Brazzil -News from Brazil Archives
1994-1996
As transcribed by Ethnic NewsWatch
for its Library CD-ROM

Author: Mello, Rodney Article Title: recado Publication Name: News from Brazil News from Brazil Volume & Number: V.8; N.126 Publication Date: 06-30-96 Page: p. 5

recado.

It's not just a tall story that Brazilians are hot in bed. A new study shows that while Americans take an average of six minutes for a sex encounter, Brazilians are in no rush when it's time for pleasure, dedicating to the sexual act an average of 45 minutes. The same research also reveals that almost 17% of Cariocas (those from Rio) between the ages of 18 and 49 make sex each and every day. Pure bragging? A little maybe.

This love for sex seems to have influenced the way prostitution is seem in the country. Contrary to what most people might think, prostitution is not illegal in Brazil, not for the person prostituting herself or himself anyway. Foreigners have talked about Brazilian sex professionals being as much interested in making a buck as in giving pleasure to themselves and to the client.

We haven't avoided slippery themes in the past. Our article about torture in our latest issue provoked more than one tsk-tsk of disapproval. We have talked about child prostitution before -- there is nothing about this subject in our present cover -- and there was positive reaction including from the UN which contacted some of the organizations dealing with the problem in Brazil.

As our special February Carnaval edition, this issue deals with the light side of life. We know about the seedy, criminal aspect of sex and we will probably come back to it another day. Today we only want to offer a glossy portrait of the sex market.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Author: Espinoza, Rodolfo Article Title: More sex, please. We are Brazilian Publication Name: News from Brazil News from Brazil Volume & Number: V.8; N.126 Publication Date: 06-30-96 Page: p. 8

More sex, please. We are Brazilian.

Everything you ever wanted to know about sex in Brazil and never was able to find at your usual sources. What Brazilians think about sex, is it true that there are many more women than men in the country, are Brazilians really the hottest sexual machine on the planet? And what about sex for sale? Is prostitution legal? Where is sex available, how much does it cost, what are the code words for men and women willing to pay to get laid?

This is not an exploitation piece on the serious and criminal problem of underage prostitution in Brazil. It's a guide and a source of statistics for those interested in knowing the adult Brazilian lover and the way he/she lives his/her sexual life.

Despite its image of a latter-day Sodom and the land of debauchery and licentiousness, the country that gave us the string bikini can be downright prudish. It's true that prime-time novelas (soap operas) use to boost up their ratings by showing unveiled genitalia and the annual street Carnaval parade bares breasts and all the rest on the Avenue, but there are no public nude beaches as in Europe and the hard-core video and CD ROM sex industry is far from flourishing as in the US. The real sexual revolution in Brazil is very recent but the natives are catching up fast.

That Brazilians and Cariocas (natives of Rio) are sensual is not just a myth. A new study from Infoglobo has shown that 17% of Cariocas between the ages of 18 and 49 have sex every day. And while the British spend an average of 3 minutes in a sexual encounter, the Italians 8, the French and Americans 6, Rio's residents have a "whooping" average of 45 minutes per sexual session. Only Africans have the same high rate in this department. The Infoglobo study, which listened to 300 men and 300 women, also revealed that 48% of Cariocas have sex from two to three times a week. The profile of the average interviewee: a married person between the ages of 30 and 39 with a monthly salary of $1,200 or less.

In an interview with Rio's daily O Globo, psychoanalyst and sexologist Sheiva Cherman complained that the study hadn't asked for the duration of the relationship among those interviewed.

-- Rio is the most sensual city in the world, she said. And there's a commitment from the population to keep this image. Libido, however, doesn't mean practice of the sexual act. The sexual practice is more frequent when the love relationship is recent.

Another revealing piece of information is that 55% of all women claimed to have attained orgasm every time they tried it, without ever having to fake it. Hard to believe? The American magazine Cosmopolitan interviewed their readers in 29 countries and concluded that lack of orgasm is a common and universal complaint. The world average for orgasmic women every time they go to bed is a mere 26.6%. Only Italians, with a climax rate of 53.2%, come close to their hot Brazilian counterparts.

As for the men, they are a proud, boastful and maybe a tad lying lot. A full 64% of Cariocas guarantee that they have never had a problem with erection during the sexual act. And the assertion was confirmed by 69% of their female partners. The secret there seems to be the fact that 78% of men and 89% of women like to share their sexual fantasies. Machismo, however, is still strong. Only 28% of the women, according to the research, have the initiative to start the love game in bed.

This openness, however, doesn't apply to the disclosure of adultery, which is still very common despite the AIDS fear. Says biologist Catherine Lowndes from the Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública (National School of Public Health) which is part of the Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, "Due to social and biological factors, women are more susceptible to venereal diseases. They ignore several facts dealing with sexuality, have little bargaining power in sexual relations and are victims of sexual violence on a large scale. Besides, there is a social acceptance of male infidelity and the habit of concealing it."

Research conducted among the patients at the Gaffr‚e Guinle Hospital in Rio showed that 70% of the heterosexual men interviewed had had more than one sexual partner the previous year, while 7.9% had participated in group sex. All of this has contributed to the increase of AIDS among women who are getting the disease from their husbands and live-in lovers.

The results from a national Datafolha research project about sexual behavior among different professional categories, however, show a much smaller rate of infidelity. The study that was ordered by the Central Geral dos Trabalhadores (CGT), a national confederation of workers, included 3,644 men and women in seven Brazilian capitals.

As expected, the research revealed that necessity also makes fidelity. Men and women more likely to stray were those with jobs that allowed an alibi for their sexual escapes. So, while 21% of metalworkers admitted to adultery this number increased to 27% among those working in construction.

The study also revealed how faithfulness is seen in different regions of the country. The national average of infidelity is 23%. Cariocas appear to be just a little over this number, with an unfaithfulness rate of 29%, the same as Gaúchos (those from Rio Grande do Sul). In São Paulo 19% of the workers acknowledge extramarital affairs and only 18% of the workers in Belo Horizonte (capital of Minas Gerais) admitted to infidelity, but the practice of sex outside the home is something common for 50% of those interviewed in Bel‚m, capital of Par , a national record in this study.

THE MALE ADVANTAGE

If the battle of the sexes is an unequal one all over the world, women in Brazil have still another handicap: their sheer numbers. Census data show, that among those Brazilians between ages 15 and 49, there are 1.8 million more women than men in the country. That means an average of 95 men for every 100 women. In urban centers like São Paulo and in the Northeast this imbalance goes up to 85 out of 100.

Some experts believe that this will contribute to 10% of Brazilian women never having a chance to marry. According to census data, in Rio de Janeiro for example, the state where this difference is more pronounced in absolute numbers, there are 315,056 more women than men.

To complicate matters, while there are 4.2 million divorced or separated women, the number of men in the same situation is only 1.9 million. This shows what everybody knows: that it is much easier for a separated man to find a new partner than for a woman. The official numbers also reveal that 80.6% of the 37,000 divorced men who decided to remarry in 1994 chose not-previously-married women. As for widows, there are 4.5 millions of them in the country compared to 870,000 widowers.

This female disadvantage is explained by the so-called "solitude pyramid" theory. Interviewed by the daily Folha de São Paulo, Elza Berqu¢, from Unicamp's (University of Campinas, São Paulo) Núcleo de Estudos Populacionais (Center for Population Studies) explained: "Women look at the top of the pyramid where the offer of partners decreases, while men look at the base which is larger. The matrimonial market always favors men."

This state of affairs has in practice encouraged the number of non-official marriages and in some cases even a kind of mild polygamy in which men have more than one partner. The rate of marriages has been decreasing. While there were 7.48 marriages for 1,000 people in 1986, these unions had fallen to 4.96 in '94. There were 763,000 weddings in 1994 compared to 1 million in '86, when the country had a smaller population.

In a 1992 study entitled "The contraction of the matrimonial market and the increase of consensual unions in Brazil" two foreign scholars, American Margaret Greene and Indian Vijayendra Rao suggested that society allowing men to have more than one partner makes it possible for women to be married at least once and helps to alleviate the problem of the deficit of available male partners.

SELLING DREAMS

Match-maker agencies have been sprouting all over Brazil. All of them, however, seem to have the same problem: more female clients than male ones. Paimi (Primeira Agência Internacional de Matrimônios e Informações - First International Agency for Matrimonies and Information), for example, has been in business for 50 years and has offices in São Paulo, Rio and New York. With 3,000 clients, the Cupid helper charges around $1,000 plus a bonus when there is a marriage. They say they have made "4,000 unions" including that of Harry Philippe Mihalescu who is the owner and son of Paimi's founder. Their telephone in São Paulo: (011) 221-9699.

Apego -- (011) 543-2659 -- another match-maker company from São Paulo has been recruiting their male clients aggressively even with ads in men's magazines. But really aggressive is Partner's owner, who is known only as Vicente and who goes personally to singles bars and night clubs to convince men to join his company. Partner -- (051) 336-8036 is an agency from Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul).

Happy End -- (011) 853-7466 -- has dozens of connections in the US and Europe and more than 2,200 clients. To use the services of this company founded in 1992 clients pay around $1,000 and $1,000 more after 3 months of courtship. One of the newest kids on the block is Apego -- (011) 543-2659 -- a service created by Inge Gruber, an Austrian woman who sold her apartment and used the $80,000 she got to start the company last year. The cost here varies from $150 to $800 and the number of clients has already reached 500.

In Recife, the Brasil Exterior agency -- (081) 421-3080 -- is specialized in finding husbands in Germany for its clients. After seven years in business, the service which has a catalogue of more than 1,000 women, has contributed to close to 200 marriages. In an interview with Veja magazine last year, Lindinalva Santana Ferraz, the company's owner declared, "We don't admit sexual tourism or gold-diggers." Every time there's an "I do" Ferraz gets rewarded with $1400.

Contrary to what we may think, most of Lindinalva's clients are not poor girls looking for an easy way out of their misery. By and large they are middle-class women who have a college degree or at least have finished high-school. By the way, completed high-school is one of the requirements to make the list. Many times they are women disillusioned with Brazil and Brazilian men. Their average age is 20.

According to IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), Brazilian women start their sexual life around 19. But this age has been lowering recently mainly in urban centers. Pregnancy among early teens has been also on the increase and this is due not only to a more benevolent view towards sex. Biological factors also play a role: every ten years menarche (the first menstrual period) occurs four months earlier. In the '90s the average age for girls to have their first menstruation is 12.

Pregnancies among girls between 13 and 15 years of age have doubled in the last decade and a half, still based on IBGE's numbers. Close to 8,000 children were born last year to mothers who were 15 or younger. In the late '70s this number was around 3,700 a year. Another 600,000 children are also born to 16 to 19 year old mothers every year. This number, although bigger, has been stable for many years. The situation is similar for poor and well-to-do teens, but for the richer girls, the use of abortion is much more prevalent.

LITTLE WHOREHOUSES ALL OVER

Another side of the situation of inequality between the sexes is the rampant increase of prostitution and related services. To hear some people, every Brazilian woman except the mother, the sister, the wife and the daughter of the person speaking, is willing to go to bed with the first stranger, for the right price.

The dozens of classified ads under headings like Acompanhantes (Escorts), Casas de Massagem (Massage Parlors), Termas (Sauna houses), all code names for prostitution, show that there are plenty of women, and men for that matter, willing to make a buck on the meat market. On a recent Sunday, daily Folha de São Paulo had 101 offers under Escorts, from Abigail ("20, top model from the '80s, brunette, long hair, hotel/motel. $200 Tel.: (011) 607-9001) to Ymaeda ("burning Japanese, your dream girl -- (011) 693-8007).

In Bras¡lia, the Capital of Brazil, there are more than 30 prostitution agencies, all installed in residential areas, which cater to the tastes of the men and also a few women in power. Visitors to the city are showered with cards and ads from night clubs like Queen's, Amore Mio, Flor Amorosa, all fronts for prostitution, as soon as they arrive at the airport. The enticement continues in hotels and places where tourists usually gather.

Prostitution is not illegal in Brazil. What is illegal is pimping. Maintaining a place for sexual encounters is also against the law. To avoid being caught

by a zealous law enforcer, many of the places present themselves as legitimate businesses charging only for beverages and other services, letting the negotiations about bedding be decided between the client and the prostitute.

Prostitutes can be found all over the country. In some towns in the interior they live together in an area generally known as zona. In Cear , the red light district is called curral (corral); in Rio Grande do Sul, viveiro (nursery or aviary); and in Minas Gerais cor‚ia (Corea). Prostitution is also common on national roads and big city streets. In Brazil, motels generally charge by the hour and are utilized more as love nests than places for a family or a business man to spend the night.

"The World Sex Guide", which is available on the Internet, has very little about prostitution in Brazil. But it presents the personal accounts of men who have been to Rio, São Paulo and Recife and who have met prostitutes.

An anonymous French guy, for example, presents himself as having "a good knowledge of brothels in Brazil, due to my frequent journeys there during the past five years". He talks mostly about Recife and divides prostitution there into three categories: garotas de programa (program girls), mulheres de bordel (brothel women), and vira bolsinhas (turn purses -- girls who ply their trade on the streets.

According to the French libertine, the garotas de programa are easy to spot in public places like restaurants and bars. "They try to make eye contact, especially if you are dressed like a gringo. How old you are doesn't mean a thing. They know exactly when to talk about money." A motel will cost from $15 to $50 according to this report.

He also describes in detail what happens when the garota and the john get to the bedroom: "The girl will take off her dress and you go together with her to the shower. She will take you to bed when you seem clean enough. She will touch you, suck you (without a condom if you don't ask to put one on), and you can fuck her as much as you like, in as many positions as you want. She will dress your buddy with a condom before fucking. Take your time, as there is no problem of time with her. She is not a "whore" and what she would like is to stay with you all night and you can come in her mouth if you want."

The French lecher cites go-go bars at Praça da Boa Viagem as good places to pick up women and the Cravo e Canela bar at Rua das Creoulas in downtown. As for brothels, he cites the Twenty Club at Rua Luiz de Farias Barbosa, 20 at Boa Viagem beach. He describes the place: "The girls are the nicest I've ever seen in Brazil. When you enter, Mama-san gives you the prices. It was $180 on May 1995. You will pay her directly when you leave, like you would in a good restaurant. For the money you can pick up any girl you want. The best is to drink something with her and when you are ready just say vamos (let's go). The sex itself takes 1 hour for $150."

For years European tour companies, mainly the German ones, have been exploring the sexual tourism in Recife (Pernambuco), Fortaleza (Cear ), Salvador (Bahia), and more recently Macei¢ (Alagoas). Since assuming the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism in January of 1995, Minister Doroth‚a Werneck has been talking directly to travel agents in Europe to convince them that Brazil has much better attractions than its women, things like beautiful places and good businesses.

SOUTHERN CALL-BELLES

Porto Alegre offers a special service by fax for those clients interested in seeing the merchandise before buying it. The D¢ris agency, whose girls seem all to have just stepped out from a photo session for a men's magazine and whose ages are between 18 and 23, has been using the photofax since last year. The service became a hit and more than 85% of the business is now done through it.

Half of the girls, however, still refuse to be photographed, worried that the picture will fall on the wrong hands like a friend or relative who doesn't know their line of work. The price: $240 for two hours of company and sex. Full service for the whole night costs $600. Zero Hora, a daily from Rio Grande do Sul cites Luciane, one of D¢ris's girls, saying, "I had a hard time reaching orgasm before. But now that I know that I am being paid I come every time."

In Rio, the Vila Mimosa, a zona in the suburbs that housed more than 1,000 prostitutes had been razed at the beginning of the year to make room for a residential complex called Cidade Nova. This didn't prevent the world's oldest profession from continuing to flourish in the so-called Cidade Maravilhosa. These were naturally poor girls.

Sex is being seen as a gold mine for many professionals who are abandoning their more conventional jobs to invest in sex-related endeavors. One of them is William Atella, who abandoned a career in an engineering firm to start anew as a modern gigolo. In 1994 Attela used $30,000 he got from his severance pay to rent and remodel a house in Jacarepagu that became a clube privˆ (another code word for whorehouse) called Paradise House.

Last year, already a rich man, he opened a second Paradise House, this time at Barra da Tijuca. In an interview with weekly magazine Isto �, the engineer turned pimp, explained why AIDS doesn't scare his clients: "Here the girls are always tested for HIV."

As for the upper crust of prostitution in the city, according to a recent article from Rio's main daily O Globo, the Mafia is controlling it. Agencies such as Ipanema Models, Rita Modelos and Roberta Modelos offer services of women, sometimes models and magazine covers, who don't charge less than $500 per program and can cost as much as $5,000. The money paid is normally split half and half between the call girl and the escort agency, which is in charge of preparing books with pictures produced in studios and placing ads in major newspapers and publications for tourists. In this market, 25 is the age limit before compulsory retirement.

Call girls, for whom the standards are much laxer, advertise by the hundreds in O Globo, O Dia, and Jornal do Brasil, Rio's three largest dailies. There are also men announcing their services like Andr‚ Luis, "college degree, loving, tender, 28. Catering to demanding women and couples -- as long as the man is a voyeur. Personal care in every sense of the word. Have safe sex, use camisinha (little shirt -- condom). Visa accepted. Tel.: (021) 295-2053 -- 24 hours."

Camilla and Ronald presented themselves on a recent Sunday in Jornal do Brasil as a married couple. "He: a real sexual lion. She: a glutton and super female. Together or separate. No one will be disappointed. Check it out! (021) 255-5887."

It's symptomatic that the ubiquitous sex-phones -- as those from some weekly tabloids in the US -- appear in O Globo and Jornal do Brasil under "Termas e Servicos de Massagem", the same place where "models", "escorts", "strip dancers" and "masseuses" sell their wares. By the way, to avoid problems with the law, which is very serious about protecting the under age, these erotic talk conversations are generated outside the country. Only Rio has created a system using special cards and passwords for those willing to call them. Caribbean Islands, Hong Kong, San Marino and even the faraway ex-soviet republic Moldavia are used for the telesex services, which can charge $3 for a minute of conversation.

BARS, BOATES, BEACHES, BROTHELS

The action in Rio is also on the beaches. A famous gathering of prostitutes in the afternoon is in front of the Othon Palace Hotel at Copacabana beach and at the tables at the Meia Pataca bar. They charge from $40 to $100 for a quickie, hotel being extra. First class hotels are known to play hard and not allow the entrance of prostitutes. But others like Debret and Caprice seem to derive most of their money from these sexual trysts.

The termas present themselves as massage parlors, but are only a façade for whorehouses. Places like O Para¡so � Aqui (Paradise Is Here) -- Rua Dezenove de Fevereiro, 123, Botafogo -- offer sauna, bar, cable TV and "relax" which is a code word for sex. The prices can vary from around $30 (Ped gios) to $300 (Aeroporto).

Some hotels act as agents for termas. They offer a discreet helping hand. The massage parlor Brasiltand from Botafogo for example, usually sends a car to pick up a client, when a hotel calls. For about $200 the tourist gets transportation, a suite and a girl.

At night, the sex scene gets even hotter in the boates (night clubs) around Rua Princesa Isabel, near Copacabana Beach. Two of the better known places are Mab's and Help, both at Avenida Atlƒntica. The boys sell themselves in places like The Ball (Praça Serzedelo Correia), Maxim's Bar or Incontros (Posto 6). The tab for drinks can go up very fast in these places while strip-tease shows and live sexual acts are presented. Close to this area some very attractive women are really men.

Talking about his experiences in Rio, a contributor to the World Sex Guide wrote: "The best place is Help Discotheque. When I first went there I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Picture a combination of a high school prom and Soul Train where all the girls are selling pussy. Usually during the season there are at least 300 of the most beautiful girls in the world there. All colors. None ugly. None older than 25. The price for a superstar is $100 for all night." And he concludes boastfully, "In Rio, pussy is available 24 hours a day and reasonably priced. I personally did 11 girls in eight days and spent less than $1,000 total in 1995. I carry a piece of paper with me at all times that says, "Brazilian Prostitute". I read it often, each time I fall in love. But remember that you will not get any free pussy in Rio. During Carnaval pussy flows like water. You must see it if you are to be considered a true sex friend."

São PAULO'S MEAT MARKET

The latest temple to hedonism, a true Xanadu of sex, is Bahamas, a club that opened its doors in São Paulo last January. The pleasure castle has Carrara

marble (the same favored by Michelangelo) on its floors, 23 suites, swimming pool and sauna, and cost $2.5 billion to be built. Paulista (from São Paulo) farmer Oscar Maroni Filho, the owner, is very happy with the investment, however.

The cash register starts ringing the moment the client enters the Bahamas door and 250 customers have been visiting the novelty every day. He pays $50 just to get in. A few hors d'oeuvres raise the bill very fast to $150. Add $300 for the girl and $40 for using the suite for one hour and it's easy to understand why Maroni Filho is asking himself why he hasn't left his 1000 plus cows before.

Men without deep pockets can choose from a myriad of other places in São Paulo. An American businessman who went there at the end of last year told The World Sex Guide about his sexual experience there around the São Paulo Hilton Hotel, where he stayed, and gave some pointers:

"From the hotel just walk left to the first street and then make another left about half a block to a street known as Bento Freitas. There, immediately go right and walk a block or two. You'll see a whole bunch of bars with sexy women willing to please you. There'll be no trouble finding them. The women are not only physically beautiful but kind and sweet, and I guarantee you'll be tickled to death."

And he continues: "Drinks are expensive, so my advice is not to stay too long. Just find the girl you like, chat for a while, negotiate a price (about $50 for full service), pay the tab and take her with you. One of the business people I went to see over there told me Brazilian sex workers are among the few in the world who actually enjoy their work. Naturally I thought he was kidding. Well, based on the beautiful girl I had that night, I can only say the man's observation is right on cue!"

Not every one would agree with the American choice, even though Bob Dylan is said to have gone to My Love (Bento Freitas, 344 - Tel: (011) 259-2072) and enjoyed it. The area chosen by the sex-seeking tourist is considered dangerous at night and the whole neighborhood seems to be going downhill. Transvestites are all over and Police are frequently called to calm down those a little too much excited. Things get a little more civilized inside the nightclubs where for around $15 anyone, including couples, can have a drink or two.

Men unaccompanied will be approached immediately upon entering. But the girls for more desperate that they are cannot leave the bar before the client pays for two more drinks. For sex the girl will charge between $30 and $60. These so-called boates are located in the Vila Buarque neighborhood and is known as Boca do Luxo (The Mouth of Luxury) even though this name was given in an earlier and more prosperous time for the whorehouse fronts.

The next step in decadence is the Boca do Lixo (Mouth of Trash) where any possible glamour has disappeared. One example of this is the Itatiaia building at Alameda Barao de Limeira, 134. The ten-floor building has close to 150 women who work every day including Saturdays and Sundays from the time the building opens at 9 am to 9:30 pm when it closes. The Itatiaia has been a temple to prostitution for 47 years. But it has seen much better times.

The crowd frequenting the building used to be mainly white collar workers. Today, however, almost everyone is a blue collar. On pay days the Itatiaia can get busy with more than 2000 men using the 19 apartments which have been

divided up in tiny wood partitions. There the customer takes an old and cranky elevator to the top floor and then starts coming down the stairway.

Women in the corridors and on the steps practically throw themselves at the men and for $15 take them to a cubicle with a single bed -- the last couple bed was disassembled two years ago -- where the sex has to be fast (in 15 minutes the times is up) to make room for another girl who has caught the next victim. The money is split with the tia (aunt), the owner of the little rundown apartments which normally sports a sofa, an old juke box and a little fridge with beer. Each tia works with 6 to ten girls who go back to their homes at the end of their work shift.

Another example of zona vertical is the Renda building at number 69 on Rua dos Andradas which is also a ten-floor edifice. As the Itatiaia, the Renda in decades past was considered one of the classiest whorehouses in town. Madams and workers on both buildings calculate that in the almost half a century of existence both whorehouses have witnessed together around 20 million sexual encounters.

LUXURY TRADE

The classier and costlier action these days has moved to more upscale areas such as Jardins and Morumbi. Many times they are a mansion among other residential mansions. This has not been without problem. Just recently the city of São Paulo was able to close down Caf‚ Photo, the most notorious of the single's bars being used as front for prostitution, which was installed in Itaim. City Hall, answering to complaints from Caf‚ Photo neighbors, invoked a zoning restriction to interdict the place.

Maybe on the same level of notoriety is the Antiqu rio, a place that dubs as an antique shop during the day metamorphosing itself into a bar at night. In both places, the girls are ostensibly presented as free lancers with no connection with the house. The bar is only used as a meeting spot and doesn't offer bed or other place for the carnal consummation. The idea is to escape the label of brothel. Maintaining a whorehouse is a crime that can carry a prison sentence of up to three years.

Recent official pressure against prostitution on the best neighborhoods seems to have only made the contemporary pimps even more brazen. Dinho Rocha, the owner of Antiqu rio, bought the name Caf‚ Photo after the joint was closed and reopened the place in Morumbi -- a neighborhood for the rich -- just to have it closed again soon after.

Rocha, normally, very secretive, exposed himself so much, that a police commissioner recognized that face from old times when he was detained for possession of cocaine and revealed the truth. He was a she. And her name is Vailde Rocha Veloso.

Unrepentant and unashamed, she declared, "I didn't lie. I am a woman. I have a vagina. And I'm in a relationship with another woman for 12 years. I've never hid my real name.".

Dinho or Vailde has created a distinctive style: to deal only by phone and with people whom he knew or who had been indicated by someone he trusted. Soon he possessed one of these precious and secret top-name lists as the ones held by some Beverly Hills madams like Heidi Fleiss. One of his clients, according to Rocha, was a Paraguayan politician for whom he had to send periodically

seven girls including one who had been in the latest cover of a man magazine.

The idea to create the Antiqu rio came to Dinho after a disastrous incursion in the legal side of business in 1992 when he lost $2 million in a furniture factory. But he still had money enough to spend $1.2 million to make the sophisticated antique shop. More than a meat market his place is an entertainment spot offering samba and belly dancers and some racier performers like the girl who circulates between the tables covered only with shaving cream.

Sometimes a company rents the place for a private party, and a common attraction on these occasions is a sushi table where the center decoration is a naked woman. Bachelor parties are also common at the Antiqu rio. And how Dinho recuperates his investment since officially he doesn't get a penny from the girls, the main attraction of the place? Selling liquor, he says. A bottle of whiskey costs $350.

Before having his place shut down, F bio Puglisi, the founder of Caf‚ Photo, used to explain why his house was so successful: "Here we don't have a girl who does programs, that girl that you call for a quickie. The women here are those who really enjoy the night."

There are at least 200 women -- all pretty, all very young, all very expensive -- who live from bar to bar, circulating among similar places like the Caracol Club (Rua Pamplona, 1115 - Tel: (011) 288-5344; La Colina Pizzeria (Rua Heitor Penteado, 474 - Tel: (011) 65-5010; III Whisky (Rua Major Diogo, 51 - Tel: (011) 604-7031 and Farwell (Rua Avanhandava, 16 - Tel: (011) 258-2674).

These girls charge from $150 to $450 for a little action and they have an average income of $6,000 a month. Some can make $20,000 or more. It doesn't happen every day but there are those who end up marrying a customer, getting an expensive jewel as gift, or being surprised even with a new car.

In a career with the shortest of life spans, these girls, who normally dream of becoming top models but give up because of the competition, end up making less ambitious plans like traveling to Europe, buying a house or opening a boutique.

FOR SWINGERS ONLY

Another option for those looking for sex in São Paulo is the saunas mistas (coed saunas) where the women are prostitutes who work for the establishment. Most of these houses are located in a strip of Rua Augusta closer to downtown, the other extremity of the street being flanked by sophisticated boutiques.

Don't look for sophistication in the saunas, however. They offer a little bar and a small room with steam where some naked women wait for the hungry wolf. To get inside these places there is a fee that is typically less than $10. Another $10 will guarantee a little cubicle with a bed. The price of sex is negotiable and is discussed directly with the girl.

They start by asking $50, but will settle for around $30 for a session that might last 45 minutes. Before and after the coitus, the customer is invited to take a shower. The use of condom is mandatory. Women are very pleasing and ready to satisfy almost any desire even those of men who would like to have sex with two girls at the same time.

The sauna places at Rua Augusta have names like Caf‚ Paris (on the 723 - Tel: (011) 259-7871 and Night House (at number 757 - Tel: (011) 258-8414). The girls here are much less sophisticated than their colleagues from the single's bars. They are women like Ana Carolina, who declared in an interview to Ele Ela magazine:

"For the most part the customers here are looking for affection and a little relaxation. All they want is to cool down. I don't see myself as a sexual object. I simply fulfill fantasies and perform dramatic roles."

For couples in search of some excitement, São Paulo offers also several swinger clubs. The Paris Texas club (Avenida Pomp‚ia, 678 - Tel: 65-6785) which is a peep show during the week has room for the Couples Meeting on Saturdays. For $40 (minimum consumption) couples are treated to a series of erotic games and plays. One of the favorite is the Magic Tent in which under total darkness a tent with a naked couple inside is brought to the room. Through special holes opened in the tent's fabric, people are encouraged to touch the naked bodies as they please. In another game, well-hung boys chase after the wives. When one of them says yes, she is taken to the dance floor where she is massaged, kissed and sucked in front of everybody.

At Club Paradise -- Rua Correa Dias, 161 - Tel: (011) 570-4457 -- couples are encouraged to be creative and to expose themselves. There are six suites where the hottest people can continue what they started in public. The meetings on Thursdays and Fridays, which cost $50, offer a climate conducive to seduction, with little light and male strippers' shows.

The encounters start always the same way: bashful people going around in bathrobes, drinking and sitting close or inside the Jacuzzi. But the participants usually warm up very fast when thighs, breasts, pubis and genitalia start to crop up.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Author: Paoletti, Ricardo Article Title: Tough law Publication Name: News from Brazil News from Brazil Volume & Number: V.8; N.126 Publication Date: 06-30-96 Page: p. 20

Tough law.

Would a century be enough for Brazilian congressmen to conclude the debate phase on reforming the constitution and start the voting? Not really, say some analysts, just half jokingly.

Lawmakers have their hands full, in Brazil, these days. The National Congress and the Senate are set to review the country's constitution, not even seven years old and yet subject to substantial, massive technical amendments. At last count, there were close to 500 suggested changes to the "Magna Carta," as is respectably called the federal body of laws that guide Brazilian institutions.

It looks like that anything goes: on the table are suggestions ranging from an odd proposal to include freedom of sexual orientation as a fundamental goal of the Republic, to a change in the way the Republic itself is run, from today's presidentialism to a congress-centric parliamentarism -- an idea already defeated in a general plebiscite five years ago. And all that in an especially turbulent year when municipal elections are set for coming November.

When the current Constitution was approved in October of 1988, it marked the end of a twenty-year period inaugurated by the military coup of 1964, when federal law was something usually associated with the will of the sitting general-president. The collapse of the military regime, caused in large part by human rights abuses and a faltering economy, brought a cry for a complete re-write of the existing laws. So large was the list of social grievances accumulated by the elected constituintes, as were called the congressmen designated to create the new constitution, that from the outset it was clear that this set of bills would be anything but short and generic. And, once finally approved, it included a built-in provision for the complete revision that is now set to take place.

When this process will be completed is a matter open to heated debate. Political analysts calculate that, at its current pace, Congress would need not more and not less than 120 years to debate and vote all the suggested amendments. Not an acceptable prognostic by Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso's measure. He wants the constitution revision done by September, so one of his most cherished amendments, the one permitting his own re-election, could be debated before the heat of the local elections' season.

Politicians loyal to the administration, with their optimism set to the highest possible levels, calculated that they could get the job done in about six months. To help smooth the course of the debate and guarantee a comfortable majority of votes for the administration's proposals, president Cardoso decided to promote a wholesale change of ministries this past April, offering seats in the powerful secretaries of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, and Political Issues to new allies.

But such a move still has to prove to be enough to counterweight blunders like

the one that stopped in its tracks the reform of the Social Securities program, a major set of rules up for discussion. It just so happened that the minister of the Supremo Tribunal Federal, Brazil's high court, wasn't happy with the course of the debates and decided to decree its suspension. "As a citizen, I wish that the 1988 laws could be practiced and experienced a little more", justified the minister Marco Aur‚lio de Mello. Mello's decree was finally reverted, but the delay was enough to make even administration loyalists, the ones in a hurry, admit that the bulk of the reforms wouldn't be set to vote until next year.

Such admission has raised red flags in the real world of economics and labor relations. Labor unions want social reforms quick, and business associations think that the country's new currency, the Real, widely credited with the flattening of the inflation rate from a monthly 40% to close to 0%, isn't strong enough to go undamaged through such a long period of uncertainty.

To make the congressmen feel their urgency, workers and employers are considering the unheard of idea of promoting a general work stoppage by mutual agreement. "Congress can't turn their backs on society. We don't have time to spare. If we're left with no choice, we will stop to promote advancement", says São Paulo's Industries Federation (FIESP) president, Carlos Eduardo Moreira Ferreira, a conservative businessman turned social agitator by circumstance.

He certainly has a point, since history stubbornly won't stop waiting for the new set of reformed laws. Late last April, a massacre of more than 30 rallying peasants in Central Brazil by troops from the State of Par 's Military.

Police brought to the surface the issue of land distribution in the country -- and, once again, resuscitated and offered new blood to the debate on agrarian reform, an issue more than 30 years old that the insurgent military put to rest in 64, along with the existing Constitution.

Now, the Agrarian Reform will compete for a spot in the limelight with suggestions like mandatory public service by all graduates from state universities; or the extinction of a most disrespected law, the 12% limit on annual interest rate charged for bank loans; or the creation of a special seat in the Senate for retired Presidents. Or, yet, the introduction of death penalty -- the very first of all the amendment suggestions, filed when the 1988 Constitution was only one day old.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Author: Da Fonseca Barreto, Carlos Emmanuel Article Title: Promising land Publication Name: News from Brazil News from Brazil Volume & Number: V.8; N.126 Publication Date: 06-30-96 Page: p. 21

Promising land.

Apparently cleaned from its endemic corruption, the Brazilian northeast seems ready to take its place in a modern and developed new Brazil. An American company is building a theme park in the area with Brazilian folklore characters. And even Disney is thinking about installing there its Tropical Disneyland.

For many years, the northeast portion of Brazil has been considered, the black hole of the country. Many past governments invested millions of dollars in infrastructure projects which were never finished because some of the funds were funneled into the pockets of corrupt-politicians, or because inflation increased the final price of the projects so much that there was not enough money to finish the work.

The northeast has also been a region with innumerable political scandals. The impeached ex-President Fernando Collor de Mello comes from there. So does the so-called gang "Anoes do Orçamento" (the dwarves of the government budget) who robbed millions of dollars. More recently, the federal government had to intervene in Bahia's Banco Econ"mico which after many years of financing political campaigns had accumulated a series of bad debts.

The region is home for many political demagogues still very active on the national political arena. People like the ex-congressman, ex-governor, ex-president and presently the leader of the Senate, Jos‚ Sarney and the many times ex-governor, ex-congressman and presently Senator Ant"nio Carlos Magalhaes (ACM). Add to them Calmon de S , Econ"mico's owner, twice Minister of Commerce and Industry, former Banco do Brasil's president.

There are many signs, however, that this Brasil velho (old Brazil) is over. Many of these swindles have been disclosed and the parties involved exposed to public opinion that will judge them on the ballot. That makes for a very promising future for the northeastern Brazil, with high levels of expectation from private entrepreneurs.

Recently the region has been receiving great amounts of private investments and the state governments are doing their jobs to attract such investments to the region. Last March, a seminar promoted by the Exame magazine gathered a group of seven state governors and 500 people between entrepreneurs and politicians. The one day seminar debated over the means to eliminate the obstacles that still exist for developing the Northeast.

One of the main focus of the seminar was to explore what the region has in abundance: natural beauty. According to the World Trade Organization (WTO), in 1995, tourism generated $563 billion worldwide, and among the emerging economies, Brazil's revenue from tourism reached $2.1 billion (ranked 11).

The amount is not great given the 1995's Brazilian gross domestic product (GDP) of $680 billion. Nevertheless, the WTO registered a 5 percent increase

from 1994 revenues.

The president of TAM Airlines, Rolim Amaro, stated that "in 1994, 213 thousand tourists were brought to the northeast from other parts of Brazil." Amaro believes that after the tremendous increase in 1995, the inflow of tourists only from the rich regions of southern Brazil will reach 1 million travelers in 1996.

Furthermore, the two major Brazilian airlines, VARIG and VASP, offer several international flights connecting the northeastern capitals to Europe, the United States and Asia. And many other major world airlines like Air France, Lufthansa and Alitalia flies to the northeast as well.

A long time believer in the region's potential is the ex-formula one pilot, Nikki Lauda, who through his Lauda Air offers weekly flights from Europe to beautiful Porto Seguro (Bahia) since the late 1980s. Besides Porto Seguro, other major tourist destinations are Salvador and Itaparica (Bahia), Macei¢ (Alagoas), Recife and Olinda (Pernambuco), Joao Pessoa (Para¡ba), Natal (Rio Grande do Norte), and Fortaleza (Cear ).

Yet, it is off the coast of Bahia and Pernambuco, Abrolhos and Fernando de Noronha respectively, that paradise rests. The two archipelagos are filled with submarine caves, 1500s wrecked caravels, colorful reefs, and a diversified marine life. It is a diver's dream.

The area needs infra-structure however. The Banco do Nordeste do Brasil (BNB), to boost investments from local entrepreneurs, raised the credit lines available from $900 million in 1994 to $2.9 billion in 1995. Furthermore, the Cardoso government has promised an increase of resources to the local economy through the BNDES (National Bank for State Development).

Meanwhile some businessmen are jumping at the opportunity to catch the wave of increasing profits in the region. Suarez, a contractor company from Bahia for example, has two ongoing projects for new resort hotels with 340 apartments on the capital Salvador and on the Itaparica Island, right off the coast. Furthermore, the Keynoox Company from Miami is building a theme park after Brazilian folklore figures in Fortaleza, and another American, Wet'n Wild, is constructing an aquatic park in Salvador.

The region's vast virgin coastal beaches of white sand and blue water, and the all-year sunny weather creates the perfect environment for the new world's playground. Besides, the charming and pleasant people of the region makes the place a welcome tourist attraction. The Disney Company has been researching the Brazil's northeast for its new Tropical Disneyland Park, a sure success.

The president of Abril Group and editor of magazines Veja and Exame, Roberto Civita, stated during the seminar that "we are going to show the world that the Northeast is not only potential, but a reality." Tourism could become the Northeast's new economic cycle.

In 1995, the region's GDP of $99 billion grew 9.8 percent while the country grew by 5.4 percent. In the past few years, 1,017 new industries set up production plants in the area generating 300 thousand new jobs, and another 100 thousand will surge in the wake of 250 ongoing industrial projects in the region.

The Northeast already hosts some of Brazil's biggest multinationals, like

Aracruz Cellulose and the Odebrech Group. Odebrech is a construction giant present in every continent, and with projects in 21 countries, including the United States (builder of California's north-south aqueduct). Furthermore, some of Brazil's most profitable plants are located in the Northeast (i.e., the Vicunha Group and Grendene Shoes).

However, the scant population is another one of the problems in the region. The per capita income of $2,500 is half of the country's $5,000, illiteracy rate reaches 37 percent while 18 percent in the rest of Brazil, and life expectancy is 64 in the Northeast and 67 overall.

The governor of Cear , Tasso Jereissati, advocated during the seminar that the northeast does not need government subsidies. "The success of the region depends much more on the Real Plan (Brazil's economic stabilization program that cut inflation to 20 percent per year) than on subsidies from the central power," he stated.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Author: Colombo, Paola Article Title: Fleeing for life Publication Name: News from Brazil News from Brazil Volume & Number: V.8; N.126 Publication Date: 06-30-96 Page: p. 22

Fleeing for life.

Three weeks after having received an award from President Fernando Henrique Cardoso for his work with favelados (shanty town dwellers), Caio Ferraz, a sociologist and favelado himself, asked for exile in the US. He couldn't take the death threats of police anymore when they started following his wife and one and a half-year-old daughter. "I wasn't born to be a dead hero," he said.

In Boston, Caio Ferraz, 27, a prominent Brazilian sociologist, now in exile in the US since the beginning of the year, explains his situation as "very strange, very different from 100% of the Brazilians who come over here." Ferraz openly denounced police corruption in the state of Rio de Janeiro after the massacre of 21 people in the favela (shanty town) of Vig rio Geral in 1994. The carnage happened two houses far from his own. Victims were innocent people killed by the military police in revenge for the homicide of four policemen.

"It wasn't time to sit down and ponder about death and injustice," Ferraz said. He decided to create a group within the community to analyze what had happened. "Astonishing as it sounds, there was a positive side to the massacre," he noted. "Vig rio Geral got on the map. That made it easier for us to be heard."

Out of the weekly meetings Ferraz organized the Community Movement of Vig rio Geral (Mocovige). According to the sociologist, the basic idea was to discuss what could be done to the community. "We could have either waited for justice or tried to achieve justice with our own work," he told News from Brazil recently. "We had to show society that the people who live in shanty towns are honest; we exist, we can also be intellectual, we can also produce culture."

The group had the idea of buying the house where the family was killed to make it into the headquarters for Mocovige. "We wanted to transform the house of death into the house of life. A house of war into a house of peace," Ferraz said.

The House of Peace was inaugurated on June 4, 1995 even though initially there was no financial support. With the help of the federal bank of Brazil (Caixa Econ"mica Federal), the group got the money for the house. Support followed as local entities and artists started to donate from construction material to sculptures and pictures that could be auctioned for money.

The project was recognized by the Interamerican Bank of Development that promised to invest $123,000 over a period of two years. Reaching the international community, the House of Peace also got support from the Netherlands that donated eight computers. The European Community developed a health project together with the group Doctors Without Borders that assists 600 people monthly; the mayor of Geneva, Switzerland, donated the funds for a nursery that takes care of over 80 kids, and the clothing chain C&A donated silk-screen equipment that has allowed 120 teenagers to get a job.

The House of Peace also has a project for handicapped people. "We couldn't forget that there are a lot of people mutilated by the violence around that area," commented the activist.

With the community involvement on the project, Ferraz and the members of Mocovige started to teach people about their rights and duties as citizens. The idea was to teach people how to react when the police acted illegally. They were taught to file complaints, to make a basic account of what was going on so that the case could be presented to Rio's security authorities.

Every time the police would get into Vig rio Geral, the group was on the lookout. Soon, the police started to threaten them back. "I was threatened directly, but they couldn't stop my work unless they'd kill me," Ferraz added. He is positive that the threats came from the police. "I am sure about that because I saw who they were; they threatened me personally. I know that criminals don't threaten, criminals kill."

During the same time that Ferraz was suffering these death threats, he received several awards for his work at Vig rio Geral, including one given him by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the National Human Rights Award on December 1995. The problem is that, according to Ferraz, the federal government gave the award but not the security needed so that he could stay in Brazil.

At the end of December '95 Ferraz's wife and baby daughter were followed by police cars. "I knew that now was the time to leave," he said. Six years ago his brother was killed by Police after they mistook him for a cocaine trafficker. Ferraz contacted Amnesty International, which had started a campaign in favor of his work and for which he has worked as a volunteer for over three years now. Elizabeth Leedes, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reached the Amnesty International and offered Ferraz a position as visiting scholar at the Center for International studies of the university.

Although Ferraz is far from Brazil, he said he will not allow the distance to interrupt his work. "I am only physically distant," he comments. He is often in contact with the House of Peace through faxes and phone calls. "I am happy to know that things are going really well there."

The House of Peace is now building a three-story building on the site of the bar that was exploded on the day of the massacre. "Now that we have full recognition and acceptance from the society, we have to keep that project working," Ferraz said, promising he won't give up his idea of spreading the project to other shanty towns of the country. "Citizenship is only made available through people who are educated, who have access to the machinery of culture -- through people who can make their own culture important for future generations," he concluded.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Author: Nelson, William Javier Article Title: The racial cul-de-sac Publication Name: News from Brazil News from Brazil Volume & Number: V.8; N.126 Publication Date: 06-30-96 Page: p. 24

The racial cul-de-sac.

Brazilians should be teaching the world and the US in particular the way to an integrated ethnically mixed society. Unfortunately, however, they seem to be adhering to the manicheistic way North Americans see the world: black and white.

Years ago, Brazil was a society which celebrated the mixtures of colors which contributed to its mestiçagem. Hundreds of ways in which Indians, Africans and Portuguese blended together contributed to a myriad of color terms. Brazilians seemed to have been proud of being mixed and proud of being Brazilians first and color second. Nowadays, Brazilian cultural prerogatives appear to dictate a fitting of all of these colors into "black" and "white" and the stage seems to be set for a great "black"-"white" war such as has been engaged in by the North Americans for many years.

North Americans have made a science of distilling multiple physical types into the bi-polar conflict groups, "black" and "white". Perhaps Brazilian present mania for dividing itself into "black" and "white" is part of the imitative process whereby some cultures copy everything North American. A word of warning, though; the North Americans perhaps are moving in another direction: Brazilians might be imitating the wrong trend.

"Race" in the US

"Race" has always been a common topic of discussion for North Americans. Common as it is, most North Americans have never questioned the definitional system which makes possible the discussion in the first place. The "black" and "white" North American conflict groups are so defined based on the "hypodescent" rule (a term invented by two US anthropologists, Marvin Harris and Conrad Phillip Kottak, who made extensive cross cultural studies using Brazil as one of the points of reference).

Quite simply, hypodescent states that, in the case of a sexual union between parents of different "races", the offspring automatically takes on the status of the lower caste parent.

Therefore a sexual union between a "black" and "white" invariably produces a "black" (even though this "black" is now a mulatto). Moreover, if this mulatto also has sexual relations with a person of the "white" group, his offspring will also be labeled as "black". The hypodescent rule does several things: first, it eliminates African ancestry from the "white" population. Second, it establishes two very rigidly defined social groups. Third, it discourages intermarriage. Fourth, it encourages a mind set in which one thinks of immutable "races" in which people are placed for life.

This system has been in effect for many years in the United States. Ironically, both the "black" and "white" groups support the rule. The "blacks" support it because it increases the numbers of persons labeled as "black". The

"whites" embrace it because there are enough "whites" in the US so that partial "whites" are not needed for numerical and cultural dominance.

However, some rumblings have been occurring in the US. Adherence to the hypodescent rule has been facing challenges from new quarters.

The Multiracial Movement

The multiracial movement has grown in the US in recent years. This is partly due to an increase in marriages in the US that have been classed as "interracial":

- Thirteen percent of all African-American men in the Western part of the United States are married to women classed as "white".

- From 1970 to 1991, the number of "mixed-race" married couples increased from 310,000 to 994,000.

- For "black" and "white" parents, births increased from 8,700 in 1968 to 45,000 in 1989.

- Seventy-one percent of teens say that they would go out with someone of a different "race".

- In 1990, there were nearly 2,000,000 children under 18 whom the census classified as "of a different race than one or both of their parents".

Many of the children of "interracial" unions no longer adhere to the "hypodescent" rule. One of the leaders of the multiracial movement, Charles Michael Byrd (editor of Interracial Voice), is of partial African ancestry, but is not willing to ignore the other part of his heritage.

The same thing goes for Ramona Douglass, president of the Association of MultiEthnic Americans. In the past, "racially mixed" persons rebelling against the hypodescent rule have encountered opposition from both "blacks" and "whites".

"Whites", in the past, had reacted to mixed persons with blanket rejection. "Blacks" have heaped scorn on mixed persons by alleging that they have been "deserters" to the "black cause". Years ago, such social mechanisms were effective. Now, however, as the country becomes more diverse with immigrants from Latin American and Asia, and with the "white" population becoming less of a dominant percentage of the population, "racially" mixed persons have found social space to exist in the United States.

Their questioning of the "racial" status quo has, in Byrd's words, "blown the lid off most people's perceptions of race."

Whither Latinos?

Ironically, Brazilians and other Latinos in the United States could have been useful to the success of the multiracial movement (at least in the short term). Most Brazilians are aware that the hypodescent rule is ridiculous. Most are aware that even Brazilians identified as "white" can have African ancestry.

Most are far more flexible in their "racial" consciousness than even the most

liberal North American. However, Brazilians and other Latinos are also practical. [As I am from the Dominican Republic, I can speak from experience]. Latinos are aware that the "whites" control most cultural, economic, educational and political institutions in the United States. They generally alter their "racial" perceptions to fit in with the dominant society.

Straight hair and olive skin allow Latinos to call themselves "white" or at least "not-black" so as to fit in with what's in vogue. They are slow to use their insights to help bridge any gaps between "blacks" and "whites". Nor do they go out of their way to admit to African ancestry, since that, to a North American, constitutes being 100% "black" (regardless of physical appearance). Lastly, they are hesitant to use their "racial" sophistication to introduce to the North American new ways of looking at "race". Rather, they are quick to use his rigid categories to their advantage. I have seen many mulatto Dominicans (who have fooled the North Americans into thinking that their dark skin color is due to "Indian" ancestry) patronize North American "blacks" as though they themselves do not have the dreaded African ancestry.

What makes this so preposterous is that the native "Indians" (Tainos) on the island of Hispaniola (home of the Dominican Republic) were largely eliminated within the first century of the Discovery. Dominicans are African and Spanish (with some Taino). Since we are mixed, we are all. And none of these. Brazilians can say the same thing, except that "Portuguese" can be substituted for "Spanish" and the "Indian" contingent is larger.

What is in the Offing?

In spite of any intransigence by Brazilians or other Latinos, "racial" lines in the United States will become less rigid and more flexible (like the Brazil of old). The reasons for this are all demographic:

1) There has been a vast increase in immigration of "non-white" peoples from Latin America and Asia.

2) "Interracial" marriages will continue to increase as will their rate of increase.

3) Birth rates for persons classed as "black" and "Hispanic" are outstripping the "white" birth rate, further eroding the numerical percentage of persons classed as "white".

4) More and more children of "interracial" unions are using more varied and self-identifying terms when describing themselves.

Such demographics point to a United States which is far more varied than can be contained by the two "racial" combat groups of "black" and "white". Time magazine did a story on this phenomenon in the fall of 1993. A young woman was featured on the cover.

What made this woman so unusual was that she was a computer-generated composite of eight or ten "racial" and ethnic groups. A year or so later, Newsweek ran a cover story outlining the tremendous physical variation of persons labeled as "black" in the United States. In this story, the hypodescent rule was clearly a focus. These cover stories merely reflect the changing demographics of the United States. "White" backlash interests, ranging from "conservative" magazines to anti-immigration initiatives to "white" males joining paramilitary organizations in the countryside, also

reflect this reality (in the form of fear of the coming demographic changes).

Because of an apparent increase in the cultural imperative stressing the desirability of "whiteness" (as opposed to being mixed), Brazil has an excellent chance of squandering its heritage of "mestiçagem" and "racial" mixing and evolving, instead, into a society dichotomized into "white" and "black".

As anybody can guess, stressing "whiteness" leads to exclusion of those not fortunate enough to possess the "racial" requirements.

Stressing nationality over color while at the same time emphasizing that being mixed is not a bad thing could have led us in another, saner direction. Ironically, our imitative focus (the United States) could be moving in that saner direction.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Author: Welles, Violet Article Title: Inspiring Publication Name: News from Brazil News from Brazil Volume & Number: V.8; N.126 Publication Date: 06-30-96 Page: p. 26

Inspiring.

At 16, when disease forced her to go to the city, rubber-tapper Marina Silva was still illiterate. Twenty two years later, now a senator in the Brazilian congress, she comes to the US to receive a prize for her work in preserving the environment.

The press release for the Goldman Environment Prize describes the 1996 winners as "heroes of the earth." The press release does not exaggerate.

This year the six people awarded the top environmental prize on the planet include a young Mexican who refused to stop his "grass roots" activities in the forests of Chihuahua despite three attempts on his life by drug lords and logging companies. Also included among the winners is an Ugandan journalist who used the front pages of his paper to expose dangerous illegal mining and wildlife smuggling rings.

And very, very high among the "heroes of the earth" is Marina Silva. At 38, Silva is the first seringueira ever elected to the Brazilian Federal Senate. In Bras¡lia, and throughout the rest of the country, she is known as a dedicated fighter for the Amazonian rain forest and its traditional people.

In San Francisco recently to collect her share of the Goldman Prize which include a $75,000 check, the dark-eyed, fragile-looking Silva spoke, eloquently about the misconceptions that still persist about her home territory.

"Amaz"nia is not an empty space that needs to be occupied. It has been occupied by traditional people, doing different activities, for thousands of years."

Silva's large, impoverished family which lived in Rio Branco, Acre, were among these people. By 11 she was hunting, fishing and rubber tapping. Unschooled and illiterate, she had formal knowledge in only one area -- she knew just enough arithmetic to keep rubber buyers from cheating her family.

At 16, the still illiterate girl caught hepatitis and went to the city, alone, for treatment. Working as a maid by day, she attended classes by night. In three years she had raced through elementary school, junior high school and high school in record time.

At 20, with a bachelor's degree in history she was deeply involved in the student movement fighting the military dictatorship.

But true commitment came in the early 1980's when she returned to Acre and began working with rubber-tapper leader, Chico Mendes.

Today, there is an almost mythic ring to the struggle of the seringueiros against the cattle ranchers who were destroying the forest, and destabilizing

their communities. In those days it was more immediate, more dangerous.

With everything on their side, including government subsidies, the powerful ranchers demanded more and more pasture land, using any means of persuasion they could. Rural violence escalated. The local economy plunged. Clearly, something had to do to turn the situation around.

The "something" were the empates, huge but peaceful demonstrations by seringueiros which literally stopped ranch hands in their tracks and convinced them to end their destruction of the forest. Even today, the empates are considered a prime example of grass roots' resistance to environmental assault.

But not everyone was persuaded by Mendes' peaceful beliefs. In 1988 he was murdered by rancher Darcy Alves. "When they killed Chico, they thought they would kill the movement," said Silva, who had a price on her head during much of this period. "But the movement is now bigger and stronger than ever."

Proof. One of Mendes' dreams was to create sustainable extractive reserves in the rain forest where useful products such as rubber and nuts could be removed without destroying the forest. Largely through Silva's continuing activities, Acre today has extractive reserves covering two million hectares of forest, managed by the traditional communities that inhabit them.

Another proof of progress. In 1994, Silva -- impoverished rubber tapper, illiterate teen-ager, worker-activist, traditional outsider -- became an insider, the first seringueira ever elected to the Brazilian Federal Senate, a person in a powerful position to represent the rain forest and the rights of the people who live there.

Just as, earlier, the sweep of cattle-owners into the Amazon was an obvious invasion of the territory, more recently a more subtle invasion has also been going on. It is one in which researchers and laboratories take the genetic resources of a region for their own profit no matter what the cost to the community or, for that matter, to the country as a whole.

One of Silva's main pieces of legislation has been a law to limit access to genetic resources and give traditional people a voice in their control. But even with improvements, Silva has mixed feelings about the progress being made towards improving life in Amaz"nia.

"Yes, the Cardoso government has many good people in it, with good experience, concerned about social and agrarian reforms. But mostly the government is concerned about economic stabilization, fighting inflation. Until the government is willing to invest in education, job programs, health care and agrarian reform, until the government is willing to commit real resources, unrest will continue, people will go on dying, like the 20 killed recently in demonstrations in Par ."

But Silva still hopes to see a better world, one in which we will finally learn "not to sacrifice the treasure of millennia for the profits of a decade." Says she, "St. Thomas said to see is to believe. I think we must invert that. To see, first we must believe!"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Author: Gilman, Bruce Article Title: Viva Carmen! Publication Name: News from Brazil News from Brazil Volume & Number: V.8; N.126 Publication Date: 06-30-96 Page: p. 39

Viva Carmen!.

Carmen Miranda not only translated the black samba for a white audience, originated the Brazilian way of singing, and instigated the new standard for Brazilian popular music; she defined the Carioca woman. The rest of the world rediscovered her genius for close to a decade now. Finally Brazil is doing the same, with a vengeance.

In 1948, renowned composer Ary Barroso (he wrote Brazil included in Disney's Saludos Amigos) wanted to make Carmen Miranda a citizen of Rio, but the city council turned down the request saying that she would denigrate the image of the country. Nonetheless, in celebrations of Carmen forty-one years after her death, there has been a jubilant campaign to reissue her recordings and provide the public with documentaries and books that attempt to tell her story with the perspective of forty-one years hindsight. (Helena Solberg's documentary "Carmen Miranda: Bananas Is My Business" is one of the best.)

Finally the platform shoes have taken their revenge. Last February when Carmen would have been 87 years old she was paid homage when the city of Rio posthumously presented her with the lofty Pedro Ernesto decoration and reverently celebrated her with a memorial performance on the beach. In addition, "those in the know" are making the latest fashion statements by wearing this seasons designer clothing, inspired by and reminiscent of Carmen's attire.

With ten years of delay in relation to record companies in other parts of the world (including the former Czech Republic), Brazilian record companies finally discovered that they have been sitting on top of a very rich collection of popular music, are starting to release it in luxurious box sets, and are not complaining about the investment. Artists that seemed to have nothing more to offer have become good slices of profit.

This is true not only for the companies but for collectors and those who simply want more information about an artist who may have died or whose works were previously unavailable or marred by the poor recording quality of another era's technology. Thus, Carmen Miranda's permanent restoration will not depend on the multitude who for decades have imitated her. Carmen's voice has mandated an indisputable space for her immortality.

Carmen's most successful and energetic recordings were made between 1935 and 1940, and it is exactly these recordings that EMI-Odeon Brazil has compiled and reissued in a luxurious 5 CD box set that contains an informative 72 page booklet with vast photographic material in both color and black and white, all the lyrics, informative historical details from the research of Abel Cardoso Junior, some very savory stories, and a biographic summary of the star. There are six hours of music, and every minute of this marathon entertains and instructs with classic Carmen Miranda.

This set of sambas and marchas was recorded in chronological order and

includes among others: "A Preta do Acaraj‚" (Acaraj‚'s Black Woman), "Adeus Batucada" (Farewell, Percussion), "Balancˆ" (Swing), "Cachorro" (Dog), "Camisa Listrada", (Striped Shirt), "Cantoras do R dio" (Radio Singers), "Disseram que Voltei Americanizada" (They Said That I Came Back Americanized), "...E o Mundo Nao Se Acabou" (...And the World Hasn't Ended), Eu Dei (I Gave), Fon-Fon (Beep Beep), Ary Barroso's "Na Baixa do Sapateiro" (On the Shoemaker's Blues), "No Tabuleiro da Baiana" (On the Baiana's Tray), Dorival Caymmi's "O que � que a Baiana Tem?" (What Does the Bahiana Have?), "Tic-Tac do Meu Coraçao" (My Heart's Tic-Tac), "Vira-Lata" (Mongrel), and "Recenseamento" (Census). All these tunes have passed time's acid test and numerous recordings by accomplished artists like Gal Costa, Chico Buarque, and Ney Matogrosso; though, none outshines the original's ‚lan.

EMI-Odeon Brazil, was helped by three collectors who loaned and shipped portions of their 78 rpm record collections to London in special wooden boxes. At the Abbey Road Studios, where the Beatles recorded their best albums, these sixty year old recordings were treated with an electronic bath and went through the re-mastering process in three stages conducted by a sophisticated computer program called Cedar. Surface noises, some distortion, and those scratchy sounds one is accustomed to hearing on older recordings were removed.

Fans who have the disposition to delve into Carmen's career and music at a visceral level are going to adore this project. The set has come to Brazilian stores with a price tag of $110. A similar release in the United States or Europe would cost approximately $80. Although the figure might be a sacrifice for the audiophile, it is worthwhile. The results are impeccable, and the work of the crew that conceived the project should be praised. It is impossible to ignore the good humor conveyed by the singer in each song. Listening to these discs one easily understands the reverence to the myth surrounding Carmen Miranda, how she blew American minds, and why Carmen Miranda was truly The Brazilian Bombshell.

The Pequena Not vel (Notable Little One) was born Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha in 1909 in Porto, Portugal. According to the legend, she earned the nickname Carmen in salute to the heroine of Bizet's opera. When she was eight months old her family moved to Brazil where her father opened a barber shop. The family was middle class, and Carmen attended religious schools. Nonetheless, they lived in Lapa, downtown Rio's poorer district. It was here that Carmen became fascinated by the music of neighborhood sambistas whose enthusiastic style she absorbed.

Childhood pictures of Carmen in the book Carmen Miranda by C ssio Emmanuel Barsante, released last year, show that Carmen always had something special, something which could not be defined, a reckless abandon, a mischievous way of enjoying life, an exuberance. The photos also show that before her debut as a singer, Carmen took an obvious pleasure in being photographed making comical poses.

The first indication that Carmen Miranda would become the Brazilian Bombshell of the 1940s and 1950s was formed amidst the four walls of a hat shop where she worked as an adolescent. When Carmen punched her time card at the Femme Chic at 141 Ouvidor Street in Rio, the sharp little noise echoed in Beverly Hills. It was a moment when history changed. A hat, a turban, and hair ribbons became for Carmen Miranda what paint was for Picasso, what a ball is for Pel‚.

Carmen started recording in 1929 for Brunswick and appeared on stage for the first time in 1930 at Praça Tiradentes in Rio (a second-rate area of clubs and

theaters). Her role was that of a foul-mouthed prostitute who wore garish clothing. The second act was once interrupted by a revolver shot to the ceiling from an indignant family man.

Carmen came after the great lyric sopranos of the nineteenth century. There are no recordings by any singer before Carmen that deliver as much humor and temerity. And when we talk about recordings before Carmen, we are talking about those before February 1930, when she exploded with the marcha "Ta¡ -- Eu Fiz Tudo Pra Vocˆ Gostar de Mim" (It is Here - I Did Everything For You To Love Me). With this, her third recording for RCA Victor, the twenty-one year old Miranda was not only a singer and master of vocal antics, she was already a brilliant artist. Selling 36,000 copies of "Ta¡," Carmen beat Brazil's national sales record. By the time she left for New York in 1939, she had already recorded 300 songs. Up until Elis Regina's recording of "Arrastao" (Dragging the Fish Net) in 1965, no female vocalist had sold as much as Carmen Miranda.

Carmen's gestures, facial expressions, outfits, and the way she never remained in the same spot created an extravaganza on stage. Moreover, her unique repertoire was blessed by the incredible musical harvest of the 1930s, a golden decade of Brazilian music which gave birth to the best of Ary Barroso as well as the orchestra of Pixinguinha. She had great stage presence. Winking and raising her eyebrows at male patrons, as well as her conviction to engage the entire audience, established Carmen as the unequivocal originator of the "Brazilian Way" of singing and as the instigator of the new standard of performance practice for Brazilian popular music.

Before 1938, when Carmen entered the stage wearing tons of costume jewelry, platform shoes, a Baiana's lace skirt, and a crazy turban on her head, no singer had dared to appear in such radically extravagant attire. Generations of Brazilian performers followed her lead. Years later we hear Carmen Miranda's sense of humor reverberating of in the recordings of many Brazilian singers: Elis Regina, Gal Costa, Rita Lee, Elba Ramalho, Joao Gilberto, Caetano Veloso, and Ney Matogrosso among many others. Peeled to the core, you discover deep within these artists, that familiar special something that was Carmen Miranda.

There has for a long time been an assumption, albeit a misconception, that Brazilian Popular Music was the product of the Estado Novo of Getúlio Vargas and that this program was disseminated by Carmen Miranda. This is simply not true. The Estado Novo attempted to deploy an appreciation for Brazil and things Brazilian. Carmen had been extolling the wonders of everything Brazilian well before the 1937 dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas and his Estado Novo in songs like "Cor de Guin‚" (Color of Guinea) from 1935, "Terra Morena" (Brown Land) and Minha Terra Tem Palmeiras (My Land Has Palm Trees) both from 1936, the latter title comes from the 19th century poem by Gonçalves Dias.

This exaltation of one's country was not a strictly Brazilian sin. All the popular music of that period, including American and French, praised national glories. People enjoyed these sorts of tunes. If the Brazilian's boasting seemed to be more pronounced, it was possibly because Ary Barroso's "Aquarela do Brasil" is a much better tune than Irving Berlin's "God Bless America." A great part of Carmen's praising referred to Bahia. In the same vein, Ary Barroso, who was from Minas Gerais, composed more about Bahia both for Carmen and in his film soundtracks for Walt Disney Studios than he did about any other area of Brazil. Although she was born in Portugal, no other singer was more Baiana than Carmen.

The Baiana phase of Carmen Miranda did not start with her recording O que � que a Baiana Tem? composed by Dorival Caymmi in 1939. Actually this was the seventh song of this genre that she recorded. Prior to that she had recorded "No Tabuleiro da Baiana" (Ary Barroso, 1936), "Baiana do Tabuleiro" (Andr‚ Filho, 1937), "Quando Eu Penso na Bahia" (When I Think About Bahia) -- Ary e Luiz Peixoto --, 1937), "Nas Cadeiras da Baiana" (On a Baiana's Hips) -- Portelo Juno and L‚o Cardoso, 1938, -- and Na Bahia (In Bahia) -- Herivelto Martins and Humberto Porto, 1938. Almost all the lyrics describe the movement of the Baiana's hips and describe the cuisine on her tray. The novelty of "O que � que a Baiana Tem?" was not solely in the lyrics, which were similar to many of the others, but in the rhythm that only Dorival Caymmi could create. Caymmi's other contribution was teaching Carmen the way to move her arms and hands in accompaniment to the music -- a way of moving that would ultimately enchant the Americans and bring her to Hollywood. Unfortunately these movements became Carmen's caricatured trademark and often all that Americans in the 1940s associated her with.

Carmen was a natural humorist and could make a joke out of anything. She was a funny, not a romantic singer. Only a small fraction of her songs can be thought of as romantic. Although she was a specialist in giving a double meaning to the most innocent words, the listener cannot discern sensuality in her voice. The lyrics do not overtly convey anything hedonistic. Listeners in 1937 would have to have been sexual deviants to be offended by the simple lyrics she sang. The tune by Ary Barroso Eu Dei (I Gave) -- performed often by Gal Costa and Caetano Veloso, both wearing knowing smiles -- reveals at its conclusion that what she gave was a kiss and not her body. In "Fon-Fon" the exquisite samba duet with S¡lvio Caldas written by Joao de Barro and Alberto Ribeiro, Carmen pretends to resist a young man's caress. The lyrics are clearly not offensive, just frivolous.

Carmen Miranda not only translated the black samba for a white audience, originated the Brazilian way of singing, and instigated the new standard of performance practice for Brazilian popular music; she defined the Carioca woman. The Brazilian women who opened the twentieth century were delicate, susceptible, squeamish, always well dressed, and always fleeing from men. Carmen created the seductive image of the Brazilian woman who meet men joyously, legs and cleavage showing. Needless to say she would never have been invited to the feminist congress in China.

At the end of the 1930s the American entrepreneur Lee Shubert watched Carmen perform in Rio's famous night club Cassino da Urca. Shubert was fascinated by her performance and resolved to bring Carmen to New York. His enthusiasm was checked by only two doubts: first, whether a North American audience would appreciate so much passion coming from a brown-skinned, Latina singer; second, whether he should concede to Carmen's demand to bring along her own back-up band, the legendary Bando da Lua (Band of the Moon). At that time there were truly no musicians in the United States capable of rhythmically supporting or harmonizing Brazilian music with any stylistic integrity. Bando da Lua was the bedrock of her performances in the United States.

Carmen arrived in New York in 1939 able to speak a half dozen English words and moved to a stage on Broadhurst and Broadway where she received sixth billing on a poster for the production The Streets of Paris. On stage she wore platform shoes and the craziest hats in history (Napoleon had nothing on Carmen Miranda). She was doing the same act she had done at the Cassino da Urca. At only 5'2" she was gigantic and attractive. Always wishing to be first

among the first, she lacked any sense of female inferiority. Her confident disposition enabled her to chance an international career, despite the obvious risks, and was an early demonstration of her brilliance. The following week her name was moved to the top of the bill. Leading the show biz world by its nose, Carmen modified its visual attitudes. At the end of the year Saks released a line of jewelry inspired by Carmen.

After a year in the United States, Carmen returned to Rio but was punished for her success. Her first performance at the Cassino da Urca initially received the silent treatment and then boss. Brazilians were saying that she had become Americanized, that she was acting like a vain American, that she didn't care any longer about samba or the people from the favelas (shanty towns), and that her imitations made a mockery of her people. Many felt that Carmen created no more than the image of Brazilians as a scatterbrained people.

Her success in the United States, according to Tom Jobim, was a personal offense to the Brazilian people. Despite winning popular acclaim in the United States, her movements and outfits became stereotyped lampoons of the Brazilian people as well as Latin Americans in general and ridiculed their cultures. Vicente Paiva and Luiz Peixoto seized the opportunity and composed "Disseram que Voltei Americanizada (They Said That I Came Back Americanized), a dazzling chorinho which Carmen sang at her second performance at the Cassino da Urca.

Upset with her reception she returned to the United States and put Hollywood on its feet. From this juncture a new Carmen Miranda was concocted, much more celebrated, but fundamentally inferior to the real Carmen Miranda that was abandoned. Fox and the other studios invested solely in her comic talents and in turbans of bananas rather than her vocal and dramatic potential. She stopped recording in Portuguese. The world won a comedian, but Brazil lost her singer. And the tide was not to turn. In 1941 Mickey Rooney lampooned her attire, her arm movements, and her hand gestures in the film Babes on Broadway.

Under the supervision of an American director and placed opposite the blond Alice Faye, who was always very cool-headed and demure, Carmen's outrageous clothes and the way she moved and made her eyes turn sent the message that Brazilians are light-headed people. What country would like to be recognized as the one where people carry bananas in turbans on their heads? Many Americans still don't think of literature, natural resources, or architecture when trying to imagine what Brazil is like. Their image is the sound of "chic-a chic-a boom," inflamed hips, and the crazy hats Carmen introduced. As proof that this inferiority complex has remained intact, author Otto Lara Resende has referred to Brazilian inventor Santos Dumont, the man who flew around the Eiffel Tower in Paris well before the Wright brothers got off the ground, as the exclusive inventor of airplane disasters.

Carmen made fourteen films in the United States. And contrary to popular belief she was not helped by the politics of Franklin D. Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy. Carmen had been working in the United States for months before the United States entered the Second World War. After their entry, yes. She participated in some productions to exalt the American war effort and help the allies. Her characters were named Dorita, Chiquita, Rosita, Carmelita and other diminutives. These roles were unpleasant not only for Argentina in Down Argentine Way (prohibited in Buenos Aires because it did not represent the customs of the people), and to Brazilians in That Night in Rio (when she sang for the first time in English). Her role in South American Way, which presented South American women as ignorant and always ready for sex, was a

slap in the face to all of Latin America. We can only wonder what Cubans thought when she made Weekend in Havana. Nonetheless, she taped her exotic and happy image in the gallery of famous faces and is remembered with appreciation in the film This is Hollywood.

In one respect Brazilians had been correct, she was richer. By 1946 she was earning $210,000 a year and had become the artist who paid the most income tax to the federal government. But her whole family had moved to Los Angeles and was living with her. Her house in Beverly Hills became the embassy for Brazilian musicians visiting the United States, and Carmen was known as the Ambassador of Brazilian music. The title was warranted. Her presence and scintillating presentations did more for Brazilian music than did the actual ambassadors at the time who never promoted Brazil's music. If one day somebody makes the film This is Brazil, Carmen Miranda will have to be recognized for bringing marchas and sambas to the United States while the music of Glen Miller and Benny Goodman was invading the beaches of Brazil.

Those who knew Carmen celebrated her for the manner in which she rebuffed the half-naked Darryll Zanuck, cinema tycoon and womanizer, (something seldom achieved by other women contracted to his studio) who pursued her around the sofas and tables in his office demanding her "tropical delicacies." But not all of her battles concluded in victory. Carmen suffered after her marriage to American studio assistant David Sebastian who put her to work without rest. A little bag of medications accompanied her comings and goings and was an obvious symptom of her relationship problems. Half of the medications were stimulants in order to sustain the heavy work load. The others were sedatives to help her sleep when she had the time. Some intellectuals believe that Carmen inadvertently modeled for women the idea that there was strength in appearing and performing buoyantly even after being beaten by an abusive husband.

One can talk about the fairness of fate or wonder how history would have treated the woman whose name was synonymous with her country's music and dance had she married well. She had had a seven year romance with an oarsman from the Flamengo athletic club, and she always regretted not marrying Aloysio de Oliveira, music director of Bando da Lua. We also know that in despair over Carmen, composer Assis Valente, one of the most popular songwriters of the 1930s and 1940s, committed suicide by drinking Guaran soft drink and insecticide. A singer who worked with her at the Copacabana Palace related that Carmen cried all the time. In her last days she was receiving electrical shocks to treat her depression.

The voice of Carmen Miranda carried with it a vivaciousness, that by irony and contradiction to destiny, imprisoned her in successive bouts of depression until on the evening of August 5, 1995 while holding a mirror and putting on her make-up in her Hollywood mansion she suffered a terrible fall. She was found dead the next morning by the maid, stricken by an acute heart attack. She died the same night that five years later would bring down Marilyn Monroe, another symbol of the glamorous, exploited, and ultimately betrayed woman. It was clear that the Hollywood machinery had killed once more. Carmen's body was embalmed and taken back to Brazil where a priest refused to entrust Carmen's spirit to God because of her facial make-up.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Sheer wonder

Gilberto Gil, the most Baiano of Baianos singer and composer, has again become all the rage these days. He has just joined the WEB revolution, parking its very tasteful homepage at http://www.gilbertogil.com.br and is starting a new tour of the world. People in the US have reason for complaining, however. He is limiting appearances here to San Francisco and Los Angeles. Among his latest projects there is also a book coming out very soon.

Thais Blissen

Gil continues to fascinate all of us, always the cosmic musician from Bahia, the magical pied piper of several generations, the student, the teacher, the provacateur, the gentle ambassador of the music goddess, with the power to incite dance in all who hear his sweetly delivered message and are forever mesmerized by it. The great Brazilian author Jorge Amado calls him the voice of Bahia, his music "feeding the dreams and hopes of the people".

Gilberto Gil's career actually began in business management in São Paulo, after graduating from the University of Bahia's School of Business Administration. In his twenty's however, having spent most of his years to learning and composing music, he decided to make it a way of life -- very fortunate for all of us!

Gil's fascination with Joao Gilberto's bossa nova style convinced him to learn to play guitar. Other musical influences were Dorival Caymmi "his Guru", and later the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Hendrix, and others of the 60's. His music went through a transformation and emerged as part of the Tropicalismo Movement. This in turn played a large cultural role in Brazilian film, theatre and television programs of the time. Beyond musical and aesthetic innovations, this movement assimilated important social issues, having a decisive influence on lifestyles of Brazilian youth, and reflecting the boldness and ideas of its creators like Gil, Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa and Maria Bethania.

During the military regime that ruled Brazil for two decades, Gil's opposition resulted in his exile to London in 1969. His song "Aquele Abraço", recorded before leaving, soared to the top of the charts and remains one of the most successful hits of the music industry. While in England, he also made some recordings and performed in Europe and New York.

Returning to Brazil in 1972, he brought a bag full of recording and new songs. By 1979, he had a list of 10 LP's, and added another 9 during the 80's. He also participated in the production of Doces Barbaros (Sweet Barbarians) which reunited the giants of the Tropicalismo Movement, yielding a live album and film in 1976. His foreign recordings include Gilberto Gil in London (1971), Nightingale (USA -- 1977) and Alive (Tokyo -- 1987). He continues to tour internationally throughout Europe, the U.S., Africa and Japan. Gil and Caetano Veloso resurrected the magic of their early years together in the 1994 international tour of "Tropicalia II".

Since 1987, Gil has also included political and ecological engagements in his schedule. He is a multi-faceted person, with interests in many areas of socio-political issues. In 1990 he was decorated Knight of Arts & Letters by France's Minister of Culture, and the same year in Brazil he was awarded the Shell prize for overall career excellence. Adding to his list of commitments, he is also city councilor of Bahia's capital, Salvador. Gil's concerns regarding Brazil are well-known: he has become a spokesman for many social issues regarding Brazil's emergence from third-world status into a position of credible player among the world's nations.

Born in Salvador, in the state of Bahia in 1942, Gilberto Gil spent his childhood in the countryside, listening to a wide scope of musical genres from Bach and Beethoven to Bob Nelson, and was very influenced by Luiz Gonzaga, "the King" of northeast Baiao rhythym music. When he was 9 years old he asked his mother for an accordion, as he was also a great fan of Sivuca, and still talks of some day going back to his accordion.

Always the student, Gil has recently become fascinated by the computer, and with the help of his wife Flora, even has a Web page. His latest project is a book to be published in August of this year, Gilberto Gil -- All the Words, an anthology of his 32 years in the music profession, along with his own commentary. Most recently Gil appeared on May cover of Vogue Brasil, along with a 30-page article and great photos.

As part of Gil's world tour this summer, he will be appearing at the Maritime Hall in San Francisco on June 22 and at the House of Blues in Los Angeles on June 23.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Author: Adams, Scott Article Title: Brazilian Notas Publication Name: News from Brazil News from Brazil Volume & Number: V.8; N.126 Publication Date: 06-30-96 Page: p. 45

Brazilian Notas.

Brazilian charm with an American style. That's the goal of many musicians, although few are able to create that fluid balance. Welcome to Minas, a Philadelphia based group which has dedicated itself to translating all the grace and beauty of Brazil for US audiences for years. Their new CD Blue Azul is available by mail order and delivers an impressive collection of original vocal and instrumental songs, with some of the highest quality production we've seen. With Blue Azul, the husband and wife team of Orlando Haddad and Patricia King have succeeded where many before them have not: they've combined the roots of Haddad's Brazilian ancestry with the unique impressions of Brazil as seen through King's American eyes to create an album that is right on the target, translating the music of Brazil for American ears.

All of this began quite naturally, in a Brazilian sort of way. Both Haddad and King were busy with their lives as students at North Carolina School of the Arts, going in opposite directions. He with rock music and she with musical comedy and drama. Then they met, and everything turned upside down. "One day I saw Orlando with a guitar on the beach and asked him to play something Brazilian." Orlando picks up the story. "What really hit me hard was that I was so much into American music that I hardly knew any Brazilian tunes. And what is most ironic is that I had to leave Brazil and meet Patricia to discover the beauty of my own native music."

Each of Blue Azul's 13 tracks are clear winners, and you're sure to find your own favorites. There's the opening track "YB More." Its Zen-like lyrics and Brazilian cadence are the perfect setting for Haddad and King's duet vocals. "Strong Black Coffee" is a concert favorite that takes the concept of Brazilian rap and turns it into poetic treasure. The song carries that familiar "I just have to laugh" charm that's so much a part of the Brazilian mystique. Or the beautiful Bossa ballad "Only the Moon and the Stars" which finds King's softly sweet voice recalling memories of Lani Hall's years with S‚rgio Mendes and Brazil 66. Simply magical.

Blue Azul' combines songs in both English and Portuguese and that's a big part of its success. Take the clever "Homenagem ... Mineira," a lively, horn-driven afox‚ rhythm that somehow includes more that 70 cities of the Brazilian state Minas Gerais in it's tribute to the women who live there. Or "They Had to Wait," which, in recognition of the times, might well be retailed "The Abstinence Samba." You just have to smile. Blue Azul's instrumental tracks are just as satisfying. "Caravan Groove" is a samba/reggae tune in four parts, specifically written to carry you away on a seven-minute journey, and "Choro Siciliano," with special guest, harmonica player Hendrick Meurkens, is jazzy and uplifting.

With two previous albums to their credit and literally hundreds of concert appearances throughout the eastern seaboard, Minas is poised for great success, all built around the genuine Brazilian warmth of their musical personalities. Highly recommended, Blue Azul is available only through mail

order by calling toll free 1-888 TO MINAS (866-4627).

When trumpeter Terence Blanchard recently caught the ear of Time magazine, critics wrote: "Few can match his precision and flair in evoking emotion." But even Time's observation could not have predicted the success these elements would achieve when Blanchard invited Brazilian singer/composer Ivan Lins into the studio for his new Columbia jazz release The Heart Speaks.

Blanchard's musical career began as a prodigy of Art Blakey's group the Jazz Messengers, which helped him to formulate his personable style. His effusive phrasing and tonal warmth match brilliantly with Ivan's vocal strengths, making The Heart Speaks the musical surprise of the year. Surprise number 1: The Heart Speaks is an Ivan Lins songbook collection. Each song was carefully selected, and then translated into a masterful framework that brings both the trumpet player and the singer to uncharted musical territory. Surprise number 2: How did a straight ahead jazz trumpet player from New Orleans hook up with a Brazilian pop star half a world away? Terence, who admires innovative talent, supplies the answer:

"Before recording, Ivan and I got a chance to know each other. We talked about our reasons for playing music and our plans for the future, leaving me with the impression that he has an undying love for music" said Blanchard. "I didn't want to make The Heart Speaks a `strictly Brazilian' album. I wanted to take the aspects of Brazilian music that I love and personalize it." Blanchard invited special guests Oscar Castro-Neves and Paulinho da Costa to join his regular band.

The Heart Speaks opens with Blanchard's softly muted solo on "Aparecida," which sets the tone for the remaining 12 tracks. His eloquent introduction creates the perfect setting for Lins' reflective vocals. Other favorites such as "Antes Que Seja Tarde" (Before It's Too Late), "Meu Pa¡s" (My Country) and "Congada Blues" serve to illustrate the range and depth of this creative duo. The latter was actually written by Lins for Miles Davis just before his death, and Blanchard takes the opportunity to honor the trumpet master by including it on the album.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Author: Mello, Rodney Article Title: recado Publication Name: News from Brazil News from Brazil Volume & Number: V.8; N.125 Publication Date: 05-31-96 Page: p. 5

recado.

It's more than a little ironical that files just gleaned from São Paulo's Department for Political and Social Order (DOPS) reveal as agitators president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Minister of Planning Jose Serra and Minister of Communications Sergio Motta. The documents belong to another era, it seems.

The two decades of the military dictatorship only ended 11 years ago. Disappearances, sudden arrests, terrorism from the left and the right, fear of even possessing a book that might be considered subversive, newspapers carrying recipes or epic poems in place of censored articles, all of these facts are still very fresh memories for many who lived through the lead years of the '60s and '70s.

If political persecution and the torture that was an integral part of its had become the subject of history books, the violence used in police quarters is more alive than ever in Brazil.

Rio's Police chief Helio Luz in a recent interview of weekly news-magazine Veja presented a grim picture of the situation: "Since the time of slavery, Brazilian elites sanctioned such methods in a way that our police was never prepared to do investigative work: they always use the brute force shortcut."

We are dedicating roughly 1/3 of our editorial pages to the subject torture and the military dictatorship in hopes of maintaining alive the debate from those who still didn't get a satisfactory answer for their suffering, those who have no voice to protest, and those who believe human rights are for all and not a prerogative of a privileged caste.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Author: Gallant, Katheryn Article Title: NEVERMORE? Publication Name: News from Brazil News from Brazil Volume & Number: V.8; N.125 Publication Date: 05-31-96 Page: p. 8

NEVERMORE?.

Naysaindy de Araujo Barrett does not exist. Her striking name - which means "clear light" in the Guarani Indian language - cannot be found in any Brazilian government archive. She is a ghost-citizen, without an identity, forbidden to legally work or study in Brazil. Why? Her parents were guerrillas who were killed by the military regime that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985.

Araujo Barrett's father, Jose Maria Ferreira de Araujo, came from the Northeastern state of Paraiba. Being in the Navy didn't stop him from joining the Popular Revolutionary Vanguard (VPR), a guerrilla group led by ex-Army Captain Carlos Lamarca. There Ferriera de Araujo met another young militant, a Paraguayan woman named Soledad Barrett Viedma. The couple fled to Cuba in 1966, after the Navy expelled Ferreira de Araujo for his "subversive" connections.

In 1970, a year after the birth of Naysaindy, Ferreira de Araujo secretly returned to Brazil to help continue the armed struggle against the dictatorship. However, he was arrested later that year and died under torture in the São Paulo headquarters of the Information Operations Department - Center for Internal Defense Operations (DOI-CODI). In 1995, a government report would reveal that FErreira de Araujo had been buried under a false name.

Barrett Viedma decided to leave Cuba in 1973 to rejoin the VPR. Knowing that her daughter's future might in in danger if the Brazilian government knew the identity of Naysaindy's parents, Barrett Viedma had a false birth certificate made that identified the child as Naysaindy Sosa del Sol.

The fate of Barrett Viedma paralleled that of her late husband. When she returned to Brazil, Barrett Viedma had an affair with a commander of the VPR, Cabo Anselmo. In 1964, Anselmo had led a sailors' revolt that helped frighten the higher military into deposing the constitutional government. Nevertheless, by the early '70s, Anselmo was secretly collaborating with Brazil's military regime. Anselmo's reports about VPR activities helped the government to imprison and kill five VPR militants in 1973. Among them was Soledad Barrett Viedma.

In 1980, Naysaindy went to live in São Paulo with her Brazilian foster mother, Damaris Oliveira Lucena. The year before, the Brazilian government had given an amnesty to everyone who had been imprisoned or exiled for political offenses. Before going into exile in Cuba and befriending Barrett Viedma, Lucena had been tortured in Brazil. Lucena's husband had been executed.

Adjusting to life in Brazil was hard on Naysaindy. "I was completely lost," she told Brazilian weekly newsmagazine IstoE in 1995. "Brazil seemed so scary..." Her foster mother was also fearful. "Mother [i.e., Lucena] avoided all contact with the police and that's why my situation wasn't legalized,"

Araujo Barrett said years later. To keep away authorities who might wonder why Naysaindy had a different last name than the woman whom she called mother, Lucena gave her surname to the girl.

After Naysaindy came to Brazil, her father's brother, Paulo Araujo, a biology professor at the University of Campaigns in São Paulo state, became aware that he had an orphaned niece. He tried to help the girl. However, their approach was "slow and careful," as Paulo Araujo would tell IstoE.

When Naysaindy went to school, she was afraid that she would be expelled because she was not using her real name and had no document in her mind, Naysaindy found it hard to concentrate on her studies. Naysaindy dropped out of school in the eighth grade. She was 14 years old.

It was difficult for Araujo Barrett to find jobs where her employers would not demand that she reveal her identity. Her friends, knowing her problem, helped her find various temporary positions. She worked in an umbrella factory and in a candy store, and acted in minor roles in plays. Her delicate features, shapely figure and long brunette hair even got her a job as a fashion model. Araujo Barrett, however, found it impossible to continue modeling without telling who she really was.

Things seemed to take a turn for the better when Araujo Barrett received her real birth certificate from an aunt. Unfortunately, it was a false hope. Not only had the document been registered with the Swiss Embassy in Havana (in 1969, when Naysaindy was born, Brazil had no diplomatic relations with Cuba), but Lucena had not filed with any government authorities when she and her foster daughter came to Brazil. Therefore, Araujo Barrett, although a Brazilian citizen through her father, was an illegal alien in her own country.

Araujo Barrett now lives with her boyfriend and two daughters in Florianapolis, capital of the southern state of Santa Catarina. There she ekes out a living by selling handmade souvenirs to tourists. Her uncle, Paulo Araujo, has petitioned Justice Minister Nelson Jobim that Naysaindy be officially recognized as the daughter of Jose Maria Ferreira de Araujo and Soledad Barrett Viedma. "That would put an end to many years of lies," Naysaindy says.

How could the story of Naysaindy de Araujo Barrett have been allowed to occur as it did? For an answer to that question, it is essential to tell a bit about Brazil's history during the 1960s and '70s. Janio Quadros, an independent-minded former governor of São Paulo state, was elected by a landslide to the Brazilian presidency in 1960. Nobody expected that he would resign after just seven months in office - perhaps least of all his vice-president, Joao Goulart. When Quadros resigned in August 1961, Goulart was on his way home from a state visit to China. Much of Brazil's military and civilian establishment viewed Goulart as a leftist demagogue, and tried to insure that Goulart would not return for his inauguration. For two weeks, Brazil was on the edge of civil war, but Goulart came home and took office. The Goulart years

However, Brazilian society polarized during the next two and a half years. "Peasant Leagues" in Northeastern Brazil demanded that tenant farmers be given the land they worked on. These leagues were anathema to many large landowners, who believed that well-behaved, apolitical peasants were being incited by outsiders with Marxist tendencies. By 1964, a total of 2,181 leagues had been formed in 20 of Brazil's states.

In the cities, unionized workers were also no longer as docile as they had been. Strike became more prevalent, which displeased business executives and shareholders. Prices went up. Inflation, which had been 6% a year in the late '40s and 30% in 1960, rose to 74% in 1963 and 91% in 1964. Nevertheless, workers usually received salary adjustments that kept pace with the rising cost of living.

All of this might have been tolerated by the upper middle class, military officers and the US government if Brazil's executive brand had been both more efficient and more willing to accept the status quo. However, Goulart began to demand for "basic reforms" such as agrarian reform, rewriting the labor codes, granting the vote to illiterates and controlling the expropriation of profits made by foreign companies in Brazil. Many people, both Brazilians and foreigners, feared that these proposals were the prelude to a leftwing dictatorship which would be friendly with the Soviet Union, if not Communist itself.

Enlisted men and noncommissioned officers in Brazil's armed forces began to revolt against their superior officers. In September 1963, six hundred enlisted soldiers rebelled in Brasilia. The President refused to condemn them. In March 1964, 2000 sailors made a mutiny. Goulart granted them an amnesty and accused their superior officers of lack of discipline.

Many high-ranking officers, who had their patience worn thin by what they saw as Goulart's maladroit rabble-rousing, thought that was the last straw. On March 31, 1964, army troops marched from Minas Gerais toward Rio de Janeiro. The forces that were supposed to stop them joined them instead. Almost no one resisted against the revolt, and very little blood was shed. Democracy would not return to Brazil for another 21 years.

The role of the United States government in the events of March 1964 is controversial and still disputed by historians. It has been asserted that Vernon Walters, military attache to the US embassy in Brazil (who would become the US ambassador to the United Nations under the administration of Ronald Reagan) offered arms to generals who were contemplating a coup d'etat. Walters himself denies this.

Certainly, the US government felt relief at the premature transfer of power in Brazil. President Lyndon B. Johnson sent a telegram congratulating the new government even before Goulart went into exile. (Goulart would never return to Brazil alive: he died in Argentina in 1976, at the age of 58.) US Ambassador Lincoln Gordon stated that the "Brazilian Revolution" was "one of the major turning points in history, in the middle of the twentieth century." Brazilians who distrusted North American influence in their nation's affairs joked: "No more middlemen! Lincoln Gordon for President!"

Of course, Lincoln Gordon did not become president of Brazil. He did not even have much clout with the man who actually became President in April 1964, Marshal Humberto Castello Branco. According to an article that Gordon wrote for São Paulo newspaper O Estado de São Paulo in 1994, the ambassador protested to Castello Branco about how politicians were being stripped of their mandates and civil rights "without trials and without proofs." Gordon was so horrified that he seriously thought of resigning. "I only desisted after making an internal assessment in which I decided that it would be better for US-Brazilian relations that I stay," he declared. A cardinal's involvement.

Gordon's successor as ambassador, Charles Burke Elbrick, would be kidnapped by guerrillas from the October 8 Revolutionary Movement (MR-8) in September 1969. After the military government agreed to release 15 political prisoners and fly them to sanctuary in Mexico, the kidnappers released Elbrick physically unharmed (although emotionally scarred by his ordeal).

Torture has a long history in Brazil. During the colonial period, representatives of the Portuguese government tortured pro-independence leaders. After Brazil gained independence in 1822, rebels against the empire that had been established were also subjected to torture. And of course, until the abolition of slavery in 1888, millions of slaves lived constantly under the threat of severe punishment - and even death - if they attempted to revolt against their owners.

After the coup of 1964, however, government representatives used torture more systematically on members of the political opposition. Various groups emerged to combat the regime, but seldom became strong enough - or united enough - to be effective. Nevertheless, their relatively mild terrorism was enough to scare the military hardliners into proclaiming the fifth of a series of Institutional Acts. AI-5, as it was called, gave the President dictatorial powers to defend "the necessary interests of the nation." The decree shut down Congress and the state legislatures, suspended the Constitution, abolished habeas corpus, authorized censorship of the Brazilian media (including non-Brazilian journalists working in Brazil for foreign newspapers, magazines and television networks), and allowed the President to take away the civil rights of anyone with only the vaguest pretexts.

On the morning of January 20, 1971, Rubens Beirodt Paiva was preparing to go to the beach with his family. Just before the Paivas were ready to leave their home in the Rio de Janeiro neighborhood of Leblon, six armed men in civilian clothes invaded and searched the house. They refused to identify themselves. They forced Paiva, accompanied by two of the men, to drive his own car to DOI-CODI headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. Neither Paiva's wife Eunice nor their five teenage children ever saw Paiva again.

Paiva, a congressman who had been stripped of his office after the coup of 1964, had been accused of sending letters to Brazilians in Chile.

In the early '60s, Paulo Stuart Wright, a founder of the progressive student group AP (Popular Action), was a state legislator in Santa Catarina. Soon after the coup, Wright, the Brazilian-born son of Presbyterian missionaries from Arkansas, was stripped of his political office. He began to work in the underground resistance, organizing peasant cooperatives and rural networks.

In September 1973, Wright was abducted and taken to the DOI-CODI headquarters in São Paulo. He was never seen again. His older brother Jaime, a Presbyterian minister who had also chosen to make his life in Brazil, tried to discover what happened to Paulo. Jaime searched for Paulo in military prisons and went to anybody who might have some information about Paulo's whereabouts. Jaime was shocked that other Protestant clergy were not willing to help. On the other hand, Jaime Wright could count on the support of the Catholic Archbishop of São Paulo, Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns, who took an interest in human-rights issues. In the following years, the two clerics' friendship led to a close working relationship. "As far as I know," Jaime Wright would tell Lawrence Weschler of the New Yorker in 1986, "I am the only Protestant minister who works inside the Catholic Church at the invitation of a

cardinal."

The collaboration between the pastor and the cardinal deepened in 1980. In that year, a secret grant from the World Council of Churches allowed them to set up a project in which lawyers would check out files from the archives of the military justice system. There were more than 700 records of trials of political prisoners during the military regime - one million pages in all. It took three years to have the files photocopies, and another two years for journalists working in their spare time to summarize the files' contents. Since there was still a chance that the government would delay the transition to civilian rule, the 30-person team worked in the strictest secrecy.

The result of these labors, Brazil: Nunca Mais (Brazil: Never Again) suddenly appeared in Brazilian bookstores in July 1985, four months after General Joao Baptista Figueiredo stepped down from the presidency. With a preface by Cardinal Arns, the book quickly sold over 200,000 copies and is still in print. (The average press run for a nonfiction book in Brazil is between three to five thousand copies.) An English translation, Torture in Brazil, was published in 1986. Jaime Wright, who had served as research coordinator for the journalists who wrote the book, translated it as well.

Jaime discovered proof of his brother's death among the files, although no information about the whereabouts of Paulo Wright's body could be found. Not every member of the Wright family was convinced. Refusing to accept her uncle's disappearance, Paulo's niece Delora Wright wrote a book about him. At the end, she wrote: "I'd like to leave a post office box number for you to give some news about you. You know, we haven't calmed down, although we've tried." Deadly mistake

It was the evening of January 17, 1976 in Vila Guarani, a neighborhood in the city of São Paulo. A thin man got out of a Dodge Dart and knocked at the door of Teresa Fiel. When she answered, the man gave her a trash bag full of men's clothing and a warning: "I'm from the Hospital das Clinicas. I've come to tell you that your husband killed himself. Here are his clothes. I think it's a good idea that nobody go to the coroner's office. If somebody has to go, it should only be male relatives. No woman should go to the coroner's office - not even the widow. Otherwise, the body goes straight to the cemetery."

The husband's name was Manuel Fiel Filho, a 49-year-old metalworker. He had a wife, two daughters and a small two-story house. He was a suspected of belonging to the Communist Party and was tortured to death in the São Paulo headquarters of DOI-Codi. The official story was that Fiel Filho had hanged himself with his own socks. His imprisonment and death were the result of mistaken identity. DOI-Codi authorities had confused him with a Communist Party militant named Fiore who had once worked at the same factory as Fiel Filho.

"I didn't know that there was torture in Brazil," Teresa Fiel told Brasilia newspaper Correio Braziliense in 1995. "I knew that it was dangerous to say bad things about the government and that the Communists were dangerous people."

The day after Fiel Filho's death, President Ernesto Geisel fired the commander of the Second Army, whose headquarters also housed the São Paulo headquarters of DOI-CODI. It was the beginning of the end for DOI-CODI.

In 1980, Teresa Fiel won a lawsuit against the Brazilian government for its role in her husband's death. For 15 years, the government filed appeals to overturn this decision, but lost in June 1995. It must now pay Teresa Fiel $600 a month and a penalty of $265,000.

Despite the money that it has taken Fiel Filho's widow so long to get, no amount of cash can compensate for his death. Even now, Teresa Fiel has recurring dreams in which she hears the last thing her husband told her before he was taken away by DOI-CODI agents: "Don't cry, darling. I'll be back soon." The new victims

Eleven years after the end of military rule, illegal imprisonment, torture and disappearances continue to take place in Brazil. Most of today's victims are low-income blacks who live in favelas (shantytowns).

In October 1995, Federal Police officers in the Northeastern state of Ceara arrested Jose Ivanildo Sampaio Souza, a 33-year-old candy maker and known gang member. Not only was he armed, but he also was carrying 70 grams of marijuana and hashish, as well as two papelotes of cocaine. The officers took Sampaio Souza to police headquarters in Fortaleza, the state capital. The next day, he was dead.

His autopsy stated that Sampaio Souza had eight broken ribs and a broken sternum. "Death occurred by means of bruising instrument," the report continued, "that caused acute abdominal hemorrhaging with traumatic lesions in the left kidney and liver."

The police tortured Sampaio Souza to death because he refused to tell then the names of other gang members. "We'll go to the bottom of this and punish the culprits," Federal Police Chief Vicente Chelloti told Brazilian weekly newsmagazine Veja about the Sampaio Souza case. That may be an uphill battle.

In police stations throughout Brazil, torture is the method of first choice to clarify crimes. Instead of the time-consuming and expensive path of investigations and proofs, police officers opt for the quick and easy way out. Some politicians say that torture is justifiable since criminals do not have human rights. If cops go too far while interrogating a suspect, that's one less thug to deal with.

If the suspect does not die, police officers can get away with torture. There are three main reasons for this. First, Brazil's overburdened magistrates barely have time to judge homicides, much less arrange time to verify police abuses. For example, the Secretariat of Public Security in the state of Pernambuco made 400 inquiries in 1995 to investigate injuries made by police officers. Of these, one-fifth of the cases went to disciplinary hearings, and only 20 police officers were dismissed from their jobs. This 5% punishment rate means that Brazilian cops accused of torture have 19 cha