The explosive growth
of Latino populations in North America is contributing to the progressive
establishment and evolution of university programs examining Latin American
history, culture and society. Some major universities, such as the University
of Texas at Austin and the University of New Mexico presaged this movement
in response to a regionally Latino rich demography.
Having so long ago founded
ambitious Latin American studies programs, they now reap the benefits of established
credibility and mature curricula. An increasing general emphasis on international
study, triggered by globalization, global security concerns and the emergence
of powerful regional free trade zones is also helping to bring Latin America
to light.
The prestigious University
of Denver Graduate School for International Studies (GSIS), which recently
supplemented its offerings with a Homeland Security Certificate program, is
a good example.
Up until now, the study
of Spanish speaking Central and South America has greatly outpaced consideration
of Portuguese-speaking Brazil. The closer proximity of Mexico, Central America
and the Caribbean Basin makes it easier for the disenfranchised of those regions
to relocate here. Annual waves of Spanish speaking migrant workers and illegal
immigrants have helped to alter demographic realities in the 21st
century United States.
Brazil, it could be argued,
remained a stereotyped enigma as North Americans continued to define it in
terms associated with Carmen Miranda, Carnaval, the Amazonian rain forest,
bossa nova, and Pelé. But gradually a more meaningful image
of Brazil is emerging. An episode of the 1995 Wall Street Week produced by
Public Broadcasting System (PBS) television series Emerging Powers
substantially redressed the Brazilian caricature.
Opening Doors
Sometimes groundbreaking,
often scholarly, written works began to lift the veil on Brazil throughout
the 1980s and 1990s. Jonathan Kandell's narrative Passage Through El Dorado
was not specific to Brazil, but included new insights on the lawlessness
and exploitation of Brazilian hinterlands. Paul Conrad Philip Kottak's Assault
on Paradise chronicled the transformation of the sleepy coastal fishing
village of Arembepe north of the city of Salvador in Bahia.
Rambali's critically acclaimed
epic travelogue In the Cities and the Jungles of Brazil led readers
through the convoluted maze of Brazilian urban and rural cultures, while Joseph
Page's highly regarded Brazilians became an ultimate guide to understanding
Brazil and the people who live there.
Wall Street Week's PBS
production may have provided the critical mass to suggest that we were beginning
to take notice of Brazil. Narrated by popular Brazilian journalist Pedro Bial,
it introduced viewers to the enchanting music of Marisa Monte, the significance
of African cultural influences and Lula's conversion to a free market economy.
It showcased Brazil's
love affair with the automobile, the innovative leadership of Jaime Lerner
in Curitiba, the architecture of Oscar Niemeyer, and the dominance of media
giant Globo. And it opened a window on the explosive growth of Brazilian enterprise
in even the most unlikely of places by showcasing the sale of Avon cosmetics
in the Amazon rainforest.
Racial Inequality
Throughout the 1980s and
1990s, Brazil was also quietly gaining attention on college campuses in the
U.S. Midwest. While author Conrad Philip Kottak was teaching anthropology
at the University of Michigan, Father Theodore Hesburgh was establishing a
legacy that would facilitate a deepening awareness of Brazil at the University
of Notre Dame. He founded there the Kellogg Center for International Studies
in 1983, and, in 1986, the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.
As president of Notre
Dame from 1952 to 1987, Father Hesburgh emphasized pursuit of justice, something
that has been notably lacking throughout much of Brazilian history. Father
Hesburgh was a charter member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, created
in 1957, which-finally—opened doors of opportunity for people of color
in the United States.
He became chairman of
the commission in 1969, but was asked by President Nixon to step down as chairman
in 1972 for having the courage to criticize the Administration's civil rights
record. "If you want peace," Father Hesburgh has said, "work
for justice."
In a recent interview,
in his office, Father Hesburgh confided to me his continuing dismay over racial
inequality in Brazil. "It's always been a kind of scandal to me,"
he said. "I've been in some of the high circles in Brazil and they always
brag about … equality. `Everybody is equal' (they say), and `nobody lords
it over anybody else'. I say `yes, but if you go to the country club you don't
see a black face'. In fact, if you go to a university you rarely see a black
face. You have a little more chance there, but not all that much. Go to the
Chamber of Commerce and you don't see a single black face. Go to a cultural
center and you don't see a black face. About the only place you see black
faces are playing soccer on the beach."
"It's a sad business,"
said Father Hesburgh "but I don't think the Portuguese were great leaders
in social justice. They were great explorers, but I think they were not what
I would call good colonizers. They weren't exactly pyramids of justice. They
caused a lot of suffering and they did a lot of just plain taking things out
without putting things back in. The Portuguese built nothing as a great university,
and didn't even have good elementary and secondary schools except for the
colonists who were Portuguese."
Blue, Gold, Green
As I later wandered the
campus at Notre Dame, I realized that Notre Dame's primary colors of blue,
gold and green are, in reverse order, the green, gold and blue primary colors
of the Brazilian flag. A bright October sun lifted my spirits, as I recalled
Father Hesburgh's fondness for Brazil.
"Brazil is just a
fanciful land, " Father Hesburgh had offered, "and not many people
realize it. I've been end to end across it. I got aboard a ship in Peru and
went out to the headwaters of the Amazon. I went down the Amazon for 25 days
and down to Bahia on the coast. I've been to São Paulo and Rio many
times. I once thought of getting a car in Rio and driving across the great
central expanse of farmlands in Brazil right below the Amazon jungle area."
The administrative director
of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies in the Hesburgh Center
at Notre Dame at the time of my visit echoed Father Hesburgh's sentiments.
Dr. Christopher Welna established personal ties to Brazil when he traveled
there as a high school exchange student in 1971. A young Chris Welna stayed
with a family "about four hours drive from Belo Horizonte in Minas Gerais."
That, he indicated, was when his eyes were opened "to the rich and fascinating
culture of Brazil."
Chris Welna didn't immediately
follow up his exchange-student experience by focusing on Brazil, but fate
determined that it would eventually happen. "I received a Masters in
Public Policy at Princeton," he said. "I think I would date my interest
in public policy reform to that era. After that I went to work at the Ford
Foundation, and part of that time was in Brazil."
Studying the Military
In 1974, prior to Chris
Welna's return to Brazil, Charles Reilly arrived from the University of Chicago
to conduct research in pursuit of his doctoral thesis. Dr. Reilly later researched
how public policy is made at the local level under a military regime and taught
development planning at the Federal University in Pernambuco. But his introduction
to Brazil was in São Paulo.
The newly married Reilly
soon accepted a position with the Virginia-based Inter-American Foundation
(IAF) which took him to Rio. There, he helped to facilitate funding from sources
like the Ford Foundation for a wide variety of organizations undertaking constructive
social engagement. Among them were one or more organizations loosely identified
with the emerging Brazilian Black-Pride movement.
"The Ford Foundation
was initially pretty uncomfortable with the idea of getting involved with
African-Brazilian social programs" said Dr. Reilly. "They declined
to provide any funding. That was before Chris Welna's arrival." Dr Reilly
facilitated funding for them through the IAF "until we could establish
their credibility. Chris was more receptive when he arrived, so then we were
able to get Ford Foundation money."
The `Black Rio' movement
was split between the kind of organizations Reilly worked with and more militant
groups inspired by the Black Panthers and other radical groups in the United
States. The Brazilian military regime drew no distinction. In late 1978 or
early 1979 the Inter-American Foundation was forced to close down and the
IAF staff was invited to leave the country.
"There was no good
reason for the government to take that action," insists Dr. Reilly, although
the reach of black activism did surprise him. "Through the Research Institute
of People of Color," he indicated, "I was introduced to a couple
of security cops in the National Congress who were activists in the black
movement."
"I worked with a
cluster of grass roots organizations," offered Dr. Reilly. "Among
them were Olorum, led by Carlos Negreros and his wife Isaura Assiz. Another
was founded by Candeia, a paraplegic composer and former policeman who brought
kids in from the salt flats just outside of Rio." The same salt flats,
perhaps, where popular singer Marisa Monte's family made their fortune.
Like Welna, Reilly eventually
returned to Brazil for a period. In the mid 1990s he worked with the Inter-American
Development Bank. Today he conducts research as a visiting fellow at the Kroc
Institute, in the Hesburgh Center at Notre Dame, two floors up from Chris
Welna in the Kellogg Institute.
Honoring Lula and Cardoso
The first director at
Kellogg was an Argentine political scientist, Guillermo Valentine, who spent
half the year at Notre Dame and the other half "teaching at a university
in São Paulo," according to Dr. Welna. "Because the first
directors of the (Kellogg) Institute were Latin Americans," he said,
"they began to focus on Latin America. And the Institute is best known
for its work on Latin America." "Most of the countries in Latin
America at that time were military dictatorships" he added, "so
the focus was also on questions of democracy and returning governments to
civilian rule."
Not surprisingly then,
it was announced that Brazilian President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva
and his predecessor, Fernando Henrique Cardoso (FHC), were selected co-recipients
of an annual Kellogg Institute organized recognition. Awarding of the 2003
Notre Dame Prize for Distinguished Public Service in Latin America by current
Notre Dame President Rev. Edward Malloy, C.S.C., was scheduled to be awarded
in January of 2004 in Brazil.
"The Notre Dame Prize
aims to underscore the personal generosity, skillful leadership and tenacious
hard work that leaders bring to public life in Latin America," said Rev.
Malloy. "It also highlights the critical role that public service plays
in improving the well-being of the region's citizens."
According to a University
of Notre Dame press release, "the award honors the leadership shown by
both men in the national elections (of 2002) that achieved the first democratic
transition between two elected presidents in Brazil since the early 1960s."
It went on to say that "this year, the prize is a timely tribute to democracy.
As Presidents Lula and Cardoso have demonstrated, sustaining democracy—especially
with the economic and security problems that challenge many countries today—requires
leadership committed to democratic principles."
It went on to say: "Lula
and Cardoso both know the costs of living without democracy. Under the military
regime that ruled Brazil from 1964-85, each suffered from the effects of a
politically repressive society. Lula was jailed as a union leader, and Cardoso
was forbidden from participating in political life." Each recipient receives
a US$ 10,000 cash award with a matching donation to each recipient's favorite
charity.
Another Cardoso Connection
A young FHC crossed paths
with a young Charles Reilly when the latter was working for the IAF in Rio.
"Cardoso was one of the many academics who were thrown out of universities
for being radical," recalled Reilly. "He founded a think tank called
CEBRAP (Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento—Brazilian
Center for Analysis and Planning) and recruited other fired academics, including
sociologist Procópio Camargo."
According to Reilly, Camargo
served as the public face of CEBRAP. That allowed Cardoso to function without
incurring so much ire from the military regime. The fact that Cardoso's father
was a military man was a double-edged sword. It may have kept him out of prison,
or worse, but the young Cardoso had to take care not to place his father in
jeopardy. "Cardoso wrote some very courageous stuff," Reilly recounted,
"and it was brilliant."
Reilly came to know FHC's
wife, Ruth, better than FHC himself. While with the Inter-American Development
Bank (IADB) in Washington he encouraged the IADB's president to invite Mrs.
Cardoso to the U.S. to speak before the IADB board. Then he helped to underwrite
the visit by working on an IADB grant to the Comunidade Solidária organization
that Brazil's future First Lady was then directing.
More Ties to Brazil
Almost a decade before
Chris Welna first traveled to Brazil as a high school exchange student, and
two full decades before the Kellogg Center was established, Denis Goulet received
his PhD from the University of São Paulo. Dr. Goulet, a William and
Dorothy O'Neill professor in Education for Justice, a professor emeritus in
economics and a fellow at the Kroc Institute, is adamant in his insistence
that he is not a Brazilianist.
But he's written with
substantial insight and clarity on a number of Brazil related topics including
Paulo Freire's revolutionary educational strategies, and once offered a comprehensive
examination of conflicting interests which undermined decision making in three
Brazilian development initiatives.
Francisco Weffort, who
served as Minister of Culture under Cardoso, had been a visiting fellow at
Notre Dame and noted Brazilian author Marcio Souza recently delivered an insightful
lecture titled "The Amazon and Modernity" at the Hesburgh Center.
Every Monday night for eight weeks Notre Dame screened a Brazilian film in
DeBartolo Hall, courtesy of faculty-member Isabel Fereira Gould. The Brazil
Club even ran a concession prior to one of the Notre Dame home football games.
Uniquely Brazilian
Perspective
Greg Downey, a faculty
member within the Anthropology Department at Notre Dame, received his first
Capoeira Angola lesson in 1992, in Bahia, from the discipline's acknowledged
greatest living master, João Pequeno. João and the second most
respected Capoeira Angola master, maestro Marrom, recently made their inaugural
visit to the United States, ironically elsewhere in Indiana.
I asked Greg for his explanation
of the rising interest in Brazil on college campuses. "Brazil,"
he responded "like Chiapas in Mexico, is becoming a focal point for issues
of global concern, just as India and Egypt earlier emerged as leaders of the
non-aligned movement."
"At first I think
we began to see an increasing awareness of Brazil as a result of cultural
factors, especially owing to Brazilian music and soccer. The growth of the
environmental movement and an increasing perception of the Amazon as the lungs
of the world added momentum." Dr. Downey acknowledged that other issues,
for example the possibility that a Brazilian may become elected the next Pope,
will always periodically spotlight Brazil. "But the primary factor,"
he insisted, "is that the uniquely Brazilian paradigm offers an alternative
in today's globalization-driven, western-dominated, transnational corporate
capital and technology fueled environment."
"Brazil's racial
profile," he continued, "is a real factor here. So is the fact that
it has embraced socialist leadership. And it isn't that Brazil is doing anything
especially well. But Brazil offers a genuine alternative and people want to
know how they're doing."
A 17 November Associated
Press news story titled "Microsoft gets cold shoulder in Brazil"
supported Dr. Downey's conclusion. Brazil, it was announced, wants everyone
"from school children to government bureaucrats to use open-source software
instead of costly Windows products."
Lula's chief technology
officer, Sergio Amadeu, was quoted as saying that "We have some islands
in the federal government using open-source, but we want to create a continent."
In the article, Amadeu argued that costs associated with Microsoft licensing
fees were economically unsustainable "when applications that run on the
open-source Linux operating system are so much cheaper."
SPECIAL NOTES:
1. For those interested
in online resources specific to African-Brazilian history I recommend
author John Geipel's 1997 History Today cover story titled "Brazil's
African Legacy." Find it by searching for the title at www.google.com.
2. Father Hesburgh's
comments on Brazilian Cardinals and chances for a Brazilian Pope:
When I asked Father Hesburgh
if he had known the late Cardinal Neves of Bahia, a descendant of African
slaves, he responded "No I don't think so. I may have met him but I can't
say I knew him as a friend." He also indicated that he doesn't know Cardinal
Hummes of São Paulo, Brazil's most likely candidate for the papacy.
But "I think it more
likely that a Brazilian will be selected, or someone from Central America
than an African," he said. And he acknowledged knowing the predecessor
of Cardinal Hummes, Cardinal Arns. "I knew Hummes predecessor. We gave
Arns an honorary Doctorate from here. He was a wonderful guy."
3. Other Universities
in the Midwest with Brazilian Connections
Several hours south from
Notre Dame, Indiana University in Bloomington boasts of one of the most well
organized Brazilian student associations in the United States. `BAIU' director
Marlene Martins, wife of Professor Emeritus Heitor Martins, is one key reason.
A growing awareness of
Brazil on campus at IU is being fueled by BAIU, by active Portuguese Language
faculty, and by the relatively recent establishment of an IU Center for Latin
American and Caribbean Studies program. Dr. Eduardo Brondizio, a faculty member
in the program, requires his anthropology students to read Kottak's "Assault
on Paradise."
The University of Wisconsin
at Madison also has a fledgling Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
program. But focus on Brazil in Madison has encountered a setback. Dr. Willie
Ney, who has long advocated an appreciation of Brazil and Brazilian culture,
established ties to Amigos de Iracambi, an environmental project in Eastern
Minas Gerais. After months of preparing an internship opportunity at Iracambi,
the Brazilian consulate denied the candidate student's application for a visa.
4. Films screened in
the 2003 University of Notre Dame Brazilian film series:
Black God, White Devil
Land in Anguish
How Tasty was my
Little French
Memoirs of Prison
Xica da Silva
Bye Bye Brazil
Lamarca
Central Station
5. Links to university
programs referenced in this article and or Special Notes:
Indiana University Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies http://www.indiana.edu/~clacs/
University of Chicago http://www.uchicago.edu/
University of Denver Graduate School of International Studies http://www.du.edu/gsis/
University of Michigan Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/lacs/
University of New Mexico Latin American and Iberian Institute http://laii.unm.edu/
University of Notre Dame Kellogg Institute for International Studies http://www.indiana.edu/~clacs/
University of Notre Dame Krok Institute for Peace Studies http://www.nd.edu/~krocinst/
University of Texas Institute of Latin American Studies http://laii.unm.edu/
University of Wisconsin Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies
http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/laisp/
new/funding/funding.htm
Phillip Wagner is
a frequent contributor to Brazzil magazine. His current focus is
preparing to pursue graduate studies in September of 2004, with a regional
focus on Brazil. He is currently in Brazil improving his Portuguese and
continuing to work with the Afro-Blocos of Bahia, and other social programs,
something he took up in the mid 1990s. Phillip maintains an extensive Brazil
focused website at www.iei.net/~pwagner/brazilhome.htm
and can be reached at pwagner@iei.net
