Growing Up Brazilian
ZIMBLER, BRIAN L.
A GENERATION IN SEARCH OF A FUTURE Growing Up BY BRYAN L. ZIMBLER Brasilia A short while ago, I drove down a main thoroughfare of this capital city with a 26-year-old law student and friend...
...Because a surprising proportion of Brazilian workers has no union representation, young men and women from impoverished rural or city slum areas in particular have tragically few options...
...Joaquim makes roughly $2 profit on a good day, barely enough to help pay the rent in a tiny Copacabana flat he shares with 11 other Bahian friends...
...Since all improvement is relative, some lower-tier young people I met appeared pleased with their lot, for the moment anyway...
...It involves long hours carrying heavy packs and trudging through about 15 miles of sand in 100 degree heat...
...Our pop hits and video clips dominate radio and television, and our fashion and food styles quickly win acceptance in main cities...
...The children of the wealthy attend fancy balls and parties at Carnival time, nightclubs and restaurants the rest of the year, and frequently travel abroad...
...Jobs of that kind would enable her to hone the communications skills and analytical ability she had displayed in several of our animated conversations, and might permit some hope of upward mobility...
...At night, generally good-natured "gangs" of friends fill the public squares and street corners...
...Preparations for the February Carnival begin months earlier and center around the samba schools situated in Rio and Sao Paulo shanty-towns...
...The job seemed no less a dead-end than domestic work, Neide declared, and had neither the advantages of a fixed salary nor the occasional "bonuses" she enjoyed—leftover food to take home for her two children, hand-me-down clothes, tips, a chance to share the warmth of some of the families she cleaned for...
...when Neide is lucky she works for foreign families, who often pay better...
...Meanwhile, poor students can neither pass the public exams nor afford the private education...
...By one estimate, 8 million children between the ages of seven and 14 do not attend school...
...pop music as well...
...I heard such comments frequently from young people of many different backgrounds, regions and classes during an eight-month stay in Latin America's biggest nation...
...they have become symbolsof the country's hope that it can achieve a rapid technological leap, and perhaps elevation to major power status, in the 21 st century...
...They could afford to attend the private schools...
...Jobert's father, for example, is a prominent commercial lawyer in the capital, and I assume my friend will one day join the successful practice...
...Raul says his son's chances will depend largely on luck, and little on the training or education he has had...
...We will all get jobs, though what kind of jobs remains to be seen...
...It is not clear to young people how they may best succeed, if at all...
...Besides uncertainty about the future, one element that ties both poor and well-to-do young people together in Brazil is their love of national culture...
...Raul Campbell Penna, a successful Rio businessman and investor who lives in Ipanema, has sent his son Alexandre to study at the Sorbonne in Paris for a year, and to travel in Europe...
...Our country is in a mess, with its huge foreign debt and domestic economic troubles," a student nicknamed "Mosquito" told me...
...They wind up with nothing...
...Joaquim, a black man from the poor Northeast Bahia State, migrated to Rio de Janeiro two years ago...
...Neide Araujo Santana, a strikingly beautiful 26-year-old black woman from Nova Igua?u, a predominantly low-income area near Rio de Janeiro, has been working since she was 11 years old...
...But the students who can pass the exams to attend the public universities are usually from the elite sectors of society, and have grown up with advantages...
...Hawking on Rio beaches is not easy...
...But integrating this huge group into the development-oriented plans of today's leaders will not be easy...
...Millions of their small children roam the streets of Brazilian cities, begging for food or doing odd jobs like shoe-shining...
...Often they were clearly exaggerating, if not totally misstating, their condition...
...TakeAmilcar, a 22-year-old taxi driver in Brasilia...
...stirring structures are not merely the seat ofpower...
...Brian L. Zimbler, a previous NL contributor, studied Brazilian politics in Rio de Janeiro as a Rotary International Scholar and is currently attending Harvard Law School and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy...
...That's it exactly," said Jobert, underlining a point he had been making...
...Mauro Campbell Marques, is an ambitious, newly turned out lawyer hailing from Manaus, in the Amazon, who has just graduated with top honors from a private law school in Rio...
...His cynicism sounds mild compared with what one hears in the broad lower tiers of Brazilian society, where the suffering from inequities and inefficiencies is greatest and the opportunities for upward mobility are lacking...
...It is ironic that this should be the case in Brazil, whose abundant natural resources include teeming mineral deposits, lodes of precious metal, large areas of virgin agricultural land, and splendid waterways and coastlines...
...Nevertheless, the feelings of doubt and lowered expectations expressed by him are widespread and real...
...Without a pistolao of some kind, you're dead," complained Marcos, a bright and somewhat conservative young man studying economics at Pontific Catholic University, a well-respected private institution in Rio...
...But Brazil today is full of corruption and uncertainty...
...About half of the population of 130 million is under 20 years old, making the younger generation itself at once a precious and potentially explosive natural resource...
...I spent several days with mining and engineering students in Ouro Preto, a historic and picturesque town nestled amid the mountains of Minas Gerais State that was Brazil's imperial capital...
...The students I visited live in a republica, a sort of small-scale fraternity house a few blocks from the elite National School of Mines...
...A gigantic pool of energy and talent now lies dormant among the young people, waiting to be tapped...
...A number of students spoke of the need for apistolao (connection) to secure promising employment...
...He expects his hard work during the past few years—which included intensive studying, a period of practical training in local courts, and taking numerous exams—to land him a prestigious appointment to the public prosecutor's staff back in Manaus...
...They work as hawkers, too, orasjoor-teiros and faxineiros, tending the fancy buildings in Rio's most fashionable districts...
...Usually he attends soccer matches in Maracana stadium, rooting for the popular local team, Fla-mengo...
...Neide is both sharp and sharp-tongued, as are many Brazilian working women caught in the bottom rungs of this extremely class-bound country...
...Careerism is very definitely a characteristic of middle- and upper-class young people...
...But even therhythmsofthe samba or rock and roll cannot erase the doubts about the national destiny—and personal futures—being expressed by young Brazilians...
...Many Brazilian discount establishments follow this policy, hence the aggressive welcome potential purchasers receive from sales personnel upon entering...
...The positions I had suggested were virtually closed to persons of her background and station...
...In addition, the military left its successors an economy mired in triple-digit inflation and high unemployment...
...A GENERATION IN SEARCH OF A FUTURE Growing Up BY BRYAN L. ZIMBLER Brasilia A short while ago, I drove down a main thoroughfare of this capital city with a 26-year-old law student and friend named Jobert Junior...
...Down the road, he envisions a possible political career...
...Their poorer contemporaries spend their free time playing soccer or gathering in groups on the beaches or in other recreation areas...
...Some low-income workers and rural peasants have organized themselves politically, with impressive results...
...They remain to be overcome by the civilian administration elected in January 1985 that took office in March, after 20 years of military rule...
...Music—modern or traditional—is always somewhere in the background...
...I asked why she did not attempt to improve her economic status by seeking work as a model, receptionist or perhaps sales clerk...
...She commutes three hours daily, to serve as a cleaning lady in the homes of wealthy cariocas, as denizens of Rio are known...
...Yet if success in Rio may be a stepping stone to personal advancement for Mauro back on his home turf, even he admits that Brazilian education and the society beyond it are fraught with unfairness...
...These are typical diversions for working people, young and old...
...Moreover, there is a substantial gap between the apparent potential of their nation and their own lowered expectations...
...They think about samba or rock and roll dancing, about social evenings and about their vacations...
...Along with thousands of other nordestinos, he was willing to take any job he could find and wound up peddling popsicles on the beaches...
...My generation of Brazilians feels lost, unwanted...
...There are exceptions, of course...
...Bribery can be a serious cost of doing business in Brazil...
...In most societies, the best will usually come out on top...
...Eight years later, he is married and lives with his wife and two children in a small house in the CidadeLivre settlements outside the city...
...Radical politics are a part of campus life, too—especially at the heavily politicized University of Sao Paulo—but generally take a back seat to worries about resumes, entry-level jobs, and training courses...
...Voce nao sabe nada do Brasil" ("You know nothing of Brazil"), she replied...
...Not all the students I met were quite as pessimistic as Marcos...
...My family sometimes has only feijao (black beans) and rice to eat, depending on the tips I get and whether I am forced to share my salary with local policemen, my employers, and others...
...He comes from the interior of Goias, a huge rural state surrounding the capital that he left at the age of 14 to seek work...
...Alexandre is a talented photographer...
...Recent invasions of big estates by landless peasants in the Northeast and South have intensified the pace of land reform...
...And as mining experts and engineers, all of us will play a key role in Brazilian development...
...It all sounded sadly like the egocentric, recession-scarred United States university woes of the 1970s...
...They are not serious, because they know that good grades alone will not guarantee them a good career...
...At high schools and universities in major cities such as Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, students related rueful stories of PhDs driving taxicabs and tending bar...
...But eventually they may be worked out...
...Life is hard, and the government is always letting prices go up," hesaid...
...Despite his difficult existence, Joaquim is cheerful...
...As we chatted, the buildings housing Brazil's government swept past majestically: First came the smooth domes of the House and Senate, then the light, flowing exterior of Itamaraty, the Foreign Ministry headquarters that seems to float above a reflecting pool, and finally the commanding stone-and-steel presence of the Palacio de Planalto, where President Jos...
...Before that can happen, though, the government in this impressive capital willhavetoconfront Brazil'senormous social inequities and economic disparities...
...In fact, United States culture is a focal point of young Brazilians' attention...
...Actually, Neide said, she had been a sales clerk in a low-budget clothing store...
...Sarney has his base...
...Fathers and mothers mayhavejobs, yet they cannot scrape together enough to feed their families...
...These futuristically-designed...
...Ultimately, what struck me most about the members of the country's "next" generation is that they are rapidly losing their carefree youth to adult worries of careers, jobs and often bare survival...
...While pessimistic about the national outlook over the next decade, they were more sanguine about their own opportunities...
...The students wore the brightly-colored, fashionable clothing popular among many Rio coeds...
...His father would like him to go on to a career with one of the big newspapers or magazines in Sao Paulo or Rio...
...Her income averages $50 per month, slightly above Brazil's minimum wage, but barely enough for subsistence living given local prices...
...I'm alive, and that is more than I might have expected back in the Northeast...
...Suddenly, a popular song hit entitled Inutil("Useless") burst over the car radio...
...Such businesses are more open, for they hire purely "on commission"— that is, earnings are based on a percentage of the sales one makes during each day...
...Prospects for dramatic improvement in the lengthy list of Brazil's problems over the short term are slim, and that reality has resulted in the lack of confidence so prevalent among young people here...
...We are completely useless...
...They pay her 25,000 cruzeiros a day, or about $2.50 U.S...
...A predilection for socializing and relaxing is another quality shared by all young Brazilians, although the way this manifests itself varies...
...It failed to deal with rampant corruption, large-scale inequalities in land and income distribution, massive weaknesses in health and social services, and an illiteracy rate still hovering near 30 per cent...
...He sees no room for further improvement...
...Throughout my extensive travels in Brazil, I met young people from poor rural areas— mostly black and mixed-race—who had moved to urban settings or taken other steps to try and improve their lot pretty much in vain...
...All the young Brazilians I got to know are rabid fans of their country's music, but they enjoy U.S...
...There had been no work in the Northeast, which alternates between floods and droughts, he said...
...A variety of divisions, obstacles and frustrations havestymied Brazil's progress since its independence from Portugal in the 19th century...
...half of all children under six are malnourished...
...Most often, though, strikes by hospital and postal employees, industrial unions and other labor groups are catch-up actions to counter the ravages of inflation, rather than steps toward genuine social progress...
...Occasionally he squanders a few days' earnings on choppe, the ubiquitous Brazilian draft beer, or on a movie...
...Private schools are expensive, and public schools are free," he points out...
...Look at my peers," he continued, indicating a group of young women who were joking around in the university's main lobby...
...They tended to go to the sons and daughters of the middle-class shop owners and office managers living within the city, who were strategically situated to generate at least one opening for their children...
...The new spirit that seemed about to burst forth last year in the early stages of the "New Republic' has already faded...
Vol. 69 • March 1986 • No. 5
