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Insight Guides Brazil (Travel Guide eBook)
Azioni libro
Inizia a leggereValutazioni:
Valutazione: 3 su 5 stelle3/5 (2 recensioni)
Lunghezza: 800 pagine6 ore
- Editore:
- Insight Guides
- Pubblicato:
- Jun 1, 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781789198973
- Formato:
- Libro
Descrizione
Let us guide you on every step of your travels.
From deciding when to go to choosing what to see when you arrive, Insight Guide Brazil is all you need to plan your trip and experience the best of Brazil, with in-depth insider information on must-see, top attractions like the Sugar Loaf and Corcovado in Rio, the colonial architecture of Paraty and Pelourinho, the Pantanal and Iguaçu Falls and hidden cultural gems like Ouro Preto.
This book is ideal for travellers seeking immersive cultural experiences, from exploring colonial monuments, Amazonian lodges or Brazil's beautiful coastline, to discovering the thrill of its world-famous Carnaval.
- In-depth on history and culture: explore the region's vibrant history and culture, and understand its modern-day life, people and politics
- Excellent Editor's Choice: uncover the best of Brazil, which highlights the most special places to visit around the region
- Invaluable and practical maps: get around with ease thanks to detailed maps that pinpoint the key attractions featured in every chapter
- Informative tips: plan your travels easily with an A to Z of useful advice on everything from climate to tipping
- Inspirational colour photography: discover the best destinations, sights, and excursions, and be inspired by stunning imagery
- Inventivedesign makes for an engaging, easy-reading experience
- Covers: Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro State, São Paulo: City and State, Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo, Iguaçu Falls, Brasília and Goiás, The Pantanal, Bahia, Salvador, Sergipe and Alagoas, Recife and Pernambuco, Fernando de Noronha, The Far Northeast and the Amazon.
About Insight Guides: Insight Guides is a pioneer of full-colour guide books, with almost 50 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides with user-friendly, modern design. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps, as well as phrase books, picture-packed eBooks and apps to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.
Informazioni sul libro
Insight Guides Brazil (Travel Guide eBook)
Valutazioni:
Valutazione: 3 su 5 stelle3/5 (2 recensioni)
Lunghezza: 800 pagine6 ore
Descrizione
Let us guide you on every step of your travels.
From deciding when to go to choosing what to see when you arrive, Insight Guide Brazil is all you need to plan your trip and experience the best of Brazil, with in-depth insider information on must-see, top attractions like the Sugar Loaf and Corcovado in Rio, the colonial architecture of Paraty and Pelourinho, the Pantanal and Iguaçu Falls and hidden cultural gems like Ouro Preto.
This book is ideal for travellers seeking immersive cultural experiences, from exploring colonial monuments, Amazonian lodges or Brazil's beautiful coastline, to discovering the thrill of its world-famous Carnaval.
- In-depth on history and culture: explore the region's vibrant history and culture, and understand its modern-day life, people and politics
- Excellent Editor's Choice: uncover the best of Brazil, which highlights the most special places to visit around the region
- Invaluable and practical maps: get around with ease thanks to detailed maps that pinpoint the key attractions featured in every chapter
- Informative tips: plan your travels easily with an A to Z of useful advice on everything from climate to tipping
- Inspirational colour photography: discover the best destinations, sights, and excursions, and be inspired by stunning imagery
- Inventivedesign makes for an engaging, easy-reading experience
- Covers: Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro State, São Paulo: City and State, Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo, Iguaçu Falls, Brasília and Goiás, The Pantanal, Bahia, Salvador, Sergipe and Alagoas, Recife and Pernambuco, Fernando de Noronha, The Far Northeast and the Amazon.
About Insight Guides: Insight Guides is a pioneer of full-colour guide books, with almost 50 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides with user-friendly, modern design. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps, as well as phrase books, picture-packed eBooks and apps to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.
- Editore:
- Insight Guides
- Pubblicato:
- Jun 1, 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781789198973
- Formato:
- Libro
Informazioni sull'autore
Insight Guides wherever possible uses local experts who provide insider know-how and share their love and knowledge of the destination.
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Insight Guides Brazil (Travel Guide eBook) - Insight Guides
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Brazil’s Top 10 Attractions
Top Attraction 1
Corcovado, Rio de Janeiro. Voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, you can’t go to Rio without taking the train to the top of Corcovado, where the views are phenomenal. For more information, click here.
iStock
Top Attraction 2
Brasília. Brazil’s purpose-built capital is an architectural monument in itself. Marvel at Oscar Niemeyer’s Congresso Nacional building and Catedral Metropolitana, and immerse yourself in the magical interior of the Santuârio Dom Bosco.
For more information, click here.
Yadid Levy/Apa Publications
Top Attraction 3
The Pantanal. The Pantanal is home to 650 bird species. Lots of mammals, too, including the capybara, caiman, marsh deer, and armadillos. For more information, click here.
iStock
Top Attraction 4
Iguaçu Falls. ‘Poor Niagara!’ Eleanor Roosevelt exclaimed upon first seeing the magnificent falls at Iguaçu. The world’s greatest collection of waterfalls is simply breathtaking. For more information, click here.
iStock
Top Attraction 5
Amazon. Amazonia, the lungs of the world, supports 30 percent of all known plant and animal species, including 2,500 fish species, 50,000 higher plant species, and millions of insects. For more information, click here.
iStock
Top Attraction 6
Historic towns of Minas Gerais. Gold and diamonds made Ouro Preto rich, and financed the Baroque architecture and sculpture that led Unesco to declare it a World Cultural Monument. But the historic state is much more than just Ouro Preto. Equally memorable is Congonhas do Campo, site of the two greatest works of the 18th-century sculptor Aleijadinho. For more information, click here.
Yadid Levy/Apa Publications
Top Attraction 7
Paraty. A masterpiece of colonial architecture and charm that is also home to one of the world’s most prestigious literary festivals. For more information, click here.
Yadid Levy/Apa Publications
Top Attraction 8
Pelourinho, Salvador. According to Unesco, the Pelourinho is the most important grouping of 17th- and 18th-century colonial architecture in the Americas. For more information, click here.
Yadid Levy/Apa Publications
Top Attraction 9
Sugar Loaf, Rio de Janeiro. There are those who claim the views of Rio and the bay are even better from the top of Sugar Loaf mountain than from Corcovado. It’s a hard one to decide, so go see for yourself. For more information, click here.
Yadid Levy/Apa Publications
Top Attraction 10
Carnival. Brazil is justifiably famous for its huge, exuberant pre-Lent Carnival, the biggest and brashest in the world. Like the beaches, it would seem unfair just to highlight one, as Brazil has an embarrassment of riches that start with Rio, Salvador, Recife, and Olinda. For more information, click here.
Yadid Levy/Apa Publications
Editor’s Choice
Best Beaches
Búzios. White-sand beaches, crystalline water, palm trees, and coconuts. For more information, click here.
Lopes Mendes, Ilha Grande, Rio State. A glorious stretch of beach where the fine white sand squeaks beneath your feet. For more information, click here.
The Rio–Santos Highway. The road passes more than 400km (240 miles) of glorious beaches. For more information, click here.
Taipús de Fora, Bahia State. On the remote Maraú Peninsula, this is considered by many to be one of the finest beaches in Brazil. For more information, click here.
Praia do Forte. An attractive village situated on miles of white sandy beach, some 85km (53 miles) from Salvador. It is protected by a private foundation and is known for its turtle conservation program. For more information, click here.
Praia Pajuçara, Maceió, Alagoas State. Maceió beaches are famous for the transparent, bright emerald green water. Praia Pajuçara, which becomes an enormous wading pool at low tide, is a prime example. For more information, click here.
Jericoacoara, Ceará State. Ceará has innumerable beautiful beaches, but perhaps the finest is the remote Jericoacoara. Declared a national park in 2002, it is a magical spot that has been described as ‘one of the 10 most beautiful beaches on the planet.’ For more information, click here.
Praia do Sancho, Fernando de Noronha. Its waters are home to dolphins, sharks, and multicolored fish, but in Praia do Sancho this island has one of the country’s best beaches and dive sites. For more information, click here.
Brazil’s beaches are excellent places to swim, surf, dive, or sail.
Fotolia
Outdoor Adventure
Fernando de Noronha. Scuba diving and snorkeling are popular activities here. There are ships to visit and you might meet a shark on a night dive. For more information, click here.
Rio da Prata, Bonito. Very different snorkeling is found in the rivers that surround Bonito. Float with the current in a natural aquarium. For more information, click here.
Iguaçu Falls. Aboard sturdy, 20-seater inflatable boats you can get right up to the base of the falls. For more information, click here.
Amazon. Take treks into the forest, canoe trips, or go piranha-fishing or torchlight caiman-spotting. For more information, click here.
Lençóis Maranhenses. Rolling sheets of white sand, dotted by transparent pools of water. For more information, click here.
Ilha do Mel, Paranaguá. The island is a nature reserve with natural pools, grottoes, beaches, and no vehicles. Its unspoiled nature makes it a popular spot. For more information, click here.
Parque Nacional de Brasília. An area of savannah and low forest where birds, wolves, and monkeys find refuge. There are forest trails, and swimming pools. For more information, click here.
Sculptures at Museu Nacional de Belas Artes or National Fine Arts Museum in Rio de Janeiro.
Yadid Levy/Apa Publications
Top Museums
Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio. Houses one of Latin America’s finest art collections, including works by the great 20th-century Cândido Portinari. For more information, click here.
Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR), Rio. One of the new museums and galleries established in Rio’s redeveloped port area. The underlying theme of this museum is Rio itself. A perfect introduction to the city for any visitor. For more information, click here
Museu do Amanhã (Museum Of Tomorrow), Rio. This fascinating museum housed in a striking building explores the environmental, economic and social scenarios the world may face in future. For more information, click here.
Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Niterói. Designed by Oscar Niemeyer, the building may be the best attraction. The views back to Rio are gorgeous. For more information, click here.
Museu Afro-Brasileiro, Salvador. A fascinating collection of objects that highlight the strong African influence on Bahian culture. For more information, click here.
Museu do Homem do Nordeste, Recife. The museum is a tribute to the cultural history of this fascinating region. For more information, click here.
Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP). Rembrandt, Renoir, Goya, Picasso and Monet are just a few of the European artists represented here. There’s also a sweeping survey of Brazilian art. For more information, click here.
Museu do Futebol, São Paulo. This state-of-the-art football museum is the one the five-time World Champions deserved. Located in the Pacaembu Stadium. For more information, click here.
Museu Imperial, Petrópolis. An Imperial gem that shines an illuminating light on Brazil’s early rulers. For more information, click here.
Gathering on Rio’s Copacabana beach for New Year’s Eve celebrations.
Corbis
Best Festivals
Rio Carnival. Rio de Janeiro hosts the world’s most famous Carnival, and it deserves its reputation. The parade of the top samba schools is one of the entertainment world’s genuine wonders. For more information, click here.
Salvador, Bahia. Carnival in Salvador is quite a different thing. The centerpiece is a glittering music festival on wheels called trio elétrico. For more information, click here.
Boi-Bumba. The last weekend of June marks the Parintins Folk Festival in Amazonia, a huge festival centered on the Amerindian Boi-Bumba fable. A rival to Carnival, it is the most complete mixture of Amerindian, European, and African cultural elements in Brazil. For more information, click here.
June Festivals. Celebrating the feast days of St Anthony (June 12), St John (June 23–4), and St Peter (June 28–9) they are characterized by brightly illuminated balloons, and bonfires blazing through the night; and by fireworks, food and drink, and folk music. For more information, click here.
Bom Jesus dos Navegantes. Celebrated at New Year in Salvador. A procession of small craft decked with streamers and flags carries a statue of the Lord of Seafarers from the harbor to the Boa Viagem church. For more information, click here.
Círio de Nazaré. A four-hour procession in Belém on the second Sunday of October, centered on a colorfully decorated carriage bearing the image of Our Lady of Nazareth. For more information, click here.
Sounds of Brazil
Bossa Nova. Brazil’s most popular music, led by the likes of Tom Jobim, Sergio Mendes, João Gilberto, and his daughter Bebel. For more information, click here.
Samba. The driving rhythm and cornerstone of Rio’s carnival, but so much more. For more information, click here.
Axé. A melting pot of Afro, Caribbean, and Brazilian music. Leading exponents include Ivete Sangalo, Cláudia Leitte, Daniela Mercury, and Olodum. For more information, click here.
Tropicalia. A musical wave that flowed from Salvador to Rio thanks to the work of Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, and Maria Bethania, to name a few. For more information, click here.
Choro. Hear Brazil cry (choro) through the sound of flute, guitar, and cavaquinho. For more information, click here.
Sugar Loaf Mountain looms over the Bay of Botafogo.
Yadid Levy/Apa publications
View over Santa Rita church and the harbor, Paraty.
Yadid Levy/Apa Publications
Local boys dive in, Trancoso.
Yadid Levy/Apa Publications
Introduction: A Land without Frontiers
Since first landing in Brazil in 1500, visitors have always been slightly dazed by the sheer size of the country and its hidden riches; Brazilians are no less captivated.
Since its colonization by the Portuguese in the 16th century, Brazil has held a constant fascination for foreigners. First it was gold, then rubber and coffee, and more recently, the exotic sights and sounds of the nation. For Brazilians, too, it is an intriguing land. There is a feeling that, hidden in some far corner of this great nation, there may be an immense treasure just waiting to be discovered. The main problem lies in identifying the corner.
Colonial architecture in Salvador.
Yadid Levy/Apa Publications
Brazilians and foreigners alike have been gradually occupying the enormous empty spaces of this continent-sized country ever since the 16th century. They have populated them with some 208 million souls, composing one of the world’s most heterogeneous populations. They live amid modern splendor in sprawling cities and in squalid deprivation in rural backwaters. They work in high-tech industries and push wooden plows behind laboring beasts. Within the confines of this country live indigenous people in near Stone Age conditions, semi-feudal peasants and landlords, pioneers hacking out jungle settlements, and wealthy entrepreneurs and business people.
Catedral Metropolitana, Brasília.
Yadid Levy/Apa publications
Perhaps nowhere on earth is the process of development as tangible as in Brazil. The dynamism of the country is its greatest achievement. Even in periods of stagnation, Brazilians continue to get on with the process of nation-building: in 2014 they hosted the FIFA World Cup and in 2016, the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Brazilians are united by a common language, Portuguese; a common religion, Catholicism (though mixed with indigenous faiths); and a common dream that Brazil will be a great nation. Despite enormous social and economic difficulties, Brazilians are a remarkably spontaneous, enthusiastic, and high-spirited people, who tend to live in the moment. After all, at any moment, you may just find treasure.
Bahian woman in traditional dress.
Yadid Levy/Apa publications
The People of Brazil
Brazil is sometimes referred to as a melting pot, but this implies that people from many different backgrounds have blended together. They are, in fact, proudly different, but also proud to be Brazilians.
Brazil is a diverse nation. Its people share only a common language and a vague notion of Brazil’s cultural shape. They worship a dozen gods, and their ancestors came from all over the globe. This is a legacy of Brazil’s colonial past. Among the countries of the New World, it is unique. Whereas the Spanish-American colonies were ruled by rigid bureaucracies, and the future United States by a negligent Britain, Brazil’s colonial society followed a flexible middle course. The Portuguese colonists were not outcasts from their native land like the Puritans of New England. Nor were they like the grasping Spanish courtiers fulfilling a brief colonial service before returning home. They were men – and for decades, only men – who retained an allegiance to the old country but quickly identified with their new home.
In his classic work on Brazil’s origins Raízes do Brasil (Roots of Brazil), historian Sérgio Buarque de Holanda (father of songwriter Chico Buarque) writes: ‘He [the Brazilian male] is free to take on entire repertoires of new ideas, outlooks and forms, assimilating them without difficulty.’
Indigenous Languages
Around 274 languages are used in Brazil, including an estimated 180 Amerindian languages, and 158 of them are endangered because they are spoken by groups of fewer than 1,000. Many are almost extinct, spoken only by a handful of people, mostly elderly. Most speakers of indigenous languages are bilingual (in Portuguese and their own tongue), but there are parts of Amazonas and Pará where most women and children speak only their own language – Mundurukú – although men speak some Portuguese. Kayapó is another language that is flourishing orally, but only a small proportion of the estimated 5,000 speakers are literate in it.
Racial mixing
The Spanish grandees hated the New World, the Puritans were stuck with it, but the Portuguese liked Brazil – particularly its native women – and the colonizers’ desire married with the beauty of the indigenous females to begin a new race. The first members of that race – the first Brazilians – were mamelucos, the progeny of Portuguese white men and native Amerindian women. Later, other races emerged – the cafusos, of Amerindian and African blood, and the mulatos, of African and European.
The fusion of race is more complete in Brazil than in many Latin American countries. Pedro Alvares Cabral is honored by all Brazilians as the country’s ‘discoverer,’ yet the Amerindian past is not disdained. Diplomat William Schurz, in his 1961 book Brazil, notes that numerous Amerindian family names have been preserved. He lists Ypiranga, Araripe, Peryassu, and many others, some of which belong to distinguished families in Pernambuco and Bahia.
But in contemporary Brazil, Schurz might have pointed out, the Amerindian is only a shadow of the other races. Historians believe that as many as 5 million Amerindians lived in the area at the time of the European discovery in 1500. According to Amerindian leader Ailton Krenak, approximately 700 tribes have disappeared since that time, victim of disease, extermination, or gradual absorption through miscegenation. About 180 tribes have survived, as have a similar number of languages or dialects. They comprise about 900,000 people, mostly living on government reservations in Mato Grosso and Goiás, or in villages deep in the Amazon.
Passengers on the ferry from Itaparica island to Salvador, Bahia.
Yadid Levy/Apa Publications
Brazil’s mestiço (mestizo) population, meanwhile, has tended to melt into the white category. Only about 2 to 3 percent of Brazilians, mostly in the Amazon or its borders, consider themselves mestiços, but in reality, throughout the north and northeast, many nominal Caucasians are in fact mestiços.
African culture
The history of African and the associated mixed-race people in Brazil has been complex. Despite now having the largest black population outside of Africa, Brazilians are known for being ambivalent about their black heritage. In the past, racism existed but was simply denied. In recent years, however, there has emerged an awareness of both Brazilian racism and the rich legacy that Africans have introduced to Brazil.
Pernambucan sociologist Gilberto Freyre wrote, in his 1936 volume Casa Grande e Senzala: ‘Every Brazilian, even the light-skinned and fair-haired one, carries about with him in his soul, when not in soul and body alike, the shadow, or even the birthmark, of the aborigine or the negro. The influence of the African, either direct or remote, is everything that is a sincere reflection of our lives. We, almost all of us, bear the mark of that influence.’
Starting in colonial days, entire portions of African culture were incorporated wholesale into Brazilian life. Today, they are reflected in the rhythmic music of samba, the varied and spicy cuisine of Bahia, and the growth of African-origin spiritist religions, even in urban centers. And the mark of that influence, as Freyre said, goes far beyond mere religious and culinary conventions.
Resident in Cachoeira town, Bahia.
Yadid Levy/Apa Publications
Change in racial views
Recent years have seen the rediscovery and redefinition of Brazil’s African past, including the revision of racist views of history. Brazilian history books at the turn of the century often contained racist passages. One text noted that ‘negroes of the worst quality, generally those from the Congo, were sent to the fields and the mines.’ The preamble of an early 20th-century immigration law said, ‘It is necessary to preserve and develop the ethnic composition of our population by giving preference to its most desirable European elements.’
Modern social scientists, starting with Freyre, have catalogued the real achievements of Brazil’s early black residents. For example, the Africans often possessed highly developed manual skills in carpentry, masonry and mining. Much of the best Baroque carving that graces Bahia’s colonial churches was done by Africans.
In Minas Gerais, the illegitimate son of a Portuguese builder and a black slave woman led Brazilian sculpture and architecture into the high Baroque. Antônio Francisco Lisboa, called Aleijadinho (‘The Little Cripple,’ because of a deformation some have attributed to arthritis, others to leprosy), started late in the 18th century with his elegant São Francisco church in Ouro Preto and the larger, more elaborate São Francisco in São João del Rei. He also created 78 sinuous and lifelike soapstone and cedar carvings at the Basílica do Senhor Bom Jesus de Matosinhos, in Congonhas do Campo.
Aleijadinho’s miracle is that he created an informed yet innovative artistic idiom at the edge of Western civilization. During his remarkable 80-year lifetime he never studied art and never saw the ocean. Yet his Congonhas statues are numbered among the greatest collections of Baroque art in the world (for more information, click here).
In addition to their artistic attributes and manual skills, many Africans, especially the Yorubás of West Africa who dominated in Bahia, brought sophisticated political and religious practices to Brazil. Historians noted that they practiced the Islamic religion and were literate in Arabic. Their culture was rich in music, dance, art, and unwritten but majestic literature. Writes Freyre, ‘In Bahia, many … were, in every respect but political and social status, the equal or superior of their masters.’
Local life played out by the colorful houses in Trancoso.
Yadid Levy/Apa Publications
Rebellion against slavery
These proud Africans did not simply accept their bondage. Brazil’s previous view of its African slavery as ‘less rigorous than that practiced by the French, English or North Americans’ has been revised by historians, who note that nine violent slave rebellions rocked the province of Bahia between 1807 and 1835.
Lobsters and prawns for sale on the beach at Trancoso.
Yadid Levy/Apa Publications
A German visitor to a Bahian plantation in the 19th century, Prince Adalbert of Prussia, reported that ‘the loaded guns and pistols hanging up in the plantation owner’s bedroom showed that he had no confidence in his slaves and had more than once been obliged to face them with his loaded gun.’
The story of Brazilian slavery is inevitably harrowing. Historians believe that 12 million Africans were captured and shipped to Brazil between 1549 and the outlawing of the Brazilian slave trade in 1853. Of that number, about 2 million people died on the slave boats before reaching Brazilian shores.
Once in Brazil, white masters treated their slaves as a cheap investment. An African youth enslaved by the owner of a sugar plantation or gold mine could expect to live eight years. It was cheaper to buy new slaves than preserve the health of existing ones. Enslaved Africans in the northeast were often in flight. Historians know of at least 10 large-scale quilombos, or slave retreats, formed during colonial days in the interior of the northeast. The largest of these, Palmares, had a population of 30,000 at its peak, and flourished for 67 years before being crushed in 1694. Palmares, like the other great quilombos of the 17th and 18th centuries, was run along the lines of an African tribal monarchy, with a king, a royal council, community and private property, a tribal army, and a priestly class.
An Afro-Brazilian family on Coroa Vermelha beach.
Yadid Levy/Apa Publications
In some respects, however, Brazilian slavery was more liberal than its equivalents elsewhere. Owners were prohibited by law from separating slave families, and were required to grant slaves their freedom if they could pay a fair market price. A surprising number of slaves were able to achieve manumission. Freed slaves often went on to form religious brotherhoods, with the support of the Catholic Church, particularly Jesuit missionaries. The brotherhoods raised money to buy the freedom of more slaves, and some of them became quite wealthy.
In Ouro Preto, one such brotherhood built one of the most beautiful colonial churches in Brazil, the Igreja da Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Pretos. In a backlash against slavery, Rosário dos Pretos discriminated against whites.
Brazilian slavery finally came to an end in 1888, when Princess Regent Isabel de Orléans e Bragança signed the Lei Aurea (Golden Law) abolishing the institution. This law immediately freed an estimated 800,000 slaves.
Social issues
Divorce and abortion are two areas where Brazilian laws have lagged behind. Until 1977, divorce was unlawful, but there was a provision for legal separation – a desquite. This guaranteed that a woman could claim alimony, but the marriage was not legally terminated, so neither party could remarry. The law was streamlined and modernized in 2007. Abortion is more problematic. In 2005 and 2008, a bill to legalize abortion was presented to Congress, but quashed by the Catholic Church and the pro-life movement, but in 2016, Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled that ‘abortion should not be a crime when performed in the first three months of pregnancy.’
Socioeconomic development
Brazil’s history of racism and slavery has left its non-white population unprepared for the 21st century. Today, Afro-Brazilians lag behind in socioeconomic terms, creating a vicious circle that has resulted in persistent discrimination.
According to São Paulo human-rights attorney Dalmo Dallari, ‘We have, in our Constitution and laws, the explicit prohibition of racial discrimination. But, it is equally clear that such laws are merely an expression of intentions with little practical effect.’ Dallari and others point to persistent, widespread discrimination. Blacks being barred at the doors of restaurants and told to ‘go to the service entrance’ by apartment-building doormen is among many examples.
There is also a more subtle face to Brazilian racial discrimination. São Paulo’s ex-State Government Afro-Brazilian Affairs Coordinator, Percy da Silva, said: ‘While it may be true that blacks are no longer slaves, it is also a fact blacks do not have the same opportunities as whites. We are, to a great extent, stigmatized, seen as inferior. We must show a double capacity, both intellectual and personal, to be accepted in many places, especially the workplace.’
Thankfully, this began to change with the appointment, by President Lula in 2002, of the first black cabinet officials, though there still remain very few black diplomats, corporate leaders, or legislators.
Although there are no official records, it is estimated that over 3 million Brazilians live outside Brazil. There are sizeable communities in the US, the UK, in Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and, of course, Portugal.
The economic condition of Afro-Brazilians was amply documented in a 2006 report published by the Brazilian Census Bureau (IBGE). The report showed that, while whites formed 49.9 percent of the total population, 88.4 percent of the richest 1 percent of Brazilians were white. Over half of whites in the 18 to 24 age bracket – 51.6 percent – attended college. On the other hand, when it came to the 48 percent of Brazil’s population categorized as Afro-Brazilian or mixed-race, only 19 percent in the same age bracket attended college. Of Brazil’s richest 1 percent, only 11.6 percent were black or brown, but of the poorest 10 percent, almost two-thirds were black or brown.
In 2004, the richest 10 percent of Brazilian society still controlled 45 percent of the nation’s wealth, while the poorest 50 percent had to divide a mere 14 percent of the nation’s riches. Fully one quarter of Brazil’s population lived below what officials stunningly dubbed ‘the misery line,’ defined as personal income of about US$50 per month or less, but these numbers are falling thanks to new social programmes, such as Bolsa Famîlia, which have seen the real earnings of the poorest 10 percent of the Brazilian population increase by nearly 30 percent since 2009.
But social inequalities are an old story in Brazil. In his classic study contrasting US and Brazilian development, Bandeirantes e Pioneiros, author Vianna Moog writes, ‘Right from the start, there was a fundamental difference of motivation between the colonization of North America and that of Brazil. In the former case, the initial sentiments were spiritual, organic and constructive, while in the latter, they were predatory and selfish, with religious influences only secondary.’ The foundations were laid for a lasting pattern of social inequalities.
Woman from the former gold-mining town of Ouro Preto.
Yadid Levy/Apa Publications
Women’s role
Historically, the treatment afforded to women in Brazil has not been much better than that extended to blacks or the poor. Mrs Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, wife of the famed Swiss-born naturalist, Louis Agassiz, noted that, during their 1865 visit to Brazil, special permission was needed from Emperor Dom Pedro II for her to attend one of her husband’s lectures. ‘Ordinarily, no women were allowed,’ she wrote later. ‘Having one on hand was evidently too great an innovation of national habits.’
But the position of women in Brazilian society has changed greatly. In 2010 Dilma Rousseff was elected as the first female president of Brazil and three years later a quarter of her cabinet were female. Her plan to stimulate the presence of women in business and leadership also led to a sharp increase in the number of female CEOs in the private sector. She was removed from office in 2016 as a result of impeachment, bestowing on her the dubious honor of being the first female president in the world to be impeached.
Former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.
Getty Images
But while welcome progress has been made, women still lag behind in terms of most economic indicators. According to the IGBE, as of 2004, women members of the workforce were still disproportionately represented in the lowest income brackets, with 71 percent of women earning US$200 a month or less, against only 55 percent of men. Overall, women’s earnings in 2005 were estimated to be only 70 percent of men’s. A 2006 study by the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) was even more telling, finding that among professionals and managers, women with exactly the same qualifications and experience as men earned only 91 percent of what their male colleagues earned. According to a report published by the United Nations in 2010, income inequality between races in Brazil has narrowed over the past decade, but a black woman still earns only half of what a white man makes. The difference in income between blacks and whites in Brazil narrowed by 31 percent between 1995 and 2005, according to the study.
The Italian influence
Starting in the 1870s, nearly a million Italian immigrants, fleeing poverty and hardship in Europe, flooded into São Paulo state. Many worked on coffee plantations, while others entered the growing urban workforce in São Paulo and neighboring cities. Within a generation, the Italians were established in the trades and professions; within two they were a new elite, thanks to families such as the Martinellis and the Matarazzos. One of Brazil’s first skyscrapers was the 30-story Martinelli Building, built in 1929. A few decades later, the 46-story Itália Building went up on Ipiranga Avenue – the tallest building in South America when it was completed in 1965.
Another half a million Italians arrived in Brazil during the late 19th century. Used to working on the land, they had little taste for city life, so many of them headed south and settled in a temperate, hilly region of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. They brought the secrets of viniculture to a country where wine production was negligible. Today, the industry is flourishing, and Brazil’s best wines are produced in the region around Caxias do Sul (for more information, click here). In 1931, Caxias inaugurated its signature event, the biennial Festival of the Grape, held in February to March in even years (2018, 2020 and so on), which celebrates the Italian heritage and culture.
A young Japanese man in São Paulo.
Yadid Levy/Apa Publications
A nation of immigrants
Like the United States, Brazil is a nation of immigrants, and not just from Portugal, the original colonizing country. Rodrigues, Fernandes, de Souza and other Latin names dominate the phone book in some Brazilian cities. But, in others, names such as Alaby or Geisel, Tolentino, or Kobayashi appear more than once.
The presence of many ethnic groups in Brazil dates from the 1850s, when the imperial government encouraged European immigration to help rebuild the labor force as the slave trade declined. The first incomers were German and Swiss farmers who settled mainly in the three southern states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Paraná, where the soil and climate were most similar to those in Europe.
For decades, some communities, such as Novo Hamburgo in Rio Grande do Sul and Blumenau in Santa Catarina, were more German than Brazilian. Protestant religious services were as common as Roman Catholic ones, and German rather than Portuguese was the first language of most residents. Such towns still bear the distinctive mark of their Teutonic heritage, with Alpine-style architecture dominating the landscape and restaurant menus offering more knackwurst and eisbein than feijoada.
By the turn of the century, Brazil was hosting immigrants from around the globe. According to records held by the foreign ministry, a total of 5 million immigrants arrived on Brazilian shores between 1884 and 1973, when restrictive legislation was adopted. Italy sent the greatest number, 1.4 million; Portugal sent 1.2 million people; Spain sent 580,000; Germany 200,000; and Russia 110,000, including many Jews who settled in São Paulo and Rio.
The call for immigrants reached beyond the borders of Europe. Starting in 1908, with the arrival in Santos harbor of the Kasato Maru, 250,000 Japanese left their homeland to live in Brazil. The descendants of these people, who were fleeing crop failures and earthquakes in their native islands, still live in metropolitan São Paulo, most visibly in the Japanese Liberdade district (for more information, click here). By the millennium it was estimated that around 1.5 million people of Japanese descent were living in Brazil – the largest Japanese population outside of Japan.
The Middle East sent 700,000 immigrants, mostly from Syria and Lebanon, during the early 20th century. Sprawling commercial districts in two cities – around Rua do Ouvidor in Rio and Rua 25 de Março in São Paulo – feature shops owned by people of Middle Eastern origin.
Despite the impact of mass communications and the trend toward political centralization, the process of molding diverse populations into one is far from complete. One reason is the strength of regionalism: when this comes to the fore, all shades of the racial and religious spectrum blend together, and regional solidarity becomes the defining factor.
The Amerindians
The survival of Brazil’s indigenous people, and their many different languages, hangs in the balance. In recent years, some of their expropriated land has been returned to them, but there is still a long way to go.
The first contact Brazilian Amerindians had with European civilization was in 1500, when the Portuguese explorer, Pedro Alvarez Cabral, blown off course on a voyage to India, reached the shores of their country. For many years, Brazilian historians estimated that there were about 4 million Amerindians in Brazil at that time, but more recently, some anthropologists have begun to believe there may have been far more, possibly as many as 30 million. This new way of thinking came about because many old Amerindian settlements are still being uncovered as new areas of Amazon rainforest are cut down.
Pieces of the past
Until recently, anthropologists also agreed that the ancestors of all Amerindians had migrated from Central Asia across the Bering Strait and down through the Americas about 10,000 years ago. However, ancient-pottery finds in the Amazon and the wide variety of indigenous cultures have led some experts to believe that Amerindians have lived in Brazil much longer, and may have come across the Pacific.
Tropical forest provides abundant timber, but it is a poor source of stone, and the Amerindians’ shifting lifestyle left behind few of the lasting monuments considered the mark of advanced civilizations.
Over 200 Amazon tribes vanished in the early 20th century.
Mary Evans
Yet any assumption that Stone Age Amerindian culture was primitive has been challenged by recent archeological discoveries, which suggest, on the contrary, that substantial, permanent, and highly organized cities existed in pre-Columbian Amazonia. Once again, the accepted view of Amerindian history is under scrutiny.
Mixed messages
Early Portuguese explorers were greatly impressed by the Amerindians’ innocence and generosity. They were regarded as ‘noble savages,’ and some were shipped to Europe to be paraded before royalty. Thus, in the early post-contact years, the Amerindians were relatively well treated, but soon the colonizers’ greed and the serious shortage of labor on the sugar plantations led them to overcome any moral scruples. Raiders – known as bandeirantes – traveled up from São Paulo to bring back Amerindians as slaves. Their brutality was legendary, and appalled Jesuit missionaries who opposed enslaving the indigenous people. The Jesuits tried to protect and convert the Amerindians by forcing forest-dwelling tribes to live in aldeias (settlements). The missions replaced native culture with Christianity and hard labor, but encouraged the people to resist enslavement. There is still debate over whether the Jesuits defended or helped crush the Amerindians. Whatever their motives, both missionaries and bandeirantes introduced Western diseases such as measles and influenza, and hundreds of thousands of Amerindians died as a result.
Indigenous Brazilian wearing a quill.
Corbis
Fair-weather friends
Despite the relatively fair treatment accorded them by the Europeans in the early years of colonization, some indigenous people were suspicious, realizing that attitudes could change to suit circumstances. ‘Do not trust the whites. They are the men who control the lightning, who live without a homeland, who wander to satisfy their thirst for gold. They are kind to us when they need us, for the land they tread and the rivers they assault are ours. Once they have achieved their goals, they are false and treacherous.’ So wrote Rosa, a Borôro Amerindian, and she was right: the men ‘without a homeland’ had little respect for the lands they
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