Rubén Miranda - Autorretrato

All images I tried to outline here can be interpreted with different colours depending on where you are standing on social hierarchy, where you are from, what your political bias is, and so on. What I did here in this series of posts was not to defend any particular point-of-view, although I clearly have mine. I have just tried to point how different those images or perceptions can be if we change our perspective. It was merely an exercise of sympathy.

What is your image of Brazil? Has it changed along the pass years? How do you perceive the images created by different medias?

For me, this is a fascinating time to observe and live. Definitely it is not a decade to linger on, it is a decade to enjoy.

There is no doubt that Brazilians and foreigners alike have changed their perception of Brazil in recent years. Defining the turning point of the that change is relatively easier from the point of view of an outsider, and a lot more complex from inside, as expected by the way.

The most important event in the world scenario in recent years was the crash of the United States financial system. It was just as serious as the 1929 crash, only this time even the ones most entwined in the laisser-faire orthodoxy  backed off due to its huge economic impact and ran to the big umbrella of government. This support shortened its long-terms effects, such as unemployment and deflation. The great, great majority of economists apologetic of the free-market proved to have an incredibly flexible spine. And I truly admire those broken by the events cascaded by the waves of Lemon Brothers bankruptcy.

To really understand subprime crisis

Nevertheless, even shortened and contained, the crisis shocked the economies all around the world, more deeply in developed economies, true, but historically peripheral economies had to struggle harder with any crisis. How we are going to survive, how agile every economy response will be to that threat was a “natural” stick to measure the strength of all countries. And through that test, Brazil passed fast and almost unharmed. That was the turning point when everyone asked themselves “how could it be”.

All elements in the current image of Brazil abroad came from that question. The Brazilian president is very well approved by the locals. It must be that, let us appoint him the man of the year. Brazil abandoned orthodoxy in favour of a liberal approach. Partially true, the central bank seeks just an inflation target and it is independent by any point of view, nothing more orthodox than that. Mixed inputs, c’mon should be something, they were struggling with every international crisis like everybody else not so long ago! In fact, there is no clear answer, just because there is no single answer. Seen from outside, it was just like magic. And, as a marvellous nation, Brazil rose out of the blue.

The image Brazilians have of themselves was not defined by this serious international threat. Seen from here, it was just a little wave and Brazilian economic authorities were quick enough to mitigate any collateral damages. Furthermore, it must be a polychromic picture captured by the bias of who has seen such complex reality. Today, in my point of view, that bias is set mainly by social classes.

There is one huge difference between what that government in office did and the previous one did. The current government took office promising to rise the lower classes to a better stand. In the first term, that promise was not delivered, although you may point that it was being brewed. However, in their second term, the government promoted a social rise as never seen at any time of Brazilian history. Even more, the economic boom was not concentrated in traditional regions; it spread a boost in the income through out the country. The better the families’ income is, particularly in the lower classes, the better local commerce and what economists call the multiplier-effect of income. Because we are surfing on this self fed economic boom, one that is not fully dependent on international prices or markets,  the worst economic crisis of our days hit us as little waves.

This social and economic prosperity, side-by-side with democratic and institutional normality we are experiencing today, changed more deeply than anything the image we have of ourselves. For better or for worse, national pride is on the rise, internal demand is good, agriculture is expanding its frontiers, local currency is getting stronger, and upper classes never lost so much political power.

The third period I have chosen is what we Brazilians call the lost decade. We were leaving behind roughly 20 years of a fierce dictatorial government. A government set up by army’s generals with right-wing industrials and landowners support. A government said to pursue eradication of chaos set in course by a communism infiltration in Brazilian society. A government that had begun with strong support by the media, until the economical boom promised proves to be a mirage. Then, it was just the tyranny trying to return the power without the fear of being persecuted by its atrocities.

As I said, it begun with the first civil president in 20 years, after a backfired lockdown attempted by military high commanders. Whatever the mess the dictatorship left behind, we were sure that we would cope.

But we could not cope. It was far beyond our means and the reason was very simple, and very old: compound interest over a long term debt.

To deliver the economical strength in order to justify the coup d’état, the finance ministers of military government heavily relied on international capital at the time cheap and available in the market. That was before the first oil crisis of 1973. The interest was low and the debits were taken in long-term loans. From 1973 to 1978 the price of oil barrels skyrocketed, pulling interest rates with them. The long-term Brazilian debts rendered impossible to be paid. Most of military government support corrosion was due to the suppressing economic drain those debts impose on Brazilian economy. This was not a domestic affair; this is something that does not change just because a civil president takes office. But it was a start.

In round numbers from 1985 to 1995, successive Brazilian democratic governments struggled just to cope with monetary inflation, the major internal collateral effect of those debts in economy. Inflation was the only way in which central government could inflict on all society a widespread taxation to be able to pay the interests of debts contracted a long time ago. This taxation as so imposing and the resultant inflation so demanding that every Brazilian adult that lived in this period remembers it vividly as the lost decade. It was a decade we had to linger on.

I like to think that every Brazilian who had to go abroad for any reason and spent some months living in another country had that odd experience that happens to us when we are stricken by a Brazilian song we identify immediately. I wander how many of us had that clash with a Tom Jobim song. In my case, I stood frozen in a noisy supermarket in my second day abroad. It’s like seeing a very familiar face in the middle of an ocean. You’re never prepared.

Music is the Brazilian product that every one in the world recognizes by its quality. It is not as ubiquitous as American-British music, but its quality is uncontested. Coffee, we have to admit, is Colombian; football, well football depends on the nationality of whom you are asking. But, in the imagination of the world, music is for Brazil like chocolate is for Switzerland, every one regards it as outstanding.

All this started when Bossa Nova impacted music scenarios all around the world in the mid ‘60s. You can never over-evaluate the influence of Bossa Nova. It changed fundamentally the way we make music. You will see no more traditional music regarded in Brazil as second class music since a whole generation of urban middle-class musicians emerged from its dive on the strong and cultivated popular music.

Better representing this generation was not one of its own, but Vinicius de Moraes; one generation older, former ambassador, highly educated poet that left behind his European-centric and spiritualised poetry. He was not the first to bring samba closer to the new urban class, as we can point out Caymmi, nether was he the one who will take Bossa Nova to its pinnacle, as someone will remember João Gilberto. Nevertheless, for his past and his commitment, I regard him as the most emblematic figure in Bossa Nova movement: a bon vivant, former catholic white ambassador, singing for Orishas, gods in Brazilian-African religion. And when it was released in a long-play it was a big hit, both in Brazil and abroad.

That “clash of civilization” changed for good the way we Brazilians perceive our culture. All prejudice we had did not disappear in the air; neither had we become a racist-free society. But it is quite remarkable that the most appreciated Brazilian product in the world was brewed when we put aside our preconceptions and mixed together all ingredients of our culture in a big pot. And what a fertile pot!

Inverted Oreo

Firstly, she was a white, Portuguese descendent urban girl. Although arising from a working class family, she was not a poor black girl from a shantytown. In the radio era, when the image of a pop star was not so universally spread as it is today, we may ask ourselves if the fact that she was a white girl is important. But to be able to succeed in theatres of Broadway, it was not irrelevant. Furthermore, considering that she was a samba singer (like almost every other radio queens) and samba is a music style born and bred in the black culture, it’s somehow odd seeing her standing out over all other singers.

Secondly, she represents the first try by urban class to take control of popular music that had abounded for a long time around big cities, notably in Rio de Janeiro. Taking control may sound a little inappropriate. In a sense, it was urban elite overcoming its prejudices and accepting this music as valid, worthy of being listened to. And again, the image of Carmen Miranda, a white urban girl singing samba, set an image that Brazilian elite may be proud of. Historically, this elite had never accepted the black and popular culture as representative of Brazilian culture. At most, if impossible to avoid, it represented the underdeveloped, most shameful part of Brazil, as there were two Brazils, one enlightened the other unworthy.

O Brasil dá samba?

The most important effect Carmen Miranda had over the image Brazilians hold of themselves was to crack the elite’s prejudice over popular culture; paving the way for the acceptance that even illiterate people may create a valid and solid culture. This is not saying the white Brazilian elite will accept to share power, loose its tight grip over people or its control over mass media. But in the ideological battle, they blink for the first time.

And the second time this elite blinked was when Bossa Nova was born in white middle-class’ bosom.

Starting in the twentieth century, we may distinguish four moments in which Brazil gained international recognition: in the early ’40s with Carmen Miranda, in the ’60s with Bossa Nova, in the early ’80s as an indebted third country, and now in the later ’2000s as a country that better survived a crisis paralleled only by the crash of 1929. Let us start with the first two which have a cultural bias in common.

O Cruzeiro cover: Carmen Miranda

Before the II World War, Brazil was seen as little more than a big tropical country in Latin America. Like any tropical country, it was inhabited by a lazy people intended but to master the arts of easy going. And to fulfil this predestination, an artist with an amazing and exotic look sticks out in the music scene. Her name was Carmen Miranda. Simply put: the Brazilian bombshell.

Using a military term to describe Ms. Miranda is quite interesting in itself if you consider the pre-war self-image the United States has about its place in world. After the I Great War, the United States establishes itself as a major power with a rising military industry. But it remained very keen on its image of a pacific country, disconnected from the complex and confusing European diplomacy, even a kind of naive and red-neck country. Using Brazilian bombshell to describe that little exotic girl that took Broadway by surprise starts to show cracks in such self-image.

One important aspect of Carmen Miranda is that she did not become a star only abroad; her success in Brazil was already very solid when she went to the United States. And the radio buzz of the early ’30s had everything to do with Carmen Miranda’s celebrity. She was the first national idol of the mass media era. Thus, she can be seen as an image Brazilians want to worship, if you like; a bearer of values Brazilians honour. But, what are those values?

Snail - Henry Matisse

Almost every image people create to talk about a country is superficial and diminishing. And it is bound to be this way as, by definition, we create an image to frame a complex reality in a simpler mould we can grasp and live with. Yet, those images reveal a lot not only about the country portrayed, but also about the ones who created the images. Deceiving as it can be, images often emphasise a very real aspect of a county. On the other hand, the prejudice explicit on the image tells a great deal about the portraitist. If we continue a little further, it is easy to see that every text which depicts any scene, real or fictional, is doomed to be simplistic and is subject to the same rules that reveals not only a partial and distorted picture but also glimpses of the portraitist.

This introduction is to set clear that this text will not try to be an impartial essay about the recent Brazilian history. It is by design a collection of bits and pieces loosely put together by my own choices.

In the category Images of Brazil, I am going to write about the ongoing changes in the perception Brazilians and foreigners have about Brazil. Those posts will try to assess my own perception that, both as nation and as folk, Brazil is not seen as simplistically as it was seen before: as a country of carnival and soccer by foreigners, or as a country of the future, a country to be made by our people.

Choosing to set this proposition as loose as it is, I may preserve some degree of freedom to approach this subject from the point of views of my interest, not only the usual political or economic analyses. To understand the deepest and subtlest changes I feel it is paramount, as well, to weigh Brazilian culture.