Beautiful Horizons

Brazilians Transiting Through Mexico

This article by Larry Rohter about Brazilian immigration to the US is a compelling mixture of the old and the new. The old part refers to this:

At the Federal Police office in Governador Valadares, the main city in this fertile region of rolling hills, the line of people seeking passports each day stretches around the block.

Those waiting one afternoon did not want to talk with a reporter about their travel plans, but the Federal Police delegate for the region, Rui Antônio da Silva, estimated that 90 percent were headed for the United States via the Mexican route. "We believe that just in this region there are about 30 gangs that offer this service to people," he said. "It's a very lucrative business, and a lot of people are involved."

Mr. da Silva said that last year his office issued an average of about 45 passports a day. Since January the number has jumped to a daily average of 140. A few minutes later, an assistant came into his office. "The numbers just don't stop growing," she said. "We hit a new record today, more than 200 passports."

American authorities say that many of the trafficking gangs use travel agencies as fronts. Governador Valadares, a pleasant city of 250,000 in the sprawling inland state of Minas Gerais, which is the source of the majority of the Brazilians apprehended on the Mexican border, now has more than 100 such firms, up from 40 just a couple of years ago.

As the article points out, Governador Valadares has long been a city that has sent immigrants to the US. Books have been written about the city and emigration to the United States. It started during WWII when the Allies needed mica for the war effort and the region provided plenty of it. Entire neighborhoods have been built with money from remittances sent from the US.

How do I know so much about it? It's my wife's hometown and it's where we had our church wedding. Governador Valadares is a brutally hot city (in the summer) on the Rio Doce in Eastern Minas Gerais where the granite mountain known as Ibitaruna and the hot valley below provide one of the world's best launch points for hang gliders and parasailing. Non-residents teasingly refer to it as "Valadolares" (Valadollars) and among many other Brazilians it has risen to fame primarily through the sad exodus of some of its best and brightest citizens (of course I'm thrilled that at least one of them left).

Mércia commented to me that she believes that the article is right about the number of "gangs" offering this service, but the consequences can be very grim and the cost, both financial and personal can be quite high:

People here who have been approached by trafficking rings said that the going rate at the moment for door-to-door transport to Boston, the preferred destination of illegal Brazilian immigrants, is about $10,500. That is more than two years' income for the average Brazilian, but effectively 30 percent less than a year ago, because the American dollar is weaker now.

[..]

For years, Jaider de Andrade, a 35-year-old farm worker, talked about going to the United States to look for work, and early in March he finally agreed to a trafficker's offer to fly him to Mexico and have him guided across the border there. By month's end, though, he was back home here again, in a coffin.

The smugglers, surprisingly have some sense of honor:

Mr. de Andrade's widow said her husband had offered a small parcel of land he owned as collateral. After he died, in an automobile accident in northern Mexico, the smuggler returned the land.

The situation is apparently driving the INS crazy, but if these two articles are any indication (as well as my own experience) these immigrants are doing what so many others before them have done: working hard and trying to make a future for themselves.

Literatura de Cordel

I like Larry Rohter a lot more when he's not writing about Brazilian politics and writing about Brazilian culture and travel instead. Take his article today about Literatura de Cordel, a popular folk literature in Brazil's Northeast:

"Cordel" literally means string or twine, a reference to the way the cheap paper booklets containing the poems, with up to 32 pages, are hung at markets or newsstands. Verses typically have six lines, and though a variety of rhyme scheme are permitted, the most common is probably a-b-c-b-d-b.

Originally, cordel was an extension of the European troubadour tradition. Cordel poets and singers would roam the vast interior of northeast Brazil, an area larger than Alaska and home today to 50 million people, showing up at markets such as the one held here every Saturday, or at fairs, saints' day commemorations and other public events, to recite their ballads, bringing both news and entertainment to peasants who were often illiterate.

"Popular literature in verse form developed here in Brazil as in no other place in the world," said Audálio Dantas, a collector of cordel and curator of "A Century of Cordel," an exhibition that was held in São Paulo in 2001. "The cordel pamphlet was for decades practically the only vehicle of information that the people of the backlands could count on."

And what better place to be reporting on this topic than Caruaru in the state of Pernambuco, famous for its market, it's ceramics and the legendary Pifanos de Caruaru, a band that embodies much of the Northeast sound.

Perhaps an article on Olinda's Torneio das Repentistas is on the horizon. More on repentistas another time.

Oscar Niemeyer

I am not a fan of Oscar Niemeyer, nor am I fan of his politics. My idea of hell would find it designed by him and Richard Meier. I find it ironic, however that the two buildings I find most interesting designed by this presumably atheist communist are the National Cathedral in Brasília and the church of São Francisco de Assis in Belo Horizonte.

So imagine my surprise in this article in the New York Times Magazine to see Niemeyer less than enthusiastic about Brasília:

For his part, Niemeyer now deflects criticism of Brasília by stressing that Costa did the master plan. But he says: ''You may not like Brasília, but you can't say you have seen anything like it -- you maybe saw something better, but not the same. I prefer Rio, even with the robberies. What can you do? It's the capitalist world. But people who live in Brasília, to my surprise, don't want to leave it. Brasília works. There are problems. But it works. And from my perspective, the ultimate task of the architect is to dream. Otherwise nothing happens.''

The irony here is that Niemeyer's work strikes me as incredibly impersonal, which is why he seemed so perfect to design the buildings in Brasília, a city that still strikes me as a place where monuments and not people live.

The Ring in Manaus

Every time I mention to people that I have visited Brazil several times, they always ask me if I liked the Amazon region. I have yet to go to the Amazon, although I'm dying to visit Manaus and Belem. Flying to Manaus is very expensive and airfare is usually cheaper to Miami from São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro than it is to Manaus.

Nevertheless, I will go someday. One of the sites I want to see above all is the Teatro Amazonas, the Italian Renaissance style opera house within walking distance of the Amazon. it was built by rubber barons whose wealth was so staggering that during the rubber boom of the 19th century they sent their shirts to London to be laundered.

Now the first performance of the Ring Cycle in Brazil is being performed at the Teatro Amazonas. Larry Rohter has this article definitely worth your attention in today's New York Times.

Padre Cicero

The part of Brazil that fascinates me the most is the Northeast. Aside from the stunningly beautiful beaches, the graciously welcoming people and the music, the culture is steeped deeply in Brazil's past and makes for fascinating reading. Whether it's the Canudos War, the Literatura de Cordel, the story of Lampião and Maria Bonita or the way Luis Gonzaga's music gave pride to the region, Brazil's Northeast is a rich source of history and seemingly endless supply of captivating history.

Larry Rohter had an article in yesterday's New York Times about Padre Cicero , the town of Juazeiro do Norte and the support that still exists among the population for Padre Cicero more than seventy years after his death at 90. The Roman Catholic Church, which had long shied away from Padre Cicero is starting to embrace him:

While the Roman Catholic Church continued to be skittish about embracing Father Cicero and his legacy, others were not. For years, any politician running for national or state office has had to make a stop in Juazeiro do Norte; some candidates and elected officials even pay for the chartered buses and overcrowded trucks, known as "parrot perches," that bring pilgrims here.

One factor in the church's recent turnabout may be that the army of pilgrims is simply too powerful a spiritual force to ignore. When fundamentalist Protestant denominations are challenging the Roman Catholic Church's dominance all over Brazil, it makes more sense to view Father Cicero's devotees as allies, rather than fanatics or schismatics.

"Thanks to the pilgrims and their faith, the evangelical churches are not making many inroads here," Bishop Panico said. "Father Cicero is like an antivirus."

It's worth noting that the evangelical churches have made their greatest recruitment efforts among the poor, so this shift in thinking on Padre Cicero certainly seems to make sense.

My American Street Post - Simple Pleasures

My American Street post for this week is up. It's titled "A Day of Simple Pleasures Reveals a Larger Message." Click over and check it out.

Unfinished Business

I had mentioned in the comments here that I had arrived in Brazil some ten hours late. Here's why.

Mércia Must Be Having a Ball

Mércia is still in Brazil with her parents, nieces, nephews, siblings, cousins, etc. at their beach house in Bahia.

She must be having a blast.

I'm very jealous.

Quero fazer farra!

Minas Gerais

One of the ongoing sources of annoyance for me about the history and culture of Brazil, especially as portrayed in US media is the emphasis on Rio and São Paulo as well as the perception that the bulk of the country's culture is focused on the ocean. There is so much more than this.

Voltei (I'm back)!

Well, I'm back and as every trip to Brazil goes, this one also went well. I'll have some observations over the next couple of weeks to share with you all including some sentiments about the upcoming municipal elections. One of the things that I found very encouraging was a snappy public service announcement (PSA) for Brasil Alfabetizado (Brazil Literate), a program dedicated to improving literacy in Brazil. The PSA showed a factory worker leaving his job for the day to go to a reading class, amidst smiles and encouragement from his co-workers as well as his own sense of pride. That last part is what I really liked about the PSA; education should always be a source of pride.

I'm not an obnoxious nonsmoker, although frankly, I am 100% behind any efforts to limit smoking indoors and in public places. The Health Ministry in Brazil has put a terrific warning on cigarette packs as you can see below. It doesn't need any translation either.

If I were a smoker I think that would get me to stop.

Brazil Nuts Becoming Bolivia Nuts?

Not hardly. To begin with, in Brazil they call them Castanhas de Pará which literally means Chestnuts of Pará, the large state in the north of Brazil at the mouth of the Amazon. The New York Times had an article today on this subject .

This sort of thing is nothing new. In the 19th Century Sir Henry Wickham illegally removed 70,000 seeds of rubber plants and took them to England's colonies in Southeast Asia. I guess that's the sort of thing one gets knighted for in England. Prior to that, Brazil's monopoly on rubber had made a number of rubber barons extraordinarily wealthy; they used to send their shirts to London by ship to be laundered.

The 19th Century also saw the rise of the cacao plantations in and around Ilheus in the state of Bahia. Many of the plantation owners did not reinvest the proceeds back into their business and merely took the profits out. As a result of this and also due to a fungus called Vassoura da Bruxa (Witch's Broom), Ilheus, once the cacao bean center of the world had to import cacao from the Ivory Coast in order to keep the processing plants running.

Part of the problem with the Brazil nut situation seems to be the dominance of one family:

"The industry in Brazil is confronting a huge crisis because we don't enjoy the same kind of subsidies and tax exemptions the Bolivians do, not because of something that the Mutran family has done," complained Benedito Mutran, president of the Brazilian Association of Nut Growers. "We're not the guilty party. We're the victims of this catastrophe, this hurricane called Bolivia."

The Mutran clan, of Syrian-Lebanese descent, arrived here at the end of the 19th century as merchants, extending credit to Brazil nut gatherers on lucrative terms. By the 1930's, though, they had became big landholders and later moved into politics, generating mayors and legislators who protected the family's expanding commercial interests.

"At their peak, the Mutrans had a monopoly on everything connected with the Brazil nut industry, from harvesting to transport to exports," said Marilia Emmi, a professor at the Nucleus for Amazon Research at the Federal University of Pará. "Much of their own production occurred on public lands that belonged to the state but were initially leased to them for a pittance as the result of backroom political deals."

The Mutrans still want to burnish their image:

Members of the Mutran family do not deny their domination of the Brazil nut trade, but argue they have also brought prosperity to the region. "There are only three exporters of Brazil nuts in Brazil who matter, and we are all named Mutran," Aziz Mutran said proudly during a walkabout on his ranch here, which includes a 10,000-acre grove of Brazil nut trees he says is the last of its kind in the area. "We provide jobs to many people and create wealth for Brazil."

Critics tell a different story. "Because of their monopoly, the Mutrans paid a price so low that production dropped off the map," said Zico Bronzeado, a former Brazil nut harvester who now represents Acre in the lower house of Congress. The low prices drove growers to abandon the business, the critics say, selling their lands to loggers and cattle ranchers in a process that deforested vast stretches of the Amazon and further enriched the Brazilian elite.

At least there is some good news in this:

To help break the Mutrans' domination, the Acre state government has supported construction of a nut processing factory, which recently began operating, to compete with plants in Bolivia. "We want exports to take place from this side of the border so that we can get the benefits here," said Mr. Bronzeado, a member of the left-wing Workers' Party.

By Mr. Bronzeado's calculations, the price paid to local nut producers in Acre has tripled since 2000, thanks to Bolivia's challenge to the Mutrans' monopoly. As a result, former rubber tappers and nut harvesters are abandoning cattle ranches and returning to the jungle to resume their trade, which has in turn slowed the rate of deforestation in the region.

Time will tell if the production of Brazilian Brazil nuts bounces back. I certainly hope so. As for me, give me a bowl of cashews instead.

August in Brazil

Larry Rohter, finally reporting from Brazil again reports on the antipathy Brazilians have toward August:

Nearly every Brazilian is familiar with the rhyme "Agosto, mês do desgosto," or "August, the month of sorrow and grief." The elderly, the poor and those born in rural areas are most prone to take the proverb to heart and let it guide their behavior, sociologists say, but it is not hard to find believers among all economic, racial and age groups.

This is certainly news to me. I asked Mércia about it today and she said it was a widely held superstition. Of my twelve trips to Brazil in the last 9 years, I've been there in August four times and no one ever mentioned anything about this belief to me. I think I'll ask about it on my next trip there. I leave on September 1, and yes, that is just a coincidence.

Milton Nascimento Undergoes Surgery

Send some positive thoughts Milton Nascimento's way in light of his recent surgery. As I discussed here, his is one of the world's great voices.

Tiradentes

On a much lighter note, Reuters also had an article about Tiradentes, a lovely colonial town in Minas Gerais, Brazil. One popular element of its charm is an old steam locomotive (Maria Fumaça or Smoking Mary) that travels along an eight mile route to the much more modern city of São João del Rei.

"Smoking Mary" is a great attraction for tourists fleeing the crowded beaches of Rio de Janeiro, a five-hour drive away through the mountains.

"It's a dream, so peaceful and romantic," said Maria Ribeiro, 22, from Minas Gerais' capital Belo Horizonte 135 miles inland, as she hugged her boyfriend Luiz.

Trains are a rare delight in Latin America's largest country whose endless roads are packed with peril.

"The engine's a beauty, it's a pleasure to work here," said engine driver Mauricio Andrade da Silva, 49, who's worked nine years on the line in three stints. The railway, operated by the Ferrovia Central Atlantico, is owned by the world's No. 1 iron ore miner Cia Vale do Rio Doce.

The railway has 17 sparkling black and red Baldwin locomotives in the station museum in Sao Joao del Rei, which like Tiradentes was founded by gold prospectors at the start of the 18th century. Baldwin is the once-mighty U.S. manufacturer of locomotives based in Philadelphia but is out of business.

I have been Tiradentes once, albeit briefly and look forward to taking Mércia there as she has never been there. Unfortunately when I went I didn't get to ride the train, something I truly regret. My brothers-in-law tell me it makes you feel like a kid again. If only . . .

Beija Flor Wins Again

Congratulations to the samba school Beija Flor for winning Rio de Janeiro's Carnaval competition for the second year running.

Even if you don't understand any Portuguese, their site is quite lovely and worth a visit.

Carnaval Has Started - But Not Everyone is Happy

The celebration of Carnaval in Brazil started today, but not everyone is thrilled:

Tourists may love it, but a recent survey conducted by the Sensus polling group found that 57.4 percent of Brazilians dislike carnival and want nothing to do with it.

Unfortunately the article concentrates solely on Rio de Janeiro, either forgetting or ignoring the fact that the holiday is celebrated nationwide and that there are major celebrations in Florianapolis in the South, Salvador and Olinda in the Northeast. It's a huge country with a lot to see. Rio is without question one of the world's great cities, but it's certainly not the be all and end all of tourism in Brazil.

Usual and Unusual Photos in Rio de Janeiro

My buddy Stephen here has a downright spooky picture of a large cruise ship approaching the beach at Ipanema in Rio de Janeiro. Aside from the envy I feel at that muito bela vista as I look out the window at slowly melting dirty snow, I'm spooked by the proximity of the ship to shore.

This picture is perhaps a little more typical of Rio de Janeiro. This was taken two minutes to midnight December 31, 1999 on the beach at Copacabana in front of the Hotel Meridien as a transvestite walks by, largely ignored. It wasn't even Carnaval yet!

One of Life's Mysteries

No nation has won soccer's World Cup more than Brazil (5 championships out of the 17 World Cup finals contested) and no nation has qualified for all of the World Cup finals. Brazil currently holds the Men's World Cup Championship, the Men's Under-20 Championship and the Men's Under-17 Championship.

Yet Brazil has never won the Olympic Gold Medal in the sport, and although the news is over a week old, it's still shocking to me that Brazil has been eliminated from the soccer competition in the upcoming Olympics. It's something that I simply can't explain and don't understand.

The "New" Africans in Salvador

Reuters recently had an article about modern-day African immigrants in Salvador, the capital of the state of Bahia in Brazil.

Nearly half Brazil's 175 million people define themselves as "black" or "pardo" -- a loose definition including virtually all dark shades of skin -- giving the country the world's largest black population outside of Africa.

Now Africans from countries like Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Nigeria and Sao Tome and Principe are rushing here as students.

Fatima Nunes from Guinea Bissau, who is studying for a doctorate in public health in Bahia, adores wandering in the labyrinthine streets of Pelourinho, the neighborhood where Salvador's slave market used to stand.

Named by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, today Pelourinho is a mirror of life in Bahia, filled with restaurants and shops offering "Afro-Brazilian" food, crafts and African clothes.

"There are ancient traditions which existed in Africa and have disappeared but you can still see them practiced here," said Nunes. "They value the clothes, food and crafts from Africa more than us and have turned them into a source of income."

Swarming with tourists, Pelourinho's cobblestone streets are filled the drum beat of Oludum, a group based on African musical roots and the legends of the Africans who arrived in Brazil as slaves.

It's worth noting that with the exception of Nigeria, all of those countries mentioned above were former Portuguese colonies, as was Brazil. It's also worth noting that many of the Afro-Brazilian traditions were Yoruban traditions, which originate in what is now Nigeria.

I've been to Salvador once and I'm anxious to return. The city has one of the prime locations in the world in terms of weather and natural beauty. The culture will entrance you. In the words of one of Bahia's favorite sons, the singer-songwriter, Dorival Caymmi: "Have you been to Bahia? No? Then go! [The emphasis is all mine!]

Brazil's Literatura de Cordel

Reuters ran an article recently about Northeastern Brazil's cultural tradition of Literatura de Cordel, or "string" literature and it's very encouraging to see that there are people dedicated to preserving this tradition:

The genre was most popular in the 1920s to the 1960s. Now academic interest in the "Literatura de Cordel" (string literature in Portuguese) is probably stronger than among common Brazilians. Still, authors say many people in Brazil's poor, arid northeast still buy the booklets, with anything from yesterday's news to the legends of old in them.

"Often they buy one to read out loud to fellow peasants who cannot read," said Goncalo Ferreira da Silva, 65, an author and president of the academy, who lives in Rio but comes from the small town of Ipu in northeastern Ceara state.

"People still get excited during such readings to the point that at times someone takes out a knife and shouts: 'Oh, I'd really kill this bandit if he were here right now!"' da Silva said, passionately waving an imaginary knife in the air.

The literature, which got its name from the strings on which vendors hang the booklets at popular fairs, often focuses on the 1920-1940's "Cangaco" rural banditry in the impoverished northeast, its ruthless yet revered leader Lampiao and his outlaw wife Maria Bonita.

Jose Pacheco's "Lampiao's Arrival in Hell," in which the Devil turns away the bandit who retaliates by inflicting major damage on Hell, is one of the classics of string literature. On the paper cover, illustrated with wood block stencil prints typical of the genre, Lampiao aims his rifle at devils.

Lampião is an extraordinarily popular figure in the culture of Brazil's Northeast. Many still believe that he is alive having escaped to the south of Minas Gerais. I couldn't imagine him surviving a winter there after living all his life in the heat of Pernambuco's sertão . . .

Despite it's often brutal poverty, the Northeast of Brazil is a fascinating place. The beaches are exquisite, the food is delicious, the various types of music are eminently danceable and the colonial cities such as Olinda are simply lovely. While I would never claim that any one place in Brazil represents "the Real Brazil, if you go to Brazil and don't see the Northeast, you're only depriving yourself.