What is Brazil Reading?

What Brazilian authors do you think I should read?

This question seemed to excite more interest than almost any other.  My bag is full of scraps of paper with authors and titles, the notepad on my phone is scattered with random titles, and my iphoto is cluttered with photos of books.

So what is recommended?

1.  Jorge Amado -  Author of many romances and intimate regional tales from Bahia in northern Brazil.  Wrote from the 50s through the 70's.  Captains in the Sand and Gabriela, Clove, and Cinnamon.
2.  Paulo Coelho - Widely read author of New Age spiritual fables from Rio de Janeiro.  The Alchemist.  
3.  Paulo Leminski - Favorite poet of hip, young students who devoted many hours translating for two Americans.   Leminski is a contemporary poet.
4.  Clarice Lispector - Considered one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century but not widely known outside Brazil. The Passion According to G.H. Complicated and literary writer.
5.  Lygia Bojunga - Children's writer.  My Friend the Painter.
6.  Graciliano Ramos - Modernist  communist writer who depicts the lives of the disenfranchised.  Sao Bernardo:  A Novel.
7.  Erico verissimo - Incidente em Antares.  Highly regarded work.  I cannot find an English translation.
8.  Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis.  Fascinated with the theme of jealousy, this realist writer was first published in 1899.  Dom Casmurro is a story of adultery told through the eyes of a betrayed husband.
9.  Gilberto Freyre - The Masters and the Slaves: A Study in the Development of Brazilian Civilization.  Academic writer concerned with issues of race.
10.  Aluisio de Azevedo - In 1881, he wrote a scathing expose of his native city called Mulatto. It is the story of a young man kept ignorant of his mother's identity and his mixed birth.  He is also the author of O Cortico pictured above but unavailable in English (as far as I can tell).

Dining vs. Grabbing a Bite

While most Americans probably feel pretty comfortable with Brazilian music, film, and style, I found the table manners far more European than American and had to stop myself from grabbing a bite to eat on the run more than once.

The hospitality students at IFG provided one of the first clues to more formal attitudes toward food consumption.  Their lesson focused on setting the table with the the heavy cloth first and the finer one angled on top.  The careful placement of dessert spoon, first-course fork, second-course fork, and fish knife (fish knife??) was followed by the recitation of various dinner-ware in English.  Students practiced serving wine properly, and removing plates unobtrusively.  Hmmm  . . . not your ordinary diner experience.

The breakfast buffets at even the most average hotel should have been another clue.  Hot coffee and milk served at the table, fruits, breads, cereals, cheeses, hot foods--all to be consumed most politely without touching food with the hands.  Yes, even pizza is eaten with a knife and fork and although most will pick up a bun or pastry with a napkin, I had a noon meal with a fellow teacher who used her knife and fork.

Even I, who can consume a Thanksgiving dinner in less than five minutes, wouldn't dream of rushing through an afternoon snack of cakes displayed with such fanfare.  But streetfood, I might eat on the run.  Not in Brazil.  The attention to detail by the open fair purveyor who prepared the manioc dish of banana and cocoa, insists that one sit and relish the delicious fare.

It should have come as no surprise that until recently THE CUPHOLDER in automobiles was an oddity.  I saw no one rush into a meeting with paper cup in hand.  Instead, small sweetened espressos were served in China cups to be sipped civilly.  Food on the go is a no-no I discovered by the strange looks I received while chugging a soda on the elevator.

Had I only read the Lonely Planet guide to Rio beforehand, I would have known:

"Brazilians are casual about many things.  Table manners are not one of them.  where possible, avoid eating with your hands--middle-class Brazilians often eat sandwiches with a knife and fork,  and no one eats pizza with their hands."

Global Connection:  Study the eating patterns of your classmates.  How much food is consumed how often?  Where is food consumed and with whom?  Can you detect effects of eating patterns attitudes toward food?

Cook in Rio: cookinrio.com

Rio IS cookin' in a variety of ways, but cooking class with Braseilero restauranteur Simone de Almeida at Lampadosa on the Rua do Rosario, is rich in culture and flavor.

Simone's class begins with an explanation of Brazilian food-- a fusion of indigenous, Portuguese, and African flavors--and the now familiar history of Brazil's settlement makes culinary sense.  The indigenous manioc (yucca root) of the indigenous people, the morning pastry of pao de queijo (bread cheese) suggestive of French bread, the black bean feijoada, an early slave dish, all speak to the passionate improvisation of the culture.

As our moqueca (fish stew) simmers, Simone immerses us in her cosmopolitan views: analysis of German and American childrearing, interpretations of mealtime traditions, and a vast knowledge of the world's foods.   "We like to mix the blood," she says of Brazilians.  "Why would I want to marry someone who looks like me (a beauty of indigenous, African, and European ancestry)?  It would be like marrying my brother."

"We like the surprise," she adds,  "the surprise of mixing foods, of mixing heritage.  What will it look like?" She asks of the next child.  "What will it taste like?"  we ask of the bananas, manioc, and onion side dish.

The answer:  beautiful, rich, and delicious.

Global connection:  Trace the origins of a dish's ingredients and manner of preparation.  How does food convey history, resources, and practices?  How are demographic changes reflected in a region's food?

Pope at the Beach: World Youth Day 2013 in Rio

After posting "Where Are All the People," my impressions of Catholicism in Rio altered somewhat. A Jesuit educated tour guide in Salvador spoke knowledgeably about current movements within the Church.  A visit to the modern Christ the Redeemer Statute above Rio revealed a secularized celebration of humanity at the feet of Christ with visitors lying on the platform to get a shot of a friend with arms raised and Cristo in the background.  (You're right.  We couldn't resist.)

And chancing upon a packed, vibrant noon-time mass in Rio suggested that while many Brazilians are not outwardly devoted, Catholic doctrine and practices are pillars of the society.

Whether Argentinian Pope Francis' visit to Brazil for World Youth Day in a few weeks will spark renewed interest in Catholicism is a question of interest.  When I recounted to a Rio cab driver the 500,000 faithful who celebrated mass with Pope John Paul II at Cherry Creek Reservoir in 1993, he nodded sagely and raised his chin toward Copacabana Beach.  "We'll have many more.  Many more."  From the number of scaffolds being constructed down the 4 kilometers of the beach, he's got to be right.

A short time later we wound up at Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Sebastian, an ultramodern design by Edgar Fonceca completed in 1979, in the company of groups of young people who seemed to be gathering in preparation for a mass and World Youth Day activities.  

Again I had to rethink my assumptions about the secular nature of Brazilian Catholicism.  I witnessed irrefutable evidence that the Church played a strong role in people's spirituality even though many are uncomfortable with the Church's history of oppression of slaves and native peoples and the current proclamations about lifestyle choices.

Of course, it's naive to think that the complexity of the Catholic Church's role in Brazil can be understood in a short month.  Perhaps the attitudes are as individual as the people expressing them.

Global Classroom:  What is the role of organized religion in democratic societies?  How does the financial status of a particular religion impact its role?  To what extent does religion reflect a people's hopes and beliefs about themselves?