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1. The Boys (and Girls) from Brazil
- University of Wisconsin Press
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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...