Who is Brazil?

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Saudade"

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