Minister Dilma Rousseff, Lula’s chosen candidate for the next presidential elections, speaks to both Época and Veja magazines this week. It is her first series of interviews since she was officially declared candidate by Lula’s party, Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT). She talks about her cancer and recent plastic surgeries, proposes an even bigger presence of the state in the economy and challenges those who accuse her of being Lula’s puppet (namely her many opponent in the dispute, São Paulo governor José Serra) to proof they have more experience in governing than herself.
Isto É talks about the healing powers of meditation.
The biological clock is ticking and Prince Charming is a no-show? You spent Valentine’s day with your Mom? No problem! Try one of these classic Brazilian spells (we call them simpatias) and then go shop for your wedding gown.
Buy a small statue of Saint Anthony, the patron saint of single women. Remove Baby Jesus from his arms and tell the saint you won’t return the baby unless you get a boyfriend. You can reinforce your position, keeping Anthony upside down, so he will understand you are not kidding.
If you consider yourself very ugly, choose a leaf of espada de São Jorge (a sword-like plant commonly used in Afro-Brazilian cults). Cut it into three pieces and throw them in boiling water for three hours. After the water cools down, wash your face with it, praying to Saint George and asking him to convert the “dragon” into a beauty.
Buy a new sharp knife and stick it into a banana tree on June 12th at midnight (Saint Anthony’s day is on the 13th). The liquid that will drip from the plant’s wound will form the first letter of the name of your future husband. The mother of a friend did this. She was very upset that K appeared – it is rarely used in Brazilian names. Years later she married a visiting German, Kurt.
Igreja de São Francisco, Mariana, in Minas Gerais state
When you think of Baroque, you probably remember the curvy, exaggerated, passionate form of art that blossomed in Europe since the 17th century. You may think of Caravaggio and Bernini in Italy, or the rococo in France, or Bach and Handel in Germany. Less known but equally important was the Brazilian Baroque, that dominated the art scene in the country between the end of the 17th and the 19th centuries.
Although both literature and music incorporated baroque elements, it is in architecture that Baroque really excelled.
Most baroque churches have sober exteriors that contrast with very ornate interior decoration, including chubby angels, birds, vines and a profusion of color. Cities that were rich at the time, thanks to diamonds, gold or sugar trade, such as Salvador, in Bahia, or Ouro Preto, in Minas Gerais, could afford to use gold leaves and noble materials and to hire the best artists of the time. Among them, Antônio Francisco Lisboa, known as Aleijadinho (The Crippled, a nickname given in less politically correct times), and Manoel da Costa Athaide (or Mestre Athaide). Keep reading
This series of images of film director Orson Welles partying (and working) in Rio, in 1942, were published by Life magazine and brought back to life by Portal Luis Nassif.
A little aftertaste of Carnival: the Havaiana flipflops add currently on TV shows a lady criticizing a bunch of guys (including actor Marcos Palmeira) who are celebrating while the world is in crisis. Palmeira sighs and says tristeza (sadness), which reminds the group of a classical samba, by Haroldo Lobo and Nilton de Souza.
Don Quixote, the theme of União da Ilha do Governador
Porta-bandeira of São Clemente
The photos I chose were produced by Riotur, the tourism agency of the city of Rio.
Today, a little over three months after launching Deep Brazil, I had a visitor from Puerto Rico – the hundredth country to pay a visit. Thanks, whoever you are! And thanks to all of you, silent or noisy guests. I hope to keep helping and entertaining all of you in the future.
Few export products are as successful as capoeira, the Afro-Brazilian martial art that mixes dance and music in exquisite way. You can certainly find a good capoeira school near you, no matter if you are in Lithuania or China.
If you still didn’t fall for it, you will, after watching this beautiful video, made by D’un Autre Monde, a French group that produces coreographies inspired by capoeira.
Check also this post, about “Besouro”, a film about a famous capoeirista who defied gravity and the Devil. Choreographed by Huen Chiu Ku, that worked in “The Matrix” and “The Tiger and the Dragon”, it has been recently released in Brazil and is beginning its international career.
This week, Época discusses the prison of governor José Roberto Arruda (from Distrito Federal, that includes Brazil’s capital Brasília), on charges of corruption. Veja offers a typical Summer cover story – how to avoid the “accordion effect” and keep thin -, while Isto É praises ambition.
According to the United Nations, animal traffic is the third main illicit activity practiced in the planet, after drugs and weapons traffic. It is a 20-billion-dollar a year business and one tenth of it is in Brazil. Practically all the wild animals trade in the country is illegal and approximately 30% of it is for export.
Birds of exuberant feathers, monkeys and turtles are among the main victims of this commerce. Generally, they are captured in the Northeast of Brazil and brought to the Southeast – mainly to the states of Rio and São Paulo. Then, they are smuggled to neighboring countries by road or waterways. Finally, they are flown to their final consumers in the developed countries. Frequently, they are hidden in boxes without ventilation and food. In many cases, the tips of their wings are cut or their eyes are blinded, in order to avoid escapes. Thanks to these exhausting trips, around 90% of these animals die before reaching their destination. It is still very profitable: a blue macaw can be sold for 60,000 dollars in the international market.
In Brazil, a convicted animal smuggler may spend from six months to one year in jail and pay a fine up to 5,500 reais (around 2,900 dollars).
*Sylvia Estrella is a Brazilian journalist and translator specialized in the Environment and also Aviation.
The first shows an ice-cream salesman in Praia do Futuro, a beach of Fortaleza, one of the main cities of the Northeast region (seen before on Eyes on Brazil).
The second is a poem recited by a gaúcho (from the Southern state of Rio Grande do Sul) in full regional attire.
The third is a scene of a classic Brazilian movie – “Tristeza do Jeca“. Jeca, the character interpreted by Amácio Mazzaropi in several movies between the fifties and the eighties, is a caricature of the caipira, the illiterate guy from the countryside of São Paulo. In this scene, Jeca is visited by the sons of the landowner, and we can see the contrast between two worlds and two expressions of the Portuguese language.
Brazil, like any country of large territory, has a huge range of accents. The way we articulate the vowels or the intonation can vary dramatically. In São Paulo, where I come from, we tend to have an Italianate accent, thanks to the huge immigration of Italians in the late 19th and early 20th century. Rio, on the other hand, was the capital of the Portuguese court and kept some characteristics of the language as spoken in Europe.
Also, vocabulary, slang and idioms vary between states, social and age groups or educational level.For example: the fruit known in English as sugar-apple (Annona squamosa, in case you are wondering what’s the scientific name) is called fruta do conde in Rio, São Paulo and the Southern states, ata or pinha in different parts of the Northeast, and araticum in the extreme South state of Rio Grande do Sul.
Now, tell me the truth: could you catch anything said in these videos?
