Another semi-quick post. I´ve been reading The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman during my travels. I´ve found the book to be generally insightful about the globalizing forces that are reshaping the world and what it will mean for individuals who want to compete in the new marketplace. In it, his basic point is that due to a series of flattening forces that include technological advances and changes in geopolitics, work is increasingly going to whoever can do it the cheapest, fastest, and best. And of course, countries like china and india, with their large supply of eager, educated and hard-working people, are deriving the greatest benefits from this.
Reading the book has made me think a lot about brasil and its prospects for being competitive in the global marketplace. Brasil has incredible natural resources, being bigger than the contiguous united states, and containing many fertile lands with great biodiversity, and also possessing minerals and other resources. Brasil is also just a gigantic market as well and a dominant player in south america. But brasil´s culture, an attracting force for many tourists, also seems to me to put it at a disadvantage when it comes to global competition. Brasilians, at least outside of Sao Paolo, don´t seem to take seriously many things beyond looking good at the beach, which they do phenomenally well. My perspective may be skewed by having spent most of my time in rio, which has some striking similaritie to southern california, but overall, my outlook on brasil´s future in the international marketplace is lukewarm.
It´s also made me reflect on the conflicting values in myself. First, the ambition and drive the characterized much of my high school years. I worked my ass off and spent my summers studying and researching mathematics and science (yes, i was a big nerd). I wasn´t only doing it to get into a good school but I did recognize that I was competing for a limited number of places and that the harder i worked, the better chance I had. I think that sense of competition has in the last few years been fairly dormant. I´ve moved away from trying to compete for the sake of winning and moving towards finding something that i´m going to be passionate about and engaged in. I think that this process has been a healthy one for me overall but reading this book has also made me appreciate the culture of my childhood that stressed education and hard work. My upbringing and culture may have lacked some important things but I see with greater clarity that it also contained some very valuable elements as well.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
C-A-R-N-A-V-A-L-!-!-!
So today was officially the last day of Carnaval, which coincides with fat tuesday and precedes ash wednesday when the traditional religious observance of lent begins [i started this post tuesday]. My knowledge of the religious significance and meaning of this celebration is embarassingly low, an ignorance that a week in Salvador did not change. There were some small religious celebrations and convocations but they were easy to miss. Carnaval in Salvador is, ultimately, about the chance to let loose and enjoy the music and rhythms of Bahia.
But first, a bit about the setting. Salvador is arguably Brasil´s third most important city, after Rio and Sao Paolo. In the colonial period, Salvador was the economic center of Brasil, and where African slaves were brought when they arrived to their new continent. Today, Salvador´s cultural importance seems to outstrip its economic might. Many of the country´s most famous musical styles and musicians, such as gilberto gil, caetono veloso, and ivete sangalo, originated here. Many popular dances, such as samba, and capoeira, a dance/martial art, also developed in salvador.
Though the city is quite large, it offers only two main areas of interest for tourists--the old colonial center of Pelorinho, filled with plazas, churches, cobble-stoned streets, and the beachside area of Barra. Unfortunately, these two areas are not within walking distance of each other, which can lead to a feeling of claustrophobia.
Salvador is a dumpy and generally unattractive city. The nicer areas, such as downtown and the middle-class suburbs, offer very few attractions for the short-term tourist. The poverty in Salvador is probably more widespread and deeper than in éither RJ or SP. Homeless families and children dot the sidewalks at night and solicitation by beggars is a daily occurrence. The roads, sidewalks, and buildings appear old and generally in need of repair, and litter and the smell of urine are ubiquitous.
In front of this imperfect backdrop, Carnaval raged. Every day, a million plus people packed the streets, beginning around 3 pm and partying until about 3 or 4 a.m. There are three main "circuits" or concentrations of activity. There is Barra-Ondina, which is a 4km stretch along the ocean, and is generally known as the party circuit, where most of the middle-class youth and tourists congregate and where makeshift bars are erected every few feet to satisfy the thirsty and not-drunk-enough. Here also, trio-electricos, basically rock concerts on souped-up semi-trucks, roll down the circuit blaring music performed by many of brasil´s most famous singers and bands.
Part of the madness and expense of Carnaval is that each trio is roped off by a gang of uniformed guards. Inside, people with the same shirts or abadas, follow the trio down the circuit and can party within the relative safety of the ropes. The catch is that these abadas cost anywhere from 50 to 400 US dollars a piece. So these serve to keep the poor out and the middle to upper class in. Those who don´t buy the abada can either party outside of the ropes in the "pipoca" or popcorn, or buy tickets for camarotes along the circuit where you can witness the spectacle in the comfort and security of a dance club.
I spent most of my time just hanging in the pipoca and dancing in the streets, which aside from the occasional random melee that broke out in the crowd, was cool and safe. Seeing the way brasilians adore their music and are able to let loose together was instructive and i think reflects something fairly significant about the brasilian character. Another nice part for me was getting to visit all the different circuits and seeing the different styles of carnaval that take place here. There was the Campo Grande circuit, which also has trio-electricos but is a bit less touristy and more family oriented, and the Pelorinho circuit which is more of a traditional street festival, with families and tourists alike enjoying the rhythms and sounds of traditional drumming and dance troupes dressed up in costume.
I leave Salvador, sensitive to the many problems in the city, but also happy that I was able to spend Carnaval here. Salvador, and to some extent, the entire state of Bahia, has a way of being that attracts travelers to it. I was struck repeatedly by the friendliness and warmth of some of the locals i met, including a bus fare collector who told me that bahaianas love asian men (possibly true). People here also seem to excel at being able to relax and enjoy a slower pace of life, an ability that is reflected in the popular saying that an hour in bahia is actually ninety minutes. Bahia, it seems, means no worries and that everything in the end will work out. It´s an outlook that both attracts me and at the time one that I cannot fully embrace. It´s the chinese and the american in me.
Back to rio now for a few more days before heading home next week. I´m going to try to write one more post if i get a chance.
Here are some pics (i also added a few from my hike) to the previous post): This first was before Carnaval in the old colonial center of Pelorinho. Children drummers preparing for the festival.
Here´s a close up of the revelers following one of the trios. The striped shirts are the abadas.
The barra circuit from the rooftop of my apartment.
But first, a bit about the setting. Salvador is arguably Brasil´s third most important city, after Rio and Sao Paolo. In the colonial period, Salvador was the economic center of Brasil, and where African slaves were brought when they arrived to their new continent. Today, Salvador´s cultural importance seems to outstrip its economic might. Many of the country´s most famous musical styles and musicians, such as gilberto gil, caetono veloso, and ivete sangalo, originated here. Many popular dances, such as samba, and capoeira, a dance/martial art, also developed in salvador.
Though the city is quite large, it offers only two main areas of interest for tourists--the old colonial center of Pelorinho, filled with plazas, churches, cobble-stoned streets, and the beachside area of Barra. Unfortunately, these two areas are not within walking distance of each other, which can lead to a feeling of claustrophobia.
Salvador is a dumpy and generally unattractive city. The nicer areas, such as downtown and the middle-class suburbs, offer very few attractions for the short-term tourist. The poverty in Salvador is probably more widespread and deeper than in éither RJ or SP. Homeless families and children dot the sidewalks at night and solicitation by beggars is a daily occurrence. The roads, sidewalks, and buildings appear old and generally in need of repair, and litter and the smell of urine are ubiquitous.
In front of this imperfect backdrop, Carnaval raged. Every day, a million plus people packed the streets, beginning around 3 pm and partying until about 3 or 4 a.m. There are three main "circuits" or concentrations of activity. There is Barra-Ondina, which is a 4km stretch along the ocean, and is generally known as the party circuit, where most of the middle-class youth and tourists congregate and where makeshift bars are erected every few feet to satisfy the thirsty and not-drunk-enough. Here also, trio-electricos, basically rock concerts on souped-up semi-trucks, roll down the circuit blaring music performed by many of brasil´s most famous singers and bands.
Part of the madness and expense of Carnaval is that each trio is roped off by a gang of uniformed guards. Inside, people with the same shirts or abadas, follow the trio down the circuit and can party within the relative safety of the ropes. The catch is that these abadas cost anywhere from 50 to 400 US dollars a piece. So these serve to keep the poor out and the middle to upper class in. Those who don´t buy the abada can either party outside of the ropes in the "pipoca" or popcorn, or buy tickets for camarotes along the circuit where you can witness the spectacle in the comfort and security of a dance club.
I spent most of my time just hanging in the pipoca and dancing in the streets, which aside from the occasional random melee that broke out in the crowd, was cool and safe. Seeing the way brasilians adore their music and are able to let loose together was instructive and i think reflects something fairly significant about the brasilian character. Another nice part for me was getting to visit all the different circuits and seeing the different styles of carnaval that take place here. There was the Campo Grande circuit, which also has trio-electricos but is a bit less touristy and more family oriented, and the Pelorinho circuit which is more of a traditional street festival, with families and tourists alike enjoying the rhythms and sounds of traditional drumming and dance troupes dressed up in costume.
I leave Salvador, sensitive to the many problems in the city, but also happy that I was able to spend Carnaval here. Salvador, and to some extent, the entire state of Bahia, has a way of being that attracts travelers to it. I was struck repeatedly by the friendliness and warmth of some of the locals i met, including a bus fare collector who told me that bahaianas love asian men (possibly true). People here also seem to excel at being able to relax and enjoy a slower pace of life, an ability that is reflected in the popular saying that an hour in bahia is actually ninety minutes. Bahia, it seems, means no worries and that everything in the end will work out. It´s an outlook that both attracts me and at the time one that I cannot fully embrace. It´s the chinese and the american in me.
Back to rio now for a few more days before heading home next week. I´m going to try to write one more post if i get a chance.
Here are some pics (i also added a few from my hike) to the previous post): This first was before Carnaval in the old colonial center of Pelorinho. Children drummers preparing for the festival.
Here´s a close up of the revelers following one of the trios. The striped shirts are the abadas.
The barra circuit from the rooftop of my apartment.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
quick post from the bahian interior
I'm in lencois now, about to return to salvador. Lencois is a small town of about 5000 people and sits on the edge of Chapada Diamantina, a huge national park. I went on a two day trek into the park and saw some of the most beautiful places i've ever seen. Many lovely waterfalls with pools in front where we swam and let the streams of waterfalling massage our bodies. The hiking itself was extremely challenging: climbing up the face of waterfalls and over big wet rocks up a river valley. There were a few moments whe I sincerely feared for my life. But what allowed us to survive was our guide, Mio, a cross between yoda, rambo, and a monkey. The man could do anything on the trail and seemed to know every in and out of the park.
Lencois itself is a very charming and quaint town. It sees a large number of tourists but still feels essentially brasilian and local. It is safe to walk around at night by myself which is a first for me in brasil and feels incredibly nice. I'm off to quite the opposite today, Salvador, to attend Carnaval. My concerns about carnaval have not abated. Everything I have heard has been about how expensive and unsafe it is. It is also supposed to be the best. We shall see.
Lencois itself is a very charming and quaint town. It sees a large number of tourists but still feels essentially brasilian and local. It is safe to walk around at night by myself which is a first for me in brasil and feels incredibly nice. I'm off to quite the opposite today, Salvador, to attend Carnaval. My concerns about carnaval have not abated. Everything I have heard has been about how expensive and unsafe it is. It is also supposed to be the best. We shall see.
Sunday, February 4, 2007
paris of the south?
I´ve been in buenos aires for more than a week now, staying with javier, a 28-year-old argentine who works for my dad´s company, but remotely, from BA. This is a city that oozes old-world charm. Cobblestone streets, classical european architecture, and beautiful old wooden doors that line the streets and offer tantalizing hints of the homes and history inside. This is an easy city to live in. The restaurants are fantastic and sophisticated, the wine is good and cheap, and the infrastructure works. For those hunting for good fashion, boutiques are everywhere and they sell interesting and well-made clothes for prices that, because of the economic collapse in 2001, are reasonable by american standards. Can you tell i´ve been doing a little shopping?I´ve also fallen for the tango. It´s a bit cliche I know, but i couldn´t help myself. I´ve taken two classes this week and also visited two milongas, which are the halls where people go to dance into the morning. I´ve only learned the most basic steps but already, i´ve become attached. The movements feel natural and comfortable, unlike the salsa, whose requisite hip movements sometimes make me feel awkward and silly. The tango is quite smooth and yet has sudden changes in movement that give it passion and spontaneity. And watching a woman dance the tango is beautiful--the way she looks, stylishly dressed and always in high heels, the way she leans on her partner as if she could not stand without him, and they way she closes her eyes as she waits for him to lead her around the dance floor. She submits, for a few songs, willingly and naturally. The gender roles at the milonga feel of a different time. They are simpler and clearer, and both the men and the women seem to enjoy the opportunity to, respectively, lead and be led.
Buenos Aires feels different from rio and sao paolo, and from what i have heard, other big cities in south america. There is a stability here that somehow reminds me of the u.s. or europe. It feels more developed and for that reason, familiar. One argentinian i spoke with mentioned that argentina is unique in south america for the extent to which there exists a middle class. I´m not sure why this is so, but it feels right. There is a sense of safety, prosperity, and equity here that is palpable and that fosters a larger sense of comfort and ease.
At first, I actually thought Buenos Aires felt a little boring for this reason. There is not the kind of palpable drama of rich and poor living side-by-side. Nor is the culture as colorful, exuberant, or loud as Brasil´s. People are also not as immediately or outwardly warm or friendly. Instead, the culture is quieter, and possesses strong intellectual and artistic strains. Museums abound and the city supports thriving theatre, ballet, and opera companies. And of the people i have met, a high proportion have been artists or intellectuals. For instance, of the local Servas hosts I met, one of the couples included a visual artist/painter and an epistemologist, the others a sociologist and political scientist. The mother of Javier, the guy i´m staying with, was a psychotherapist in her younger days. This all seems fairly common.
I have come to appreciate Buenos Aires. I have had some fascinating discussions about politics, about gender dynamics, the economic collapse in 2001 and the uncertain future of the internet economy here. Gender dynamics deserves its own post so let me talk briefly about the internet economy, which has not taken hold here as it has in the states. For instance, people here still book most of their travel through travel agents. The argentinians explained that people here do not trust the internet. This seemed funny at first, but it makes sense given the country´s long and consistent history of economic instability and corruption. During the 2001 collapse, many banks refused to give people the money in their accounts and one person I met said she saves in dollars. By this, she meant that she physically takes US hundred dollar bills and puts them in a safety deposit for security during the next crisis. Credit cards are frequently copied and loans are very difficult for the average person to get. In the context of this financial scarcity, instability, and cheating, it makes sense that people would not trust the internet. Shipping is also very expensive. I wonder what Amazon.com thinks about all of this.
Anyway, I am heading to Salvador de Bahia tomorrow morning for two weeks. Salvador is the heart of afro-brasilian culture and is where most of brasil´s four millions African slaves landed. First, I´m going to Chapada de Diamantina, a national park in Bahia, to hike for a few days. Then I return to Salvador for Carnival. Salvador´s carnival is reputed to be the best and the craziest in brasil. I´m looking forward to it with a mix of excitement and dread. I´m sure it will be a once-in-a-lifetime party and I hope I survive it.
I will try to get some pics up soon. Too many words!
Buenos Aires feels different from rio and sao paolo, and from what i have heard, other big cities in south america. There is a stability here that somehow reminds me of the u.s. or europe. It feels more developed and for that reason, familiar. One argentinian i spoke with mentioned that argentina is unique in south america for the extent to which there exists a middle class. I´m not sure why this is so, but it feels right. There is a sense of safety, prosperity, and equity here that is palpable and that fosters a larger sense of comfort and ease.
At first, I actually thought Buenos Aires felt a little boring for this reason. There is not the kind of palpable drama of rich and poor living side-by-side. Nor is the culture as colorful, exuberant, or loud as Brasil´s. People are also not as immediately or outwardly warm or friendly. Instead, the culture is quieter, and possesses strong intellectual and artistic strains. Museums abound and the city supports thriving theatre, ballet, and opera companies. And of the people i have met, a high proportion have been artists or intellectuals. For instance, of the local Servas hosts I met, one of the couples included a visual artist/painter and an epistemologist, the others a sociologist and political scientist. The mother of Javier, the guy i´m staying with, was a psychotherapist in her younger days. This all seems fairly common.
I have come to appreciate Buenos Aires. I have had some fascinating discussions about politics, about gender dynamics, the economic collapse in 2001 and the uncertain future of the internet economy here. Gender dynamics deserves its own post so let me talk briefly about the internet economy, which has not taken hold here as it has in the states. For instance, people here still book most of their travel through travel agents. The argentinians explained that people here do not trust the internet. This seemed funny at first, but it makes sense given the country´s long and consistent history of economic instability and corruption. During the 2001 collapse, many banks refused to give people the money in their accounts and one person I met said she saves in dollars. By this, she meant that she physically takes US hundred dollar bills and puts them in a safety deposit for security during the next crisis. Credit cards are frequently copied and loans are very difficult for the average person to get. In the context of this financial scarcity, instability, and cheating, it makes sense that people would not trust the internet. Shipping is also very expensive. I wonder what Amazon.com thinks about all of this.
Anyway, I am heading to Salvador de Bahia tomorrow morning for two weeks. Salvador is the heart of afro-brasilian culture and is where most of brasil´s four millions African slaves landed. First, I´m going to Chapada de Diamantina, a national park in Bahia, to hike for a few days. Then I return to Salvador for Carnival. Salvador´s carnival is reputed to be the best and the craziest in brasil. I´m looking forward to it with a mix of excitement and dread. I´m sure it will be a once-in-a-lifetime party and I hope I survive it.
I will try to get some pics up soon. Too many words!
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Going south
I´m writing from Foz do Iguacu, a city on the border between Argentina, Brasil and Paraguay and the site of a famous set of waterfalls. I´m on my way to Buenos Aires and thought I´d stop on through. It´s an uninspiring place and a bit of a tourist trap. The falls were cool, and I even took a motor boat ride down on the river right up to the falls. But I will be happy to move on to the next stop.
Sao Paolo was actually fantastic. The first couple of days, I was here alone but I connected with two Paulistas I found through Servas, an organization that connects hosts and travelers from around the world who are interested in cross-cultural exchange. It has a peace-building mission so the people who I´ve met through it have tended to be very interesting, socially-minded, and cool. Sao Paolo had the feel of no city I´ve ever been to. Some combination of the vast concrete landscape of LA with the concentration and height of new york city. Yet, it feels like neither. It just feels endless. While i was there, the city was on holiday to celebrate its birthday, an event that cities throughout brasil all celebrate.
Highlights of my time were: going to the planetarium at midnight to see the sky over Sao Paolo in a special birthday show, seeing Os Mutantes (a famous psychedelic rock band from the 70s) perform in the park, sampling the city´s famous japanese and italian cuisine (still not better than san francisco, i think), visiting the new Museum of the Portuguese Language, and going out to some very cool clubs. I also had my first brasilian kiss, so I can go home happy.
On a larger level, my time in Sao Paolo has left me with an even stronger feeling of affection for Brasil. The people I have met here have been some of the warmest, coolest, and nicest people I have encountered. It could be some kind of coincidence but I think what I have felt is part of a larger cultural phenomenon. There is an openness and simplicity in interpersonal interactions that feels incredibly refreshing.
I know this deserves a more thoughtful and detailed exposition but this will have to do for now. I am heading to Buenos Aires definitely excited to see a different city but also sad to be leaving Brasil, even for only a few days.
Sao Paolo was actually fantastic. The first couple of days, I was here alone but I connected with two Paulistas I found through Servas, an organization that connects hosts and travelers from around the world who are interested in cross-cultural exchange. It has a peace-building mission so the people who I´ve met through it have tended to be very interesting, socially-minded, and cool. Sao Paolo had the feel of no city I´ve ever been to. Some combination of the vast concrete landscape of LA with the concentration and height of new york city. Yet, it feels like neither. It just feels endless. While i was there, the city was on holiday to celebrate its birthday, an event that cities throughout brasil all celebrate.
Highlights of my time were: going to the planetarium at midnight to see the sky over Sao Paolo in a special birthday show, seeing Os Mutantes (a famous psychedelic rock band from the 70s) perform in the park, sampling the city´s famous japanese and italian cuisine (still not better than san francisco, i think), visiting the new Museum of the Portuguese Language, and going out to some very cool clubs. I also had my first brasilian kiss, so I can go home happy.
On a larger level, my time in Sao Paolo has left me with an even stronger feeling of affection for Brasil. The people I have met here have been some of the warmest, coolest, and nicest people I have encountered. It could be some kind of coincidence but I think what I have felt is part of a larger cultural phenomenon. There is an openness and simplicity in interpersonal interactions that feels incredibly refreshing.
I know this deserves a more thoughtful and detailed exposition but this will have to do for now. I am heading to Buenos Aires definitely excited to see a different city but also sad to be leaving Brasil, even for only a few days.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
At home in Rio
Today was my last day of Portuguese class and my last evening with my host family. I am feeling a bit nostalgic already. The last two weeks have been excellent, in large part because I’ve been fortunate enough to have stumbled upon a fuller existence here: an interesting and cool group of friends from my language school and an incredibly sweet host family that has made me feel very comfortable and at home (and made me homemade brasilian dinners every night). I guess I’m mourning the loss.
Here are some pics from the last couple of weeks:
Here’s a few rio friends at this really cool samba club. It’s basically a converted three-story antique shop that’s now a venue for live samba music and dancing. Elegant, chic, and fun. From left to right: Sarah, a Miami native who just recently finished grad school; Marc, from Britain, an amazing sense of humor, and with whom it’s been great to go out and try to tackle the brasilian female mystery; and Raoul, a native Mexican who’s finishing up law school (at Harvard, incidentally).
This one of my host family in sua casa. Two grandmothers, the host mother and her daughter who’s my age, very pretty and engaged to get married. The grandmother to the left gives me giant hugs multiple times a day. Awesome.
One more from Corcovado and the Christ the Redeemer Statue.
I also went to visit a favela this past week, which is a brasilian slum that is similar to most any other slum in a developing country except for the fact that favelas are located in the hills of the city, and as a result, hold the best views of the city. They were developed unofficially throughout the 1950s (as a result of a migration by northeasterners who were looking for work) and only recently became officially recognized parts of the city (finally receiving basic city services like trash collection and transportation). I'll try to write more about this because it was fascinating and one of the most interesting parts of my trip.
Here are some pics from the last couple of weeks:
Here’s a few rio friends at this really cool samba club. It’s basically a converted three-story antique shop that’s now a venue for live samba music and dancing. Elegant, chic, and fun. From left to right: Sarah, a Miami native who just recently finished grad school; Marc, from Britain, an amazing sense of humor, and with whom it’s been great to go out and try to tackle the brasilian female mystery; and Raoul, a native Mexican who’s finishing up law school (at Harvard, incidentally).
This one of my host family in sua casa. Two grandmothers, the host mother and her daughter who’s my age, very pretty and engaged to get married. The grandmother to the left gives me giant hugs multiple times a day. Awesome.
One more from Corcovado and the Christ the Redeemer Statue.
I also went to visit a favela this past week, which is a brasilian slum that is similar to most any other slum in a developing country except for the fact that favelas are located in the hills of the city, and as a result, hold the best views of the city. They were developed unofficially throughout the 1950s (as a result of a migration by northeasterners who were looking for work) and only recently became officially recognized parts of the city (finally receiving basic city services like trash collection and transportation). I'll try to write more about this because it was fascinating and one of the most interesting parts of my trip.
race, and being asian, in Rio
It’s been awhile since I last wrote. The itinerary for my trip has come into focus recently. I will be in Rio for another week. Next Wednesday I travel to Sao Paolo, the capital of Brasil and the 3rd largest city in the world, with 25 million people. I will stay there for a week before heading down to Buenos Aires. Sao Paolo is the commercial and economic center of Brasil and is where the major national and multi-national corporations are located. Within Brasil, Paulistas (as those from SP are called) are known for working hard and playing hard. Cariocas (as those in Rio are called) view Paulistas as workaholics that don’t have any fun. Paulistas view Cariocas as lazy and hedonistic.
There’s no denying that the landlocked SP lacks the natural beauty of Rio, but I am looking forward to seeing the city, not just because of its size, but also its diversity. SP has large Japanese and Eastern European populations. To my surprise, I have found Rio to be a somewhat insular and provincial city, with little ethnic diversity to speak of beyond the somewhat ubiquitous blend of African/European/Indigenous that one associates with the classically Brasilian look. As an Asian, the lack of other Asian faces and the quizzical looks and minor harassment I have encountered as a result of my Asian appearance have left me feeling distinctly out of place here, in ways that I have rarely felt in the urban centers of the US or Europe. For instance, while on the beach in Ipanema with a couple of friends from school, two kids came up to me and started making kung fu maneuvers for about a full minute. And a woman at a bar came up to me and after staring at me for a couple of seconds, raised her fingers to the outer edges of her eyes, and pulled outward to create the effect of slanted-eyes. There have been a few other similar instances and it’s all combined to give me the sense that Brasilians in Rio gain most of their understanding about Asians from television and movies, not from real life. And in the three weeks I’ve been here, I could count the number of Asians I have seen in Rio on two hands.
Brasil prides itself on being a country where race does not matter. But the truth I have found is clearly much more complicated than that. A black student at my language school was refused entry into a club until they realized she was an American. I heard the statistic that only 2% of blacks in Brasil go on to college and that more than 50% live in poverty. Such statistics, startling for any country, destroys any notion that race does constitute a large part of one’s destiny here.
I do sense that there exists less race consciousness here than in the U.S., a difference that seems to allow people across the racial spectrum to engage with one another in way that is less burdened and less cautious than back home. There is a smaller distinction between black and white as most people here are some shade of brown. An African family from Bahia in northern Brasil lives with my host family here in Copacabana and it doesn’t feel like a big deal.
After it abolished slavery in 1889 (becoming the last country in the world to do so), Brasil, unlike the U.S., did not institute a legal system of segregation. People of all colors were free to mingle, use the same restrooms, and ride the same buses. Though the legacy of segregation in the U.S. is large and varied, it seems clear to me that the system contributed to the primacy of race in the American psyche. The lack of a de jure system of segregation in Brasil could be one reason, among many, that a stronger racial consciousness failed to develop here even though racial inequity persisted.
I wonder whether Brasil’s belief in its own racial harmony is a good thing. On the one hand, racism is real here and consciousness of this racism by blacks and whites is a necessary step towards eradicating it. Yet, there is something different here that is hard to grasp but feels nice and lighter. In my own experience, race consciousness comes from something real and from an awareness of the ways, small and large, that being part of a racial minority, or at a more essential level, being different, affects one’s sense of self. At the same time, I have found that hyper race consciousness (that is, using my race to explain all the ways that my life is not the way I’d like it to be) debilitates me and further alienates me from others. I see this as the special challenge of growing up as a minority: balancing remaining sensitive to the ways in which race can affect oneself while remaining open and trusting enough to recognize that not all people see you as a color. Dignity and self-worth are precious commodities in this process, easily lost.
Being here has in many ways thrust back into my face the fact of my ethnicity and my race. I am only partly an American here. More so, I am Asian, at times Japanese and other times Chinese. It makes undeniable sense that others would see me first as some kind of Asian, but logic can be unwanted,especially when the brasilian conception of asian-ness doesn't get much deeper than what they see in american movies and on television. It speaks to the diversity and sophistication of the communities I have been a part of (at Harvard, in San Francisco) and the degree to which I have become accustomed to such diversity, that my experiences here have come as such a shock to the system. Yet, their reminder is also useful to me, I think. That perhaps my desire to be seen as an American deserves further exploration. That perhaps there is part of my ethnic inheritance that I have yet to understand and therefore, yet to accept and embrace. I don’t know the answers at this point, but the openness I feel to considering and exploring the questions seems like an opportunity.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)