Adventures of a Gringa

Brazil-U.S. Exchange: Empowering Underserved Youth through Social Media

This month, the U.S. consulate in Rio launched a brand new pilot program that brought two young New York journalists to Rio and will later send two young Carioca journalists to New York. The program, called Empowering Underserved Youth through Social Media: A Community Journalism Exchange, was inspired by a visit from young Brazilian journalist Rene Silva and his colleagues to the U.S. consulate in Rio last year. In an email, Press Attaché Sara Mercado explained how she created the program, appealing to an innovation fund from the State Department and also winning funding from the U.S. embassy's public diplomacy resources. 

Mercado said that the United States is looking to expand people-to-people diplomacy in Brazil, and the program was a perfect opportunity. "Our ambassador, Thomas Shannon, has said that diplomacy in the 21st century is increasingly done people-to-people, and less between national governments," she explained. "The goal for the program is to support those critically important exchanges of people between the U.S. and Brazil that lead to real mutual understanding among our people and institutional linkages between groups." For the partner city, the consulate decided to pick New York. "We looked for big, urban cities which had grappled with some of the same challenges currently being confronted in Rio," Mercado said.

The consulate chose to partner with Harlem organization Brotherhood-SisterSol, and later picked two young people from New York, Nicholas Peart and Marsha Jean-Charles, to participate in the one-week program in Rio in early January. "In speaking to the Harlem-based team, we discovered that the communities shared many of the same challenges, and had each found different solutions to some of those issues," explained Mercado. The consulate also partnered with Bridge Language School, which offered free Portuguese and English classes to the participants. Two youth from Rio were also chosen--Silva and Daiene Mendes--to travel to New York in the coming months.

In the Rio exchange, the consulate designed a program to expose participants to underserved communities in Rio, as well as non-profits, government, the arts, public security, and other key issues. The two Brazilians who will travel to New York accompanied the Americans throughout the visit; Mercado says the consular staff was happy to see they formed a "cohesive bond." The program even garnered media attention, including Globo's Bom Dia Brasil. The two New York participants chronicled the visit in blog posts, which were also shared on Facebook and Twitter; highlights from the trip were also featured on the U.S. embassy's social media pages.

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I met Peart in New York after he returned from the exchange. A mentor at Brotherhood-SisterSol who graduated from Borough of Manhattan Community College in liberal arts last year, Peart is easygoing and well-spoken. He described the exchange as "life-changing" and "magical," and already wants to go back to Brazil.

In 2011, Peart wrote a powerful opinion piece for The New York Times on stop-and-frisk and police brutality in New York, and continues to speak out about this civil rights issue to the press. So for Peart, seeing police engagement in favelas to improve the relationship between communities and the government made an impression. In visiting the UPP in Complexo do Alemão, he saw a lot of potential in improving police-resident ties, even though problems persist. Meanwhile, he said, New York has a long way to go. "The relationship between the police and the [Harlem] community is so hostile," he told me. "It would take an entire generation for it to change." He was also unfazed by the violence in Rio. "Violence happens here, too," he said.

That said, Peart was struck by the poverty and divisions between rich and poor in Rio. "What about the people on the hills?" he wondered out loud. "These are the forgotten people left to govern themselves." But he was also impressed by the resilience of communities. "There's hope," he noted. Though he really liked Ipanema, he noticed the high gates that dominate the neighborhood.

It was Peart's first visit outside the U.S. other than Jamaica (he is of Jamaican descent). He loved Rio culture, from the music to the beach to the food. He was happy to discover the gastronomical similarities between Brazil and the West Indies, especially rice and beans. Peart's favorite stop during the trip was Afroreggae, where he said they "use art as their weapon for change." He's still learning Portuguese, and hopes more high school students from New York have a chance to participate in exchanges so they're inspired to learn a language. Peart studied Spanish in high school and college, but wasn't too interested. "You have to give things meaning," he said.

Peart and his American colleague spent a lot of time with their Brazilian counterparts, even spending time with them after the official activities had ended. Meeting Silva and Mendes, Peart was struck by their maturity and self-awareness. But he also found they had a lot in common, even as they communicated through a translator. "We're not so different," he said. "It's just where the boat left us at."

First photo: Peart, Mendes, Jean-Charles, and Silva, by Rene Silva.
Second photo: Nicholas Peart in Rio, by Bruna Basilio.

Breakdown of Obama's Brazil Trip

It's difficult to quantify the success of Obama's Brazil visit, but in the end, I think the results were mixed.

Although the visit was intended to be largely symbolic, at some point there has to be something concrete to provide evidence and build trust that there's potential for change and for things to move forward. In Brazil, Obama's symbolic diplomacy fell flat for some, as very little was decided. Despite last minute rumors, he did not in fact publicly and definitively support Brazil's bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, and the ten bilateral accords that were signed were not ground-breaking, or were mostly formalizing mutual interests. (Needless to say, Obama did not lift the tourist visa requirement).

In Brasília, a few things didn't go as the US organizers had hoped. Before Obama's arrival, Brazilian officials canceled the press conference where reporters would be able to question Dilma and Obama directly. In the end, though, I think Dilma's admistration was shielding Obama as much as it was Dilma from tricky questions that would have taken away from the air of cooperation and diplomacy the Brasília events were meant to foster. But Obama and Dilma did speak briefly, and Dilma, for her part, did an excellent job laying the groundwork for some of the baseline goals Brazil has for a better relationship with the US.

Then, at another event, Brazilian ministers were annoyed when American security officials subjected them to a search, after a supposed official agreement was made that ministers would not be subjected to being searched at Obama's Brasília events. Four of the ministers failed to pick up translation devices, so when the event began in English, they got up and left. The snafu had many up in arms, complaining of humiliation, being treated as inferior, and even infringing on Brazilian sovereignty, though some were amused by high level government officials being treated like normal people. Between this saia justa and the cancellation of Obama's public speech, it seemed to show serious discord and miscommunication between Obama's security teams and event organizers, and in the end, diplomacy was left behind in the name of security. 

Finally, Lula did not attend any events and did not meet with Obama during his visit, which some claimed was a snub. It may have been, but Lula has been very careful to make sure not to step on Dilma's toes and to make sure he doesn't overshadow her. Another theory (thanks Julia) is that Lula was angry that Dilma didn't personally invite him, instead of being invited by Itamaraty. Either way, I think it probably worked to Dilma's advantage.

The other major problem, which has been one of the biggest problems with Obama's administration in general, is that his rhetoric simply didn't match his actions. While he spoke of cooperation and equality, and forging ties to work together in an effort to build trust with Brazilians, no major agreements were made (see above) and the US launched an offensive in Libya, which Brazil opposed. After cancelling Obama's public address at the last minute, it seemed like par for the course - the US government reneging and failing to live up to its promises, not daring to pursue a new, albeit riskier course of action.

There were protests in Rio, which appeared to be the usual left wing, anti-American, the oil is ours type crowd, but there were also anti-war protesters given the military action in Libya. While there was the usual "go home gringo" BS, there was also plenty of skepticism, which was warranted.

In Rio, Obama seemed to fare a bit better. He visited City of God without incident, although after community members had complained about security teams, many wound up disappointed as Obama and his family spent only a half an hour in the favela, where he watched a private, rather demure children's performance, played a bit of soccer, and then promptly left, hardly speaking to anyone in the community. (This, after extensive last minute efforts to "clean up" just to receive him) Last on the agenda, Obama and his family finished the visit with a night pit stop at the Cristo Redentor. Cariocas were understandably miffed with the terrible traffic caused by the visit, though others cautioned that with such bad traffic on a Sunday, transportation in the city would really need to change before 2014.

Via RioReal

Via Globo

Obama's heralded Rio speech had mixed results. Those in attendance found themselves under Obama's spell of charisma and powerful speaking skills, though a few noted it seemed like pandering. Blogger Julia Michaels, who scored tickets to the speech, told me she noticed that the speech didn't entirely fit the audience, since it was moved from a speech for the masses to one for a very elite crowd. His reference to Vasco was not exactly fitting for his audience (you can hear booing in the video), and the Paulo Coelho quote was extremely ill advised. (The Paulo Coelho bit made me think he didn't run the speech by a Brazil expert, or if he did, he or she was too afraid to tell him to change it) Julia did note, however, how important it was for Obama to be in Brazil and to get things right, especially after ridiculous occurrences with past American presidents (see: Reagan and Bush).  

Still, much ado was made about the success of the visit. BBC declared "most people seemed happy to see the US president visiting Brazil and acknowledging the growing importance of the South American country on the world stage," citing the visit's "symbolic success." A headline from Globo about Obama's speech proclaimed "Obama says the US and Brazil must be equal partners." Others saw the visit as an opportunity to prepare for upcoming international events.

One missing element was that Obama made very little reference to the importance of his African heritage, which is one thing that has helped make him popular in Brazil. It would have been really interesting if Obama had had time to go to Salvador, the heart of African culture in Brazil, to work his diplomatic charms. (In other news, a local NGO in Bahia put up a funny sign in honor of Obama's visit, even though they knew he wouldn't be up north.) Though some black Brazilians (including, for example, actor Lazaro Ramos and Obama's Brazilian look alike) were able to attend Obama's Rio speech, many more were shut out when the venue was changed.

In short, the visit could have gone better, especially if American agencies had all been on the same page, and had coordinated better with Brazilian authorities. But in the end, rhetorical diplomacy was not enough. There needs to be a lot less talking and a lot more action to gain trust from Brazilians and to make a legitimate break from the past. Otherwise, it will just be more of the same - which, sadly, has largely been the case here in the US under the Obama administration. At the same time, the visit did seem to indicate that there's a lot of opportunity for those of us working with both countries to do more to bridge the gap, and how important it is to share information and knowledge as we work on those efforts.

The Mysterious Eduardo Saverin

I first was intrigued by the whole Facebook true story with the trailer for the Social Network movie:

 

When I went to see the movie (which was excellent, by the way), I noticed there were a few subtle references to one of the stars being Brazilian, and since I hadn't read the book, I was left wondering. Soon after, I did some Googling and discovered that Eduardo Saverin, one of Facebook's co-founders is not only Brazilian but in fact Jewish and Carioca.

There's actually very little information on Eduardo. There's a Wikipedia entry, his personal Facebook page, and a public Facebook page, and the rest is just scattered bits and pieces. According to Exame, he was born in Brazil and lived in Rio until he was thirteen, when he moved with his family to Miami. He came from a wealthy family, and while at Harvard, was apparently the kind of guy who went to class in a suit. He was in the Jewish fraternity with Mark Zuckerberg and co-founded Facebook with him, and now owns five percent of the company and is one of the four hundred richest Americans (according to Forbes, he's a US citizen).

I'm very curious about Eduardo and what kind of relationship he has with Brazil and his complicated identity, though my impression is that he's pretty americanizado. Now that he's a billionaire, I wonder, will he invest in Brazil or become a philanthropist in Brazil?

Later, while unsuccessfully researching this Rio native, I couldn't help but think of Felipe Matos, another carioca who moved to Miami when he was around the same age. Unlike Eduardo, he went to live with an aunt, and unlike Eduardo, he came from a very poor family. And unlike Eduardo, he was denied an Ivy League level education, a green card, and citizenship, and unlike Eduardo, he's had to fight tooth and nail for basic rights, rather than the right to own part of a billion dollar company.

It's just something to keep in mind when you see the movie, and it's just yet another story that convinces me that immigration always seems to boil down to one simple thing: money. In any event, I'm still curious about Eduardo, so if you know more about his story, please post it in the comments.

A Teenage Runaway in Brazil

In a truly odd story, CNN and a Fort Meyers news station are reporting that a fifteen year-old American girl is being unlawfully held in Brazil - but evidently, of her own accord.

While the details seem a tad hazy (I couldn't find the story anywhere else, and it doesn't seem to be anywhere in the Brazilian news), it seems like a steady series of face palm-worthy events.

1. Fifteen year-old plans to flee country with Internet boyfriend

2. Said fifteen year-old acquires a fake Brazilian passport, possibly from Internet boyfriend

3. Girl lies to parents and goes to the airport without their knowledge

4. At least two US officials fail to notice fake passport, or that the girl using it is a US citizen minor leaving the country without parental consent, and she gets on an international flight with her boyfriend

5. Girl arrives in Brazil and immigration authorities flag fake passport

6. Case is transferred to the civil police, despite the fact that it would seem to be a case for the federal police, who deal with immigration

7. Girl is released to the custody of the Internet boyfriend's uncle and authorities refuse to deport her or release to her parent's custody

8. US media covers story, claiming girl is in Belo Horizonte, but shows Rio de Janeiro on numerous maps and images of Rio (sorry, just had to throw that one in for good measure)

Now, the girl's parents are trying to have her deported to the US, using a lawyer (who looks disturbingly like Robert Downey Jr) who is working with the State Department and US Consulate in Rio. Theoretically, the charges for traveling with an illegal passport would be imprisonment and deportation, but it appears the girl was never put in jail, possibly because she was a minor. But the girl's parents allege that her boyfriend's family is wealthy and influential, and is trying to help the girl stay in Brazil. For her part, the girl says she never wants to come back to the US.

More on this when there are more details, and thanks to Renata for the tip.

The Beautiful Game

Everyone still thinks that Americans hate soccer, and to be fair, the World Cup is still not nearly as big a deal here as in Brazil or Latin America. There are many reasons that Americans aren't crazy about the sport, and the more I think about it, the more reasons I come up with. Americans prefer homegrown sports (baseball, basketball, American football) to foreign sports (soccer, rugby), since they've become so ingrained in our culture. In sports as in many other areas, Americans have short attention spans and want instant gratification, neither of which jive very well with soccer. Plus, Americans tend to prefer regional and domestic championships to international games, not to mention that we are very set in our ways.

Despite how big American football is, it can never compared to Brazilian soccer culture, something you are practically born into, something that is often a fundamental part of each family history and personal identity. Americans don't quite have the same devotion as Brazilians, like this adorable little girl who sobbed, "My life is over!" when her soccer team lost a game. "How could they do this to me? I root for them!" she wailed.

We also don't have the same cult of devotion to athletes like Brazilians have, where Pelé has become something of a deity. (If you haven't watched this wonderful commercial/short film about Pelé's last goal, you should - plus, this one has subtitles).

But like I mentioned last week, Americans seem to be paying more attention to the World Cup. When Landon Donovan scored the winning goal during the last game, putting the US in the next round, I was at the office, but I heard screams echoing from people watching the game. Those screams were heard all over the country, like these videos show below (the Arkansas guy is especially entertaining).

That night, The Daily Show joked that the US had now joined "the Third World" now that we're becoming a soccer country.

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World Cup 2010: Into Africa - US Beats Algeria
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But to me, we're on the right path to joining the rest of the world in what is essentially the world's only global sport, one that manages to unite people like no other game. The United States' political and economic power is eroding, and it's time we got off our high horse and joined the rest of the planet in one of the few things we can all love. Loving soccer is one of the simplest and most gratifying things we can do to gain goodwill outside our borders and to win the respect of our fellow soccer fans--even if we can't agree to call it football.

An Interview with David Rasche

When I first got to talking to the PR person about the Olhos Azuis film, I mentioned it would be fun to interview the American star. I was really excited when she agreed, and I spoke to David by phone last week to ask about his experience with the film and his first trip to Brazil.

David Rasche is one of those imposing actors, one you'd expect to be really intimidating. Before I interviewed him, I imagined him as Cal Hartley from Ugly Betty. Apparently, I wasn't alone; David told me that he had quite an impression on the film production staff when he first arrived in Brazil, who expected him to be something like his angry, cruel character he plays in Olhos Azuis. All of us were pleasantly surprised to find that David is a very affable, forthcoming guy, and I was really happy to have the opportunity to discover that he, just like every other gringo I know that visits Brazil for the first time, had fallen in love with the country.

Though David claims he knew very little about Brazil before making the movie, he told me that not only did he love his experience, but now he follows Brazil closely in the news and has become very interested in Brazilian culture. He grew very fond of his Brazilian colleagues, who he says he hopes will be his friends for life. He learned about the food and the culture, Carnival, the beaches and the geography. He also learned about history ("I didn't know about the Dutch in Brazil," he admitted), exploring Olinda and old Recife. He quickly realized that Brazilians are insulted by the lack of knowledge gringos have about Brazil, since Brazilians tend to know much more about American culture and the US. In turn, he decided to learn as much as he possibly could about Brazil, and said he intends to have "a life-long relationship with Brazil," a place he finds "endlessly fascinating."

The film was shot in the interior of Pernambuco, as well as a few scenes in Rio. While in Pernambuco, the cast and crew stayed in Petrolina and filmed in a tiny village on the Rio São Francisco. He was taken aback by how primitive it was in the small town, where there are real cowboys, where women wash clothes on rocks in the river and where kids eat mangoes fallen from the trees. While Rio seemed to leave him starry-eyed with its beauty, he also confesses that he was "disappointed by the hard times" there. Nevertheless, he was struck by the stunning natural beauty and especially liked the intricate tile sidewalks.

In both cities, David was determined to try new experiences, like eating a real cashew fruit for the first time. He tried every new type of food and drink he could, and especially loved guaraná, feijoada, and farofa (which by the way, he pronounced beautifully). He also made an effort to learn Portuguese and picked up new vocabulary from his Brazilian acquaintances. During his learning experience, like many gringos who really open their eyes in Brazil, David realized that Brazilians have a love/hate relationship with the US. "There's lots of resentment toward Americans," he pointed out, especially toward the type of person he plays in the film. He noticed how deep national pride is in Brazil, and how it helps contribute to that "push-pull relationship with the US."

Luckily, David won over his fellow actors and colleagues, proving he's not like his awful character. In the film, David plays an angry, xenophobic border patrol agent with absolutely no regard for human decency. To prepare for his role, David got in touch with the immigration authorities in the US, and he visited an airport here along with one of the other American actors. Contrary to the film, the real officers were very friendly and accommodating, and using what they learned, the actors applied their knowledge during their scenes, even helped tweak the set design. Though it was easy to imitate the immigration procedures, one of the challenges of the film was the language barrier. On the set, all of the actors spoke different languages, making filming a bit tricky. Luckily, the director spoke Spanish, Portuguese, and English, and sometimes had to repeat his instructions three times for all of the actors to understand. 

 

The heart of the film's plot, David says, is based on the idea that Brazilians couldn't come to terms with why the US would have a problem admitting an intelligent, employed, middle class man into the country. The man in question is the character Nonato, whose experience is based on a true story. David told me that both protagonists represent their countries in a way: a Brazilian speaking for Brazil, and an American speaking for the US, albeit from a very anti-immigrant perspective. David really liked the symbolism of the blue eyes versus brown eyes to represent the film's central conflict. "The days are numbered for blue eyes," he said. "It's the brown eyes' turn."

Photos courtesy of Coevos Films

The American Confederates in Brazil

While I've written about the Confederate immigration phenomenon in Brazil before, I thought it was worth revisiting, since a reader sent me this article about a celebration of the end of the Civil War in the heart of Sao Paulo state.

In case you're not familiar, an American community grew around Santa Barbara d'Oeste in Sao Paulo following the Civil War, as Confederates and their families fled the war-torn south in search of land to start anew. They found it in Brazil, where even today there remains a community of descendants of the Southern immigrants.

From Globo and my abbreviated translation:

"Nascido na Georgia, o coronel Norris chegou a ser senador pelo Texas antes que os exércitos do industrializado norte dos EUA devastassem econômica e militarmente os estados confederados do sul latifundiário, na guerra entre 1861 e 1865. Veio para o Brasil, segundo a fraternidade, graças ao contato que tinha com a marçonaria (da qual o imperador Dom Pedro II fazia parte) e do interesse brasileiro nas técnicas agrícolas sulistas, principalmente o cultivo do algodão."

"Born in Georgia, Colonel William Hutchinson Norris became a senator in Texas* before the armies from the industrialized north of the US economically and militarily devastated the Confederate, plantation-based South, in the war from 1861 to 1865. He came to Brazil, according to the Fraternity of American Descendants, thanks to a contact he had with the masons and thanks to the Brazilian interest in Southern agricultural methods, mainly the cultivation of cotton."

*According to several other sources, he was a senator in Alabama...might want to do some fact checking, Globo.

The celebration, called the Confederate Festival, the people of the town dress up in period clothing from the Civil War, do square dancing, and listen to jazz, country, and folk music. Check out some of the fantastic Scarlett O'Hara-esque dresses from this year's festival, as well as the period uniforms.

Also, I found a short little documentary about the Confederates in Brazil from 2001. While it gives an interesting overview of the Confederate history in Brazil, it paints a somewhat unrealistic picture of slavery and racism in the two countries, as well as glossing over the symbolism of the Confederate flag (I'm sure Alex Castro would have thoughts on the slavery issue). I especially liked the anecdote about the American doctor who fell in love with the Brazilian slave who managed to marry her and start a family, though that seemed like a romanticized version of the story. In any event, it's worth watching.