Brazil (1822- ) is the largest country in South America. It has half the people of Latin America, making it the largest Catholic country in the world. Only Nigeria has more blacks, only Italy has more Italians and only Japan has more Japanese.
It is pretty empty as countries go: most people live near the coast, especially in Rio, Sao Paulo and the other big cities in the south. As many people as Brazil has it has room for plenty more.
The north is poor, hot and most are black. The south has seasons, industry, money and most are white.
Brazil is like South Africa: it is a rich country of white people living inside a poor country. The difference is that while the poor people of South Africa are almost all black, in Brazil they are both black and white.
Some think Brazil is colour-blind, yet, aside from a few sports heroes, the rich are solidly white – even though half the country is black. There has been only one black Miss Brazil and she was light-skinned.
Note: I have been using “black” in the common English sense of the world. In Brazil things are a bit different.
The government counts four races: for every 100 Brazilians 50 are counted as white, 6 as black (“preto”), 1 as yellow or native and 43 as dark grey (“pardo”) – the mixed who are part white and part black. North Americans, according to their One Drop Rule, would see the mixed as blacks.
Nearly everyone speaks Portuguese. The written Portuguese that is taught in school is close to that of Portugal, but what you hear in the street is almost another language.
Most are Catholic, though there are quite a few Protestants: about one in six. African religion lives on in different forms.
Government: Brazil is a democracy, but it has not always been so. It was ruled by a king till 1888. From 1930 to 1945 it was ruled by Vargas who saw no need for democracy. From 1964 to 1985 it was ruled by generals: anyone who spoke against them was either killed, thrown in prison or thrown out of the country.
Even today Brazil’s human rights record is weak. The police, who are supposed to uphold law and order, repeatedly get away with murder, killing even children. Many will look the other way if you pay them enough, but if they arrest you their ways of questioning can become very rough indeed. While you could say much the same of the police in, say, New York, in Brazil it is far worse.
Nevertheless the crime rate is still sky high. It is so bad that you are more likely to be murdered in Brazil than in war-torn Iraq.
The big money-spinners in Brazil have changed over the years:
- 1500s: wood
- 1600s: sugar
- 1700s: gold
- 1800s: coffee
- 1900s: coffee, then industry
The three main cities are all in the south:
- Sao Paulo: its centre of business
- Brasilia: its centre of government
- Rio: its Rio
Copacabana is a part of Rio down by the sea. Ipanema is a part of Copacabana.
See also:
- Eye on Brazil – a good blog for Americans who want to understand Brazil better
- Portuguese empire
- Portuguese
- Catholic
- Race in Brazil
- The most beautiful Brazilian women
- The Top Ten Songs in Brazil
- My thing for Brazil
wanting to know the best palces in the world with the beautifulist women who are not naturally models? I saw a magazine once and it had photographs from central america somewhere and the women were so beautiful but they were without makeup and all. Natural….so what places do you know like that? email me
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How would you know if you have Brazilian in your blood?
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You would have to know your family tree. There is no DNA test that can prove it because Brazilians, like Americans, are a mix of all kinds of things.
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It was ruled by an “Emperor” not a “King” until 1888. The monarchal rule was best government of Brazil by far.
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Abagond, while I enjoy the shout out to Brazil, there’s one problem with the following comment:
“…the rich are solidly white – even though half the country is black.”
The rich are only “solidly white” in the Brazilian colorist sense of the word – which is what our census uses, of course, when they jot down color.
If you’re going by the “common English sense of the word” (or the “one drop rule”), the rich are VERY DEFINITELY not solidly white. Many of them would have been riding in the back of the bus back in Alabama during the 1950s.
In fact, this occurred to a professor of mine – a man universally decried by Brazilians and gringos as a member of the “rich, white, Brazilian elite”. He didn’t pass Texas’ race barrier back in the late ’50s and had to use “Negro” públic facilities for the whole time he was up there.
While it’s indicative of another form of racism (“Us? Not white? Perish the thought! We’re rich and civilized!”), the Brazilian elite’s self-ascription as “white” needs to be taken with a salt mine’s worth of salt.
Oh, and by the way, Ipanema is a neighborhood adjacent to Copacabana, not part of Copacabana itself. Copa is too… dark and hoi polloi… for toney Ipanema. 😉
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@ Thad –
Interesting comments. This color line is funny stuff here in the U.S. I have a Brazilian colleague from the interior of Sao Paulo who I work with here in Miami. He is a White Brazilian. But because he has an olive complexion and speaks English with an accent. For this reason, he suffered several occassions where he was referred to as a “sp%c”.
I just finished reading your commentary on “Coal to Cream” and agree with you 100%. I haven’t read it and I don’t think I will after your review.
Funny thing about the non Portuguese speakers in Copacabana. I recall one time (i was 17) walking by some of the restaurants/bars there and hearing a woman, “speaking Porgtuguese to a man in the sexiest voice, but her words were ‘i’m going to take your money’. Not sure if the guy was European or American, but he didn’t have a clue what she was saying.
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Oops – I should clarify. He suffered this sort of discrimination while in Chicago!!! (Yet he prefers Chicago over Miami, and loves Hockey. lol …)
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“Ipanema is part of Copacabana” – I hope this is a joke…
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