By Alexa DeLeon Going abroad to Brazil was something I did not expect to do. For those who know me, I am extremely comfortable being comfortable. Getting out of my comfort zone is not something I ever look forward to and often not something I voluntarily like to do. However, stepping out of my comfort zone became surprisingly easy here in Bahia. Whether it was asking questions to the speakers during lectures, going to the beach, attempting to speak to people in Portuguese, dancing, or jumping from the boat into the water (with a life vest, of course), I found myself embracing new experiences with an open heart. Coming in, I knew I wanted to let loose and create new memories, but I really did not see myself doing the things I did during my time in Bahia. The first workshop was on Capoeira with Mestre Sapoti during the first week. I did not want to participate; I just wanted to watch because it was interesting, but I knew it was something I would not do. The instructor made sure we all participated and even had us go in the middle to do some of the steps. I could not say no because it seemed like everyone else was okay with it. I noticed myself being stiff and not really engaging, but I still participated. I was intrigued but did not put in all the effort I should have, though at the time, just being part of it was enough to say I did it. The next activity that was extremely out of my comfort zone was the Afro-Brazilian dance workshop with Antonio Cozido. I have two left feet, and it takes me a long time to learn the steps. Dancing is one of my least favorite things to do because I feel like everyone is watching me make mistakes. This workshop was not what I expected at all. I attempted to dance, pushing through my discomfort and insecurities. The instructor had a lot of patience with me, which brought me a lot of comfort and helped me accept the discomfort. In the end, I realized how fun it was. It was intimidating in the beginning, but I slowly started to let loose, not only to participate but to show the group that although I did not really want to do it, I was trying. At the beginning of the program, I used Google Translate every day to communicate with my host family. I was afraid to make mistakes and make a fool out of myself, so to keep it safe, I used the translator. Meals at the dinner table were silent, and to me, silence is extremely uncomfortable, but attempting to speak a language I was not fluent in was even more so. As the days went on, the conversations at the dinner table became more verbal. I became more comfortable not only attempting to understand but to speak it too. One of the most recent things I did was jump off the boat into the water. I do not really know how to swim, and I freak out when I cannot touch the bottom, but surprisingly, I had a burst of adrenaline and wanted to jump in with my friends. They told me if I did not know how to swim, I should not jump in, but I really wanted to and ended up wearing a life vest. Never in my 20 years of life would I have done that, but being in a different country, specifically in Brazil, helped me so much. Throughout the weeks, I noticed how uncomfortable people in Brazil have been for years to be where they are today. Learning the history of slaves, the struggles of women, and the number of battles that must be fought today taught me that life is meant to be uncomfortable. Humans are supposed to step out of their comfort zone. For me, stepping out of my comfort zone changed my entire mentality. I think getting that rush of adrenaline was thanks to the struggles I heard about during the lectures here in Brazil. Professor Clarice Mota, the speaker for the Racism and Health in Brazil lecture, talked to us about the struggles of black students. As I reflect, I understand how uncomfortable an education is for them, not because they do not want it, but because it is something new, and they must fight against the prejudices that surround them. Learning about women’s reality and Lei Maria da Penha has helped me understand how uncomfortable reporting abuse is and how uncomfortable one must be to make a change. My small out-of-comfort accomplishments might not have made much of an impact, but I choose to believe that these experiences will stay with me forever. My time in Brazil has motivated me to leave comfort behind and embrace being uncomfortable as a positive thing to help myself and others grow. This has been my favorite study abroad program, and it is because of the memories I made and the experiences I gained through my discomfort. Sources: Lecture on “Women’s relaity and Lei Maria da Penha in Brazil” with Major Denice Santiago. May 24, 2024. Lecture about Racism and Health in Brzil with Prof. Clarice Mota. May 24, 2024. Workshop on Capoeira with Maestre Sapoti at Aliancia Francesa. May 17, 2024. Workshop about Afro-Brazilian Dance with Antonio Cozido. May 18, 2024 ![]() Alexa DeLeon is a sophomore at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University, hoping tp purse a major in political science, with a concentration in pre-law. She is originally from Cicero, Illinois. Alexa enjoys learning about underrepresented communities in the realm of policy issues and likes to be an advocate for inclusion for marginalized communities. Something fun about Alexa is that she has seven dogs, 3 males and 4 females.
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By Ignacio Sanchez Romero Two recurring themes that I noticed throughout my time in Brazil were tradition and race. These observations broadened my understanding and challenged my assumptions about Brazilian culture and society. Tradition was the first theme that came through in several experiences. We began our trip by attending a lecture with Professor Willys Santos and Alcides about Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religious tradition. This was followed by a Capoeira workshop, a martial art that combines dance, gymnastics, and music. We had the opportunity to engage as well as observe, experiencing the tradition's music and history. ![]() Another example of tradition was attending a Bahia football match, where the fans' chants and songs filled the stadium. These experiences demonstrated how deeply embedded traditions are in Brazilian culture. These are not only things from the past; rather, they are ongoing traditions that influence people's identities. As I gave this some thought, I realized how simple it is to take our traditions for granted. Our cultural identities are built on customs and practices that have been passed down from generation to generation. However, we frequently lose awareness of their importance in the rush of modern life. My time in Brazil made me realize the value of preserving and valuing these traditions. It prompted me to reflect on my own history and the traditions that define me as a Mexican American. I started asking myself deeper questions like, "What does it mean to be a Mexican American?" Who am I and what am I called to do? The second theme, race, became visible through everyday observations. Sitting in a food court one day, I noticed a clear division in the area. While the diners, many of whom were white, were passively enjoying their meals and talking about their plans to visit the beach, people of color made up the majority of those handling the cooking, cleaning, and placing orders. This observation echoed what we discussed in class about race and socioeconomic status. It brought attention to the discrepancies and structural injustices that exist everywhere, not only in Brazil. Lençóis was another place where this pattern was visible, with people of color regularly spotted dealing to make ends meet while white tourists were enjoying their holidays. These were some disturbing and eye-opening observations. They showed me how deeply embedded these inequalities are. It was not limited to the food court or Lençóis; it was present everywhere I looked. This difference served as a reminder to me of how important it is to recognize and address these problems, both in Brazil and at home. While it's simple to overlook such realities when they don't directly impact us, this trip made it difficult for me to stay quiet. Overall, there was more to my trip to Brazil than just a getaway. I had a great opportunity to think about my own identity and learn about a new culture. This experience has increased my understanding of global issues of race and embracing traditions, as well as how they intersect. It has given me a sense of responsibility to spread this awareness and apply it in my daily life. This trip has also taught me the value of being open to new experiences and perspectives. I was able to develop myself and get a broader perspective on the world by getting involved with Brazilian customs and seeing the racial dynamics up close. It served as more proof that traveling is about more than just seeing new places; it's also about having new experiences and growing from them. My wish is that more students will be able to take part in these kinds of trips, not only to travel to new places, but to learn more about different cultures and global issues. We can experience significant personal growth by being willing to try new things and push ourselves beyond our comfort zones. ![]() Ignacio Sanchez Romero is a senior at Saint John's University majoring in Economics with a minor in Data Analytics. He is from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He recently presented a research project on how migration status affects earnings from wages. He discovered that gender and migration status have an impact on wages. During his time in Brazil, he plans to expand on this work by conducting additional research on racial and gender inequality. One interesting fact about him is that this will be his second time leaving the country. By Morgan Van Beck As a double major in Political Science and Hispanic Studies with a minor in Latino/Latin American Studies, I thought that I had a pretty good grasp on Latin American history and culture. While this was not incorrect, I was not aware of just how complex Brazil is and how little I really knew about it. None of my Hispanic Studies classes touched upon Brazil, and aside from speaking Portuguese rather than Spanish, it has a very distinct culture and history from the rest of Latin America. What I’ve learned while living in Salvador and traveling around Bahia is that a history of repression and inequality breeds resistance, which in turn creates culture. In short, resistance is culture. It helps to turn back the clock to 1500 when the Portuguese first landed in Bahia and started the vicious process of colonization. This led to the forced enslavement and relocation of millions of Africans to Brazil to work on plantations and in mines (Periera 2020). Hundreds of years later, in 1888, Brazil was the last country in the western hemisphere to abolish slavery (Periera 2020). The fact that it took so long to abolish slavery shows how integral it was to the Brazilian economy and how many salves suffered. Salvador is the city in Brazil with the highest percentage of the population being Afro-Brazilian. “Bahia is a state marked by racial inequality,” but it is also marked by a strong presence of traditions of African origin (Pinho 2020, 1). While in Salvador, we saw not only this inequality, but also many cultural elements that sprouted from African traditions and were preserved as a form of resistance. A prime example of resistance is salve revolts and the formation of quilombos. While in Minnesota, we learned about historic slave revolts in Bahia and about the quilombo communities that were formed by escaped slaves (dos Santos 2024). Quilombos had contact with the outside world and actively traded, but they were also perfect microcosms to preserve African traditions and resist the cultural impositions of the Europeans. We visited Quilombo Kaonge while in Brazil and were able to see for ourselves how the descendants of escaped slaves maintained the traditional practices that their ancestors preserved. We had the opportunity to learn about the cough syrup and palm oil that they produce and to learn from them about the importance of resisting cultural imposition. Carnival might be Brazil’s most famous event. People around the world know what carnival is, but they don’t know where it came from. Carnival has roots in African music, dance, and performance, and when we went to the carnival museum, we learned all about the lesser-known African history (at least for people in the US) of carnival. At the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, whites were threatened by African cultural elements in carnival and did their best to “civilize” carnival by emphasizing more European elements (Pinho 2020, 7). However, carnival still retains its African influence. This pattern repeats across Brazilian cultural elements. In response to repression by white elites, Afro-Brazilians resisted and preserved their African-rooted traditions while creating a rich Brazilian culture. Another example of resistance becoming culture is the practice of candomblé. Candomblé is a religion brought to Brazil by slaves from Africa. We were first introduced to it in the book Crooked Plow, where many of the characters actively practiced candomblé (Vieira Junior 2019). Honestly, I didn’t entirely understand candomblé while we were reading the book back in Minnesota, but since being here, we have had a chance to learn a lot more about the religion that is also a symbol of resistance. Rather than submit to pressure by the Catholic church, African slaves were able to preserve their rich religious history. Now, Candomblé is celebrated as part of Bahian identity. We saw statues of orishas on our ride from the airport and now, after visiting various candomblé temples and hearing lectures about it, we have come to understand just how important it is to life here. Brazilian music and dance are also heavily influenced by African traditions brought by slaves and preserved as a form of resistance. Now, Afro-Brazilians honor and remember their ancestors by continuing to learn these styles of music and dance. We were lucky enough to participate in a samba class, where we immediately noticed strong African rhythms and drumming in the music. We also went to a percussion workshop with Mario Pam, who taught us that drumming and music were not only used as tools of resistance by slaves and their immediate descendants, but by modern Brazilians as well. Afro-Brazilians today are still using music to express themselves and decry the inequalities that they suffer. This means that modern culture is still being shaped by Afro-Brazilian resistance. Like percussive music and samba dancing, capoeira is another distinctive element of Brazilian culture that has its roots in African traditions. Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian martial art with elements of dance, music, and acrobatics. It exists today because of efforts by Afro-Brazilians to preserve and promote their culture and heritage. Before coming to Brazil, I had no clue what capoeira was, but now, I see it everywhere. We participated in two Capoeira workshops (one in Salvador and one in Lencois) and saw it performed as part of a folkloric ballet. However, its pervasiveness in culture means that we’ve also seen people doing capoeira at the beach, in parks, and in other public places. It’s just one more element of popular Brazilian culture that comes from resistance efforts by slaves and their descendants. After nearly three weeks in Brazil, one of the things that I noticed the most was the prevalence of Afro-Brazilian resistance, which forms critical parts of Brazilian culture. Almost every day we saw examples of it, and they were not limited to the subjects I discussed above. We also saw Afro-Brazilian resistance in educational institutions, graffiti/street art, and so many other things. Race, inequality, and culture are all woven together into a complex knot. The oppression and inequality that Black Brazilians faced led them to create a rich culture of resistance that they are still contributing to today as inequality and racism continue to take new forms. Brazilian culture is distinctly marked by African traditions introduced by slavery, and it would not be the same without them. Therefore, to fully appreciate Brazilian culture, we need to understand its roots in African tradition and Afro-Brazilian resistance. Sources: Dos Santos, Pedro. “Slave Revolts in Bahia.” YouTube. Uploaded by Pedro dos Santos, 13 February 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO_syIfkYVQ. Pereira, Anthony. Modern Brazil a very short introduction. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pinho, Osmundo. “Race and Cultural Politics in Bahia.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History, 2020. Vieira Junior, Itamar. Crooked Plow. Verso Books, 2019. ![]() Morgan Van Beck is a senior Political Science and Hispanic Studies double major with a minor in Latino/Latin American Studies. She is originally from Sartell, Minnesota. Morgan's most formative educational experience was traveling around Guatemala with the Guatemala Human Rights Commission, which inspired the theme of her senior distinguished thesis: human rights abuses in post-conflict societies. Morgan recently received a Fulbright grant to teach English in Colombia and will be moving there shortly after graduation. By: Alaina Rivero On May 27, 2024, we visited a community called Quilombo near the town of Cachoiera, it is the farthest community from the sea known for oysters. This community is home to 32 families. They use techniques from ancestors and traditions that are passed down. Tourists arrived for the first time on November 20, 2012, which also happens to be the Day of Black Consciousness. This community’s life didn’t look much different during covid, they had zero deaths in the community due to there naturally made medicines. They also sold these medicines during the pandemic to help others. While everyone in this community has their own specific role and helped make these medicines at the time. We were then showed the processes. When we first arrived, we were greeted by this older woman and this younger girl. We first walked through the village to get to our first meeting point and when we got there, we met Pina. She was chosen to oversee the making of Xarope Quilombola (cough syrup) by the leader of the community and was also passed to her by her aunt, she was getting older and needed someone to take over. Pina layd out various herbs on the table and she began explaining each one and what they do. After leaving Pina we walked over to our next meeting spot where there is a huge red plant on the table, a large silver bowl, and next to the table a cylinder-shaped stand with a wooden bowl on top and a stick. Here they showed us how to make palm oil, the traditional oil native to Brazil and used in many popular dishes. We got to help them with this processes, first we took the seeds of the plant and put them in a bowl to cook then we transferred them into the large wooden bowl and smashed them with a wooden stick. Next, we dumped that mixture into water and started to remove the seeds and create a foam like texture in the water, by moving the liquid around in a fast motion. Lastly the foam was taken out and put into a separate bowl and cooked over the fire, to create the oil like texture Lastly, we walked across the road to this pavilion where our next meeting point was at, here we met Ananias. He knew a lot of information on the background of the culture and where it all started. He began to go on and talk about how he spoke to a school about his model and his plan to keep this away from the government so that it stays local to the community, and they don’t have to experience pharmaceutical companies teaming up with cartels to try and take over their traditions. As he spoke to the students they started to question why they’re still in college and wondered what they could do to help. The students learn that if the government were to get involved this model won’t succeed. Coming up with new projects/models to continue the traditions and natural remedies that originated in their community. Overall, our visit to Cachoiera was both informative and eye-opening to me because I plan to go into the pharmaceutical sales business. This experience gave me a completely different perspective on medicine, and I have a better understanding on why communities like this want to keep natural remedies away from government power. This model is a cultural tradition that has been passed down from ancestor to ancestor for many years, keeping this tradition alive is what they live for, and a full-time job for many of them. Some final questions I still have are, how do natural remedies affect the political side of things in Brazil? And what does the government think of them? Are they losing money? Do they know that things like this still exist? Do they care? ![]() Alaina Rivero is a sophomore at College of Saint Benedicts, Hoping to pursue pharmaceutical sales after college with a major in global business leadership and a minor in biology. She is originally from Dayton, Minnesota. Alaina enjoys staying active, going to the gym, being with family and friends, and shopping. She loves learning about different cultures and how global health plays a role. Something that many people don't know about Alaina is that she swam competitively for 10 years. By Carter Potthoff As we wrap up our three weeks here in Bahia, I have begun to reflect on the experience and think about what I have learned during our stay here. There is one common theme that almost all of the activities we have done and lectures we have listened to have touched on, and that is Afro-Brazilian identity. Salvador, being the most African city outside of Africa, has a long history of Afro-Brazilian culture and resistance, which is reflected in various art forms, education, and community. It is impossible to talk about Afro-Brazilian cultures and history without talking about art, music, and dance. During my time here, I have begun to understand how different arts forms are used to tell the story of ancestors, whether enslaved people in Brazil or ancestors from Africa, and promote the Afro-Brazilian identity. We had the opportunity to learn about many of these art forms, like percussion, capoeira, Afro-Brazilian dance, and graffiti. During our percussion workshop with Mario Pam, we talked a little bit about the history of percussion in Afro-Brazilian communities and the formation of African Blocks, or blocos de carnaval, in which Afro-Brazilians came together to create music and dance during Carnaval, but they were historically targeted by police. Osmundo Pinho, a social scientist at UFBA, says that “the image of the city of Salvador as a civilized and white city appeared threatened by the African presence” (Pinho 2020, 7). The white, Brazilian elites felt threatened by something as simple as music and dance. They went as far as banning “the display of African customs with drumming”, but there was no success (Pinho 2020, 7). Afro-Brazilian drumming has a history founded on resistance, and it is still of great importance to Afro-Brazilian identity and resistance in Salvador to this day. In “AmarElo – It’s All for Yesterday”, a Netflix documentary by Brazilian rapper Emicida, he walks us through the history of Afro-Brazilians through their music. It is symbolic as well, because he tells the story during one of his concerts at the Teatro Municipal de São Paulo, which was historically a place where black Brazilians were excluded. This concert was a way for Afro-Brazilians to take back a space they were historically excluded from (Ouro Preto 2020). For me, I see Afro-Brazilian music in Salvador in a similar way; Afro-Brazilians use music to form their identity and take their claim to spaces, both physical and societal, that they have historically been excluded from. Another Afro-Brazilian custom from Bahia is capoeira, which is a kind of fusion of martial art and dance. Capoeira was documented from as far back as 17th century Brazil and has been played in Afro-Brazilian communities as a form of resistance throughout Brazilian history (Pinho 2020, 6). Capoeira, like many other forms of Afro-Brazilians arts, was once banned, but regardless, it survived and was passed down from generation to generation and it remains a practice today. Similar to other Afro-Brazilian art forms, there is connection to Afro-Brazilian religions, like Candomblé, within these practices. Both came from enslaved Africans in Brazil and are unique to Brazilian culture, and both have been used to create community building spaces for black Brazilians, like the capoeira school or the Candomblé terreiros we visited. In the book Crooked Plow, the Jarê rituals, which is a religion similar to Candomblé, were accompanied by music and dancing, and when Zeca or other characters were mounted by orixás, they danced and sang (Vieira Junior 2019). Music and dance is so central to Afro-Brazilian identity that it plays a central role in things as important as religion. At the Balé Folclórico da Bahia, we were able to see many different practices of Afro-Brazilian culture, like capoeira, Candomblé, maculelê, and samba performed in one space using dance, drumming, and singing. It was a really impactful way to end off the trip and really allowed me to make connections about everything I was seeing and learning. One last art form I want to talk about, that is much more contemporary than capoeira or drumming, is graffiti. We had the chance to visit Eder Muniz, who is a graffiti artist and tagger from Salvador. He shared with us some of his work, but also some background about graffiti and tagging and the social aspects of it as well. In a paper about “street youth” in Salvador, Marit Ursin, a sociologist at NTNU, talks about the negative connotations around street youth and how these connotations reinforce the social exclusion of these youth and continue to drive unequal structures of power (Ursin 2016). Eder talked a bit about this and said that in his case and the case of many others street artists, their art begins as a means of liberation and as a way of making themselves seen, by putting literal representations of themselves, in the form of tags, in their physical space. In a sense, tagging is about taking back their right to live and exist in their communities. Eder talked about using graffiti as a way of building community as well, and the importance of the community when making street art. He showed us some pieces around his community that he worked on, which were often accompanied by neighborhood parties or barbecues. Involving the community in the process of art is important in creating a piece that truly represents a community, but also that the community sees themselves represented in. These past three weeks in Salvador, we have had the opportunity to see and participate in all of these art forms, and I definitely have a new appreciation for art and music as a tool in resistance and building community. Sources Ouro Preto, Fred, director. 2020. Emicida AmarElo: It’s All for Yesterday. Netflix. Pinho, Osmundo. “Race and Cultural Politics in Bahia.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History, 2020. Ursin, Marit. “Contradictory and Intersecting Patterns of Inclusion and Exclusion of Street Youth in Salvador, Brazil.” Social Inclusion 4, no. 4 (October 20, 2016): 39–50. Vieira Júnior, Itamar. 2019. Crooked Plow. National Geographic Books. ![]() Carter Potthoff is a senior at Saint John's University, majoring in Hispanic Studies and Biology and minoring in Latino/Latin American Studies. He is originally from Sartell, MN. Some of his many research interests include indigenous groups, cultures, and religions in southern Mexico and Guatemala, immigration in the Americas, and racial dynamics in Latin America. In his free time, Carter loves trying out new recipes, spending time with his family and friends, and most people don't know this, but he is an avid birder! Carter is excited to visit Brazil for a second time and learn firsthand about race and gender!
By Jennifer Agustin Ambrocio
Pedro's Note: Both Jennifer and Ignacio wrote about education, but Ignacio posted an Instagram post about the same experiences. I will share his Instagram Post at the end of this blog post (but you can also click on this link)
Brazil is truly one of a kind, and an experience of its own. Having studied abroad in Mexico, Spain, and Dubai and now Brazil as my fourth trip study abroad. Salvador, Brazil has been amazing, and I wouldnât change my experience for anything. The first week was a rollercoaster for sure, from spending 24 hours in Chicago for our flight to finally stepping foot in Brazil, that was all that I cared at that moment. These couple days have been full of being engaged and willing to learn about the history, religion, culture, and social issues that Salvador has faced. Therefore, women and children have continued to fight for education, and rights, because even though education is the key to life, that is not always the case for every kid especially in Salvador. As Nelson Mandela once said âEducation is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the worldâ but if education was free for all, being debt free, where materials are provided, and teachers are actually paid what they are supposed to be too.
During our second week here we visited Escola Aberta do Calabar to interact with teachers and the kids. It was a very bright and vibrant place where all the kids were getting along no matter what age, or gender you were, everyone included everyone. One of the teachers showed us a tour of the school and got to explain a little more about what these kids learn even though it might not seem as a typical school as in the United States. At Escola Aberta do Calabar, many of the school supplies come from donations and kids take courses that will actually serve them in life such as knowing how to sew, being taught social issues, the real history of Brazil, and where many of these kids get to chance to attend the school without having to pay for fees such as the public and private schools in Bahia. This school was in a low-class neighborhood, where many of the kids there attended this school and shows that âin the 21st century, Bahia is a state marked by racial inequality, the poverty of a large part of the population, and state violence, paradoxically associated with the strong presence of traditions of African origin and a rich and dense popular cultural life, as in other parts of the African diasporaâ (Osmundo, 1). So far I have seen racial inequality through my time here in Bahia, where colorism is one of the biggest issues that Brazilians without to say that throughout âBrazilian history, black culture (later coded as popular, peripheral, or favelada, which means from the slums, favelas) has been the object of repression, violence, disdain, panic, and anxiety, from the point of view of dominant white consciousness, as demonstrated in the case of Bahiaâ (Osmundo, 3).
We also had a lecture from the director of Instituto Cultural Steve Biko, Jucy Silva. Instituto Cultural Steve Biko is a school that serves students black especially those that want to pursue a higher education and degree, where students are taught ethnic-racial diversity and view the world named after the South African leader, Steve Biko, a great reference in the fight against Apartheid in South Africa (Instituto Cultural Steve Biko). The schools' mission is to promote political and social ascension of the black population through education and appreciate their history, but most importantly how to be black (Silva, 2024). Iâm thankful there are these institutions in Bahia and hope there might be something similar in the United States, since âBahia is the Brazilian state with the highest absolute numbers of poor people (6.3 million) and extremely poor people (1.9 million), among which families headed by black women are overrepresented (Osmundo, 3). Even though these institutions serve those underrepresented in Salvador, many of the students go to the stages of their school career where they deal with stress, anxiety, depression, and such that affect their mental health (Mota, 2024). Something that surprised me was that many of the students go to work, and also go to school, which is something I would also do as a underrepresented student on campus but it's something that I must be grateful for since my parents have told me to focus on school because that is my only job. Both institutions have English classes for students to take advantage of kids being taught English classes is way to become more knowledge with those around them, but also a way to communicate with those as it is seen as an advantage later in life. Which I can relate as a Mexican American because my second language is also English and as a Spanish speaker I tend to try and practice both, so I don't forget them. We as Americans don't realize that education is such an important part of our life to get where we want and what goals we want to achieve whether it be a specific job/career or anything else that could give us an extra advantage. âSources Pinho, Osmundo. "Race and Cultural Politics in Bahia." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History. 17 Dec. 2020; Accessed 26 May. 2024. https://oxfordre.com/latinamericanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.001.0001/acrefore-9780199366439-e-946. Instituto Cultural Steve Biko - https://www.stevebiko.org.br/index.php Director Jucy Silvaâs Presentation, Thursday May 23rd Professors Clarice Motaâs Presentation, Friday May 24th ![]()
Jennifer Agustin Ambrocio is a Senior at the College of Saint Benedict, double majoring in Political Science and Hispanic Studies with a minor in Latin Latino American Studies. She is originally from Bloomington, Minnesota. Jennifer enjoys watching and reading the news at a international level. She studied abroad 3 times already, and Brazil will be the 4th time
IGNACIO'S POSTBy Alaina Rivero & Tania Salgado One thing Pedro has reiterated on this trip is to take risks and be uncomfortable so you can learn. In the past week of being in Brazil we have stepped out of our comfort zones and ate chicken heart, hiked what seemed to be a million miles up a mountain, and took some dance lessons and watched back videos Pedro took of us only to realize how stiff we are. We have learned so much in such a short time and the days seem to go by terribly fast. We have had lectures about religion, native people, and education in Brazil. But one workshop in specific has piqued our interest. Capoeira is something both Alaina and I have been mesmerized with. Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian martial arts form that incorporates acrobatics, dance, percussion, and rhythmic dialogue of body, mind, and spirit. There have been records of Africans and slaves dancing and playing instruments in the 17th century (Pinho 2020, 6). This dance holds power as it has been kept alive and is still taught to kids. We have seen capoeira being performed a few times both in Salvador and Lençóis, and each time we are amazed at how history is kept alive and embraced through music and dance. On our second day in Salvador, we had a capoeira workshop led by Mestre Sapoti. He first talked about the background of capoeira. It is not certain if capoeira is a dance or a fight. It starts with two people shaking hands and then beginning to move to dodge the opponents’ hits. The group of students that were there with Mestre Sapoti demonstrated for us what capoeira looks like. We loved seeing them do cool tricks like handstands, cartwheels, aerials, and other gymnastic moves. After the demonstration, Mestre Sapoti taught us some basic capoeira moves. We paired up trying out the new dance moves feeling more confident in what we were doing. After a few minutes of practicing, he stops us and brings out the musical instruments. He describes each instrument and plays the beat of the song that the students were dancing to. He gives some of us instruments to play while the rest of us sit in a circle. This part of the workshop ties back to what we had read in class about the several municipal laws that were enacted to prohibit “the display of African customs with drumming” (Pinho 2020, 7). Clearly there was no success in the prohibition of displaying African customs with drumming. This goes to show how Afro-Brazilians can never be silenced.
We both have been amazed at the way empowerment and history lives on through capoeira. We see the power capoeira holds as it continues to embrace the history of Afro-Brazilian people. We understand the importance of keeping capoeira alive and are grateful that we are able to have this experience. We are absolutely loving Brazil and its culture and can’t wait to tell others about everything we’ve learned. Sources: “Capoeira History.” ABADÁ-Capoeira San Francisco (blog). Accessed May 23, 2024. https://www.abada.org/capoeira-history/ Capoeira workshop with Mestre Sapoti at the school of Alianca Francesa May 17, 2024. Capoeira workshop at Academia de Mestre Cascudo in Lençóis May 20, 2024. Pinho, Osmundo. “Race and Cultural Politics in Bahia.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History, 2020. ![]() Tania Salgado is a sophomore at CSB+SJU, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Data Analytics. She is from Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Tania has researched the many factors that contribute to violence against women at a worldwide scale. She is continuing her research this summer and is grateful for the opportunity to learn more about this issue in Brazil. She can't wait to spend three weeks in Salvador! ![]() Alaina Rivero is a sophomore at College of Saint Benedicts, Hoping to pursue pharmaceutical sales after college with a major in global business leadership and a minor in biology. She is originally from Dayton, Minnesota. Alaina enjoys staying active, going to the gym, being with family and friends, and shopping. She loves learning about different cultures and how global health plays a role. Something that many people don't know about Alaina is that she swam competitively for 10 years. Alaina can't wait to broaden her knowledge on global health and sales in Brazil! By Allison Parker and Joselyn Rubio-Correa During our first week here in Salvador, Brazil, we’ve felt the vibrant and strong influence of Afro-Brazilian culture. The city reflects the traditions of African origin that live on today. Before our departure, we learned about the current racial and gender inequalities in Brazil, and specific to the state of Bahia. Salvador was, originally, the capital of Bahia during the period when the Portuguese enslaved the Indigenous people of Brazil and Africans. Although the Portuguese attempted to control and diminish Indigenous and African culture, the people and traditions held strong. As our professor quotes “oppression leads to resistance”. Examples of oppression and attempts to erase culture in Afro-Brazilians would be in the 1900’s when the religions of Candomblé and Umbanda were illegal to practice and labeled as “the devil” in the eyes of Christianity. Although Candomblé and Umbanda are no longer illegal, they continue to be demonized by the Christian church, as noted by Alcides, Pai De Santo. In addition, Capoiera, an Afro-Brazilian traditional practice, was criminalized and illegal to practice in the late 1800’s and into the 1900’s. Nationally, the practice was outlawed and people who practiced Capoiera faced harmful consequences and even death. However, it was still practiced in secret, passed down to the children and is now recognized as a national practice or symbol belonging to Afro-Brazilians. The Candomblé religion originated from the religious syncretism of West African religions and Christianity. Unlike Christianity, in Candomblé there is no belief of a devil, heaven, or hell. To become a follower of Candomblé, you have to know Portuguese and be initiated into the religion by a pai de santo (priest). Once you have been accepted into the religion, you are assigned an Orixá (god) and it is with you until death. Followers of Candomblé worship many different Orixás and often provide them with offerings as a way of giving thanks. Another tradition practiced is the art of Capoeira. As defined by Osmundo Pinho, social anthropologist in Bahia, “Capoeira is the expressive cultural African origin that combines ritual, dance, and body fight, nowadays practiced as a sport around the world” (Pinho, 2020). We learned that Capoeira is an art form like a dance that resembles a fight. However, Capoeira can be in the form of a real fight if a person feels threatened. As we were humbled by our flexibility and coordination skills, we learned the value and belief of Capoeira. Music, dance, movements and spirituality are crucial in the practice of Capoeira. The art is within the spiritual energy called axé (Rehard, 2021). Rehard uses a definition quoted by the scholar Barabara Browning “pure potentiality, the power-to-make-things-happen”. Rehard states that “Capoeiristas are able to engage in bodily dialogues with each other while using personal agency to shape the flow of the game for their own advantage” (Rehard, 2021). From our first-hand sight, capoeira is a controlled, strong, elegant practice that takes dedication, skill, and passion. The capoeiristas should never lose eye contact with one another, even when they are upside down or flipping. During our trip to Lençóis, Brazil, we were able to watch many Capoeira performances by students and teachers. In all the performances, the dancers moved in sync with one another and always watched one another, to prepare for their partner's next move. For musical expression, we saw the berimbau, atabaque, pandeiro, and agogo. (Itacare, 2024). Singing and clapping are encouraged as the audience gathers around the roda, or ring. Both of these Afro-Brazilian traditions focus on the connection to corpo, the Portuguese word for body. Capoeira uses the body as a form of dance and expression while Candomblé uses the body to connect with nature and the environment. Our time here has shown us the importance of the connection between the mind and body as well as our place in relationship to the natural world. Sources: Itacaré. “Capoeira - Itacaré Beach - Bahia - Brazil.” Www.itacare.com, 2024, www.itacare.com/itacare/capoeira/. Accessed 21 May 2024. Pinho, Osmundo. “Race and Cultural Politics in Bahia.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History, 17 Dec. 2020, https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.013.946. Accessed 23 May 2024. Rehard, Abby. ““Axé, Capoeira!”” ReVista, 25 Jan. 2021, revista.drclas.harvard.edu/axe-capoeira/. Accessed 21 May 2024. ![]() Allison Parker is a sophomore at CSB+SJU pursuing a major in Sociology with an Anthropology concentration, and a minor in Global Health. Her hometown is Belview, located in southwest Minnesota. She’s interested in learning about social behaviors and better understanding social, health, and cultural life issues. She looks forward to experiencing Brazilian culture and applying her studies abroad in Salvador. ![]() Joselyn Rubio-Correa is a sophomore at the College of Saint Benedict and is studying Computer Science with a minor in Political Science. She is a first-generation Mexican American who grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. Joselyn is the oldest of three and is looking forward to trying new foods, learning about Brazil’s culture, and sharing her experience in Brazil with her two younger siblings.
Yesterday I had the first meeting with the students who will be joining me in Brazil in May 2023. We start classes in March, but I get way too excited and want to start sharing stuff as soon as I can with students!
This first post is a review of the stuff we did in 2022. To complement the class, I invited various scholars to campus and remotely to help my students understand more about Brazil. Below are the recordings for some of these talks!
Spotlight on Brazil Series - Brazil under US influence: 1964-2021, Xavier Vatin
Spotlight on Brazil Series - Social inequalities in Brazil: Effects and Outcomes in Life and Health Conditions, Clarice Mota
Spotlight on Brazil Series - An Informal Conversation on Racial Issues & Basketball in Brazil, Jamir Garcez
Spotlight on Brazil Series - Fernando Conceição: Violence Against Minorities - Brazil & US, Fernando Costa da Conceição
By Kate McGlinch In studying race, gender and inequality in Brazil, it is impossible to not recognize the structural and interpersonal violence against minority groups in the country. The multilayered discrimination against black Brazilians has sprawled across history and recent times. Coming from the United States, these issues were not unfamiliar to me; During our trip, ten black people in Buffalo, New York were shot to death in a supermarket in a racially-motivated hate crime. Hateful ideologies feed into many instances of interpersonal violence like this which are, essentially, swept under the rug by the institutions and individuals holding power. Colorblind legislation allows for problems to be “fixed” without being fully addressed or validated. These things happen in both the United States and Brazil. But while I am fully aware of these issues in the U.S., I had much to learn while studying abroad. Before embarking on our trip, our class read about the history of race relations and the so-called racial democracy of Brazil. We were visited by Ian Carrillo, who had conducted ethnography on how color-blindness manifests today in Brazil’s sugar-ethanol industries, among many other scholars both in-person and virtually. In his article describing his studies, Carrillo identified racial democracy as the portrayal of “centuries of slavery and sharecropping through a nostalgic lens in which masters enjoyed cordial relations with enslaved peoples. Rather than abhorring the power inequalities inherent in the denial of human freedom, racial democracy romanticizes paternalistic relations'' (Carrillo, 58). I found this elaboration helpful in understanding the public reception of Mestiçagem and Freyre’s theories. Looking at the centuries of slavery and harsh oppression of Afro-Brazilians in this way seems to have provided the people perpetuating it with an escape hatch from guilt or accountability. Meanwhile the racism that continues today, though veiled, remains just as violent and repressive. We also read chapters from “The Politics of Blackness: Racial Identity and Political Behavior in Contemporary Brazil”, which provided a comprehensive examination into how the identities of Brazilians interact with their political behaviors. In its conclusion, it is stated that “discussion on the role that violence plays in maintaining an Afro-Paradise where foreigners celebrate exotic black bodies at the same time that the state destroys these bodies through terror and killing, highlights how state actors create racial categories for economic and social gain. Exclusion and discrimination are violent” (Mitchell-Walthour, 222). I found this to be a corroboration to Carrillo’s description of color-blindness in Brazil’s institutions today. In traveling to Brazil and observing life for different people there, I found these conclusions to be very real. While driving around Bahia, I spotted a lot of different billboards. Many promoted music while others marketed healthcare and beauty products. The differences in how these different interests were portrayed, however, seemed odd to me. While billboards for music and some beauty items included more people with darker skin tones, the billboards for healthcare almost always had just white people on them. Though pretty subtle in the grand scheme of things, these billboards seemed to reinforce the idea of higher education and employment in healthcare being more fitting for people with lighter skin. This was especially concerning to me as we had attended lectures talking about the reality of racial disparity in higher education. They emphasized that these pursuits are not “more fitting” of white Brazilians, rather, white Brazilians simply have much easier access to them. Apart from my experiences in Salvador, the lectures played an important role in identifying institutional violence against black Brazilians. We were visited by Professor Wyllis Santos for a lecture on Afro-Brazilian religions, in which he described the actions taken by evangelical and Catholic churches to suppress Afro-Brazilian religious practices throughout history and today. While the aggressive enforcement of Catholicism happened through colonialism, evangelical pastors today have been teaming up with drug-traffickers in order to target Afro-Brazilian congregations. Additionally, militias (often populated by cops) have also joined forces with drug-traffickers in implementing restrictive power over favelas, especially in Rio, which are often majority black communities (Santos, 2022). These groups do not seem to be held accountable for their violence due to their ideologies being mostly in-line with the country’s current president. Though this violence against black Brazilians is undeniable, the counteraction of black consciousness and empowerment seems to be supported with an equal level of determination. I was especially impressed by the work of the Pai de Santo Alcides and the Steve Biko Institute in their work for black communities in Brazil. As a practitioner of Candomble, Alcides emphasized positive work in one’s community as a principle of the religion. In his community, he started projects teaching children dental hygiene and building self-esteem in black women by teaching them how to do their hair (Alcides, 2022). The Steve Biko Institute, inspired by Steve Biko’s legacy of black consciousness and citizenship in South Africa, provides a “preparatory class for the entrance exam aimed at low-income black students - the first of its kind in Brazil” (Steve Biko Cultural Institute, 2014). Institutions like these, along with Afro-Brazilian percussion and dances in public spaces, voice opposition against racial discrimination in a sophisticated way. It seems that Afro-Brazilians have grown more and more unapologetic for their African features, making a case for the importance of these features to Brazil itself. Whether through practicing Capoeira or creating educational opportunities for black Brazilians, there is a strong sense of empowerment in Salvador. Works Cited Carrillo, Ian. 2021. “Racialized Organizations and Color-Blind Racial Ideology in Brazil.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 7, no. 1 (January): 56–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332649220943223. Mitchell-Walthour, Gladys L. The Politics of Blackness: Racial Identity and Political Behavior in Contemporary Brazil. Cambridge Studies in Stratification Economics: Economics and Social Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. doi:10.1017/9781316888742. Santos, Wyllis. “Candomble and Religions in Brazil.” Lecture, Instituto Clara Ramos, Salvador, BA, May 16, 2022. Alcides (Pai de Santo). “The Practice of Candomble.” Lecture, Instituto Clara Ramos, Salvador, BA, May 16, 2022. “Projetos: Pre-Vestibular.” Instituto Cultural Beneficente Steve Biko. Instituto Cultural Steve Biko, 2014. Accessed May 20, 2022. https://www.stevebiko.org.br/projetos Kate McGlinch is a sophomore at CSB/SJU with a major in Political Science and a minor in Philosophy. She is from St. Paul, Minnesota. Her academic interests include justice and reformation in politics as well as policy for social issues. She looks forward to understanding Brazilian politics and culture in a more holistic way while studying abroad.
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