Brazzil - Year 15 - Number 205 - May-June 2003

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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has disproved many expectations. Gloomy forecasts that Brazil would turn left and default on its international obligations didn't materialize. Au contraire, the Lula administration has become the darling of the IMF and everybody, from World Bank officials to President Bush, seem queuing to say something nice about the turn of events in Brazil.

During the recent G8 Summit at Evian, France, Lula once again stole the limelight. In the opening day of the event he urged the Ica.lers of the world's richest countries to take care of the world's poor. His proposal: get the funds for this anti-hunger program from a levy on the sale of weapons and from the interest on loans paid by the Third World. Nonsense? France president, Jacques Chirac called the idea"forceful and convincing."

International success notwithstanding, Brazil can't hide several domestic problems. Corruption is still rampant, unemployment continues high, interest rates are excessive, the country seems on the verge of deflation and crime is entirely out of control. Rio has become an explosive new Colombia. Narcotraffic has overflowed from the fave las on the hills and is intimidating the population by burning buses, closing stores and schools for a day, and killing civilians and policemen. Can God save Rio? That's the question we try to answer in our cover story.

RM Send mail to: P.O. Box 50536 - Los Angeles, CA

90050-0536 Ads/Editorial: (323) 255-8062 Info: (323) 255-8062 Fax: (323) 257-3487 Brazzil on line: http://www.brazzil.com E-mail: brazzil@brazzil.com Publisher and Editor: Rodney Mello Book Review: Bondo Wyszpolski Music Editor: Bruce Gilman

Cover A Rio, that God can't save

le Meats 11 8/ 11 11 14 11 18 21 22 24 25 2/ 31 33 35 31 41 44 48 54

Nation Snapshots of Brazil Travel yang doesn't earn its wings Memory Rasi was besteirofs king TV Hard times at the culture factory Crime Rio's first gentleman called to duty Rio Civil war might be next Presidency Left calls Lula a traitor Economy Good news on the real front Lula The making of a president Economy Banks: they're making the real money Nation Lula in Wonderland Crime Women the death squad silenced Impressions Brazil for beginners Experience Job seekers, beware In Portuguese "0 Almirante" by Hermilo Borba Carvalho Filho Racing Indy Brazil 500 Profile That Castroneves Spiderman Interview Aluizio Abranches, a new brand of filmmaker Music Jazz and MPB: an inseparable duo Blacks All the racism I found in Brazil - Part I

Brazil Bureau Chief: Marta Alvim

E-mail: mltdalvim@yahoo.corn With the help of volunteer writers around the world TIME TO RENEW? , we don't send reminders. Look at the label to know when your subscription ends.

BRAllIL (ISSN 1091-868X) is published monthly by Brazzil 2039 N. Ave. 52, Los Angeles, CA, 90042-1024.Periodicals Postage rate paid at Los Angeles, CA. Single copy sold for $2.

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BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

Deparbuits 110 Rapidinhas 16 letters 49 Cultural Pulse 51 Classifieds 52 That's Brazilian

5

A few Candid Snapshots A beloved music producer is murdered in cold blood; the opposition becomes the government's ally; and dirty, dangerous Sao Paulo still hides some charm.

Amid all of this, Chico Buarque'S silence is a hit and Veja magazine puts on its own grisly act profiling a mortuary attendant accompanied by a picture of him with the tools of his trade, extracting instruments included.

JOHN FITZPATRICK The Day the Music Died... , Violence is -fict w' ire Net e and the crime Pages of the local press make deprcsing and horrific Teading. Most violent crime is rarely reported and . the endless killings in the /,;rel,4.). known as chacinas, er. 0-21. :sze routine which cause score; drugs 74 'M'AUY arise page tillers. I h( ,hLh trade. The sheer panicio us of (Woos , wally lighted in two recent caseH in whichfathe, killed their own sons o ho had attacked weie manding money to buy, more drugs. In one it the father himself died of grief in prison shorti., afterwards.

Occasionally, more high-profile murders hit the headlines. usually ft th, victim is a \\ Cek member of the middle class, a politician, judge or personality I his wa thd w hen a music producer and writer called Almir Chediak was murcierdd in Pct,4,‘)li. near Rio de Janeiro. During his career, Chediak had worked w ith almost ey cry MU•iCidll a:.sociated with the Brazilian popular movement known as the MPB. He edito.l the songbooks of Dorival Caymmi, Caetano Veloso. Joao Bo and l'om Jobim, amongst others.

These were not just rehashes of "famous hits- but academic works ink °lying meticulous research and collaboration with the songwriters. Tom Jobim said of the Bossa Nova Songbook. "I regard the work of Alrnir Chediak as a piece of patriotism since it has to do with the memory of Brazil.- Chediak was shot down in cold blood. yy ith his aims tied, by a murderer who pumped four, . . ,* • 'Twed*, roksoutermewhistk, bullets into him.

Want to Be an Ambassador? Join the PMDB o,, imento Democratico Brasilciro—Party of the Brazilian As expected, that broad church known as the PMDB (Partido Democratic Movement) is about to enter the government. giving Pre.odent I tii inkio I,ula is Silva an even broader power base.

The PSDB of ex-president Fernando Henrique Cardoso and the PI- I are now the main opposition parties although do not be surprised if the PFI, sneaks back in too.

As to the PSDB. some of its members have already switched to pro-ooy ertini,mt parties. According to the local press. the price for the PMDB's support M as an ambassadorship for a former senator ITOITIL;( ,.,1L -AMC I Spain or Chile). the presidency of T'ranspetro kmazOnia for others. Whether any of those chosen I, for another and seats on the board of directors of Banco do Brasil and B nt .he PI leadership obviously feels the price is worth the few have the experience to undertake their new challenges is not know n PMDB's support in getting the gov ernment's pension and tax reforms throu,,z h 'ongress. Quite a promotion. One day a senator from a farming area in the MidWest, the next day Your Excellency.

Embu — Great Place to Visit if You Can Find It Every so often some report is published show ine that Sao Paulo is a great tourist center With millions of visitors from Brazil and abroad. You can always rely on some city official to say how much tourists like the place and how tourism contributes to the economy. The fact is that the overwhelming majority of the foreign tourists corne here on business and certainly not for pleasure.

Polls have shown that foreign tourists do not like the dirt, poyerty, poor infrastructure, lack of English speakers and the feeling of insecurity. There are some tourist booths scattered around the city but th,eie are poky little boxes. staffed by students who get 10 out of 10 for friendliness but 0 out of 10 for professionalism the resources c,msist of inadequate maps and lists of events. sometimes outdated. These booths are more often closed than open and the entrances are often used as sleeping places by beggars and alcoholics.

Paid o. One of the -attractions- is the snake farm at ButantA Besides this, there is virtually nothing for the tourist to see in where you can look down at a pit and watch snakes devour live w hoe In iCe I ocal schools 'S en take children to this grisly spectacle.

I admit it is not as bloody as a Spanish bullfight but hardly what most foreignetk ssould regard as a tourist attraction. k tlometers from the city. The highway to Embu Another place the tourist is generally' taken to is the tow n of I tithu. ithote. and the entrance are grimy and ugly but the centre is pleasant and offers i popular arts and handicrafts fair on Sundays. However there are no signs to the centre, so the tourist has a good chance of gettgoi lost I went there recently and shortly after etc' m sh:it I thought was Embu found myself back on the when I was trying to get back to Sao Paulo I got highway to Sao Paulo, thanks to the confusing lay out. La'Cr lost again and this time found my self back in the cere re. If y ou arc thinking of going there, take a tip—take . a guide, a compass and a map or go by helicopter iisiummtimuionaitimaimitiEvikovi- erxoo.e..aitrerao,TT,:t,Am.,,,Alz Veja Magazine Needs Surgical -treatment When it comes to bad taste. Brazilian toles tsion is tisually in a league °fits own compared with the printed A CURA PBA media. Trashy novelas \Nith laughable scripts iind dreadful actine are followed by inane -entertainment" BENTE shows in which you can see everything from era' es heine robbed midgets being chased round studios by transvestites and staged fights as angtoe women attempt to beat tip former boyfriends who have cheated on them. However, this week's Veio magazine has giy ch the teley ision a run for its money. It has presented a feature on the biggest hospital in Sao Paulo called I lospit.' t_l'is CI inicas, showing how this enormous place operates and presenting profiles of some of its 10,000 employees.

One of the profiles is of a mortuary attendant iteco,npari;ed by a picture °flint with the tools of his trade— s hammer, ladle. knife, scissors, thread and some extracting instruments. Every day this employee removes the organs from 30

6

BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

bodies. The article says that with these crude instruments the assistant spends 15 minutes on each cadaver. Considering that a large number o f readers have probably had some contact with the Hospital das CI inicas. which attends 10 million patients a year, the chances are that some of them have had relatives who have died there and undergone some kind of post mortein operation.

The assistant even mentions the name o fa person whose body he cut open. As rcja puts it: "As an actor in his spare time, his (the assistant's) greatest emotion occurred on the day when he received the body of the playwright Dias tiomes. 'I never had the pleasure of knowing him when he was alive but it was an honor to take care of him here. — Maybe this was just incompetent editing rather than bad taste but some questions need answering and some surgery is in order at Vela.

Plus Ca Change...

Guess who said this: "...the American government is imperialist: it went to war against Spain. seized Cuba, seized Puerto Rico. made Panama independent in order to construct the Canal. seized the Philippines. seized the other islands in the Pacific, grabbed most of Mexico. The whole of California was Mexican! Texas! What did it do with Texas? When it discovered that Texas had oil, the American government promoted a movement within Texas to make it independent and, a short time later the people "accepted" its annexation by the United States."

Some lefty outraged at the American attack on Iraq? No. It was Brazilian president General Ernesto Geiscl in 1977 criticizing a US State Department report on the human rights situation in Brazil.' Almost another decade was to pass before the soldiers went back to their barracks and let Brazilians themselves choose who should be their rulers rather t Ian having army officers like Geisel decide for theft:The Sound of Silence by Chico Buarque Poor Chico Buarque. He really is top of the Brazilian hit parade at the moment thanks o his silence over Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. While other intellectuals, who have previously supported Castro, have started to back off or even condemn him. Buarque has kept quiet. At the same time, he is reported to have refused to sign a pro-Castro statement.

The result is that he is tieing attacked by the right and left. Still, at least, he has been consistent, unlike Caetano Veloso who stated during last year's election campaign that he would vote for either Lola, Serra or Gornes. Considering that there were only four serious candidates, this show s that while he might be a great singer and songwriter, decisiveness is not one of Veloso's strengths.

(Footnotes)

'HistOric Indisereta da Diladura e do Abertura by Ronald() Costa Couto, 1998

Varig will keep its name, but very little more, after its merger with TAM and a rescue package from the Brazilian government that will make the state the main shareholder of the new airline, which should be called Vulg.

Sky Is falling Over Varig EMERSON LUIZ

Brazil's Varig Airlines, which once was the pride and model of a successful private organization in Brazil, is becoming a state company. In order to survive, the airline, which flies to 110 Brazilian cities and 18 countries and has a fleet of more than 10(1.planes, will have to merge with smaller airline TAM. The new company will be rescued byi a government loan through a plan in which 40 percent of the firm's shares will belong to ate companies. The remaining 60 percent of the shares will be distributed between Varig (not more than 5 percent) and TAM (up to 35 percent), besides several foreign creditors, which include Boeing and General Electric (up to 20 percent).

The government's rescue plan calls for an initial US$ I billion loan from state bank BNDES (National Bank of Economic and Social Development). Early indications are that the new airline will start flying in September under the name Varig. Yang's creditors Banco do Brasil, Infraero, and BR Distribuidora, all state companies, will get shares in exchange for the money' Varig owes them.

Commenting on the rescue package to save Varig. Unibanco's aviation analyst, Carlos Albano. said to Brasilia's daily Correa) Braziliense, "This operation is not advantageous for the BNDES as a business deal, but from a strategic point of view of the country's interests it makes all the sense to assure the existence of a big national airline company."

In December. Varig sought without success an agreement with its creditors, which would help the company sail out ofits crisis. For 10 years Varig has been accumulating losses. Among the company's creditors are Boeing, General Electric and Brazilian state-owned Petrobras, an oil company. Last year, Varig fired 3,000 employees and got rid of 30 planes. In 2002 alone, TAM and Varig together, accumulated losses amounting to US$ 900 million.

For the second month in a row Varig workers who make more than R$ 600 ($200) a month will have their salaries delayed. A strike or any such act seems out of the question for the moment. According to Marcelo Branco, president of the Varig Pilots Association there isn't much choice.'"Either the company pays its supplier and is able to fly or it pays us and stays o the ground."

According to experts, the airline industry never had it so hard. if he international traveliii;1 slump brought in by 9/11 doesn't seem to let up despite lowering of fares and while the economy continues sluggish the world over. Varig has a bloated workforce. While American JetBlue,iiit for example, has 83 employees per aircraft, Varig has 213 employees for each of its planes.

Talking recently in Coral Gables at AvGroup's Il th Annual CEO Conference entitled Survival 101, Steve Hazy, chairman of major aircraft leasing firm International Lease Finance Corp., talked about the need for Latin American airlines to control costs, fight:I, corruption inside their companies and get rid of heavy government regulations: "In Latin America, government rules and regulations restrict and are basically a noose around the industry.' Varig seems to be going in the countercurrent of good business practices.

BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

7

Playwright Mauro Rasi will be remembered for his refined use of language in which even tragic situations were injected with humor and grace. He drew flesh-and-bone portraits of people that every Brazilian can find in his own family. He was also known for glorifying

Brazil's favorite Ne hew

women.

MARIANNA CASTA6IEDA

One ofBrazi 1 s most beloved and successful dramatists, Mauro Rasi, died at the age of53 years in his home in the Leblon neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. He had been battling lung cancer for some years, and was hospitalized in his last days to remove a tumor in his bladder.

His wake took place in his home and he was buried in the English Cemetery, near the port of Rio. Rasi helped transform the theater as one of the creators of the besteirol form of light comedy, punctuated by social and political commentary and masterful use of contemporary language. His genius lay in his ability to create uniquely Brazilian characters that went beyond mere caricatures, but were people with whom the audience could identify. Another characteristic of his works was their glorification of the female.

For this reason, his plays received numerous awards, including the prestigious Moliere prize, and attracted some of the best-known television stars, like Fenian& His Work Montenegro (of Central do Theater Brasil), Marieta Severo, and A Massagem (1972) Nathalia Timberg. His greatest ladies da Aladrugada (1974) success came in 1994 with Perola, As Mil e Uma Encarnacoes de Pompeu Loredo a tribute to his mother. This play (1980) was seen by more than 300,000 in Bata/ha de Arroz num Ringue para Dais (1984) Brazil. The actress Vera Holtz Pedra, a Tragedia (1986) personified the Italian matriarch A Cerimonia do Adeus (1987) of the play and spoke of him: A Estrela do Lar (1989) "Just like in his work, he was a Baile de Mascaras (1992) beautiful and funny person, and riagem a Forli (1993) he will live on in his plays."

Perola (1994) Rasi was born in Baum, in 5x Comedia (1995) the interior of Sao Paulo state, As Tias do Mauro Rasi (1996) and had a difficult childhood, A Dama do Cerrado (1996 ) raised by a domineering mother 0 Crime do Dr. Alvarenga (1999) and other strong females. Because Alta Sociedade (2001) of this, his relationships with women were always complicated, though he asserted A Mente Capta that he owed everything in life to his mother. Ofhis upbringing he commented: "The Television conflicts in my family were responsible for a great part of what I've created and what Armacao llimitada TV Pirata I still create."

At the yount,, age of thirteen, he wrote his first play, Duelo do caos morto,s, for Published works a theater competition. In it he portrayed a group ofyouths discussing their lives while A Alegria (anthology of 12 texts published by they go off to get drunk. In the audience was the celebrated actor and director, Publifolha. with the short story Ida a Tupa) Antonio Abujamra, who was so impressed that he personally encouraged him to Perola (published by Record) continue writing. A few years later, the teenage Rasi moved abroad to Paris, where Trilogia (published by Relume Dumard, with A he studied piano and absorbed as much as he could about literature and theater, Estrela do Lar, A Cerimonia do Adeus and ('iagem adding to his knowledge of French philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert a Forli) Camus and Simone de Beauvoir.

In his early twenties, the budding playwright returned to Brazil to pursue his theater career. His plays during the 1970s attracted much attention, among them A Massagem, Ladies da Madrugada, and Batalha de Arroz num Ringue para Dois. Those first years were marked by drug addiction, a vice that he later abandoned but never avoided discussing in public. Upon moving to Rio de Janeiro, he helped create one of the greatest representations of Carioca culture to be exported, the besteirol.

One ofthe busiest and most influential playkk rights ofthe 80s and 90s, Rasi received, in 1987, the first ofhis 11 Moliere prizes, Brazil's most prestigious theater prize. for A Cerimonia do .4 dens. Other notable works were 0 Crime do Doutor Alvarenga,Alta Sociedade (which he himsel fdirected and starred Ferminda Montenegro), l'iagern a Forli, and 0 Bade de M ascaras, which was honored with four Molieres in 1992.

Since 1997 the playwright had been working on amusical which was to debut this year. Music was his other passion, having studied piano in Paris. Before resuming his career in theater, he briefly entertained notions of being a concert pianist. He even expressed a desire to be Chopin, including dying young of tuberculosis. Of his wildly variable musical ability he once stated: "I made the same mistakes over and over because I wanted to interpret the music and not waste time practicing notes. I was the Maria Bethania of piano."

His most recent work in theaters wasBatalha de Arroz num Ringue paraDois, in Rio de Janeiro, and soon to be adapted for Globo Network television. (Not limiting himself to the stage, he also made forays into television, film and books, plus served as a columnist for 0 Globo.)

Mauro Rasi, who died April 22, 2003, will be remembered for his refined use of language in which even tragic situations were injected with humor and grace.

He drew flesh-and-bone portraits of real people—characters that every Brazilian can find in his own family. It was through these characters that he demonstrated the way Brazilians interact with each other and see the world around them.

8

BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

Due to lack of funds, Sao Paulo's TV Cultura has been reusing old videotapes to record new shows. Entire series are disappearing, never to be seen by future generations. One of these, shows is Metropolis, which showcased Marisa Monte in 1988. News and children programs have also been erased.

TV [rosin I the National Memor

MARIANNA CASTANEDA Since its creation in 1969, the Padre Anchieta Foundation has suffered from inadequate funding. These days, however, the situation has deteriorated so much that TV Cultura, the television arm of the foundation, is being forced to reuse videotape in order to record new shows. The TV Cultura channel boasts a significant collection of programs, including interviews with many important political figures, footage of notable events, national and international documentaries, and, above all, numerous cultural programs.

Entire series are disappearing, never to be seen by future generations. One of these, .Weiropolis, showcased Marisa Monte in 1988. Her appearance before a live audience marked a significant stage in her career. Indeed, soon after this broadcast she would become one of the most important artists in the country. But neither she nor her fans could have imagined that the tape used to record this performance was erased to make room for new programs.

The much-lauded series Os Bichos, plus some documentaries bought by TV Cultura from the BBC, were also erased.

Castel() Rá-Tim-Bum and Mundo da Lua were other programs created by TV Cultura in the 1990s which, along with the great lbope, won international praise and recognition.

On staff were Dr. Pasquale Cipro Neto, who was in charge ofNossa Lingua Portuguesa (Our Portuguese Language and Serginho Groisman, the man behind Materia Prima (Raw Material), an interview program. Even the teen audience was not forgotten, with shows like Confissaes de Adolescente (Teen Confessions) and Anos Incriveis (Wonder Years).

All of these shows are now under threat, if they have not already been erased.

This alarming practice of taping over old programs to record new ones has been occurring now for a year and a half, representing a considerable loss of television achievements. Though previously attracting scant attention within and outside of the network, one morning several staff members protested with whistles before the station office, located in he neighborhood of Agua Branca, in the western part of Sao Paulo, to call attention to the problems of the foundation.

Sadly, the protest attracted only 19 employees—of those, only three were armed with whistles.

Other customs have until now been unknown to the audience. The news program Jornal da Cultura, for example, has been archived only partially for two years. Another serious problem in journalism right now is the lack of reporters to cover breaking news in the morning, a shame in such a bustling city like Sao Paulo. As it is. journalists start work after lunch, which requires the station to purchase footage from stations, which were able to chronicle news worthy A.M. vents.

These examples are the most apparent of the crises that the Padre Anchieta Foundation has been facing in recent years. The most recent crisis seems to be motivated by political squabbles. The chaotic situation of the best public TV network in Brazil is a result of a dispute between the director of the Foundation and the governor of sao Paulo state, Geraldo Alckmin.

Supported by state funds, the Foundation has yet to receive 6 million reais (2 million dollars) that were promised by the governor after the dismissal of 260 staff members some months ago. The reason, according to insider sources, was the governor's displeasure with the president ofthe Foundation, Jorge da Cunha Lima. President since 1996, Cunha Lima was accused of mishandling public funds and even more, according to classified documents delivered to the industry's union—embezzling.

Nothing was proven, but the documents eventually found their way into the hands of the governor. Thou responsible for more than 70 percent ofthe station's expenses, the governor wasn't able to replace Jorge da Cunha Lima, the reason being that the Padre Anchieta Foundation operated as a self-governing unit, autonomous from the state. The solution, then, was to pressure him to leave—in effect, avoiding the budget issue—or wait for the Foundation's board members to suggest a "separation" between the Foundation and the president.

A.nd there lay the other dilemma. The board members, comprising 47 individuals, were divided in opinion over the performance of Cunha Lima and were unable to form a consensus about his future. Regarding the current predicament of the station and the accusations levied against Cunha Lima, all the Foundation could do was to release a public statement announcing that the station would continue on the air.

The loser in this war is clearly the audience, witnesses to the gradual decline in TV Cultura's quality of programming, perhaps the only one in the country with truly educational content. Continued inefficiency in budget management and the general indifference to any concrete solution mean only one thing: that Brazilian TV will lose its memory of some of the nation's most culturally and historically significant achievements.

In addition to being a researcher and student at UCLA, Marianna Castafieda is yet another Brazil-mad American who hopes to spend a significant amount of time there. You can reach her here: mcastanedaarczip.com

BkAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

Can God Save Rio? Under a new restrained, conservative conception of democracy, religion has slid into the equation. Apart from Israel and the US religion has also become the measure of accountability in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Rio's state government is experimenting with its own version of the national security state.

JORNAL DO BRASIL A GU RRA P RDI A

c.

GAROTINHO ADMITE, III 0 CRIME NO RIO ESTA Basta!

FORA DE CONTROLE A

NORMAN MADARASZ

Security—public and national is now the buzzword in democratic social policies throughout most of the world. After Israel, the United States through the Patriotic Acts has implemented the severest restrictions on civil liberties in decades, all in the name of national security. France, under the conservative governance of Nicolas Sarkozy, has rhymed the fears of a social slump with ethnic-related crimes. Muscovites crumble under the fear of the Chechen terrorist specter in retaliation for having had their homeland plundered to a pulp. And in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil, public security beholds the hopes raised from years of inept and corrupt policing. Organized crime has exploded statewide, garnering comparisons to a Colombia in the making.

As a policy obsession, 'security' is traditionally slotted on the right of the political spectrum. Israel, the US, France and Russia have all been under the governance of conservatives unprecedented in their bel ief that the use of force is a legitimate means to pre-empting terrorist attacks. At the same time, each country has used the same idea of force to curb dissent at home. Despite the banners and sound bites on protecting democracy, each of these countries has ever so subtly withdrawn the rights of the democratic opposition. Under this restrained, conservative conception of democracy, religion has slid into the equation. Apart from Israel and the US, to not have to speak of absolutist theocracies like Saudi Arabia, religion has also become the measure of accountability in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Little can express the indignation of the educated middle class Cariocas, Rio's own citizens, as they face current events wreaking havoc in the state.

Neither wealthy enough to shield themselves from armed assault in guarded houses and armored cars, nor poor enough to be tempted by the free for-all crime wave bleeding the city, the large educated middle class has had to bite the bullet of its powerlessness. In that regard, it differs little from middle classes worldwide who have boisterously watched political leadership betray them over Iraq. Most peculiar is that while Brazil as a whole is embarking on important reforms under the leadership of President Lula da Silva, Rio's state government is experiment10

BRAZZIL MAY/JUNE 2003

ing with its own version of the national security state.

The current tale is one of a state governmentthat has all but lost its grip on power. Yet it is also one that only months ago embraced power in a landslide victory. No mere fiction, it is the inner lining of a governor's dream, Mrs. Roseangela Matheus. Also known as `Rosinha', she spent the first weeks of her term shielded behind sunglasses for tears flowed day into night over her subjects' refusal to recognize her as a born-again Evita. They stubbornly rejected her profession of faith to spread the word of God to those for whom only divinity is left as a hope for redemption. Meanwhile political corruption has run rampant at the highest level, stripping the state of the funds so urgently needed for security purposes, to say nothing ofoperating the civil service.

The story is a pathetic one, too. Denial has reigned supreme regarding the "mysterious" disappearance of public funds, made accountable to the management of the former Vice-Governor—a black federal senator—Mrs Benedita da Silva. From April to December 2002, she served out the remaining months of the gubernatorial term after her boss, Rosinha's husband, Anthony Garotinho, left the seat of government at the Palacio Guanabara to pursue his presidential ambitions.

There is no Karl Rove in this story, only a slew ofJerry Falwells. This doesn't mean that Mr. and Mrs. Garotinho, both born-again Christians, differ in their selfserving use of the religious infrastructure in their rise to power. Both Presbyterians, their power treadmill nonetheless remains the massive, cultish organizations of the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (Universal Church of the Kingdom of God) and the Assembleia de Deus (Assembly of God). ,Public administration has been perverted in their trail.

Separation of State from Church, which has long shaped Brazil's democratic political history, has been explicitly curtailed.

Meanwhile, organized crime has assumed unprecedented power. For years, drug lords have operated out of Rio's favelas, a shuttle point for the Colombian trade. Teenage gangs bring them the heavily armed support and commando tactics needed to spread fear in the population. But the wealthy North's desire for cocaine has stayed unabated despite the millions sunk into the US's War on Drugs--yet another ineffective and costly. conservative 'security' policy.

What's different now is that Carioca drug lords are attacking state institutions, orchestrating fake road blocks, threatening and[ murdering innocent civilians, BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

destroying state and private assets, an target practicing on Rio's Military P lice. On Monday, May 5, gangs eve attacked a university in retaliation for leader's death in a weekend raid. 0 student was seriously wounded, whi hundreds more have sunk into fear. E ery year, 7 percent of Itio's population s violently assaulted.

MR. AND MRS. GOVERNOR On April 23, in the midst ofthis risi chaos, Governor Matheus dismisse Colonel Josias Quintal from his positi as Secretary of Public Security. Fir months he had struggled with underfunded policing sector, stunted a ditionally by the intestine war he was I d to wage against the head ofpol ice, Alva o Lins. Systematically rejecting pleas fi r reform issued by Lula's federal gover ment, Rosinha failed—some say r fused—to deal with the matter. It s nobody's secret that Rio's police a e among the country's most corrupt whi e also most underpaid. During hr

husband's term as governor from 199 2002, Anthony had preferred to fire h's security secretary instead of oust the "r • tten gang" spreading terror in the squa The new twist for law enforcers is watch with deflating egos as their m are decimated by gangsters. Sixteen ficers have been murdered only this ye Along with them lay the charred fram work of over 200 city buses, and the fe of merchants in Rio's most prospero s commercial zones, sporadically sh t down on order from narco-commande s.

In Josias Quintal's stead, Govern r Matheus named the man she "most trus s: [her] own husband", former govern r Anthony Garotinho.

The move has only confirmed sus cions over the Executive's operati g mode. Only four months after taking ffice, the Governor of Rio de Janeiro St e is tittering on the edge of collap e.

Rosinha' has proved unable to admin ster, let alone govern, the state. Sin e taking power on January 1st, she has le t from one crisis to another, facing maj public sector strikes along the way ir failing to cover bonuses and vacati in

pay. She was swept to power in a landslide victory in the very first round of last October's election in a staged ploy that only paranoiacs would fail to believe.

In the closing months of his term as governor, Anthony Garotinho left office to run as presidential candidate for his party, the PSB (Brazilian Socialist Party).

His Vice-Governor, Benedita da Silva of the coalition PT (Workers' Party) took office. For the nine months of her term, she fought daily against a barrage of violence from drug lords matched only by the Garotinho's vociferous accusations of mismanagement.

In hindsight, their shots were nothing but pre-emptive strikes. Behind the appearance of populist prim, the Garotinhos left a financially stripped state machine.

Where that money had fled to would soon be revealed in that God-awful Latin American scourge: corruption. Perhaps Rosinha was not the racist she appeared to be when disinfecting the Palacio das Laranjeiras from governor Benedita's residency. There Must have other bugs to exterminate.

Only weeks into her governance, the top staff of her tax inspection team was arrested and charged with embezzling public funds and laundering money deposited into Swiss bank accounts. The tally is a handsome one; some 30 million American dollars. This group of fifteen may still grow as the trial begins. At this point, though, they have yet to lose their jobs as the State Parliamentary Inquiry Commission organizes the evidence and trial. Among Anthony Garotinho's executive civil servants, they were re-hired

by Rosinha until their fateful time came in February. Funds were extorted from many of Rio's most prosperous companies in exchange for lessened or forgotten tax-evasion penalties.

Tax evasion is a bounty for punishment anywhere in the world. When a national security state is implemented, auditing is one of the first 'social' programs to bite the dust. Overdue taxes then get mixed up with personal services.

With leadership of this kind, is it any wonder organized crime feels empowered to threaten the government's control over parts of the state? Is it really astonishing that drug lords dare to choose the language of revolution and guerrilla warfare to justify their trade?

The national capital until 1960, Rio de Janeiro was once the hotbed of revolt and seat to the sporadic democratic governments that alone have brought Brazil its promised prosperity. Today, its residents wonder what has led to the spate of poor governance afflicting them term after term. This is not to say that most Brazilians aren't asking themselves what

could have led the Cariocas to vote for born-again Rosinha in the first place.

After all, Rio de Janeiro is an intellectual center, home to some of the country's best universities. Why seek evangelical diversion then?

The current federal government's economic team comes from the city's celebrated PUC University. The federal university is home to the prestigious COPPE engineering research institute.

One of the country's leading economic think tanks, the Fundacao Getalio Vargas, has its headquarters in Botafogo, across the creek from Sugar Loaf Mountain. Rio still houses the National Library, and its historic center is populated with museums and galleries. Brazil's largest media conglomerate, G lobo, still keeps its headquarters in Rio. Why the evangelical illusions when having access to education and information of international standards?

The condition of the rest of the state before its fusion with Guanabara (basically the former federal zone around the city of Rio de Janeiro) in 1975 is another story. Some of the country's poorest areas are found in the state, whereas the Baixada Fluminense, the greater Rio de Janeiro city outskirts, is infamous for its vigilante justice and state-specific lawlessness. The state population tally at 13.5 million contrasts significantly with the municipality's estimated 6 million.

State statistics hasten to point out that Rio's consumer market is equal to that of Chile and greater than those of Paraguay and Uruguay put together.

Per capita income would be 60 percent higher than the national average— over US$ 8 thousand a year. Yet lacking accurate Purchasing Power Parity fig-

ures, that average attests especially t4 great concentration of wealth. In the out skirts, apart from the stunning natura beauty, much of the economic relic comes from religion. It is rare sight fo office high-rises and luxury hotels to do the interior landscape. But rising abov the hot breeze, the Christian cross is landmark to trade as well temples.

Throughout centuries of exploratio and exploitation, there has been no dearth of comparisons likening Brazil's remark able beauty to Paradise. Yet the positivis philosophy that shaped the country's democratic republican movement in the late nineteenth century set God on his temple pedestal and left Him there— banished from affecting the world o human administration. Nowadays though separation of religion and state is a thing of the past in Rio de Janeiro. The confusion having arisen in its wake should be a lesson for all North Americans who see anything redeeming about uttering the name of God in the context of a political speech.

AUTHORITARIAN DEMOCRACY Garotinho's power breeds from this background. His appointment as head of Public Security is telling of his role.

During the whole inquiry into the tax inspection fraud he has led a low media profile. But his stealth sojourn was far from inactive. As his wife slid ever closer to losing control of the state, he is said to have played more than a homemaker husband's role to the couple's half-dozen kids. Newspaper reports had him sitting in on a state-federal meeting during which the feds decided to dispatch the army to the streets bf Rio for the Carnaval festivities. A few days earlier, drug lords had forced shops to close down in Copacabana and Ipanema.

In her solitary weeks at the CARGA TRW UTARIA CRESCE PELO SEX10 AND C0N5C21.1TIV1) • PAGIN 22 helm, organized crime was only a secondary issue.

Rosinha inherited a government with empty coffers. Her predecessor, Benedita, also had. Once 'Bend' took office, :erne Am4rela she covered herselfby informV tk•irerotem, ing the media that Anthony had left nothing for his successor. Her audit of state coffers was confirmed by numerous independent sources, in• •i cluding Rio mayor Cesar E. .11111111.Millk acktele to* ye pinto na *mew F Maia. In failing to pass on the illegotaudle buck, Garotinho bore a poiowileer.“...• soned pill to his wife. As news of the extent of the financial damage began angering the population, his wife's impetuI viotaxip Cinutia eititthati ous behavior turned from her lad RS 240 (MR** 141e4,9 dtaa 1 Wm ! subjects toward colleagues at the state and federal level in

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their bid at passing social security reform. In the meantime, Rosinha's hysterical Rio was becoming the laughing stock of the nation. Most people would have kept laughing were it not for the increasingly common sound of gunfights puncturing the horizon.

This mixture of pathos and perversion explains why the press received Garotinho's appointment with relief. For weeks the pitch had been pounding in the direction of a premature change in government. Garotinho's presence, far from •the saving grace he has touted it to be, primarily precipitated a cease-fire with the press. That no editorial from any major newspaper has thus far decried the fall in democratic standards implicated in his appointment is indicative of the damage. Even before tackling that issue, one can pause to raise a simple doubt. If Garotinho is so central a figure to the government, how could he have not known about the tax inspection corruption? If he didn't know about it, how could someone so incompetent be the political leader?

As for how democratic the move is, the public security, family and religious catch phrases came buzzing when it wasn't idiomatic populism. Interviewed by the Federal District correspondent, Carlos de Lannoy of Globo Cable-TV's very respected "News at Ten", Garotinho first silenced any concerns about the Security Secretary Josias de Quintal having been fired. De Lannoy then followed up with a hard-hitting question. "Given that de Quintal's dismissal was conceivable, in case of ineffective policies Garotinho's own sacking is unimaginable; how would he react to the accusations of nepotism that would surely ensue?", asked de Lannoy. True to form, the new Secretary of Public Security completely skirted the issue.

Whether he continues to play the bigmouthed populist, Garotinho will be watched scrupulously. Behind the press's silence, it expects him to adopt President Lula's policy on a single, concerted security action plan. Federal Justice Minister, Marcio Thomaz Bastos's plan calls for complete state-federal partnership in pooling information and forces in exchange of hefty increases in federal financial assistance.

Still, Lannoy's point was suggestive.

Garotinho evidently needs the press little • to build his political support. Ministers, 'bishops' and religious peer pressure do the job for him. About accountability, most commentators observe that Garotinho has dived into an all or nothing risk for his 2004 presidential prospects.

Either he solves the problem at home and shows himself deserving of the top job,

re rt., !

BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

or his political career is over.

Such views hastily omits two observable issues. Lannoy alone poked at accountability. Good governance without public accountability, which means transparent accounts, is impossible to achieve.

As Garotinho's tax inspectors stand trial, he has offered no apologies for his or his wife's accusations of the interim government's complicity over disappeared funds. Nor has he even alluded to any critical comments on his gubernatorial term. After all, the 'Rio War' didn't start during the nine months he was out office.

Instead, the populism chants away.

On May V, during his weekly Saturday radio show, he• resumed accusations of Benedita da Silva's interim government.

"The PT government in Rio was not good. It has to admit this. It collapsed.

The governor was weak. I don't know why Benedita was not prepared or why her people weren't good." He went on to accuse Benedita for mismanaging the public funds that she claimed from the outset no longer existed by the time of taking office.

The fact that the press has all but eluded Garotinho's lack of accountability, ecstatically reveling in their pastiche of "The New Sheriff's Come to Town", makes then even blinder regarding the second point: predictions over political futures. One need only look south to Argentina. Carlos Menem, the former president accused of setting up slush funds, is whom most economists consider to be the cause of Argentina's collapse. This did not prevent him from winding up in the runoff election, closer to returning to the presidential office every week than to the jail cell he deserves.

Even the Financial Times—typically filing social welfare under smart financial jibe, never failing to hob-knob with the Third World's corrupt elite---lamented his having to wait another round before returning to the Pink Palace in Buenos Aires. At 41 years of age, nothing can count out Garotinho for the future—not failure as security secretary, nor possible corruption charges. Thinking in such a way would be too logical, too reasonable for the political world in which the Garotinhos thrive.

What will he now do that hasn't already been tried? Mr. Quintal's comments on April 22 after a police van had been ambushed by 20 gunmen in a Rio suburb made it clear that the government is using means contrary to its stated intentions. Mrs. Matheus has for weeks repeated that her government refuses to negotiate with criminals. Yet Mr. Quintal warned that were the twenty assailants BFtAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

not found by the following Sunday, he would "be forced to use other means at his disposal."

Surely he wasn't referring to Garotinho's appointment.

Who was Quintal addressing this ultimatum to? The assailants or drug lords? If the latter, it's clear the government has been negotiating with them.

Only a fool would believe that the imprisoned gangster `Fernandinho Beira-Mar' is orchestrating this war alone.

GOD AND THE STATE IN THE SOUTH-NORTH The case of Rio de Janeiro is a spectacular mix of corruption and the scourge of the underground pot and cocaine industry. Administrative transparency has been the case now for the fourth consecutive government at the federal level. But Rio's politi al leadership has only sunk further into crecy and ineptness. Matched with wealth generated from the cocaine ind stry, the state approaches ever so slo ly, the national security model of the Ame can war on drugs. It is also inheriting ts failures.

For one thing, the best way Ao fi cocaine is to legalize it. The fact at marijuana is still illegal in North Ame a should be deemed a crime against ason. No amount of money and legal ction is going to curb the taste of the rush that Northern upper middle clas es get from snorting the white stuff. ut Colombia and Brazil would have far 1 ss blood spilling in the streets were he North to come to terms with their ap odisiacs. No single substance more co pletely portrays the symbolic and fin ncial capital crushing of the poor t an cocaine. Where power is most depriv d, in ghettoes and favelas, the drug is he cheapest—leading to yet another gen ation of youth to burn their lives away by smoking crack.

The only sensible voice on this ma er came from the Folha de S. Paulo. In an editorial published last January it cal ed for legalization of cocaine as the st effective remedy to cut organized cr down. Legalize cocaine must be repe ed not only through the streets of Rio de' Janeiro and Sao Paulo, but also in Mi L.A. and D.C. Legalize it—by whi h I mean subject it to the tough regulan ns, by which alcohol is let to trace its des 'fly in free market economics.

Alcohol is far more tested an ad ictive aphrodisiac than is cocaine, let al ne pot. Legalize cocaine—but barring St ulations to its consumption through c mmercial ads. Legalize it—and ban the

ELVAGERIA FAZ TIRO AO AM CONTRA UNIVERSIDADE

bloody arm of narcotics: fire arms, i.e. weapons of minority destruction. The blood and repression of the poor can no longer be the currency exchanged for the pleasures of the American and European rich. It is time to quit pointing to poverty as cause for the coke industry. Wealth is no less a cause ofmoral depravity than is disparity.

But behind the appearances of sophisticated discourse and designer clothing, when the 'model' classes and societies project only corruption and lawlessness as their real trade, what should lead the rest of society and the world to ethical behavior?

Given that the model society projected to Brazil today is the USA, criticism made by its journalists and pundits of Latin America often seem gratuitous when lacking full exposure of their own country's flaws and crimes. After all with the world's highest GDP, nearing 10 trillion dollars, the social record of the USA is contemptible. Fifteen percent of ,its population lives below the poverty line.

Over any given two-year period, roughly one-third of the population spends some time without basic medical insurance.

The American public education system is in shambles, even were we to focus only on science teaching. The production of American pop culture, steeped as it is in violence, seeps thegeneral population's meager wealth into a suicidal thrill of increased idiocy.

This matched with the decrease of middle class wealth from its prime in the 1960s makes an outside observer wonder in amazement at where the trillions lie and how they get recycled into the community—if they do at all. Median real wage is only 7 percent higher now than it was in 1979. Whereas top income in13

creases since 1970 soared to 500 times that of the average worker's wage. Even Wall Street's annus horribilis of 2002 still garnered median executive pay a 14 percent boost. Citing the US as a model, contrary to what many Americans are led by their corporate media to believe, is done not to offend alone, but to insist on how that country could be so much more.

Yet the middle classes, following decades of disparaging aristocratic-retrograde descriptions of intellectual mediocrity and cultural ineptness, are now in a struggle to maintain their economic and political power within democracies.

This point just doesn't seem to want to take hold. Economic class differences are being wiped over by the political tastes of a fabricated "investor class", with a supposed disgust of government spending. What do these pundits call warfare, international intervention, the IMF and World Bank, homeland security and the entire defense industry? Are these sectors of the economy supposed to exemplify free market behavior, whereas only education, health and culture are to be damned from government spending?

Regarding southern mimicking of the northern model, and its incumbent failures, in the eyes of the North the South may just as well be blamed for the problem. Not that this is either new or surprising. As Tank Ali writes, all foreign news in the US "is exaggeratedly simplified and reduced to a state of preoccupying incomprehensibility." Most dramatic is how the tone filing corruption and inequality at the place mat of the South's door alone is present even in the liberal press. Marc Cooper's recent piece on Brazil and the PT in 1 The Nation simply fails to address the question of the powerlessness of the middle classes to curb violence and impose economic reform while the elite's political will, at home and abroad, is more intent on crushing its advances in the legislative realm.

With a population bred on simplifications and reductions, whether in North, Central or South America, religion is given a clear path to populate its celestial doctrines. The disturbing fact is that few if any governments under religious jurisdiction recognize accountability as a primary principle of governance. Many North Americans of strong religious persuasions don't seem to be concerned about mingling God with the polity. Right-wing propagandists are all too ready to reassure them in their philosophical carelessness.

Depending on one's faith, God's actions on human life may be more or less direct. In political atheism, it is existent only as a ploy. The Bush government, consisting of the wealthiest and most tightly-knit corporate group ever assembled in the capital, seems to think that 14

God's effect is more direct, that God is on America's side. Surely, when curtailing ethical norms and legal prescriptions on the most spectacular accumulation of wealth within America's richest and the most spectacular plunge in Wall Street, the middle class— denying the pathetic disgust of its own powerlessness—seems to prefer explaining the successes of the rich by divine right alone.

When it comes to being accountable for public service, God is not the one to blame for the failings of human beings. This is the veil systematically eluding the Religion/State cluster clan Humans may be a fallible species, as with every living being destined to die.

But we also have the power to establish laws by which our actions will be evaluated and judged. This is the philosophy the Enlightenment broke into the theocratic political culture of the Western world, and which the Church so vehemently fought against. It has also become the history lesson our democracies no longer see a point in teaching.

Certainly it makes for boring reading when the history lessons most Americans get come from the diatribe of Fox News, or Brazilians from the innumerable novelas on Globo. Religions have made inroads to politics worldwide, consolidating themselves for generations to come. Today America with its fundamentalist minority holding the reigns of power is clearly akin to fundamentalist regimes of other stripes. Only the blind would claim that, contrary to their fundamentalism, ours is of a good kind.

No one is arguing that secular states are foolproof. We're merely saying that trying a culprit in court, especially when they're a big fish, is a lot easier when God is not in the judge's seat. Ask your local mafia don what he thinks of that as he kneels in prayer to the almighty at the church to which he so generously gives tax-free donations. While we do see the honesty of wealthy northerners regarding credence displayed over and over, Cariocas of all walks of life must ask themselves seriously whether submission is part of God's will, or that of the crooks speaking in His name.

A researcher in philosophy and the social sciences, Norman Madarasz, PhD, writes on international relations for Brazzil, CounterPunch, IslamOnLine and other publications. He lives in Rio de Janeiro, and welcomes comments at nnwhdiolAvahoo.ca

zar of Rio's Underworld If Rio's new Public Security ,Secretary, Anthony Garotinho, 4makes an impression and reduces the city's appalling crime rate, the toad will be open once again for the next presidential race.

Garotinho could win this fight against crime by using his populist approach. He is a former radio host and an evangelist.

JOHN FITZPATRICK

, One of the most surprising results of last year's presidential election was the performance of Anthony Garotinho, who Came third, with around 17 percent of the vote in the first round. His performance Was impressive because he was a late Starter in the race, and his political base— PSB (Partido Socialista Brasileiro Brazilian Socialist Party)—was weak compared with those of the other three candidates. At one point, there were even expectations that he would pull out of the race, as his campaign had literally run out qf cash. However, Garotinho—which Means "little boy" in Portuguese—stayed ein course and ended up ahead of the BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

other outsider, Ciro Gomes of the PPS (Partido Popular Socialista - Popular Socialist Party).

This week, Garotinho has bounced back into the headlines, as he was named to one of Brazil's toughest jobs—that of Secretary of Public Security in Rio de Janeiro state. While most observers would regard this as a poisoned chalice, the ever-confident Garotinho has seized it, perhaps because it was offered by his wife who is now state governor, but also certainly because, if he makes an impression and reduces or ends Rio's appalling crime, the road will be open once again for the next presidential race.

Over the last six months or so, the city of Rio de Janeiro has experienced a crime wave that, at times, has looked like a challenge to the state. There has been much talk of Brazil becoming a second Colombia, but this is an exaggeration.

Much of the blame has been laid at the feet of Brazil's most infamous criminal—a drug trafficker known as Fernandinho Beira-Mar who was extradited from Colombia, where he had been involved with left-wing guerrilla groups.

Beira-Mar is currently in prison, although few would be surprised if he were freed in a jailbreak.

The ongoing crime wave has seen official buildings attacked by machine gun fire and hand grenades, while other prominent spots such as famous hotels and even the cable car to Corcovado have been targets. Commerce in whole neighborhoods, including upper class tourist areas like Ipanema and Copacabana, has shut down en masse after being ordered to do so by gangsters. Two senior judges have been murdered, along with large numbers of policemen and, of course, civilians. Things became so bad that in March, the army was brought in to handle part of the security at this year's Carnaval.

Mission Impossible? Not for Garotinho...

Can Garotinho do anything to halt this? I think he can, and give him a 50-50

chance of bringing off Mission Imp° sible. My reasons may strike the o looker outside Brazil as a little cynic But I am sure most Brazilians wou d understand them.

First of all, levels of crime in Rio se Janeiro and Brazil, as a whole, will !ways be high as long as society is o unfair. Brazilians are used to this a d take appropriate measures, such as livi g in apartment blocks with 24-hour sec rity, carrying minimal amounts of Ca h and valuables, driving armor-plated ca or hiring bodyguards if they are ri h enough, and being constantly aware if danger.

No one expects Garotinho to e d crime in Rio de Janeiro. Brazilians a e also aware that in many cases, the poli e are even involved in criminal activiti s, as are politicians and civil servants. Fir example, an investigation is under w y involving top-level officials fr m Garotinho's own former state admin stration, which preceded the current o e headed by his wife. The officials e alleged to have been involved in mon y laundering and sending funds to Sw ss banks. Garotinho, of course, has deni d any knowledge of these events, yet f w people in Ftiode Janeiro have complain d •that this former governor, whose adm nistration is accused of crime, has n w become the new crime buster.

Carrot and Stick Approach Co Id Reduce Crime...

Garotinho, therefore, does not n d to end crime—just reduce the current at times spectacular wave ofcrime. By fo cing or persuading gangsters to stop ' ttacking high profile targets, he can cl m success. He has already spoken of ro ting out police corruption, putting mire police on the beat, and trying to k ep young people from becoming invol ed in drugs, but it is doubtful if rneasu es like these will make any difference. Where Garotinho could win is by using his populist approach and corn unications skills. He is a former radio h st, a man with simple solutions to comp ex questions, an evange st, and—like the TV entre reneur who runs Brazil's cond-largest network, Sil io Santos—has credibi ity among the poorer, less e s ucated section of society. He • could work openly by p blicly offering to meet g ng leaders, perhaps in t eir favela strongholds, nd making some kind of i blic peace treaty.

Obviously the crimi als

would need some sort of amnesty or pardon, but that would not be difficult for someone with Garotinho's chutzpah. He could visit Beira-Mar-in jail, and persuade the gang boss to issue some type of appeal for peace. While this would scandalize respectable Brazilian society, it would show the poor that at least someone was facing reality and negotiating with the leaders of what is a powerful force. Alternatively, Garotinho could arrange a secret deal in which crime bosses were either bribed to lay off a bit, or granted some alternative benefits.

Coming Soon—The (Little) Boys " from Brazil... , One thing is certain: win or lose, Garotinho will be around for a long time.

He is a professional politician who can come back after a beating. He has amazing self-confidence, and from what he has shown the public so far, a complete lack of a sense of humor. He actually does believe the nonsense he speaks.

He loves to make simplistic gestures and fantasy statements—such-as the cheap restaurants he set up in Rio offering meals for R$1 (about US$0.33), or his claim during the election campaign that he would reduce interest rates to a single digit. He also claims God appeared to him after he was involved in an accident.

Brazilians beware: Garotinho is only 43 years old, and could easily be around for another 30 years. As he said in an interview with the 0 Estado de S. Paulo newspaper: "I can be a (presidential) candidate in three, eight, or 12 years' time. Sixteen years from now, I will be the same age as Lula. Time is on my side."

Unfortunately, this is not bombast but the truth. To make things worse, not only is Garotinho's wife a senior politician with national recognition, but the couple has nine children. That's a lot of up-and-coming "little boys", certainly enough to start yet another of Brazil's all too common political dynasty, like the Magalhks in Bahia, the Sarneys in Maranhk and the Neves family in Minas Gerais.

John Fitzpatrick is a Scottish journalist who first visited Brazil in 1987 , and has lived in Sao Paulo since 1995.

He writes on politics and finance and runs his own company, Celtic Comunicacoes-- www.celt.com.br, which specializes in editorial and translation services for Brizilian and foreign clients. You can reach him at jf@celt.com.br The author also writes for Infobrazil www.infobrazil.com

%Yr BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

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You are invited to participate in thisdalogue Write to Letters to the Publisher P 0 Box 50536 Los Angeles, CA 90050.0536 or send E-mail to brauil@brazzil.com A PARAGUAYAN VIEW

Mr. Fitzpatrick, I have found your article "The Rise of the Brazilian Empire" www.bra77il.com/p129may03.htm - through a recent Google search. I was pleasantly supnsed to see such a topic discussed, since most Brazilians forget the imperial past oftheir country and the expansionist ambitions it still harbors.

I can witness what you described as the increasing presence of Brazilian settlers in the border regions with Paraguay. As a citizen of Paraguay, the issue of Brazilian-Paraguayans, "Brasiguayos", is a constant topic of worry among Journalists and academicians. Many fear Paraguay's sovereignity is under threat to Brazilian cultural and political expansionism.

The situation is aggravated by Brazil's strategic interest in the Itaipu dam which provides it a vital flow of energy which it cannot rescind. Many political commentators have feared that Brazilian military intervention in Paraguay is a possibility if political unrest in Paraguay threatens the safety of the Rai pit dam. {would also like to discuss your portrayal of the beginings of the Triple Alliance War or the War of Paraguay, as Brazilians know it.

Paraguay declared war on Brazil because of its invasion and intervention of Uruguay, in violation ofthe Paraguay-Uruguay self-defense treaty of 1850. Therefore Paraguay can hardly be depicted as the belligerant, because Brazil was openly attacking an ally of Paraguay.

On that note, I would like to ask you if you would know of any scholars studying the Paraguayan War. I am assisting a professor of mine at Williams in researching the Paraguayan War and any email references would be of great asistance.

misunderstanding. It takes some time—years or even decades—of living amongst a people to grow to understand and appreciate how they think differently. It may take someone like this Mr Wells decades of living in Brazil to realize that Brazilians don't think like US Americans—a thought that may have been lost to him.

My family and I were surprised at how differently Australians think from the English, since, being so closely related, we thought that their thought processes would work in the same way. This is progressively proving not to be the case, as we continue learn about how Aussie think after eleven years of living here.

But unfortunately, it seems like it'll never the be the case with these Afro-Brazilianists, since they seem determined to believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the emperor is clothed Keep up the good work! And never let this US American disease infect and debilitate Brazil!

Frank Gashumba Australia LAUGHABLE I always wondered how Hitler got all of those PhD s to go along with his racist ideology. After reading Cristaldo's attack on AfroBrazilian actiy ists I can see clearly how a racist can still be educated but highly racist.

Cristaldo lacks credibility as shown by the many mistakes of facts in his writings. He offers opinions as if they are facts. He never says -In my opinion". All Brazilians should be ashamed of Janer Cristaldo. He would be laughed at by both white and black Americans if he were here in the US. Brian Coff Via Internet TIME TO HAVE A CAIPIRINHA After living in Brazil for 2 years. in Copacabana, and seeing a fair amount of the rest ofthe country, I only wish I could live a few hours out of Rio on the coast headed to Paraty.

Having said that. I can recall when the Letters to the editor on this Brazzil site were short and fun. Writers were not denigrating each other.

Letters were a taste of Brasil, happy, energetic, fun, and to the point. Now when I read the letters I cannot even finish most ofthe them due to becoming bored with the "bashing" of each other. May I say lighten up, relax, have an Antarctica or a caipirinha. play a little bossa dance a little samba...or go here and see some soothing tropical pictures: www.kauai-bluelagoon.com Joaquim Hawaii

SOME BLACKS WON'T LEARN

16

Alann De Vuyst www.shopart.comidevuyst BRAZILIANS, GO HOME Now let us Americans get this straight.

Brazil says no to our request to establish some technology in or near Amazonia ("Brazil to

Say 'No, Thanks' to US - www.brazzil.com/ p128may03.htm ). Brasil says no! Brazil receives millions of US dollars in aid from us, and incidentally has trouble paying it back on time. Brazil seems to have a friendly way with Castro. And Colombia's FARQ. Brazil did not support U.S.A. in our war with Iraq.

Brazil press seems to have a slight anti U.S.A. sentiment. Brazil floods us with ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS with nothing more than

tourist visas long expired, for the past 10 years!

Americans are warned to be careful of traveling in Brazil due to being targets ofthieves etc.

There's something wrong with this picture. Perhaps Americans should be taking a closer look at these realities, Incidentally, do you remind allyour people here that their visas have long expired and they are in violation of American law by remaining here!

John Doe USA

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Federico Sosa Williamstown, Massachusetts Bravo, Mr Cristaldo!

Well done on your latest article for Brazzil magazine entitled Afrobrazilianists: Such Arrogance!"- www.bro zzil. com/p 1 26may03. htm.

These US Americans are unfortunately trying to infect Brazil with their obsession with race, a disease that has been a hallmark of US American history up till today. It's unfortunate that these people don't seem to realize that not everywhere is like the United States of America.

But I really do think it's all a matter of

BRAZILIAN INTOLERANCE I am shocked by this senseless murder. ("Hate Crime" - bra77il.corn/p37jun02.htm) I have been in Brazil five times and I fell in love with it straight away. But the more I went the more scared I became observing the violence in the air day and night.

The machismo is so powerful and intimidating. If you have long hair as a man you are either a `tarado', veado, hippy, or artist-junkieno-good. In Nova Xavantina in Mato Grosso I was told by a rancher that men who wear shorts - I was wearing red addidas shorts - were considered veados (gays) in Brazil and not liked.

A bus driver in Belo Horizonte refused to drive and threatened to call the police if I didn't put on trousers. If you wear rings or a necklace as a man you are hippy or yeado.

Though I have many friends I resist going back. lam not tired of my life andprefer to stay in buddhist coubtries where one is more tolerant for gay people.

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Brazil: Next Stop, Civil War The correct name for what we are up against in Brazil is narcoterrorism. Violence has become a federal issue and the fight against violence, with or without formal intervention, with or without the Armed Forces in the streets, must also become a federal issue.

ALBERTO DINES Illusion has its limitations. At some point econometrics has to run into reality. Economics is not an abstraction. The use and application of all measurements such as C-bonds, the country risk, the exchange rate and other animals, is an artificial process—just like experiments in laboratories, performed under optimal conditions and with no environmental interference.

It was inevitable, this contamination of political newscasts by police newscasts. Same thing with the conjugation of crime statistics and the economic indexes in the business pages. Corporate manuals and rituals would not allow this here, but it has been happening in the international press, forced to see our country as an integrated phenomenon, with no random segmentations.

It is not a coincidence that, in the last few days, the New York Times, BBC18

World, the Walt Street Journal and the Economist—the latter two with worldwide clout in economic and business affairs—have dedicated plenty of space and time to talk about the escalation of violence raging in Brazil.

We fool ourselves again, and dangerously, when we avoid calling a spade a spade and take refuge in minimalist and fictitious classifications. What we are up against is a generalized, pre-civil war insurrection. 'Organized crime' is idle talk and false rumors. The correct name to use is narcoterrorism.

The horrors of the iron-hand years have excluded from our legal vocabulary the term "atentado a seguranca nacional" (assault to homeland safety) and we are now paying an exceedingly high price for all the euphemisms and linguistic mannerisms that blind us from facing the issue in its true dimensions. Violence has become a federal issue and the fight against violence, with or without formal intervention, with or without the Armed Forces in the streets, must also become a federal issue. Openly and ostensively. In all spheres, including foreign relations.

The FARCs can no longer be treated with lace cuffs. The Complexo da Mare slums start on the bottom of Guanabara Bay and ends in the jungles of Colombia.

At each victim fallen, each act of violence, each scare, each civic insult and each assault to the rule of law inflicted by the outlaw power, we are reminded that we are up against a federal emergency. Recently, the eixo rodovidrio Norte-Sul (north-south freeway axis) was sectioned by incursions in Linha Vermelha (Red Line) and Linha Amarela (Yellow Line) and by the control over Avenida Brasil, in Rio. These are not parochial, metropolitan or statewide occurrences; these are national risk situations. This is the truth and it needs to be faced head on and designated appropriately.

All the reconciliation events uniting Rio's governor dona Rosinha and Rio's former governor dona Benedita and festive little get-togethers for coronel Bolinha (colonel Tubby, former governor Anthony Garotinho) and his rivals are not only ridiculous but also an outrage to the memory of those fallen and humiliated by the Confederation of Violence. The cynical little smiles and taps on the back, on the eve of the funeral of a free society, expose widely and openly a sham and a hoax.

Lawlessness The Morro do Turano is no longer an urban district; it is now a federal district.

The criminal assault (premeditated, as became evident) against Estacio de SA University is not the stuff for a mere B.O. (Bulletin of Occurrence). It deserves a CR.!., or Constatacao de Ruptura Institucional (Verification of Institutional Breach).

When we have a de facto governor,

Anthony Garotinho, admitting that he has lost control over the situation and the Justice Minister, in the Observatorio da Imprensa TV program, answering a question from journalist Dora Kramer, uncomfortably admitting that he would rate with a grade five the performance of the Rio de Janeiro State authorities in matters of public safety, there is no way we can continue to disguise the labeling and the size of the disaster.

The reach of this disaster is not only factual but also conceptual. When a few decent senators such as Pedro Simon and Jefferson Peres propose tearing apart the Code of Ethics and dissolving the Ethics Committee following the decision by the president of the Senate to file and conclude the judicial proceeding against ACM (senator Ant6nio Carlos Magalhaes), the King of Telephone Tapping, we can see the moral magnetization between the degradation of law and order in Rio de Janeiro and the degradation of political practices in the high spheres of the Republic.

When the majoritary PT (Workers Party)—the party of hope and change— capitulates before this affront, concerned with the majority it needs in order to pass reforms it has always fought against, what we have is a political-partisan everything-goes which also explains the federal complacency with the Governor Couple of Rio de Janeiro that has been costing so many tears and so much damage.

When the pseudo-oppositionist PSDB allows Senator Tasso Jereissati to openly artitulate the support necessary to protect his partner-friends ACM and Sarney in one of the most sordid maneuvers of recent history in Congress, it is clear that the party needs a name change. It should take aside the SD (of Social Democracy) and entitle itself simply PB, the Banana Party—fiberless, boneless and emascu• lated.

This is the time to call a spade a spade. Before the spades—together, healthy, smilingly and politically correct—end up destroying what we still have left in terms of decency and courage.

Alberto Dines, the author, is a journalist, founder and researcher at LABJOR—Laboratorio de Estudos Avancados em Jornalismo (Laboratory for Advanced Studies in Journalism) at UNICAMP (University of Campinas) and editor of the Observatorio da Imprensa. He also writes a column on cultural issues for the Rio daily fornal do Brasil. You can reach him by email at obsimp(&ig.com.br

Translated by Tereza Braga, email: tbragaling@cs.com This article was originally published in Jornal do Brasil - www.jb.com.br

BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

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President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has shown th t he wants to get his reform program on the ro d shortly. April 30, he went to Congress p rsonally, along with 27 state governors, and cps. 41i4i, AO, lam oh *fog..

OM. Mc, h nded over his government's proposals to refo the pension and tax systems. On Thursday, ay Day, he took part in a traditional Workers P1-4,400.". 7, 0,0C iebvi it. ass in his old trade union stronghold at Sao ast.1.411,1,40#4 I. it Alerres nem* ers "au., Awa.aeow Av. B rnardo do Campo, outside Sao Paulo, and 4.e• a amn reforms were the highlight of his speech. a.... .4*V* At a rally later that day, Lula was hailed by if 4 4* ao Antonio Felicio, the leader of CUT (CenWee Adotetser 401. oa.meteAmeee.fale,4,el., fit 1 Unica dos Trabalhadores)—Brazil's secN.* d-largest trade union federation and a tradiLula diz que nal ally of Lula's party, the PT—as having hieved more in four months than his predecesnao vai 'meter Henrique Cardoso, had done in o dedo no &Aar' r, tFernando years. The leader ofthe larger Forca Sindical ion federation, Paulo Pereira da Silva—a candate for vice-president last year on the slate

by Ciro Gomes—was more critical but, at the me time, said he supported the reforms. Two ys later, Lula claimed that more than 90 percent of the people, workers and emplo ers alike, supported him in "doing what needs to be done" in Brazil.

The week also savv,the government eader in the Lower House, Congressman Aldo Rebelo, outline an ambitious agenda hich aims to have the first round of voting on pension and tax reform ready by July 3. The government is betting it can bring this about because of the combination of Lula's phenomenal popular support, and the broad coalition supporting his admi istration. Should this happen, it would be a fantastic victory for Lula, who until on y a few months ago was spooking the markets, pushing down Brazil's currency and ay up its country risk rating.

Flies in the Ointment However, there are some flies in ointment, and they have the PT logo stamped on their wings. And these wings will ow be picked. The irony is that while Lula can rely on allies as disparate as the mainl evangelical PL party—of his Vice-President Jose Alencar—and the Communist P of Rebelo, he cannot depend on the support of the radical wing of the PT, a party e himself created just over 20 years ago. It is beginning to look as though he has los his patience with the so-called "radicals", and is about to kick them out of the party The radicals have been claimin , correctly in fact, that Lula's policies are basically a continuation of what w in place during the previous administration, under President Fernando Henrique ardoso. While the rest of us think the government has been behaving responsibly and have been surprised at Lula's zeal and courage to take on pension reform, the PT's extreme left-wingers think he has betrayed their cause. They have no ime for fiscal restraint, the IMF or marketfriendly policies.

Instead, they want the goverrurne to-tax and spend. They want higher taxes on industry and commerce and high-inco e individuals. They are against moves to give the Central Bank greater autonomy ir independence. They are also against almost anything the United States is for, and can usually be relied on to blame Washington for most of Brazil's and the world's i Is. They seem incapable of understanding that Lula won a massive victory becaus he persuaded the people there would be no radical change. "Peace and Love" wa Lula's somewhat tongue-in-cheek slogan, not "The People United Will Never be I efeated".

Senator Helena—Brazil's Joan of Arc The government has made it plain at it will no longer tolerate public dissent from the PT rebels. Lula's right-hand man, hiefofStaffJose Dirceu, has been particularly scathing about the dissenters, especi ly Senator Heloisa Helena from Alagoas state in the Northeast.

She has been playing the self-imp sed role of a Brazilian Joan of Are for the last few months, and embarrassing the a ministration. She has the earnest look of the "lesbo-fem-Trot" kind of female le frequently found in Europe, but rare in Brazil: little granny glasses, hair scraped b k in a bun, well meaning earnestness oozing from every pore. One can imagine er pushing a pram in an anti-war march, or

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Tough Lola to Oust Rebels While the rest of us think President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been behaving responsibly, his own party's extreme leftwingers think he has betrayed their cause. They want the government to tax and spend.

They want higher taxes on indusl:ry and commerce and highincome individuals.

JOHN FITZPATRICK

BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

19

chaining herself to the fence of an American airbase.

Along with two Congressmen—Joao Batista de Araajo (another wearer of granny glasses) from the northern state of Para, and Luciana Genro from Rio Grande do Sul—she appears to be on the way out.

According to Brazilian media reports, the decision to expel them has already been made, and just needs to be rubber stamped by the PT's national executive committee. Some voices against the expulsion have been raised, including that of Sao Paulo Senator Eduardo Suplicy, but it seems that only a public act of contrition and pledge to back the government can save them.

Quo Vadis? Brizola, here we come...

If as expected they are expelled, the radicals may move towards the PDT party, of the veteran populist Leonel Brizola.

He was a constant critic of Cardoso, and although he supported Lula in the election, he has now turned on him as well.

Some news reports say that the last straw for the government was a recent meeting between the PT "radicals" and Brizola, at which they decided to join forces to oppose pension reform.

It will be interesting to see how much real support—votes, that is—the leftists have within Congress and their own party, and also whether they will be joined by other PT defectors if they are pushed out.

Before the election, it was generally felt that the radicals wing ofthe PT accounted for about 25 percent of its membership, but this figure is considered to be much lower now. Lula has managed to impose himself so strongly on the country, that one cannot imagine Helena and her comrades taking a quarter of the party with them.

The PT is the largest party in the Lower House, but does not have a majority, and there is no way Dirceu would be planning to move against the radicals had he felt their expulsion would weaken support there. There is also likely to be little popular resistance since, despite their claims to represent the people, none ofthe radicals has mass appeal. As for the media, it is totally hostile to them, so Lula will get an easy ride there.

By acting so toughly, the government is showing that it is in charge and running the show. Let us hope this firmness remains. Cardoso may have slain the dragon of inflation, but he never came near tackling the problems caused by Brazil's unfair, costly and inefficient pension or tax systems. And even with the government and a popular president behind them, the reforms will require extensive negotiations behind closed doors if the July 23 deadline for a first vote is to be met.

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JOHN FITZPATRICK Congress is in full swing for a change and a lot is happening at the moment, with the focus still on President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's ambitious aim to get his pension and tax reforms proposals passed within a few months. So, rather than concentrate on a single issue, here's a look at a few points of interest that cropped up in recent days.

Dollar Diplomacy & Phony War A touchstone to Brazirs standing in the world is the exchange rate. By letting the real float freely, this government is putting its—or rather our money where its mouth is.

This has been a rocky ride since the "band" system in which the currency was allowed to float only between pre-established maximum and minimum levels—was scrapped in early 2001. The immediate result, at that time, was a fall of almost 40 percent in the value of the real against the U.S. dollar.

Although the economy accepted this blow much better than expected, there was a further blow last year when the real plunged once again, reaching a rate of R$4 per U.S. dollar at one point.

One of the reasons for last year's fall was the uncertainty about what would happen after the presidential election. However, Lula's cautious handling of the economy since reaching office has allowed the real to regain some strength. It is currently trading at around R$3 per U.S. dollar, and could go even lower.

The resurgence of the real has been so sudden and sharp that some people, including Lula, have expressed concern that any further gains against the U.S. dollar could harm Brazil's booming exports. Lula's concern has been shared by the Development Minister, Luiz Fernando Furlan, and leading PT Senator, Aloizio Mercadante. Despite this, Finance Minister, Antonio Palocci, has ruled out any government intervention.

Some major media outlets jumped on Lula and the others for making this discussion so public, claiming their comments could backfire and any doubts they have about the currency should be kept to themselves. The media has also been creating a phony war scenario between Palocci and Mercadante. These attempts to muzzle Lula, in particular, are absurd, anti-democratic and devious. They imply that Brazil is a country that has to put its future in the hands of currency speculators. Lula has kept quiet since, but a diplomatic silence on something as important as the exchange rate is not the way to create a strong economy or a strong country.

New Faces on Supreme Court Three new judges have been nominated by President Lula to the Supreme Court, one of whom is black. By so doing, Lula has met one of his campaign pledges and taken a step forward. The fact that newly appointed judge Joaquim Benedito Barbosa Gomes is only the third black or mixed race member of the Supreme Court in its 174year history, is an indictment of Brazil's history.

BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

Gomes has written a book on the need for affirmative action to help Brazil's black and mixed race population, which, according to the latest census figures, accounts for just over half the population. This shows where his sympathies lie. However, one man will not be able to overturn centuries of neglect and oppression.

At the same time, the two other nominees are a former Worker's Party candidate and a more conservative appeal court judge. All three are reported to be in favor of the government's controversial proposals to alter the public pension system. Since this issue is likely to be a battle royal, chances are that it will end up being dealt with by the Supreme Court and the government wants to make sure it comes before sympathetic eyes.

By appointing three new judges so early in his administration, Lula has an excellent chance of influencing the way Brazilian society is shaped in coming years, since Supreme Court judges keep their seats until they reach the age of 70.

Max Tax A reader contacted me recently and complained that Brazil's problems were the fault of the International Monetary Fund, the United States and other usual suspects, and that Lula was betraying the people. The reader added the government should be increasing taxes and using the proceeds to build hospitals, schools, roads and so on.

This is a familiar argument, and all of us would like to have better hospitals, schools and roads. I assume this reader does not actually live in Brazil, otherwise he would know the government is increasing taxes and will continue to do so.

A study by the Federal Revenue Department published last week showed that taxes in 2002 amounted to 35.86 percent of GDP. In 1998, the amount was 29.74 percent, a rise of 6 percent in just five years.

There is no way this tax burden will fall. The tax reform proposal the government recently sent to Congress has nothing to do with cutting taxes. All it hopes to do is make the current confused situation somewhat more efficient.

What my correspondent does not seem to appreciate is that the tax base in Brazil is much less numerous than in Europe or North America. Most Brazilians do not actually pay any income tax since they earn so little or work in the unofficial economy. The government relies on registered workers and companies for its tax collection.

The valued-added tax, known as the ICMS, provided the biggest revenues ,last year—R$104 billion (about US$37 billion) or 22 percent of all taxes. Income tax came second, amounting to only 18 percent of all revenues collected. At the same time, the government adds to its revenues through indirect taxes, such as BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

the tax on financial transactions, intr this one into allegations that he illegally duced years ago as a temporary measu e tapped the telephones of dozens of politito raise funds for health care—in its t x cal and personal opponents in his home reform package sent to Congress t o state, Bahia. A picture in 0 Estado de S. weeks ago, the government is now pr Paulo daily shows Bornhausen making posing to make this a permanent tax. his comments, flanked by Magalhaes.

There are countless other ways n Let us hope that, for the moment, the which the government gets money out if PFL remains in the cold. your pocket and into its coffers. My lat st Itamar's road finally leads to Rome telephone bill, for example, comes o Finally, we can say goodbye to the R$180, of which R$45 is pure tax. bumbling former President Itamar PMDB on the way back?

Franco, who has grudgingly accepted the It looks as though those empty chai s position of Brazilian Ambassador to around the federal cabinet vacated by t e Italy—a position he initially turned down, PMDB (Partido do Movimento Dem because he felt the Senate vote in favor of cratico Brasileiro—Brazilian Democra ic his appointment was b)7 too narrow a Movement Party) may be filled in t e margin. near future, and again by the PMD .

Brazil must be the only country in the President Lula's Chief of Staff, Jo .é world to appoint a defaulter to such a Dirceu, has just made a deal in whic a prestigious post. While Governor of PMDB congressman will become go - Minas Gerais, Franco defaulted on his ernment leader in the Lower House, a d state's debt to the federal government for a Senator will become deputy leader in purely spiteful reasons, and in doing so, the Senate. PMDB members will also Let damaged not only his state but the entire some juicy positions in various gove country. One of the results of Franco's ment bodies, such as the Social and Ec incompetence and childish defiance of nomic Development Council. So far o the Cardoso government at the end of top positions—read cabinet—are on s f- 2000 was the massive devaluation of the fer, but this could change. real in January 2001.

The PMDB is the third-largest pa Arrivederci hamar. You will not be in Congress, behind the PT and PFL, a d missed. the government wants it on board fort e pension and tax reform votes. As usu 1, John Fitzpatrick is a Scottish with the disparate interests that make p journalist who first visited Brazil in 1987 this so-called party, the deal has led to n and has lived in Sao Paulo since 1995. internal row in the PMDB. Party Pre 'He writes on politics and finance and dent, Michel Temer, has criticized t e runs his own company, Celtic move and said the PMDB would not e Comunicacaes-- www.celt.com.br, satisfied with the donation of little jo s. which specializes in editorial and This is a familiar script but with t e translation services for Brazilian and roles reversed. During the administ aforeign clients. You can reach him at tions of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, it ifAcelt.com.br The author also writes for Infobrazil was usually Temer who was fending • ff www .infobrazil.com his opponents within the party, who I id not approve ofthe cozy relations he ma ntained with the Cardoso government.

PFL still out in the cold...

As for the second largest party in Canadian Pharmacy Congress, the PFL, it is still out in t e Will Save You Money cold and attacking the government. It as chosen taxation as its weapon. Party Pre. dent, Jorge Jorge Bornhausen, had the gall to On prescription drugs through say the following at the party's natio al Kripps Pharmacy. Save on convention early May: "Brazil cannot se brand names Lipitor, Celebrax... choked. Ten million new jobs will not se Servicing U.S. community for created if companies continue to be s fover 50 years. Complete line of vitamins, herbs and anti-wrinkle focated." creams.

This is rich coming from a party t at Low prices! - Free quotes! supported the Cardoso administrati ns Toll Free Phone: until last year, when it withdrew its s p1-866-323-2520 port not over rising taxes, but because its Toll Free Fax: potential presidential candidate, Rose n1-866-323-2570 na Sarney, became involved in a fin nwww.krippspharmacy.com cial scandal. The PFL was as responsi le www.canadaglobaldrugs.com as any other party for the increase in t es altermed@portal.ca Email: in recent years.

Kripps Pharmacy Ltd. Still, what can one expect fro a 994 Granville Street party which retains as one of its leadi g Vancouver BC V6Z 1L2 members the notorious Senator Anto io Carlos Magalhdes? He has just esca ed yet another congressional investigati n,

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21

Lula: o filho do Brasil (Lula: Brazil's Son) by Denise Parana. Sao Paulo: Editora Fundacdo Perseu Abramo, 2002.

Brazilians are not accustomed to books that reveal intimate details of the Jives of their political leaders. This is too bad because Brazilian political history is full of colorful personalities and dramatic events that cry out for psychological interpretation. Luis Carlos Prestes' quixotic march into the jungle at the head of a column of Communist revolutionaries inspired a generation of would-be revolutionaries, but no psychobiographer has probed his martyr complex.

Nor have depth psychologists dissected Milk) Quadros' surprise resignation from the Presidency in 1961 or the bizarre family conflicts that sabotaged the Collor de Mello administration in the early 1990s. Although he is a psychiatrist, Eduardo Mascarenhas managed to write 125 pages about former President Getfilio Vargas without analyzing his personality or exploring the reasons for his suicide.

Denise Parana's study of Brazil's new President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, may shatter the Brazilian proscription against serious biographical inquiry.

Written originally as a doctoral dissertation at the University of Sao Paulo, it had modest impact when it was first published by Xama in 1996. But Lula has been elected president and a new edition is prominently displayed in all the bookstores.

In it, Parana explores Lula's private and emotional life in detail and even draws explicitly on psychoanalytic concepts to probe his unconscious mind.

Parana is well prepared for the task, having done post-graduate study at Cambridge University in England after her doctoral work in Brazil. She draws widely on American and European psychological and anthropological theories.

Lula.. Brazil's Son is modeled on Oscar Lewis's classic The Children of Sanchez: Autobiography of a Mexican Family. It could have been titled Dona Lindu's Children: Autobiography of a Brazilian Family. It qualifies as autobiography because much of the book consists of transcriptions of interviews with Lula and several of his siblings.

The leading figure in the family is Dona Lindu, Lula's mother, not his father, who abandoned the family soon after Lula was born. Denise Parana conducted extensive interviews in earl.

1990s, and Lula and his family were very cooperative because Parana had served as an advisor in Lula' s political campaigns.

Oscar Lewis's concept of the culture of poverty has been criticized by 22

along of Lula A new book on Lula explores the Brazilian President's private and emotional life in detail and even draws explicitly on psychoanalytic concepts to probe his unconscious mind.

Lula's saga is Brazil's version of a Horatio Alger story. He channeled his anger into a struggle to do better than his father.

TED GOERTZEL

American scholars for "blaming the victim," but Parana found that it fit the Silva family well. The Silvas lived in terrible poverty in the Brazilian northeast, buying rice only when they were too sick to digest manioc flour, walking to the river to wash their clothes, having no shoes, electricity or household appliances other than a wood stove. Lula's father had eight children with his mother, then ran off to Sao Paulo to start another large family with his wife's cousin.

The Brazilian poor know that Lula understands them because he was one of them. They are inspired by the fact that he overcame terrible obstacles to become the leader of the nation. Although Lula is the leader of a leftist party that focuses on the social forces that oppress the poor, his life story is that of a selfmade man who rose above poverty through individual initiative. His saga is Brazil's version ofa Horatio Alger story.

Transformation Culture This tension between individual achievement and social change is an important theme of Denise Parana's remarkable book. To solve it, she develops the concept of the culture of transformation as the alternative to the culture ofpoverty. The culture of poverty is characterized by fatalism and hopelessness, by a focus on immediate gratification instead of on plans for the future, by a profound feeling of alienation from society. Growing up impoverished in the northeast, Lula's family experienced all of these feelings. But they were able to transform their alienation into a struggle for personal improvement and social change. That is what makes Lula's presidency so inspiring.

Lula's escape from poverty began when his mother made a courageous decision to sell her meager belongings, load her children on the back of a truck, and move from the impoverished northeast to the southern state of Sao Paulo.

The 13 day journey was an adventure for Lula and the other children, but a daring plunge into the unknown for a mother with limited education and almost no resources. Lula's father was already is Sao Paulo, but she knew he was living with her cousin and a new family. Working as a longshoreman, he had barely enough income to help both families.

All of the children had to work.

Sao Paulo beckoned because Brazilian capitalism was booming there and workers could get much higher wages than in the northeast. By working very hard, Lula could afford to go to school and get trained as a lathe mechanic. This got him skilled jobs in the auto industry, an industry that had been built by multinational corporations. Skilled labor was scarce, and the multinationals preferred to negotiate BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

ment of the family. His father's il Itwith the labor unions rather than asking eracy was his Achilles Heel. He bou ht the mil Itary government to repress their own workers. Lula succeeded as a labor , a newspaper every day to "read" on he way to work, sometimes attracting tleader because he put aside leftist ideoltention by holding it upside down. ogy, which he knew well from an older Lula channeled his anger int a brother who was a Communist Party struggle to do better than his father. militant. Instead, Lula focused on breadresolved never to fall into the "well of and-butter unionism, an approach that ignorance" that his father represent d. the establishment in Sao Paulo was willHe admired his father for his physi al ing to accept. strength, his sexual prowess, and is The growth of Brazilian capitalism gave Lula the opportunity to break from ability to earn enough to support t families and various girlfriends (al eit the culture of poverty. But how did he get the psychological strength? Here is inadequately). Challenging his fathe in where Denise Parana turns to psychothese areas would have been diffic It, and disloyal to his mother. So Lula th analytical theory. She does so apologetically, repeatedly warning the reader himself into studying, something t at that her psychohistorical speculations his father had always opposed. are just hypotheses that cannot be proven.

His father insisted that all his c This may be true, but no more so than dren work as early and as much as p any other psychohistorical analyses. Insible. He apparently feared that his deed, hers are better grounded than many thority would be undermined if his c because of her extensive interviews with dren learned to read while he could Lula arid his family. Often different famHe also humiliated Lula and his ily members tell the same stories, but lings, in comparison to his other c with variations in emphasis and interdren. In an anecdote that several m pretation that provide insight into their tion, he refused to buy them ice cr am psychological meaning. when he bought it for their half-sibli gs When Lula was five, his father rebecause, he said, they didn't know ow turned to the northeast for a brief reconto lick it. ciliation with his mother, a visit that left Lula channeled his rage into a d ive her pregnant once again. Lula and his to prove himself more successful t an brothers remember an incident when the his father in the area where his fa er father was beating one of Lula's older was weakest: education. Parana con ectures that denying that he was ang at brothers, as he frequently did. He then started to beat Lula, the baby of the his father, other than for his ignora ce, family, but Lula's mother intervened to was part an important part of this s roprotect him. Shortly thereafter, his cess. mother moved out taking the children Idealized Past with her. This greatly aggravated the Another use of denial, she obser es, father who stalked the neighborhood was common among emigrants from the around the new house. northeast. Instead of complaining a out In Lula's recollection, his mother the conditions they left, and giving th nks left in order to protect him. He felt that for their new opportunities, they id alhe was the most favored, most loved of ized the past. They remembered the p sihis mother's children, if only because he tive values of life in the rural north ast, minimizing the hardships. This id aliwas the smallest. From a Freudian perspective, Parana observes, he triumphed zation, Parana observes, helped the be more assertive in demanding b tter in the Oedipal struggle with his father wages and working conditions in do for his mother's love. This, she observes, might account for the remarkable selfPaulo. They were not mere supplic ; nts esteem that enabled him to triumph over grateful for the crumbs offered t em, they were proud sons and daughte of the culture of poverty.

This may be true in Lula's case, the northeast who had sacrificed uch to help build a new Brazil. although there are certainly other and Although Parana does not make this better ways for a boy to develop selfpoint, it can be argued that Lula's u e of esteem. At least the story serves to reassocialist ideology is a similar idea izasure mothers that their boys may do well even if it is necessary to leave an abusive tion. Because they are socialists, he and his supporters are not mere supplic nts father. Perhaps more interesting are seeking a larger slice of the capit list Parana's observations about Lula's ways of coping with the situation. He denies pie. No, they are partisans of a uch purer, more noble ideal. Theirs is vihaving any anger or resentment against sion of a world where human need not his father for mistreating him or his capitalist greed, reigns supreme. his siblings or for abandoning the family. vision has important psychological ncParana is understandably skeptical, how tions, it raises the self esteem o its could a boy not resent such treatment? adherents and gives meaning to heir Lula concedes he is angry at his father, suffering. But it has absolutely not ing but for his ignorance, not for his treatBRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

to do with the real world economic policies that they advocate.

This psychological use of ideology may explain the odd ideological composition of the coalition that elected Lula president. His supporters included not only his own Workers Party (itself a coalition of conflicting ideological tendencies), but also the Liberal Party and one of Brazil's Communist Parties. His vice presidential running mate was a Liberal.

Brazilians use the term "liberal" in its classic European sense, as a belief in free markets, not in its American sense.

Therefore, if ideologies were taken literally, Liberalism (free markets) and Communism (command economics) would be opposites and could never be on the same ticket. But this doesn't matter if everyone (except a few true believers) realizes that they are idealizations not to be taken at face value.

Oddly, in Brazil, "neoliberalism" is the whipping boy of the Left, but "liberalism"per se, without the "neo," is perfectly acceptable. Lula could never take a "neoliberal" running mate, but a "liberal" was just fine. The objection is not to liberal economic ideas, but to the alleged insensitivity ofthe "neoliberals" to the feelings and aspirations of the poor. As president, Lula's economic and social policies are virtually indistinguishable from those of his predecessor, Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

When Cardoso followed these policies Lula denounced them as "neoliberal," yet he feels no apparent embarrassment in adopting them as the core of his program to build a world without hunger or poverty. This socialist vision may help him build a stronger Brazilian capitalism, just as the vision of the idyllic northeast helped build a stronger urban industrial labor movement.

If Lula's leadership succeeds it will be more for who he is than for any new ideas or programs. His life is a just-so story of how a culture of poverty can be replaced with a culture of transformation. Anti-globalization rhetoric and socialist visions may play a useful psychological role in Brazil's transition to mature capitalism, so long as they are kept quite separate from the actual economic policies.

Ted Goertzel, Ph.D. is Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University in Camden, NJ. He is the author of a biography of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, available in English and in Portuguese. He can be contacted at goertzelAcamden.rutgers.edu and his WEB page can be found at http://goertzeloreted

23

Still a Banker's Paradise Banks in Brazil rank among the planet's most profitable with returns on equity that are the envy of bankers anywhere. An overdraft facility can cost the customer nearly 200 percent a year. Credit card finance and personal loans run over 100 percent a year. Most personal loans are made to pay off existing debts.

RICHARD HAYES

24

Accumulated inflation for this year through the month of April is 6.15 percent, as measured by the I PCA (Indica de Preps ao Consumidor Amplo—Extended Consumer Price Index), one of Brazil's several inflationary indices. The target for 2003 is 8.5 percent. To me this looks impossible to achieve. Due to the persistent increase in prices, although velocity has diminished since November, Central Bank president Henrique Meirelles has stated that it is not yet possible to lower interest rates.

COPOM (Comite de Politica Monetaria— Monetary Policy Committee) will meet late May. Until declarations by Meirelles in Madrid, on May 16, it was thought that monetary policy might be relaxed somewhat giving a boost to the sagging economy. Several ministers and vice president, Jose Alencar, have spoken out recently criticizing the stratospheric interest rates currently prevalent in the market. 4 At 26.5 percent per annum, Brazil's SELIC or base rate in real terms is one of the highest in the world. The banks in this country rank among the planet's most profitable with returns on equity that are the envy of bankers anywhere. An overdraft facility can cost the customer nearly 200 percent p.a. Credit card finance and personal loans run over 100 percent p.a.

This discourages people from borrowing to finance new purchases. Most personal loans, it is reported, are made to pay off existing debts. Individuals may spend as much as 30 percent of,their income on interest and other bank charges.

Loans to business have actually declined this year. Very few lines of economic activity can profit using such expensive borrowed money that accounts for as much as 25 percent of production costs in certain industries. The average interest on corporate loans is now 60 percent as opposed to 45 percent a year ago, according to one study.

Banks use a large portion of their deposits to purchase government bonds.

Cash rich companies also invest in government securities rather ran risk invest-

ing in productive facilities that could create more jobs. Were the central bank to lower interest rates, banks' profits would be adversely affected, but perhaps economic activity could be somewhat reactivated.

Car sales are in the doldrums as are those of home appliances, TV sets, computers and other electronic gear. The cost of financing these big-ticket items is a discouraging factor. Unemployment was 12 percent in March with little improvement in sight. Real wages declined by 7.7 percent from March of 2002 through March of 2003, according to the National Confederation of Industry.

Tough fiscal and monetary policies, plus a valiant attempt to initiate reforms of the pension and tax systems, have inspired at least temporary confidence on the part of investors, lenders and international organs. Laudatory comments were made by James Wolfensohn and Horst Kohler, presidents of the World Bank and 1M F respectively, as to Brazil's conduct. More than US$ 5 billion has come into the country so far this year in the form of bond issues of banks and a few select corporations such as Petrobras, Votorantim and CSN. The government placed a $1 billion issue that was oversubscribed. IMF targets are being met so that another $9 billion ofthe $30 billion facility arranged last year by Pedro Malan and Arminio Fraga is available. Foreign reserves are in excess of $40 billion. The real has strengthened to around US$ 1 = R$ 3 or less. The stock market is at its highest level since the crisis over Lula's possible victory started last year.

Less Risk, Still Risky The risk of a Brazilian default is perceived to have diminished due to the conservative stance assumed by Lula and members of his economic team. But the same structural problems that existed a year ago still .have not been resolved.

Much of the inflow of hard currency is for interest arbitrage operations that can be reversed when conditions change. The quality of the new money should be examined before assuming that Brazil is out of the woods.

The sole FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) of significance that I have noticed this year is that of StoraEnso, the Finnish/ Swedish pulp and paper giant, which is investing in a 50/50 joint venture along with Aracruz to produce eucalyptus cellulose in southern Bahia. The Veracel project will involve total investment of US$ 1 billion and will create export revenue along with jobs in the region. The details of this worthwhile project may be seen on: www.veracel.com.br Brazil needs more of this type of investment.

Lula's government must grapple with the matter of interest rates. If Meirelles should succumb to external pressure and BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

lower interest rates, international confidence in his ability to determine monetary policy independently could cause a reversal ofthe current euphoric atmosphere prevailing with regard to Brazil. The coming week will be a good test of Lula's resolve to maintain orthodox policies to the short , term detriment of those who elected him.

As to central bank autonomy, the Lower House of Congress passed for the second time a constitutional amendment that would make it easier to grant independence to the central bank. This is a move in the right direction, as it will alter complicated article 192 of the Constitution. Now, when the time is deemed right, such a measure may be voted upon separately rather than as part of an overall regulation of the financial system as stipulated previously. I doubt if the issue of central bank independence will be broached very soon as the chances of approval of this very polemic move are nil at present and the pension and tax reforms have priority on Lula's legislative agenda.

However, the PFL (Partido da Frente Liberal—Liberal , Front Party) now in opposition, has threatened to introduce such a measure to test Lula's party, the PT (Partido dos Trabalhadores—Workers Party). As part of the coalition that supported formerpresident Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the PFL was in favor of this sensible policy in the past but the PT, who now say they want it, knocked it down. It remains to be seen if this is just part of PT's PR and adman Duda Mendonea's window dressing to give Lula and the PT a moderate sheen or if their convictions have truly changed.

Internal Rifts The reforms gallantly presented by Lula to the congress in April are moving at a snail's pace in the CCJ (Constitution and Justice Committee) of the Chamber of Deputies.

Not all the PT members of this key committee are in favor of the changes in the pension system. Some feel that taxing retired government workers on their pensions is unconstitutional. Also other committee members belonging to parties that in theory support Lula's government are against this feature of the proposed reform as well as increasing the minimum age for retirement eligibility. In order for the proposed reforms to ever reach the floor, this committee must agree on their content. It will be an uphill battle to accomplish anything significant. Look what is happening in France over proposed changes in pension benefits!

Much attention has been given in the press to the internal problems ofthe PT. Three quite vocal opponents of Lula's policies may be expelled from the party. These folks have not accepted the neo liberal stance of Lula's government and advocate a moratorium on the foreign debt, breaking relations with the IMF and other radical moves.

Should they be expelled from the PT, they will be welcomed by the open arms of Jose Maria de Almeida, president of the PSTU (Partido Socialista dos Trabalhadores Unificado— United Workers' Socialist Party), a party much farther to the Left than the PT was before its pre election face lift that helped them win the presidency.

Ze Maria, as his followers call him, says he will start another party. They have a nucleus of public workers, including school teachers, which will keep the Left in the news as they promote traffic-stopping demonstrations such as those staged May 15 on Sao Paulo's Avenida Paulista and near Praca da Repdblica.

It will probably take another two or three months until it becomes obvious to foreign observers that Lula's reform measures will stay bogged down in Congress. If they emerge, the bills may be so watered down that the numeric improvement in the nation's steadily increasing chronic deficit, caused mainly by interest payments and pension costs, will be at best only slightly alleviated. Perhaps we will be happily surprised by a sudden surge of civic responsibility on the part of legislators in Brasilia.

MOZZIL-MAYLJUNE2=

raziHan onderland Trade figur s for Brazil look quite promising. Fact unheard, gas line prices fell and the real gained nearly 15 perc nt on the dollar in the last month. On top of all a sur lus of over US$16 billion is predicted for this year Thanks to a reversal of negative sentiment and the positive performance of Lula.

RICHARD HAYES For the first t e that I can recall during my nearly 40 years of residence in B il, the price of gasoline at the pump actually has been reduced With the dollar considerably lower and world wide petroleum • rices sliding now that the war in Iraq is nearly over, Petrobras h d little choice but to modestly reduce what they charge to the dis ibutors for gasoline and other derivatives. For some unknown r ason, the cost of LP gas that many households depend upon for ooking remains unchanged.

Speaking of etrobras, plans to build a new refinery were recently announc d. Its location is still up in the air and may be decided by politic.. Jose Eduardo Dutra, the president of Petrobras, has made it no ecret that if it depended upon him, the new installation woul be constructed in his home state of Sergipe.

Several other no heastern states would like to have the refinery.

Politics has alrea I y had some negative effects on Brazil's largest company.

During the p esidential campaign, Lula stated that the purchased new offsh ire rigs should be awarded to Brazilian companies. This chang of procedure has resulted in anticipated delays in the delivery if at least two platforms. A legal battle with Halliburton over o other rigs has slowed up their being put into use. As a result o this confusion, the goal of self-sufficiency in petroleum produ ts has been pushed back from 2006 to 2007.

When and if thi is achieved, a significant improvement in the trade balance wi 1 result. In the meantime, however, billions of dollars will be s ent importing crude oil and other petroleum products.

Chavez and astro . On the diplo atic front, Brazil continues to be chummy with Venezuela's pre ident Hugo Chavez, who met in Recife with Lula for the thin time since he became Brazil's President. The Venezuelan tate owned oil corn any may participate i the new refinery. I return for a loan of S$ 1 billion óm BNDES guara eed by petroleum, hich willbe used to port Brazilian goods and services, Chave has 25

promised to support Brazil's aspirations for a permanent seat on the Security Council of the United Nations. France, Germany and Russia have also promised to back Brazil in this endeavor.

By failing to condemn Fidel Castro's recent clamp down on dissidents and summary executions of men trying to escape from Cuba's police state, Brazil has made itselflook irresponsible to those who take‘notice of such things. Both the UN's Human Rights Committee and the Organization of American States voted to censor Cuba, but Brazil abstained using some flimsy juridical motives for their inaction.

The strengthening of the real, that gained nearly 15 percent on the dollar in the last month, has caused some observers to be concerned about the negative effects on exports that a cheaper dollar might have. My feeling is that exports will not suffer for a while at least, since the bulk of products Brazil exports are minerals or commodities or semi-manufactured goods such as steel, pulp and paper, and certain processed food products.

The producers of these products and the trading companies that export them, will receive less reais than when the rate was hovering around US$1=R$3.50 or upward from that. But at R$2.90 the dollar is still more expensive than it was a year ago and is ahead of inflation. • Surplus Ahead The trade figures thus far in 2003 look quite promising. A surplus of over US$16 billion is predicted for this year.

But should the Brazilian economy pick up fueling imports and the delayed effects of a cheaper dollar on exports begin to be felt later this year, this figure may not be reached. The mix of Brazilian exports has not changed in years, with the exception of Embraer's exporting of airplanes. Its order book is now anemic, which is no surprise given the condition of the airline business worldwide. The increase in Brazil's exports has come primarily from augmented agricultural production and higher prices for some of the food products that Brazil sells overseas.

The decline of the US$ in Brazilian exchange markets has been caused by a reversal of negative sentiment both at home and abroad and the unexpected positive performance of Lula and his economic team. Brazil placed a bond issue of US$1 billion the last week of April with UBS Warburg and Merrill Lynch leading the consortium. The rate paid, over 10 percent, and maturity of 2007 were more expensive and shorter than Brazil's last sovereign bond issue.

Critics say the authorities should have about Brazil's many maladies. Brazil waited until the Brazil risk factor was Watch mentioned that Lula's task to try less. But I think they were smart to take and improve Brazil is equivalent to that advantage ofthis window that could close of a US president attempting to take on at any time ifCongress excessively drags the military-industrial complex and the its feet in approving the pension and tax religious right at the same time. Lula's honest, direct approach is encouraging. reform measures now before it.

Astronomical interest rates, high unReforms employment and creeping inflation On April 30, Lula presented the government's proposal to a joint session dampen consumer spending. The econoof both Houses of Congress. He elo- my is not expected to grow enough this quently placed responsibility for starting year to compensate for population into make some necessary changes clearly crease. But the public, including many in the hands of the legislature. There who voted against Lula, are behind him. continues to be vocal opposition from the This,wave of semi-euphoria may lead to radical ranks of Lula's PT (Partido dos some better days ahead. All eyes will be Trabalhadores—Workers' Party). The on Brasilia and progress in Congress' other parties of Lula's coalition have not approving some changes that are necesenthusiastically come out in favor ofthese sary if Brazil is to break the cycle of timid yet revolutionary reforms. It is not increasing deficits and government debt, clear yet how the "opposition" will be- that coupled with high interest rates, stifles have but it is assumed that they will economic growth and social well being cooperate as many of these same reforms ; for Brazil's 173,000,000 souls. were proposed by Fernando Henrique Richard Edward Hayes first came to Cardoso's government and stalled by Brazil in 1964 as an employee of Chase opposition from the PT, who now is in Manhattan Bank. During the past thirtypower. eight years, Hayes has worked directly The government's project to inform and as an advisor for a number of the public of the inequity of the present Brazilian and international banks and pension system that favors some companies. Currently he is a free lance 3,000,000 retired and active government consultant and can be contacted at workers to the detriment of society as a 192Iouvreuol.com.br whole is underway. It remains to be seen how responsible the politicians in Brasilia will be. As Lula pointed out, these changes must be implemented this year, since 2004 will be taken up with municipal elections: And we are already in 2003's fifth month.

Lula took a swipe at the judicial branch of government recently that caused some indigamong nation judges. But others agree that the "black box" of the justice system should be exposed to the public. Judicial reform, that might eventually help curb crime and violence, is on Lula's list of things FAX: to do. Entrenched interests will be difficult to change, but at least Lula is trying to do something

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Silencing Women With a Shot Virtually nothing is known about females who are murdered at the hand of Brazil's insidious death squads. Part of a comprehensive investigation of the entire universe of such victims in Brazil, over the past 50 years, Female Death-Squad Victims in the States of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo" looks at these women in an exploratory study.

R.S. ROSE

BRAZZIL -MAY/JUNE 2003

It is not uncommon these days to read or hear about groups who've taken it upon themselves to cleanse crime from Brazilian streets. Graft, the slowness of the courts, and overcrowding in the prison system are frequently cited as the justifications for such ventures.

For many years this kind of vigilantism has been an unpleasant part of the Brazilian cultural mosaic. Generically referred to as operations of the "death squads," modern-day extermination groups were, in fact, invented in Brazil and not in one of the Central American republics. This is not to say that the term, or one of its synonyms, and the disposition to employ it, was anything novel in Brazilian history. Since colonial times, the first line of defense of the Brazilian elite was an exercise in the use of and reliance on excessive violence through sub-elites) Furthermore, while Brazil's early ruling classes were often splintered, as befitted the degrees of power retention and aspirations of each member, it is erroneous to believe that this was perpetually the case on all topics of concern to them.

One of the unifying factors that brought this privileged group together perhaps better than anything short of war, was the civil war it waged unremittingly against the lower stratum of society.

The watchwords of the rich during these contests were that "order had to be kept" (read: "keep the povilo, or multitude, in its place"). This common denominator, at times open, at times hidden, but understood by all, united countless generations of higher-rank Brazilians whenever they unmasked proletarian threats to their own statuses or to some soughtafter goal. Such was the case with the initial Portuguese, the generations ofs lave owners who followed, and the nearly allwhite elite of our own times.

In 1958, the moral structure was thus in place when federal police chief and army General Amauri Kruel approved a proposal made by Cecil de Macedo Borer.2 Borer had been an interrogator at the Central Police Station during the late 1930s and 40s. He began his career in 1932 when he was selected to be one of the infamous "Tomato Heads" (the Policia Especial or Special Police) of Euzebio de Queiroz Filho. Later, he was made a part of the Quadro Move! (Mobile Squad), the semi-secret unit directly responsible to the chief of police, Filinto Muller.' By 1958, Borer had been moved upstairs to chair the uniformed Policia Civil transit section that patrolled the capital's streets on motorcycles.' His suggestion to Kruel, in that year, resulted 27

Et` in the creation of the Grupo de Diligencias Especiais or Special Diligence Group.

A 33-year police veteran, and former member of Brazil's World War II era fascist party, Euripedes Malta de Sá, headed the novel unit.' The rest of the Special Diligence Group was made up of Itagiba Jose de Oliveira, Joao de Deus Dorneles, and Salvador Correia de Oliveira. Although they were small in number, the squad had the green light on eliminating each and every delinquent circulating in the city. There were to be no questions, no paper work, and no prisoners taken. When it was decided to go after a specific criminal, the individual's death had already been approved.

If his whereabouts was known, Euripedes, who was nearly 6'5" in height, simply gathered up a large shopping bag he kept in the station house. Inside, he carried a machine gun. He would then call his men together and they would drive away to do in the unwanted soul.

Bodies were invariably dumped in outlying working-class districts. Now and again, reporters were let in on what was about to happen. Sometimes they even followed Euripedes and his men.

But however they found out, from wherever they got their information, the next day Rio's newspapers would announce that another bandit was out of circulation. The warning was understood by the poyclo: if you transgress the rules, you could be next. Note that this kind of social control rarely if ever was directed against the upper classes. That is, a wealthy person being killed and left on the swank streets of lpanema or Leblon.

There are but a handful of academics serious interested in vigilantism in South America's largest country. It is a dangerous topic," one that has led other investigators simply to plug into events taking place in today's Brazil. The statistics cited by these efforts, accordingly, have often been inadequate and even incorrect.' Yet such a numerical undertaking is still a central issue if we are to under. stand who is at risk.

Dimenstein and Barcellos carried out perhaps the most noteworthy recent attempts in this area in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.' The first dealt with children and the death squads, the second looked into ROTA, Rondas Ostensivas Tobias de Aguiar (or the Tobias de Aguiar Patrol), the city of Sao Paulo's most blatant crop of killers in police uniforms. Neither of these admirable works, on the other hand, nor the guesses made by scholars, looks at the total size and composition of the totality of victims. No

one, that is, has actually counted the cases as they occurred—until now.

This article is part of a twenty-year project that has uncovered 32,675 suspected victims to the end of 1999 in the states of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

Some cases occurred as far back as the early 1950s during the tumultuous times of Grupo de Diligencias Especiais. All instances are presented and analyzed in much more detail in a book that is now at the publishers entitled The Unpast.9 Here, I will look at an abnormality in the material uncovered for these victims.

For while it was expected that their numbers would be modest, it was not anticipated that the quantity of female fatalities would be so small. As such, this analysis of females victims is offered as one interesting avenue in our conceptualization of the larger Brazil-wide phenomenon.

METHOD The kind of data necessary for an analysis of the deaths by extermination groups is obviously not available in official Brazilian statistics. For this reason, a list of killings fulfilling a death-squad modus operandi was determined from prior cases and faithfully applied to homicides published in two crime-specialty newspapers. A journalistic accounting was chosen because Brazilian reporters perform a daily check ofpo lice stations— indeed, many correspondents are assigned to hang around stationhouses—for boletins de ocorrencia, or Notices of An Incident.

Boletins are required police paper work. When a boletim is issued for a murder, it is instantly followed up by the journalists and included in the next day's edition. Instances that fail to make the boletins include those where an individual is killed and buried secretly, or when they have their bodies disposed of in such a manner or at such a distance, that their deaths go unnoticed by the long nose of the press. As one example, albeit in the state of Bahia, an officer ofthe law, known only as -Franca," regularly took common criminals from the city of Salvador, bound and or handcuffed, out to sea in a ship. They were then thrown into the Atlantic Ocean.'"

The tabloid selected to enumerate crimes in Rio de Janeiro was 0 Dia. Its counterpart for sao Paulo was Noticias Populares. 0 Dia began publication as a six-day per week newspaper on June 5, 1951. It did not come out on Mondays until June 11, 1979. Noticias Populares began as a complete daily newspaper at the outset. Its initial issue hit the newsstands on October 15, 1963.

Where possible, each case was recorded for several variables: 1) date; 2) sequential order on date; 3) weekday, 4) page(s) in newspaper; 5) sex; 6) race; 7) age; 8) profession; 9) type of profession; 10) social class; 11) crime(s) accused of; 12) suburb ofresidence; 13) suburb where the body was found;'' 14) zone of residence; 15) zone where the body was found;" 16) group responsible for the killing; and 17) whether or not a gunfight had occurred.

RESULTS The female cases included in the database begin in 1960 in Rio de Janeiro and in 1966 for Sao Paulo. The total number of fenr,le victims was 1,415 (or 4.33°/o of the 32,675 total). Of these, 783 were re-cl for Rio and the remaining 632 in Sao Paulo.

There were more extermination group type killings in Rio than in Sao Paulo, for virtually all years except 1975, 1976, and 1979. What with Sao Paulo's larger population, we might envisage that the number of women murdered by eradication squads would also be more prevalent than in Rio de Janeiro. But such is not the case. Moreover, beginning by about 1980, death squads in Rio have slain substantially more women than their counterparts in Sao Paulo.

Age When available the ages within the sample are likewise of interest. Once again the women from Rio de Janeiro are in the forefront: they are older. In fact, they are one year and four months older, on average, than their sisters in Sao Paulo.

The mean age for both groups of females was 25.3 vs. 23.9 years at the time oftheir deaths. The youngest female in both states were 3 month-old babies and the oldest were 70 in Rio and 75 in Sao Paulo. It is commonly assumed that most victims of both sexes are adolescents. The results of this project point in a different direction, at least for females.

Race Race was recorded as one of five alternatives: Black, Brown, Red, White, Yellow, and unknown. While there were no Red or Yellow women in this sample, the largest proportion of female victims were Brown or of mixed race backgrounds. And if taken together, all nonWhite women far surpassed the White women by a ratio of over 2 to 1 in Rio de Janeiro and 1.8 to 1 in Sao Paulo.

In actual numbers, there were 78 Black females in Rio and 33 in Sao Paulo, 128 Brown females in Rio and 101 in Sao Paulo, and 93 White females in Rio as opposed to 80 in Sao Paulo. Note that the numbers of Black women are the smallBRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

est racial group of all. This runs counter to common thinking reinforced by the mass media.

Social Class Blue-collar individuals were greatly over represented in terms of social class.

There were no victims from Social Class I, but there were 16 for Rio, and just 3 in Sao Paulo for Social Class II. The largest • category of female victims was from Social Class III, the poorest class, with 332 from Rio and 105 from Sao Paulo.

Crimes What were these women being assassinated for? While in some news reports the alleged crimes of victims were not reported, in others it was, and in still others, women were said to have committed various offenses. Lumping the women from both states together there were 164 accusations of narcotics violations, 60 of assault and robbery, and 32 of prostitution. That might not seem dramatically different from what would be predicted. What was different, however, was that a total of 163 women were killed because they were family members ofthe intended target, and 654 were killed because they happened to be together with this individual at the time of his murder.

The number of females who were slain while in the company of a male is arguably the most startling discovery of this analysis. Both bodies were found together. In Rio de Janeiro, this amounted to 52.2 percent of the time. In sao Paulo, 38.8 percent ofall women assassinated in death-squad type situations were discovered together with a male victim. While being in the company of a man is not itself an offense, the females in question seemingly fell victim to that poignant Brazilian expression of queimando o arquivo ("burning the archive").

In other words, extermination groups getting rid of anyone who could testify against them. The conclusion to be drawn is that over half of the Rio women, and a good third ofthe females from the state of Sao Paulo, were destroyed simply to cover the tracks of the assassins. Additionally, an unknown number of the instances where females were killed because they were family members of intended victim could well have been further cases of queimando o arquivo. The actual combined percent of females so purged with could be as high as two-thirds ofthe total.

Residence and Body Location Geographic concerns likewise provided revealing material. Turning first to Rio and the areas in which victims lived, a rank ordering would suggest that for female victims in the state of Rio de Janeiro, little variance exists between BFtAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

where the victims resided and where the victim's corpse was discovered. In o # er of most numerous, female executi s ns took place in the Northern Zone, t en Nova Iguacu; the Western Zone, nd Duque de Caxias. These results for women modify the position that ost victims live in the Baixada Flumine se, the district of working-class comm nities made up of Duque de Cax as, NilOpolis, Nova Iguacu, and sao Joa de Meriti immediately above and to then rth of the Northern Zone itself.

In Sao Paulo, the residence of fe ale victims and the location of the their ,odies quite convincingly shows that S nto Amaro, a region in the southwestern • art of metropolitan Sao Paulo, was far nd away the leader in both categories. Or, more exactly, there were 43 women ho resided in Santo Amaro prior to t eir executions, and 90 who had their bo sies discovered there. Only two additional locals had high figures. Next to S to Amaro, and second on the list of esidence vs. body location numbers as Capela do Socorro with 29 inhabit nts and 56 fatalities. Last of the sao P ulo big three was the region to the north ast around the international airport, I uarulhos, with 26 residents and 50 vict ms.

Clearly, however, the combined S to Amaro-Capela do Socorro area should be considered as one vast cauldro of potential sufferers and one huge d ping ground for their remains.

Groups Responsible Some comment is likewise in o der on those responsible for this butc ery.

While the larger study has idenf fled eighty-six different hit teams, there ere only eleven such groups in Rio de J eiro and nine in Sao Paulo when the vic ims were female. In Rio, every group as a police unit, combination of units, o had at least one member who was fro the police. In Sao Paulo, this scenario was identical except that irate citizens entirely made up one group. In both St tes, the Policia Militar—or main unifo ed civilian police entity - not a part o the armed forces' police—were the mai villains. In Rio, this amounted to 69 pe cent of the cases. In Sao Paulo, this g oup assassinated 63 percent of the victi s CONCLUSION This initial report for females ho fell prey to the assassination crews i two Brazilian states were far fewer th anticipated. They were older in Rio de Janeiro but generally of mixed-r cial backgrounds and decidedly fro the lower classes in both states. The ch ces are high that each was murdered just because she was with the intended ale

target. These victims probably came from the same districts in which they lived.

In Rio, this was the Northern and Western Zones of the larger city plus parts of the Baixada Fluminese. If she was from the state of Sao Paulo, she could well have lived her entire short life in two parallel killing fields: Santo Amaro and Capela do Socorro. And lastly, it didn't matter in which state she lived; her executioners likely wore the uniform of the Policia Militar.

Indeed, as former sao Paulo prosecutor Hello Bicudo has stated, "the death squads usually have a connection with the police"" In focusing our attention on women, it would appear that they are a negligible factor in the macho sub-culture of the Brazilian police vis-a-vis the alleged perpetrators of crime where the men of law and order look in the first instance at other males. Anyone caught in the crossfire, including women; but

also children and the aged will be eliminated by a corrupt police force simply to protect their own skins.

At the level of contact with the public, the Brazilian police have long been noted for their involvement with narcotics, weapon smuggling, and a numbers racket called jogo do bicho (or game of the animals). Seen in this overall context, the female victims of police connected extermination groups in the Wild West of Brazil were, and will continue to be, dead victims rather than live eyewit29

nesses.

NOTES I. The ideas first put forward by Marie Kolabinska, La circulation des elites en France, Lausanne: F. Rouge, 1912), p. 6, which were reaffirmed by V i lfredo Pareto, The Mind and Society, A. Bongiorno and A. Livingston (trans.), A. Livingston (ed.)

(New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1935), vol.

Ili, pp. 1423-25, on governing elites and non-governing elites, have been expanded here to include this new category of individuals. For this study, I characterized sub-elites as being situational and transitory muscle providers. Examples would include the police, guards, bodyguards, and all types of bullies in the employ of some higher authority. Note that the Brazilian lower classes—including trustworthy non-whites—were and are easily fitted into the fleeting roles of sub-elites.

2. Barbosa, Eduardo Barbosa, "As 1200 mortes do Esquadrao da Morte," Violencia (cited in Ettore Biocca, Estrategia do terror: a face oculta e repressiva do Brasil, Maria de Carvalho [trans.] [Lisbon: Iniciativas, (n.d.)]), p.

213.

3. Cf: Political Police Archives, Rio de Janeiro [hereafter PPARJ], miscellaneous documents, "Sindicancia para apurar como o jornal 0 Mundo obteve fotografias identicas do prontuario de Cecil Borer," 1947,administracao/pasta le; Cecil Borer, interviews, Rio de Janeiro: May 28, 1998 and April 10, 2000; Salomao Malina, interview, Sao Paulo, July 28, 1994; Roio, Jose Luiz del Roio, telephone interview, Rio de Janeiro/ Sao Paulo, July 31, 1994; and Thome Amado, interview, Rio de Janeiro, August 21, 1994. It has been incorrectly stated in the press (Jornal do Brasil [Rio de Janeiro] April 11, 1994, p. 7) that Muller introduced the death squad phenomenon to Brazil. Kruel had another reason, a morbid one, for paying attention to the plan by Cecil Borer. Kruel's brother Riograndino Kruel had been one of Borer's colleagues in torture/questioning at the Central Police Station back

in the 1930s ind 4s.

4. In 1960, when the federal capital was moved to Brasilia, this section of the Policia Civil, or detective bureau, along with the uniforms was done away with.

Runtonio Santa Ana, intery14w, RIO Janeir, September 1719 dos 5. PPARJ, letter, ',relacao [unsigned] to D.P. investigadores ns° 1 a 87, hity 31, 1947, adm in istracao/pasta 15.

6. Indeed it is. One of tfie, vi discussed below was a female sod gist who was trying to get a little close, a little too fast, to the hit g under study.

7. As an example, in the edited Werk

by Martha K. Huggins, Martha K. Viiilantism and the State in Modern' 1,412 America: Essays on Extralek4 Violence (New York: Praeger, 1991). Ovil-rights advocate Paul G. Chevigny reesenW Chapter 12: "Police Deadly Fore* .hs Social Control: Jamaica, Brazil, and gentina." As for that part o. article that dealt with the Paulo, he provided statistreat info tion on the total number ofciilnskIi by the Policia Militar (see text: Catnips Responsible for definition of thelPoileia • Militar) from 1982 to 1987: 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 198 286 328 - 481 585 399 105

Unfortunately, Chevigny (*es Sergio Pinheiros' Nude° de Eti.tdo Violencia as the source of hit; figu But the real origin of his niitarial is Policia Militar themselves), They petiodical ly release data, which newspapers like Folha de S. Paulo, and groups such as Paulo Sergio's, publish. We object to using Policia Militar statistics as a measure of the number of killings that they commit; seeing that their members are often the diverse tentacles of the various death squads, including the ones in SA0 Paulo. There is no safeguard againtii formation being under reported by the* The data from our own research won support the position that all of the abov figures from 1985 on should be draTatt.

without minimum per call or any monthly fee is only for Star's subscribers

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°ally higher.

8.Cf: Dimenstein, Gilberto, A guerra dos meninos (Sao Paulo: Brasiliense, 1990); and Caco Barcellos, ROTA 66: a história da policia que mata (Sao Paulo: Globo, 1992).

9. R.S. Rose, The Unpast: Elite Vioknee andSocial Control in Brazil, 19542O00 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, [late 2003]).

10. Runtonio Santa Ana, interview, Rio de Janeiro, November 6, 1999.

11. Note that there is also, in varying degrees relative to the type of offense, a filtering effect at work. A study by Tulio Kahn, Veja (Sao Paulo), April 19,2000, p. 30, reported that for every 100 crimes of all types in Sao Paulo, thirty-three are registered in boletins de ocorrencia, six are investigated by the police, and only two result in prison sentences. The majority of the infractions failing to make the boletins are probably instances unknown to the police. On the other hand, the data presented here may well represent the tip of the death-squad iceberg.

12. Recorded by bairro.

13.That is, larger metropolitan areas such as the Baixada Fluminense in Rio de aneiro or the ABC paulista in Sao Paulo.

14. See also above, 5n.

15. Helio Bicudo, interview, Sao aulo, February 8, 1993. Bicudo became amous in 1969 by being the first proscutor to stand up against local death quads. See in this regard his 1976 classic, Meu depoimento sobre o esquadreio clamorte(Sao Paulo: PontificiaComissao e Justica e Paz de Sao Paulo, 1976).

R.S. Rose took his doctorate from the Sociology Institute at the University of Stockholm.'

He is the author of the celebrated

Uma das coisas esquecidas: Gettilio Vargas e controle social no Brasil, 1930-1954 (Sao Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2001).

He can be reached at: rsrose(&,mail.com

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BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

Brazil Taught Me Don't try to change Brazil, let Brazil change itself. Shine a little light in the right direction, focus on the positive aspects of Brazil culture, people. Don't let the shit get you down. Draw inspiration from the good things and enjoy life with the same passion with which Brazilians enjoy life.

JOHN MILLER BRAZZIL -MAY/JUNE 2003

John Fitzpatrick's well written a ticle on job seekers in Brazil ("For J Seekers Brazil Is No Eldorado" vvww.brazzil.com/p108may03.htm) co tains good essential advice. You do s so many people who come to Brazil th are unprepared and try to make a go of t.

If I may indulge, 1 would like to relay experience as an Australian, who grated to Brazil in early 1996 without t benefit or security of an ex-pat packa e, but with a Brazilian Carioca wife w had a great deal of appreciation of w at challenges I was to face.

I) I was fortunate enough to ha worked in a profession of IT/Teleco munications for most of my adult Ii e, and arriving in Brazil in 1996 could ot have been more fortuitous in terms of Brazilian economy and its privatizati process. (Telco's etc). • But being the numskull that I a , I decided that it was time to try my han at selling "Aussie wine" in a country wh ch at the time had a per capita consumpt on of 2.2 liters per annum (John Mill 'S thinking here was he can change Br zil and at least there was plenty of ups de growth potential with average per ca ita consumption of wine in Oz at 20-25 lit rs per annum by comparison). I won't go into the details & difficulties of work ng downstream from the exporter/impo erwinery, but suffice to say, everyone as eating at the table before me, so I was eft with the crumbs.

Lesson learned: Don't embark on oo much changes at once, changing nguage, culture and country should h ye enou h. been 2) Anyway, I sold Aussie wine in Rio for about 2 2.5years, all on the bl ck, "amigos direct", web site, lots of me tasting parties in my apartment, degu tation in restaurants and Associa Ao Brasileira de Sommeliers, etc. but g es, certainly not making much money, nd draining the Aussie bank account. A d it was hard work. I was even delive ing wine on my bicycle inZona Sul. B t, I , was having fun and making frie ds!

(Turning Point).

3) So after about 2-2 Y2 years of his, I had a circle of about 40-50 hard cli nts who would buy from me each 2-3 mo ths One of them was a king bicheiro ho was murdered after he had ramped p to purchasing 5 cases a month, I al ays enjoyed reading the names on the che ues he passed me as payment). I also ha the usual one timers who wanted to try A ssie wine ("Can I buy lx bottle of your ch apest Aussie wine and deliver for free ti my family fazenda in Mato Grosso?"), nd a few other side deals going in a &B,

tourism, the odd jeitinho here and there.

But I still had not stopped the slide in the Oz or Brazil bank accounts, and as you know, there is no such thing as a soft landing in Brazil. But I was having fun, and very much in love with my wife, and learning about life in Brazil.

4) Finally one of my clients invites me to play golf at Gavea G & CC. He is a delightfully English gentleman, very genuine, intelligent and quick-witted, who was the local Latin American president of a British private investment bank with major wineries in France and Chile. The bank has been operating in Brazil since Dom Pedro II times, etc. So we went off to play golf at Gavea one Saturday, and as I had previously had a handicap of 12 at my club in Sydney, we proceeded to form a handy 4 Ball team and picked up a number of winnings against our opponents in the coming months. (At this stage I was looking forward to golf each week as it was proving to be a handy earn!!).

5) Finally he, invites me into his office to look at their IT systems, which are a dog's breakfast, a combination of OS/2 servers, Macintoshes and Windows 95 PC's, none ofwhich worked together and as virus ridden as a province in South China. He asks me if I can fix the mess, and I say "Well, I can do better than that, I can project manage getting this fixed which is better than you can do, as you don't have the' skills or the time for this.

So let me Project Manage this for you".

Six months later, the project is completed on time and budget, and I now had a very prestigious client I could reference.

Lesson: Make friends, they really count!

So even while I was not making any great money with the wine thing, it made me a lot of friends along the way. I think that translates into: "If you can't sell yourself in your own country, don't expect to be able to sell yourself in another country".

6) Since then, I have worked on contract for AT&T, and then Ernst and Young, Computer Associates, and a few other nameless places. It was hard at times, I worked for scummy salaries or contract rates at times, but I was always enjoying the learning experience here, even if I was the slowest student in Portuguese you ever saw (I teach lessons in "How NOT to learn Portuguese") .

The experiences took me to several countries in Latin America, and many cities in Brazil. I have very fond memories ofworking in Lima, Peru for 9 months with 200 Ernst and Young people from all around Latin & North America, and discovering the Argentineans did not un31

understand what the Mexicans were saying in Spanish, especially if they had imbibed 2-3 pisco sours.

Generally (and that's problem with generalizations, there are exceptions of course) I find Brazilians incredibly hard working people (OK, not from Christmas to Carnaval, but neither are Aussies during January-February), wonderful office temperaments, and very good at improvising when they have to. Brazilian management on the other hand, I find stifling.

Managers are incredible control freaks, lacking in vision and skills, and not willing to trust/empower their staff (I sense this is a hangover from the military, especially in places that were run by the military like Petrobras and CSN).

7). Taxes. I really don't think Brazilian personal income taxes are very high at all. Certainly the top personal income tax is very low compared to Australia and the USA. Sure lots of indirect taxes, and that nasty CPMF tax eats a lot of your bank money very sneakily. But gees, I lose less than 30 percent of my tax packet to Impost° Renda, that ain't that bad, and I support Lula's plan to increase tax rates on those earning above R$ 3500 a month.

By way of example, I used to earn something like 8-10 times the minimum wage in Australia, in Brazil I earn something like 80-90 times minimum wage, and that is more a reflection on the poor state of minimum wage in Brazil rather than my earnings. So obviously I ain't complaining. But as you know, job security worldwide is very tenuous these days, so I am expecting retrenchment in the coming months, which then lands me in the proverbial rescission package goldmine, thank you so much. (These labor laws in Brazil are a joke).

As Pete Garrett of Midnight Oil sang:

"The rich get richer, the poor get the picture The bombs never hit you when you're down so low Some got pollution, some revolution There must be some solution but I just don't know The bosses want decisions, the workers need ambitions There won't be no collisions when they move so slow Nothing ever happens, nothing really matters No one ever tells me so what am Ito know" 32

8) Getting the RN E and CPF and Carteira de Trabalho was not that bad for me. My wife knew how to work the system, certainly if I had tried to do this on my own I would have gone nuts. And yes it did take time, I had that same scrappy piece of paper you had in your passport for 2 years as an interim RNE. Brazilhas taught me to be patient, and I sense this is one of your great frustrations.

I. Lesson for you: Go with the :flow, relax and enjoy the journey, and come and have a beer with me on Ipanema beach one day!! hope you are smiling reading this):. • 9) I sometimes want to scream and yell at the queues in banks, the lack of money in ATM's, the bureaucracy in places like the INSS, Caixa Economica, Federal Police Department, the Call Centers/Help desks run by morons, the electricity going off when you get in an elevator, the gas company using jack hammers in the street on a Sunday morning at:400 am etc. But then I think back to some of my Brazilian friend's experiences in Oz with immigration and customs, and 'really it ain't that much different, maybe 20-30 percent worse. Same shit all over the world.

9) The downsides. No doubt about it, violence in Brazil is the one thing that really pisses me off. I used to think Sao Paulo was more dangerous than Rio, not any more Iarkvery careful, and went for seven years 1104 being robbed here, until January this year when 1 got assaulted and had my leg broken (this is a novela in its own right, and depnitely a 3 Bohemia lata de cerveja story).

The other downsides of course 4re pollution, corruption, social and crinai, nal injustice, but by far the biggest dowoside for me is the lack of decent Asian food, which I work around by cooking my own Thai curries. (More tongue in cheek, although I think the so-called Chinese food in Brazil redefines the description of a "Chef cooking with his brain and taste buds turned ofr. ).

So yeah, in summary, Brazil has worked out for me, OK. Financially I am about where I would be in Australia after a 2-3 year backward slide, but! am a lot richer in terms of experience, friendships, and the lifestyle of the Carioca, very pleasant in deed. And a wonderful wife Marta who stood by me through thick and thin. ( I still remember my wife saying to me one day when I had very little money

in 1998, "John learn to go to the beach and enjoy life when you have no money, then when you have money, you will appreciate the beach even more"). And that's the truth.

10) I have met my share of ex-pats and travelers here in Brazil. Some have made it, most not, overwhelmingly so.

Some think that something that works in their country will work here (You know how Brazilians wash the floors with a rag wrapped around a T-shaped pole with a Olt of rubber on the end for washing Windows, fucked if I know why they will not buy a decent squeegee or mop!).

Some just don't come here with a decent plan and or do not have a lot of skills to offer Brazil (I have seen some appalling quality ofex-pat English teachers here). A lot of Houston oil expats have trouble with their Texas, wife's of course (they can be painful women in any country or course). Others just are not prepared to change, and keep trying to change Brazil.

There is a common pattern I have observed to the emotional roller coaster ,that gringos/ex-pats come here experience. The first 6-12 months euphoria of discovering something new, tropical and lush. The next 6-12 months getting angry and frustrated at how things take so long or do not work like they do in your own country, the language barrier, etc. And then comes the fork in the road; money Starts to run out, the Brazilian girlfriend pisses off because she can't stand the gringo's bad behavior any more, the frustration builds to a crescendo, and the gringo goes home. OR the gringo learns to adapt to life in Brazil and relax and take it easy, and stop trying the change Brazil, and let Brazil get on with change t its rate of change.

Lesson: Don't try to change Brazil, et Brazil change itself. Shine a little light n the right direction, focus on the posiwe aspects of Brazil culture, people. on't let the shit get you down. Draw nspiration from the good things that hapen around you, and your family and iends. And enjoy life with the same assion with which Brazilians enjoy life.

Whew, that just sort of oozed out of y fingertips over the last hour. Must have been bottling that up for while.

Thanks for the inspiration, John.

John Miller is an Australian living in Rio de Janeiro. He can be contacted at miller j(i2bl.com.br

BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003 /I

Why I Couldn't Take Brazil Sao Paulo was a ruthless and merciless environment for a novice job seeker. I soon learned that teachers of English were a dime a dozen in Sao Paulo. The continued bleak outlook for the Brazilian economy and the rising crime and unemployment rates conspired to finally force me to face reality: we were going broke.

JOE LOPES

BRALZI,_ - MAY/JUNE 2003

I read with keen interest John Fitzpatrick's article regarding looking for employment in Brazil ("For Job Seekers Brazil Is No Eldorado - www.brazzil.com/ p108may03.htm). 1, too, followed a similar career path, but with very different results.

Hopefully, my experiences will shed some needed light on this area, which seems to be one perpetually shrouded in mystery and misinformation.

To begin with, lam a naturalized American citizen, born in Brazil, who came to New York in 1959 with my parents. I was raised in the city, went to school, graduated and worked there most of my adult life.

After many frustrating years in the financial sector, and certainly after the birth of my two daughters, 1 decided on a major lifestyle change and immigrated with my Brazilian wife and family back to the mother country.

John's excellent advice to learn Portuguese is an absolutely essential o e. Let me just reiterate it: don't expect to get by on your high school Spanish. ou will not make yourself understood, you will not understand the local lingo, an • you will offend many Brazilians by attempting to converse in the wrong lang age. Luckily, I still spoke enough Portuguese to survive.

In 1996, I left New York for Sao Paulo, and spent the next four and a half years living and working there. • bviously, I fit isnto the second category of a professional who went to Brazil ith no job, a spouse and two children to care for. We were luckier than most because we had my wife's family to help us during this transition period. In ddition, we owned our own apartment, out of which I gave EFL lessons.

I obtained my carteira de tra alho (work permit), permanent residency and CPF (a document used for fina cial transactions) without too much hassle— again, I have to say I was luckie than most immigrants, who, like the general populace, are "treated like dirt" y most Brazilian agencies and authorities.

Before my move, however, I had prepared myself for the transition by spending two years in pursuit o my teaching certificate at the New School in New York. I was taught by some of the best teachers in the country, people with master's degrees and PhD's fro NYU, Columbia, Cambridge and the like. I passed my course work and was ighly commended for my efforts by all of my teachers. One would think this b ckground, along with my previous Wall Street experience, would have entitled me to "streets paved with gold" in Sao Paulo.

Not so. I must concur com letely with John's truthful assessment of the hazards ofjob hunting and livin in the big abacaxi, as 1 like to call it. Sao Paulo was a ruthless and merciless env ronment for a novice job seeker. At the start of my teaching career, I had a few s udents at home, but in order to supplement my meager earnings, and to pay fo my ever increasing light, phone, gas, energy, food, school and insurance bill , I had to seek some type of regular full-time employment.

I interviewed for and obtai ed entry into Cultura Inglesa, a well-known English language school. Imag ne my surprise and dismay when I was told I would have to undergo a two month training program (unremunerated, of course) after having completed WO YEARS of one in New York. Besides the personal humiliation of having o prove myself all over again, and despite my teaching certificate in tow, I ga ely plugged on. I even gained entry into another teacher training program at the lurnni School in the Morumbi neighborhood.

Teacher for Two Days Unfortunately, I couldn't h ndle the stress and travel of "training" in two places at once, so I dropped out f Alumni and opted to teach at Cultura instead.

After completing their so-call d training. I waited a month and a half until Cultura sent me to teach at a loc I branch right in my own neighborhood. Sounds great, right? No, not really. The hourly wage at the time was a miserable R$7 an hour. with an additional R$2 f r expenses.

33

I realized to my horror I had wasted three and a half months of valuable job search time in a fruitless pursuit of permanent employment with an entity that was paying paltry starvation wages.

I also learned, much to my bitter chagrin, that teachers of English were a dime a dozen in Sao Paulo.

I abruptly left Cu!tura after only two days and went looking for teaching positions in the pages of the local newspapers. As the Brazzil article so rightly pointed out, Sao Paulo is not the U.S. (or Europe, for that matter) when it comes to finding work via the want ads. Networking with relatives, friends and acquaintances is the preferred and more results-oriented method.

Again, I lucked out, and through an ad in the 1 Estadilo newspaper, I was able to secure a teaching position with a multi-national accounting firm in downtown Sao Paulo. The salary there was about R$30 an hour and I enjoyed the challenge of teaching adult learners rather than the bratty, spoiled and inattentive Cultura school kids.

When the Brazilian economy started to sputter in 1998, I lost more students than I gained, so I was forced to find additional work elsewhere.

An English teacher in Brazil never just "teaches."

He or she must learn to adapt and find other odd jobs (called bicos) to survive. After heavy word of mouth, I was able to get some translation work for several companies, in addition to doing work for a colleague at HBO of Brazil. I got into the subtitling/dubbing sideline through her, and even urged my wife to get involved in it, as well. She took the HBO course, which led nowhere because of the recession.

In point of fact, the work was scattershot at best. Sometimes, I would get two or three films to work on, other times I would get nothing for weeks. When I did get work, I would spend many days, nights and weekends at the computer terminal, away from my family, friends and relatives, while I was involved in the transcribing process. The pay was decent enough, but I still needed to teach to pay the bills, plus I really wanted a less ephemeral and time-consuming occupation.

This was not to be. When the HBO work eventually dried up due to the devaluation of the real and the still stagnant economy, I hooked up in 1999 with another colleague who was a full-time lawyer and EFL teacher, and started teaching minicourses for her students. I would serve as a substitute teacher for when my colleague traveled, and was even able to teach my own courses, which I had developed based on the American legal system—I had been a certified litigation paralegal in the U.S. for several years.

While these courses were reasonably successful, the continued bleak outlook for the Brazilian economy, the rising crime and unemployment rates, and the loss of more and more of my students due to financial hardships, conspired to finally force me to face my own ever-mounting personal financial problems: we were going broke.

Time to Go Back My decision to return to the U.S. and start afresh in Raleigh, North Carolina, was an extremely painful and heart-rending one, but one I resolutely made with my family in the hope of securing steadier employment and a more secure financial foothold than I ever had in Brazil. Our relatives offered to help us through our difficulties in Brazil, but I could no longer impose upon their generosity. Besides, I had my own children's 34

welfare and future to think about.

Reluctantly, but with much optimism, we left Sao Paulo in January 2001 for Raleigh. Since then, I have worked for three different corporations here, some better and some worse than the ones I worked for in New York. I was even laid off last year due to downsizing (welcome to the U.S.A. reality!), but quickly found a job with a CRO (contract research organization).

Raleigh and the surrounding Research Triangle Park area is a constantly expanding and vital center, well-known for its medical, pharmaceutical, research, and university facilities. I think my family and I chose wisely. Without a doubt, my daughters will be better off, school- and career-wise, than they would ever have been in Sao Paulo.

In summation, I tried very hard to make a go at teaching English. But no matter how many new students I found, I would inevitably be forced into looking for new ones, or new lines of work, just to make ends meet. This was the sad, hard, and unmentioned reality of teaching in Brazil. I don't wish to discourage potential adventurers out there, but I sure wish I had someone to point these things out to me BEFORE I made my decision to return to Sao Paulo.

Still, it was a most remarkable learning experience, and one I heartily recommend to young, single persons with the requisite courage, patience, flexibility, and stamina for the teaching lifestyle.

As a postscript let me also emphasize the long distances involved in traveling to and from one's various teaching jobs, usually done "in-company," and the extremely precarious state of Sao Paulo's public transportation system.

These must be taken into account at all costs. If at all possible, avoid the city buses, especially during peak hours, which are packed and crawling with lice and other unpleasant infestations. The subway system is much safer, much cleaner, and tends to get you (more or less) to where you want to go in much less time.

There's also the inordinately long working hours you must contend with, commencing around the ungodly hour of 7 AM or so, through a working lunch somewhere around 12 noon to 2 PM (and oftentimes later), and then regular afternoon and evening classes ending at about 10 PM. In-company evening classes generally go from 6 PM to 7:30 PM, although I've heard of later starting and closing times.

Oh, and don't forget Saturday mornings and afternoons, too. You'll want to keep those hours available, as well, in addition to what's called in the trade as janelinhas or windows, in case of student cancellations or teacher illness. You'll want to use these mostly for make-up classes. It's a rather busy and lengthy work schedule to test the mettle of only the fittest teaching souls. Better pray that it doesn't rain in the midst of all this, which will tend to throw a spanner into the works (monkey wrench for you native American English speakers) and bring the heavy Sao Paulo traffic to an endless standstill.

Joe Lopes, an American citizen born in Brazil, was raised in New York City where he also graduated and worked in the financial sector. In 1996, he moved to Brazil with his Brazilian wife and tWo daughters. The experience lasted until January 2001, when the packed and came back to the US. You can email the author at Josmar.LopesQuintiles.com BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

Admiral Crab The admiral had plenty of muscles, laughed for no reason, had the women we wished, knew how to be brave when necessary and was a friend in times of need.

In the morning he used to sell crabs, play and tell jokes.

He had lunch accompanied by one pinga shot, only one though; he then looked for a parked truck and lay under it for the siesta, protected from the sun HERMILO BORBA CARVALHO FILHO

Era raro mas acontec ia: a neblina. A cl ridade ainda muito difusa que vinha da barra d s horizonte abria, na cerracao, urn semicirculo d olho direito a olho esquerdo, a cabeca firme, I inha reta, movida para cá e para la, o micirculo de cada lado interrompido por ificios, coqueirais, cajueiros, mangueiras. Ele stava dä nevoa e tentava agarrar os fiapos ancos, esgarcados, sabia que haveria de chegar asado ao mercado, mas rid() conseguia fugir encantamento, a feria do dia seria. significante, os caranguejos, nas latas, faziam barulho rascante e metalico, outros ncorrentesjá teriam vendido os bichos, para e pouca coisa haveria de sobrar. Raras vezes ano havia neblina e era born aproveita-la, p ra nada, pelo prazer de permanecer corn as p mas musculosas atoladas na lama, respirando d boca aberta, vendo como tudo era leitoso.

S mente o primeiro lampejo do sol despertavao de vez: a obrigacdo; tratava, apressadamente, d fazer as rodilhas de caranguejos, nessas ✓ zes bem chochas, saia do mangue no chapec ape, lavava os pes na primeira agua corrente e fregando-os urn contra o outro, punha-se a dar, ern quinze minutos vencia a distAncia e o separava do mercado, postava-se atras do alcdo dos caranguejos, os outros ja haviam ndido e ido embora, arrnava-se de paciencia ara esperar urn hipotetico fregues, mas nem or isto perdia o riso claro, aberto, de dentes rgos.

Alrnirante Sini era figura musculosa de urn etro e noventa, na a propOsito de tudo, tinha s mulheresque queria, sabia ser valente quando ra preciso e amigo nos momentos incertos. urante as manhas vendiacaranguejos, brincava contava piadas; almocava corn uma pinga, ma s6, procurava um caminhdo estacionado e etia-se embaixo dele para a sesta, abrigado do ol. Quando acordava, pelas quatro, encontrava m parceiro para jogar firo ate que a noite escesse; ia a procura de mulheres, sempre ncontrava uma, corn eladormia ou ndo, quando ao deixava-se arriar na rede do seu mocambo ara acordar noite ainda e sair atras dos aranguejos; o dia se repetia. Somente aos abados a noite (o domingo nao contava: era odo ele uma diversdo so) saia dessa rotina para e dedicar, corn toda a seriedade, a grande aixdo de sua vida: Almirante Sini era Capitdoeneral de Fandango e ensaiava durante todos s sabados do ano todo para o Ciclo do Natal. do admitiabrincadeiras no seu folguedo. Nada e esculhambacdo, berrava, quando os arinheiros, nas jornadas, atrasavam a danca u desafinavarn ou riam de uma bobagem ualquer. 0 Racao e oVassoura improvisassem, enos na sua cena: Fostes a Casa do ontramestre? Destes o dinheiro da rack)? ue compraste para a gente da Abariacdo? omprei tanta coisa que o Contramestre ndo abe. Entdo diz la. Eu comprei dez reis de figado, urn vintem de tripa fina corn tripa grossa, comprei dezreis de bofe. Quando cal na caldeira 35

BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

faz pirfu. Compolhos e repolhos, comprei urn vintem de alface misturado corn presunto para mim mais Vassoura, que gosto muito. Comprei um mocotO tal e qua!, comprei uma coisa para a frizideira do senhor Capitao-General que ainda nao comeu, já esta lambendo o beico.

Entao diz la. Digo se me der alguma gorjeta para mim mais Vassoura. Senhor Capitao-General ja foi cabanga? Nao viste? Quando as fateiras estao tratando os fatos, tripas. V iste?

Quando elas cortam a tripa em cima e cortam embaixo aquilo que sai de dentro como se chama, senhor CapitaoGeneral? Manicoba. Pois foi isto que comprei para a frizideira do senhor Capitao-General.

Ole, ole, ole, ô triques, ô Maria, old, Joaquim Jose F idel is esta preso no limoeiro, old, ole, ole, ô triques, ô Maria, ole. Senhor Mestre Calafate, calafete este navio, ole, ole, ole, ô triques, ô Maria, ole. Que as ondas do mar la fora nao sao como cá no rio, ole, ole, ole, ô triques, Maria, ole. 0 pombo vai voando no bico levou uma flor, ole, ole, ole, ô triques, Maria, ole. Avoando foi dizer viva ao nosso imperador, old, ole, ole, ô triques, o Maria, ole. Dancavam e Almirante Sin, espada em punho, evoluia, agil, a frente, em mesuras, quase efeminado, mais doce.

Ano inteiro seu dinheiro era para as vestimentas, o conserto da barca, embora alcatroada sempre comida pela maresia; para a cachaca dos atores, para o sustento do ordenanca Ze Pito, que carregava sua espada antes que ele entrasse em cena; para a sua prOpria farda copiada de uma gravura colorida, corpo inteiro, de urn almirante de verdade, vista numa revista qualquer, aprontada por Emerenciana, a mais habil costureira das -adjacencias, possuidora de uma maquina Singer ganha como premio d'A Portuguesa. Vestido para a cena, peito estufado, Ze Pito de marinheiro corn umas fitinhas verdeamarelas que lhe davam uma patente, carregando a espada que fora comprada prestacao a viava centenaria de urn Major da Guarda Nacional, Almirante Sini como almirante se considerava a partir dos primeiros dias de dezembro, sempre fardado todas as noites.

A primeira grande noite era a do ensaio geral. Toda a tripulacao arrastava pelas ruas e ladeiras uma barca do tipo das antigas naus portuguesas, montada sobre rodas. Ficava colocada diante de um palanque em frente a igrej a: o navio, no mar, a principio e impelido por ventos 36

favoraveis, mas no fim da viagem ve-se trial: as noticias davam conta de que o em apuros. A causa do mau tempo custa Almirante Pederneiras Sobral pretendia a ser conhecida, mas por fim a tripulacao visitar os centros industriais da regiao, d'escobre que o diabo esta num congracamento nacional da Marinha no navio, sob a figura do corn os capitaes da indOstria. Intimagajeiro damesena. Canto.? mente, o Coronel Jose Inacio da Luz e dancas, piadas, a orques Pereira acalentava a iddia de que o tra, varando a noite, Almirante visitasse sua fabrica e chegou Almirante tudo coman- mesmo a pensar em mandar um emissario dando, prestes a ser sacri ao governador, pedindo-lhe que cony ificado para matar a fom dasse o Almirante Pederneiras Sobral da tripulacao. para um almoco em seu solar e ulna visita A barca esta 100 as suas instalacoes industriais, quando iluminadacomcord*sdJ con vocaria toda a sociedade local. lâmpadas,apracacheia,a Pensou, mas recuou por orgulho: eles orq u e str in h a afin ..os que viessem ao seu encontro.Eradono de instrumentos, ha os namo- uma gran de fabrica, de urn grande rados, os vet dedores de guloseimas, os latiffindio, de bichos e gente. Seria urn velhos sau&sistas das jornadas. Alin ridiculo se pedisse ao Almirante Pederirante SIN ordenanca ao lado, est ' neiras Sobral que o visitasse. Pior para o postado a lifts ' vinte metros de distaneia1 Almirante Pederneiras Sobral. exam inando tudo, aprovandq,todos estao A chegada do navio-escola coincidiu compenetrados. Casualtnente, olhatiara corn uma ideia brilhante que espoucou a esquerda e ve a mulher, contemplarido- no quengo do Almirante Sin. Esgotada a o, e uma mulata de cabelos I iso5 e \ lista das casas comerciais e das pessoas lustrosos, quer ser dele, ve-se. Altai - nta gradas que entrava ano e saia ano o Sin curva-se urn pouco, procura ajudavam para maior brilhantismo do mais refinado boa noute. Ela Fandango, eis que o Almirante Sin, todo sponde, abrindo a boca para o so ele urn sorriso, parou no meio de uma dentes alvos e certos. Almirante S ,praca e disse para Ze Pito: Olha, Pitinho, perde muito tempo, conhece sua forca acho que a coisa vai funcionar. Que coisa? ataca hoje a noute? A mulata balanca a Uma coisa que andava aqui dentro da cabeca. Depois da funcao, ele acrescenta. cuca sem eu saber o que era e que de Justo neste momento a orquestrinha da o repente fiquei sabendo. Pode dizer do sinal e ele se despede, numa curvatura, que se trata, meu Almirante. Nada mais seguido pot Ze Pito: Corn ticencrt4ou nada menos do que irmos aos industriais. comandar o fireu barco.

Nunca fomos. Vamos agora!, bradou. E No dia seguinte, e nos que vieram. Ze Pito, ao grito, desembainhou a espada Almirante Sini passou, a percorrer o e a ergueu, vibrante. Serenados os animos, comercio e as casas diisVessoas gradas, Ze Pito indagou por onde comecarnos? sempre seguido pelo brdenanca corn a Almirante Siri pensou urn nadinhae disse, espada, coletando 4inheiro para a categerico, quando voce levantou a folganca. No terceiro,4ia de sua andanca espada eu fiquei pensando no berro, atracou no Orto do #ecife urn navio- melhor dito no brado, que Dom Pedro escola, coniqecepcoes no palacio do deu numa folhinha das Fabricas lpiranga governo„ nori4clubes mais importantes, S. A. Vamos comecar por la. Foram no proprio VI°, os jornais estampando procurar o Ford de Guabela, contrataram noticias, rnanchetes e fotos. a viagem, Ze Pito junto ao motorista, 0 Coronel Jose Inacio da Luz Pereira, espada entre as pernas. Sini arras, digno e dono exclusivo da Wiea de Botoes teso, o chapeu de almirante, a roupa de Ipiranga no prOspe „limn icipio de almirante, um almirante.

Ribeirao, entre 0 Coronel Jose Inacio da Luz Pereira, , _.:, a capi In' e Palmares, lii os jornais pop° is café, a noite a mesma hora, estava acabando de ler o .. .„ recebendo ottunigos iir correligionatios jornal, na varanda do seu solar, delicianpoliticos, hotas a fio rtscutindo precos do-se e mordendo-se de raiva, ao mesmo de utilidade* rnedi#as eleitoreiras, tempo, corn a noticia do banquete que problemas corn , eiteratios, situacao \ do fora oferecido ao Almirante Pederneiras municipio. 0 Coronel Jose Inacio da Luz Sobral pela Associacao Comercial, sendo Pereira era urn devorador de jornais e as orador o prOprio governador, o A Im irante noticias sobre o navio-escola passaram a agradecendo a proverbial hospitalidade ser motivo de palestras: a necessidade da da gloriosa provincia, terminando corn a formacao de jovens oficiais, o alto sentido frase lap idar que Tamandare havia da nossa Marinha de Guerra, os feitos de tornado emprestada ao seu colega Nelson Tamandare, a defesa de nOssas costas. espera que cada um cumpra o seu Uma coisa chamou a atencao do indus- dever. Del iciado e enraivecido foi

4

BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

chamado pelo lacaio em preto e vermelho para o desjejum, depois do jornal por efeito de sua inquietacao pelas noticias.

Sentou-se a mesa, afastou, como sempre, o grape-fruit que vinha semanalmente do sul, corn os olhos procurou o prato de ovos estrelados, a tigela de coalhada, a travessa de carne-de-sol, o canjirao de leite, e comecou a comer. 0 Coronel Jose Inacio da Luz Pereira empanturrou-se corn as coisas de que gostava, nao dando atencao aos pequenos bocados que Dona Amaliaespetava, del icadamente, na ponta do garfo. Terminado o repasto acendeu, ainda a mesa, indiferente a cara torcida da consorte, um charuto precioso, soltou umas quatro ou cinco baforadas, e voltou varanda para jiboiar, na sonolencia.

Tinha a impressao de que nem ao menos fechara os olhos quando ouviu uma zuada de palavras corridas, ais meu Deus. Abriu um olho e viu, na outra extremidade da varanda, o grupo dos familiares discutindo cota Ligario, o secretario. Tudo girava, compreendeu, em torno de umwdivergencia: se deveriam ou nao acorda-lo. Como estava acordado mesmo e ainda mais movido pela curiosidade, ja que nao respeitavam a sua madorna matinal, pigarrebu alto, todos silenciaram, anda, Ligurio. 0 secretario mais correu que andou. Que foi que houve? 0 secretario estava afogueado, arfante, so conseguiu dizer o Almirante.

E nada mais disse, mas lhe foi perguntado pelo Coronel Jose Inacio da Luz Pereira, na secreta esperanca de que o dito cujo houvesse sido assassinado, motivo para longas conversas a noite corn os correligionarios. Morreu? 0 secretario ficou ainda mais sacaricado. Esta aqui.

Onde?, berrou o Coronel Jose Mack) da Luz Pereira, nurn pubo que nao dava havia bem vinte anos. Ambos, o Coronel Jose lnacio da Luz Pereira e LigOrio A lcoforado dos Santos, como dois lutadores de faca, tomaram alento, respiraram fundo, se recompuseram. 0 secretario falou mais calmo: Quando digo aqui, quero dizer em Ribeirao. E quando me refiro a Ribeirao significo, mais precisamente, a lpiranga. Na fabrica?, murmurou o Coronel Jose Mack) da Luz Pereira, daqui em diante citado pelo seu apelido familiar de Nacinho. Na fabrica, articulou LigUrio A lcoforado dos Santos, daqui em diante, quando for citado, MeuLiga, sobejamente conhecido nas melhores pensiies da Coreia pelo meretricio media-alta. Me procurou?

Procurou. Dizendo o que? Quero falar corn o dono. Assim? Assim. E voces?

Que tern? Que lhe disseram? Nao dissemos, agimos. Como? Botei o Almirante no gabinete da presidencia, BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

pedi-lhe que tivesse a graca de aguard r urn pouco e vim a sua procura. Fez be disse Nacinho, afastando os familiare , buscando o paleto, nem foi preciso and r tanto, urn dos netos ja vinha corn el vestiu-o, desceu as escadas segutdo pi r Meu-Liga; tomou o automOvel q e arrancou corn uma raspagem.

Afundado numa poltrona de cour , Almirante Sin, que ja havia mandado ié Pito levantar-se por duas vezes, du vezes o ordenanca se sentando, comand u em posicao de sentido, ordenanca, n o brinque em servico, justo no momen o em que Nacinho invadia, afobado, o s u gabinete, estacando de snbito. Jama s pensara que o Almirante Pederneir s Sobral fosse negro. Dominou-se a cust , embora mais vermelho, adiantou-se •e mao estendida, forcando um sorris Almirante Sini desdobrou diante dele o seu metro e noventa, Ze Pito ao lado ma s parecendo urn anao ignorado pelo indu trial, as maos se encontraram, enquan Nacinho dizia alto ea born som Almirant é uma honra inusitada. Em seguida, dois, constrangidos por motivos di rentes, ficaram urn confronte ao outr son-iso estampado, ate que Sini pigarre u e comecou Coronel, outra coisa nao e traz aqui que nap seja, mas Nacinho n o deixou que ele continuasse, ja sei, ja s 1, Almirante, ja tornei conhecimento d s suas declaracoes atraves da nos a imprensa e por conseqijencia est u inteiramente as suas ordens. Sin, enta abriu a vitrina dos seus trinta e this dentes. Permita-me, Almirante, dis e ainda Nacinho, quando Ode respir r normalmente, mostrar-lhe a nos a humilde indtistria que contribui a s a maneira para a grandeza da nossa patri Antes, porem, necessito expedir algum s ordens. Desnecessario sera dizer q e Vossa Excelencia almocard comigo. S ri concordou corn outro sorriso, fique a vontade e me desculpe por um instante, saiu sem esperar resposta, Sini voltou a acomodar-se na poltrona de couro, levaria bem cinco contos de reis, pensou, Ze Pito, diante da situacao, nao se atreveu a sentar, mas arriscou uma pergunta, que é que ha, Almirante, Sini estendeu as pernas, fechou os olhos, eu nao lhe digo sempre que urn dia macaco e gente? Poucos instan s depois estavam saboreando o cafezin o que lhes levaram em bandeja de pr ta destinada aos visitantes ilustres.

Dai em diante, Sin, sempre escolta o por Ze Pito que conduzia a espada, ot

envolvido numa serie de acontecimentos.

Nacinho lhe mbstrou, corn todos os detalhes, o funcionamento da fabrica de botOes, o refeitorio dos operarios que para urn olho experimentado passara em questa° de meia hora por uma boa I impeza, os escritOrios, o armazem, tudo.

Sini so fazia concordar corn a cabeca, a tab ponto que Nacinho, jameio assustado, comentara baixinho para Meu-Liga ele raiz) faz urn comentario, por que sera?, ao que Meu-Liga respondera, tambem baixinho, o homem ë urn observador dos diabos. Finda a visita a fabrica, o apito apitando meiodia, rumaram de carro, Ze Pito ao lado do motorista corn o punho da espada a altura do queixo, Nacinho e Sini atras, para o solar do industrial. 0 carro transpos o enorme portao aberto pelos vigias de rifle em punho, fez a volta e parou ao pe da escadaria. Quando Sid desceu, foi , recebido por uma salva de palmas. Erguendo a cabeca, sempre sorridente, ele viu que o terraco estava apinhado de gente: Nacinho, as pressas, convocara todas as pessoas importantes da cidade, ate mesmo certos desafetos politicos. A multidao se compunha de senhores au,steros metidos em ternos de casimira, de senhoras vestidas como para urn baile, de senhoritas como se fossem debutar, de rapazes como se fossem viajar para a Europa. A multidao abriu alas, sempre batendo palmas, e Nacinho, ja entao arriscando-se a pegar o Almirante pelo braco, conduziu-o, escoltados por Ze Pito. Os cochichos das damas redobravam a medida que o pequeno cortejo passava e o menos que se ouvia era que jamais tinham visto um negro tao bonito, ao que outras respondiam que nao se tratava de um negro mas de um almirante, e ao que ainda outras diziam que era isto que marcava a democracia brasiteira, os homens formando urn circulo envolvendo Nacinho e o Almirante corn seu ordenanca, charutos se acendendo, Sin baforando urn, acompanhando urn copo de uisque, aboletando-se. A conversa generalizou-se enquanto Sini se limitava a sonir, beber e balancar a cabeca. A uma pergunta mais direta — Qual o seu major prazer na vida, Almirante — ele respondeu, ja mais serio, comandar o meu barco, recebendo uma salva de palmas. E a uma observacao — Os marujos deveriam ser os servidores mais bem pagos do Brasil ele se saiu corn esta que todos consideraram de uma enorme sutileza: 37

de vontade, prendeu Eu me arranjo pescando caranLim arroto forte, foi guejo. Alguns mais maldosos ,,oltando-o devagaviram nesta resposta uma alusao rinho, pelas yentas, a velada a mergulhos em fundos mistura de vinhos E quando o Almirante levava-o rapidamente asseverou: Nunca bebi uma mais embriaguez, já via gostosa, todos pensaram que ele tudo como se atraves se referia a marca do uisque. de uma nevoa e ouvia embora urn almirante devesse apenas o burburinho estar acostumado ao escoces. das falas. A sobreNa enonne mesa do banmesa, espoucada a quete, o Almirante a cabeceira, champanha, o que the atras do espaldar-da cadeira Ze Pito corn a espada nos bracos como se se c,ausou urn certo susto. ouviu as palmas, tratasse de um nene, senhoras e senhores e distinguiu o vulto do Coronet Jose Inacio da Luz Pereira, na outra extrede ambos os lados, Nacinho na outra midade, levantando-se, de taca na mao, cabeceira, fibres e frutas cbloridas, falando, ele ouvia &alma coisa, realchegavam os criados. de I ibre, carregando mente, mas nao conseguia ligar ayes corn as travessas. 0 Almirante atrapalhou-se penas, era marinha, verdes mares, urn pouco corn a salada de maionese Henrique Dias, nossa raga, brasilidade, onde havia. de mistura. salmao e arenque, mas o vinho branco the foi dando âniiio qual cisne branco, navio-escola. integrae calor, ouvia o zun-zum da conversa, ora cab nacional, defesa das nossas costas, a se voltava para a an fitrioa, ora para uma fina-flor, Brasil. 0 Coronet Jose Inacio da Luz Pereira ergueu a taca, gritou Urn senhora mais gorda que uma porca bern cevada, balancava a cabeca, sorria. viva. todos se levantaram. ele tambem, a Quando teve de servir-se do peixe o taca tremia em suas maos, bebeu tudo de uma vez, todos se sentaram, ele permabicho escapuliu, dancou na beira da neceu em pe, todos os olhos estavam travessa, a senhora gorda deu urn gritinho, fitos nele, esperavam alguma coisa, o o peixe aprumou-se, toda a mesa caiu na gargalhada, o Almirante é formidavel!, que?, o tempo ia passando, ouviam-se mas o Almirante estava a essa altura alguns pigarros, seus olhos. bacos, suando mesmo, de agonia, dele jã se passavam por bigodes, seios opulentos, exalava o cheiro do bodum, discretamente - cabelos grisalhos, flores, copos, pratos, a anfitrioa levava o guardanapo ao nariz. viu atraves das janelas o ceu e as arvores, Sini olhou desanimado para o seu prato e pensou marco carreira e ninguem me para os talheres que o cercavam. Teve pega, os cochichos cresciam. o Coronet um lampej o de inte I igencia, esperou que Jose Inacio da Luz Pereira levantou-se e alguns comecassem a servir-se, catou veio cam inhando para ele, chegou-se ao entre os talheres, achou os adequados, lado, Ze Pito perfilou-se, em posicao de' esquisitos, nunca imaginara, comeu e sentido!, a espada como urn fuzil, no bebeu mais. Conseguiu atravessar as ayes ombro, era chique, achava, o Coronel e as carnes, jamais comera tanto em toda Jose Inacio da Luz Pereira balancou a sua vida, sentia que Ze Pito. atrás da sua Negro Sin i pelo braco, Negro Sin i nem cadeira, sempre firme, estava se babando ,

coisa, o Coronet Jose Inacio da Luz Pereira comecou a dizer baixinho Almirante, Almirante, foi levantando a voz ate berrar urn Almirante!!!. Negro Sin i olhou-o atraves da nevoa, o homenzinho continuou todos estao esperando .o seu discurso, mas que discurso?, conseguiu articular, embora engrolado, o discurso do Almirante Pederneiras Sobral que comanda o nosso navio-escola, honra da Marinha e. do Brasil, exemplo do continente americano, ripostou o Coronet Jose Inacio da Luz Pereira, e eu corn isso?, perguntou Negro Sin, cada vez mais bebado, eu so vim aqui mesmo buscar urn conto de reis, toda a mesa levantou-se de uma sO vez, como?, berrou o Coronet Jose Inacio da Luz Pereira, cambaleando como se houvesse levado urn soco na caixa dos peitos, como?, repetiu, como disse, Almirante Pederneiras Sobral? urn conto de reis por que? Negro Sin i fez o maior esforco para manter os olhos abertos e nao cambalear, firmou a lingua, destrincou os dentes, tomou a espada de Ze Pito, desembainhou-a, assumiu a atitude do Onto da folhinha das Fabricas Ipiranga S. A., berrou na nevoa, na tontura, no mareio, porque eu sou o Almirante Sini do Fandango Verdes Mares Bravios da Minha Terra da Freguesia de Nossa Senhora da Conceicao dos Palmares!

Hermilo Borba Carvalho Filho was born in Palmares, state of Pernambuco, in 1917.

He as a journalist, attorney, translator and writer.

The author died in Recife in 1976.

Among other books, he wrote the novels Os Caminhos da &Vidor) and So/ das Almas. This short story, "0 Almirante" is part of 0 General Estii Pintando, a book of short stories.

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One has to wonder if the little city of Speedway—an independently governed community within greater Indianapolis, Indiana—might soon be renamed "Little Brazil'. Brazilian mastery at the most acclaimed racing venue in the United States defies description. Consider these superlatives: Brazilians have accounted for seven of nine top three finishes over the past three years when they twice started from the pole position (fastest qualifier), won all three races and were twice named fastest rookie.

In 2001 Brazilians accounted for five of the top-ten finishing positions (1, 2, 5, 8 and 10). In 2002 three Brazilians finished in the lop-ten (1, 3 and 10). And now, in 2003, they complete an improbable sweep of the top three places in such matter-offact fashion that a national media reporter asked Helio to describe his disappointment after finishing behind teammate and fellow countryman Gil de Ferran.

For any Formula Indy driver to anticipate securing a second place finish at Indianapolis in his, or her, third year would be something. But Hello, in three appearances, had finished in first, first and, now, second-place. Success has become so expected that now it was simply taken for granted.

If Brazil's 1-2-3 sweep seems improbable at first glance it seems miraculous when examined more closely. Tony Kaman wasn't even expected to qualify his own car. Recovering from an accident earlier in the season he was still wearing an arm brace when qualifications took place. Had track legend Mario Andretti, recruited by team-owner and driver son Michael, successfully qualified Tony's car for him, Tony would have had to start from the last position in the 33-car field.

BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

Brazil All Over Gil de Ferran, H ho Castroneves and Tony Kan an complete unprecedented 1 2-3 sweep, marking a third stra ght year of Brazilian dominanc at Formula Indy's premiere competition. The three Brazili ns were separated by less than •nequarter second, marking the closest ever 1-2-3 finish in Indianapolis 500 history.

PHILLIP WAG NlER

No car has ever won at Indianapolis from any position lower than 28. Tony needed to begin the race from somewhere in the first five rows to be competitive. A near deadly accident in pre-qualification practice convinced the elder Andretti to reconsider the "opportunity" son Michael had afforded him. Injured or not, Tony would have to "tough it out" and qualify his own car. And did Tony ever "tough it out"; he posted a four lap qualifying average that had him securely on the pole until Helio edged him out late on qualification day.

Hello, for his part, was vying for an inconceivable first-place-finishes-only "three-peat". Inconceivable because no one else had ever won three consecutive Indy 500 races in the 92 years since the inaugural competition in 1911. And Hello was trying to accomplish it in the only three years he had ever competed at Indianapolis. And it would have been an improbable feat, in any case, just because a driver has to be almost as lucky as he, or she, is gocd just to finish three consecutive 500 milc races on crowded tracks at speeds of up to 240 miles an hour.

But Gil de Ferran, more than anyone at the end ofthis race day, stood for the magic and the mythology, the courage and the dedication, that the approachable and entertaining Brazilians have come to represent at Indianapolis. Only two months after suffering a lower back fracture in a race at Phoenix, Gil strapped himself into his red and white Marlboro/Johns Manville TeamPenske G-Force Toyota 'rocket' and posted the 10th fastest qualifying speed.

Then he strapped himself in again to tackle 500 miles on a track crowded with nine Indianapolis 'rookie' drivers. A journalist asked Gil if he had experienced pain 39

by the end of the race. "I was in pain I have to admit," he said "Half way through the race my shoulders started cramping. I really had a hard time putting my hands up, especially the left hand. It was getting more and more and more and more painful, really. It was getting more and more difficult to block (the pain) out."

From the outset it appeared that the two fastest qualifiers, Castroneves and Kanaan were going to run away from the field. On laps five through eight Hello consistently posted lap speeds exceeding 225 miles an hour. Meanwhile, Brazilian Felipe GiaffOne, who finished 3rd last year, suffered a disappointing early exit. His car lost power on lap seven, forcing him into the pits; the problem could not be resolved.

De Ferran patiently held his ground around positions ten or eleven. On lap nine an engine problem that forced another competitor to the sidelines prompted a "yellow flag," which slowed the field to a cautionary pace until the track could be inspected and or cleaned. Kanaan, and later Castroneves, took advantage ofthe 'paced' progress to complete scheduled pit stops for checking and/or changing tires and topping off fuel.

Castroneves relinquished the lead when he entered the pits on lap 16. The lead remained out of Brazilian hands until Tony Kanaan recovered it with 25 percent of the race completed, on lap 50. But Kanaan immediately gave it up to South African Tomas Scheckter who maintained the lead through lap 94 with the exception of 10 laps led by Kanaan's teammate Michael Andretti. Castroneves recaptured the lead on lap 95, but yielded it again on lap 100, at the halfway point of the race. Scheckter led for 27 of the next 28 laps before Castroneves recovered it once more. From that time forward the Brazilians would lead all but three of the remaining 72 laps.

As Castroneves and Kanaan re-established their competitive edge, Gil (de Ferran) quietly and successfully stalked the competition in front of him. Ditto for Brazilian Airton Dare who began from where Tony Kanaan might have started at position 33. Dare moved up to as high as 2"d place and maintained a threatening 7th 40

place position before experiencing mechanical problems that led to him crashing into the wall on turn two, ending his day.

Rookie Brazilian V itor Meira displayed uncanny veteran good-sense and capable driving to keep out of trouble and gain position as attrition eliminated cars in front of him. By lap 160, Castroneves, de Ferran and Kanaan had long been running 1-2-3.

Kanaan inherited the lead on lap 166 when Castroneves and de Ferran pitted, but Kanaan himself pitted a lap later giving it up to Scheckter. Scheckter did likewise, passing the lead to bra Takagi, who appeared to be about to pass it back to Castroneves on lap 170. But de Ferran made a move, sliding past Castroneves when Hello got caught up in traffic on a turn and had to hit the brakes while downshifting into 4th gear. Castroneves quickly recovered, but Gil was already by him.

And Kanaan was suddenly closer than a bullet's shadow to both of them.

Track anxiety was palpable as de Ferran, Castroneves and Kanaan screamed around the two and a half-mile oval as if connected back to back to back. Hello was fingertip close to making history; so close it seemed he must have been able to taste it. But teammate Gil de Ferran was driving flawlessly, and appeared to be strong enough to hold him off. Come what may, Team Penske would not sanction a controversial "ordered" finish, as had been the case in Indianapolis last September when Formula One Team Ferrari's Michael Schumacher pulled aside to allow Rubens Barrichello to take the checkered flag.

Advised "not to do anything stupid" Castroneves and de Ferran were left to their own devices to determine the outcome. Three "three-peat" victories were at stake here, one for Castroveves, one for Team Penske and one for Brazil. De Ferran threatened one of them and Kaman two, but it appeared Brazil was destined to have a great day barring unforeseen mechanical failure or an accident.

The atmosphere vacillated between anticipating a three-car race-to-the-finish showdown and deflated expectations as three incident-triggered yellow-flag cautions were declared in the final 30 laps. The most spectacular, and the one that may have sealed Hello's fate and allowed Gil his own place in the pantheon of victors at Indianapolis, was truly heart-stopping.

British Dan Wheldon's red and white Klein

Tools/Jim Beam Dallara Honda crushed into a wall and flipped over so that the driver was head down as the momentumdriven wreckage scraped across the track.

In the ensuing confusion many trackside spectators first concluded that Hello had crashed, owing to the fact that Wheldon's red and white car was so similar in appearance to Team Penske's two red and white entries. Bits of wreckage were strewn across the track, delaying clean-up and denying Hello precious green-flag laps that might have provided more 'opportunity for another move on de Ferran.

But in a post race press conference, Castroneves was quick to concede the obvious: "It's one of those deals that you just don't know. My car was extremely well balanced, so any mistake that might have happened I would've had the location. But I spoke with Gil after the race and he said that he was flat out. So I guess I'm glad that nothing more happened because I think that maybe we'd of been in a tough ('head to head') situation ...".

The final six laps were run under the green flag, but Gil was just too strong for the stuck-like-glue Castroneves and shadow Kanaan. De Ferran, Castroneves and Kanaan were all separated by less than one and a quarter second, marking the closest ever 1-2-3 finish in Indianapolis 500 history. De Ferran's edge over Castroneves was the third closest between the number one and number two cars.

De Ferran, who'd finished second to Castroneves in 2001, was overcome with emotion following the race. "I'll tell you, it's hard to describe in words what I'm feeling right now," de Ferran said. "It's just unbelievable for me. You always dream of winning a race like this. Words escape me right now." Words didn't escape Team Penske President Tim Cindin though. "If there's a guy that deserved to win this race it's the guy that won today. He's a class act, he's great for the sport".

Phillip Wagner is a regular contributor to Brazzil and is working on additional material for a future article covering the history of Brazil's love affair with racing.

Phillip can be reached via email at pwagneriei.net and maintains a web site at httu://www.iei.nett—pwagner/ brazilhome.htm .

BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

Castroneves Thrill Is Back It seems appropriate that Brazilian racecar driver Flelio Castroneves, whose exuberant fence climbing after victories has infused 'the mother of all Indianapolis Racing League events' with a new level of excitement, should lead another Brazilian charge.

PHILLIP WAGNER

BRA7_ZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

The sun has rarely been as reliable or consistent at the Indianapolis 50 in consecutive classics, as were Brazilian racecar drivers i 2001 and 2002. But will the sun and/or the Brazilians shine again this year? Five Brazilians shattered expectations by nishing among the top-seven drivers two years ago when Hello astroneves took his first checkered flag at the famed 'Brickyar .I '. And last year Bruno Junqueira, Tony Kanaan and Gil de Ferran all joined eventual repeat winner Castroneves in leading that r e at one time or another.

Although onl De Ferran joined Castroneves among the topten finishers in 2102, Brazilians accounted for a total of 7 out of the 20 top place (10 each year) at Indianapolis in the 85th and 86th installments (35 percent). Missing from each of those 'honor rolls' are irton Dare and Raul Boesel. The now-retired long-time Indian: polls 500 veteran Raul Boesel from Curitiba (now in Sao Pau ) ran as high as 7th in 2002 and finished 16th in 2000. Dare, ho competed in each of the last two years, finished 13th in 2102.

It seems appre priate that Hdlio Castroneves, whose exuberant fence climbi g after victories has infused 'the mother of all Indianapolis Rating League events' with a new level of excitement, should lea another Brazilian charge. Castroneves faced a bevy of reporte s during a noon hour break from open testing.

"When you get ere on that Sunday, the Sunday of the race" Castroneves tol • a reporter last Wednesday, "and you see the 500,000 fans in t e stands ... and you go into the first corner in the start ... you t ink, 'Oh my god everything is different here' ... its an incredi le feeling". I guess that's why they call it the 'greatest specta e in racing'.

Cameras flas ed and microphones nudged each other aside as Hello responded to questi ins on pit row not far from where legend Mario Andretti was also answering uestions. "Its difficult to describe" Hello said.

"It's such an amazing place; i 's the tradition of this place that calls attention to everyone. When you're h re in dip paddock, in the pits, they show the history of this place ... you t,:n't stop dreaming about (it)".

I guess we can forgive th two time defending champion, a good looking eligible bachelor with a clas ic Brazilian accent, for feeling a little intoxicated. At only 27 he's alrea y trying to three-peat in one of international sports most challenging and heart-pounding competitions at racing's most hallowed venue.

"This place is very tricky 'he continued. "You know you always have to watch those flags on the t p of the pagoda. You always have to keep watching the wind because a sudden wind change might cost you anew car.

You always have to pay atte tion and never underestimate this place. You have to respect it." Infusing humor with Brazilian bravado'he turned to a New Zealand television cre and added, with a smile and a twinkle in his eye "Hey guys. Sorry, but it's go na be a three-peat, so, it's not gonna be (New Zealander) Scott Dixon. Bu maybe it will be number two for him". Scott Dixon would do well to finis even second though. The 22 year-old, who will be making his debut appear. iice at Indy and who recently underwent surgery for a broken wrist still plans to race. But finishing so high as a 22 year-old rookie with a broken wrist ould be asking a lot.

After the media erush one on one with Hello As the media melted awa Hello and I began walking together toward his Team Penske garage. I was sking him about the struggle for Formula Indy to get attention in Brazil. "In • y car in Brazil, Formula Indy, it's basically the same (oval) we're running r ght now. Indy became popular when Emerson (Fittipaldi) started winning. . (when he) won the Indianapolis 500 in 1989.

Before that I don't think : azilians were very familiar with that". Yes, I acknowledged, but doesn't e popularity of Formula One have something to do with it too? "I do think : razilians have a tradition of Formula One" he responded. "For so many ye rs there were so many great Brazilian drivers (that) were champions ... th t kept the focus in Formula One. But not only that ... the broadcasting of ormula One ... they were given more support than Indy ... that's why it s such a big difference in Formula One than in the Indy car". I asked if he cant that was because media giant 0 Globo sponsors Formula One. "Ye ," he said, "exactly, absolutely. You hit the nail on the head".

"I came here in 1996," elk) offered. "I was living in Columbus, Ohio, racing for Tasman Motor Sp s rts. They're based over there. I stayed there for one year and, actually, the c s Id weather was too strong for me. Basically, I am from Brazil with tropic I weather, as you know, so I decided to go to 41

Miami. And since then I live in Miami, where I live right now. I enjoy it because a lot of Brazilians are living there. So it's pretty good".

I asked how often he gets back to Brazil. "Oh, not much. It's like three, four times a year. I'm from Sao Paulo (city). I was born in Sao Paulo, but I was raised in the countryside in a place called Ribeirao Preto, which is translation for 'black stream'. I'm from the redneck country," he said with a smile "lets put it this way". For the curious, Ribeirao Preto is north/northwest of Americana and Campinas, about 150 miles from Sao Paulo city.

I asked if Hello believed that the Brazilian drivers at Indianapolis were becoming a great source of pride for Brazilians here in the U.S. "Well, it's for sure," he responded. "But first of all I would say that the American people and American country give us a great opportunity and that's priceless, you know, to come over here to work hard and be recognized with all the fans, all the media, everyone. So it's very nice to have a chance to exhibit our skills. I feel great to be over here. And sometimes I even look to my country and I say 'look, they like me more over here'. But I understand the thing about the media, as you just mentioned". Is Hello recognized in Brazil?

"No, not at all, not like here. It's nice to be in a place that they will welcome you, and for sure in America they do".

Relative to the U.S., Hello acknowledged the growing problem of violence in Brazilian cities. "Brazil has a lot of violence problems and unfortunately that's the bad thing in our country right now. It's just a shame. Sao Paulo has constantly been that way. Rio I remember was up and down. At one point it was like extremely stupid and then it got like the military police and the violence came down". I suggested that might have been in the mid-1990s when Rio was trying to secure an Olympic bid. "That's right.

That's right," he said "That's what happened. Now we're back again because of those drug dealers and whatever. So it's not good".

I asked Helio if he didn't think that maybe it was long overdue for a South American nation, and specifically Brazil, to host an Olympics, noting that either Rio or Sao Paulo would again soon be put forward as a candidate by the Brazil Olympic Committee. "For sure, if we put everything together. We do have the potential. We're capable to do that.

We Brazilians are warm and can welcome anyone into our country. I'm sure it would be a good thing, as long as they (the authorities), obviously, can make it very secure and safe. I see no problem to do that".

"I drive, but she steers" I asked Helio if he had brought any of his family over here. "My sister Katiucia 42

is working with ine and she is not only Miami, so I see them all in Miami: Helio, working with me, but she takes care of all Gil (De Ferran), all of them". I asked ifhe mY finances. She's a fantastic person, knew Raul Boesel, who had long been a favorite of mine. "Yeah. He's a good she's my right arm, both arms, she's great person and I'm very happy to have friend, but he moved back to Brazil". To Curitiba, I asked, from where he origiher here with me". nated? "No, he's living in Sao Paulo Twenty-nine-year-old Katiuci Castroneves joined her charismatic pow". I asked how often Tony gets back brother in 1992, when he began what to Brazil. "Four times a year, five times a track mavens call 'open wheel' racing year". And is he recognized in Brazil? with Vauxhal I (Brazilian Formula "Yeah. I mean, we obviously have a lot of Chevrolet). Her financial management Brazilian racecar drivers. But yeah, credentials stem from receiving a Busi- people know who lam. We're competing ness Administration degree from Sao against Fl but I think it's only gonna get Paulo's University Fundacao Armando better, as long as we keep winning races Alvarez Penteado (FAAP). In actual fact, and try to bring (more of) the Brazilian Katiucia is more versatile than her de- race car drivers up ... I think it might get gree might seem to imply. She wears a little more interest (in Brazil)".

I mentioned the notable success of many hats in support of Who's career: Brazilian drivers the past couple of years management, financial, marketing etc.

According to Helio, "Katiucia is my and asked Tony if he believed it was biggest fan, and was never against my generating more respect for Brazilians in decision to be a race car driver. She is the Indy car circuit. We have a pretty always there to support me, and she at- good reputation about having good race tends almost all ofmy races. The funniest car drivers just because that's the nature thing is when something happens, (for of Brazilian drivers in motor sports. But, example when there is) a mechanical obviously, everybody wants to be a race problem. Then she gets really, upsetand ; car driver overthere". Over the last couple talks with everybody on the teanSheL of years when he's gone back to Brazil, always worries about me, and always has Tony noticed that the drivers here wants to know that everyth ing,is firie with have gotten a little more notoriety? "I me, that I am eating well etc. lliketo say think they (Brazilians) just got to know the series a little bit better. I mean, they • that I drive, but she steers", Interview Interrupted/talking with always knew us. Indy was something new but obviously now they're getting more Tony Kanaan When Fldlio had to ansvver tel •iitto it."

Back to Hello Castroneves phone call and slip away for a timeinto Shortly after Tony had to excuse himthe garage Ipncountered his fellow Brazilian and gotid friend Tony Kanaan com- self, Hello reappeared and we continued ing out of all adjacent garage. His left our earlier conversation. We returned to wrist was broken when he crashed at the the subject of Hello's family, which I Japan 300 oftfApril 111h,,, and-his injuries discovered consists only of himself, his included a,Weration in one thigh that 29 year-old sister and his parents. I asked required 10,3titches to Oldie. I asked' if he sees himself going back to Brazil Tony if he'clIbe healed in dine fiarlhis when he's done racing. "Yes, but I someyear's 500. "I'm out for qualifying, but times wish not to, to be honest. I wish not I'll be back in the race for sure. Hopefully because I really love this country and I Mario (Andretti) will do itforme (qualify enjoy to be here. But, obviously, my Tony's car) and will do a. good job And ,background, my family and everyone, my friends, are from there. I see my then I'll take it from there.; That, at least was the thinking before ,family a lot, my parents come here for a Mario pulled a 'flying Wallenda' by flip- month and I go there, and then they come ping theç r three or four times in an 'here for another month. I get to see them accident that . caused a lot and we're very attached. But my airborne test him to reconsider his potential role. point is, I feel so much involved here, I Michael Andretti is owner of the Team feel so comfortable here that I wish to Green-Andretti racing team that Tony stay here. But, unless I marry an Ameridrives for and had asked his 63 year-old can.., then maybe I will stay here". He father, an icon at the,t track, to qualify continued: "Looking at all the Brazilian ,drivers: Emerson (Fittipaldi), Nelson Tony's car.

"I'm from the same place in Brazil as Piquet, Raul Boesel, everyone, basically Hello," Tony commented. "We red 'went back to Brazil after they were done together for a long time. We were team- racing. Sol believe that's what I will do".

Just a regular guy mates when we came to the United States I wondered if Hello missed Brazilian in 1996. !won the Indy Lights champion- , ship in 1997 and Hello finished second. food and music. "I do miss my mom's We both went to Champ (CART) cars in food actually". So, does Helio's mother 1998, and then he moved up to I RL a year make a 'mean' feijoada? "I really don't eat pork and I don't eat red meat" he said. before I did".

Does he see an .ofthe other Brazilian "I do eat chicken Milanese, which is a drivers regularly?, y efh, they all live in pasta dish. And I do miss the rice and BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

beans sometimes". What about music?

"I like more the Carnaval, Ivete Sangalo, Daniela Mercury. I have a lot of Brazilian favorites, but I don't have a specific one". Thinking back to my conversation with Tony (Kannan) I asked again about Helio being able to travel in Brazil without being recognized. "In Brazil I'm just a regular guy and even here when I know somebody it's the same way, I treat them the same way. I've always been very down to earth. Not only that, but I've been a fan once. I know what it's like to be wanting to get an autograph or take a picture of someone".

I related personal experiences I'd had with people like Marisa Monte and Hans Stern that led me to conclude Brazilian celebrities are special in the way they interact so warmly with people. "Well, it is a way that we try to be," said Hello.

"We know how tough it is in the background. Nothing came easy for me. I had to work hard, In anything in life if you work hard you can achieve it".

Early family life and racing roots What was Helio's childhood like?

What did his father do for a living? "My father used to be a businessman. Now he is retired, but he used to be a businessman selling plumbing and pipes in Brazil.

And actually that's what got me into racing, his business helped me a lot in most of my career in the beginning. Without him I wouldn't be here today. My family was very supportive and the good news today is that I am able to return it back".

I related how Tony (Kanaan) mentioned to me that they'd arrived in the United States as teammates. I asked if they had been racing together in Brazil.

"We raced in go-karts. Not only with him, but also with Felipe Giaffone and Bruno Junqueira. Yeah, we were racing together like since we were 13, 14 years old". Go-kart racing in Brazil must be a big deal, I said, because I knew that (Raul) Boesel had gotten his start go-kart racing in Curitiba. "It's big in Brazil," said Helio. "It's a kind of school for beginning race drivers, and for sure it's the best way to learn, and obviously the cheaper way and the safer way".

Do a lot of people attend go-kart races in Brazil? "A lot of people, yes". I asked ifthey competed in different cities.

"Yes" he replied. "For me it was normally in the state, you know So Paulo state. But we did have like a Brazilian national championship that involved everyone from all of Brazil". In fact, Castroneves won the Brazilian National go-kart Championship in both 1989 and 1991. "And even I went to the World (Cup) Series in Italy," he said. There he finished fourth.

From go-karts to IRL So how did Hello and Tony progress from go-kart racing to IRL? "I went to Vauxhall, or formula Chevrolet, which is BRAZZIL • MAY/JUNE 2003

like formula Ford, and then onto Form la 3 in (Brazil and) England. Its just a lea ning curve from go-karts to the Brazili Vauxhall, to Formula 3, to Indy Lig ts (or, now, Pro Series), to CART and I Who's father was his primary source financial backing until he signed w th Formula 3. That happened in 1993 after Castroneves finished second in is only year competing in the Brazili Vauxhall series. Helio got plenty of ttention in 1995 when he raced in t British Formula 3 Championship Ser es and finished in the top-ten six times. or the two-preceding years he'd compet in the Brazilian Formula 3 Champi nship Series, finishing second overall e year.

The now defunct Indy Lights (v 1ously spelled `Lites' by some sourc s) series used to sponsor a test in Phoen x, inviting 5 or 6 Brazilian drivers and additional 4 or 5 drivers from other La in American countries. Marlboro, one of Helio's Formula 3 sponsors [Heft° n drives for Marlboro Team Penske] as him if he would mind testing for In Lights. "Formula 3 cars at that time w re like 200 horsepower", said Tony " Indy Lights (comparable to what is n called the Pro Series) was like 400 hor epower. So I said yeah, because I wan to try more horsepower. At that ti there were only two seats (openin s) available and Tony and I did well were selected, And that's where my areer started in America".

That was in 1996. Hello compete in Indy Lights for two years, earning 'f ur victories and finishing second overal in 1997 (behind Tony Kanaan) by the n rrowest ever margin in series history. Si ce jumping to CART in 1998, Hello as continued to build on his impressive areer performance totals, most nota ly with his back-to-back Indianapolis 500 victories in 2001 and 2002.

Looking ahead to this year's ra How are things looking for the B azilians in 2003 at Indianapolis? A d, having come so far in such a short ti e, how does Hello feel about his o chances? On balance, Brazilians are f cing greater challenges this year. Thi five-year-old Gil de Ferran, a three-ti starter in the Indianapolis 500, suffere a concussion and some broken verteb ae in a Phoenix CART race on March 2 rd.

The Championship Auto Racing Te m, or CART, broke away from the I dy Racing League several years ago nd now competes with it — but in rec nt years has also rejoined the fray at In lanapolis.

De Ferran is two-time CART Se ies champion. It isn't clear to me that Gil ill still be able to run in this year's 510.

Tony Kanaan, of course, is also injur d.

But Tony, who is second in IRL poi ts this season, has already been fitted wi ha brace and test-driven a go-kart to c n-

firm that his wrist injury won't prevent him from participating. Raul Boesel, as previously noted, is now retired.

So is Castroneves feeling any pressure as two-time defending champion at Indianapolis? Is Helio feeling any pressure to defend Brazilian pride in the face of injuries to Brazilian drivers and their depleted ranks? If he is, he wasn't showing it. "I'm enjoying every second of this place," he insisted. "This place is so incredible, and I feel such a blessed person to be in the position that I am". I wondered aloud though, if Helio understood how blessed the whole Indy series family must feel to have him carrying the Indy 500 championship banner, because he shows so much enthusiasm, which is so incredible. "Well, I'm an emotional guy" he said. "Everybody knows that. I really enjoy what I do so it's not really work; it's a pleasure. And, not only that.

I'm sure any person would like to be in my shoes. When I wake up in the morning I say 'thank you, God' to make me who.! am. But I also am stressful sometimes, nervous. I'm a human being. But I just try to express my good feelings, and that's why I want to win the race. It's not easy to win a race, it's a lot ofhard work but it's not only this moment. I remember how tough it was to get here and so that's why I just enjoy every second".

I asked Hello about what he recalled about the finish in that first year when he won, when he was nearing the very end of the race. Was he just waiting for something to go wrong? Seeing Mario Andretti earlier had reminded me of the hard-luck that had befallen many great drivers at the last possible moment. "I just saw the number 2 back markers on the last lap and! thought 'you gotta be kidding me'," he said. "And there I was on the last lap having Gil (De Ferran) right behind me.

I almost couldn't believe it was happening".

So, kidding to the New Zealand TV crew aside, is Hello ready to predict anything forthe 87th running ofthe Indianapolis 500? Hello responded: "I wish! had a crystal ball you know. What I'm gonna predict is I will do my best. I have a fantastic team to be working with, and I'm gonna enjoy every second again".

Phillip Wagner is a regular contributor to Brazzil. Other of his articles, including his accounts of each of the two previous Indianapolis 500 races, may be viewed at his web site at http:// www.ielnet/—pwagner/brazilhome.htm So many other of his articles covering a broad range of topics from the Music industry to land reform. Phillip's Biazil site is extensive and includes Brazilian recipes, photographs of Rio and Sao Paulo, information on social programs serving favelados in Bahia, and more.

The author can be reached at pwagner@iei.net 43

erican audiences will i av the chance to know of filmmaker Aluizio bran es, one of the most novative directors making ovies, in Brazil today. Here he talks to Brazzil about the public reaction to his work, his love of film and the state of filmmaking in Brazil.

FELIPE CASTANEDA

44

Filmmaker Aluizio Abranches has Festival in New York. an annual presenbeen recognized at home, in Europe, and tation of contemporary Latin American on the international film festival circuit cinema. Brafzil spoke with him followas one of the most innovative artists in ing the film's screening at the festival.

Brazzil—American audiences got today's Brazilian cinema, yet' recognitheir first chance to see the film in tion in the United States is late in coming. early April at the Havana Film FestiAlthough his 1999 debut feature Urn Copo de Coler'a (A Fit al Rage, available in val in New York. How did the audiences at the festival respond to the VHS) won the Panorama Award at the film?

Berlin Film Festival and enjoyed comAluizio Abranches Actually betmercial success in European release, the film was never shown to American audi- ter than I had expected. Apparently they liked the film very much and they stayed ences. for the Q&A that lasted more than a halfAbranches' second feature, As Tres Marias (The Three Marias), also played hour. I was not even planning to do that, in major international film festivals and but as the audience stayed then so did I. They found it very different, especially was shown in European features, but the narration, but I had the impression unlike Urn Copo de Colera this film has been picked up for American theatrical they were taken by it. Someone in the release. Empire Pictures, an influential audience said it was a very delicate film.

U.S. distributor of European and Asian That can sound weird for As Tres Marias. but I liked it somehow agreed with them. productions, has chosen As Tres Marius Brazzll—How did audiences in Braas its first Latin American offering. The film will have its American theatrical zil and Europe react to the film?

Aluizio Abranches—Very well. It premiere on May30 at Cinema Village in New York (www.c inemav illage.com) and was shown in many festivals, including is scheduled to play in other major cities Berlin in 2002. In Italy, it actually went across the United States throughout the over better than in Brazil. The distributors there, Teodora Films, did a much spring and summer.

As Tres Marias is a violent, disturb- better job releasing it in Italy then they ing drama about the consequences of did in Brazil. My first picture was also very successful in Italy. Teodora Films being obsessed by revenge. The story focuses on Filomena Capadocio, the actually began their distribution work in matriarch of a family who is abruptly Italy with Urn Copo de Co/era and since visited by tragedy. Filomena's husband then the company has now released about 30 films and became very successful. and two sons are brutally murdered by They got some money out of Urn Copo de the sons of Firm ino Santos Guerra. Thirty years earlier, Filomena had been engaged CO/era and they decided to invest in As Tres Marias, which they are now releasto Santos Guerra but left him before their wedding to marry his rival Borges ing in Italy. I think they are going to be Capadocio. The result ofthis union filled part of my next project.

Brazzil—We didn't get to see Um Santos Guerra with rage and he promised to someday exact revenge on the newly Copo de COlera in the United States.

What happened? married couple.

Aluizio Abranches—No, my first Filomena buries her husband and sons feature film was not released in the U.S. and begins to set plans to have revenge I don't know if it is because of the lanagainst the Santos Guerra family. She guage. American audiences are not used brings together her three daughters (Maria Francisca, Maria Rosa and Maria Pia) to watching films with subtitles. In Braand sends them off into the backlands of zil, 90 percent of our films are American Brazil to locate and hire three ruthless and we watch them with subtitles. But killers. Maria Francisca has to find the now in the U.S. there is a growing Latin gunman known as Ze das Cobras, who population in Miami, California and New York, so maybe there is a growing marhas not spoken to a woman since the death of his mother. Maria Rosa looks ket for these films. That's why I am glad for Chief TenOrio, a backwoods cop who •As Tres Marias will be released here by is also a knife specialist, and persuade Empire Pictures, because unless you have him to break the laws he defends. Maria a blockbuster picture like City of God it Pia goes off in search of Jesulino Cruz, isyery difficult for a Brazilian film to get also known as -The Devil's Horse," but an American release.

Brazzil—But in any event, not many there is a slight obstacle in her path: this Brazilian films play in the U.S. For killer is locked up in prison. those of us who do not have access to Abranches, who was born in Rio de today's Brazilian films, what is the Janeiro in 1961, recently previewed As Tres Mcirias at the local Havana Film state of filmmaking in Brazil?

BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

Aluizio Abranches—I would say Brazil produces around 49 films a year, that's increasing from the last two-tofour years. There was a period end of 1980s to mid 1990s that Brazilians made one or two films a year, including one children's film. Film production began to increase in 1995, during the government of Itainar Franco, when he created a new law that subsidized companies investing in a film with tax deductions. It worked, but for a company to invest $3 million the film would have to pay back $30 million to make a profit. It's not the solution for the Brazilian cinema, but is has worked for the past few years.

Brazzil—How did you get into the film business? Was this always your career goal?

Aluizio Abranches7—No, I originally studied economics. I finished my university studies at the Faculdade Candid° Mendes in 1982 when I was 20 and then I went to London to do a Masters in economics. I was always interested in film, grovving up watching Buftuel, Fellini, Godard, Truffaut, and some ofthe American classics like Elia Kazan's Splendor in the Grass (I watched it 25 times), Hitchcock, Woody Allen. Although I was very much interested in films, I didn't know I could make them. But when I

went to London I kept passing the ondon International Film School. On day I went in and asked what I could dot get into the school and they gave m an application to prepare. And a m inth later -I got started in the film school Brazzil—After you graduated f om the school in 1984, you worked i an associate level on several Amer can productions based in Latin Ame ica, including Moon Over Parador nd Where the River Runs Black. How an you compare the focus of an Amer n film production to a Brazilian ihn production? ' Aluizio Abranches—They were ery different films from the ones I am ow making, mainly because they were de by major U.S. film companies vvi a commercial focus. I have nothing aga nst that, as 1 want to make.a big commer ial success (it's my fantasy). In Brazil t ere are films made with that purpose, nd that is fine since it ,is what makes the industry go on. And there are Ameni an films with the filmmaker's distinct si ature as well. The ideal, of course, is w en you can make a film the way you nt and it's successful not only with the itics but with public attendance as wel Brazzil—What do you want au iences to take away from As T ês

Marias?

Aluizio Abranches--After I finish and release a film, I feel it is not mine any more. Everyone can have their own feelings and interpretations. However, there are some issues that interested me, especially what do you do when destiny interferes with your plans. Also, the code of violence and revenge, which is usually associated with men; but in the case ofAs Tres, Marias, women take revenge.

There is, however, one aspect that is very clear and that is violence and revenge doesn't take you anywhere. It doesn't matter what reason is behind it, even in the film's case where revenge comes after great pain. We should remember one thing about an eye for an eye; Gandhi once said that if everybody did that the whole world would be blind.

For more information on the U.S. release of As Tres Marias, go online to http:// www. empirepicturesusa. com/ep/ show_movie.asp?title=10017 Felipe Castaneda is an Argentine writer currently based in New York. You may contact the author of this interview writing to ecoleetaee(&,vahoo.com

1-888-7-BRASIL 1-888-727-2745 510- 655-9904 laTh mariza@tropicaltour.net 4170 Piedmont Ave., Oakland - CA 94511

BRAZZIL -MAY/JUNE 2003

45

It was back in 1991, in New York City, as I remember it, in the office ofthe stock exchange where I used to work, that 1 found myself chatting with Mike, an African-American colleague of mine. We were discussing among other topics the relative popularity of Brazilian music with American lovers of jazz, and the fact of his being a big fan of both genres.

"But Joe," Mike pointed out to me, "Brazilian artists and musicians have been playing on pop and jazz recordings for over 20 years."

He offered as evidence three percussionists whose respective careers, in some cases, went as far back as the late sixties and early seventies: Airto Moreira, for Chick Corea's band Return to Forever; Paulinho Da Costa, in the Quincy Jonesproduced Michael Jackson album Thriller; and Nana Vasconcelos, with Pat Metheny's ECM works.

"You're kidding," I scoffed, unconvinced by this ridiculous observation, but after our conversation had ended and the day wore on, my curiosity started to get a hold of me.

I rushed home that night and thoroughly ransacked my living room in a mad attempt to read the credits and album covers on every one of my CDs, cassettes, and records, with the sole purpose of ultimately disproving my musicloving friend's offhand remark.

But to my utter amazement, I discovered that Mike was right. Gracing the liner notes of my precious music collection, and buried deep within the print type of that microscopic 8-point font, were the unmistakable, tongue tripping Brazilian names of Gilson Pen-anzzeta, Nico Assumpcao, Waltinho Anastacio, Duduka Da Fonseca, Claudio Roditi, Dori Caymmi, Leila Pinheiro, Paulo Braga, and so on.

I needed no further convincing.

To state the obvious, no ja77 or popular recording artist, whether ofthe past or present, has been able to completely resist the incredibly sultry sounds of Brazilian samba or her twin sister bossa nova.

For decades, the recordings and live appearances of singers, bandleaders, soloists and performers as varied and talented as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Dionne Warwick, Stan Getz, Charlie Byrd, Joe Henderson, Pat Metheny, Paul Simon, David Byrne, Al 46

Jan Can't Resist Brazil For decades, the recordings and live appearances of famous and less celebrated American singers, bandleaders, soloists and performers have featured Brazilian sidemen and session players or been influenced by Brazil's most sublime and precious commodity, her music.

JOE LOPES

Jarreau, Sting, Eric Clapton, and Sade, right down to the slightly less than mainstream outpourings ofDavid Benoit, Bob James, Don and Dave Grusin, Larry Coryell, George Duke, Lee Ritenour, Michael Franks, Basia, Spyro Gyra, The Rippingtons, and countless others, have featured Brazilian sidemen and session players or been influenced by Brazil's most sublime and precious commodity, her music.

Looking back now on my own initial shock at this revelation, I really shouldn't have been so surprised. After all, my wife had introduced me to the sensuous charms and gorgeous melodies of Brazilian jazz, samba, bossa nova and MPB (Mirsica Popular Brasileira, or Brazilian pop music) way back in the mid-eighties, when we were first married.

She had opened my eager eyes to this bright new world of vivacious sounds, harmonies and rhythms, sung and played by a dazzling array of original and, in many cases, completely self-taught vocalists and instrumentalists from our mother country, Brazil.

She had also been a regular listener to a now defunct New York-based radio station with the rather intriguing call letters of CD 101.9 ("cool FM"), which played endless back-to-back cool and light jazz favorites, many of them flaunting the syncopated sonorities of bossa nova-tinged tunes.

How was it that American jazz and pop, and especially the soothing sounds of cool jazz, which had originated on the West Coast in the fifties, came to influence—and be so influenced by—the music of a country that was once considered a musical and cultural backwater when compared to the modern music industry of discretionary cash-rich America?

In a previous Brazzil article (www.brazzil.com/p122mar03.htm), writer Steven Byrd related the various influences of American popular music of the 1940s on the future bossa nova sounds that were to emanate from Brazil in the late fifties and early sixties.

He charted the gestation period of one of world music's most famous and best-loved classic pop songs, "A Garota de Ipanema" (The Girl from Ipanema), with music by Tom Jobim and lyrics by BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

Vinicius de Moraes, as a prime example of this influence. He also stressed the distinctive guitar-playing style of Joa'o Gilberto and the vocals of his then wife, Astrud, as popularizing elements. To these must be added her plaintive, almost childlike performance of the lyrics, and the wonderfully pliant and honeyed tones of legendary tenor saxophonist Stan Getz, as well.

Debt Repaid From these simple, primeval beginnings, Brazilian artists and musicians came to lasting preeminence, and have long since returned the favor and repaid Brazil's debt to American pop by penrnanently changing the landscape ofiazz for future generations to enjoy and thrill to.

The presence of many Brazilian musicians in recording studios all over the U.S. and around the world, which my friend Mike had so casually alluded to, may have greatly accounted for the presence as well ofthe familiar sounds ofthis qingutarly infectious style of music to be found in American jazz, and which has now been happily incorporated into the vocabulary of multi-ethnic jazz and pop artists from places as far a field as Africa, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia, and Japan.

This influence can be partially attributed to immigration, which first took place during and after the Second World War, with the early appearances of such iconic figures as singer-actress Carmen Miranda, guitarist Laurindo de Almeida, and poet and diplomat Vinicius de Moraes. This would be known as the first wave of artists to hit the American musical and cultural shores.

The second mass migration occurred soon after the worldwide bossa nova craze took off in the early sixties, made more fervent by the championing of the cause by PH L BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

such luminaries as Jobim and Viniciu who were later joined by the likes of Lu z Bonfa, Oscar Castro-Neves, Astrud a d Joao Gilberto, Sergio Mendes, and Bo a Sete. This second wave came about jut as Brazil had won successive victories the World Cup soccer finals of 1958 a 1962, and coincided with my own family s moorings into the port of New Yo around September 1959. .

With the further flowering of MP and the tropicalismo movement of th late sixties and early seventies, artists s diverse as Caetano Veloso, his sist r Maria Bethania, Gilberto Gil, and G I Costa (all from the northeastern state • f Bahia) had evolved a highly eclectic bran of music that, while popular with th public, proved consciously critical of th rightwing military-backed governme and its repressive censorship policies.

Along with other leftist-leaning intel lectuals, poets, writers and journalist many of these artists-were either jailed o banished in a solemn third wave, wit Caetano and Gil prominent among th offenders, and included even Brazil' future president Fernando Henriqu Cardoso in their number.

Mass Defection The fourth and possibly largest fligh of immigrants from Brazil began as th country took its first unsteady steps to ward democracy in the mid-eighties, bu which later threatened to totter altogethe as the scandal surrounding Presiden Fernando Collor de Mello helped spira the already sputtering economy furthe downward in the early nineties.

Undoubtedly, the mass defection o so many Brazilians at the time, by bot

legal and illegal means, to the environs of such tempting locales as New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Boston, Dallas, and Toronto, greatly increased the size of the overseas community of Brazilian artists and musicians.

It certainly helped to benefit the dining and restaurant business. The popular lower Manhattan hotspot S.O.B.'s (Sounds of Brazil), for example, had affiliated itself with Brazilian jazz chanteuse Tania Maria, and catered exclusively to the now chic and highbrow tastes, both culinary and musical, for all things Brazilian among New York's dinner-hopping yuppies.

In the major cities, however, these makeshift expatriates quickly became a rather motley and disorganized assortment of street personages more akin to Old World gypsies than to New World pioneers, constantly multiplying and dividing in number and size, vanishing and reappearing with equal dexterity, and traveling freely to and from the United States and Brazil, seemingly at will and without proper documentation.

I personally ran into many of them while living in New York. Most were invariably from the state of Minas Gerais, the former birthplace of jazz guitarist/composer Toninho Horta, and of Milton Nascimento, another popular Brazilian vocal export and a highly influential artist among knowledgeable jazz buffs (see Wayne Shorter's 1975 album Native Dancer).

But all of these migratory patterns and political musings are neither very satisfactory nor fully convincing explanations for this musical diversity and embrace of Brazilian talent. For another more mundane exploration of this phenomenon, we must look to one Edson da Silva, known 47

by his professional name as Café.

Café is a Brazilian percussionist who has appeared on many American jazz recordings, but first began his long musical association with Chesky Records, primarily an audiophile specialty label out of New York, as a new arrival atop the fourth wave of immigration back in the mid-1980s.

Record producer and part owner of the label David Chesky is a multi-talented bandleader, solo pianist and composer in his own right, as well as a confirmed Brazil ianist. He has enlisted some lesser-known but experienced Brazilian performers (Ana Caram. Romero Lubambo, Badi Assad) to counter-balance his engagement of older, more established pros (Luiz Bonfa, Leny Andrade) in his all-digital music productions. Chesky's own album oforiginal compositions,Club de Sol (1989), is a particular favorite of mine, and is highlighted by his superb piano playing and by Café's distinctive vocal and percussive effects on several of the tracks.

Love Connection Both my wife and I had the immense pleasure of meeting Café at the Brasilia Restaurant in midtown Manhattan in the spring of 1988.

It was basically a friendly get-together of teacher and students from my Portuguese language class at the New School for Social Research in Greenwich Village.

Upon greeting him. I was immediately struck by Café's pleasant demeanor (typical of many Brazilians) and easy smile, which completely lit up his coffee-colored countenance, hence his descriptive soubriquet. He wasn't tall

by American standards, but was as solidly built as the Gavea rock in Rio, and as sturdy as a Brastemp (a native-Brazilian brand) refrigerator.

He was dating a fellow student at the time, a doctor by profession, who lived on Roosevelt Island, an exclusive and nearly inaccessible New York enclave wedged between the boroughs of Manhattan and Queens.

It was quite apparent from our conversation that Café had abundant personal charisma, which he used to overcome his rudimentary grasp of English.

"Americans are so... antipathetic," 48

he exclaimed, as he plopped increasingly generous helpings of .feijoada (a black bean stew made with dried meat and pork) onto his dinner plate. He was tryingto describe the general aloofness of most New Yorkers by using the Portuguese word antiPatico in lieu of unfriendly, the( more common English term for it.

"Not so," I argued, as the discussion really started to heat up.

While we were talking, his doctor girlfriend, a blue-eyed strawberry blonde, sat there and beamed at him, fascinated by his bungled yet inoffensive transgressions against the English language. They obviously smitten American professional, appeared to be totally charmed by this happy-go-lucky, wire-haired Afro-Brazilian musician seated to her right.

It was then that it finally struck me, the reason why so many jazz artists en-

joyed playing and performing Brazil's music: they simply happened to love Brazilians.

But I needed to put this theory to the test.

I thought back to some interesting artistic and romantic couplings of the recent past: American trumpeter Randy Brecker with jazz pianist Eliane Elias; actor/director Robert Redford with sexy screen siren Sonia Braga; jazz-funk guitarist Lee Ritenour with his Brazilian spouse; and other amorous associations too numerous to mention, including my own.

I remembered, too, that back in his salad days as an entertainer, Sergio

Mendes and Brasil '66 recorded and performed a Burt Bacharach-Hal David song called "The Look of Love", which proved to be one of the group's most requested nuMbers. Mendes was far more successful in his musical career in the States, with his then revolutionary strategy of lacing a Brazilian beat or two into the seams of American pop standards—a musical union of sorts—than he would ever be had he stayed in his native land.

I guess my theory could be true after all, I reasoned.

This love affair that American jazz and pop musicians have had, continue to have, and—dare I predict it—will continue to have for Brazilian harmonies, rhythms, and musical textures, despite the difficulties they may encounter with their respective languages, clearly reflects the real, palpable, and overpowering affection they must feel for the open, unaffected, and ingenuous qualities of the Brazilian people themselves. It would seem to be the important • missing element I had been searching for, if not the allpowerful magnetic allure: a literal marriage of convenience, and of mutual benefit.

One could probably justify anything to oneself, I correctly fathomed, ifgiven enough time and thought, but yet, I couldn't help to recall that in his massive historical tome War and Peace, Russian author Leo Tolstoy once wrote that to love life is to love God. Since many Brazilians truly believe the old adage that"Deus é brasileiro" (God is Brazilian), it should logically follow, then, that to love life is to love Brazilians, and by extension, their music, language and culture.

If only most things in life and art were that logical, or simple.

Joe Lopes, an American citizen born in Brazil, was raised and educated in New York, where he worked for many years in the financial sector. In 1996, he moved to Brazil with his Brazilian wife and two daughters. He returned to the U.S. in January 2001, and now resides in Raleigh, North Carolina with his family.

He is an avid collector and lover of all types of music, as well as an insatiable film buff. You can email your comments to the author at JosmarLopes(&msn.com.

BRA7_ZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

man who can give him this document. W itten by Bosco Brasil. directed by An la Goldmann, with Tony Ramos e Dan Stulba h.

No Retro visor (In the Rear Mirr6r)- Aft r a 15-year separation two friends get close 0gether again and reminisce about their drea 5 and idealisms from their youth. in the '8 5.

One of them has become blind due to a ar accident. Written by Marcelo Rubens Pai a. directed by Mauro Mendonca Filho, w th Otavio Muller and Marcelo Serrado.

Sem Vergonhas (No Shames)-Based Anthony McCarten and Stephen Sinclai 's play Ladies' Night. The New Zealand st ry about down on their luck men who decid to put a strip-tease show was moved with s cceSs to the Lapa neighborhood. Written Daniel Botti, translated by Liane Lazoski Gabriela Morales, with Jandir Ferr ri, Leandro Hassum, Jayme Del Cueto, Marc lo Mello, PedroNeschling. and Marcelo Esco el.

Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino da Flora. Seu Jorge, Matheus Nachtergaele, and Phellipe Haagensen.

Deus E Brasileiro (God Is Brazilian)-Brazi1/2002-God decides to take a vacation, but before leaving his post, He has to find someone to take over during the break. Comedy directed by Caca Diegues, with Antonio Fagundes, Paloma Duarte, Wagner Moura, Bruce Gomlevsky, Stepan Nercessian, Castrinho. Hugo Carvana.

B ooks

FICTION As Medias I. Onze Minutos, Paulo que os Homens Coelho Contmn 2. Erros Irreversiveis, Scott Turow

ovies JUST-RELEASED OR RE-RELEASED FOREIGN-LANGUAGE MOVIES:

Nilo Mexe Corn Quem Tti Quietinho (Don't Bother He Who Is All Quiet)-Musical comedy written, directed and interpreted by Wandi Doratiotto, Arthur Kohl and Renato Caldas. Good-humored hints on how to deal with life's little surprises. From March 21, 2003 to June 1" 2003. Quarta-Feira, Sem Falta, La Em Casa (Don't Miss It This Wednesday at My House)-Comedy. Two friends, both widows-one a hypocrite, the other foul mouthed-meet every Wednesday to exchange gossips and their own past extraconjugal sexual adventures. Written by Mauro Brasini, directed by Alexandre Reinecke, with Beatriz Segall and Myrian Pires.

Os Sertoes - Primeira Porte, A Terra (The Backlands - Part One, The Land)-Adapted from Eucl ides da Cunha's Os Sertaes (Rebellion in the Backlands) by veteran and celebrated director Jose Celso Martinez Correa.

The performance lasts 3.5 hours without a break. With the Uzyna Uzona troupe. Marcelo Drummond is Euclides da Cunha. The public gets the lyrics so it can participate in a singa-long. Being shown since July 12, 2002. No end in sight.

Tudo de Mim (All of Me)-Dramedy.

Marcela, who just arrived from London becomes the roommate (and soon more) of Juliano. Then the fights start. Written by Emilio Boechat and Petr6nio Gontijo, directed by Abilio Tavares, with Petr6nio Gontijo and Bianca Rinaldi. Premiered on March I, 2003.

AI PAILI Capitanias Hereditdrias (Hereditary Cap-

taincies)--After embezzling a huge amount of money, a trio composed by an unscrupulous banker, his partner, plus the sister-inlaw try to leave the country. Written by Miguel Falabella and MariaCarmem Barbosa, with Jose Wilker, Ney Latorraca and Natalia do Valle.

Novas Diretrizes em Tempos de Paz (Peace Time New Guidelines)-The 1945 dramacharged real story about Polish Clausewitz, who needs a permit to stay in Brazil and the BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

A Noite Americana (La Nutt Americaine) A Promessa (The Pledge), A Ult ima Noite (The 25th Hour), Amor Eterno Amor (In ocence), Am ores Parisienses (On Connait la Chanson), As Horas (The Hours), Barn (Baran), Barer ouCorrer em Londres (Sha ghai Knights), Bkicletas de Pequim (Shi Si Sui De Dan Che), Chicago (Chicago), Co Perder urn Homem em 10 Dias (How to L se a Guy in 10 Days), Confissoes de uma Me te Perigosa (Confessions ofa Dangerous Min ), Conto de Verao (conk d'Ete), Embriaga de Amor (Punch-Drunk Love), Foi So Bey° (Just a Kiss), Frida (Frida), Gar ta Veneno (The Hot Chick), Harry Potter a Camara Secreta (Harry Potter and the Cha ber of Secrets)Kamchatka (Kamchatk ), Leiteio - 0 Filme (Piglet's Big Movie), trix Reloaded (The Matrix Reloaded), Mffi a Noite corn Ela (Ma Null Chez Maud), Mo - 0 Menino Lobo 2 (Jungle Book 2), Nun a aos Domingos (Never on Sunday), 0 Fil o da Noiva (El Hijo de la Novia), 0 Olho Q e Tudo Ve (My Little Eye), 0 Pianista e Pianiste), 0 Ul timo Suspeito (City By t e Sea), Planeta do Tesouro (Treasure Plane), Prenda-Me Se For Capaz (Catch Me If Y u Can), Recem-Casados (Just Married), Se o por Compaixao (Compassionate Se ) Simone (Simone), Stuart Little 2 (Stuart Lit le 2), Taurus (Telets), Tiros em Columbi e (Bowling for Columbine), Tolereincia Ze o (The Believer), Uma Mulher E uma Mul r (Une Femme Est une Fernme), X-Men 2 Men 2) Carandiru (Carandiru Penitentiary)-B azi1/2003-Based on Estacao Carandi u (Carandiru Station) written by Drau 410 Varella. A doctor trying to prevent AIDS in Brazil's largest prison becomes confidant o several inmates. Directed by Hector Baben so, Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos, Milton Gonealv s, Ivan de Almeida, Ailton Graca, Maria Lui a Mendonca, and Rodrigo Santoro.

Cidade de Deus (City of God)-Braz I/ 2002-Based on Paulo Lins's novel of s e name. An inside picture ofRio'sfavela Cid se de Deus. How Dad inho BusCape grow up in world of drugs and crime. Directed y Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund, wi h unknown actors, including Alexand e

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BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

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Marriage Agency for Brazilians and Foreigners i business since 1989. www.firepassion.com Email: fogo@firepassion.com -Tel: 310-450-4586 [196]

owng Bassi WorldMovers Brazil - Mudangas, encomendas, caixas para o Brazil. Contato: 718472-5843 - USA -- Contato: 55-11-4473-3137 Brazil -- Email: cida@bassiworldmovers.com [201] I need share container to Brazil. 818-247-8027, Some urgency. [198]

br, lilt-ADS 13231 255-81162 ;oo S WorldTech announces two new pocket guides: (1) Rio de Janeiro; (2) Salvador, Bahia. For information WorldTech@erols.com [202]

TICKET TO BRASIL * Bossa Nova and Brazilian Jazz group * www.tickettobrasil.com [203] Learn to play Brazilian percussion. Videos fo sale. Visit us on www.bridgesto.com Demo and free lesson on the website. [186]

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Brazilian Music in its totality. Samba, bossa nova, chorinho, baiao, axe, and more. Merchan Express (954) 785-2131

www.portugueselanguage.pro.br- Portuguese classes! translations / proven success - Rio -(21) 25409891 [204]

Psychic Readings by Dara. Angel's cards. English, Portuguese, Spanish Tel. (310) 838-3189 [199]

Portuguese Classes - Brazilian teacher. Translation/interpretation - 10 years experience (949) 240 8178 [205]

Conversational Brazilian Portuguese Method - "I tried several methods to learn BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE, but when I started lessons with NILSON, I knew immediately that I'd found the best one. And in just a few months, I was able to communicate on a one-on-one basis." Individual, Total Immersion, Corporate Group and SemiPrivate. Phone (310) 379-0738 www.brazilianportugueselessons.com [202]

U' oug Bilingual Assistant English-Portuguese seeking administrative and/or customer service position in San Francisco/Bay Area. Legal US resident.

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Residente legal dos EUA. Tambern fluente em frances. CV/Ref. .disponiveis. Collet& Gisele 814.7381 ou e-mail: (510) gisele_villiger@hotmail.com [205]

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'en a Room for Rent in Rio - Room available in a twobdm apt with Calif. female, age 24. Praia de Botafogo, Botafogo, same block as shopping mall, in front of Botafogo Beach and Sugar Loaf. Furnished, Telephone, Parking Space Optl, Short or Long Term, Cheap Rent, AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY, Call 55-21-2553-0825,55-21-9349-5523, or email cyracie@yahoo.com GO TO BRAZIL! Rent my newly furnished house, few blocks to beautiful beaches. Praia da Costa Espirito Santo - $50/day $600/month. Details/ photos email: terezavieira@aol.com [204]

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BRA ZZIL P.O. Box 50536 Los Angeles, CA 90050-0536.

51

Kitanda Brazil (818) 995-7422 Sugar Loaf (562) 856-1615 Supermercado Brasil (310) 837-4291

•iniTilltill

Brasil Brasil Cult. Ctr (310) 397-3667 ' Modern Lang. Center (310) 839-8427

• Internet I Art taiga

ArtMedia (310) 826-1443

Legal Sergicee

Noronha Advogados (310) 788-0294 Edgardo Cluintanilla, Esq. (818) 986-1295

• Matchmaker Fogo e Paixao (310) 450-4586

• Music

THAT'S RAMAN Boston •looks

• Travel Agency

":CA-r 45

Livrana Plenitude (800) 532-5809

• Camila

Consulado do Brasil (617) 542-4000

• lutist

Sylvio P. Lessa (617) 924-1882

• feed it Products

Brasil Brasil (617) 561-6094 Food Mestizos (781) 322-4002

• OM/gin Approach Student Ctr (617) 787-5401 Braz. & Amer. Lg. Inst.

(617) 787-7716

• PikUranus

The Brazilian Monthly (617) 566-3651

• Restaormits

Café Brazil (617) 789-5980 Ipanema (508) 460-6144 Tropicana (617) 567-4422 Pampas Churrascaria (617) 661-6613

Chicago Causal& Consulado G. do Brasil (312) 464-0244

• Events Promotion

Samba 1 Dance Group (773) 486-9224

• Trmistatiims

Portuguese Lang. Ctr. (312) 276-6683

Dallas 8 Houston, TX •Clubs is Associations Brazilian Cultural Center (713) 961-3063 Fila Brasileiro Association (817) 447-3868

• fug R ?minds

Taste of Brazil Toll Free (866) 835-5556

• lattractine

Capoeira Golpe Bonito (713) 463-6584

= Restaurants

Boi na Brasa (817) 329-5514 Fogo de Chao (972) 503-7300 Samba Café (713) 961-7379 52

Brazil Brasileiro (972) 594-8894 Sergio & Doris Travel (281) 679-9979

las Angeles •Mims yang (800) GO VARIG

• Arts Classes

Julinya Vidigal De Vince (310) 479-2070

• Arts R Iran

Bakari Art Studio (323) 857-0523 Folk Creations 310) 693-2844

• Auto Repair

Cosmo Auto Parts (323) 259-9818 Pit Stop (310) 643-6666

• Ranks

Banco do Brasil (213) 688-2096

• Bikinis

Verao Brazil Bikinis (818' 887 1:76

• Clothes

Samba Collection t762) 438-3669

•Clubs I Assuistitins

Brazilian Heart Dance & Sing (818) 759-9089

• Physician

Nilson A. Santos (213) 483-3430

• Psythitker/Cmiunt

Elizabeth Almeida, M.A. (310) 470-0214 Dr. Jefferson SO (213) 207-2770 Tania Haberkorn, M.A. (310) 840-5380

• Poillostios •Soll Estate

• Restaurants Balls

• Shipping

Touchdown Freight (800) 824-4399 Key International Shipping (800) 248-3880

Brazilian Consulate (323) 651-2664

Miami - S.Florida • Airlines

• Travel/Tours

Brazilian Nites Prod.

(818) 566-1111 Lila Productions (818) 321-8984

Joel Stewart (954) 772-7600

• fronts Promotion

• fool I Products

Brasil Mania • Braz. Market (310) 212-6040 Hi Brazil (310) 318-2108

• Attorney

•tanks

Banco do Brasil (305) 358-3586 Banco Nacional (305) 372-0100 Banco Real (305) 358-2433

• foil

Brazil Express (415) 749-0524 Mercado Brasil (415) 285-3520

• losloodoo

Portuguese Lang. Sera.

(415) 587-4990

• Nom Ifeisalmos

Barb Tour Service (201) 313-0996 Odyssea Travel Service (212) 826-3019

Emiliano Benevides (415) 648-2441

Katia Rego Johnson (954) 255-5715

San Diego • Ado Car Mania Auto Repair (619) 223-7748

Dra Henrietta Faillace (305) 935-2452 Dr. Roberto Shaffer (305) 535-1694 Dr. Neri Franzon (954) 776-1412

Clube Bras. San Diego (619) 295-0842 Sunday Night Cl. Brazil (619) 233-5979

• food Itnerqos

• Physicians

•tostarrosts

Boteco (954) 566-3190 Brazilian Tropicana (954) 781-1113 Porcao (305) 373-2777 Steak Masters (305) 567-1718

• INN Agnes

Brazilian Wave (305) 561-3788 Discover Brazil Tours (800) 524-3666 Euroamerica (305) 358-3003 International Tours (800) 822-1318 Luma Travel (305) 374-8635 Monark Travel (305) 374-5855 New Port Tours (305) 372-5007 Via Brasil Travel (305) 866-7580

New York /N. Jersey •Mks Luso-Brazilian Books (800) 727-LUSO

•Clubs llssuclallots

Brazilian Ch. of Corn.

(212) 751-4691 Brazilian Corn. Bureau (212) 916-3200 Brazilian Trade Bur. (212) 224-6280

• Casuists

-

• Rosfooroft

Brasilia (212) 869-9200 Brazil 2000 (212) 877-7730 Brazilian Pavillion (212) 758-8129 Cabana Carioca (212) 581-8088 Indigo Blues (212) 221-0033 S.O.B. (212) 243-4940 Tapajes River (201) 491-9196

Kidoideira Productions (415) 566-0427

All Braz. Imp. & Exp. (305) 523-8134 Brazil by Mail (954) 472-7163 Vanya's Sweets (954) 785-0087 Via Brasil (305) 866-7718

Hedimo de SO (305) 262-8212 Luciano Garcia (954) 424-5868

Simone Bethencourt (954) 704-1211

Bossa Nova (310) 657-5070 '

By Brazil (310) 787-7520 Café Brasil (310) 837-8957 Gauchos Village (818) 550-1430 Grill from Ipanema (562) 435-6238 Pampas Grill (323) 931-1928 Roda Viva Churrascaria (626) 839-9950 Sabor Brazil (310) 376-7445 Zabumba (310) 841-6525

(201) 955-1137 Portugal-Brasil News (212) 228-2958 www.verdeamarelo.net (732) 906-8039

Brazil Exchange (415) 346-2284 Brazil Express•Vigo (415) 749-0524 Paulo Travel (415) 863-2556 ' Celia Malheiros (650) 738-2434 Fogo na Roupa (510) 464-5999 Voz do Brazil (415) 586-2276

• MN&

•till fstoto

Tania Sayegh (310) 612-4838 Solon G. Pereira (562) 924-9633

Gilberto Henriques (310) 371-0620 Georgia Maria Ferreira (818) 908-9199

Consulado do Brasil (305) 285-6200

Florida Review (305) 374-5235

(323) 255-8062

Transbrasil (800) 872-3153' yang (800) 468-2744 Vasp (800) 732-8277

•COISEIlif

• Prilitathillit

Brazzil

Brazil Air (800) 441-8515 Brazil Tours (818) 767-1200 BrazilUSA Tours (310) 559-8000 Cheviot Hills Travel (310) 202-6264 South Winds Tr & Tours (800) 533-3423

• Dentist

•Vas llwolatlaus

ABFC - As. Bras. da Flor.

(407) 354-5200 Cam. Corn. Brasil- EUA (305) 579-9030 ARARA -Amazon. As. (813) 842-3161

• PsygiethieMilatt

Brazil-Cal. Chbr of Corn.

(323) 658-7402 Brazilian Sociocult. C. (310) 370-0929 Centro Cultural Gaiicho (323) 256-6548 MILA - Samba School (310) 478-7866 Mov. Social Humanista (310) 281-6652 SambaLa -Esc. de Samba (562) 438-3669

•Sinaloa

Banespa (305) 358-9167

Brazilian Gen. Cons.

(212) 757-3080

•Coming

BBJ (Br. Bus. Junction) (212) 768-1545

• food I Products

Amazonia (718) 204-1521 Coisa Nossa (201) 578-2675 Merchant Express (201) 589-5884

• Foldicatioss

The Brasilians (212) 382-1630 Brazilian Voice

• Travel *MN

tills 1 Assoctiffin

• indrtArdldt

Brazil Imports (619) 234-3401

•flosoy ifoldfince

Vigo San Diego (858) 488-8303

San Francisco •&Hot Vang (209) 475-1269

• Mow

Laura Basaloco-Lapo (415) 433-6727 Manoel Faria (510) 537-3533

• Ala

Nelson Auto Body (415) 255-6717 Matts Auto Body (415) 565-3560

• Itatify laDen

Bibbo (415) 421-BIBO Carmen's International (415) 433-9441 Dalven (415) 786-6375 Neyde's (415) 681-5355

•COW 1 IssocArtioos

Bay Area Brasilian Club (415) 334-0106 Capoeira Abada (415) 284-6196 Capoeira Institute (510) 655-8207

• Ms&

Micronet (415) 665-1994

•Cosoloto

Brazilian Consulate (415) 981-8170

•loon listrootfo

Aquarela (510) 548-1310 Birds of Paradise (415) 863-3651 Ginga Brasil (510) 428-0698 Samba do Coragao (415) 826-2588

• Rotel CM

Roberto Sales, DDS (510) 451-8315

• funs MOWN

Eyes For Talent (650) 595-2274 F. B. C. Events (415) 334-0106 Nativa Productions (408) 287-9798

• Poluslimf

• Maid*

Dr. Guilherme Salgado (415) 832-6219

•'Min

M. C. Printing (510) 268-8967

• Poilitiffors

Brasilbest (415) 731-1458 Brazil Today (510) 236-3688

• ifostatlagfighe

Café do Brasil (415) 626-6432 Café Mardi Gras (415) 864-6788 Canto do Brasil (415) 626-8727 Clube Fusetti (415) 459-6079 Joao's Restaurant (408) 244-1299 Mozzarela Di Bufala (415) 346-9888 Nino's (510) 845-9303 Terra Brazilis (415) 863-5177

• Iranian

Port Lang. Services (415) 587-4990 Raimundo Franco (916) 443-3162 Roberto Lima (415) 215-4990 Paulo's Travel (415) 863-2556 Rio Roma (415) 921-3353 Santini Tours (800) 769-9669 Tropical Travel (510) 655-9904 Tucanos Travel (415) 454-9961

ashington DC Transbrasil (202) 775-9180 Varig (202) 822-8277

• beg Banco do Brasil (202) 857-0320 Banco do Est. de S. Paulo (202) 682-1151

•Vas IlsucintIas

Braz Am Cult. Inst.

(202) 362-8334 Inst. of Brazil. Business (202) 994-5205

• foamy

Embaixada do Brasil (202) 238-2700

• Restaurants

AmazOnia Grill (202) 537-0421 BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

dim Pacific Times

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kraal da Lingua Poriuguesa

Precos ioar o Brazilian Pacific Times IIII 6 meses no period° He: II 12 meses

NEEDS A COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR

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ams e Me Count the Ways.

Part I Brazil's elite has been ashamed of its huge African descent population for centuries and as Brazilian doctor and sociologist Raimundo Nina Rodrigues himself once said, "the black race of Brazil...will always constitute one of the factors of our inferiority as a people" MARK WELLS

54

Since I discovered the beauty and complexities of the Brazilian people at the tail end of 1999, I've done all that I could to learn as much as I could about the largest country in Latin America. 1 have written three articles for this magazine and appreciate the various contributions of others in helping to make Brazzil the informative magazine that it is.

I. as an American of African descent, do not know everything and do not claim to know everything about this Portuguese speaking country that I adore so much, and in the same manner, I don't expect everyone else to know everything about it.

Honestly there are a lot of things about my own country's history that I still need to learn about! But every now and then an article will catch my eye that totally infuriates me. Every now and then when the issue of race comes up someone will say something that will make me lose my composure. It should come as no surprise because I will never forget when a well respected anthropology professor at my school could not understand the benefits that his father may have gained simply because of his whiteness at the expense of my grandfather's blackness.

In the past two weeks, two articles, -Blacks and Whites. We're All Brazilians" & "A Trap for Blacks," both written by Janer Cristaldo, have succeeded in demanding that I compose a reply. Everyone has a right to voice their opinions and after I contemplated ignoring Mr.Cristaldo's articles. I felt it necessary that I MUST voice my opinion also.

Although the majority of this article is a direct response to Mr. Cristaldo's comments, I hope that this article can stand alone as an informative piece for all. In the past month or so since my last article appeared in Brazzil, I have received many e-mails from all over the world. I can always tell whether the person writing to me is Brazilian or not from the tone of their letters. It seems that the vast majority of Brazilians who write to me continue to hold on to the outdated and defeated claim of a Brazilian "Racial Democracy" or like Cristaldo, -we're all Brazilians" and treated equal.

Take a paragraph from one particular e-mail I recently received in reference to my article "Where Did All the Blacks Go?- (March 2003): "I read your article and thought it was very interesting. I'm from Brazil and I live in America for about five years. I'm from Parana, south of Brazil, even though I have dark brown hair—which for you Americans could be a reason for not considering me a white person, since here if you are not blonde with blue or green eyes you are not whit—I see myself as a white. I think the problem is that you Americans give a lot of importance to race and we Brazilians do not care about it. For us it's all about money. If there are two guys, one black but rich, and other white and poor, the black and rich will have much more dates than the white and poor. This is Brazil, this is so normal that many kids don't know what race means. Why don't they know? Because we do not hear a lot about race in Brazil, we don't care about it and this is something you Americans cannot understand.This is an example of what I find difficult to grasp in the Brazilian attitude toward race and racism. How can this person say that she sees herself as white, an obvious choice, but then turn around and say that Brazilians do not hear a lot about race and that this is so normal that many kids don't know what race means. If this person is really as color blind as she thinks she is, why does she see herself as white?

If Brazilians don't see race as much as Americans do, why do 54 percent of the Brazilian population see themselves as white? Why is it that so many Brazilians who claimed that they were white in the Brazilian census seem to have a problem with black Brazilian activists persuading genie de cor to affirm their African ancestry? It would be interesting to see how many Brazilians who continue to claim that we Brazilians are all mixed checked the branco/branca category when faced with the question of race in the last Brazilian census.

Not Black, Not White If you truly see Brazil as a nation of mixed people, then you would reply to questions pertaining to race in a way that I once read singer am neither white nor black". And finally, Caetano Veloso respond: in analyzing the worn out "if you've got money you're treated well" argument, how is it that this person doesn't seem to realize that for every twenty white Brazilians she meets who have attained a moderate amount of wealth, she will encounter perhaps one black Brazilian with similar financial status?

Here is another portion of the e-mail from the same person:

BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

"You say you were very surprised in my country, the same is happening to me here. When people look at me they see me as white, but when I start to talk they notice that I have an accent, that I'm from Brazil. Then I'm not white anymore, I become a Latina or Hispanic, since 99 percent of Americans think we speak Spanish and see Latino or Hispanic as race.

They should learn more about race because there's no such thing as Hispanic or Latino as race."

As an African-American, I can speak in depth about the disease of racism that is rampant in the world today. While I don't wish anyone to be subjected to racist attitudes, in some ways, I hope this Brazilian can learn from her American experience.

In the same manner that she thought that she was white in America (only to be rudely awakened), millions of Afro-Brazilians think that Brazilian society sees them as equals until they experience racially motivated discrimination.

First of all, let me say that Brazil and America are indeed two different countries, with two different histories and holding two different positions on the world stage today. But while there are several differences, there are also several similarities. My adoration of Brazil began when I learned that there were so many faces there that looked like mine and those of millions of others who in this country would be labeled as black or AfricanAmerican.

Since then, other facets of Brazilian history and culture have fascinated me also. Brazilian music, food, the obsession with futebol, Camaval and the Portuguese language itself are but a few of the things that I have learned via the study of Brazil.

I have also been introduced to the idea of racial identity and Brazilian style racism since I began my study of "all things Brazilian'. As I said before, in this area, there are differences but also several similarities with American style racism. Perhaps more than the average Brazilian cares to recognize.

Let's take a look at a few of Mr. Cristaldo's comments: 1. "The country is discovering the mestico. While the U.S. begins to recognize multi-raciality, some black groups in Brazil wanted even mulatos to declare themselves black on the last census. The purpose is obvious, which is to put pressure on the legislative power. Black Brazilians represented only 5.4 percent of the general population in 1999."

2. "Bahia, (is) a state with a definite black majority..."

The first point I must make is that although it is true that mulatos in the US are considered black, the mulato/mixed category is actually not new to the American census. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, there actually was a mulato category in official US census reports. The point here is that whether that

BRAZZIL - M Y/JUNE 2003

person is considered mulato or black, ir the majority of countries around the world they are considered to be non-white but not non-black. As a matter of fact, the creation of the term pardo was develope as a way for the Brazilian government t hide the fact that it had such a high propor tion of African descent people. (see this article-http://www.fapesp.br I ivro59. htm ) Now, the problem with Mr. Cristaldo' reference to Bahia as a "state with a definite black majority" is the fact that he has already made it clear that he believes that the mulato category and the black category should remain separate. According to Brazilian Census reports, the state of Bahia is approximately 25 percent white, 20 percent black and 55 percent mulato.

Now if mulatos/pardos are to be recognized as separate frompretos/negros, how can Bahia be a -state with a definite black majority"?

The answer would seem to be simple for even someone like Mr. Cristaldo.

Pretos and pardos together ARE Bahia's "black majority." Statistically, it is impossible to separate the two categories and then claim that Bahia is a "state with a definite black majority." As blackness has always been looked upon as something to be ashamed of in Brazil, it is quite obvious that millions of Brazilians do not refer to themselves in this manner.

Shame of Being Black In Frances Twine's book Racism in a Racial Democracy: The Maintenance of White Supremacy in Brazil, we learn that it has been a custom for many years for Brazilian gente decor (people of color) to list their children in a lighter racial category. Thus, pretos can become pardos and pardos can become brancos (white).

In my second essay for this magazine, I wrote of my experiences with "Danielle" and her family, all of whom were darkskinned black people but were all listed as pardos on their birth certificates.

Now if dark skinned black people can be counted as mulatos, and the average Brazilian who looks like actress Camila Pitanga (who considers herself black) lists themselves as white, what does this tell us about the Brazilian census? It tells us that it hardly reflects the reality of the Brazilian population.

In reality, Brazil's elite has been ashamed of its huge African descent population for centuries and as Brazilian doctor and sociologist Raimundo Nina Rodrigues himself once said, "the black race of Brazil...will always constitute one of the factors of our inferiority as a people".

Hmmm...Statements like that remind me of American-style racism.

While racial characteristics can be seen, they can also be seen as a social construct. Thus, if we consider statistics such as income, education, illiteracy, life expectancy, and high blood pressure, which are influenced by a person's posi-

tion in society, we could indeed come to the conclusion that the differences between pardos and pretos in. Brazil are indeed negligible. In simple terms, Mr. Cristaldo, this means that whether a Brazilian looks like Milton Nascimento, Dori val Caymmi or Clara Nunes, they will most likely be treated the same and have the same prospects for succeeding in Brazil.

Mr.Cristal do and millions of other Brazilians continue to point to the United States example as their justification for believing racism isn't as prevalent in Brazil. True, in America, people generally label one as black or white, but the simple fact that so many Brazilians consistently label each other with so many different racial terms could be adequate reason to believe that Brazilians are perhaps MORE race conscious or perhaps more racist than Americans!

There is yet another way to look at this perplexing issue of race. In my view, Brazil should either be broken into two racial categories (negro or branco) or four. I say four because if some black Brazilians are to be seen as being mixed, then white Brazilians must also be seen as mixed.

Sure many Brazilianpretos orpardos look as if they may have some Native Brazilian or European ancestry, but similarly, the so-called "white" Brazilian often times has traces (sometimes more) of Native and African blood also.

If racism in Brazil didn't exist, there wouldn't be so many people attempting to whiten their identity by any and every means, including Mr. Cristaldo. Here is an interesting story that I remember from a few years ago. There was this guy with whom I used to work a few years ago who I didn't really remember until he told me who he was. He seemed to be a white guy, but he had shaven his head since last 1 had seen him. As the issue of race and national origin is fascinating to me, I couldn't help but stare into this guy's face. There was different about the way this white guy looked.

If I didn't know better I would have thought he had some strains of African blood flowing through his veins. Then he told me that he was Italian, which made all the sense in the world. Historians such as JA Rogers have long written about the extensive race mixings that has occurred between Africans, Italians, Spaniards and the Portuguese. In Luigi Luca CavalliSforza's massive study of human genes, The History and Geography of Human Genes, we learn that the DNA of certain populations of Europeans, particularly Italians and Spaniards, are much closer to that of Sub-Saharan Africans than those of other European nations.

Because of the obvious African influence in the Spanish population, Rogers thought of Spain as an African nation in Europe. In his book Salazar and Modern Portugal, Hugh Kay calls the Portuguese

a "mixed people" due to centuries of mixing with black Africans as well as Arabs.

Now, my question is this: If Spanish, Portuguese and Italian people are said to have the blood of Africa flowing through their veins and yet remain white, why is it that a person of obvious African descent must be labeled as "mixed" because he/she has some non-African blood?

This is the development of a racial hierarchy that values whiteness while denigrating blackness.

While on the subject of DNA and phenotypes, let me also take the time to mention the recent work of anthropological geneticist, Spencer Wells. In Wells' work entitled The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey, Wells states his theory that the aboriginal peoples of Australia were among the first people to migrate out of Africa, through India and eventually landing in Australia.

For many years, scientists have written that the DNA of Australi an Aborigines is totally different than that of Africans even though in many ways, they, like other peoples of the southern Pacific islands, look like Africans. What does this have to do with Brazil? Well, I look at it this way.

If anyone has seen photos of Australian Aborigines, they know that they have a very diverse phenotype. Most Aborigines have a dark brown skin color and hair that ranges from nearly straight, to wavy, curly with at times, blond coloring.

Some photos of Aborigines remind of some of the diverse looks I have seen when walking the streets of Bahia. Anthropological research has also proven that the peoples of the African continent have the most diverse pool of genetics and phenotypes in the world. This destroys the myth that all Africans look alike. In reality, Africans have more physical diversity than any other people on the planet! My point is, if Wells' theory is to be accepted, then we must add the Australian phenotype to the already diverse African pool.

Research has also proven that the phenotype that we refer to as Caucasoid is actually the youngest physical type to develop on the planet. This being said, no matter what racial mix a person is born of, if an African phenotype can range from the dark-skinned peoples of the Sudan, the "pepper corn" coiled hair of southern Africans, all the way to an Australian phenotype, then no matter what mix it took to come to that phenotype, it is still African.

The British certainly didn't ask to analyze the DNA of the Australian Aborigine before annihilating him! In their view, they were like any other non-white people.

Italian Niggers

To prove my argument even further, it is a known fact that white people DO discriminate among themselves according to skin tone, eye and hair color. Italians have long been referred to as "niggers" and faced great discrimination along the roads to their acquired whiteness in

56

America because of their dark hair, features and certain African facial characteristics. Caucasians who have blond hair, pale skin and blue eyes are considered by most to "whiter" than their darker brunette counterparts.

In her article, "Pale Perfection: White Women in Pursuit of An Aryan Ideal", M. Wilson analyzes what she calls the "hierarchy of feature preferences among Whites". Yet and still, brunettes with brown eyes and somewhat swarthy skin are still, for all intents and purposes, considered white. Why is it that black Brazilians who may not have skin complexions that are dark as oil or extremely pixaim (kinky)hair should not be considered black when this same standard is not applied to dark brunettes who claim to be white?

Whether one realizes it or not, racial mixing between blacks, whites, and peoples of the Asian continent has been going on for much longer than the 16th century arrival of Europeans in the Americas!

3. "However, while a negro is obviously afrodescendant, brown people are both afro and eurodescendant. If we adopt the new nomenclature, I will be forced to declare myself eurodescendant. No tarnish there, as far as I'm concerned."

This argument has always been flawed to me. First of all, the vast majority of black people have varying degrees of brown skin! If a person's skin is brown because of his/her African ancestry, and they have certain African facial features, most societies will label that person according to their African ancestry. It is this African and/or Native ancestry and somewhat dark skin that denies most "white" Brazilians official white status when and if they come to the US. And from your statements in these articles, Mr. Cristaldo, you don't have to tell us that you "will be forced to declare" yourself a "eurodescendant" because it is quite obvious from your views how much you value your whiteness! If you ever come to the States though, don't tell anyone if you have a pe na cozinha ("foot in the kitchen")!

4. "In some of the email messages I received, I am accused of defending the argument that there is no racism in Brazil.

In a certain way, I do defend it. Some form of racism we all have, or we would not be human. But never at the level of the U.S. or European countries. A black person, if rich or successful, is esteemed and even envied in Brazil. Millions of Brazilian whites would feel extremely honored to be photographed next to a Pele."

5. "During my Porto Alegre years, I was a regular at the table of Lupicinio Rodrigues, whom I much admired, at the Adelaide bar. Lupicinio—who wrote the most beautiful samba lyrics in Brazil— was universally loved by all gauchos."

6. "Although our population has an expressive white majority, it was the first state in the country to elect a black gover-

nor, Alceu Collares."

It is truly a shame that in the year 2003 people continue to use Brazilian entertainers and athletes such as Pele to try and down play the effects of racism in society.

Many people use this same logic in the US. Just because you allow a black person to entertain you doesn't necessarily mean you would like for a person who looks like them to be your neighbor, marry your daughter or be president of your country.

The success of a few black people in Brazil does not stop the daily bouts of racism that the average black Brazilian must endure. Also, when it comes to wealth and success, it still doesn't mean that a racist white person will accept a black person as their social equal. It is only when that wealth and success is RECOGNIZED that that person of color MAY get the respect they should have received in the beginning.

Governor Benedita da Silva and the late great geographer Milton Santos have spoken in interviews about being stopped when entering important political or academic meetings by people who assumed that they didn't belong there because they were black. It's also funny that you should mention Alceu Collares being elected governor. In 1993, in VitOria, state of Espirito Santo, a 19-year old black female college student named Ana Flavia Pecanha de Azeredo was assaulted and punched in the face by a 40-year old white woman and her 18-year old son over the use of an elevator in an apartment complex.

Know Your Place!

In Brazil, still today, maids must use the back service elevator while residents use public elevators. These two people were infuriated by the fact that this black girl didn't "know her place" and insisted on teaching her a lesson. This matter of extreme hostility probably would have never been published in newspapers had the girl not been the daughter of Espirito Santo governor Albuino Azeredo, a black man.

A similar incident happened to the family offutebol superstar Ronaldo. According to reports, when Ronaldo's mother S6nia, aunt Dirce and sister lone tried to enter a R$1.5 million (US$ 500,000) condominium, their entrance was blocked as they were told by a neighbor that he didn't want to see the building frequented by "people ofthe lower level" and "favelados" (shanty town dwellers). This incident must be analyzed for several reasons: One, Ronaldo is one of the highest paid soccer players in the world, thus his family is obviously well taken care of. But because they were Ronaldo's family and not Ronaldo himself, their social and economic level was judged by their appearance (i.e. their color). This demonstrates my point. They obviously have money but the color of their skin is associated with poverty, criminal activity and other negative connotations.

BRAZZIL - MAY/JUNE 2003

Once again, this has nothing to do with

social class!

Two, most Brazilians know that Ronaldo's mother is not very dark-skinned.

She would be considered a mulata or morena by Brazilian standards. Yet and still, she was treated like a common criminal. In this situation, it is clear that whether an Afro-Brazilian has clearly definable African physical characteristics or a more racially mixed appearance, in the end, they are treated as black people.

Was this a matter of social class? I think the point has been well established.

While Brazil may have a few successful black politicians, it is only because they are considered "safe" by the majority of the population. In the same way that so many Americans claim that they admire Colin Powell, what would happen if he were to start talking more about reparations for African-Americans? The majority of his white admirers would probably leave him faster than David Duke at a Black Panther rally!

Mr. Cristaldo, I ask you to read your own words: "A black person, if rich or successful is esteemed and even envied in Brazil."

In other words, if he is a regular person earning two to three minimum salaries like the majority of black Brazilians, he is NOT esteemed or envied. Athletics and entertainment are never accurate curriculums in order to study the level of equality in a country. Let's take the US for example. Between the three major sports leagues, NBA (basketball), NFL (football) and MLB (baseball), there are less than 3,000 openings for an athlete to fill in any one of the more than 90 teams. At last count, the American population stood at some 280 million people. Even if we assumed that only 30 million were men who were of professional sport playing age, it is obvious the astronomical odds against him earning one of those coveted positions.

In Brazil, let me remind you that the majority of thefutebol players earn maybe a few minimum salaries and it has also been discovered that white players earn more than black players. Brazilian soccer has been traditionally one of the few occupations that Afro-Brazilians have been allowed to excel in. (Below is an excerpt from a doctoral thesis in sociology) "Studies with 327 players of 17 clubs from Rio show that while 26.6 percent of white athletes earn up to a minimum salary, among blacks the proportion is 48.1 percent. The percentage is 34.9 among all players. At the top of the salary pyramid, 24.8 percent of whites earn more than 20 minimum salaries; among blacks, the percentage is 14.8, below the average among all players (17.1 percent earning more than 20 minimum salaries)."[Minimum wage in Brazil is 240 reais a month or around 80 dollars.]

Like in the US, black people are

thought to be good in sports and entertainment, but what many Brazilians don't seem to realize is that when Brazilian futebol was first beginning to organize leagues, Afro-Brazilians were not allowed to play because the game was so para brancos (only for whites). As a matter of fact, when the first black Brazilian players were allowed to play for the famous Fluminense soccer club, they were forced to wear rice powder on their faces in order to appear lighter and also straighten their hair. The nickname of the team's cheer even today is known as pĂł-de-arroz (rice powder) because of this racist practice.

I suppose this was because of social class, right? \ Numbers Sham, Inequality The situation becomes worse when we consider the lack of Afro-Brazilians in the Brazilian Congress, the number of black businessmen and women and the number of black Brazilians in college.

The rate of illiteracy was reported to be 26 percent for Afro-Brazilians while it is 10 percent for whites. Of • the 513 members of Congress, only 12 are of African descent while only two of the 81 senators are of African ancestry. Afro-Brazilians are 63 percent of the Brazil's poor and less than 16 percent of the students graduating from a university (in 1998), according to government figures.

I will not go on with statistics because these inequalities have been prominently featured in past issues of this magazine. The point that lam trying to prove is that these are statistics with which to judge quality of life in a particular social environment. In Brazil, it has never been the intention of the government to allow AfroBrazilians the same opportunities as white Brazilians. The republic, like in the US, was built on racism. After abolition of slavery, the Brazilian elite financed the immigration of millions of Europeans to Brazil to replace African slave labor while banning immigration from Africa.

Brazil had millions of both free people of color and recently freed slaves in which to fill employment opportunities. They

chose not to. There is no way to blame

social class on this choice for race is the ONLY factor! The Brazilian elite didn't care if the slaves who built their country rotted and died in the streets, and for those who DID manage to survive, they promoted widespread miscegenation with white Brazilians in order to eventually erase all traces of African ancestry in the population.

Don't believe it? In 1911, Joao Batista de Lacerda represented Brazil in the first Universal Congress of the Races in London and proudly proclaimed that within a century of miscegenation, black people would ultimately disappear from Brazilian society.

While the Americans were violently slaughtering black people, Brazil's leaders chose to try and mix the African blood right out of the country.' As a matter of fact, folklorist and literary critic Silvio Romero, in his haste to whiten the Brazilian population, criticized recent German immigrants because they resisted mixing with Brazil's large colored population. Again, these ideals have nothing to do with one's social class.

While it is possible for one person to .have a different interpretation of why social classes in Brazil seem to be divided by race, these are the facts! Do the research!

Now in my response to point number 6, I mentioned that when Afro-Brazilians were finally allowed to join futebol clubs, they were forced to wear rice-powder on their faces in order to mask their dark-skinned faces. Another fact that the average Brazilian who doesn't believe racism exists in Brazil (or that it is at least not as strong as American racism) doesn't seem to know is that in the history of Brazilian stage and film, Brazilian Indians were not permitted to become actors, thus, Afro-Brazilian actors were hired to play Indian roles with their faces painted red!

At the same time, when roles in plays were to depict black people as major characters, white actors were hired to play these roles with their faces painted black!

Many African-Americans are familiar with the racist American film era in which white actors such as Al Jolson wore blackface to depict stereotypes of black people and this is yet another example of the extreme level of racism that is an

Q.,t, 131,35tOtto

intimate part of America's cultural and racial past.

These racist images of African-Americans is another subject that infuriates the average black American who is familiar with American history. So, again, we have another example of Brazilian racist practices that were identical to American racist practices. So I would like to know how you, Mr.Cristaldo, would deny this overt form of racism in Brazil's past, the very foundation of the racism that exists in Brazil today.

Is It All True?

If you would like to read a little about the blackface/redface era in Brazilian film and theatre, check out Robert Stam's book Tropical Mulitculturalism. Also in the book Bossa Nova by Ruy Castro, we learn that in the 1950s, actor/activist Abdias do Nascimento was once fired from the play Orfeu that was directed by white singer/ songwriter/poet Vinicius de Moraes and replaced by a white actor who played the part in blackface. In the Stam book, we also learn that the Brazilian elite were infuriated when they learned that famed American film director Orson Welles planned to use a majority Afro-Brazilian cast for his film It's All True.

Mr. Welles was constantly harassed by "government thugs" and the Brazilian media who didn't want Welles to relay to the world images of Brazilian favelas, "no-good half-breeds" and "dances of negros covered with maracatu feathers, reminiscent of the temples of the African wilds". The Brazilian media blasted Welles for his insistence on using black actors and composers and presenting Rio as if it were "another Harlem". The It's All True controversy was a mark on Welles's career that eventually led to the demise of his career. For your information, Mr.Cristaldo,

58

using blackface or redface so that people of certain "undesirable" races are excluded from a situation has NOTHING to do with social class!

Let us also not underestimate the role that the entertainment industry and media play in influencing our opinions of certain issues. With this in mind, let us also remember this when we walk the streets of Bahia (a 75 percent black state) and never see a black face on the cover of a magazine (except for Raca Brasil)or rarely see a black face on Brazilian television (except as criminals, maids, pagodeiros, futebol players).

I have spent a total of 11 weeks in Bahia and I've seen it! Let us also remember that in all the years of Brazilian beauty competitions, only once has a black woman been crowned Miss Brasil (Deise Nunes de Souza in 1986).

In this sense, even a country like America, that many Brazilians deem to be extremely racist, have made more progress in this area as there have been at least five black Miss Americas, including Vanessa Williams in 1984, Suzette Charles (who completed Williams' reign after a scandal), Debbye Turner in 1990, Marjorie Vincent in 1991 and recently Erika Harold.

As physical beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder, this also has nothing to do with social class. What is your argument here, Mr.Cristaldo?

Oh, and Mr.Cristaldo, while you ponder that question, take some time and study some of those old Carnaval Samba lyrics that you have probably sung over and over and tell me how they depict AfroBrazilian women?

Ultimately, my question to Brazilians who consider themselves to be white is: If you do indeed look and are accepted as white, how are you in any position to speak on whether racism exists in Brazil or not?

Let's consider a comparable condition. Is a man in any position to dismiss the discomfort that a woman may complain about during her menstrual cycle?

The point is, while it is indeed possible that you may have never heard any subtle or blatantly racist comments or witnessed racist acts in Brazil, it is far more important to ask a black Brazilian ifTHEY have ever experienced racism or if THEY think racism is strong in Brazil. I HAVE asked countless black Brazilians about this issue. I have yet to meet a black Brazilian who says that racism in Brazil isn't a powerful force.

In comparison, whose opinion is more likely to be true? The outsider or the insider? If a white person and a black person get the same job and have the same credentials and experience, but the white person is paid more money and the only difference between the two people is race, is this also a c/ass issue? Since most people

don't talk about their income, how would you know if racism was at work or not?

While on this subject, I would like to mention that while black Brazilians may be able to give a more accurate view or personal experience of/with racism, this is not to say white Brazilians or Americans don't see how much racism is intertwined in our everyday interactions.

For those Brazilians who still believe that black Brazilian activists continue to complain about a problem that doesn't exist, or at least as in America, I encourage you to read the work of Antonio Sergio Alfredo Guimardes (associate professor of Sociology at the University of sao Paulo), Nelson do Valle Silva and Carlos Alfredo Hasenbalg (both of IUPERJ/Rio de Janeiro). They are all white Brazilian sociologists who have written extensively on how race determines one's success in Brazil. I think the title of one of do Valle Silva's essays says it all: The Cost of Not Being White in Brazil.

Before anyone wants to debate about this issue of race and racism in Brazil, I ask that you take the time and read some of the works of these scholars.

Now, let us consider for a moment that the sayings and proverbs of a society reflect its views to a certain degree. With that point in mind, is anyone familiar with these sayings?

"Branca for marriage, mulata for sex, preta for work" "If a negro doesn't shit on his way in, he shits on his way out" "A good negro is born dead" "He is black, but he has the soul of a white" "The negro does not eat, he gulps" "The negro is like a bad chamber pot, it does not break" Well, as much as Brazilians like to claim American society is far more racist than that of Brazil, all of these sayings come from Brazil!

And once again, Mr.Cristaldo, these sayings have nothing to do with social class!

Ashamed of Being Black

With such proverbs, is it any wonder why so many Brazilians don't want to be associated with being black? Ask yourself, if racism isn't as strong in Brazil as it is in other countries, why do so many black people not want to be or be called black? Where did they get this attitude from? I have experienced subtle and extreme forms of racism in my own life and many of these situations are exactly the same as those I hear about as told by black Brazilians.

Mark Wells is an Anthropology major at the University of Michigan and has a deep interest in Brazil and the African Diaspora.

He can be reached at: Quilombhoje72vahoo.com

BRAZZIL — MAY/JUNE 2003

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