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3 1 The Boys (and Girls) from Bra­ zil Bra­ zil is a coun­ try of ­ out-turned eyes, our gaze is al­ ways aimed ­ abroad. We lack any sense of ­ self-recognition of our le­ git­ i­ mate val­ ues and ­ that’s why we don’t have our own iden­ tity or ma­ tur­ ity. We’re like an ad­ o­ les­ cent who ­ doesn’t yet know who he is and is al­ ways look­ ing for role mod­ els out­ side his home while all he had to do was look to his own ­ parents’ gen­ er­ a­ tion. Sil­ vi­ ano San­ tiago (1994, 90) It is Sun­ day, Sep­ tem­ ber 6, 2009, and the ­ twenty-fifth an­ nual Bra­ zil Day Street Fair com­ memorat­ ing Bra­ zil­ ian In­ de­ pen­ dence Day on Sep­ tem­ ber 7 is in full swing on Lit­ tle Bra­ zil ­ Street and on ad­ ja­ cent thorough­ fares in the heart of Mid­ town Man­ hat­ tan. Bra­ zil­ ian flags are ­ strung ­ across West­ Forty-Sixth ­ Street, and large “Visit Bra­ zil” signs loom over­ head; Bra­ zil­ ian music booms from var­ i­ ous lo­ ca­ tions, and a ­ large-screen TV on Sixth Av­ e­ nue shows the fea­ tured en­ ter­ tainer to the ­ lively danc­ ing ­ throngs. Mean­ while, hun­ dreds of ven­ dors hawk their wares from ­ street-side ­ booths. The pot­ pourri of items ­ ranges from pão de quejo (cheese bread), pas­ teis (sa­ vory­ stuffed pas­ tries), ­ guaraná (a soft drink), ­ feijão tro­ peiro (black beans mixed with man­ ioc flour), and other Bra­ zil­ ian spe­ cial­ ties to such mun­ dane­ street-fair items as cos­ tume jew­ elry, socks, and ­ onion-sausage hoa­ gies. Inter­ spersed are ven­ dors fea­ tur­ ing green and yel­ low soc­ cer ­ T-shirts (Brazil’s na­ tional col­ ors), hats, ­ purses, jew­ elry, and key ­ chains ­ adorned with Bra­ zil­ ian flags and min­ us­ cule bi­ ki­ nis—con­ sum­ mate Bra­ zil­ ian beach­ wear. Mean­ while, thou­ sands upon thou­ sands of ex­ u­ ber­ ant ­ green-andyellow -clad Bra­ zil­ ians min­ gle among local ­ American afi­ ci­ o­ na­ dos of Bra­ zil and dazed tour­ ists—both ­ foreign and do­ mes­ tic—won­ der­ ing just what they have wan­ dered into. The fes­ ti­ val is an ­ eye-catching ­ glimpse of one of the re­ cent and ­ mostly hid­ den waves of im­ mi­ grants to the ­ United ­ States. Tens of thou­ sands of Bra­ zil­ ians from all over the north­ east­ ern ­ United ­ States The Boys (and Girls) from Brazil 4 flock to the an­ nual event—the larg­ est cel­ e­ bra­ tion of Bra­ zil­ ian eth­ nic­ ity out­ side Bra­ zil. By 2009, an es­ ti­ mated one mil­ lion peo­ ple par­ tic­ i­ pated in Bra­ zil Day, and Rede Globo, ­ Brazil’s larg­ est tele­ vi­ sion net­ work, ­ beamed the ex­ trav­ a­ ganza back to Bra­ zil (Sá 2009). This is not the only such gath­ er­ ing. There are car­ ni­ val pa­ rades in San Fran­ cisco, New Or­ leans, and Lon­ don; Bra­ zil­ ian In­ de­ pen­ dence Day cel­ e­ bra­ tions in Bos­ ton, To­ ronto, Lon­ don and Tokyo; and wild spon­ ta­ ne­ ous rev­ elry in sev­ eral cit­ ies in the ­ United­ States, Eu­ rope, and Japan when Bra­ zil wins a World Cup soc­ cer match. All are in­ dic­ a­ tive of the same phe­ nom­ e­ non—Bra­ zil­ ians leav­ ing Bra­ zil to seek their for­ tunes ­ abroad. His­ tor­ i­ cally, Bra­ zil has been a coun­ try of im­ mi­ gra­ tion, not em­ i­ gra­ tion— far more peo­ ple ar­ rived in Bra­ zil than left to move else­ where. In the late nine­ teenth and early twen­ ti­ eth cen­ tu­ ries, only the ­ United ­ States and Ar­ gen­ tina re­ ceived ­ greater num­ bers of mi­ grants from Eu­ rope. To be sure, after the mil­ i­ tary coup in Bra­ zil in 1964 and the stran­ gle­ hold that the mil­ i­ tary ­ placed on free ­ speech and free ex­ pres­ sion, hun­ dreds of ac­ a­ dem­ ics, musi­ cians, art­ ists, and pol­ i­ ti­ cians fled the coun­ try for the ­ United...

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