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Conclusion: Spaces of Betweenness
- Vanderbilt University Press
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189 Conclusion Spaces of Betweenness Like many of the women in my research project, I live in the suspended space between the United States and Brazil. And, as for many of these women, to me, one place becomes the specter of the other, its shadow, and its distorted mirror image. I write these concluding thoughts in Brazil. The decision to do so was as much deliberate as it was a consequence of my semi-nomadic, transnational position. After living in New York for nearly twelve years, and following my own desires, projections, and trajectory of life, I decided to return to Brazil. It is not yet a definitive return. This I insist on postponing, trying to create minimum conditions to maintain my now ontological condition of transnation ality. O Brasil me espanta. How to translate “espanta”? An awkward adjective for an astonishment that one usually has for the unknown. When one says, “Você, às vezes, me espanta”—You, at times, astonish me—one wants to convey surprise at an unexpected aspect of that person. This is not quite what happens to me, to us who no longer belong in just one place permanently . We know, by experience or from the news, about most aspects of Brazilian society and its structure of inequality. Yes, Brazil now occupies a different location in the world’s geo political cartography. Worldwide, in the Lula years (2003–2010), Brazil was celebrated as a rising star in diplomatic encounters, and Lula’s voice could be heard on issues from Iran to Venezuela, as the middle man between corporate and U.S. and European-centered interests and the interests of the world’s underdog and emerging nations in the international arena. Lula finished his eight years, two consecutive turns as the president of the country, with a nearly 80 percent approval rating. With the expansion of the economy and the implementation of welfare programs, there was a progression of the lower class out of poverty and a growth of 190 Transnational Desires what has been called the new middle class.1 However, quality of life did not improve much and in some cases worsened. Environmental depletion is notable not only in rain forest areas, but also in cities. Urban greenery and forests have been destroyed as Brazilian cities experience a construction boom of apartment buildings or the more precarious urban occupation in favelas, or shantytowns. As consumer power rises, the number of cars rapidly increases without necessary improvements in the road and transportation systems. In Salvador, a small subway system has been under construction for nearly fifteen years, stalled by accusations of corruption at various levels of government. Urban expansion occurs without the necessary parallel growth of the sewage system. Inequality, although somewhat better, is still a hallmark of Brazilian society. The chaos, the open sewers, the fear of violence, and the street kids knocking on car windows saying how hungry they are: these kids are all black or almost black. Inside the cars we are almost all white, or almost white, since we have more money and status. Off-white, if we take into account global and postcolonial racial configurations. We know of this reality; we are part of it too. It is different from just visiting a foreign country. In a foreign country one might understand, lament , or celebrate a certain reality. To us who are from Brazil but no longer of Brazil, this foreignness is in us, in our psyche and in our material life. We are integral parts of this reality, and we need not only a discourse about it but also a daily practice of survival and coping, and for better or for worse, a means of intervening in it too. The middle class in Brazil is different from the much larger middle classes in the wealthier countries of what has been defined as the Western part of the Northern Hemisphere. Despite the improvement in Brazilian economic conditions over the past few years, and the growth of the middle class, we continue to constitute a somewhat small elite. The majority of the population is below the poverty level. Salvador, the capital of the state of Bahia, is a city of nearly three million inhabitants, and double that if one counts the greater metropolitan area (Carvalho and Pereira 2006). The third city in the country in terms of population size, Salvador is also one of the most unequal. One can see favelas from nearly any point in the city. As in Rio de...