As Bruce Springsteen said, “I was born in the USA.” As Lee Greenwood said, “I’m proud to be an
American.” But, in May of 2013 I moved
to Brazil because I wanted to be with the woman I loved. She would have preferred moving to the USA to
be with me, but she couldn’t abandon her elderly mother, who did not want to
move anywhere. Therefore, as Moses said,
I’m a “stranger in a strange land.”
So, here I am in the sprawling city of São Paulo, living an
adventure. I came with the attitude that
“when in Rome, do as the Romans do.” I
felt an obligation to learn Portuguese, not to expect Brazilians to speak to me
in English. That in itself takes
courage, patience, and self-confidence.
The older you are, the more difficult it is to learn a second language. But, for children, it’s easy. Studying Portuguese has paid off. Brazilians appreciate my trying to learn and
use their language.
Brazilians love Americans, especially the ones that meet
them half-way, as I do. They also love
American culture. They love American TV
programs, movies, music, books, sports, etc.
They love our language and slang.
If you observe the clothing Brazilians wear on the street, you would
notice an abundance of references to our country such as NY, LA, USA, Harvard,
Chicago Bulls, New England Patriots, and the American flag. You also see a lot of English words and
expressions, such “better luck next time” and “if you’re not fit, you feel like
shit.” Most Brazilians don’t know what
these words mean, but it’s considered chic to wear clothing with English words,
no matter what. I remember the little
girl whose mother had her wear a top with the words, “I’m a little bitch.” Brazilians also love visiting the USA,
especially Orlando, Florida because of the weather, Disney, and numerous outlet
stores. As a group, Brazilian tourists
spend more money in the USA per capita than any other country.
One of the most popular American singers in Brazil is the
legendary Frank Sinatra. I remember at a
wedding I attended, one of the first songs played was his version of New York, New York. I was teaching at a English immersion program
at a hotel in the interior of the State of São Paulo when one of my students
volunteered to sing his My Way during
a karaokê session. He did a great job,
but had a question for me afterwards.
“What is this regrets?” Another time, I was waiting for a bus in the
center of São Paulo when an old man was regaling the people at the bus stop
with several Sinatra tunes. He knew no
English, but had learned to sing the words phonetically. He showed me a paper with the words written
on it. I noticed a error and corrected
it for him.
However, what Brazilians don’t like is an American foreign
policy that either ignores Brazil (When was the last time a presidential
candidate discussed relations with Brazil?) or treats it arrogantly. In 1964, the Brazilian military overthrew the
democratically-elected president.
Why? They thought he was too
leftist, perhaps a Castro-like communist.
And who encouraged and assisted this overthrow and was ready to send in
the Marines if necessary? The United
States of America. Both Presidents Kennedy
and Johnson believed in regime change to prevent the spread of Communism
throughout the Western Hemisphere.
Thankfully, the military dictatorship went away peacefully in 1985. Still, when President George W. Bush came to
Brazil about ten years ago, there were signs comparing him to Hitler on the
streets of São Paulo.
I love Brazilian food.
First of all, almost all lunches and dinners include rice and
beans. Their beef (especially picanha), chicken,
and fish are excellent. However, turkey,
especially fresh turkey, can’t be found.
An exception is sliced turkey. At
Christmas, you can buy frozen turkey.
For breakfast, papaya is very popular and very cheap. Brazilians love both sweet (doces) and salty
(salgados) things and plenty of both can be found. One thing I especially like is passion fruit
mousse. Gostoso! Many stores sell a variety of chocolate
truffles. I recently discovered a
domestically produced peanut butter, called peanut cream (no salt, no
sugar). Unfortunately, few Brazilians
have discovered it because they don’t have the habit of eating peanut butter. Steak houses and Italian restaurants are very
good and plentiful. Pizza (more cheese,
less tomato sauce in Brazil) is something you eat only at dinner with a knife
and fork and is not commonly sold by the slice.
Forget about Chinese food. Also,
waiters are professionals, not part-timers looking for a better job.
For an American living in Brazil, you have to get used to a
few things. First, the sidewalks
suck. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s because of bad materials. They are constantly in disrepair and they are
uneven. Watch your step! Second, there is security. Statistically, Brazil has a bigger crime
problem than the USA. Therefore, your
apartment building will have fences around it with a security barrier and a
guard. The banks have heavily armed men
guarding it. Third, Brazil is heavily
bureaucratic. It took me many months to
get married in Brazil because I had to get a number of documents (birth
certificate, divorce decree, etc.) certified at the Brazilian Consulate in New
York and then translated into Portuguese.
Then it took another seventeen months to get my “Permanencia,” the
equivalent of a Green Card in the USA.
An American friend married a Brazilian woman in Florida. It took them a few days to get married and
three months to get a Green Card.
Brazil likes to keep unemployment low. So, there is no self-service at a Brazilian
gas station. An attendant will pump your
gas for you. And you do get good service
when you pull in, just like the old days in the USA. On buses, there’s a separate person, besides
the driver, who collects the fare. Only,
almost everybody uses an electronic card that can be filled and refilled to pay
for the bus ride. Still, that guy is
there on the bus with very little to do.
At least he has a job. On the
other hand, as a senior person (idoso), I don’t have to pay anything to ride
the bus in Brazil. Not a discount! It’s free for me.
Brazilians, similar to Americans, love sports. Americans love baseball, football (both
professional and college), basketball (both professional and college), and to
lesser extents ice hockey, soccer, tennis, golf, auto racing, horse racing,
boxing, etc. Brazilians love football
(what we call soccer), football, and more football. It has a season virtually without end. Ninety percent of the sports section of the
newspaper is about football, year round.
On the other hand, there is a growing interest in Brazil in American
sports, especially the NBA and the NFL, which you can watch on cable TV.
About 90% of the films shown in Brazil are foreign. A good deal of those are American movies
which are very popular. The Oscar
ceremony is shown live on TV in Brazil.
However, foreign movies come in two forms: dubbed and with
sub-titles. Can you image John Wayne or Woody
Allen speaking Portuguese? I never watch
dubbed movies. When I watch for example,
an Argentinian film with sub-titles, I am challenged for two hours to watch the
action and to simultaneously read and understand the Portuguese.
There is a television format, very popular in Brazil, that
does not exist in the USA, the telenovela.
These are stories that are shown on a daily basis, except Sundays, for
at least an hour each day. The main
channel, TV Globo, has three: at 6 PM, 7 PM, and 9 PM. They have a beginning, a middle, and an
end. And they last for about six to nine
months. In other words, they don’t go on
forever, like our soap operas. The
actors are good and the stories are interesting, some of the time. They are usually about rich, powerful
families in Rio de Janeiro. By watching,
you can get a sense about Brazilian culture, including that a bit more sex and
nudity is permitted on free TV than in the US.
However, strange things can happen on telenovelas. For example, in the current 9 PM novela, the
protaganist, the owner of a high-end diamond company, is in trouble with the
police. So, he dies. Only he’s not really dead. He drinks a potion that gives him the
appearance of death for several days until he is rescued from his burial
tomb. But it’s a telenovela.
If you watch news on television, it will be different than
what we are used to in the USA. In our
country, we are concerned with terrorism, racism, and the ever-present rift
between our two parties, especially in regard to President Obama. In Brazil, the big issue is corruption. It exists in the government, in the private
sector, and in both combined. It is
pervasive in Brazilian society, almost a way of life. About ten years ago, the main party in a
multi-party system was guilty of making monthly payoffs to legislators,
basically buying their votes. Now, it is
officials from the government owned petroleum company who were stealing
millions of dollars from the company.
Up until now, Brazil has avoided terrorism because, I
believe, it tries to be friends with everybody and doesn’t meddle in anybody
else’s affairs. It doesn’t threaten
anyone. It doesn’t piss anybody
off. It doesn’t get involved with
foreign wars and doesn’t have soldiers overseas except as representatives of
the UN (Haiti). I think that when terrorists
look at the “West,” they don’t see Brazil.
Racism exists in Brazil, but differently than the US. In the US, you are either black or white. To be white, you must be 100% white. In Brazil, they have different skin shades,
such as mulatto or pardo. Black means
really black. Obama would be
mulatto. Derek Jeter would not be
considered a black person. He would be
considerd a white person because color, in Brazil, is based upon skin color,
not genetic background. Blacks and whites
are not ghettoized into black and white neighborhoods. Neighborhoods are based on economics, not
race. In the Congress, you don’t see black
faces because of the way they elect their officials, even though non-whites
make up at least 50% of the population.
Also, there are more Japanese in Brazil than anywhere else in the world
outside of Japan. However, it is very
common for non-Japanese Brazilians to make fun of the “slanted eyes” of the
Japanese-Brazilians.
Most Brazilian middle class and upper class families have
maids or nannies. Why? Because they are cheap compared to the
USA. I believe that 90% of the families
in my building have one. However, as the
Brazilian economy has improved in the last ten to twelve years, it has become
more difficult for these families to find and keep their maids. These women now have more and better options.
Most Brazilian middle class and upper class families send
their children to private schools which provide a good education. Thus, the public schools are filled with the
children from poor families. The quality
of public education is very suspect. The
future of Brazil depends on improving the quality of public education so these
children can have a better future and Brazil will have the manpower to compete
with the rest of the World.
My children got jobs as teenagers at such places as Cindy’s
Cinnamon Buns and Burger King. It was a
good experience for them to learn the work ethic from the bottom up in exchange
for their own hard-earned money. Most middle
class and upper class families in Brazil don’t encourage their children to do
this. When you enter a McDonalds in
Brazil, you know the employees are from poor or lower middle-class families.
When I was eighteen, my parents encouraged me to leave home
and attend college in some far off city.
This is a traditional right of passage in the USA which leads toward greater
independence and self-suffiency. In
turn, I encouraged my children to do the same, to leave home at seventeen or eighteen
and attend college in some far off city.
Brazilian families do not do this.
They encourage their children to continue their education locally so
they can continue living at home. In
most cases, children remain at home until they marry and in some cases bring
their spouses home, too. Most Brazilian
families want to keep their adult children close, very close: more dependent,
less independent.
Americans are more formal than Brazilians. We Americans prefer to shake hands and give
each other space. Brazilians like to
kiss twice, once on each cheek (women) and hug, at least with one arm
(men). Americans like to “get down to
business.” After all, “time is
money.” Brazilians prefer to get to know
you better, on a personal level, before discussing business.
As far as clothing is concerned, Brazilian women dress more provocatively
than American woman. On the beach, they
commonly wear bikini thongs so more skin is showing. Men wear Speedos as opposed to bermudas, but
I think that is slowly changing because of the American influence.
One thing even the ignorant know about Brazil is
Carnaval. It’s an annual six-day celebration
that ends forty days before Easter. In
other words, celebrate now, then give it up for Lent. The most notable event is the parade of samba
schools, especially in Rio de Janeiro.
Samba is a dance native to Brazil and beautiful to watch. Clubs or samba schools prepare almost a year
in advance for the parade with floats, music, lyrics, choreography, and
costumes, all based on a central theme that holds everything together. Many Americans especially notice the almost
naked woman at the head of some of the samba schools. The most surprising thing to me is that this
parade of samba schools is a contest that is taken very seriously by its
participants.
One final note, to Brazilians, the name of my country is the
United States or Estados Unidos, not America.
Never America, as we Americans like to refer to it. To Brazilians, the word, America, refers to
the entire Western Hemisphere. They call
us Americans, or North Americans, but the name of our country is always Estados
Unidos.
Any questions?
