Adventures of a Gringa

Q&A with Tereza Lee

Despite the fact that U.S. immigration reform is seemingly becoming more of an uphill battle in an increasingly polarized country, support for the DREAM Act--a law which would give immigrants brought to the United States in their youth a path to residency--is on the rise. Though the DREAM Act bill was narrowly defeated in the Senate in December 2010, it was reintroduced last year, and immigration reform advocates still hold out hope that it could pass.

I've written about several Brazilians at the heart of the DREAM Act, including Felipe Matos, one of the United States' top immigration reform activists, and Polyana de Oliveira, a Brazilian who moved back to her country of birth after running out of time for the DREAM Act to pass. But what I recently discovered is that the very person who inspired the DREAM Act is in fact Brazilian by birth.

Senator Rick Durbin of Illinois was one of the senators who wrote and introduced the DREAM Act back in 2001, inspired by Tereza Lee. Tereza was born in São Paulo to Korean parents, and lived in Brazil until she was 2, when the family moved to Chicago. Lee became a talented pianist and was accepted into some of the top music schools in the country. But since she was undocumented, she was ineligible for financial aid. One of her music teachers decided to search for a solution, and called Durbin's office to see if he could help. Soon, the DREAM Act was born.

 

Part of the reason it took so long for the bill to be considered in Congress was that it was due to be discussed on September 12, 2001; Tereza herself was supposed to fly to Washington for the hearing. Fortunately, Tereza was lucky. She had the fortune to be able to study at the Manhattan School of Music, where she is currently pursuing a doctorate. Now age 29, she married an American and gained residency. But she's still a vocal part of the DREAM Act movement, advocating for others like her.

 

I spoke to Tereza briefly about her family's journey from Korea to Brazil to the U.S., as well as her role in immigration reform.

What brought your parents to Brazil?  What brought them later to the United States?

My parents had lost everything--their belongings, homes, and land--during the Korean War and subsequent struggles. They became part of a massive wave of Korean immigration to North and South America. They first moved to Sao Paulo, Brazil, where I was born, and started a small clothing business. Although they were, initially, relatively successful, they decided to move to the U.S. to start over again after almost all of their savings was stolen via identity theft. My mother sold her wedding ring in order to buy visas and plane tickets for us, and we moved to Chicago when I was two.  

Once you became a resident, where was the first place you traveled abroad?  Have you been back to Brazil or to Korea?

I've not been back to Brazil, and have unfortunately never been to Korea, but I have been able to visit Germany, France, Italy, and Japan.

Before I even boarded an airplane, though, I really experienced a feeling of vertigo when I received my permanent resident document which allowed me to travel. Although I was, of course, beyond thrilled to finally have documentation, and be one step closer to American citizenship, at the same time it struck me as incredibly bizarre and unsettling that this small, flimsy piece of paper could have such power over my life.  

What's your involvement like with the DREAM movement at present?

I am constantly trying to keep up to date on all the latest news on the DREAM Act. I stay in touch with other DREAMers as much as I can, and have become friends with many of them. I also volunteer occasionally at rallies and events--there are so many here in New York.

Do you think the DREAM Act has a chance of passing anytime in the near future?

Absolutely! Both houses of Congress voted to pass the DREAM Act in 2010, and with only a few more votes to override a filibuster in the Senate, it would have been made law then. I'm no expert on politics, but I know the upcoming election will be very significant for the DREAM Act. On the other hand, my guess is that it's not likely to happen before the election.

What advice would you give to other DREAMers?

Stay positive, both in your own lives and in your communications with others. Being caught between the cracks of the immigration system for years can be enormously frustrating and debilitating, and many DREAMers I've talked to have battled severe depression. I also know, though, that DREAMers know how to survive amid great obstacles and constant fear, and it never ceases to amaze me how many DREAMers have persevered and become valedictorians, star athletes, and leaders in their communities. When we bring our message to the public, anger won't work. We need to focus on the benefits that America will receive from allowing all of these talented people to contribute, and then, once the DREAM Act passes, go out and prove it!

Q&A With Michael Jerome Wolff

I came across The Rio Blog by way of Julia Michaels, a really interesting Tumblr by Michael Jerome Wolff, a political science doctoral student living in Rio de Janeiro and Recife. The blog depicts life in each city's favelas and an on-the-ground perspective of the favela pacification process. I spoke to Michael about his blog and his time in Brazil, as well as his take on Rio's security policies.

What brought you to Rio and Recife, and what are you working on while you're there? Had you already lived in/visited Brazil before?

I first came to Brazil in 2008 and stayed two months, with the objective of learning Portuguese.  The following year, I returned, and that time stayed for eight months, splitting my time between Rio de Janeiro and Recife. As crime and violence are a particularly ubiquitous concern in both places—and in Rio the situation is cinematographically dramatic—I succumbed to the woeful intrigue of studying it.  In 2011 I received a Social Science Research Council (SSRC) fellowship to sponsor a year of research in both Rio and Recife, and that is what I am currently doing. 

What is the idea behind your blog and what are your goals for it?

The idea for the blog came from two English friends of mine whose wedding I photographed just days before I left for Brazil.  Both artists, they have been publicizing their work for years via blogs.  Knowing that I love to write and photograph, they forced me to open my own blog, which almost immediately became my most pampered hobby.  At the time I had no expectation that anyone would read or view it, but the remote possibility of an audience created an incentive to structure my photos and reflective writings about my research in an attractive and meaningful way.  Originally I intended it to be simply a matter of personal expression, but as I realized that people out in the web world actually read it from time to time, I focused also on its informative aspect. 

That said, it is far from a news blog, as I never intended it to closely follow individual current events.  I see it more as a structured reflection on the nuanced politics of public security in Rio de Janeiro and Recife, oriented by, but by no means beholden to, the research norms and goals of social science.  And, of course, it is a focused outlet for my photography obsession. 

Why is photography an important part of the blog, especially showing what's going on behind the scenes in Rio's favelas?

The invention of the photograph in the mid-1800s dramatically changed journalism and historical documentation by immortalizing and making “real” far off phenomena that would otherwise be lost to the futile abstraction of wordy concepts.   Whether a photograph portrays the “truth” or emboldens a shady stereotype, the sure thing is that it has the capacity to humanize events and situations for the far-off viewer in an immediate and emotionally powerful way. 

This is, in essence, what I am attempting to do with my photography in the blog: humanize and make “real” all that is happening behind the scenes in Rio and Recife’s complicated drama of crime and violence and public security.  Who are the winners and losers? The perpetrators and victims?  The innocent and not-so-innocent bystanders?  Where is all of this happening?  What is the visual “feel” of the stage upon which all these actors play out the ineffable tragedy? 

You've been on the ground during Rio's favela pacification process. What's your take on the UPPs and the effect they're having on the local communities?

To begin, I would emphasize that the UPPs should in no way be treated as a panacea for the public security problems of Rio de Janeiro, nor should they be understood as a serious assault on drug trafficking and consumption of illegal drugs. To be sure, serious crime and violence will continue in Rio de Janeiro until the city’s obscene social inequalities are reversed.  And illegal drugs will be sold for as long as they are illegal and as long as popular demand remains high.

What the UPPs are first and foremost intended to do, and for the most part have done so successfully, is to dismantle the armed territorial authority structures of drug trafficking gangs.  This represents a dramatic change both for favela residents and for outsiders who visit or work in favelas.  Although there may have existed a relative peace under the domain of well-armed and organized drug gangs, there were previously no institutionalized guarantees of security for anyone.  The stability of gang governance, too, was always fragile and prone to violent conflict that threatened the community in a random and deadly way.  I think it is fair to say that in most of the smaller favelas of Rio’s wealthy South Side, the UPPs represent a predominately positive change, having brought greater security (from violent conflict) and greater commercial and social integration with formal neighborhoods. 

That said, there are some serious challenges that cause doubt about the overall success of the program.  A few issues merit special mention: 
-    None of the large favelas thus far pacified are particularly pacific or free from the competitive power mongering of drug gangs, putting to question geography as a barrier to effective policy implementation.
-    Pacification is often accompanied by an increase in property crimes and interpersonal violence in areas where drug gangs had been particularly effective guarantors of community security. 
-    Other State institutions have been slow to follow suit, putting the onus of public security solely the police while leaving the myriad other social problems unattended. 
-    If the pacification program remains incomplete geographically—and it very well might, due to a lack of political will to expand the policy to the greater metropolitan area—the structure of crime, violence, and corruption will spread to other areas and create an even greater monster than that which the UPPs hoped to confront in the first place. 

How does all of this affect favela communities themselves?  On one hand, it is a repressive affront to the unique culture of communities that for decades have lived under the laissez-faire dictatorships of drug gangs.  On the other hand, it allows for a much greater social integration and, by consequence, a social mobility that had previously been blocked by the duality of legitimate and criminal governing authorities.  In any case, the program’s future, I believe, is still up in the air. 

Some argue that one of the biggest threats to security in Rio are its militias, which you've also written about. What's your view on the militias and how the state and city are addressing them?

The common argument that militias are the greatest threat to security in Rio de Janeiro comes from the fact that they are highly professional organizations deeply infiltrated into the security, judicial, and electoral institutions of the State, making them impervious to prosecution while eating away like cancer at the heart of Brazil’s young democracy. 

My personal view, however, is that the threat of militias is somewhat exaggerated.  Notwithstanding uncertainty, my studies of organized crime and recent history in Rio suggests to me that the territorial expansion and the ultimate extension of political power of these paramilitary-type groups are limited by the logic of the type of crime committed.  In the tune of science (or political) fiction, it is completely plausible to foresee a complete criminalization of the democratic process at the hands of militias in Brazil.  I don’t predict that, however.  In fact, I fully expect drug gangs fleeing from pacified favelas to overwhelm most of those communities succumbed to militias during the last six or eight years. 

How does the security situation compare in Recife to that of Rio?

Recife’s homicide rate is nearly twice that of Rio de Janeiro, and the city has won the title as the most violent of Brazil’s state capitals.  Muggings, car-jackings, bank robberies, and other violent assaults are rampant, and this violence has seriously affected social and commercial activity here.  To compare Rio and Recife in a heartbeat, I would stay that while Rio’s security situation is characterized by a much more sophisticated and cinematographic type of violence, Recife is by and large a more dangerous city to live and work in for almost anyone.  That said, since violent crime is less tied into local political structures here, intelligent and integral public security policies may have a greater chance at success than in Rio. 

Q&A With Brazilian Bubble

Over the past few weeks, there have been foreboding blips in the media about Brazil's economy. There's one story about the problems with Brazil's dependence on China, and another about the commodity slowdown and "the end of Brazil's magic moment." There was a bleak Foreign Policy piece called Carnaval is Over, predicting that Brazil's boom is coming to an end. There was also an oddly named op-ed in The Telegraph called Swimming naked in Brazil's bubbly waters, warning about possible credit and housing bubbles. And there was also a brief note in today's Estado de São Paulo that says Brazil is getting close to its consumer debt limit. It's not the first time analysts have predicted bubbles in the Brazilian economy, which some economists have assured won't happen. But there are signs the economy is slowing, despite strides that ensure Brazil will remain one of the world's largest markets.

When trying to figure out what's going on with Brazil's economy and understanding the dynamics of how things work, I've found that one of the best places on the web is a blog called Brazilian Bubble. There, you can read realistic, concise, and entertaining coverage of Brazilian economic, financial, and business news. Plus, it's way beyond bubbles, with everything from how Brazil's development bank works to the latest mergers to analyzing inflation numbers. It's not all gloom and doom; they focus on all aspects of the economy, both good and bad. Run by a small group of Brazilian and American business professionals, they'll change the way you think about Brazil's economy. (Because they like to keep their day jobs separate from the blog, they prefer to keep their names anonymous.) Even if you don't agree with everything, their perspective is invaluable to figuring out a market which, like the country, is not for beginners. I spoke to the Bubble guys about the blog and their thoughts on a number of critical issues affecting Brazil's economy.

What's the idea behind the blog, and why did you decide to start it? What kind of feedback have you received?

The blog started as a joke between friends: some of us thought Brazil was experiencing a real estate bubble and some didn't. So we bought the domain for fun and started re-posting cool articles about Brazil from other websites. All in English, as we didn't want to limit ourselves to the Brazilian border. It started with real estate, but then it went to stocks, economy, culture...pretty much a mix. It's important to not take life too seriously. Serious subjects like business and finance should also entertain the readers, so we like to treat everything with a flair of humor. The truth is that we love our Brazil, and we criticize things that most Brazilians do: high costs, bureaucracy, politics, corruption. But at the end of the day, our focus is business and finance, and we feel our site plays in a niche market not explored by others. The feedback we get from our audience is the best possible... we receive emails from avid readers (including high-profile economists) who tell us that they love the site and all. That is good fuel to keep us going, despite a couple of naysayers.

What's your outlook in terms of high costs of living and real estate in Brazil?

Our thought is that there is in fact a real estate bubble in Brazil, but it doesn't mean it will pop tomorrow. As long as there is credit flowing into the system, it can keep going for a while. But the truth is that real estate prices in Brazil have been increasing at a faster pace than inflation for about 50 months in a row. And as the economist Robert Shiller says, although there are moments of euphoria and depression in any housing market, in the long run prices adjust to inflation. Hence, in our opinion, a price correction will take place; it can take 6 months, or it can take 5 years, who knows. Regarding high costs in Brazil, we always discuss this at the blog. It gets more expensive by the day, but Brazilians seem to be willing to pay the price, as long as they can pay for the monthly installments. A friend told me recently that her housemaid makes about R$650 a month and, surprisingly, she was approved for a motorcycle loan that has monthly payments of R$270! Isn't that crazy?

You've written quite a bit about the BNDES. What's your take on it, and is this kind of lending sustainable in the long term?

BNDES is a tool used by the government to lend to businesses and get the economy going...fine. In theory, that role would have been better played by the private sector, which is more efficient, as you don't get the public machine to play politics. But the major private banks in Brazil won't lend...they are too lazy to take risks as long as they keep making money out of high interest rates. They simply have no incentive to lend more. So that's why the government in Brazil plays a crucial role in lending; just ask Guido Mantega how mad he is at the private banks because they resist lowering their lending rates. So, for now, BNDES, Caixa and Banco do Brasil should keep playing that role. Our criticism comes when politics are at play. Why keep lending to Odebrecht, OGX, and Petrobras at less than 5 percent, and not to millions of small businesses? Why keep making the same guys rich over and over again, when there are so many savvy entrepreneurs in Brazil that need that extra push? Brazilians are incredibly creative, but there is no money for them to explore these possibilities. I think it is easy for Eike Batista to write a book saying how Brazilian entrepreneurs could be like him, but no entrepreneur has the leverage in the government that he has. An average entrepreneur doesn't play politics - he is just worried about growing his business, and for that he needs to borrow at low rates. Is there a "Bolsa Familia" for that?

There's a lot of promise in the oil and gas sector but it seems there's going to be a lot of delays in terms of exploiting the pre-salt reserves. How long will it take for Brazil to become a global oil power?

Brazil is already an oil power: it is self-sufficient. How many countries can afford to have that? It is just that (again) the government is in the middle of it, which makes the whole system inefficient. And the government is also dictating how it wants Petrobras to explore its reserves. It gets very hard to get the right execution, efficiency and costs if you have the public machine dictating how to do your job. The market forces cease to exist, costs go up, and delays become a common trend. The government needs to get out of the way and let Petrobras run the show. It is great company but its biggest shareholder is the government. I think Brazil will have its challenges, but if it manages the process well, it can get it right. Only time will tell. It needs to be a private initiative, with some help from the government, not the opposite. It is that famous question: does Brazil wants be more like Norway or Nigeria? One of them is totally market-driven, super efficient, invests wisely, and puts its oil revenue in a well-managed sovereign fund. The second, Nigeria, needless to say anything. Same for Venezuela.

Productivity seems to be one of the biggest economic hurdles in Brazil that isn't discussed as often (though you guys do, of course). What do you think keeps productivity low in comparison to other developing markets?

We've talked a lot about this; it is a sensitive issue to us. Believe it or not, over the past 30 years, worker productivity in the Brazilian manufacturing industry fell 15 percent. When we read these kinds of headlines it makes us wonder what the hell happened to our Brazil... it almost seems like a group of people that should be worried about this were sleeping at their jobs for 30 freakin' years. While these guys were sleeping, China's productivity rates went up 808 percent in that same period. The main issue, besides the urgent need for investments in education and infrastructure, is that Brazil is a closed country. If you don't open the country, the local companies will have no incentives to invest, educate the workforce, trim costs, and make better products. Competition is everything: it is good for consumers, it is good for companies, it is good for the market. Just see the Americans - they have access to good quality products at low prices, while in Brazil is the complete opposite. Brazil needs to be more open, but it seems to be doing the exact opposite by taxing every import. Sincerely, that's a huge turn off.

Taxes and bureaucracy are among the most talked about economic hurdles in Brazil. Which realistic steps could be taken to alleviate Brazil's tax burden?

Shrink the government and fight corruption...but of course it won't happen in our lifetimes. Brazil needs reforms, but there is not a lot of people in the government with the energy and the will to do that. They will prefer to focus their efforts on making the most for their own self-interests, period.

Interview with Kenneth Rapoza

I had a chance to catch up with Kenneth Rapoza recently, who told me about his time in Brazil and his thoughts on the Brazilian economy. Ken was a staff reporter based in São Paulo for Dow Jones, where he wrote daily for the newswire. He wrote for the Wall Street Journal and Barron's from 2005 to 2010. He currently manages and writes for Forbes' BRIC Breaker blog, covering Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Ken lived in Brazil for 10 years between 2001 and 2010. He lived in São Paulo, in the Higienópolis neighborhood. "For me, a gringo, it was totally exotic and the kind of glamour I could have never afforded in the U.S.," he recalls. He misses catching a glipse of parrots on his way to work. He has fond memories of the city, though he doesn't miss the traffic. He also remembers the excitement of living historic events, like Lula's election victory.

He had the opportunity to travel all over the country, and his favorite places were Rio de Janeiro and the Panatal. "The Pantanal was great for its natural beauty. I woke up at around 4:30 in the morning to large hyacinth macaws. I really felt like I was in a jungle there," he said. However, when asked about misperceptions foreigners have of Brazil, he explained: "Manaus has more people than the city of Boston and it is smack dab in the middle of the biggest rainforest on earth. Also, Brazil is home to Embraer and can actually make amazing jet aircraft, not just FIFA stars. I don't think people realize that when they are flying from New York to Boston they are probably flying something Made in Brazil." 

I asked how Brazil stacks up to the other BRICS in terms of the economy and growth. He said: "All four are so different from each other it is hard to compare. I think Brazil is way more diverse than Russia, and in this regard it is probably closer to India. China is more export-driven, but trying to turn inward. Brazil already has a decent domestic market and that is growing. Brazil has a lot of know-how; they're very innovative. It's just so hard to compare all four of them together." He also sees them differently in terms of culture. "Who has better clothing designers? Brazil. Who has better musicians? Brazil. But who has better filmed entertainment? India and China. Brazil still relies on Hollywood and Globo novelas."

He weighed the differences between the countries. "Is Russia more innovative than Brazil? Well, Brazilian aircraft are certainly better than Russian aircraft, and the market will tell you that. But Brazil doesn't have an international cyber security brand like Russia has in Kaspersky Lab, for example. Or an IT leader like Infosys or Wipro in India. What does China have that Brazil doesn't have? Well, it's created their own Twitter/Facebook hybrid called a Weibo, by SINA Corporation. Brazil doesn't have that. They adopt U.S. consumer technology, but they invent other kind of technology. Brazil does elections on line, and its banking IT infrastructure is incredible. So everyone is different."

He also believes Brazil benefits from having more ties and similarities to North America. "I think the advantage of Brazil over a place like Russia, China and India is that Brazil is way more diverse than all three. And it is more hospitable than Russia. Russia really is another world. There are zero American references there, which is fine. But Brazil is more gringo friendly." On Brazil's other development advantages, he pointed to low-cost electricity and hydroelectric power. But, he said, "the disadvantage is you have to build hydroelectric dams and there is really only one place to build them--in the Amazon."

He went on to share his thoughts on Brazil's oil sector. "Brazil also has this pre-salt deep ocean drilling capabilities and know how that could turn Rio into Oslo if they play their cards right. By that I mean that Rio can be a third center of oil services in the world, outside of Norway and Houston, Texas," he explained. He believes Brazil's oil wealth is an important advantage. "Brazil is raking in a lot of foreign capital because of the Santos and Campos basin discoveries by Petrobras. "There's a lot of know-how that is going to come from that on all fronts. It is going to be a very costly venture and everyone knows that. The disadvantage is that it is oil and oil can spill, and when it does off the coast of Rio, it could be a super mega disaster. Chevron is feeling this now and their November 2011 oil spill was miniscule (2,400 barrels with no oil on shore, no wildlife or human casualties) compared to BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. That is a disadvantage. Because God forbid something more severe happens. You will have a lot of money tied up to drill deep through the bedrock of the Atlantic and the political risk is that the government says, 'Okay, everyone just go home.' Petrobras can develop it itself, but not on the scale they could with partners."

Interview With Alex Castro

This week, I had a chance to catch up with Alex Castro, one of my favorite Brazilian bloggers. He has a  keen and critical eye for some of the most sensitive social issues in Brazil, including racism, machismo, and domestic workers. After living abroad, he also writes with an fascinating perspective on social differences between the United States and Brazil. He writes his own blog, Liberal Libertário Libertino, as well as contributing to Papo de Homem. He's also written several books, including short stories and novels. He also was one of the founders of the hit Tumblr Classe Média Sofre, a crowdsourced blog that pokes fun at Brazil's middle class. It's become a cultural phenomenon in Brazil, falling somewhere between Lamebook and White Girl Problems, but providing more insight into social idiosyncracies. 

We chatted about his return to Brazil from New Orleans, emblematic of Brazil's increasing reverse brain drain, his various projects, and his thoughts on Brazil's changing role in the world.

What were you doing abroad?

I was living in New Orleans. I was a Ph.D. candidate at the department of Spanish & Portuguese at Tulane University. As such, part of my duties included teaching classes on the Spanish and Portuguese languages, plus the odd Brazilian literature and culture classes. My dissertation is about slavery (or the lack thereof) in Brazilian 19th century literature.

‪Can you tell me about why you decided to move back to Rio from New Orleans?‬

I came back because a man who is a living god to me once said: "I celebrate myself, and sing myself, / And what I assume you shall assume, / For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. // I loafe and invite my soul, / I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass. ... / I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin, / Hoping to cease not till death." And even though he has never died, because he cannot die, I know for a fact that he suffered a stroke 18 years after writing those words.

So, when I turned 37, last year, still in perfect health, and hoping not to cease till death, and not knowing how long would I have before my heart attack, I decided to return home and live the life of a writer. Because if even HE died, what hope can I have? On the contrary, I have to RUN and LIVE. I realized that I was and had always been a Brazilian writer. So even though I had lived in New Orleans for 7 years and could write in English, I had never felt the urge to write to New Orleanians about Rio but, on the contrary, I was always coming up with new things about New Orleans and the U.S. to tell Brazilians. I realized that, in my head, I was always talking and writing to Brazilians. They were my core audience, and so it made no sense to stay away.

Throughout the years, there had always been events and stuff that I was invited to and couldn't attend because I was in New Orleans. None of them by themselves were a major deal, but the career of a minor independent author is made of baby steps, so I felt my incipient (actually, non-existent) career was at a standstill. Now, for example, I'm going to Belo Horizonte in April for a roundtable about e-books. So I came to Rio and I'm now making a living as a writer, writing and editing for Papo de Homem, translating for Editora Record, and trying to finish my dissertation and my novel.

Tell me about your book, Onde Perdemos Tudo.

It's actually an old book, written in the early 90s. But I think it withstood the test of time, so here I'm publishing it. It is the only one of my books to be actually published by an actual publishing house. All my other books were self-published. It's composed of five short stories about loss, all kinds of loss, from losing a friend to losing your wife, or your career.

Why'd you go the self-publishing route with the other books and the publishing house route with this one?

It wasn't a choice. Nobody wanted to publish the other ones. For Onde Perdemos Tudo, I had a publisher interested in my work and an able literary agent who got her interested. Still, unless you're a best seller, one can make a lot more money self-publishing.

How has the book been received?

It's very hard to break through. It has been positively reviewed in blogs here and there, but nothing in the mainstream press. It's as if the book has never existed. But I have a loyal following of readers, and so it keeps selling. It can be frustrating, but it's the only way. Baby steps, as I always say. But at least now I'm here to network and promote the books.

In Papo de Homem and your blog Liberal Libertário Libertino, you write a lot about racism and machismo with a critical eye. Why are these issues important to you?

That's a very good question. I really don't know. I guess I had a very very privileged, sheltered upbringing, something that I only realized very late in my adult life. So I felt the need to.... give back? Finally look at other people other than myself? That sort of thing. Also, the American academic environment was the main catalyst, that's for sure. If I had stayed, maybe I'd be reading Veja. I remember I rather liked Diogo Mainardi, if you can believe that.

You have a really unique perspective that's sometimes hard to find in Brazil, particularly with racism. How did your views on that issue evolve?

People say that I'm bringing racial conflct into Brazil and I argue, Yes! We need more racial confrontation! One of the major problems in Brazil is the fact that we never "confront" the issues.

You've also written quite a bit about domestic workers, which is also something of a taboo topic in Brazil. What got you interested in this?

Well, actually it was my interest in slavery. I think domestic workers, as the profession has established itself in Brazilian culture, is a direct relic of slavery. Only a former unapologetically slave-owning country such as we are could ever have such a slavery-like institution as our live-in maids. So it is a bit of the past alive in our daily lives up to today.

On the subject of your blogs, given your perspective and knowledge of these issues, why is it more important for Brazilians to be your audience, rather than an international one?

It's the other way around. It's not that talking to Brazilians is more important than talking to an international audience, but rather that I feel I have something to tell, teach, show to a Brazilian audience that I don't have to an international one.

Let's talk about Classe Média Sofre, but I noticed you don't seem to have your name on the blog, at least not very visibly. Is there a reason for that?

Well, for starters, it is a collective and collaborative enterprise, so it's not mine per se but I'm one of the founders and co-creators. Since then, everyone else has left, other people have gotten involved and left again, and now, pretty much, I'm the only one left managing the business. But the site still depends of the anonymous collaboration of hundreds of people every day. I'm more of a curator than anything else. I try to keep it faithful to its original vision, but mostly the only reason I'm the visible face of it is because I'm a writer, so I need the visibility and it does help me to sell some books. Actually, if it weren't for that, the site would either still be 100% anonymous or, more likely, I'd have gotten bored and left with everyone else. Still, it's the one thing I've done that I'm actually proud of.
 
Can you tell me about how the blog got started, and why you thought it would be worthwhile?

Its major inspiration was White Whine and Louis C K, when he says something like this. So a friend and I had the idea, and we started looking for examples. They were so numerous that it took us a day to fill several pages, and two days later we were already receiving more contributions than we could handle. On day 4, I kid you not, on day FOUR, we got our first complaint that the tumblr was no longer as good as it once was.

It caught on pretty fast.

Yes, it was amazing. And people were already self-censoring their worst bullshit pretty fast too. It was inspiring.

The blog's been featured around the web and it's literally become a cultural reference. Why do you think it hit a nerve?

Well, on one hand, lots of people feel really really defensive about it. They take the site as a personal attack to them. On the other hand, for several other people, the blog gave them their first way to vent their frustration at some of the most whiny, elitist comments their friends make. You can bet people will say that there's nothing more classe media sofre than giving this interview in English! I especially love it when people accuse us of being "middle class too," and of course we are. What did they think we were? Millionaires? Favelados?

What's the absolute worst thing you've posted on there?

There can be no worst. You can always sink lower.

Ok, so your favorite?

"Pior dia da minha vida: acabou o chocolate." [Worst day of my life: the chocolate is gone.] Simple yet perfect.

Can you tell me your thoughts on the complexo de vira-lata and the obsession with everything foreign/in English?

Brazilians are obssessed with Brazil to an extent that only Americans are obssessed with the U.S. We are truly kindred peoples, yours and mine. I'm pretty sure, given the power, Brazilians would have done every single thing Americans have. Brazilians are as proud, egocentric, and naive as Americans. We have our own version of manifest destiny (the Bandeirantes), etc.

I've never seen any people as interested about what people are saying about them abroad. In a way, in Classe Média Sofre, we talk about both sides of this coin. So, in a very schizophrenic way, what comes from abroad can seem very important or not at all important. And of course, I'm guilty as charged, because I travelled, and I studied abroad, and I could have studied anything, I could have dedicated myself to ancient Greece or pure mathematics, but here I am thinking about Brazil and writing about Brazil. It's kind of a curse, but it was also my choice, so I don't in any way exclude myself from this. I'm part of it.

Brazil is undergoing so many changes in terms of its place in the world. Is there a chance it could become more insular and inward looking like in the U.S., or is this fascination with other countries here to stay?

I think Brazil is in fact getting more powerful as a country, so other countries will tend to seek Brazil's opinion or support more often, and consequently, Brazilian politicians and statesmen will be forced to be more versed in international affairs than their predecessors, and consequently, the Brazilian voter as well. You can see that starting. These past years, Honduras, Cuba and Iran were more talked about, even during elections, than I had ever seen before. In elections before 2010, foreign affairs had never had any relevance at ALL.

When I started teaching Portuguese in the U.S. in 2005, most of my students were there because they had a Brazilian signficant other, or a Brazilian parent, or liked bossa nova and City of God. Period. When I left, in 2011, most of my students were actually seeking employment, business or research opportunities in Brazil. There were lawyers and business majors; most of them had not watched City of God, but they knew about Petrobras, pre-salt and biofuel. It was a complete revolution in less than 6 years. Several  of my former students are now either working and living in Brazil, or living in the U.S. but working as "Brazilian liasons" with companies that do business in Brazil.

I think it's exciting and I'm a part of it. I'm part of a large reverse migration of Brazilians coming back from abroad these last few years, exactly because of all these opportunities, but it's important not to let this go to our heads.

Why's that?

The United States was once a country that was actually a beacon of democracy and of high ideals, before it stated having imperial dreams and conquering Mexico, the Phillipines, Cuba, etc. Brazil was an actual empire-empire once. People were afraid of us in the 19th century (my main area of knowledge). Brazil used to topple Uruguyan presidents in the 19th century the same way Americans did to Central American ones in the 20th century. Besides, we do tend to be overconfident and overindulgent. Raising people from poverty should continue to be number one priority.

So you don't want history to repeat itself, in other words.

Actually, that particular history has no chance of repeating itself, I think. But we can be stupid and overconfident in several new ways now.

What are your hopes for the future now that you're back in Brazil?

My main priority is being a writer. That's all I know how to do. Write, write, write, until I die. That's my only ambition. Get some writing done. Publication will take care of itself, or not. But time is running out and I need to get some books out of me. That's it.

Brazilians Return: Interview Series

Brazilians living abroad are returning to Brazil in record numbers, in part because of Brazil's strong economy, and in part because of a lack of jobs in Europe and the U.S. Some are seeking entreprenurial opportunities, or taking advantage of Brazil's growing tech space. In this series, I'll interview Brazilians who were living abroad and decided to return home. If you or someone you know would be interested in being profiled in this series, email me at riogringaconsult at gmail dot com.

So far, the Brazilians I've spoken to have returned to be closer to their families and also for jobs. They're thrilled to be back at home and have found great opportunities, though many complained about high prices and adjusting to life back in Brazil.

***

Andrea N. lived in New York for ten years, after moving there in 2001. She married her American boyfriend in 2002, and lived in Prospect Heights and the Upper West Side. She had a variety of interesting jobs, from interning at a TV production company, to waitressing, to working as a movie extra, to freelance translating and editing, to doing narration work in English and Portuguese, and working as a production assistant at the TV & Media Department at the Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo. After her job at the zoo, she worked at Columbia University for seven years, working as a development coordinator for Global Initiatives in the fundraising department. While working at Columbia, she also took several elective courses, including Spanish and news writing.

But in the end, she decided to move back to her hometown of Santos, in São Paulo, since her parents were getting older and had health problems. Her parents are better now, but she's happy to be closer to them. She moved with her husband and dog last October, and is currently doing freelance translation, editing, and narration work, as well as teaching English. She loves being near the beach, where she walks her dog every day, and being with family and friends. She also enjoys the weather and eating healthier, since she no longer eats processed food and eats lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. But the move wasn't easy; it was an expensive and bureaucratic process, and she had to bring her dog in the cargo compartment since she's so large, and she sent her belongings in shipping containers. She noticed a change in Brazil since she's been back. "The US has been having such tough times, economically and politically, and though it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how, there’s a pervasive sense that we should be doing much better. In Brazil, where the economy is strong, the middle class is growing, and poverty is on the decline, there’s just a much more optimistic mood in the air," she said.

***

Cássia Martins is a Carioca who worked in finance in the U.S. and returned to Rio de Janeiro to follow her dreams as a writer. Born in Petrópolis, she moved to the U.S. when she was a teenager. She got her B.A. in Economics from Boston University, and worked in business for five years before getting her MBA at the University of Pennsylvania. She lived in a number of cities, including Boston, Chicago, Stamford, Philadelphia, Boca Raton, and Miami. After finishing her graduate degree, she decided to return to her hometown of Rio de Janeiro. She spent a year in Brazil, where she wrote her first book, called Born in Rio. After that, she decided to move back to Miami, so she could be closer to her family and promote her book.

But living in Rio was an inspiration. "Besides writing a story about a woman’s quest to uncover her roots, I was really aiming at capturing the culture and energy of Brazil as the plot unfolds," she said. "The beauty and nature of Brazil never seizes to dazzle me, people are friendly, and the Rio lifestyle is a very easy going one." She said that she enjoyed the emphasis on relationships she found in Rio, as opposed to a focus on work and business back in the U.S.  "In the U.S. the first question people usually ask me when they first meet me is 'Where do you work? What did you study?' In Brazil I would often hear 'Where is your boyfriend? How come you are not married?'" she told me. Though she worried about safety and high prices in Rio, one of the other interesting things about going home was seeing the changes taking in place in the city; she says she hears more English in Rio than in Miami, and that she met many foreigners in Brazil for work, not for tourism.

***

Adriana R. is one of the trailblazers. She lived in the U.S. for four years, spending a year as an exchange student in San Angelo, Texas, and another three years in Ithaca, New York studying hotel management and working at a hotel. Thirteen years ago, she decided to return to Brazil to be closer to family and friends. Now, she owns her own ecotourism agency, which specializes in trips to Fernando de Noronha, for foreigners who don't speak Portuguese. She loves being close to her loved ones, though she also had a hard time adjusting to "bureaucracy, inefficiency, lack of respect for consumers, slow pace of our law system, and higher prices now that the economy is booming." She commented on some of the challenges she's faced: "It just feels more difficult. Everything here takes longer. It is not always nicer or better, in fact, most of the time, it is just of lower quality and when not, it is extremely expensive. Everything is just so bureaucratic, and therefore we need paperwork for everything."

***

Tatiana Perreira lived in Japan for 12 years, and also spent 3 months in Perth, Australia. After she graduated from high school in Brazil, she wanted to be closer to her mother, who moved to Japan after getting divorced. Once she got to Japan, Tatiana started working at a car parts factory, and spent five years working at factories, like many Brazilians do in Japan. She returned to Brazil for a year in 2003, to visit family, study English, and buy a house with her mom. She went back to Japan in 2004, working at factories and saving money. She managed to save enough to study in Australia, which she loved. "Living in Australia was for few years a dream, until I dated an Australian guy who broke my heart so I never really felt like going back there anymore - I still think it's a great country, though," she said. She then returned to Japan, working at factories until 2007, which she got a job as a telemarketer at an international phone company, where she worked for four years.

Her definitive move back to Brazil came for a few reasons. Her sister was getting married, and she and her mom wanted to go to the wedding. She also missed her family and friends, after being away from them for eight years. While she and her mom were planning their return, the 2011 earthquake hit Fukushima. Even though it was 300 kilometers away, her mother felt it and was "freaked out." Tatiana moved back in April 2011, helping her sister plan her wedding. She then went to San Francisco to meet her American boyfriend's family; they'd been dating in Japan, since he's in the military and was stationed in Okinawa. They just recently got married in South Carolina, and are planning a wedding ceremony in Brazil after he gets back from a second deployment in Afghanistan for 7 months. After he finishes his service next year, they may go to the US, or her husband may move to Brazil, where he'd like to start a business.

In Brazil, Tatiana had a hard time finding a job, since she doesn't have a college degree. She started teaching English, and discovered that she really enjoyed it, despite the meager salary. She also dreams of going back to school. She loves being close to her family, which is "priceless," and also feeling at home. "Being able to speak my own language and express myself anytime, anywhere and everywhere I want makes a difference," she said. She doesn't speak fluent Japanese, so she sometimes had a hard time in Japan. She also didn't like the health care system in Japan, and now feels more secure about medical issues in Brazil. She's still getting used to São Paulo, especially the traffic. Even though she's happy back in Brazil, she misses life in Japan. "I could go anywhere easily by train, bus or even by bike. I used to have money to buy whatever I wanted: clothes, shoes, make up, travel -- I've been to 10 countries," she explained. She had friends from all over the world, and admits she was well known in the "Tokyo party community." In Brazil, she has to take precautions with things like jewelry and cell phones because of security. She also finds that everything is much more expensive, since the prices are higher and she's making less money than she did in Japan, even from when she worked at the factories. Still, she says, it's the first time in her life she's had a job she likes, where she's happy to wake up to go to work in the morning.

***

Valerie R. lived in Astoria, New York for ten years, the heart of the New York Brazilian community. She worked as a secretary, and went to Parsons to study interior design. She dated a Brazilian, who she lived with for nine years. After her boyfriend finished college, he decided to return to Brazil, and she also went, a year later. She's been back in São Paulo for a year and a half, working as an executive assistant to an executive at an American company. She was happy to see her family, though she misses New York. "I still haven't gotten used to it here; sometimes I still can't believe I'm back," she said. She also tends to compare the two cities a lot. But her professional life in São Paulo is better than it was in New York, and she sees her family all the time.

***

Julie, a Paulista, lived in Saint Louis, Missouri for six months. She had grown tired of her life and job at home, and decided to quit her job and sell her car to move to the U.S. She wanted to learn English, and picked Missouri because she thought there wouldn't be any Brazilians, so she'd be forced to learn English faster. But she ended up finding Brazilians, making friends with one who'd lived there for a decade. She studied at the University of Missoui, learning English as a second language and meeting people from all over the world. She also worked as a nanny, which she enjoyed to be able to work with kids and learn about American family life. She decided to move back to Brazil since she was on a student visa, and she didn't want to overstay and live undocumented after she finished her program. She returned to Brazil a little over a year ago, and now works at ABB, an international technology company, as an import/export analyst. She's also had a bit of trouble adapting, having to start over and "familiarize herself with disorganization." In São Paulo, she works a lot, and she misses having time to travel and have free time like she did while she was studying abroad.

***

Aline T. lived in Sacramento, California for almost seven years. She worked as an au pair, and then went back to school. She lived with the same host family the whole time she was in the U.S.After she graduated, she had trouble finding a job during the economic crisis and didn't want to babysit, and decided to move back home. She had other friends who had returned home from living abroad and were doing well, so she was more confident about her decision. Now, she's been back for a year and a half. She's finishing her BA, since she had a hard time validating her American college degree. Now that she's back in Brazil, she's had an easier time finding a job because of her fluent English, and has been able to work at several large companies.

Aline likes being closer to her family, and also the "sense of belonging" she gets from voting, paying taxes, and contributing to her retirement account. "Before I was just living in the U.S., but I was not an American," she said. The hardest part about coming back was adapting to a different way of life; she had lived in the suburbs in California, and went back to the city of São Paulo, where she hasn't gotten used to the traffic, the crowds, or the jeitinho. Now that she's working and studying, she has more responsibilities. "Now I can start thinking about buying a car, saving for a house and retirement; before I just needed to save for my next trip or gadget," she explained. She's also excited about Brazil's growing role. "Because of the World Cup in 2014 and Olympics in 2016, there are some great expectations in the country and it has been nice to experience all these changes that it is happening now in the country," she said.

Pedro Franceschi, Brazil's Tech Wunderkind

While he may seem like just an unassuming 15-year-old high school kid from Rio de Janeiro, Pedro Franceschi is in fact one of Brazil's rising tech stars. He started learning about computers playing on his dad's Mac when he was just three and started learning programming when he was eight, and became what TEDx referred to as one of the world's youngest hackers, when he began jailbreaking iPhones and iPods at the age of 11.

Pedro began to explore the possibility of unblocking mobile devices when he managed to get an iPod Nano to run video, and then began to jailbreak other devices. He began charging schoolmates R$50 to unlock their phones and iPods, but gained national and international attention when he began developing mobile apps. First, at age 12, he created Quick2GPwner, which received 17,000 downloads in just five days. He then created an app called QuickOiB, which allows you to install Linux on an iPhone or iPod Touch, which received 25,000 downloads in two weeks. He soon gained attention in Rio's tech community, and began working as a software developer at Brainjuice in Rio.

In 2010, Pedro spoke at Rio's TEDx conference about his achievements, giving him even more opportunities to develop apps. He got a job as a developer at Sync Mobile soon after, where he worked for a year, and now works at M4U, which provides mobile payment systems. He also continued developing his own apps -- all the while going to school.

 

Since then, Pedro has been developing more apps, like ones to more easily scroll or change between iPhone apps, and an app called iUsers to create a multi-user solution for iPads, like you would use on a shared computer. Also, Pedro documents his new projects on his blog and on Twitter.

Pedro was in the headlines again this week when he managed to implement a solution--without jailbreaking--to get Siri, the iPhone 4S voice recognition system, to understand Portuguese. Though the 4S was recently launched in Brazil, Siri doesn't work with Portuguese yet. So Pedro managed to reverse engineer the API for Nuance, voice recognition software used by Apple, and got it to work so that Siri recognizes Portuguese, responds correctly in English, and displays her answers in Portuguese.

 

I had a chance to catch up with Pedro before New Year's, and he was kind enough to share some thoughts.

Interview

When you finish high school, what and where would you like to study?

I'd like to do computer science. I'm thinking of PUC-Rio or UFRJ, but if the sky was the limit, I'd possibly pick MIT.

How many hours a day do you spend working? What do you like to do when you're not working or in school?

I spend almost all of my free time working. When I'm not in school, I'm working, and when I'm not working, I'm in school. But working and programming is what I most like to do, so I don't see a problem with it. Eventually I do go out with friends, of course.

You've worked for several tech companies. What types of projects did you do?

The majority of the projects I develop are related to the iPhone. At Sync Mobile, for example, I developed an events app called LiveSync, which won the Campuseiros Empreendem Award. [This is an award from Brazil's Campus Party, the biggest tech event in the country]  At M4U, where I work now, I develop mobile payment apps for the iPhone.

Have you ever been in touch with Apple? If you had the opportunity to work for Apple one day, would you want to?

I have, yes. However, I don't know if I'd work there. It really must be a unique experience, but at the same time it's a very complicated place to work. You need to deal with all types of situations when you work at a company of that kind, and with the history of quality that Apple has. But I believe at the end of the day I would end up accepting the opportunity.

Why do you think it's important to fiddle with Apple's operating system, since it's such a closed system?

The cool thing about working with the iOS is to prove that it can do things that Apple doesn't allow, and that's a big motivator. An example of this getting Siri to understand Portuguese.

What do you think are the advantages and challenges of working with technology in Brazil?

The advantage is that this market isn't very developed in Brazil, and there are really so many cool things that you can do. At the same time, one of the problems with this market is that since it hasn't been as developed yet, there's not enough investment for it to grow, though that's changing with time.

Read the interview in Portuguese after the jump.