Wilson Center: Free Publications About Brazil

The Wilson Center, which hosts the excellent "Brazil Portal," offers a series of free publications about Brazil. They are available for downloading as PDF files, and can be viewed on a computer or iPad, or printed.

Several of the titles are offered in both English and Portuguese.

So far, I've read one of the articles in the book titled "Brazilian Perspectives on the United States: Advancing U.S. Studies in Brazil." The article I chose is called "Seductive Imperialism: The Americanization of Brazil During World War II."  The author is Antonio Pedro Tota, associate professor of History at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica in São Paulo. 

He begins by explaining how, in the early 1940's, the "thumbs up" hand gesture replaced the traditional Brazilian gesture of clasping the earlobe with two fingers to signal approval. The thumbs up signal was used by American pilots stationed in Northeast Brazil to communicate with their Brazilian ground crews. The signal spread rapidly among Brazilians in the Northeast, and from there, throughout Brazil.

He also includes a detailed and interesting account of the circumstances surrounding Carmen Miranda's return visit to Brazil in 1940. She was received coldly by her Brazilian audience. She began by greeting them in English, and not very idiomatically. Se said "Good night, people!" instead of "Good evening," but in any case her use of English got things off to a bad start. According to Tota, the audience sat in stony silence when she finished singing the song "South American Way," which, to be fair, does paint South Americans in a rather stereotypical way.

He then goes on to tell about her returning to the stage a couple of months later to sing "Disseram Que Voltei Americanisada." It wasn't long after this that she returned to Hollywood, and it would be 14 years before she again visited Brazil.

The article includes detailed information about the ways in which the US developed its "good neighbor" policy for Latin America, which it viewed as increasingly important as the US faced war-time challenges in Europe and Asia. 

For some reason, this particular article appears only in the English version of the book, and not in the Portuguese, but the other articles appear in both versions.  

This screenshot shows the complete contents of the book:

"Estadão" Asks: "Qual O Melhor Disco Brasileiro De Todos Os Tempos?"

What is the best Brazilian record of all time?  Good question, without an easy answer. 

On this page, "Estadão" offers 30 choices and asks readers to cast their votes by September 4. 

You can click on each album cover, see a short description, and hear short sound samples.

Even if your favorite Brazilian album isn't here, it's likely that one of your favorite artists made the list.  It's also a great way to sample artists or records that you may not already know.

There's also an incredibly detailed and colorful timeline of Brazilian popular music since the 1940's, tracing each genre and sub-genre as it develops over time.  It's definitely worth a look even if you don't plan to vote.

Source: "Estadão"

In case the page disappears after the winner is announced, here's a list of the albums, which are shown in the photo. Is your favorite Brazilian album on the list? Is there a great album or artist that they didn't include in the final 30?

João Gilberto

"Chega De Saudade"

1959

Jorge Ben

"Samba Esquema Novo"

1963

Vários

"Tropicália Ou Panis Et Circenses"

1968

Tim Maia

"Tim Maia"

1970

Chico Buarque

"Construção"

1971

Gal Costa

"Fa-Tal-Gal A Todo Vapor"

1971

Roberto Carlos

"Roberto Carlos"

1971

Novos Baianos

"Acabou Chorare"

1972

Milton Nascimento E Lô Borges

"Clube Da Esquina"

1972

Paulinho Da Viola

"Nervos De Aço"

1973

Raul Seixas

"Krig-Ha, Bandolo!"

1973

Secos E Molhados

"Secos E Molhados"

1973

Elis Regina E Tom Jobim

"Elis & Tom"

1974

Gilberto Gil

"Refazenda"

1975

Rita Lee

"Fruto Proibido"

1975

João Bosco

"Caça À Raposa"

1975

Cartola

"Cartola"

1976

Maria Bethânia

"Álibi"

1978

Caetano Veloso

"Cinema Transcendental"

1979

Djavan

"Luz"

1982

Legião Urbana

"Dois"

1986

Os Paralamas Do Sucesso

"Selvagem?"

1986

Titãs

"Cabeça Dinossauro"

1986

Cazuza

"Ideologia"

1988

Marisa Monte

"Mais"

1991

Chico Science & Nação Zumbi

"Afrociberdelia"

1996

Racionais MCS

"Sobrevivendo No Inferno"

1997

Lenine

"O Dia Em Que Faremos Contato"

1997

Cássia Eller

"Com Você... Meu Mundo Ficaria Completo"

1999

Los Hermanos

"Ventura"

2003

New Study Suggests Anatolian Homeland for Indo-Europeans

Everyone knows that Portuguese and Spanish are closely related, with a shared vocabulary as high as 80%. Most people also know that both languages are part of the Romance language family, which also includes Italian, French, and Rumanian.  

But did you know that these languages are also related to languages as diverse as Welsh, Russian, English, Hindi, and Persian?  All of these languages, and many more, are part of a huge language family known as Indo-European.  Indo-European languages are the dominant languages in Europe, North and South America, Australia, as well as areas of western Asia. Indo-European languages are common second languages in many parts of Africa and Asia, a result of the old European colonial empires. 

This map shows how widespread Indo-European languages are. Areas in red show where Indo-European languages are spoken as the primary language:

The relationship among Indo-European languages has been clear for some time, with obvious similarities between number words, words used for family members, pronouns, and other frequently used words. In 1786, Sir William James delivered a lecture on the similarities between Sanskrit, Latin, Ancient Greek, Gothic, Celtic, and Old Persian. 

This map, from "O Globo," shows the striking resemblance of three common words across a wide geographic and cultural spectrum (you will need to click on this graphic, as well as the ones that follow, in order to read it):

More examples:

The pronoun "I" in Russian is "ya," in French, "je," in Portuguese, "eu," in German, "ich", and in Latin, "ego;" the pronoun for "you" (singular familiar) in Russian is "ty," in French, "tu," in Portuguese," "tu," in German, "du," and in Latin, "tu."  

And here's a chart showing the similarities in numbers. Notice that the words for 2, 3, and 10 are almost the same across all the languages.

By applying well-accepted practices of historical linguistics, linguists have reconstructed a fairly complete proto-Indo-European language.  However, experts are divided about where the original speakers of the mother tongue first lived.  

We know that their descendants spread out to cover a huge portion of the world, and those movements are well documented in both ancient and modern history. However, the first Indo-Europeans emerged long before written history was recorded, which makes it much harder to pinpoint their original location.

Several recent articles describe the results of new research about the origin of the first speakers of proto-Indo-European. The newest research has been published by Quentin Atkinson and colleagues at  the University of Auckland in New Zealand.  Their study argues for a homeland in Anatolia, in what is now Turkey.

One article appeared in the New York "Times." It includes a graphic, with a map and a family tree, showing when the daughter languages separated from each other.  The map on the "Times" website is similar to this one:

Another article appeared in the "Scientific American," while a third appeared in "O Globo".

Rancher Charged With Masterminding Murder Of U.S. Nun Is Released by Order of Brazil's Supreme Court

Missionary Dorothy Stang
was murdered in 2005
in the northern state of Pará.

The "Washington Post" reports that a Brazilian rancher charged with masterminding the murder of American nun Dorothy Stang has been ordered released by Brazil's Supreme Court.  

The rancher, Regivaldo Galvão, was found guilty in 2010 of ordering the murder, but was then freed on appeal. He was imprisoned again a year later, when a Pará court determined that he must begin serving his sentence before his appeal process was finished.  

As the article points out, this case is not an uncommon one.  More than 1,150 rural activist have been killed in the past 20 years, but fewer than 100 cases have gone to court since 1988.  

Wealthy landowners have exerted considerable influence in Brazil for hundreds of years. 

According to the article, the state of Pará is "notorious for land-related violence, contract killings, slave-like labor conditions and wanton environmental destruction."

Source: Brazil Portal

"Brasileiro," New CD From Nelson Freire

Brazilian classical pianist Nelson Freire, who is internationally famous and who has recorded a large number of albums, has just issued a new CD entitled "Brasileiro." 

On the album, Freire performs 30 solo piano pieces by Villa-Lobos and other Brazilian composers. 

The CD received an enthusiastic 5-star review from the "Guardian," which closed with this comment: "There's more than enough here for you to hope that Freire might put together a second volume, perhaps including a few more substantial works; in the meantime, if there is a more perfectly played piano disc released this year, we will be very lucky indeed."

You can sample it on Amazon or iTunes. I just finished listening to samples of all 30 tracks on iTunes and the CD has been added to my wish list. (Note: both iTunes and Amazon incorrectly list the first six selections as being part of the "Carnaval das Çriancas," when we know that the cedilla belongs on the *second* "c," not the first one). 

A side note: with all due respect to Mr. Freire, who is a brilliant pianist, and who looks pretty good for a 66-year-old guy, why do classical record companies so often choose to use a photo of the performer or conductor for their cover art? A classical album is not like an album of popular music, where listeners want to see their pop idol. I think it's a lot more appropriate to include a classical artist's photo in the booklet that comes with the CD. For the cover, artwork or a photo featuring a Brazilian landmark or its scenic beauty would have evoked the spirit of this music just as effectively as a photo of Mr. Freire with the ocean behind him. 

This cover art for a multi-disc set of Villa-Lobos' works issued by BIS is a good example of what can be done instead:

Here's one from Naxos that uses a photograph on the cover (I would have made the photo bigger, but at least they've got the right idea):

Finally, here's an example of how to put the artist on the cover, but in a way that makes it feel a little more...Brazilian. OK, maybe the parrot and the sunglasses are a bit over the top, but it's colorful and it makes you smile.

If you're asking yourself what the hell this has to do with Freire's CD, the answer is "nothing at all," so I apologize for getting off-topic.

Brazil Revives Plans for a Bullet Train from Rio to São Paulo

An article in the "Latin American Herald Tribune" tells about revived plans for a high-speed bullet train project between Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo. The government will accept bids for the $16.5 billion project in two phases. 

First, it will award a contract to the company that manufactures the trains themselves.  Then it will award a contract to the company responsible for building the tracks, stations, and other necessary infrastructure. Bidding will close on April 30, 2013.

There were three previous attempts at a bidding process for a similar project, but all three failed because no company would agree to meet the various demands of the Brazilian government.  

As the article notes: "Experts say the project is complex because it would involve construction of 90.9 kilometers (56 miles) of tunnels and another 107.8 kilometers (67 miles) of bridges and viaducts to traverse the rivers and mountainous terrain that separate São Paulo from Rio de Janeiro."

Source: Brazil Portal

More News About Brazil's Strikes

An article in "Reuters" outlines another impact of the strike by thousands of Brazilian public sector workers. Since the strike involves employees of the agency that collects and publishes Brazil's unemployment data, that information has been delayed for the second month in a row.  

As the article states, "The two months of employment data is key to assessing whether Brazil is poised for an economic rebound in coming months."  This information is of great interest to those monitoring Brazil's economic progress.

In another article, the "Christian Science Monitor" offers an analysis of the challenges that the strike poses for Dilma.  The article includes a brief overview of the strikes, explains why they have lasted so long (they started in May), and focuses on the potential difficulty they pose for Dilma's political future.

This passage from the article highlights how big the problem is for Dilma: "If Rousseff can’t bring the strikers under control it could spell trouble for her party in October’s municipal elections and weaken her broad public support. Civil servants have been an important bedrock of support for the Workers’ Party and if they turn on her, she will suffer."

Another recent article from "Reuters" goes into more detail about Dilma's tough line with her own base, while she has increased privatization and taken other measures to encourage economic development.  

Source:  Brazil Portal