1888 was the year Brazil abolished slavery, as was mentioned in the Afro-Brazilian Museum in Ibirapuera Park on São Paulo. The skeleton of an old slave ship transporting people from Africa was one of the central pieces on display. (The rest was mostly art.) after spending half the day in the park with Claire-Adele while we mostly people watched, I never would have guess that slavery ended so relatively recently in Brazil given the racial issues in the US. Based on the hundreds of people I saw in the park, I couldn’t identify a dominant race. I remember seeing a cover of Time magazine back as a kid where an artist predicted what people would look like after generations of racial intermingling. That is what everyone in Brazil looks like. It is really remarkable and so beautiful. That is my observation from Day 1. More to come.
In addition to people watching, Claire-Adele and I did some dog watching. The most common dog: light brown Pomeranians. All of Fox’s long lost cousins live in Brazil. It was awesome. Thanks, New York Times, for telling us about sitting in the Madureira Cafe where we ate pao de quejo and drank tropical smoothies and looked at people and their pups. Claire-Adele loves big cities, and I think she is right. Sure, I love nature and beaches and quiet resorts, but is something else to mingle with the locals. We also drank coconut milk out of the coconut, which staved off dehydration in the 90 degree weather.
Other interesting news: I saw the lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers in the line behind me at customs in the São Paulo airport. He was wearing branded RHCP merch, which I thought was odd for the lead singer to do. I was going to ask him if he was in the band, but I chickened out. (I need a few more Improv classes under my belt before I start introducing myself to rock stars in airports. Plus I just finished (as did he) a 10 hour red-eye so I wasn’t feeling as bubbly as usual.
A picture for Pedro: there was a painting in the Afro-Brazilian Musuem of a man holding a fish. The caption read “It is the fish that guides the fisherman.”
I know what you are thinking: hey post some pictures! I’ll have to do it when I get back home.
No comments:
Post a Comment