Special Edition : Brazil

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Tecnobrega: A New Model for the Music Industry Affirmative Action in Brazil Imagining Latin America

Journal of Global Affairs

GALLATIN SCHOOL OF INDIVIDUALIZED STUDY │ SPECIAL EDITION │ 2011

Journal of Global Affairs GALLATIN SCHOOL OF INDIVIDUALIZED STUDY │ SPECIAL EDITION │ 2011

Editorial Board Jenna King Brill Maggie Carter Laura Esposito Amanda Holpuch Sarah Zapiler

Creative Director Sarah Zapiler

Special Thanks Dean Susanne Wofford and the Office of the Dean; Associate Dean Linda Wheeler Reiss; Rachel Plutzer; Patrick Wiseman; Dr. Alejandro Velasco; Dr. Vasuki Nesiah; Conference Coordinators Rick Stern, Thomaz Marcondes and the Gallatin Student Council; Dr. Alexandre Fortes; Dr. John French; Samantha Shapses; Kate Napolitano; Raphael Mishler; the Centers for Latin American and Carribean Studies (CLACS) at NYU and Duke University

Letter from the Editors In December 2010, the Gallatin Student Council organized “Brazil in a Global Context: Culture, Foreign Policy and Development,” a conference that brought together prominent Brazilianists in an effort to demystify public perceptions and deepen understandings of a country rapidly rising to global prominence, yet still largely defined by soccer, the Amazon and Carnival. Through lectures, film screenings, panel discussions and audience question and answer sessions, the conference engaged in a critical conversation of Brazilian culture, politics and economy. The conference introduced a level of inquiry rarely brought to the subject of Brazil and affirmed the country’s importance as a serious topic of study. Because the influence of the conference could only extend so far, the Gallatin Journal of Global Affairs decided to join the conversation and provide the opportunity for others to do so as well.

This publication embraces the vision of the conference by presenting multiple and dynamic perspectives of Brazil and raising awareness of a country that is widely considered to be an emerging economic superpower. True to the philosophy of the Journal, the works included are diverse both in style and content. The authors and artists perceptively convey their ideas and observations through many mediums, reflecting a fluidity of expression emblematic of Brazil.

This journal is a fitting addendum to the entirely student-organized conference, which set a precedent for translating ideas developed in students’ studies into inspired projects, invented courses and large-scale events. In this same vein, it is the mission of the Journal of Global Affairs to move conversations from the classroom into the larger community.

The published works include scholarly analyses of current political climates, an examination of shifting frontiers in Brazil’s music industry, and creative explorations of memory and experience. Most importantly, the following pieces highlight the global extent of local issues, as the ripples of Brazil’s successes and failures reach foreign shores. They remind us to look closer at a country that was once in the periphery of our imagination and is now demanding inclusion in the conversation.

This special edition of the Journal of Global Affairs affirms our commitment to provide the Gallatin, New York University and greater academic communities with new perspectives on international topics. We sincerely hope that this collection of work inspires deeper thought about Brazil and that our upcoming annual publication will provoke further discussion and awareness of broader global issues.

Sincerely,

Prayer room in CandomblĂŠ terreiro, Salvador

AMANDA KNUDSEN

Comparative Perspectives on Politics

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J贸ia de Guanabara

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An Interview with Dr. John French and Dr. Alexandre Fortes

Danny Herman

Favela Santa Marta

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Affirmative Action in Brazil

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A noite

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Tecnobrega: A New Model for the Music Industry

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Wasteland

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Here + Dip

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The Definition of Revolution in Contemporary Latin America

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Imagining Latin America

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Shimrit Lee

Thomaz Marcondes

Jordan Lee Schnee

Samantha Gongol

Shimrit Lee

Luke StormoGipson

Rick Stern

Emma Young

Notes ACADEMIC

CREATIVE

Bios

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Comparative Perspectives on Politics:

An Interview with Dr. Alexandre Fortes and Dr. John French

Gallatin was thrilled to host two leading Brazilianists, Dr. Alexandre Fortes and Dr. John French, at its December conference ‘Brazil in a Global Context.’ Fortes is Professor of History and Economics, as well as Chair of the Graduate Program in the History Department, at the Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro. He has authored and co-authored several books, including Muitos Caminhos, Uma Estrela: Memories of PT Militants and Historias e Perspectivas da Esquerda.

French is Professor of History and the former Director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) at Duke University. French has authored several books and also serves as Associate Editor for the journal Labor: Studies in Working Class History of the Americas.

Fortes and French are currently working on an article which will serve as a follow-up to previous research addressing the 2002 election of Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Now, they have generously shared their thoughts on Brazil’s most recent elections in which Lula’s successor, Dilma Rousseff, became the first woman president of Brazil and on the legacy of Lula’s presidency.

Conducted, compiled and edited by Amanda Holpuch and Laura Esposito

If you were talking to someone who knew very little about Brazil, what are some of the central issues you would encourage them to become aware of ?

John French: Since this is an American audience, [Brazil] has the distinction, and it’s not the distinction people usually mention – which is that it’s one of the world’s most unequal countries, that it’s won more World Cup victories that any other – but rather it is the largest, least-known country in the world. That is very very true in the United States: Portuguese is a language that has very little prominence in the U.S. context, and Brazil has very little visibility in the United States compared to other parts of Latin America. So the point that is

interesting about Brazil is that some of the most exciting political things that have happened in the world have happened in Brazil in the last thirty years, but most Americans are completely ignorant of this. And there is a reason why we would gain a lot if we paid more attention to the story of what is happening in Brazil, and it would also encourage us to understand better the challenges we face.

Young people being very disappointed has to do with the need to develop some larger and more mature understanding of politics and about the ways in which you move forward, step-by-step, not like night and day. So I think there are a lot of things that would be encouraging to young people, especially to rethink how they think about politics.

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Alexandre Fortes: Brazil is becoming more important in its role in the financial economy. In eight years it became the tenth largest economy and it’s positioned to become the fifth largest economy in the world in some years. For the first time it’s experiencing its economy growing with income distribution and political stability and democracy, so it’s a very important case study for the prospects of the world.

You mentioned that there are certain things Brazil does regarding its policies, government and economics that would benefit the world. Can you provide some specific examples of models that would be useful for the U.S. and other economies to adapt and implement?

AF: The main lesson to be extracted from the last years is that creating a type of consensus around the importance of social issues, such as income distribution, is very important. First [it can] strengthen democratic values, and it also can be very healthy for the economy. So that’s why if you take a look at the great economies of the world, Brazil was one of the ones least affected by the international crisis, basically because of the way it was exploring the potentials of the domestic market. Also in different ways: increasing minimum wage and providing better wages. I think that’s something that can be aspirant.

JF: The fact is that the political scene in the United States has been so depressing for so long that everybody has developed very defensive attitudes. I don’t think we have handled the Obama presidency very well. People in the United States still want to see Obama as Clinton and being neo-liberal, [b]ut the fact is we are in a post-neo-liberal world and we don’t know where we’re going, but we do know the past doesn’t work. In fact, by almost any measurement, most of what Obama has done has not been neo-liberal: the expansion of government programs, the expansion of the healthcare program, the enhanced use of government regulation of the economy, the expansion of student loans, the cutting out of some of the profiteering that has been done by the banking systems and the private sector, like

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online universities exploiting poorer students.

The question about politics is how do we present things to people. We need an optimistic attitude; we need an attitude that emphasizes what’s been gained, not solely how it’s so much less than what we want. That’s a larger lesson about how to do politics, and that’s a lesson the Left in Brazil has to teach people. [Democrats] would have done much better in this election (2010) if everybody [who] had gone out in 2008 – especially young people – had not been sitting on their butts, saying ‘well why hasn’t the world changed?’ As Lula said when he was elected in 2002, a president cannot change a country if you hold onto the idea that someone’s supposed to solve all the problems for us. No, it’s the whole society. It’s the people who support the president who are supposed to work for it, and that’s the important point, political point, that needs to be done. We wouldn’t have lost as many elections and we wouldn’t be facing what’s going to be a desperate defensive battle for the next two years. Everybody will get themselves back to, ‘yes we must act, we must fight,’ instead of blaming the White House and the Democratic Party establishment. Why should we expect the White House to do that?

AF: And another thing, relating to this issue: we can learn a lot from the debate on the trajectory of Brazil and Lula’s two terms. We have had ups and downs, expectations and frustrations and now it is quite clear that it has been quite a strong story.

Because the [Lula] government has 60% of approval rates and has elected his successor, who was a little known minister, people who have never run for any elected office before are getting elected and it’s been an amazing political success.

JF: There’s immense similarity [between Obama and Lula] in terms of the historical rhetoric of the two and also the unlikelihood of their two presidencies. Lula’s thing from the very beginning has always been ‘hope is the only thing that motivates people,’ and it’s not denunciations, and it’s not lamentations, and it’s not hating enemies, and it’s not whatever. It’s about hope, and the question is how do you create hope? And hope can be an escapable thing that is so gigantic like, ‘I am going

Dr. Alexandre Fortes (left) and Dr. John French (right) speak at ‘Brazil in a Global Context’

BRANDON KNOPP

to go to heaven,’ or something like that, or it can be so much more limiting with the capacity to inspire hope in people, to see beyond themselves, to imagine some direction. We don’t know where we’re going, but somewhere different, and that’s where Obama, the election of Obama – even if he is a one-term president – is an amazing accomplishment. And it would be an amazing accomplishment even if he hadn’t succeeded in passing certain things that may get undermined in the next few years. But even if he didn’t, the fact is it changes things, and it changes things in a positive direction in terms of race and the United States. And that sense that you can make a difference is really what’s important to have and that’s what Brazil teaches you.

When Lula founded a radical party that wasn’t even where other parties on the left – that were much larger than it – [were], and he had his first election in 1982, it got three percent of the national vote and it now, in his two presidential campaigns, got 61 percent of the vote and in the election that just ended, 56 percent of the vote. So they went from three percent of the vote to well over the majority in a very short period of time. For a fourth-grade educated manual worker in a society immensely

authoritarian and immensely elitist, it’s a pretty remarkable story. In the same way, Obama’s from a modest background. Not an impoverished background, but he’s from an extremely unusual background, and the question of race is so prevalent in the U.S. political world. He also has very high, very fancy education credentials and things like that that make him different as well. He’s an intellectual in that sense, but he’s an outsider in terms of the race thing in the way that Lula is an outsider in terms of the class thing in Brazil. The issue is, how do we teach people politics and political commitment?

How is it that the Brazilian Workers’ Party (PT) was able to accomplish what those who support Obama have not been able to do?

JF: I mean on the one hand, it’s not about the idea. You can’t make politics by having everybody think the same way. Politics is best when people don’t think the same way and the question is do you recognize that plurality of voices. Do you say, approach an anti-choice Democrat as completely unacceptable to me under any conditions, or do you say, ‘I don’t want somebody [else].’ The Democratic

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“Politics is best when

people don’t think the same way” -John French Party, especially in the U.S., has a sector of the super rich, a minority section, it has most of the popular classes and most of the organized social movements, things like that. So the fact is, the only way it works is if people understand that you have got to be able to work across differences and find common spaces of conversion. I am writing a book on Lula’s leadership and continuities and it’s all about creating spaces of convergence. It’s not that everybody is giving up their differences; it’s that they are coming in a space around a figure like Obama and Lula, and to the extent which you can keep people there, and [they] are not driven away by their differences and are kept together around a particular thing, then power emerges, and power begins to change, because people are around. And power begins to change events and people’s ideas change and new configurations and understandings of our past differences and ideas emerge.

AF: For the very trajectory, the very origins of the Workers’ Party and Lula as a leader, the party and the social movements were very connected within them, and Lula himself was aware of the importance in nourishing people’s belief in politics, in political participation. It’s important to think that you can accomplish things through active participation, and that was very important in creating many long-term changes in Brazilian political culture.

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Of course this is not something that can always sustain. We are a nation and many moments we have to deal with frustrations from these kinds of things; that hope is framed in a quite naïve perspective or something, under the assumption that we are different, that we are not involved with any of the shows [of ] old politics and that we are good, the others are evil and so-so, and that experience of conquering governments, local governments, big governments has produced new experiences and plans, frustrating at first for a while. But in the end

the most important thing has been to expand that belief in political participation to larger sectors of society.

People cannot organize, cannot take any active role in defining the politics, economy, society and so-so; that’s changing. Of course, the country’s huge; it’s complex. Change doesn’t happen at the same speed, same depth, it has to. It’s quite a complex.

JF: Yes. Obama could do a lot more. Something that the Lula government has done is to sponsor large-scale social movement summits under the auspices of the president: national conferences of the black, women’s and LGBT movements,1 for example, which the president and cabinet members attend and that are covered by the press. I had a Brazilian-American student, Andrea Dinamarco, who was interested in women and politics in Brazil, so I suggested she research women and the PT – which recently elected a woman as Lula’s successor – because two of the most successful women politicians were from the PT: a black woman, Benedita da Silva, from a favela (shantytown) in Rio and Marta Suplicy, a psychoanalyst and sex therapist from the most elite social class in São Paulo. Both of them have been very successful in Rio and São Paulo as mayors, deputies, senators and governors. When Andrea went on her research trip, she attended the national women’s meeting with 2,800 delegates, women of all racial backgrounds and social classes from around the country. She opened her thesis quoting from Lula’s keynote speech in which he called on women to organize 1 For an example of one such speech, see Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, “Speech of the President of the Brazilian Republic at the Opening of the First National Conference of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transvestites, and Transsexuals” in The Politics of Sexuality in Latin America: A Reader on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights, edited by Javier Corrales and Mario Pecheny (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008), 265-69.

and declared that it was time for Brazil to have a woman president, and to put an end to the idea that women’s place is in the kitchen or behind the scenes.

The response among the all-female participants was ecstatic; however, Andrea was skeptical as to whether Lula was just charming the crowd or genuinely supporting feminist ideas. In any case, she rightly concluded that it represented a victory for the women’s movement.

Now that Dilma Rousseff is the 36th and current president of Brazil, one might prefer it if the women’s movement had been directly responsible for her electoral success (the third biggest vote-getter candidate was another female minister of Lula’s who ran on the Green Party). But for a society that is characterized by male supremacy, electing the first woman President is going to change a lot for every young girl born in the future.

Cynical parents might tell her: ‘no, it’s not a big deal, a man, Lula, put her in office.’ And it is true that his personal support was absolutely crucial, but they don’t have to tell their daughter that and, even if they do, their daughter can think of her country as a place where, ‘somebody like me can be president.’

That’s the difference that having Lula, the first worker in office, has already made, and with Dilma’s election the way is cleared for a black President in a country that, as Lula says, has the largest population of African descent outside of Africa.

Can you contextualize some of the issues we are likely to hear about with the increased media attention that Brazil will be receiving because of the Olympics and the World Cup? JF: The U.S. media has its favorite tropes when dealing with countries, but there are actual real problems. You are going to hear in vast amounts at these upcoming events about Brazilian inequality,

about Brazilian racism, about Brazilian violence, about the 50 people killed when the army had to occupy favelas that are controlled by drug dealers in Rio. We are going to get all these sensationalisitic stories about this. They fit into the idea that these other parts of the world are uncivilized, and out of control and they’re not like us, and actually Brazil is a lot [more] like us than we really think it is. It’d be really good if people were able to develop more of a perspective, instead of seeing it looking down on it, as a group of people that are poor, the black people [who] need to be saved. They are fighting to advance their society. Why aren’t we doing this more? We’d rather think of it as looking down on it in a more maternalistic way. I admire all the college students who want to go to Latin America and help people, but if they want to help people it’d be much better to change the systems that lock people into prisons of their own lives and prevent them from having the opportunities they could have. This doesn’t even require you to open up the whole society to have the opportunities for people. There’s lots of things you could do short of overturning the entire structure of power, but you have got to develop a political understanding of the problems you face.

Anything else you would like to add?

JF: You want to say something about why Brazil should have a UN seat [in the Security Council]?

[All laugh] AF: Brazil of course is a natural candidate for a seat, as to the size of the country, its economic importance. Brazil is a global player on many different fronts. Only Argentines wouldn’t agree with that. So basically it depends on how much the UN is going to reform itself to become more representative of the global situation today.

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Church at dusk in Pelourinho, Salvador

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AMANDA KNUDSEN

Jóia de Guanabara Danny Herman

In his 1928 poem “Hip! Hip! Hoover!” Brazilian poet Oswald de Andrade commemorated the United States President-elect’s visit to Brazil, which had taken place earlier that year. Andrade writes, “Do Oceano/ Abre a jóia de tuas abras/ Guanabara/ Para receber os canhões de Utah;” in English, “From the Ocean/ Opens the jewel of your/ Guanabara/ To receive the cannons of Utah.”i “Guanabara” refers to Guanabara Bay, the area of water that forms the Western shore of Rio de Janeiro, and in this detail, the relevance to our present moment can be seen. As the Bay of Guanabara once opened itself to Herbert Hoover, it is now opening itself to the international world for the approaching 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The latter event is of particular importance – Rio is the first South American city to host the Summer Olympics.

Concerns over the safety of Rio de Janeiro have been myriad since its selection for the Olympic Games. The crime rate and social unrest within the city, and neighboring cities such as São Paulo, have recently drawn international attention and anxiety.

On November 9, 2010, USA Today reported an attempted attack on Formula One driver Jenson Button. The British champion’s car was attacked by men armed with submachine guns as he left the São Paulo Interlagos track, where he had qualified for the Brazilian Grand Prix. The article’s headline read, “Button’s attack in Brazil sparks concerns over World Cup, Olympics.”ii The question is: should the World Cup and the Olympics be the sole objects of concern? Earlier this year, The Miami Herald ran

an article titled, “Brazil getting extreme makeover in preparation for Olympics,” which discussed Rio de Janeiro’s efforts to prepare the city. The Herald described how “[m]any of the Olympics-related projects are designed to fix problems that have festered in Rio for decades: massive traffic snarls, the derelict port area and poor connections between the four areas of the sprawling city that will be Olympic venues.” iii As the article continues, however, the ideally egalitarian nature of such a plan seems to be lost in the beginning preparations for 2016: The ride in from Galeao, Rio’s international airport, to the beachside hotel district is clearly not the first impression city leaders would like visitors to have. The trip can take well over an hour... Recently, partitions featuring children’s drawings of flowers, rainbows and skateboarders have gone up along portions of the Linha Vermelha, partially blocking the view of the favelas that border the edge of the highway.

This attempt to conceal an undesirable vista with children’s drawings seems at best ineffective and, at worst, a flimsy and superficial way to divert attention from urban problems.

The term favela comes from the Portuguese word for a common tree or shrub. It now refers to both the individual and general dwellings of unlicensed, illegal shanty-houses located in big cities like Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Brasilia.

Favelas were first formed in the early 20th century,

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as the abolishment of slavery left newly freed slaves homeless. The houses that were constructed grew, and favelas spread quickly along the outer limits of cities like Rio de Janeiro. There have been numerous times throughout the 20th century when local governments attempted to force favela-dwellers to leave their community, but the favelas continue to grow. Due to their existence outside of government control, favelas often lack electricity, running water and pavement. Though this is no longer always the case, due to state efforts such as the 1994 Favela-Bairro project, which attempted to integrate the favelas into surrounding communities. The success of such projects has been limited, however, and there is still a clear visual marker between favelas and their legally housed neighbors.iv Favela as a term has become less easily defined in recent decades, but there is little doubt that they continue to serve as a marker of the unequal distribution of wealth and, unfortunately, as a sign of the crime and violence present in Brazil. Statistics in the past few years estimate approximately 25 homicides per 100,000 people, and that number is

Olympic Village construction, Rio de Janeiro

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even higher in Brazil’s major metropolises, where it regularly nears 36 homicides per 100,000.v To put this into perspective, in those same years the United States averaged between 5 and 6 homicides,vi while the combined murder rate of England, France and Germany was around 4.vii Safety is paramount, and the kind of terror and violence that can target the Olympics is fresh in the memory of those who were alive during the 1972 Summer Olympics, when the Munich massacre took place. In any Olympic city, there is a risk of violence towards residents, athletes and spectators. The safety for Olympic athletes, World Cup participants and all included in the events is of extreme importance, but so is the safety of Rio’s citizens of all social classes – favela-dwellers and elite alike. The goal here should not be to halt violence temporarily, but to use the Olympics and World Cup, and the money that they will generate, to help alleviate Rio’s growing poverty and combat its growing violence.

The burden of rectifying this situation does not fall solely upon Brazil and the state of Rio de Janeiro.

AMANDA KNUDSEN

The Brazilian government has been hindered by corruption and scandal, but there are members of the government and of Rio’s state municipality who have been working for thirty years with a variety of techniques to address and solve the issues that plague their country. A fault lies more with the perspective that we, the outsiders, have towards Brazil, expecting the country to perform for the Olympics and the World Cup – it appears as if we want to get in, make money, celebrate the games and get out. Why would advertising executives care about the violence of the favela? They care only that their thirty-second spot is not associated with the urban violence that may occur during these events. Once the events are over, the money they are pouring into Rio will be gone, and with it, any attempt of feigned compassion.

Guaracy Mingardi, a former United Nations adviser on crime, told the USA Today, with regards to the Jenson Button attack, “It happens every day here…[b]ut because it happened with a foreigner, the repercussion is much bigger, that’s the only difference.”viii The violence in Rio de Janeiro is only one of several global issues being thrust into the limelight at the moment, but it is also the only one done so by the self-interest of Western society. The self-interest is natural – justified, even. Who does not want a safe and secure 2016 Olympics? But, it is a frustrating fact that only our self-interest has brought this issue to the forefront of global politics.

The poverty and crime of Rio seems to be something that people will be content to momentarily cover-up, rather than begin to solve.

Oswald de Andrade’s poetry strikes again in this moment: “From the Ocean/ Opens the jewel

of your/ Guanabara/ To receive the cannons of Utah.” Andrade’s language is deliberate, precise.

It is no accident in Andrade’s poem that Brazil’s jewel is receiving, through an act of violence, the “cannons” of America. Throughout the poem, Andrade juxtaposes the natural beauty of Brazil with the modern industrialism of America: “the President Elect/ From the Great American Democracy comes/ Convoying in the air/ Through the flight of aeroplanes/ And through all the birds/ Of Brazil.” Andrade’s poem is not as outwardly incensed as Ruben Dario’s famous “A Roosevelt,” to another American president, but its portrayal of the United States is not a wholly positive one.

Though the English reader does not notice this in the translation, Andrade’s refrain of “to see him…

Hoover,” in Portuguese, becomes a childlike rhyme of “ver” with “Hoover!”ix Andrade’s conflicted feelings towards the United States and its “good neighbor” policy are pervasive in his collection of poetry.

One would hope, with international attention currently fixed on Rio de Janeiro, that countries around the world would do more than just fire cannons into Rio’s Baía de Guanabara. We can do more than a goodwill tour, half-a-century too late. We must learn to assist without imposing,to aid when asked, without regressing to imperialist motives. The World Cup and the Olympic Games are rich opportunities for the Brazilian government to centralize its efforts to improve the situation in Rio de Janeiro. Further, it is the international community’s choice to recognize the importance of its role in supporting the Brazilian government during this period of critical development.

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Favela Santa Marta Shimrit Lee

The favela of Santa Marta in Rio de Janeiro is nicknamed “the famous favela,” as it was the first favela to be “liberated” by government forces in 2008. Further, the area has been used as a backdrop for several music videos by international celebrities such as Michael Jackson and, more recently, Alicia Keys and Beyoncé.

The favela is situated on a steep hill and small alleyways with steep staircases run up and down, in between houses piled on top of one another. I was impressed by the concrete sidewalks, the developed sewage systems and the satellite televisions most people seemed to possess in their homes. Yet walking up and down the narrow, steep streets of Santa Marta left my head spinning. Kids stood on rooftops flying kites, utilizing the only open space available: the sky.

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Affirmative Action in Brazil Thomaz Marcondes

Introduction In Brazil the story of affirmative action begins with the black movement (Movimento Negro) and its supporters. The various groups of activists, NGOs, politicians and educators that comprise the movement are responsible for the transformation of affirmative action initiatives into institutional policies. Through a variety of methods and initiatives these activists have been problematizing the issue of racial inequality in Brazil and are responsible for its current presence at the forefront of political debate.

While these advocates are extremely important, this paper focuses instead on the period after 2001, when affirmative action had already begun to appear across the country in the form of governmental and institutional policies. This paper seeks to outline the major affirmative action policies since 2001 and the subsequent debates that surround them. It is in no way an exhaustive analysis of the issue; instead, it aims to describe the main arguments both for and against affirmative action, the policies that have been implemented thus far and their preliminary effects.

Why affirm rights?

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Evidence for affirmative action The majority of the Brazilian population acknowledges the existence of racial inequalities. A poll by Datafolha, the statistics collection branch of

the country’s largest newspaper, Folha de São Paulo, demonstrates that 80 percent of poll participants believe racial discrimination exists in Brazil, while only 10 percent admit to being racist themselves.

These results illustrate what sociologist Florestan Fernandes once explained when he wrote, “We have a sort of reactionary prejudice, if you will, a prejudice against being prejudiced.”1 Affirmative action proponents often invoke this argument, making use of supportive socioeconomic data to claim that Brazil is not the racial democracy the government has advertised it to be, both to the world and to Brazilians themselves.

Social inequalities in the country are clear and are closely correlated to race. Some of the supporting evidence is as follows: although representative of 45 percent of the total population, blacks2 compose 63 percent of people living below the poverty line and 68 percent of extremely poor people. While representing 70 percent of the poorest decile of Brazilians, blacks make up only 15 percent of the richest people. Whereas a 25-yearold white Brazilian has an average 8.4 years of schooling, a black Brazilian of the same age has only 6.1 years. Thus, illiteracy among whites over 15 years of age is eight percent; among blacks, 20 percent. Furthermore, 52 percent of blacks live in a household without adequate sanitation, versus 28 1 See Santos p.32, (“Brazilians openly discriminate against blacks but wholly resist any recognition of the fact that they would be capable of such a thing”) 2 The word negro (black) in Brazil, is utilized as a catchall term to incorporate pardos, pretos and other dark skinned Brazilians

percent of whites. And 30 percent of blacks live in a household without trash collection, versus 8 percent of whites.i In addition to the above, further evidence shows that while access to education for both blacks and whites has consistently increased throughout the country, the gap between the two has remained the same.ii This suggests that despite the success of universal programs, such as Bolsa Familia3 and its predecessors, in closing the divide between rich and poor, there are obstacles for negros and pardos that have yet to be addressed. This has led affirmative action advocates, such as Secretary of Higher Education, Maria Paula Dallari Bucci, to argue that although such universal polices are vital, specific policies are needed in order to break through these cyclical barriers.iii Debates on the incertitude of race When it comes to affirmative action initiatives, the process of determining race is often the largest and most widely discussed issue. The hot-button question is: how can we determine who is black in a country with as deep an experience of racial mixture as Brazil? Among the most vocal critics of the initiatives, the newspaper Folha de São Paulo argues that it is impossible to determine race in Brazil. They point to the “notorious lack of rigidity in racial classifications” as an obstacle in carrying out such initiatives.iv Critics also emphasize that affirmative action proponents are importing a North American model4 that does not fit Brazil’s cultural and racial make-up. They argue that while in the U.S. blackness is a question of origin, in Brazil the subjectivity increases because it is mostly a matter of physical appearance.v, 5 3 Bolsa Familia is a conditional cash transfer program that works to redistribute income through cash disbursements given to qualifying families. Families must meet certain conditions that include preventative healthcare measures and school enrollment guidelines for children.

4 For U.S. – Brazil comparisons see Fry 2000; Skidmore 2003; Greene 2009.

5 A study by Stanley R. Bailey demonstrates that “only 41 percent of individuals at the darkest end of the color continuum [self-indentified as preto] claim African Ancestry” while “strong majorities of the mulatto [pardo] and black categories (63 and 58 percent, respectively)” claim their ancestors are Brazilian.

Although it is true that darker skinned Brazilians have not, in recent history, shared a common identidade negra as African Americans have in the United States, they do share almost equal socioeconomic conditions, facing similar discrimination and representing an overwhelming percentage in their country’s poorest population.6 While critics correctly point out that racial identities are more clearly crystallized in the U.S., even there they tend to exaggerate how precise the racial determination process is, due to the “one drop” rule.7 In this context, former Justice Minister Marcio Thomaz Bastos, a strong proponent of affirmative action, argues, “A black person is someone who feels black and lives as a black. I don’t believe there is any objective, scientific criteria.”8 In Brazil, the racial determination process has been carried out in essentially two ways. The first and least controversial is the self-identification procedure, where an individual simply has to declare him or herself as part of the beneficiary group in order to participate. In the second process, verification systems are put in place. Among these systems, the most polemic have been the race panels established at Universidade Federal de Brasilia, as well as at other universities, where panel members vote on the candidates’ race based on photographs.

Although they vary, panels are generally composed of student body members, representatives of the Movimento Negro and faculty members, usually an anthropologist, a sociologist and a historian.vi Students who are rejected have the right to appeal and appear before the panel to argue their case. As one can imagine, problems exist with both processes. The first is subject to widespread fraud and the second to both inconsistencies (e.g. the notorious case with the Teixeira twins9) and 6 See Estadao 06/06/2009 interview with historian George Reid Andrews 7 Both Skidmore 2003 and Greene 2009 are emphatic that there is no precise way to determine race even in the U.S., where the courts often relied on myriad resources to determine whether an individual was in fact black.

8 See The New York Times 04/5/2003, “Racial Quotas in Brazil Touch Off Fierce Debate.”

9 Alex and Alan Teixeira da Cunha, identical twins judged by panel to be of different races, one black and the other white.

The case made the cover of Veja magazine in 2007 with the title

13

moral criticisms.10 Neither, however, claims to be perfect, and their problems are evidence that these programs, still in their infancy, have a long way to go.

Debates on the constitutionality of racial quotas Those who question the constitutionality of affirmative action, specifically the legality of racial quotas, contend that it is in conflict with article 208 of the 1988 Brazilian constitution, which declares, “Race Does Not Exist.”

10 While the morality of the committee is very subjective and open to debate, its methods are not very different than any other racial determination process, especially those in the U.S. “In both countries racial constructs based on physical phenotype is the primary mode of determining who is black and white,” Greene notes (20).

“all are equal before the law,” and that it undermines the autonomy of universities.vii But in opposition to the first claim, the Brazilian committee charged with representing the nation during the United Nations’ 2001 World Conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa submitted a report defending the constitutionality of affirmative action laws by citing as legal precedent three similar laws that established quotas and were already in effect: the Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT) of 1943, which required two thirds of workers in private business be Brazilian; a 1990 law reserving 20 percent of civil service jobs for handicapped people; and a 1997 law that requires a minimum percentage of women candidates in all political parties participating in legislative elections.viii As the head of Educafro, a social advocacy not-for-profit, points out “So far,

Center for the cultural group Arte Consciente in Saramandia, Salvador, Bahia

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SHIMRIT LEE

affirmative action advocates have defeated all major legal challenges.”11 However, a court ruling last year in the state of Rio de Janeiro has temporarily suspended all racial quotas for the state universities until a final ruling is issued.

The Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) has announced it will issue a ruling, which supersedes any state or municipal decision, on the racial quota law later this year. It recently held a public hearing to put on record the statements of different experts on both sides of the issue. During the first day of talks, support was overwhelmingly on the side of the advocates. Representatives from the Ministry of Education, Institute of Applied Economics Research (IPEA) and Ministry of Racial Equality (SEPPIR) all spoke in favor of quotas, and emphasized the persistence of the gap between blacks and whites in Brazil despite the nation’s positive economic trends.ix In the following days the court also heard statements from a student who felt personally injured by the quota system, as well as the president of the Black Socialist Movement,12 who argued that a quota system is not affirmative action nor does it address the issue of racism.x Secondary debates Two other points of contention have also garnered significant attention in the debate over racial quotas. The first centers around university quotas and contends that admitting students based on race rather than merit would lower the quality of education and create two-tier universities. The second claims that affirmative action initiatives would generally increase racial tensions in the country. While on the surface these may seem like plausible arguments, data has shown exactly the opposite to be true. According to Secretary of Higher Education cotistas13 have actually outperformed other students,xi to the surprise of 11 See Johnson III pg. 224 12 An organization founded in 2006 with the intent to promote socialism and racial equality. The organization adheres to the motto “Capitalism and racism are two sides of the same coin.” See www.mns.org.br.

13 Beneficiaries of racial quotas

some, and no data can be found that shows an increase in incidence of race related hate crimes.14 So although these may be large concerns, they find no support in the facts or realities of the issue.

THE POLICIES The Cardoso Era Many have pointed to the World Conference on Racism as the means through which affirmative action ascended center stage in Brazilian politics.xii The preparation for the conference and the openness shown by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso15 greatly aided the important transition made by affirmative action initiatives, from NGO programs to government policies. These programs, which existed long before the government began implementing affirmative action laws, were the fruits of non-profits that had been working at the community level to provide services in education, health and employment to underprivileged Afrodescendents.xiii In 2001, Rosana Heringer found the number of initiatives to combat racial inequality to be: 38 in the education sector, 25 in labor and income generation, 24 in human rights and advocacy and many others in the areas of information, legislation, culture and more.xiv In the wake of the Durban conference, many ministries began implementing some form of affirmative action within their own domains.

Typically they were in the form of quotas requiring that all third party service providers reserve 20 percent of employment capabilities for blacks, 20 percent for women and five percent for the handicapped.16 At the same time, various 14 Elio Gaspari, in “As Cotas Desmentiram as Urucubacas,” indicates that retention rate amongst cotistas was lower than non-quota students; in the Federal University of Bahia cotistas performed equally or better in 32 out of a total of 57 courses; and in 11 out of the18 most sought after cotistas outperformed in 61 percent of the areas.

15 FHC was the first president to openly recognize the prevalence of racial discrimination in the country and to hold public meetings on the topic of mitigating racial inequalities.

16 The ministry of Agrarian Development, the Supreme

15

municipalities (many located in the state of São Paulo) and one state, Mato Grosso do Sul,xv in its entirety began adopting similar quotas, reserving employment in all civil service jobs. In March 2002, the state government of Rio passed the groundbreaking law requiring all state universities to reserve 40 percent of its spots for “negros and pardos.” xvi This bill, as mentioned above, is currently suspended until further judgment.

The initiatives originated by the Cardoso government were: the National Plan of Human Rights, which reserves 20 percent of civil service jobs for Afro-descendents; the National Program of Affirmative Action, which establishes representational goals to be achieved; the program Diversity in the University, funded by a loan of five million dollars from the InterAmerican Development Bank, designed to create studies, research and educational material on diversity for secondary schools.xvii, xviii

Court and the Ministry of Justice all established these quotas.

The Ministry of Foreign Relations chose instead to provide 20 yearly scholarships to aid afro-descendents of low income to prepare for the competitive Foreign Service entrance exam. See Heringer 2003, p.71 for a detailed chronology of events.

effect an important law requiring that AfroBrazilian history and culture be taught in primary and secondary levels of education across the country.

In March 2003, the Lula government created a special secretariat, Seppir, for the promotion of policies of racial equality, which was later granted ministry status. Seppir works as a department to support racial quotas and affirmative action policies through all levels of government by acting as a liaison, promoter and facilitator of the implementation of these policies. It has been actively participating in the implementation of the Afro-Brazilian history and culture law through the creation of the project A Cor da Cultura (The Color of Culture). The project has reached over 90,000 students through the creation and distribution of interactive materials and has licensed over 3,000 educators.xx Seppir’s work has also been fundamental in bringing together the voices of the Movimento Negro and the different branches of the federal government.18 Other projects include: Planseq Trabalho Doméstico Cidadão, a partnership with the Minstry of Labor that supports domestic workers by aiding with labor organization, providing education access programs and designing public policies as well as Planseq Afro-descendents, which provides Afro-descendents with professional training in a small variety of jobs.

Perhaps one of the largest achievements under Lula has been the establishment of ProUni (University Program for All). This program, established in 2004, provides tax incentives to private universities that adopt 20 percent quotas for black students. At the same time it provides full and partial scholarships to underprivileged students who demonstrate need, despite race. The cleverness behind ProUni is that at the same time that it works as a universal program, granting access on the basis of income, it also acts as a specific affirmative action policy. Over 1,200 private universities, out of a total of 2,800, are enrolled in ProUni. This program benefits more than 130,000 students each year xxi and since its implementation has benefited over

17 They were: Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil; Minister of Social Assistance and Promotion, Matilde Ribeiro; and Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva. See Telles 2004; Heringer 2006.

18 See Heringer p. 88, (“An important landmark in this approximation was the first national seminar on the health of the black population realized in Brasilia in August of 2004.”)

The Lula Era: Preliminary impacts When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva assumed the presidency in 2003, he had campaigned on a platform which, among other things, strongly emphasized the dissolution of racial inequalities in the country. By that year, over 35 of the 55 federal universities and 43 of the state-run universities had adopted some form of quota or bonus system for disadvantaged students.xix For Lula, the mission ahead was to give continuity to affirmative action policies and to extend their institutional support base.

He began his term with a cabinet composed of three black ministers committed in some form or another to affirmative action initiatives.17 During the first month of his presidency, he signed into

16

“Brazilians have seen affirmative action transform from initiatives and activism into multi-million dollar government policies” 600,000 students, among which 70 percent received full scholarships.xxii In addition to the efforts of the executive branch, an important piece of affirmative action legislation passed in late 2009 was the Racial Equality Statute, a bill introduced by Workers’ Party Senator Paulo Paim. It, “establishes policies of protection and promotion of the black community in a variety of fields,”xxiii and reserves 10 percent of political candidacy positions for blacks running for the house of representatives on the federal, state and municipal levels. It also leaves open the possibility for the federal government to provide fiscal incentives to firms with more than 20 employees that reserve at least 20 percent of positions for blacks. The statute also asserts the government’s power to implement affirmative action policies, without quotas, on all federal universities in the country.xxiv Another important achievement of this bill is that it will require the federal government to collect comprehensive data on race and color to aid in the implementation of public policies.xxv Until now, studies on affirmative action and its impacts have been greatly restricted by the scarcity of information. There is hope that with the availability of this new data, it will be possible to gain a better

understanding into the quality of these various initiatives. This requires that there be follow up assessments in order to determine how well cotistas and beneficiaries of other forms of affirmative action are being assimilated into the work force.

CONCLUSION In the past decade, Brazilians have seen affirmative action transform from small NGO initiatives and black movement activism into multi-million dollar government policies. The institutionalized affirmative action initiatives operate in a variety of areas, such as education, culture, employment and health. Out of these areas the largest polemic has derived from the quota systems in education, where advocates and critics debate on the constitutionality of quotas, the difficulties in determining race and the possible consequences quotas will have on education and race relations. An important ruling will be issued later this year by the STF that will determine the future of racial quotas in the nation. In the past decade however, significant advances have been made in reducing racial inequality in the country, as can be deduced by the sheer number of beneficiaries of affirmative action programs such as ProUni. Still, more qualitative analyses must be made in order for us to obtain a more in-depth understanding of the effects of such policies on the population.

With the 2010 census and the studies now required by the new Statue on Racial Equality, there is potential for the collection of fresh data and a more comprehensive look at the state of affirmative action programs which will allow the perfection of these social justice policies.

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18 Mural painted by the local artists of Arte Consciente in Saramandia, Salvador, Bahia

19 SHIMRIT LEE

A noite

Jordan Lee Schnee a noite tinha a forma de um vestido florido que encontraram ao lado do corpo. não são flores diz um policial ao outro são manchas. mas o segundo, o que tem o Sonho diz rosa? peônia? papoila?

The night the night was shaped like the flower-print dress they found by the body. those aren’t flowers says one policeman to the other they’re stains. but the second, the one who has the Dream says rose? peony? poppy?

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Tecnobrega: A New Model for the Music Industry Samantha Gongol

It is no surprise that the music industry has been turned upside down in the wake of digital downloads. Countless services and software programs have given millions of people the ability to download songs for free, a problem that has cost the music business billions of dollars and given industry executives a headache of incalculable proportions.

To make matters worse for executives, mash-ups of material have become increasingly popular, with artists such as Girl-Talk mixing up to 28 different songs to create one track.i To staunch advocates of copyright law, GirlTalk’s Gregg Gillis should have to pay royalties for every track that he borrows from in order to piece together his new creation. Gillis will not make any money off of his latest CD release; he will be releasing it for free and instead profit from his live performances. While Gillis is relatively radical in his business strategy in the U.S., musicians in Brazil have been collectively profiting from pirated music.

There, rather than using CDs as a product to sell, artists use them as a promotional tool for their live shows in the world of tecnobrega.

Tecnobrega is a mixture of 1980s electronic beats and brega which means “cheesy” or “tacky” sounds.ii The combination of the two sounds creates an easy dance beat that local populations flock to hear. In an article from The Washington Post, former Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow was quoted as saying, “It’s this really gritty, tacky…music. It’s just genius.”iii The phenomenon of tecnobrega is most popular in some of Brazil’s poorest areas, such as

Belem, the capital city of Pará. The tecnobrega DJs often make their music right in their homes, with only a computer and software program to complete the composition. While some of the music consists of remixed tracks, most of the compositions are in fact original.

Many people in the poorer neighborhoods do not have broadband internet, and therefore do not have the capability to download songs. This makes online music stores such as iTunes and Amazon irrelevant for the consumer. Instead, musicians give out their CDs to street vendors, who then sell them to the public for about $1.50.iv In return, the musicians receive free publicity and promotion.

Barlow stated, “It’s making it possible for every kid in Brazil to know their songs by the time they turn five…you give it away and it will come back.”v Artists make the majority of their money from live performances called “sound system parties.” The parties can bring as many as 15,000 eager fans, and the pay is not bad either. A musician can be paid as much as 2,200 reais (or approximately $1,306) and can perform up to 12 times a month. This is more than three times the minimum monthly wage in Belem, approximately 700 reais (or $416).vi DJs will usually record their performances live and then sell DVDs after the show. In order to give fans the extra incentive to buy the DVDs, DJs often acknowledge the people from the myriad neighborhoods who come to see the performance.vii This recognition makes the experience personal, and attendees are only too happy to come away with a copy.

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Tecnobrega’s following has undoubtedly been fueled by the distribution of pirated music, and it has not gone unnoticed. Brazil’s National AntiPiracy Movement rendered tecnobrega insignificant, arguing that it makes light of piracy.viii However, advocates for a freer system of copyright law would argue that the mash-ups and widespread distribution of tecnobrega are not such deplorable activities.

Brazil takes part in what is known as Creative Commons, which was founded by Harvard Law School professor and copyright activist Lawrence Lessig. Creative Commons is an alternative copyright system founded to counter the stringent copyright laws of the U.S. On a trip to Brazil to discuss the future of Creative Commons, Lessig stated, “Creative Commons was born to set culture free. A license that says I as a musician give you the right to sample my work, take and build, create, remix, and the most important place where that conversation began, was here in Brazil.”ix Gilberto Gil, one of Brazil’s most respected artists, who also happens to be the Minister of Culture, was the first artist to take part in Creative Commons. He stated, “sharing is the nature of creation. It doesn’t happen

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in isolation. No one creates in a vacuum, everything comes from something else.”x It is an interesting dilemma. Some view the phenomenon as nothing more than a dance craze fueled by widespread piracy, a trend that threatens the intellectual property rights of others. Yet on the other hand, this particular dance craze has launched the careers of many Brazilian musicians and has galvanized the populations of some of Brazil’s poorest areas. Even beleaguered record executives cannot deny the fact that tecnobrega has resulted in a multi-million dollar music business for Brazil.

According to The Washington Post, about $5 million of music industry money is circulated through Belem’s economy per month, and its popularity continues to grow. It seems that this particular sect of the music industry has profited as a result of the free distribution of music, something that very few people in the industry to date have been able to do. In a world where pirated music runs rampant, Brazil has not only embraced the idea, it has turned the concept of free music into a lucrative business.

From whatever stance one chooses to view the situation, there is no denying that Brazil has been at the forefront of this controversial music model.

Wasteland Shimrit Lee

“89% of trash is sorted by the collectors.

11% is sorted by the industries.

11% of the profits go back to the collectors.

89% is put into the pockets of the industries,” says Tião.

Tião is the leader of a union of trash collectors in Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Here the dirt roads are lined with mountains of trash and recyclable materials. Flies are swarming, the smell of burning plastic pierces my nose, the heat is burning my shoulders, a pig noses his way through a pile of litter. The community of Jardim Gramacho lives and works in trash, sorting through the waste of Rio, picking out plastic, aluminum, copper, paper. Tião picks up an empty can of beer and tells us that aluminum is the most valuable material.

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We are 17 students and we have traveled to Brazil for ten days to study issues of “consumption.”

We have met bi-monthly for the past year to attempt to dissect this enormous topic, discussing social inequality, access to resources, urban development and potential sources of economic and social change. A few weeks ago, we saw the film Wasteland, which documents world-renowned Brazilian artist Vik Muniz’s collaborative art project with the trash collectors of Jardim. The film focuses on the lives of a number of Jardim community members and allows a space for members of the lowest rung of society to speak about their hardships, aspirations

and social situations. It is surreal to see Tião, who is now somewhat of a celebrity in the community, in person. With the help of our translator Ricardo, we are able to take a tour through the favela and ask Tião our questions. We sit in a circle in the empty concrete structure of a recently built community center financed by Coca-Cola and question Tião about his work and the changing role of the trash collectors union. When asked about the effects of the film on his work, Tião laughs and says that it is like a Cinderella story: the publicity is bringing great awareness to the collectors, but eventually, at midnight, everything will go back to normal.

The trash collectors are the lowest strata of society. The rich of Rio live in high-rises and gated homes, while their filth and waste is pushed into the invisible lanes of Jardim Gramacho. From far away the favelas are colorful checkerboards, coating the mountains and hills of Rio, silent backdrops to smoky lagoons and stretches of paradise beaches. The poverty within is barely visible from the distance.

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Here

Luke StormoGipson The buildings weep In summer In sun They show their teeth And flesh And bones Without apprehension, secrecy Or choice

Dip

Luke StormoGipson

A surf so seductive it can’t wait but to tear off my trunks and force lust upon limbs: thrusting waves in Atlantic foreplay I blush underwater while the sands tit-tickle to the rhythm of a rogue morning tide perfect stimulation after a wet, hot one night stand with Copacabana.

Warm romp and panting Refreshing tumble And a new crush.

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26

ADJACENT: View from Corcovado, Rio de Janeiro

OPPOSITE : Old building in Cidade Baxia, Salvador

AMANDA KNUDSEN

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The Definition of Revolution in Contemporary Latin America Rick Stern

“

“

Those who possess wealth and power in poor nations must accept their own responsibilities. They must lead the fight for those basic reforms which alone can preserve the fabric of their societies. Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

John F. Kennedy Address on the First Anniversary of the Alliance for Progress On a seemingly quiet street in the Gávea neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, lined with enormous palm trees and mansions dating back to the colonial era, a permanent police barricade signals the exact location where democracy ends and anarchy begins. Around a blind turn is the entrance to Rocinha, the largest slum in Brazil and an example of the numerous impoverished communities in Latin America that adhere to a separate form of governance, complete with their own set of stringently enforced laws. Where the paved road ends and the improvised cobblestone path up the hill begins, a heavily fortified police checkpoint serves not only as an acknowledgement of the government’s loss of control over their own territory, but also as an unofficial border crossing with a clear warning to all who venture past it: you are on your own.

The Merriam-Webster definition for the term revolution is “a fundamental change in political organization; especially: the overthrow or renunciation of one government or ruler and the substitution of another by the governed.” Would it be accurate, then, to characterize Rocinha as proof of an ongoing revolutionary movement in Brazil, and if so, do similar impoverished groups incorporating isolated forms of self-governance in Latin America pose any risk to current democratic forms of government? To answer these questions,

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it is necessary to better define the term revolution from a socioeconomic perspective, by comparing past regional revolutionary movements and the ideals that set them into motion, in order to conclude whether or not those who choose to ignore government authority should be classified as modern-day revolutionary forces.

The portrait of Ernesto Guevara is stamped on t-shirts distributed worldwide, a romanticized symbol of a man who himself distributed the Marxist revolutionary ideal he embodied and fought for on an international scale: “on all of the exploited continents there are countries whose social systems have reached different levels of development, but almost all of them have strong social divisions with feudal characteristics and heavy dependence on foreign capital.”i His guerrilla tactics in leading Cuba’s 1959 revolution were both incredibly successful and violent, providing a dangerous example of what a victorious revolution would look like for the rest of the region. Ché, as Guevara is popularly called, vehemently defended the use of violence, stating that “when faced with the decision to bring about more socially just systems in America, we must think fundamentally in terms of armed struggle.”ii In his explanation of revolutionary tactics, bloodshed is both necessary and inevitable.

Those who purchase a Ché t-shirt at their local

Urban Outfitters, however, might not identify with, or for that matter even be aware of, the violence he promoted. Guevara, not only as a pop-culture icon, but through the tributes he received from various prominent world leaders, including Nelson Mandela,iii highlights two distinct ingredients necessary in any revolution: the ideal and the implementation of said ideal. The desire for a new form of government, for whatever reason, constitutes the ideal, while actions used to achieve and sustain this ideal become the revolutionary movement.

Thus, it can be argued that the idolization of Guevara varies greatly between the Western world and the Latin American lower classes. Those who spend the equivalent of a weekly wage of the Latin American worker in order to purchase their branded merchandise in upscale stores most likely identify with a romanticized version of Guevara’s revolutionary ideals. His spray-painted portraits in shantytowns throughout Latin America, on the other hand, represent a more accurate and urgent need to use whatever political or violent means necessary to defy those on the other side of an enormous social gap.

While Guevara accepted nothing other than an aggressive approach in achieving revolutionary ideals, Juan Perón, former president of Argentina, arguably succeeded in producing a non-violent revolutionary movement, favoring political and economic strategy over armed conflict. While Peronism originated from within a government structure already in place, with no intent to eradicate it completely, his own ascension to the presidency was revolutionary. Perón shared a similar disdain toward dominance by the elite that Cuba would later encounter, and he was able to steadily empower the working class. This allowed him to achieve widespread social and political reform while removing upper class corruption.

Peronism “premised its political appeal to workers on a recognition of the working class as a distinct social force that demanded recognition as such in the political life of the nation.”iv This revolutionary tactic guaranteed a response from the working class when Perón, then Vice President and Secretary of War, was arrested by military officials who feared his ever growing public influence. The revolutionary

movement in Argentina instinctively materialized in the form of a massive civil protest, and not that of armed rebellion. Peronism did not just fundamentally change the Argentinean political configuration without the need for bloodshed; it also proved that social equality could be obtained through subtle, long-term political intervention.

Thus, the revolutionary process begins with the combination of two ingredients: a common representation of an enhanced state, and the means toward achieving it. The catalyst is the revolutionary, the one who is able to successfully articulate the vision and mobilize a people toward its attainment through what has already been defined as a revolutionary movement. Neither the ideal nor the revolutionary tactic are ever the same, and while both Guevara and Perón demonstrate a similar disdain for an overpowering upper class, their tactics, specifically with relation to the use of force, depended primarily on their attitude toward the government they intended to overtake. The argument Guevara makes toward the use of violence is logical only in the sense that to challenge a government from the outside will mean encountering the strong resistance of its political and military forces; Perón was spared such a challenge.

Brazil is a separate case altogether. Brazilian military rule, which started in 1964, began to steadily deteriorate fourteen years later as an economic crisis in Latin America grew worse and foreign debt skyrocketed.v Widespread strikes and civil disobedience prevailed, and like an unsuspecting tourist wading into the piranha infested waters of the Amazon, the military government was soon knee-deep in trouble. What had begun as a revolutionary move on the part of the military to suspend democracy in order to protect Brazil from Marxist influences led to another revolution, this time orchestrated by the people.vi In both Brazilian revolutionary movements there was little violence, even though government control had been seized by outside forces. A key distinction here, compared to the Cuban revolution, is that both the democratic and military governments were already near collapse, in 1964 and 1979 respectively, when power was taken from the people and later given

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back to them.

With the industrial boom that began a decade before redemocratization came a condition “in which new industries could thrive at the expense of Brazil’s poor majority.” vii Favelas erupted all along the mountainsides of Rio, and Rocinha was on top of a major infrastructure project that still required an unskilled labor force desperate for work: the construction of two massive tunnels that would link the old neighborhood of Gávea to a new part of the city just starting to develop. As the west zone of Rio emerged, an increase in construction jobs meant the exponential expansion of the slum. By 1991, the Cold War had ended a period of military unrest in Latin America, and there were no other regional political threats that would warrant revolution.viii After years of steady urbanization, and with the stabilization of the Brazilian economy following redemocratization in 1985, Rio transitioned from politically mandated to economically driven growth, and its physical expansion ceased. Rocinha, however, continued to grow, perfectly located between the two most affluent districts, where there was a continuous demand for low-income jobs, as well as illegal drugs.

According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), Rocinha is responsible for over thirty-five percent of all drugs distributed throughout Rio, which is home to over thirteen million people. This multi-million dollar industry is both highly profitable and highly unlawful, creating a sort of sociopolitical paradox.

The slum is controlled by a heavily armed militia that holds the higher ground geographically, is far better equipped militarily and greatly outnumbers local government forces. There is a clear chain of command, a set of laws and a tax system completely independent of local, state or federal governance; entry by Brazilian police or military personnel is dubbed an invasion by both the drug dealers and the news media and is met with fierce retaliation. It is a modern-day Sierra Maestra.1 The inhabitants of favelas generally must abide

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by the rules set forth by drug lords not only within the community, but most importantly, outside of it.

To avoid compromising diplomatic relations with local law enforcement, members of the slum who commit a crime within the surrounding upscale neighborhoods and then return will be immediately handed over to the police soon after they are shot.

Once outside the slum, inhabitants must respect the law and lose the protection of the community.

What is described above only scratches the surface of the highly structured civil administrations existent within the largest of Brazilian slums. It also demonstrates a clear defiance against Brazilian sovereignty. The question remains, though: can the dominant forces in control of a slum be considered a revolutionary movement?1 I would argue that they can and should, given the two previously mentioned ingredients necessary to define the revolutionary process. First, there is a clear need for an environment where the lower classes can prosper and become self-sufficient, given their abandonment by a state historically unconcerned with improving the living standards of the lower class. Second, there has also been a successful implementation of a tactic meant to achieve said ideal, in that the lawlessness of Brazilian slums allows for the establishment of an exclusive lowerclass governing structure along with the industry (however illegal) necessary to sustain it. Rocinha, a territory defended from its own country at all costs, can be seen as the revolutionary’s new answer to social inequality, as the millions of dollars that pour into it are directed toward the overall improvement of its own community. Its continued existence and defiance are an evolution from the traditional manifestations seen throughout Latin America to a more economic revolutionary model that is perhaps a little bit Guevara, a little bit Perón.

1 Sierra Maestra is a mountain range in southeast Cuba, near Guantanamo Bay, used by Castro as a base to assemble and train his guerrilla army. He remained there for three years prior to successfully launching the revolution that overthrew Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

Wish Ribbons on the fence surrounding the Church of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim, Salvador

AMANDA KNUDSEN

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A Brazilian

ex-voto sits on my bedside table. A woman’s head, carved of wood, small enough to hold in my palm.

I did not create her. To look at her, to think of who carved her and painted her and why; to think of how she came into my possession and why. She is not and could not be a symbol of Latin America, but that is where she comes from, and Latin America was breathed into her. Like how I imagine many objects of Latin America, she has been taken from her birthplace; her spirituality now something to observe but not to be understood. She is not mine yet she is in my possession.

Small pieces of Latin America are what I have.

An ex-voto, a tiny offering to some distant god.

Films, songs, imported fruit. The rest I imagine.

Where in the Amazon rainforest do remnants of Portuguese change to Spanish? What a jungle.

What a dark, beautiful place.

What cities. What crowded, dirty streets.

What people crying out for a better quality of life.

Revolution, revolution, revolution.

“There’s nothing like a military dictatorship to get things taken care of.”

Why is it that I imagine Latin Americans to be disdainful of their imported languages? Why do

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I think that perhaps they resent the tongues with which they were raised speaking? Such complicated pride, Latin America. Jesus was actually Brazilian, didn’t you know that? Pizza, Italian? No way, it was invented in Argentina. Michael Jackson, he’s got Chilean roots that the media hides.

My mind soars from snowy mountain peaks and European influence to Caribbean beaches and fruits. I imagine these scenes splayed out on a crazy quilt, so colorful, so full of life and magically warm though the fabric is old and frayed. People should be proud to live here. I imagine the land reflected in their eyes. Perhaps they are forced to abuse it at times, but I imagine all Latin Americans to love their land.

Regions, rather than countries, make up the biggest difference in culture, I imagine. City life can be tacky. In December, malls are decorated with leftover plastic decorations from Christmas in the U.S. circa 1985. People dress strangely, wear cheap perfumes.

The elite of these cities love to display their gadgets; Apple products that a cousin brought back from a trip to Florida, Abercrombie and Fitch sweatshirts sold for five times what they cost in the

Imagining Latin America Emma Young

States (and a hundred times what they cost to be made). The elite study colonialism, patriarchy and slavery, yet they cannot cook for themselves; their maids take care of everything. Sometimes they still sleep in tiny maid’s closets near the laundry room in high-rise apartments. They wear maid’s costumes.

Surrounding the elite, swallowing them: shantytowns. Places I find it truly difficult to imagine. So many people, such thin walls. Bare feet playing soccer in dusty side streets. A strong, resilient sense of community despite and perhaps because of the hardship. I imagine these people to be more durable than uncooked cassava.

Outside of the cities, different types of communities. Indigenous peoples, still fighting a terrible battle against the “civilized.” I imagine their curiosity about video cameras. People coming to record them. They must be afraid, perhaps angry, and yet, I imagine them to be extremely welcoming, kind, accepting.

I dream their way of life to be so admirable and honest; precious, something I am afraid the world will lose. These aren’t Latin Americans, but they are the children of Latin America. Others still disrespect them. Indians. Ignoble, dirty, crazy. They

won’t accept a knowledge deeper, darker than their own skin.

Farming communities. Some small, selfsubsistent, content. (These are far different from the massive industrial farms that I cannot imagine but know exist.) Cowboys, ranchers; a tough existence.

They haven’t read their histories though they seem to live in a different time.

The spirit of the people of Latin America, soaring, sailing, riding across the land, I imagine to be stronger than elsewhere in the world. Who else can endure so much and still shine so brightly?

Where else does slave food come to represent the national dish? Everywhere, people are united in their culture. Spirituality, soccer, food. A mysticism and knowledge that doesn’t exist in the U.S. A sense of humor that translates better once you get to know Latin Americans better. A coolness that perhaps once belonged to Paris.

My imaginary Latin America quilt is being stitched and re-stitched. It is growing and changing, and more people can and do donate their fabrics to its great shape. They are more and more visible, their words and art and hope clearly stitched onto the tapestry.

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Notes Jóia de Guanabara • pg 7-9 [i] Oswald de Andrade, “Hip! Hip! Hoover!,” An Anthology of Twentieth-century Brazilian Poetry, Elizabeth Bishop and Emanuel Brasil ed., Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1972. [ii] “Button’s attack in brazil sparks concerns over World Cup, Olympics,” USA Today, Nov. 2010, <http://www.usatoday.com/sports/ olympics/2010-11-08-formula-one-button-brazil-attack_N.htm>. [iii] Mimi Whitefield, “Brazil getting extreme makeover in preparation for Olympics,” Miami Herald, 21 Aug. 2010, <http://www.miamiherald. com/2010/08/21/v-fullstory/1786659/brazil-getting-extreme-makeover.html>. [iv] Janice Perlman, Favelas: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2010. [v] “Estudo mostra queda de homicídios nas capitais e aumento no interior em dez anos,” Agência Brasil, 3 Mar. 2010, <http://www1.folha.uol. com.br/folha/cotidiano/ult95u714035.shtml>. [vi] United States Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigatio, Crime in the United States, Criminal Justice Information Services Division, 2010, <http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/data/table_01.html>. [vii] Cynthia Tavares and Geoffrey Thomas, “Population and social conditions: crime and criminal justice,” Statistics in Focus, 2007, <http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-SF-07-015/EN/KS-SF-07-015-EN.PDF>. [viii] “Button’s attack in brazil sparks concerns over world cup, Olympics.” [ix] de Andrade.

Affirmative Action in Brazil • pg 12-17 [[i] Mala Htun, “Racial Quotas for a ‘Racial Democracy,’” NACLA Report on the Americas 38.4, 2005, OmniFile Full Text Mega, Web, 08 Mar. 2010, 20-4. [ii] Ricardo Henriques, “Desigualdade racial no Brasil: Evolucão das condicões de vida na década de 90,” IPEA texto para discussão no. 807, Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro: Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada, 2001. [iii] Rosana Heringer, “Acao Afirmativa E Promocao Da Igualdade Racial No Brasil,” acao Afirmativa Na Universidade Reflexao Sobre Experiencias Concretas Brasil-Estados Unidos, Comp. Angela Randolpho, Paiva, rio De jainero, RJ, Editora PUC-Rio, 2004; Agência Brasil, “Em Primeiro Dia De Audiência Pública, Maioria é Favorável a Cotas Em Universidades,” Folha Online, Universo Online (UOL), Web, 03 Mar, 2010, 55-86. [iv] Sales Augusto dos Santos; Obianuju C. Anya, “Who Is Black in Brazil? A Timely or a False Question in Brazilian Race Relations in the Era of Affirmative Action?” Latin American Perspectives 33.4, 2006, Sage Full-Text Collections, Web, 02 Mar, 2010, 30-48. [v] Ricardo Richetti, “Not as Easy as Black and White: The Implications of the University of Rio de Janeiro’s Quota-Based Admissions Policy on Affirmative Action Law in Brazil,” Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 37.5, 2004, OmniFile Full Text Mega, Web, 08 Mar, 2010, 1423-71. [vi] Stanley R Bailey, “Unmixing for Race Making in Brazil,” American Journal of Sociology 114.3, 2008, SocINDEX with Full Text, EBSCO, Web, 02 Mar. 2010, 577-614. [vii] Ricardo Rochetti, 1423-71. [viii] Mala Htun, “From “Racial Democracy” to Affirmative Action: Changing State Policy on Race in Brazil,” Latin American Research Review 39.1, 2004, OmniFile Full Text Mega, Web, 02 Mar, 2010, 60-89. [ix] Agência Brasil, Web. [x] Agência Brasil, Web. [xi] Lloyd Marion, “Affirmative Action, Brazilian-Style,” The Chronicle of Higher Education 11 Oct. 2009, Platinum Periodicals, ProQuest, 06 Mar. 2010, Web, <http://chronicle.com/article/Affirmative-Action/48734/> [xii] Heringer, 209-30. [xiii] Heringer, 209-30. [xiv] Heringer.

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[xv] Diana Briot, “Justiça Do Rio Considera Constitucional Lei De Cotas Em Universidades,” Folha Online, Universo Online (UOL), 18 Nov.

2009, Web. [xvi] Heringer. [xvii] Rosana Heringer,”Acao Afirmativa E Promocao Da Igualdade Racial No Brasil,” acao Afirmativa Na Universidade Reflexao Sobre Experiencias Concretas Brasil-Estados Unidos, Comp. Angela Randolpho, Paiva, Rio de Jainero, RJ, Editora PUC-Rio, 2004, 55-86. [xviii] Edward Eric Telles, “From Racial Democracy to Affirmative Action,” Race in Another America: the Significance of Skin Color in Brazil.

Princeton, N.J, Princeton UP, 2004, 47-77. [xix] Lloyd Marion, Web. [xx] SECRETARIA DE POLÍTICAS DE PROMOÇÃO DA IGUALDADE RACIA, 08 Feb. 2011, http://www.portaldaigualdade.gov.br/> [xxi] Lloyd Marion, Web. [xxii] ProUni - Programa Universidade Para Todos. Web. 08 Feb. 2011. <http://prouniportal.mec.gov.br/>. [xxiii] Elio Gaspari, “As Cotas Desmentiram as Urucubacas,” Folha De Sao Paulo, <http://www.folhaonline.com.br>, 03 June 2009, Web. [xxiv] Gaspari. [xxiv]Ollie A. Johnson III, 209-30.

Tecnobrega: A New Model for the Music Industry • pg 21-22 [i] Tyler Gray, “How Girl Talk Mashes Up the Music Biz,” Fast Company, 21 Jan. 2011, Web, 1 Feb 2011, <http://www.fastcompany. com/1719441/girl-talk-gregg-gillis-all-day#self>. [ii] Gary Duffy, “Tecnobrega Beat Rocks Brazil,” Click: The BBC’s Flagship Technology Programme, 2009, Web, 31 Jan 2011, bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/7872316.stm>.

<http://news.

[iii] Michael Astor, “Piracy Fuels Brazil’s Tecno Scene,” The Washington Post, 19 Oct. 2007, Web, 1 Feb. 2011, <http://www.washingtonpost. com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/19/AR2007101901639.html>. [iv] Duffy. [v] Astor. [vi] Duffy. [vii] “Tecno Brega,” Open Business: Tech Biz Insights, Creative Commons License, Web, 31 Jan. 2011, <http://www.openbusiness.cc/2005/09/26/ tecno-brega/>. [viii] Astor. [ix] Brett Gaylor, Rip! A Remix Manifesto, Perf. Gillis, Gregg, Lessig, Lawrence, eOne Entertainment Distribution, 2009, Film, <http://www. hulu.com/watch/88782/rip-a-remix-manifesto> [x] Gaylor.

Definition of Revolution • pg 28-31 [i] Gabriela Nouzeilles and Graciela Montaldo, eds, The Argentina Reader, Durham: Duke University Press, 2002, 349. [ii] Nouzeilles and Montaldo. [iii] Jon Lee Anderson, Ché Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, New York: Grove Press, 1997, 752. [iv] Nouzeilles and Montaldo, 284. [v] John Chasteen, Born in Blood & Fire: A Concise History of Latin America, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2006, 286. [vi] Chasteen, 288. [vii] Chasteen, 286. [viii] Chasteen, 297.

Additional Sources Cesar Maia, “Why Rocinha,” Folha de São Paulo, 5 February 2007, http://www.eagora.org.br/arquivo/Por-que-a-Rocinha.

Brazil, The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, Quarterly National Accounts, Rio de Janeiro: 2007.

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AMANDA KNUDSEN

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