{"id":1169,"date":"2015-10-26T05:08:05","date_gmt":"2015-10-26T10:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/?p=1169"},"modified":"2019-07-29T16:08:01","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T21:08:01","slug":"a-brief-walkabout-in-sao-luis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/?p=1169","title":{"rendered":"A brief walkabout in Sao Luis"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

\"IMG_9860\" — This is the central square of Sao Luis historical center. There is a performance venue behind where we are standing, market on the left. This is a quiet afternoon with virtually no tourists and too much sun for meandering about. On festival days, most evenings, and special occasions there are reggae bands, street vendors, restaurant tables, and swarms of people. On quiet days like this you can actually visit the Casa das Ferramentos<\/em>, the turquoise blue hardware store on the left<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_9852\"$ <\/a>
One side of market with shops along Rua Portugal. The street names often reflect the fact that this was a Portuguese colonial city (after they took it from the French, who first settled Sao Luis \u2014 and gave it it\u2019s name \u2014\u00a0 in 1612)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_9854\"$ <\/a>
The front of the market, opening onto the square. The entrance leads to a cluster of small shops, the most exotic of which sell huge baskets (cofus<\/em>) of dried shrimp, bulk packages of roasted cashews, produce, and odd-looking bottles of stuff (some of which is recognizable as liquor or pepper sauce, but others of unknown origin). There is even a shop where you can but a 50 kilo bag of garlic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_2096\"$ <\/a>If you were planning to give up drinking, this is a good time.\u00a0 The purple bottle to the left is taquira,<\/em> a strong liquor made from manioc or cassava.\u00a0 Known locally as mandioca<\/em>, manioc is a staple food of he interior and with indigenous people.\u00a0 In town it can become macaxeira<\/em> which is fried like french fries, or it can be ground into *farofa<\/em>, a dense flour that is spread on food.\u00a0 The one on the right says something about butter, but I\u2019m not drinking that one either.<\/p>\n*
The nutritional benefits of the purple liquor are unproven, and generally not to be recommended.\u00a0 On the other hand, manioc itself is a regular feature of the Brazilian diet, and in the interior it is a basic food item (like potatoes and grain at the same time.<\/p>\n
*\u00a0<\/p>\n*
$\"IMG_2094\"$ <\/a>Another thing not to drink.\u00a0 It is popular to place fruits and sea creatures in bottles of alcohol.\u00a0 They seem to be made by cutting the bottle and resealing it with a woven cover over the cut.\u00a0 Perhaps, though,\u00a0 this is just my pragmatic notion.\u00a0 The crabs may have gotten into the bottle of booze some other clever way.<\/p>\n
*\u00a0<\/p>\n*
*\u00a0<\/p>\n*
$\"IMG_9849\"$ <\/a>
Sao Luis has been declared an international landmark by UNESCO because of its colonial buildings and the distinctive tiles (azulejos<\/em>) that date from the early French and Portuguese colonial period. This particular building now houses government cultural offices , a few commercial shops, and a capoeira studio.\u00a0 The old porticos are closed now and used here for street art.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_9827\"$ <\/a>In an earlier post I described a visit to the artisan mask-maker Abel Texeira, A mask (here known as a *careta<\/em>) takes thousands of beads, sequins, tiny glass tubes and other decorations.\u00a0 Here is one of the shops where most of the supplies are sold.<\/p>\n*
There are higher quality decorative materials available in Sao Paulo, and at least one embroider (see post on Dona Tania Soares) gets materials there whenever possible.\u00a0 They are said to be expensive Japanese embroidery decoration, not found in Sao Luis.<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_2101\"$ <\/a>The historic center has a thriving market for tourist trinkets and craft work.\u00a0 Some seem to have a \u201ctraditional\u201d or even esoteric origin (Afro-Brazilian or indigenous spiritual entities), but many have a kitschy tourist quality full of with stereotypes of women and rural Brazilians.<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_9874\"$ <\/a>
Hammocks (redes, in Portuguese) are available in shops everywhere. They vary in quality and color. This one is in front of the \u201cAbolition Store,\u201d which features Afro-Brazilian and reggae\/rastafarian themes. In fact, this small plaza area is home to a colony of reggae bars and culture. Sao Luis is often called the \u201cBrazilian Jamaica\u201d because of the prevalence of \u201croots reggae\u201d here<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_9864\"$ <\/a>
A small plaza where Tambor da Crioula<\/em> groups dance during festivals, and which is normally filled by night with reggae music. Above the painted door is a reference to Sao Benedito<\/em>, the black saint revered in the Afro-Brazilian dance form of Tambor da Crioula<\/em> (another post on this later). Saint Benedict is also \u201cSaint Ben,\u201d known in many other countries as a patron of blacks and the poor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_9876\"$ <\/a>This is another side of the tiny reggae plaza, with the slogan \u201cArroz, feijao, and ganja<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n
This translates to the basic Maranhao reggae diet of \u201cRice, beans, and ganja (marijuana, *maconha<\/em>).\u201d<\/p>\n*
*Most nights there is an intense atmosphere of loud music and various herbal fragrances.\u00a0 The hotel where we normally stayed is nearby, so we could enjoy the reggae until 2:00 or 3:00 am.<\/p>\n*
*\u00a0<\/p>\n*
*\u00a0<\/p>\n*
$\"IMG_2083\"$ <\/a>
Sao Luis is beautiful but not wealthy. These Iberian-style steps connect upper and lower parts of the historic center and have been under renovation for years.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_2087\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n
Joelma travels to indigenous territories in Maranhao to bring back artisanal work to sell in this shop in the historic center.\u00a0 She is a constant source of information about the status of indigenous people in the interior, who are threatened by hunters, miners, the lumber industry, road construction, and land conflicts of all sorts. In the complex racial and ethnic culture of Maranhao, the indigenous peoples are both protected and threatened.\u00a0 Many live on what are referred to as the \u201cremnants\u201d or remains of quilombos<\/em>.\u00a0 For centuries freed and escaped slaves escaped to remote regions, often in the deep forests, to communities whose remoteness gave them some protection the plantation owners and slavers.\u00a0 Many intermarried with the indigenous peoples who often supported and protected them.\u00a0 Today the quilombos<\/em> and other small settlements often show this centuries-old ethnic mixture.<\/p>\n
Unlike the United States where there were limited wild spaces for slaves to escape, the first Brazilian quilombos<\/em> were often deep in the interior where the white authority could not easily reach them.\u00a0 Many were founded by escapees and free blacks at least as early as the 17th century.\u00a0 The largest of them, Palmares (in the current state of Alagoas) was said to have had a population of some 20,000.\u00a0\u00a0 It lasted from 1605 until 1694 when, after several unsuccessful expeditions against them,\u00a0 they were wiped out by an army of mercenaries.<\/p>\n
*\u00a0<\/p>\n*
*$\"IMG_2084\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n*
Some of the basket work from the indigenous settlements that Joelma represents.\u00a0 They are all woven from different varieties of palm, whose endless variety here provides natural materials that fill a myriad of uses for construction and practical items like baskets.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 If you were planning to give up drinking, this is a good time.\u00a0 The purple bottle to the left is taquira, a strong liquor made from manioc or cassava.\u00a0 Known locally as mandioca, manioc is a staple food of he interior and with indigenous people.\u00a0 In town it can become macaxeira which … Continue reading A brief walkabout in Sao Luis<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-images-of-sao-luis-and-maranhao"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1169"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1211,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169\/revisions\/1211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

This is the central square of Sao Luis historical center. There is a performance venue behind where we are standing, market on the left. This is a quiet afternoon with virtually no tourists and too much sun for meandering about. On festival days, most evenings, and special occasions there are reggae bands, street vendors, restaurant tables, and swarms of people. On quiet days like this you can actually visit the Casa das Ferramentos<\/em>, the turquoise blue hardware store on the left<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_9852\"$ <\/a>
One side of market with shops along Rua Portugal. The street names often reflect the fact that this was a Portuguese colonial city (after they took it from the French, who first settled Sao Luis \u2014 and gave it it\u2019s name \u2014\u00a0 in 1612)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_9854\"$ <\/a>
The front of the market, opening onto the square. The entrance leads to a cluster of small shops, the most exotic of which sell huge baskets (cofus<\/em>) of dried shrimp, bulk packages of roasted cashews, produce, and odd-looking bottles of stuff (some of which is recognizable as liquor or pepper sauce, but others of unknown origin). There is even a shop where you can but a 50 kilo bag of garlic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_2096\"$ <\/a>If you were planning to give up drinking, this is a good time.\u00a0 The purple bottle to the left is taquira,<\/em> a strong liquor made from manioc or cassava.\u00a0 Known locally as mandioca<\/em>, manioc is a staple food of he interior and with indigenous people.\u00a0 In town it can become macaxeira<\/em> which is fried like french fries, or it can be ground into *farofa<\/em>, a dense flour that is spread on food.\u00a0 The one on the right says something about butter, but I\u2019m not drinking that one either.<\/p>\n*
The nutritional benefits of the purple liquor are unproven, and generally not to be recommended.\u00a0 On the other hand, manioc itself is a regular feature of the Brazilian diet, and in the interior it is a basic food item (like potatoes and grain at the same time.<\/p>\n
*\u00a0<\/p>\n*
$\"IMG_2094\"$ <\/a>Another thing not to drink.\u00a0 It is popular to place fruits and sea creatures in bottles of alcohol.\u00a0 They seem to be made by cutting the bottle and resealing it with a woven cover over the cut.\u00a0 Perhaps, though,\u00a0 this is just my pragmatic notion.\u00a0 The crabs may have gotten into the bottle of booze some other clever way.<\/p>\n
*\u00a0<\/p>\n*
*\u00a0<\/p>\n*
$\"IMG_9849\"$ <\/a>
Sao Luis has been declared an international landmark by UNESCO because of its colonial buildings and the distinctive tiles (azulejos<\/em>) that date from the early French and Portuguese colonial period. This particular building now houses government cultural offices , a few commercial shops, and a capoeira studio.\u00a0 The old porticos are closed now and used here for street art.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_9827\"$ <\/a>In an earlier post I described a visit to the artisan mask-maker Abel Texeira, A mask (here known as a *careta<\/em>) takes thousands of beads, sequins, tiny glass tubes and other decorations.\u00a0 Here is one of the shops where most of the supplies are sold.<\/p>\n*
There are higher quality decorative materials available in Sao Paulo, and at least one embroider (see post on Dona Tania Soares) gets materials there whenever possible.\u00a0 They are said to be expensive Japanese embroidery decoration, not found in Sao Luis.<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_2101\"$ <\/a>The historic center has a thriving market for tourist trinkets and craft work.\u00a0 Some seem to have a \u201ctraditional\u201d or even esoteric origin (Afro-Brazilian or indigenous spiritual entities), but many have a kitschy tourist quality full of with stereotypes of women and rural Brazilians.<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_9874\"$ <\/a>
Hammocks (redes, in Portuguese) are available in shops everywhere. They vary in quality and color. This one is in front of the \u201cAbolition Store,\u201d which features Afro-Brazilian and reggae\/rastafarian themes. In fact, this small plaza area is home to a colony of reggae bars and culture. Sao Luis is often called the \u201cBrazilian Jamaica\u201d because of the prevalence of \u201croots reggae\u201d here<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_9864\"$ <\/a>
A small plaza where Tambor da Crioula<\/em> groups dance during festivals, and which is normally filled by night with reggae music. Above the painted door is a reference to Sao Benedito<\/em>, the black saint revered in the Afro-Brazilian dance form of Tambor da Crioula<\/em> (another post on this later). Saint Benedict is also \u201cSaint Ben,\u201d known in many other countries as a patron of blacks and the poor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_9876\"$ <\/a>This is another side of the tiny reggae plaza, with the slogan \u201cArroz, feijao, and ganja<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n
This translates to the basic Maranhao reggae diet of \u201cRice, beans, and ganja (marijuana, *maconha<\/em>).\u201d<\/p>\n*
*Most nights there is an intense atmosphere of loud music and various herbal fragrances.\u00a0 The hotel where we normally stayed is nearby, so we could enjoy the reggae until 2:00 or 3:00 am.<\/p>\n*
*\u00a0<\/p>\n*
*\u00a0<\/p>\n*
$\"IMG_2083\"$ <\/a>
Sao Luis is beautiful but not wealthy. These Iberian-style steps connect upper and lower parts of the historic center and have been under renovation for years.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_2087\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n
Joelma travels to indigenous territories in Maranhao to bring back artisanal work to sell in this shop in the historic center.\u00a0 She is a constant source of information about the status of indigenous people in the interior, who are threatened by hunters, miners, the lumber industry, road construction, and land conflicts of all sorts. In the complex racial and ethnic culture of Maranhao, the indigenous peoples are both protected and threatened.\u00a0 Many live on what are referred to as the \u201cremnants\u201d or remains of quilombos<\/em>.\u00a0 For centuries freed and escaped slaves escaped to remote regions, often in the deep forests, to communities whose remoteness gave them some protection the plantation owners and slavers.\u00a0 Many intermarried with the indigenous peoples who often supported and protected them.\u00a0 Today the quilombos<\/em> and other small settlements often show this centuries-old ethnic mixture.<\/p>\n
Unlike the United States where there were limited wild spaces for slaves to escape, the first Brazilian quilombos<\/em> were often deep in the interior where the white authority could not easily reach them.\u00a0 Many were founded by escapees and free blacks at least as early as the 17th century.\u00a0 The largest of them, Palmares (in the current state of Alagoas) was said to have had a population of some 20,000.\u00a0\u00a0 It lasted from 1605 until 1694 when, after several unsuccessful expeditions against them,\u00a0 they were wiped out by an army of mercenaries.<\/p>\n
*\u00a0<\/p>\n*
*$\"IMG_2084\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n*
Some of the basket work from the indigenous settlements that Joelma represents.\u00a0 They are all woven from different varieties of palm, whose endless variety here provides natural materials that fill a myriad of uses for construction and practical items like baskets.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 If you were planning to give up drinking, this is a good time.\u00a0 The purple bottle to the left is taquira, a strong liquor made from manioc or cassava.\u00a0 Known locally as mandioca, manioc is a staple food of he interior and with indigenous people.\u00a0 In town it can become macaxeira which … Continue reading A brief walkabout in Sao Luis<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-images-of-sao-luis-and-maranhao"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1169"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1211,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169\/revisions\/1211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}