hereditary slaves.
Brazil’s Golden Age
Colonial Portuguese architecture and other forms of art are predominant
Monarchy was in place during the better part of the 19th century – Pedro II. Napoleon invades the Iberian peninsula. The Portuguese cross the Atlantic. The King of Portugal goes to the Americas. His rule from 1840-1889 is that which characterizes the Brazilian monarchy. The monarchy is a relatively balanced regional representation. The Republican military overthrew him in 1889. Most people looking at Brazilian history get the idea that independence was a fluid process but this is true mainly in the capital but really there were regional uprisings. The process of state building was that of struggle.
In Brazil there is a significant Middle Eastern population, there is a Jewish presence, with Japanese immigration since 1908 as well as Italians, Spanish, and Germans.
From 1880-1969 Portuguese immigration is 1,604, 080; Italian 1,576, 20; Japanese 247,312 from 1900-1969; Spanish 711, 711, German, 208,142, Middle Easterners 140,464 and Others 671,035.
Immigration is fueled by labor needs and other reasons such as Jews and Japanese.
The idea of a multicultural society in Brazil from the 1830s is understood.
• The Portuguese never established the Catholic Inquisition in Brazil like the Spanish did in South and Central America.
• From 1549 the Jesuits were fundamental in the establishment of education in Brazil. By the mid 18th century, the Jesuits were expelled in 1959 and the Spanish were expelled in 1767. See The Mission with Robert De Niro regarding the struggle between Church and State.
• Disease decimation of indigenous Indian groups not native to Brazil came from the colonists. What were they? Smallpox, typhus, measles, influenza, bubonic plague, cholera, malaria, tuberculosis, mumps, yellow fever, and pertussis (whooping cough). Indios may have been further weakened by their own hemorrhagic fever contracted locally. Read Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel
Brazilian Culture –
Emmanuelle Oliveira-Monte
Associate Professor, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese (Literature and Cinema)
emmanuele.oliveira@vanderbilt.edu
Contemporary Afro-Brazilian literature, 1970s to present African Brazilian literature, City of God – Afro-Brazilians in situations of violence in cinema and literature. [Review of City of God from Rotten Tomatoes] “Fernando Meirelles' City of God is a sweeping tale of how crime affects the poor population of Rio de Janeiro. Though the narrative skips around in time, the main focus is on Cabeleira who formed a gang called the Tender Trio. He and his best friend, Benà (C) (Phelipe Haagensen), become crime lords over the course of a decade. When Benà (C) is killed before he can retire, Lil' Zà (C) attempts to take out his arch enemy, Sandro Cenoura (Matheus Nachtergaele). But Sandro and a young gangster named Mane form an alliance and begin a gang war with Lil' Zà (C). Amateur photographer Buscape (Alexandre Rodrigues) takes pictures of the brutal crime war, making their story famous. City of God was screened at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi”
First Female President of the Worker’s Party – Dilma Rousseff -- Presidenta was tortured in jail during the military dictatorship. She is an economist. Like Obama in that her father was from Bulgaria and mother was from Brazil.
What do you know and/or what did you learn about Brazil?
Favela on Blast (film) vs. slums. “For 20 years, a subculture has emerged in Brazil under society's radar. It is the culture surrounding 'funk carioca', a musical rhythm which mixes the American electronic funk of the 1980s with the most diverse influences of Brazilian music. 'Baile funk' is one of the most interesting musical movements in the world, but it comes from what is at times one of the most violent and poorest places in the world: the slums of Rio de Janeiro (favelas). This music is the personalization of the raw element. Bombastic rhythms coming from the American Miami Bass and samples are fused with powerful rap vocals using Brazilian slang. This documentary tells stories of sex, love, poverty, and pride among Rio's marginalized people. They have their own language, style, and heroes. It's a film that's fast, heavy, and violent like the city itself. Written by Mad Decent”
Music brings a sense of community
Obama in Brazil – video clip
7th largest economy in the world, 10s of millions of Brazilians lifted out poverty, extending a helping hand to other nations, provide much of the world’s food sources, biofuels, Olympics in Brazil. Country for the future, stepped onto the world stage as major financial and world power. Education – a knowledge based economy is the key to growth and prosperity and the more equipped Brazilians will be to compete on a global scale. When we invest in our people, we invest in our future.
Economy
Petrobras – biggest oil company in the world, Brazil is self sufficient in oil. Offshore oil extraction
Embraer – airplanes around 75 passengers
Vale – Mining company that is multinational
BNDES – banking business, lending money to other countries
Class
• In the 1960s Brazil became an urban society; today 75% of Brazilians live in urban areas
• Depite industrialization, the structure of land ownership has remained in the hands of the few with the escalation of violence in the countryside and the formation of social movements such as MST, Movimento dos Sem Terra [Landless Movement[
• Poor, hungry, and the uneducated remain in the urban favelas
• Shanty towns have experienced the growth of social tensions and violence, becoming the focal point of the drug trade among the youth
• Brazil sees the middle class emerging – BBC News
More than 23 million people have risen from lower income classes into Class C, defined as households with monthly incomes between 726 and 1195 reais (450 and 745) and now makes up 46 percent of Brazilian population
• 10 million people with Internet access between 2005 and 2007 taking total with access wto nearly 40million or 29% of the population. Credit cards in Brazil rose 91% between 2002 to 2006 to 79 million one for every 2.3 people.
• Car sales soared 28% last year.
Pet product market worth 4.1 billion in 2007, second only to the U.S.
Mortgage lending rose 26.5% in 12 months to May. Overall credit is 36.5% of gross domestic product. Individual default is relatively stable at 7.27%
Race
• Brazil was the final destination of more than 1/3 of all African slaves brought to the Americas
• Mulatttoes are a substantial portion of the population by the late colonial period – later transformed as the main national figure
• Complexity of race relations in Brazil – mulattoes may or may not think of themselves as blacks and the census has an array of color classifications, (branco, negro, pardo (indigenous and black), mulatto)
• At the turn of the 19th century, Brazil’s African heritage obsessed the intellectuals – they postulated a solution of immigration to whiten the country
• Millions of European immigrants helped to populate the Southern countryside and Southeastern cities in the 19th century
• Asians (Japanese) began to arrive in 1908 to work on plantations in Sâo Paolo
• Gilberto Freyre – luso-tropical civilization with racial democracy in which blacks, whites and Indians mixed and mingled harmoniously with the notion of a racial democracy; this became rooted in Brazil’s national psyche
• Lack of state laws supporting racial segregation led to the notion that racism was nonexistent in Brazil
• However, statistics show that blacks have lower standards of living, 30% are illiterate with whites earning more than double what blacks earn
• Racial quotas at public universities – adoption of state sponsored policies. Generated a lot of controversy, same kinds of discussion with in America with affirmative action
Religion
• Colonial period – The Portuguese imposed Catholicism on Indians and Africans
• Empire – Catholicism was the official state religion but the Constitution of 1824 guaranteed religious freedom to all Brazilians
• Despite limited political power, the Church had enormous cultural influence and in the 19th century, 95% of Brazilians were Catholic with an emphasis on a male dominated family
• Even today, Brazil is the largest Catholic country in the world
Indian, African and European religions mixed with the survival of African religious rites with the development of several cults with African and indigenous roots
• African slaves were forced to accept Catholicism but continued to worship their gods secretly
• Syncretic religions such as Candoble and Umbanda worship the Orixas and they coexist with Catholicism
• Candoble ceremonies take place in a terreiro de candoble --they were presided over by a spiritual leader, the babalorixa [male] or yalorixa [female] and derive from the Nigerian nation
Colors are very important in religion!!
The last two decades have seen the growth of Evangelical and Pentecostal Protestantism among Brazilians. The movement is conservative and focuses on individual achievements and capitalist values and are from the favelas.
Music
• Music represents Brazil’s cultural mixing, Brazilian musical styles are dynamic and diverse
• At the turn of the 20th century, samba was created in Rio de Janeiro by freed slaves
• Samba became Brazil’s national music and is interconnected with the national celebration of Carnaval
• 1950s and 1960s – Bossa Nova (New Wave) Antonio Carlos Jobim and Joao Gilberto
• 1970s Tropicalia blending of musical influences of American rock and roll to the Braziliai forro and samba (Gilberto Gil and Caetano Velloso)
• 1970s and 1980s -- MPB (Brazilian Popular Music) explosion of creativity and originality; the composers wrote highly metaphorical lyrics to avoid the military dictatorship’s political repression – they are songs of protest
• Today, Brazilian composers and singers mix traditional music like samba baiao, forro with new urban genres especially rap
Afro-Brazilian religions
Jane Landers
Vanderbilt University
*Handout on Yoruba/Nagô Deities
African slave trade follows the contours of Africa. The Portuguese are the first to repel the Muslims in upper Africa. They go to Madeira, the Azores and the Canaries in 1415 and down to the coast of Africa. They are after gold. Sub-Saharan gold sources are found in the African continent. North Africa is linked to Portugal and Spain. Both countries had a history of having relationships with mixed people long before the Anglo story. There was a diverse culture of the Portuguese, Spanish and Africans once they moved to the islands and then to Brazil. Brazilian laws are based on the Roman legal system especially in relation to slavery. It is a legal system not associated with race or character and is a temporary legal problem. Slaves can buy themselves out of slavery, they could be freed by their master or they could buy themselves out monetarily. Once there is a stable crop economy, such as sugar, you place people out in the field and you have no idea what sorts of religion they convert to or assimilate with. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach Africa to install slavery -- women and children were taken into slavery as war booty which was already in place in Africa by warring tribes. There was plantation slavery in Africa as well as salt mining in Africa. Up and down those early African rivers in exploring for gold, they are mixing with Christians, mandingos (Muslims) and Jews expelled from Portugal and Spain.
Blacks in Colonial Africa, edited by Jane Landers
Different cultural groups for the slave trade: Mahee (Mahi) – Christian Catholic brotherhood in Brazil. Most slaves were coastal, at most a 100-150 mile strip along the coast. Upper Guinea was the main point of sending slaves. Then, number two was the Kongo and Angola. This was the only time an army went into Africa. The Portuguese army was fueled by the Africans and was the key to success in the Kongo. More slaves came out as a result. Angola is a later conquest then slaves came from there too. This area is much more Catholic as a result of the Portuguese missionary influence and conversion in black Africa in Kongo and Angola. The elites, military and political leadership and city dwellers are Catholicized.
Capuchin missionaries from Italy greet Dom Alvaro of Kongo, 1640s (woodcut or print or watercolor). Watercolors of what they see there (cloth trade, musical instruments etc.). Rejection of material goods can reveal something about the culture, art, archaeological artifacts even without written records.
Santo Antonio de Catagerona Santa Ifigênia Nossa Senhora Aparecida, Sâo Paolo
*Santo Antonio de Catagerona -- 1699 Brotherhood Charter Salvador da Bahia. From the Covenant of the Irmandade, Bahia, Brazil. Catholic University of America. Oliveira Lima Library, Washington, DC. Plate 11. Dark skinned St. Anthony. “Saint Anthony of Catagerona was born in Africa, probably in Angola. Captured and sold as a slave in Sicily, he was baptized Anthony and eventually freed, after which he joined the Franciscans. Fifty years after his death, in 1599, his tomb was opened, revealing his uncorrupted body, a discovery that qualified him for sainthood.“ He is the saint who helps you find lost things. The Fraternity writes out rules and regulations, what the dues are, when the saint will be processed around the city; there are also sisters attached to the brotherhood but no names were given. The Fraternity provided alms for the poor, bought people out of slavery, provided for orphans. Santo Benedict is another favorite of African Catholics as well as Santa Ifigênia.
Nossa Senhora do Rosario, Parati – Church of Our Lady of the Rosary. Brotherhood Church from Rio de Janeiro.
Mahi Brotherhood Charter, Biblioteca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro chapel records of people from Brazil who once they go free, go back to Benin.
Festival of Our Lady of the Rosary, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, ca. 1770s Santo Elesbâo, Emperor of Abyssinia
Carlos Juliâo [Carlos Julian (circa 1740 - 1811 or 1814 ) was an Italian artist of the late eighteenth century noted for his paintings on the period of mining in Brazil]. “Shows elaborate clothing styles of female slave participants in the festival; they wear high heeled shoes with buckles, necklaces and other jewelry. Two of the women carry silver trays filled with coins which they "begged" from spectators. The group follows a small boy wearing colorful clothing adorned by feathers, holding a piece of wood and a small ax.”
Feast of the Good Death, A festa da Boa Morte in Cachoeira, Brazil
Festa de Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte Festival falls on the Friday closest to 15 August and lasts three days. This is one of the most fascinating Candomblé festivals and it's worth a special trip to see it. Organized by the Irmandade da Boa Morte (Sisterhood of the Good Death)—a secret, black, religious society—the festival is celebrated by the descendants of slaves, who praise their liberation with dance and prayer and a mix of themes from Candomblé and Catholicism.”
Slave (Urban) Funeral in Rio, painting, 1820s
Different Negro Nations. Slaves in Brazil circa 1830.
Jean Baptiste Debret is one of the artists who characterized the skin color of Africans in Brazil
Blacks Dancing, Recife, 1640 by Zacharias Wagener [in Dresden]
Candomblê altars – Exu opens the path, behind the door for good luck; Omolu is Saint Lazarus
Rock Altar at lakeside, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande Do Sul, in the south (active Candoblé practice and offerings, generally food – white chickens, corn, meringue, potatoes). Willfind special instruments in the markets to call the gods.
Spiritism.Filhos de Ghandy (sons of Ghandi – peaceful), Salvador da Bahia, colors are blue and white.
Pam Voekel, M. Soares,
Brazil: Politics & Economics
Marshall Eakin, Prof. of History
Unfulfilled potential?
God and the angels
Brazil probably has arrived.
Country of the present – “Brazil is the country of the future and always will be”
One can vote at the age of 16 but don’t have to until age 18.
Size Matters
5th largest in landmass
5th largest in population
Approaching 200 million
3rd largest democracy
8th largest economy
1 of 3 Latin Americans is a Brazilian
BRICS
Brazil, Russia, India, China (emerging powers)
Stability
1500-1822 Colony
1822 Empire with a monarchy
1889-1930 Republic with limited voting
1930-1945 authoritarian regime
1945-1964 mass democratic politics (illiterates cannot vote until 1988)
1964-1985 military regime
1985-preesnt universal voting and mass politics (80% of population votes)
Empire (1822-1899)
Portuguese royalty flees to Rio and then flees to Portugal and leaves his son Pedro I, September 7, 1822 is Brazil’s Day of Independence. He abdicates in 1831. His son, Pedro II who was born in Brazil (4 ½ years old) is left behind and given enlightened despot’s education. In 1840 with political problems in Brazil, they think he should become emperor at the age of 14. 1840-1889 rule of Pedro II is the longest rule in the history of Latin America. He admires the British, there is a Parliament, alternation of political power. His daughter Isabel serves as regent on three separate occasions. He comes to the U.S. in 1876.
Old Republic (1899-1930) – United States of Brazil
From centralism to federalism 1894 -- big powerful states dominate, coffee is king, comes from Rio, southern Minas Gerais (daily products and coffee), then Sao Paolo (phenomenal economic growth) – 1870s it is 25-30,000 people and now is 16 million. Metropolitan area accounts for most of the GNP.
The governors of these three states yield power. The system collapses in 1930.
Getúlio Vargas (1930 -1954) – he is a conservative modernizer
1930-1934: provisional
1934-37: indirectly elected
1937-45: dictatorship
1950-1954: democratically elected
Carnavals in Rio, museums, sense of nationhood, Christ statue in Rio, great Brazilian poets, samba emerges from the slums of Rio in the 1920s and 1930s (The Mystery of Samba)
Experiment with Democracy
Mass politics for the first time
populism
Instability
Cold war and ideological polarization
Juscelino Kubitschek (1956-1961) – he is a builder, accelerates industrialization
Brasilia – “the capital of hope”
Military coup (1964)
Military Dictatorship (1964-1985) – constantly shift rules to control politics
1967-1973 is the most intense period, 500-600 people disappear in Brazil but nothing compared to Argentina, Uruguay or Chile
Beginning of wave in Latin America – say they want to get rid of leftist threat
National Security Doctrine
Repression, torture, censorship
Heavily controlled politics
Economic growth and debt crisis of the 1980s
“New” Republic (1985--) – runaway inflation as they move back to democracy
Incredibly long transition back to democracy
New constitution (1988)
truly mass politics
Universal suffrage
1990-1992: Fernando Collor 1992-1995: Itamar Franco finishes 1995-2003: Fernando Henrique
de Mello (he is impeached) the term of de Mello Cardoso (two terms)
2003-2011: Luis Inácio “Lula” da Silva
In 1994 the reale plan goes into place and inflation goes from four digits to one digit
Current Politics
2010 presidential election (second round – Oct 31)
56% - Dilma Rousseff (PT) – Michel Temer (PMDB)
44% - Jose Serra (PSDB) – Indio da Costa (DEM)
Round One (October 3)
47% - Dilma
33% - Serra
19% - Marina Silva and the Partido Verde (PV)
111 million votes in first round (85% of voters)
Economics: The Basics – riding on a commodities boom (soybeans, orange concentrate …)
• 16 years of continuity, three presidents
• Moderate neo-liberalism
• Commodities boom over the past five years
• Balanced trade - Brazil has a much more balanced trade profile
If they don’t sell to the U.S., they sell to China or to Europe
Globalizing Brazilian corporations – Vale (iron mining), Embraer (smaller planes)
Bolsa Família (Family Grant) – started on a small scale, direct cash transfer via a debit card to the mother of a family and make sure they keep children in school and get them check ups in health
Reducing poverty, growing middle class
Lula’s lock on the poor – programs created in the late 1990s, 11 million families. It has lifted millions of people out of poverty into the working class.
Happy financiers
An Emerging Power
World’s Largest Exporter of
Sugar, Coffee, Iron Ore, Soybeans, Oranges, Chicken/Beef (JBS) – worlds largest meat packing company
Industrial Brazil
Automobiles (Fiat)
Textiles (coteminas)
Iron and steel (CVRD/Vale, Gerdau)
Aircraft (Embraer)
Petroleum (Petrobras)
Income and Class
10% AB: income exceeding R$ 4,807
(US$3,000 =36,000/month)
49% C: between R$ 1,115 and R$ 4,806
(US$700 – 3,000 = 8.400 – 36,000)
25% D: between R$ 768 to R$ 1114
(US$ 480 – 7000 = 6,000 – 8,400)
16% E: less than R$ 768
(US$ 480 = 6,000)
Law and Public Security
Lack of faith in legal system
“impunity” – anyone with influence and connections
High levels of violence – Rio gets the most intense scrutiny, lots of random violence and overwhelmingly in poor communities
Rise of drug trafficking in the 1980s – cocaine especially and dominated in favelas
Special case of Rio de Janeiro – poster child of violence but also Sao Paolo
Police and public – people have no confidence in the police, less than 2% of homicide are ever investigated or punished
In Rio in one year officially, 1300 people killed a year and in the U.S. 365 a year. There is extrajudicial execution in Rio de Janeiro. There are 2500 homicides per year in Rio. Brazil has a culture of violence outside its legal systems. The police don’t bring criminals to trial, they just track them down and kill them.
Copacabana beach is typical for ripping off tourists and any other place full of tourists, mainly theft based rather than physical violence except when a tourist doesn’t give up money
The Political process
Patrimonialism – help given to those who voted for those in power. It is a form of governance in which all power flows directly from the leader.
Clientelism - a disciplined political organization in which an authoritative boss or small group commands the support of a corps of supporters and businesses (usually campaign workers), who receive rewards for their efforts.
Centralism - As Lenin described it, democratic centralism consisted of "freedom of discussion, unity of action."[
Hierarchy – system looks like ours but the president is much more powerful
Strong Executive Congressional Coalitions of Parties
26 state, federal district – 3 senators each (8 year terms) – some years one third are elected, other years two thirds are elected
513 congressmen (4 year terms)
Education – if you have any money, you send your children to private schools
Fundamental (6-14) (nine years – 5 + 4) – municipal
Middle (15-17) (three years) – state
Higher
Public vs. private (Catholic universities, etc.)
Federal – all are free
Universidade de São Paolo (USP) & UNICAMP
Faculties – Law, Medicine, Engineering
Entrance Exams
No modern universities in Brazil until the 1930s – before then, the elite went to Portugal. Claude Levi Strauss wrote in Brazil.
Educational Biases
90% literacy
7.2 years of education is the average
4.3% of GDP spent on educatin
40% of fundamental level/40% on middle level /20% spent on higher level
One People One Nation
Unifying the “myth of three peoples”
Linguistic homogeneity (Portuguese)
One dominant religious tradition
No major religious, sectarian, linguistic or cultural cleavages. The great challenge of Brazil is inequality
Challenges for Brazil
Need for economic growth
Continued political stability
A self-confident nationalism
Expansion of the middle class and reduction of poverty which leads to “the social question”
Public security is the challenge that has to continue to be beefed up to protect internally and externally
Brazilian Regionalism and Local Particularities
Celso Castilho, Vanderbilt University
Places we are visiting in Brazil
Northern region – Salvador – 14 million people
Northeastern region – Recife – 18-25% of population, over 50 million people
Southeastern region – Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo – locus of Brazilian activity with around
75- 80 million people
Central region – Brasilia, capital city and Minas Gervais – 50 million
Southern region – 25 million people
Regional identities develop as people move and migrate throughout the country
• From 1860-1980 there was a trend to move southeast toward Rio de Janeiro from the north, the west and the south of Brazil
• From 1980-1990 a migration southward to Rio and Sao Paolo as well as some westward migration
• Some movement from 1990 of a migration from north to southeast (Sao Paolo and Rio0 but also up to the Rainforest but also from the North westward to the Rainforest
The Northeast of Brazil
1. First 50 miles along the coast, tropical and semitropical. Very fertile area for cultural imagination, very diverse, highlands and lowlands but usually thought of more barren space with ranching and farming with subsistence rugged living. Migrations first to the coast and then southward.
2. Zumbi Memorial – Leader of runaway slave community that formed and started to grow when the Dutch invaded Brazil. Over the 17th century, the community it grew to around 1500-3000 people able to withstand numerous Dutch and Portuguese incursions. Ended only after 80 years.
3. Pop into a music store in Salvador -- Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil important in music.
Recife – capital of Pernambuco
Heart of the sugar plantation zone
Casa da Cultura – old penitentiary was converted into artisan shops, jewelry shops, clothing shops with very reasonable prices right on the river
Livraria Cultura – bookstore go on a Sunday afternoon, expansive music section, coffee table books, lots of activity when everything is closed, right on the river
In Recife Antigo (Old historic quarters) – Old Synagogue, jewelry shops, things open in the evenings
Historical Institute of Pernambuco (Rua do Hospicio, in Boa Vista – Gilberto Freyre
Lampião and Maria Bonita – connect to the imaginary wild backlands of the northeast, number of famous outlaws, social bandits and were iconic in Recife – take pictures – there are cutouts for your face
Salvador, Bahia (“Baia”)
Famous for its upper and lower city connected by a funincula
• Visit Nossa Senhora do Bonfim Church – write your wish on a ribbon, when it comes true, you throw it into the sea
• Patricia Pinho, Mama Africa: Reinventing Blackness in Bahia (when Africanness became embraced
• Anadelia Romo, Brazil’s Living Museum
Southeastern Brazil
Minas Gervais
• Brazil’s Golden Age – mining of gold and diamonds. Mineiro Conspiracy of 1789
• Junia Ferreira Furtado, Chica da Silva: A Brazilian Slave of the Eighteenth Century.
The story is about a freed woman (former slave) who establishes a long term relationship with a high official of the mines. Her story is a story of high social ascension. Chica is said to have had twelve children in fifteen years by this man. She opens up convents when her daughters cannot be admitted to ones that currently existed as she becomes very wealthy.
• Cradle of Brazilian Independence.
Rio de Janeiro and Sâo Paolo
• Sâo Paolo has been presented as more industrious, people more serious in Sao Paolo
• Rio de Janeiro presented as more frivolous, cariocas
• Go walking along the beaches at dawn, go up to Christ the Redeemer statue above Rio de Janeiro
• Museum of Modern Art in Sâo Paolo – our hotel is one block on the right side of the museum
The Seminar in Brazil
Luiz Loureiro, Fulbright Commission, Brazil
• Elis, Como e Porque (music)
Elis Regina – died in her early 40s in the 1980s
• See handout for specific itinerary
The U.S/ was the first country to recognize Brazil’s independence in 1822. After military proclaimed the republic in the late 1800s – they copied the U.S. flag (for one day) but changed the colors. The yellow is the Habsburg color (wife of Pedro).
Carmen Miranda arrived in Brazil as a baby. “(February 9, 1909 – August 5, 1955) She was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, Broadway actress and Hollywood film star popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was, by some accounts, the highest-earning woman in the United States and noted for her signature fruit hat outfit she wore in the 1943 movie The Gang's All Here. Though hailed as a talented performer, her movie roles in the United States soon became cartoonish and she grew to resent them. She is considered the precursor of Brazil's Tropicalismo.”
Embraer ERJ175 Delta Airlines flight to Atlanta. Then we arrive in Rio de Janeiro. We meet Mariana Migliari. TAM – airbus to Salvador from Rio de Janeiro.
Christ the Redeemer has no connotation with religion. It is an icon of Rio de Janeiro and Brazil.
The other god is futebol. Everyone’s passion.
Carnaval and music (samba) is the other passion.
Cities we will visit in Brazil
1. Salvador
2. Recife
3. Brasilia
4. *Ouro Preto (Minas Gervais)
5. Sâo Paolo – 18 million population
6. *Rio de Janeiro
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