No artist portrayed the beauty of the Brazilian rain forest flowers better than Margaret Mee. This British Botanical painter, one of the finest of the last century, helped publicizing abroad the importance of the country’s biodiversity.
She moved to Brazil in the mid-50s (when she was already 47), where she remained till the end of her life, in 1988. In her 15 expeditions to the Amazon region, plus several to the cerrado (the country’s savanna) and the Atlantic rain forest, Mee produced a detailed images of the country’s flora, namely orchids, bromeliads and cacti.
Lack of comfort, tropical diseases or safety never deterred her – she would walk into rivers, climb trees full of ants and stand under huge tropical storms if that was needed to get the best angle. And to guarantee her safety – she was menaced by gold prospectors once -, she always carried a gun. Frequently, she would navigate the Amazon tributaries in a canoe and enter the jungle by herself. Many of her watercolors reproduce plants that were not yet described by Science and were later named after her.
Downtown Veranópolis, in the Southern Rio Grande do Sul state
People don’t live in countries or states – they live in cities. Ultimately, it’s the local government, infrastructure and cultural services that define one’s quality of life. And quality of life in Brazilian cities is changing quickly, according to a study just released by IBGE (the main national statistics bureau). For the first time in ten years, IBGE raised information from 5,565 local governments to draw the profile the country’s municipalities.
Overall, they seem to be offering more sports and cultural opportunities, but they still have to improve their policies concerning the environment, minorities and human rights.
The report’s main conclusions:
Bookstores can be found in only 28% of Brazilian cities (it was 35.5% in 1999). Apparently, book sales remain similar, because readers prefer to acquire them through the internet or in supermarkets. Also, the number of video rental stores is getting smaller, after many years of growth. Today, they can be found in almost 70% of Brazilian cities, but they are losing their costumers to cable TV and the internet.
The blogosphere is full of really cool stuff about Brazil – if you know where to look for.
This is the first edition of the Brazilian Blog Carnival – the first of many, I hope. It will be a monthly event, always on the second Friday of each month. Please, keep sending your suggestions.
Check these:
Masters of the World, by Michael Silvers, an ethnomusicologist and Fulbright Fellow that is traveling the country to study the relationship between the culture of forró, a popular dance music, and the climate of northeastern Brazil. This post is about “an event where “masters of culture” from small towns are invited by the Ceará state government and other organizations to share their work”.
Cashew is not nuts, a post that reminds us of the juicy fruit hanging under those nuts, is part of the Good Blood blog Friday Fruit series. Check also for Ten Top Brazilian Films of the Decade, a great guide for all movie buffs out there.
Sunday is Street Art Day (or What is it like to be a graffiti artist in Bahia?) – an American living in Salvador offers a colorful answer, while describing one episode of his daily life.
Carnival in Paraty (1,2 and 3) is a series of posts that show how this historical city celebrates the festivities (including the famous mud bath), through the eyes of a Canadian visitor.
Straight from the Heart – Victim of theft in a bus, Carmen sums up the paradoxes of São Paulo.
Tips for teaching English in Brazil (1 and 2) – great insights from an American teacher living in a small city in the state of São Paulo.
Learn about Brazil – A very sweet collage of videos of Brazilian students answering questions about the country (language, weather, food, subjects studied at school)
Olga Benário Prestes – Forgotten Women blog portraits the life of the biggest muse and martyr of Brazilian communism.
Once upon a time, God was showing an angel around the brand new Earth. “This is Indonesia – they will have tsunamis and volcanoes. And this is the US – they will have hurricanes and earthquakes”, he says. The angel points to Brazil: “what about this country?”. God answers that Brazil will have the best weather of the planet, no volcanoes or earthquakes, a real paradise. The angel scratches his halo and asks: “How come everything is so great there?”, to what God answers: “Just wait to see the people I will put there!”
This joke, told whenever a Brazilian is in a self-deprecating mood, reinforces a stereotype that is only partially true. Check the image I chose to open this post. This is Trindade island, a stone wall of volcanic origin off the coast of Espírito Santo state. It’s cliffs are so steep that only crabs and spiders are able to survive there. Many ships that tried to go there sank and the only safe way to reach it is by helicopter. Trindade is the living proof that even if Brazil is safer than the average, it is not 100% immune to natural catastrophes. Keep reading
What makes caipirinha, Brazilian’s national drink, unique? A mix of lime, sugar, cachaça and ice – you will answer. Not so fast, my friend.
The same way you cannot make a bacteria by putting together a bunch of proteins and carbs, you won’t be able to produce caipirinha by simply mixing its ingredients.
But first, a little History. Nobody knows, for sure, who conceived the first caipirinha. Some believe it was invented by slaves, who might have mixed garapa (sugar cane juice), lime and cachaça (which, you know, is distilled from sugar cane). Others believe it was originally meant for medicinal purposes – honey, garlic and lime were mixed to cachaça to cure colds, a prescription popular to these days. But my favorite version is told by Ernesto Britto, from Caipirinha Club. “In old times, people used to put cloths damped in alcohol on the forehead to reduce the fever and suck limes to improve the immunity. According to the legend, a feverish guy was sucking a lime and the alcohol dripped from his forehead to his mouth. Because it was bitter, he ate a spoon of sugar and, this way, came up with the idea for the drink”, he tells.
Also, nobody knows for sure why it was named that way – caipira is the native of rural parts of the state of São Paulo. Caipirinha might be his young daughter (the suffix inha indicates somebody young or small). Go figure.
All I know is it evolved to its present composition, which was made official by a 2003 federal decree (so the country can keep the intellectual property and the trade mark).
So, back to the secrets. Here are 10 tips to make your caipirinha experience unforgettable. They were collected from interviews with barmen from all over the country:
