So, how’s your vacation?

 

Sometimes we are asked how it feels to be on a long “vacation” in Brazil doing research.

The comment usually comes from people whose knowledge of the field is from the official travel poster view of Brazil — Carnival, samba, beaches, soccer, and maybe capoeira.  The reality on the ground feels different on most days.

On the national level Brazil is troubled with public health deficiencies (underfunded hospitals and medical services, control of mosquito-borne diseases), a declining economy (gross national product is down) and inflation, international devaluation of Brazil as a good investment, a catastrophic mud slide from a burst mining dam in Minas Gerais, and growing problems of deforestation of the Amazon and provisioning of the public water supply.

Brazil is putting on a brave face to the international community with the coming Olympics in 2016.  But keeping Rio de Janeiro safe during the Olympics and turning the games into an occasion for city development are major concerns.

To top it off, the government is fractionated and dealing with the possible impeachment of he President, a bribery scandal involving the president of the legislature, the jailing of the president of the Senate for trying to arrange the international escape of a Petrobras executive from prosecution (and, worse, testimony against more politicians), and daily reports of jailings of politicians.

As an American comparison, it is as if he Speaker of the House were being investigated for corruption, the speaker of the Senate was put in jail, and the President was facing possible impeachment.

This is national Brazilian scene.

In Maranhão public health, public safety, transportation, and infrastructure are critical issues, but are mainly being dealt with by optimistic signs and public ads.

Brazil’s self-image seems to be a house of cards  at the moment, so it is no wonder that it touts the Carnival and the Olympics to the outside world.  Besides the Carnival it has little to brag about.

The Carnival is a massive economic enterprise that reminds me of the Super Bowl.  There is popular participation, there is a widespread audience, and there are huge economic issues at stake.  The larger cities continue to promote Carnival as an economic and cultural engine, but many smaller cities cancelled or limited the celebration for reasons of cost or public safety.

Rio is not the rest of Brazil, and we are not researching there,  or in the other famous sites like Recifé/Olinda, or Paratins.  We are working in the federal state of Maranhão with its capital city of São Luís and the rural/small town “interior” of the state.

European friends understand that this is “Provinz,” and Americans know that this is “in the sticks.”  But it is important to note that the million-inhabitant region of greater São Luís is already “province” — far behind the better known cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.  Leaving São Luís for the interior is going far deeper into the past.

This area is an ideal site for heritage celebration culture because it is economically backward compared to the rest Brazil, has greater infrastructure problems, and higher illiteracy.  Its celebration culture has survived precisely because it is in in a “forgotten land” that is light years away from Rio and São Paulo.  That is the reason to be here, but it is — to say the least — a different kind of field work.

Much of the field work is outside the city of São Luís where based.  We have traveled some 3000 kilometers doing field work.  Much of it has been by bus.

 

This post is a brief view of one typical trip — to Santa Inez, a city of 90,000 inhabitants, they say.  This particular day we were in a neighborhood of the city to film an initiation ceremony in a spiritual house.  Proud of its urbanity, its mayor was in jail for rape.

It happened that on this day there was some political action on the streets — the mayor was indisposed, having been hauled off to the Pedreiras Prison. Pedreiras is one of the last stops on the road back to São Luís, for us and for him, apparently.  The newspaper printed pretty intimate details about the sexual encounter, including much information from the report of the medical examiner.  The local papers and TV stations here have different standards than some countries, and routinely show line-ups of arrested kids, and homicide victims in the street.  Increasingly, they also show politicians in detention,  though corruption is more common than sex crimes, I think.

 

 

Across from the first bus stop is an example of  the ubiquitous caixias da agua, water tanks that are used all over Brazil to hold and stabilize the water supply. There are many variations. Some are connected to household plumbing, others are free–standing. In some villages and settlements a tank may serve the community and feed into a common set of faucets, or even be locked in a cabin like this to control access.  You have to keep the lids on and drain the surrounding area, though, or they become breeding grounds for mosquitoes.  Often, the need for water competes with the need for mosquito control. (A later post talks more about water supply problems.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tire shop below is apparently oblivious to the fact that this day was “Zika Zero” day of awareness — a publicity campaign of the government to remind people to eliminate sources of standing water (like old tires) that breed mosquitoes. The donkeys grazing behind are oblivious to all this and are simply part of the scenery

The Market in Sana Inez, Sunday

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nostalgia.  In Santa Inez you can still find relics of the pre-cellphone era. Here the telephone ear” is inscribed with the numbers of mototaxis, the motorcycle taxis that get you around the rougher streets. They are a very efficient ride, but you need to hang on to the grab bars, and hold you gear, your hat, and your sense of humor.

Wildcat cabs are are also available, but you almost have to know a driver to find one. We have one who is almost a friend now.   He gets us about in the 90’s heat or at night when we have photo gear to carry (or it is raining).  He even got out of bed at 2:00 am on Saturday after we finished filming a ceremony at a spiritual house.  Although the atmosphere inside the terreiro is one of devotion and celebration, the streets outside are definitely less spiritual, especially at 2:00 in the morning.

 

 

In this park across from the bus station a Brazilian politician (the one on the left) seems to have an automotive camshaft hung around his neck.

This particular politician (José Sarney) was president of Brazil just after the dictatorship in the mid-1980’s. He succeeded to the office after the legally-elected President shot himself in his Rio de Janeiro government office.

The Sarney family dynasty has been in some office or other in Maranhão for a couple of generations.  His daughter Roseanna was a recently Governor of the state.

Sarney was featured in a recent book called “Honorable Bandits.”  The book was popular in the larger airports and cities, but I haven’t managed to find it anywhere in Maranhão.