Adventures of a Gringa

Revitalizing Rio

Last week, a feature story from Travel + Leisure Magazine began circulating amongst Cariocas and Rio gringos, and I thought it was worth analyzing.

The article, entitled Revitalizing Rio de Janeiro, was written by an enthusiastic New York and London-based journalist and details Rio's reemergence as a city and a destination. I recommend reading the whole piece first. Go ahead, I'll wait.

On one hand, the article really does a fantastic job of giving Rio great and well-deserved PR. Tourists are sometimes intimidated by Rio, and the article is very encouraging to those who might have their doubts. More tourism in the long run (rather than relying soley for the two upcoming mega-events) is one of the ultimate goals in upgrading the city's infrastructure. Also, it's important to note that the article is written with a specific audience in mind - a worldly and well-heeled crowd, much more so than your run-of-the-mill vacation seeker.

It's tempting to become starry-eyed when you travel in Rio, especially if it's your first time. It's extremely difficult not to fall in love with the city and sometimes it can be hard not to romanticize even one's own experiences. So I definitely can relate, since it's tempting to want to extoll the virtues of a place that is so easy to love, at the outset. I've also found that with stories like this, particularly features on Rio, the tendency is to either be very positive (some Cariocas described the story as ufanista, or excessively patriotic) or very negative (see this ESPN story, for example) But it's also important to be realistic and rational, and here are some areas I thought were worth discussing.

1. Optimism

It's true that Rio seems to be bursting at the seams with optimism, something I also noticed on my recent trip. Many Cariocas are happy with changes in Rio, some stemming from preparations to play host to the World Cup and the Olympics in the next few years, be it extended subway lines or improved public safety (though I'll get to that in a minute). But I also think that economic growth has a lot to do with the optimism, since people are much happier when they have money in their wallets and greater prospects for the future. The overall growth of the Brazilian economy and its immediate effects on the local economy, as well as the growing importance of Rio as a hub for multinational companies and the effects of the influx of those new people and businesses, have been a large part of the everyday optimism you might see.

On the other hand, not all Cariocas are brimming with optimism. Many are still frustrated with public security, and everyone is unhappy with rising prices, which have reached exorbitant levels in some areas, like real estate. Also, after it was recently announced that Maracanã Statidum would only host the finals of the World Cup, which means the Brazilian national team may not even play there, some Cariocas voiced their frustration with the multi-million dollar reforms that may have very little impact on the city or its people in the long run.

The Travel + Leisure story closes with some quotes from Regina Casé, which some found to be off-putting. She's quoted as saying: “In Rio, we invite all the problems to a big party and we let them dance together.”

One of my readers, Claudio, a Carioca illustrator, explained his thoughts.

"Yeah, things are a bit better here, but mostly because 'rock bottom = no place to go but up.' I live on the West Side of Rio, not too far from Barra beach. The traffic has only gotten worse, and you get gridlocked regardless of rush hours. I don't go out at night, because the streets aren't really safe, with criminals posing as cops and putting up false checkpoints to rob citizens. Regina Casé's notion of 'we invite problems and let them dance' is actually a philosophy that somewhat brought this whole mess upon ourselves. Brazilians (and cariocas) have a tendency of getting too complacent, of finding a way around problems instead of trying to solve them. There is nothing to be proud of in that kind of mentality."

2. Beach democracy

While at first glance it might seem like Rio's beaches are "democratic," since people from different social classes frequent them. But it's not quite the case. Beaches tend to be segmented by social class - in Copacabana and Ipanema, for example, each "post" tends to have a specific group. While Posto 9 has traditionally been a hang out for the wealthy, other posts tend to have beachgoers from working-class suburbs or from favelas. Even Prainha, which is small in comparison, has fragmented segments. It's an unspoken rule that everyone should stay in his or her place - even on the beach. As for Vik Muniz's allegation that Cariocas drop everything to go to the beach every day at 4PM - I can only imagine that maybe he was taken out of context. Even he knows that the very large majority those who work are hardly running from the office to the beach. Most are just getting out of work and trying to go home at the end of the day.

3. Snobbery

One of the lines in the story that seemed to bother Cariocas was the author's claim that "it’s pointless being a snob in Rio." There was also the bit that said, "In Rio de Janeiro, those who have privilege admire those who don’t." That snobbery doesn't exist in Rio is laughable, and I found it odd that considering that the author seemed to spend a good deal of time amongst the wealthy, he didn't seem to notice (or maybe didn't want to point it out).

Fellow blogger Corin, who's written extensively about Brazil, told me this in reference to the snobbery aspect:

"When, for instance, I told a friend of mine who lives in Ipanema that I'd spent the day out in Madureira, his response was actually "EW" -- as if "poor" were contagious. Another person -- on the way to her gated condo complex near Angra -- told me that "whenever we find some beautiful place, 'they' have to go and make it look ugly [by constructing a favela]." (She didn't seems to wonder or care where "the help" lived -- only that they were neither seen nor heard.) I've always had the distinct feeling that there's a whole class of folks for whom 'Rio de Janeiro' extends only as far as North as Centro -- and even then only the 'asfalto."

On the other hand, it's true that some members of the upper class like to play down their social status, it certainly doesn't mean they admire those who live in favelas. Claudio explained it this way:

"Now, if you go to an upscale shopping mall, it's common to see wealthy 20-somethings wearing tattered jeans, flip-flops and a flimsy t-shirt. It's trendy among the youth in Rio to downplay how wealthy they are, to proudly proclaim how they go to pagode houses in Lapa or eat standing at the counter of this or that streetside bar, etc. On the other hand, middle-class or lower-middle-class people usually "dress up" when they go to the mall. Kinda topsy-turvy, really."

But other than social reformers and those who work with NGOs, you'd be hard-pressed to find upper class Cariocas that defend the existence of favelas, or boast of having friends there.

4. Flip Flops

I was a little confused by the author's claim that he saw people wearing flip flops at City Hall. Business attire is pretty strict, and it's unthinkable that a professional would show up to work in flip flops, especially in government. My best guess is that they were lost tourists, or maybe some construction workers passing through.

5. Security

I think this was the part of the article that was the most problematic, since much of the references to crime and security were written in the past tense. Unfortunately, it's not the case that Rio's security problems are a thing of the past. There was one part of the article where a person seemed to imply that people no longer use bullet proof cars, and declared that people roll down their windows now. People who drive cars without air conditioning have always been rolling down their windows, and for those who can afford it (a small elite), bullet-proofed vehicles are still the norm. The author also quotes Fernando Gabeira as saying, “Security is an impression as much as it is a reality. If people think things are better, they are better.” While I'd agree this is more applicable to economics - even the impression of wealth has helped generate even more optimism around the economy - it doesn't apply as much to security.

While Rio has come a long way, crime statistics are still grim. Though murder rates have supposedly gone down (though there's speculation about those numbers), other crimes are on the rise. Flash kidnappings, for example, more than doubled for the period of April to June from 2010 to 2011.

Crime still plagues many of Brazil's big cities. A recent IBOPE report found that 51 percent of Brazilians consider public security as bad or terrible. Greg Michener summarized the report on his blog:

"Within the last twelve months more than 51% of Brazilians give public safety a failing grade; 79% say they have witnessed or experienced some type of crime within the last 12 months; 63% say they avoid carrying money while circulating around their respective cities; 57% report that they have increased the caution they take when leaving their houses; and 54% avoid going out at night."

On my recent trip to Rio, my husband and his friends were reminiscing about friends who had died young. A friend who lives in the Zona Norte, one of the working class suburbs, matter-a-factly commented that he'd witnessed executions from his window. "The cost of life is so cheap," he said. Then he changed the subject.

After the IBOPE report came out, Rio-based crime reporter Jorge Antonio Barros asked his readers on Twitter how they have changed their habits to avoid crime. One reader who lives in Rio wrote: "I haven't changed any habits. It's just that I don't walk around with money. I always have my debit card and my metro card. If I get robbed, I give up everything and block the cards later."

The article seems to imply that militias are a thing of the past. They're still very much a problem, particularly in the Zona Oeste and Zona Norte. And even though the government has been cracking down on them, it's unclear if impunity will reign as usual. Just this weekend, prison officials were forced to explain why 2,600 cans of beer were delivered to a prison, likely to be served to former police officers behind bars for a range of crimes. In September, a former police officer accused of 16 murders escaped from the same prison, and once he was out, he allegedly began plotting to murder a local politician. So in the Travel + Leisure article, when it said (past tense) that the poor used to fear police, and the wealthy were skeptical of police, it really should have said that many people, regardless of social class, still fear the police.

So it's always nice to see an article like this, especially in contrast to some of the more bleak pieces on poverty and crime. But it's also nice to see some perspective. Corin described her thoughts on the article. "I mean, I guess anyone would like to visit the Rio he went to: the political left and right are singing kumbaya, the poor are respected, the rich are respectful, and even the models don't have eating disorders." The Rio in this article is the kind of Rio everyone is hoping for, but isn't quite there yet.

Q&A With Gustavo Chacra

Gustavo Chacra is the New York-based foreign correspondent for Estado de São Paulo, one of Brazil's major newspapers (and in my opinion, one of the best). He covers not only the United States, but the Middle East as well, and as well as writing hard news, he also writes a very interesting, award-winning blog, From Beirut to New York. In his blog, he discusses life in New York, analyzes US foreign policy, covers current events in the Middle East, and international topics. He received his masters in International Affairs from Columbia, and has traveled all over the Middle East and throughout Latin America. He worked in Haiti after the earthquake in 2010, and was one of the first foreign correspondents to cover Occupy Wall Street. I was very excited when he took time out of his busy schedule after returning from Syria to answer some questions about life as a correspondent and his experiences around the world. I've included the original Q&A in Portuguese as well as the English translation.

English

What's the biggest challenge to being a foreign correspondent?

My dream was always to be a correspondent. The biggest challenge is to live in two worlds at once. That is to say, I live in the U.S., but my work is in Brazil. I keep up with all of the news here, but I need to always keep an eye on the reactions to that news in São Paulo. My bosses, my readers, everyone is in another country and that has to be my point of reference.

It seems you have a great interest in the Middle East. Have you thought of living or working there?

I spent nine months as a correspondent in the Middle East from 2008 to 2009. Maybe in the future I'll go back there. But I really do like the United States, and Argentina as well, where I worked as correspondent.

You recently criticized an article by Rui Castro. What do you think about famous people who publicly discuss politics or foreign affairs?

I think everyone has the right to have an opinion about all kinds of topics. However, in order not to make mistakes, people should avoid discussing topics they don't understand. For example, you'd be hard-pressed to see me giving an opinion about theater.

You've observed the differences between the economic crisis here and the economic boom in Brazil. How do you view the economic situation in both countries?

I still think that the U.S. is the most innovative country and certainly the economy will return to the right path in due course. But the world has changed and new forces have emerged, like the BRICs. We should just be careful, become economic booms like the one in Brazil don't last forever.

This year, the Brazilian government created a scholarship program to send Brazilian students abroad. As someone who studied abroad, what do you think about the plan?

I think it's crucial. Anyone who has the opportunity should spend some time abroad.

What's your favorite place in New York?

Columbia and Lincoln Center.

What was your experience like in Haiti after the earthquake?

I think the best way to describe what I went through in Haiti is in this post that I wrote back then. I know it's long, but it was my reaction to the situation.

Translated post from January 2010 - From Beirut To New York

The American journalist Gay Talese wrote in his book "The Kingdom and Power," about the history of The New York Times, that journalists prefer "to see countries in ruins and ships sinking than a normal scene that's part of everyday life." I remembered that quote when I was waiting in a line of journalists to cross the Israeli border to enter Gaza to see what had happened after the bombings. And I thought of it while fighting with other journalists for a spot on whatever single-engine airplane I could to travel from Santo Domingo to Port-au-Prince the morning after the earthquake.

We wanted to see the war, the aftermath of the earthquake, the bodies, the hunger, the tragedy. But to say that we preferred this to normal life, like Talese claims? It's hard to say. I live in the same city as him - New York. The Tuesday when the earthquake happened, a week ago, it began as a slow news day. I could even eat lunch without racing through, something rare when you work with a three hour time difference. At the beginning of the night, I wrote a story about a distant struggle between Google and the Chinese government. Everything changed when the editor of the International section, Roberto Lameirinhas, called to talk about the earthquake in Haiti. Instantly, I said I wanted to cover the earthquake. I looked for flights online and found one to Port-au-Prince. But they obviously cancelled the flight. Early the next day, I took a flight to Santo Domingo with other reporters. It was the center of all world news. "Earthquakes and wars," as Talese would say.

Haiti is worse than Gaza, where I was last year. Ten times worse. It's also worse than the south of Lebanon after Hezbollah's war with Israel. And worse than Beirut after the civil war. I saw scenes that I never imagined were possible. Within 24 hours, I left Manhattan, considered the most sought after place on the planet, to see burned corpses, bodies abandoned in the street, including a baby left on a piece of cardboard. People without food, without water, with nothing. Entire neighborhoods were destroyed. There's no prospects for this country to get back on its feet quickly. Not even with the help of the heroic Brazilian soldiers and soldiers from other countries with MINUSTAH, who risked their lives to try to find survivors. Not even with the arrival of American reinforcements and humanitarian aid organizations.

To see all of these things and to write the stories, with the pressure of a deadline, to write clearly, with the Internet going out, and running the risk of typos because of typing quickly are just some of the biggest challenges for any journalist. In a situation like this, there's no time to get organized and the best way to get around is to just bring a backpack with a computer and emergency food. I came practically with just the shirt on my back, without toothpaste or deodorant, which you can't bring in carry-on bags through the airport in the US. I forgot my toothbrush in Santo Domingo and I had to use my hand and borrowed toothpaste. In the bathroom, I scrubbed myself with a shirt. Luckily, I managed a place to stay and eat at the Brazilian military base, the best place to stay in Port-au-Prince. All of the Brazilian journalists are here. Globo, SBT, Band, Estado, Folha, TV Brasil, IG.

At a time like this, the reporters try to help one another. There isn't rivalry, and everyone works together in the press room and goes out in groups. We each have our point of view. Fabiano, from Folha, and Rodrigo, from Zero Hora, covered the crisis in Honduras at the embassy; Gilberto, from O Globo, covered the earthquake in China; and I covered the war in Gaza, as well as conflicts in Lebanon and Tegucigalpa. Lourival Santanna, my colleague from Estadão in Haiti, must have ten wars under his belt, including Iraq and Afghanistan. What matters is to show the story of the people of Haiti through our own eyes. Many of the victims were burned or buried without being identified. We'll never know who they were, their memories, if they had children, if they had a mother, who their girlfriend was, the last book they read, what they ate for their last meal or what their plans were for the end of the day that was interrupted by the earthquake. Hundreds or thousands may be under the rubble, including medical students. For these stories, we waited in line in Gaza and flew on single-engine airplanes from Santo Domingo to Port-au-Prince. In Manhattan, we would never see these scenes. Not even on September 11th.

Read the interview em português after the jump.

Interview With Flora Thomson-Deveaux

You may know her as the American college student who writes for Piauí, the Brazilian equivalent of The New Yorker. Or you may know her as the gringa that caused an uproar at Rio's most expensive university with her blog post. Or you may not have heard of her yet, in which case I'm very happy to introduce the immensely talented Flora Thomson-Deveaux.

Flora is a junior at Princeton who is studying abroad in Rio de Janeiro, and is a like-minded gringa fluent in Spanish and Portuguese with a deep and abiding love of Brazil. She's admittedly obsessed with Brazilian music, specifically from the 1920s, which she is researching for school. She's one of those Very Smart People, and her accents in both Portuguese and Spanish are flawless. I spoke to her about how she ended up in Brazil and writing for Piauí, as well as her experiences living in the Cidade Maravilhosa.

Though Flora already spoke Spanish when she began college, she wanted to try something new. Portuguese was the "lazy" choice, she claims, since she found a Portuguese class for Spanish speakers. She began studying Portuguese her first semester at Princeton, but it was much harder than she thought, and she didn't like it much. But the second semester, she took a seminar on Brazilian cinema which she says was "completely infectious," and began to enjoy her Portuguese studies. At the time, there was an author at Princeton working on a Carmen Miranda biography, but she didn't speak Portuguese. After reaching out to the Portuguese department, no one was interested - that is, no one except for Flora. "I was delighted at the prospect," she told me, and despite only being in her second semester of Portuguese, began translating. She was told to do as much as she could, as fast as she could, getting paid an "embarrassingly low sum." It ended up being more an extracurricular activity, since the pay was so meager and she spent so much time on the project, sometimes staying up until 4 in the morning translating. In the end, she ended up translating not one but two Carmen Miranda biographies, including an entire biography written by the former director of the Carmen Miranda Museum, and part of Ruy Castro's Carmen biography. "It took me less than a month," Flora said, "but I basically didn't sleep."

Though she continued her Portuguese studies her sophomore year, Flora wasn't necessarily thinking about going to Brazil. She's headed to Argentina for spring semester abroad, since she loves Borges and had been looking forward to studying literature in Buenos Aires. But her interest in Brazil grew. She covered a Brazilian film festival during an internship as a radio journalist, and found herself trying to improve her Portuguese. She would sit at the Portuguese "table" every week at the Princeton dining hall, and listened to Brazilian music all the time. At Princeton, the Portuguese department emphasizes learning music as a part of learning the language, and Flora says she could sing in Portuguese before she could speak a sentence without stumbling through. She also loves Brazilian film, and devoured the Princeton library's Brazilian movie DVD collection before heading to Rio. During her last semester before studying abroad, she took three Portuguese seminars.

A large part of Flora's fascination with Brazil stemmed from her love of Carmen Miranda and Rio of the 1920s. "She's an acquired taste," Flora admits, and says even now that she finds a few of her songs to be "god-awful." But she's enamored of Carmen. "While translating someone's life from beginning to end, you lose all critical distance," Flora said. "It was total identification." In what she calls an odd, mostly emotional, and slightly incomprehensible relationship with Carmen, she felt like she bonded with her while translating her biography.

So for Flora, coming to Rio for the first time was a dream come true. In her blog, Flora relates part of a dream she had about Rio where she traveled around the city in a streetcar, and fell to her knees, weeping with joy. But Flora knew the city she had fallen in love with was very different from the one where she would be living. "I had this weird emotional attachment to a city that no longer existed," she said, "so I was prepared for pretty much anything." Most of what she knew about modern Rio was from movies, and she came expecting to discover a place that was completely new to her.

Flora arrived in Rio a month early to begin research for one of two of her junior papers, which are basically a practice run for her thesis next year. She has been doing research on popular Brazilian music of the 1920s at the Instituto Moreira Salles, the Biblioteca Nacional, and other institutions, and has recently begun writing her paper. In addition to going to class and studying, she also writes her blog, and occasionally stops in at the Piauí offices. She was excited by the recent talks on Fernando Pessoa and other cultural events throughout the city. Sometimes, she hunts down samba places in Lapa that play "the old stuff" from her favorite time period, or if there's nothing else to do, she'll head to the beach. Also, she started rowing on the lagoon after asking to try a few months ago, despite never having rowed before. Now she rows regularly at 7 in the morning, starting her day by soaking in the stunning views of the city. "I'm like a kid in a candy shop," she told me eagerly. "Rio seems inexhaustible." 

Originally, Flora had no intentions of writing professionally while in Rio. She started a personal blog to keep in touch with family and friends at home, and to share her experiences. But one of her former professors at Princeton was reading the blog, and sent her an email telling her that other people would enjoy her writing. "I didn't think people would find it interesting," Flora admits. But her professor insisted it would be great, and asked if she'd like to publish it on a different site. That professor was João Moreira Salles, acclaimed documentary filmmaker and the founder of Piauí magazine. And so Flora began to write for Questões Estrangeiras on Piauí, writing in English with a mixture of Portuguese, as well as the introductory post in Portuguese.

Flora found it easy to adjust to Rio life. When I asked her about adapting to Brazilian culture, or things she found strange, Flora had trouble thinking of ideas. She did find it odd that Brazilians laugh at all kinds of movies, even documentaries or dramas, something she'd encountered in both Miami and Rio. She also was a bit taken aback by the lack of importance (or entire lack) of the family dinner, since growing up in a small town in Virginia, family dinner was sacrosanct. She says not much shocks her, although she was not at all prepared for how bad the Carmen Miranda Museum would be.

In a way though, she was surprised about how she is often viewed as an outsider, even though she feels very much at home. Though she expressed her desire to want to fit in, she lamented that "it's very depressing to think that I'll only ever be taken for a tourist." (In addition to having very pale skin, Flora has red hair, which is not very common in Rio). She avoids really touristy areas so that people won't automatically assume she's a foreigner, but sometimes she'll even get funny looks when speaking Portuguese. People have told her: "tem cara de gringa." (You look like a foreigner) But despite her looks, Flora feels like a native. "As soon as I started to get to know Brazil, I felt as if it was something I already knew...it always felt like a part of me." While writing critically about Brazil on her blog, she later realized she felt she had the imperative because she doesn't feel like an outsider. "I felt Brazilian," she said. "I don't feel like an outsider."

You can tell by talking to Flora of her abiding love for Brazil, and especially Rio. Before moving to the city, she asked around if she would be able to live there without rooting for a local soccer team. She was adamantly told she had to pick a team, and was lobbied by various torcedores. She originally analyzed the teams based on the team preferences of famous authors, but in the end decided on Botafogo. She loves Sérgio Augusto's book Entre o céu e o inferno about the history of the team, which she describes as both heroic and tragic. She rattled off some statistics and anecdotes about the team, and continually referred to the team not as they but as "we." Her first Rio soccer game was a Botafogo game, which they won, but she says she would have decided to root for them anyway. “It's glory and suffering, and you have to embrace both sides.”

While Flora's semester in Rio has been wonderful for Flora, her family did have misgivings about her decision, even though Flora has never felt afraid about living in the city. Her mom watched Notícias de uma guerra particular with her, though Flora tried to convince her that it was already outdated. But her mom was unnerved, says Flora. At a pre-departure meeting at Princeton, a student who had studied abroad in Brazil came to talk about her experience and "warn" her fellow students. "When Brazilians find out you're American, you can practically see dollar signs in their eyes," the girl told them, according to Flora. The girl also told the students to watch movies like Bus 174 and City of God to prepare themselves, and other advice that Flora found "ridiculous, xenophobic nonsense." Flora walked out in the middle of the orientation.

Flora hopes to return to Brazil as soon as she can after finishing her next semester in Argentina. "I'd do pretty much anything humanly possible to move to Rio," she confessed, though she joked not to tell her family, since her grandmother had asked her not to move to Brazil. But it's too late. "I've fallen in love with Rio," Flora said. "It's hopeless."

Read Flora's blog "questões estrangeiras" here

Teachers on Strike

The labor movement is alive and well in Brazil, and strikes are a common occurence, paralyzing various sectors of services throughout the country as workers demand higher wages. Recently, there have been three major nationwide strikes: bank workers, who have now been on strike for 18 days, postal service workers, who just ended a 28 day strike, and teachers and workers at federal government-run technical schools, who have been on strike since August 1st. The postal service workers, who are now back to work, received a wage increase of around US$46 a month, and will receive another raise next year. The strike cost around $320 million, and workers are now facing 180 million pieces of mail, with expected delays for deliveries.

Strikes at banks and post offices can cause a major inconvenience, but what happens when teachers go on strike? For some, it's a dream come true, the equivalent of seemingly endless snow days. For others, especially students preparing to take entrance exams for college, it may not be such a great idea. The teachers and workers at Colégio Pedro II, a network of fourteen public high schools in Rio de Janeiro with 10,000 students, have been on strike since August 15th. Around 80 percent of the 1,800 employees have adhered to the strike. The teachers did not manage to reach an agreement, but have decided to return to work this coming Monday, which means the strike will soon come to an end after nine long weeks. Since my sister-in-law is a student there in her last year, I took the opportunity to speak to her and some of her friends about how the strike has affected them and what they have been doing with their free time.

First, some background: public elementary and high schools in Rio, and in Brazil in general, tend to be viewed as schools for those who can't afford to pay for school, since they are perceived as providing a poor quality education. Those who can afford to send their children to private schools, which aren't the same as in the US - they range in price and can be found in many different neighborhoods, so they're accessible to a variety of social classes and not just the wealthy. (Though of course, the more expensive the school, the more competitive it tends to be.) But there are a few exceptions, and those are public schools that require entrance exams for students and provide higher salaries to teachers, with reputations for excellence. Pedro II is one of those schools. It was founded in 1837, making it the second-oldest high school in the entire country. It has an illustrious list of former teachers, including Heitor Villa-Lobos and Manuel Bandeira, as well as a long list famous alumni including presidents of Brazil, authors, acclaimed actresses, singers, journalists, Supreme Court justices, politicians, and even revolutionaries. Students must take an entrance exam to get in, and selection is competitive. Students come from across the socioeconomic spectrum, and aim high after graduation, including highly selective universities and internships.

So what have Pedro II students been doing for two months while teachers have been on strike? For some, it's been a blessing to have time to study for college entrance exams and to attend test prep courses. For those who usually go to class in the morning and prep courses at night, it has made for an easier schedule. Plus, a few kind teachers have been going in or keeping in touch to help students prepare for the vestibular (college entrance exam), which some students have found helpful. "Between my test prep course and a few teachers, I try to maintain the same study schedule so that I won't be at a disadvantage from being out of class," said Bia, a senior. My sister-in-law, Larisse, told me that since she's not exhausted from going to class (she normally has to get up at 5AM to get to school), she has a more relaxed and "dignified" schedule to study, though she feels badly for students who don't have the luxury of a test prep course.

On the other hand, all of the girls I spoke to confessed they've been sleeping a lot more, sometimes through lunch, and that some of them have a hard time being productive. One senior, Mayara, admitted that she has been doing almost no studying, and spends most of her time on the Internet. Most of the girls are worried about missing material they'll need to know for the entrance exams, since the national exam, ENEM, is actually next week. (Each university offers its own entrance exam, though in the last few years students have been opting to take the ENEM, which is accepted at some schools). Students are also worried about what will happen because of the school year. It's possible they won't have much of a summer break, since classes will likely go through December or January. Some are worried that teachers will rush through the material, or not have time to finish it. Since the school year will be extended for two months, students don't know how they will manage to sign up for classes at universities without their high school diploma in hand. It could potentially lead to serious bureacratic headaches for graduating students.

As for the strike itself, students have mixed feelings. It seems most students don't really understand what the teachers are protesting, other than wages. Some sympathize with the teachers' demand for higher salaries, since generally Brazilian teachers don't earn very much. (However, as a few girls I talked to pointed out, Pedro II teachers have higher salaries than other public school teachers, and those with masters degrees and doctorates earn even more). Another senior, Sofia, told me: "Teachers in Brazil are undervalued, and I agree they should fight to make things better. But I've already been through teacher strikes and they never accomplish much, and they never seem to do much either. They don't go to the streets, there are very few public protests, very little advertising, and most people don't even know they're on strike. So in the end, it's not fair to the teachers who don't agree with the strike, and it's not fair to the students." Bia agreed. "I think the teachers' demands are fair, but I believe there are other ways to protest, like marches or open classes, that don't negatively affect the students."

According to the media, the teachers are demanding a number of things: a nearly 15 percent increase in salary, the implementation of civil service exams, a restructuring of career planning, and more government investment in education. They're also protesting a R$3 billion education budget cut. Some teachers are frustrated with the status quo, in which some classes are simply put on hold for months on end or are never given, because a teacher isn't available.

It seems that for dedicated students, the strike may have not been such a bad thing, allowing them to focus their studies on the vestibular, though for less disciplined students, or for those not taking test prep courses, it may have hurt them. But the time spent out of structured classes with assignments and homework wasn't beneficial for everyone. While in Brazil, I noticed my sister-in-law was watching a lot of TV, much more than usual. "I've been watching a lot more since the strike," she confessed. "I think my brain is atrophying."

Exiled In the Homeland

Poly grew up like many typical American girls. She loved Disney movies, took dance classes and played sports, enjoyed her dad's Italian home cooking, and spent Sundays at church with her family. She excelled in school, and even won a scholarship to a prestigious private high school, where she was active in volunteerism. After graduating, she went on to study at a college in New England, where she became president of the Board of Multi-Cultural Student Affairs.

But in other ways, she grew up in a world apart. Her mother made typical mineira dishes, including frango com quiabo, pão de queijo, and feijão tropeiro; Poly's favorites were salpicão and canjiquinha. Her parents only spoke Portuguese at home, knowing that Poly and her brother would learn English in school. Her family rented VHS tapes of Brazilian soap operas and popular TV shows like Faustão and Silvio Santos. She took Brazilian dance lessons and played with other Brazilian kids, since her parents were active in the local Brazilian community.

Not only did Poly live between two cultures, but also in two realms - the public, seemingly normal life, and the other private life, that involved a carefully guarded secret. She grew up undocumented, without a Social Security number, a driver's license, or even a visa. Until her fateful return to Brazil in 2008, she had never left the United States, despite studying International Relations in college with a longing to see the world. She was unable to work legally, and would have been unable to go to college were it not for a miraculous bureaucratic omission by the university she attended. Her parents have not been back to Brazil in twenty-three years, and have not seen their close family since then. Poly's brother was born in the US, and is the only member of the family who grew up as a citizen and had been to Brazil to visit family. Poly, who was forced to leave the US, is now unable to return. She has not seen her parents in nearly four years.

It all began when Poly's mother learned she was pregnant. She and Poly's father lived in Governador Valadares, a city in Minas Gerais that has historically had the largest number of residents living in the United States (read an interesting article about it here). Poly's father was out of work, and there were no job prospects. At the time, Poly's uncle was living in the United States, so Poly's father decided that to try his luck there. In the next few years, thousands of fellow citizens of Valadares would follow in his footsteps. Poly's dad flew to New York on a tourist visa, and got work in construction. After about a year and a half, he returned to Brazil and discovered that job prospects were still slim. So he figured out a way to return to the US, bringing his whole family this time to Connecticut. Poly was two years old, and she and her mother came through Mexico illegally. Poly believes they crossed the border in a car, though every time she asks her mother about it, she pretends not to remember. Poly doesn't remember immigrating, and grew up only knowing life in the US.

Poly's biggest test came when she was applying to college, and it was the first time she considered moving to Brazil. Without a social security number, she couldn't apply for financial aid, and her options for colleges to apply to were limited. She told very few people about her immigration status, and slowly came out to friends. Eventually, she confessed to her high school guidance counselor, who helped her apply to schools as an international student. Though she was able to get scholarships to a number of schools, Providence College offered her a full ride, and off she went. There were so few international students there, Poly says, that admissions and financial aid seemingly never communicated with each other, and Poly never had to produce a visa.

Meanwhile, Poly's parents were finally able to obtain their work authorization. Poly's father had applied for a green card years earlier with no success through his employer, and although the law wasn't applicable anymore, he was grandfathered in through the same process, but with a different company. But since her parents received their work authorization two weeks after Poly's 21st birthday, she was no longer a dependent, and would no longer be able to get immigration documents through her parents. In other words, she was still stuck. She was in college, but still unable to do many of the things her friends and fellow students could. "It was frustrating because I knew I was capable of all of this, and all that separated me from everyone else was a piece of paper," Poly told me.

While Poly was successful in college, she still struggled with her status. She was scared to explain why she couldn't take certain trips or apply to internships, fearful of some sort of reprisal. Her junior year, she was selected to be an orientation leader, and had to decline due to her immigration status. "It was especially hard because I thought the director would think less of me as a leader," Poly said. "Overall though, it was a relief to be able to talk to people about it."

Her senior year of college, Poly was recruited by Teach for America, think tanks, and top corporations. But every time they got down to the question, "Are you authorized to work in the US?" Poly was forced to tell the truth. She recalls a final round interview with a high-profile news organization, when it seemed she was going to get an offer. But the interviewer asked the big question and immediately wrote Poly off. Faced with waiting tables or cleaning houses, Poly was frustrated. She'd always been committed to social justice and development and had always wanted to be involved in helping others. "It does make me sad to think that I did spend my entire life focused on wanting to make a difference in the US, and wasn't really granted that opportunity," she lamented. 

Undaunted, Poly decided to try her luck. She took an unpaid internship with the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, DC, and and worked freelance for a friend's digital advertising company to make ends meet. During her time at her internship, she spoke to a variety of businesspeople in Brazil, who told her how things were changing and urged her to move back. Poly had been waiting for years on changes in federal legislation, for bills like the DREAM Act to allow young people like her to become permanent residents, and therefore to be able to study and work in the US. But after years of broken promises and failures, Poly grew despondent, and began to seriously consider moving to Brazil, even though it had always been her last option, a Plan C of sorts. Poly explained her rationale: "For me it was a question of 'Do I want to build a career and do something I can love?' or 'Do I want to live in the shadows, but still make good money, whether it be cleaning, serving, babysitting, etc.' I've never been one to want things but rather, be somebody. And having grown up 'American,' without fully ever being American, made me value citizenship and embrace my nationality much more than my peers."

So after she finished her internship, she returned to Connecticut and told her parents about her decision. They were upset, but understood her perspective. Poly bought her ticket a few months in advance, and called her aunt in São Paulo three weeks before she was due to arrive. At 22, it was the first time Poly was leaving the US, and was the first time she would return to the country of her birth.

Her aunt and uncle took her in, and Poly lived with them for six months while she got on her feet in São Paulo. There, she had a different problem than in the US - plenty of places wanted to hire her, but told her she was overqualified or that they couldn't afford to pay her. She began teaching English at a school, and also began teaching private classes. One of her students mentioned her company was a hiring an SEO assistant fluent in English with on-the-job training, and asked if she'd be interested. Thus Poly began a successful career in online marketing, and worked at the advertising agency for two years. After that, she moved on to do SEO for a popular jobs website, and recently began doing SEO consulting. (She also has another very exciting project on the way, but she can't discuss it publicly yet). In addition to her new career, Poly began blogging when she moved back to Brazil, and with the blog found some of her closest friends. She even inspired others to move back to Brazil, which Poly counts as a personal achievement.

In São Paulo, Poly has flourished. Besides her career, she also is studying for an MBA, and may do a short term study abroad for her program. She recently traveled to Europe for the first time with a friend, and has taken advantage of cheap airfare to travel all over Brazil, including Brasília, the Northeast, and Santa Catarina. She has new friends in São Paulo, as well as Brazilian friends who used to live in the US and Americans living abroad. With this diverse group of friends, Poly says they really understand her experience.

 While living in the US, Poly had been very politically involved. She went to every Mayday parade, immigration marches, and didn't miss an opportunity to write about immigration issues. She even appealed to her senator before deciding to leave the US, though he told her that he unfortunately couldn't help her. In São Paulo, Poly found herself growing more distant from the reform movement, though she had friends back in the US who were still very active. Plus, her parents continued to wait on the green card applications. "I think when I left the US, I felt towards the US a lot of frustration, discouragement, and sometimes even hate. Today, I guess I am more indifferent to it all. I've been able to adapt, have come to love living in Brazil, and could never imagine moving back to the US, so I really just don't care much anymore. Sometimes I feel a little disappointed because it almost feels as if I 'gave up' on the changing immigration law cause, which I was really active in, but I suppose it was a lost cause after all, at least for the past few years," Poly told me.

Though she loved her life in Brazil, Poly wanted to go back to the US to see her family and friends. Her brother was graduating from high school and her friend was getting married, so Poly decided to go and apply for a tourist visa. At the consulate, she found more disappointment. She was told she could only apply for a tourist visa in 2018 (a decade after she left the US), but could apply for immigrant status at any time, either through her family, work sponsorship, or marriage. Since her parents were still waiting for their green cards and the other two prospects were not viable, Poly had no way to return.

But a few weeks ago, Poly received exciting news. Her parents finally received their green cards, and they will return to Brazil for the first time in nearly two and a half decades this December to reunite with Poly and their families. Poly is ecstatic about the reunion, and about her parents' victory that took years. Still, she has no plans to return to the US, at least definitively.

When I asked her what advice she'd give to Brazilians in her situation, she said, "If the US doesn’t want you there, screw them and come to Brazil. If it worked for me, it can work for you...I think more than anything, the US is missing people with a diverse mindset, who are qualified, ambitious, hardworking and honest young people. But today, I really just want to tell everyone to come to Brazil and make up for the lack of qualified labor we're missing out on here so the US could feel how much we actually do make a positive difference when we're in the classroom and the work force!"

Read more about Poly's journey at Disseram Que Eu Voltei Americanizada.

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I've been friends with Poly for a few years now, and couldn't believe I hadn't told her story yet. But I think it comes at a good time, when more and more people are beginning to see that legislation and the work of our legislators can actually have a life or death impact on people, and can definitively change people's lives. California passed its own version of the DREAM Act this week, which will allow students in Poly's situation to apply for funding to attend public universities. Rhode Island passed a similar version of the DREAM Act in late September. Also, in a funny coincidence, friend of the blog Felipe Matos is spearheading a nationwide coming out day for undocumented immigrants today.

The national version of the DREAM Act bill, which would grant residency to eligible immigrants, was reintroduced in the Senate in May, and was defeated by Republicans. President Obama has expressed his support for the bill, but has so far been unable to make inroads into any sort of concrete immigration reform.

The Giant Awakens

I saw this commercial on Facebook today, and was not only impressed by the cool graphics and concept, but by the symbolism: the "awakening" of a giant - Brazil itself, as a world power. To reinforce this idea, at the end of the video, a sentence appears: "The giant is no longer sleeping."

Liquor brands are making a big push into the Brazilian market, and are going after all levels of consumers. Budweiser recently began a major campaign to push its brand in Brazil (read all about it here), and while in Rio, I spotted some of their print ads. I thought it was interesting that they went for the all-English approach.

First Impressions

I'm always surprised by how much Rio changes every time I go back, and this time was no exception. The sense of optimism is literally palpable. Driving into the city, the roads seem better, and the city almost feels calmer. Despite the controversy surrounding Eduardo Paes' shock order to expel mobile vendors from the beaches (I didn't see a single food cart vendor on the calçadão in Ipanema, a strange absence), Ipanema does seem a bit more orderly, though missing some of the traditional local color. From the airport, if you're paying attention, you'll notice a wall built to hide the favelas, perhaps adding to a the lessened sense of chaos (the city claims the walls are there to prevent noise and pollution within the favelas, but the favelas just north of the airport, outside of the normal tourist trajectory, do not have walls. Another post for another day). The port is overflowing with activity, and when we drove across the Ponte Niterói one morning at 6AM, there were literally dozens of ships anchored in the bay, testament to Brazil and Rio's continued economic boom.

Though the economy is supposedly cooling, you wouldn't know it from Rio. There's the obvious trend of increased international travel, with returning Cariocas at the airport, bringing three or four suitcases per person loaded with purchases from abroad. I saw several malls under construction, and they cross the economic spectrum - several going up in Zona Oeste and Zona Norte for the C and D classes, and a high-end mall being built in Barra for the very wealthy. Though construction cranes were the norm even when I lived in Rio, they're still ubiquitious throughout the city. Huge SUVs from American and Asian auto makers share the roadways with the conventional compact cars (including my father-in-law, now the proud owner of a Ford pickup). Seemingly all of the people in their 20s I spoke to are in school, be it undergrad, a second BA degree, or a masters program. Some people who previously had limited access to consumer goods now have multiple credit cards and are buying expensive digital cameras, video game consoles, smartphones, and flat screen TVs. Everyone seems confident about the future, a considerable contrast to here in the U.S.

On the other hand, the incredible feeding frenzy that is the consumer boom is worrisome, particularly with the C Class and newer consumers. I noticed small mom and pop stores in working class neighborhoods offering customers the option to use nearly every credit card available for purchases. At the malls, you can still buy nearly anything in installments, but some larger chains are offering credit lines as well. Ads for getting credit are everywhere - buy a newspaper or a weekly magazine and you'll find multiple full page ads from different banks for a variety of types of credit. Here's a magazine ad for CAIXA credit, the government-run bank that offers credit to consumers newer to banking. (Apparently, a pineapple is part of the Brazilian dream?)

In fact, while flipping through the Sunday edition of a New York Post-like daily, I found a newspaper almost entirely devoted to ads, with the front cover devoted not to a news headline, but to teaching readers how to plan a vacation and buy airfare (underneath the large ad for sports watches):

I recently re-read Open Veins of Latin America, and I couldn't help but wonder how sustainable this boom will be, or how much of the profits will stay in Brazil or benefit Brazilians in the long term. (Or, like in the US, if Brazilian corporations will take advantage of consumers). At one of the smaller stadiums in Rio state hosting the Brazilian Championship, Bridgestone, Gilette, and Remax ads adorned the sidelines, some of which are brands that aren't even new to Brazil. While Brazilian companies and corporations have flourished, there's still a large number of American, European, and Asian multinationals with their talons sunk firmly in the market.

While the economic boom is inescapable and Rio is quickly becoming more of a modern city, there are still vestiges of the past. In the suburbs like Zona Oeste and in smaller towns on the coast, horse-drawn carts share lanes with cars. While driving to Minas Gerais in rural Rio state, we passed a massive Nestlé factory under construction, next to rolling fields where a lone horseman rode next to a passing cargo train. Transportation infrastructure is still woefully inadequate, and with more people buying cars, traffic is getting worse. One morning, we got stuck in traffic on one of the city's major highways - at 5AM. (In related news, a study came out last week claiming Rio has the worst air pollution in the entire country.) There are more car dealerships popping up, and car offers even in the middle of malls. Here's a man feather-dusting a car in the middle of a mall in a working-class neighborhood. You can't see it, but there's an open bible on the dashboard.

Seeing Rio transformed is always exciting, but it makes me want to hold my breath. In some parts of the city, if you look up, you'll see vultures circling. I can't shake the image from my head, and worry that there are different birds of prey in the economy (and even politics). Maybe it's a symptom from re-reading Open Veins, but it's something unsettling I've observed from afar for quite awhile now.

Still, I can't wait to plan my next trip back.