Adventures of a Gringa

Q&A with Tereza Lee

Despite the fact that U.S. immigration reform is seemingly becoming more of an uphill battle in an increasingly polarized country, support for the DREAM Act--a law which would give immigrants brought to the United States in their youth a path to residency--is on the rise. Though the DREAM Act bill was narrowly defeated in the Senate in December 2010, it was reintroduced last year, and immigration reform advocates still hold out hope that it could pass.

I've written about several Brazilians at the heart of the DREAM Act, including Felipe Matos, one of the United States' top immigration reform activists, and Polyana de Oliveira, a Brazilian who moved back to her country of birth after running out of time for the DREAM Act to pass. But what I recently discovered is that the very person who inspired the DREAM Act is in fact Brazilian by birth.

Senator Rick Durbin of Illinois was one of the senators who wrote and introduced the DREAM Act back in 2001, inspired by Tereza Lee. Tereza was born in São Paulo to Korean parents, and lived in Brazil until she was 2, when the family moved to Chicago. Lee became a talented pianist and was accepted into some of the top music schools in the country. But since she was undocumented, she was ineligible for financial aid. One of her music teachers decided to search for a solution, and called Durbin's office to see if he could help. Soon, the DREAM Act was born.

 

Part of the reason it took so long for the bill to be considered in Congress was that it was due to be discussed on September 12, 2001; Tereza herself was supposed to fly to Washington for the hearing. Fortunately, Tereza was lucky. She had the fortune to be able to study at the Manhattan School of Music, where she is currently pursuing a doctorate. Now age 29, she married an American and gained residency. But she's still a vocal part of the DREAM Act movement, advocating for others like her.

 

I spoke to Tereza briefly about her family's journey from Korea to Brazil to the U.S., as well as her role in immigration reform.

What brought your parents to Brazil?  What brought them later to the United States?

My parents had lost everything--their belongings, homes, and land--during the Korean War and subsequent struggles. They became part of a massive wave of Korean immigration to North and South America. They first moved to Sao Paulo, Brazil, where I was born, and started a small clothing business. Although they were, initially, relatively successful, they decided to move to the U.S. to start over again after almost all of their savings was stolen via identity theft. My mother sold her wedding ring in order to buy visas and plane tickets for us, and we moved to Chicago when I was two.  

Once you became a resident, where was the first place you traveled abroad?  Have you been back to Brazil or to Korea?

I've not been back to Brazil, and have unfortunately never been to Korea, but I have been able to visit Germany, France, Italy, and Japan.

Before I even boarded an airplane, though, I really experienced a feeling of vertigo when I received my permanent resident document which allowed me to travel. Although I was, of course, beyond thrilled to finally have documentation, and be one step closer to American citizenship, at the same time it struck me as incredibly bizarre and unsettling that this small, flimsy piece of paper could have such power over my life.  

What's your involvement like with the DREAM movement at present?

I am constantly trying to keep up to date on all the latest news on the DREAM Act. I stay in touch with other DREAMers as much as I can, and have become friends with many of them. I also volunteer occasionally at rallies and events--there are so many here in New York.

Do you think the DREAM Act has a chance of passing anytime in the near future?

Absolutely! Both houses of Congress voted to pass the DREAM Act in 2010, and with only a few more votes to override a filibuster in the Senate, it would have been made law then. I'm no expert on politics, but I know the upcoming election will be very significant for the DREAM Act. On the other hand, my guess is that it's not likely to happen before the election.

What advice would you give to other DREAMers?

Stay positive, both in your own lives and in your communications with others. Being caught between the cracks of the immigration system for years can be enormously frustrating and debilitating, and many DREAMers I've talked to have battled severe depression. I also know, though, that DREAMers know how to survive amid great obstacles and constant fear, and it never ceases to amaze me how many DREAMers have persevered and become valedictorians, star athletes, and leaders in their communities. When we bring our message to the public, anger won't work. We need to focus on the benefits that America will receive from allowing all of these talented people to contribute, and then, once the DREAM Act passes, go out and prove it!

ESPN on Rio's World Cup Preparations

While news stories about Rio's preparations for the World Cup are a dime a dozen and seem to pop up at regular intervals, I'm sharing this report from ESPN that's a tidy wrap-up of some of the issues surrounding the city's efforts for 2014. While it's not completely all-encompassing, the report touches on many of the challenges and controversies stemming from the World Cup preparations, and is especially useful for those who haven't been following the events as closely.

Another interesting thing about the report is that those interviewed really are some of the ones to watch for World Cup and Olympics analysis leading up to the games, and not just random talking heads. There's Julia Michaels of RioReal Blog, and if you read this blog, you surely know her already; Christopher Gaffney, an American professor at UFF in Rio who is studying the city's mega-event preparations and writes Hunting White Elephants; Rio state Congressman Marcelo Freixo, one of the city's political leaders intent on rooting out corruption and preventing abuses before the games; and veteran Brazilian sports journalist João Máximo, who writes a column for ESPN. They're a great group to follow for coverage and analysis of Rio's mega-event preparations, and you can access their blogs and/or Twitter accounts by clicking the links above.

Lost in Translation: English in Brazil

One of the main challenges leading up to Brazil's mega-events--including the Rio+20, the World Cup, and the Olympics--is a shortage of English speakers in key sectors, including tourism, transportation, and hospitality. For those who spend lots of time in Brazil and speak Portuguese or hope to become fluent, this is actually an advantage, which can allow for more immersion. But for one-time visitors or those dependent on English as their only language or the only other way to communicate outside of their native language (such as Chinese, Russian, etc), it can prove to be a problem.

On global English rankings, Brazil does not fare well. EF, a global English education company, released its international English proficiency index for 2011, showing that Brazil ranked as a country with "low English proficiency." Though it was among the lowest ranking countries, Brazil scored above the "very low proficiency" countries such as Panama and Vietnam. Released in April, the GlobalEnglish Corporation Business English Index ranked Brazil among the lowest in the world among countries with the least amount of English fluency in the workplace, which puts the country "at a disadvantage." An Economist Intelligence Unit report released this month indicated that Brazil is one of the countries that struggles the most with the language barrier in international business; nearly three-quarters of Brazilians surveyed said their company had experienced “financial losses as a result of failed cross-border transactions.”

Brazilian surveys reflect this issue, showing low levels of English knowledge at all levels of the socioeconomic spectrum. A Catho survey from late last year found that only 11 percent of Brazilian job candidates could communicate well in English, and only 3.4 percent of all candidates could speak fluent English. A 2009 Catho study found that 24 percent of Brazilian professionals speak fluent English, and that only 8 percent of Brazilian executives speak fluent English. A lack of English speakers even in high-tech fields has hurt Brazil's competitiveness in IT and outsourcing like call centers. According to a Data Popular survey released this month, the "new middle class" in Brazil will spend R$28.1 billion (US $13.8 billion) on education in 2012, but only 1 in 5 members of the so-called C class knows how to speak a foreign language.

Travel writer and fellow Brazilophile Seth Kugel has written about this issue, finding a mixed bag. In March, he wrote about the puzzingly poor translation of Embratur (Brazil's tourism bureau)'s English site, particularly the interactive World Cup section. Some errors were particularly egregious since they simply required a Google or Wikipedia search rather than a translated phrase. At the end of the post, Kugel wrote:

"Obviously, no one is going to decide not to visit Trancoso because of a vocabulary error. But give up visiting a country that doesn't have legible information on its official website? With so many other countries with their eye on the billions of dollars from international tourists? It's not only possible, it's probable."

In response, Embratur said it had hired a third-party company, Agencia Click, to do the site and translation, and that it would release the site with a new translation later this year. The whole thing was quite strange, considering that the agency in question, which is one of the largest and well-respected digital communications companies in the country, should have no problem finding real translators. But it's a symptomatic case in a country where things are often and sometimes unnecessarily lost in translation.

On the other hand, the upcoming mega-events have added pressure to the tourism sector to hire more English speakers. In a recent "review" of São Paulo's Guarulhos Airport, Kugel found that three different information booth workers were able to communicate in English, providing helpful information about hotels and sightseeing. (However, special groups run by judges aimed to solve issues like lost baggage and overbookings at Brazil's biggest airports have only a single English-speaking employee, a recent report said.) Language schools estimate that foreign language courses will grow by 30 to 40 percent over the next four years in preparations for the World Cup and Olympics. Last year, around 120 taxi drivers in Rio received English training in a special course for taxistas--the first of its kind in the country--which inspired similar taxi driver courses from Piauí to Rio Grande do Sul.

My experience is that there are plenty of English speakers in Brazil, but these speakers are sometimes concentrated in specialized fields like finance and web companies. But for me, Brazil's real challenge isn't just going to be finding and training English speakers in key jobs before the mega-events, but rather improving foreign language education at the elementary and secondary school levels so that the next generation has better opportunities in the global economy.

Photo: by me. Florianópolis International Airport, 2008.

Rio+20: A Litmus Test

 

Photo: Rodrigo Soldon

Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, begins in Rio de Janeiro on June 20, a little over a month away. While the topics up for discussion are undoubtedly important, all signs point to the possibility that no binding resolution will result and it will be a lot of talking and little action. (For perspective, at one of the New York Rio+20 negotiations that lasted two weeks, the big decision to come out of it was to have more negotiations at the end of the month.) The likely more critical outcome will be a test of how Rio will handle a non-Carnival mega-event before the World Cup and Olympics, and as one of its first big events to turn the spotlight on Rio during the city's so-called renaissance.

On the one hand, Rio+20 comes at a time when more and more events are being held in Rio. According to International Congress and Convention Association, Rio surpassed São Paulo for the number of events held in the city last year. Rio now has a massive "smart city" operations center to monitor the city in real-time, which has aided in the day-to-day but will be especially helpful during large events. The Brazilian army is setting up a cybercrimes defense center in Rio in June right before the conference as a test before the World Cup and Olympics. The police are building their own operations center set to launch next month, also before the conference, and as RioReal Blog notes, people are losing sleep as the city faces deadlines and new goals set by city residents.

At the same time, Rio+20 will be an important test for two of Rio's biggest challenges for upcoming mega-events: accommodations and transportation. An estimated 50,000 people are expected to pour into the city for the conference, though the city only has around 26,000 hotel rooms. Everyone knew that hotels were charging obscenely exorbitant prices for the Rio+20 week, and the government reserved most rooms ahead of time. Several people have asked me about finding apartments, though those are also hard to come by.

However, when the European Parliament canceled its Rio+20 delegation this week--citing high costs at around 600 euros a night per room--suddenly more people started to pay attention. Reuters found that hotels are charging around 5 times the normal price. Now, President Dilma Rousseff along with federal congressmen are asking the Rio government to intervene and find a solution to the price gouging. It's an important lesson before 2014 and 2016, because inevitably the same thing will happen, even if Rio expands its hotel capacity by then. UPDATE: Apparently Rio's mayor has appealed to Cariocas to leave town and rent out their apartments to Rio+20 guests, while the Rio tourism bureau had planned to launch a website for apartment rentals that never materialized, says the AP.

As for transportation, Rio is working on extending the metro system, improving and expanding highways, and building the TransCarioca, a bus rapid transit system to connect Rio's international airport to Barra da Tijuca in the city's West Zone. But the metro hasn't reached Barra yet and the TransCarioca isn't finished, but the conference will take place at Riocentro, the city's convention center--located in Barra. That means that the large majority of attendees will likely be staying in Zona Sul or downtown and will have to get to Barra by bus or cab, which will undoubtedly lead to some major traffic jams. But Barra is already a nightmare to get to on a normal day: Cariocas complain that commuting to or from Barra to other parts of the city can take up two hours or more during rush hour. Since traffic is pretty much inevitable, it may help to put more pressure on the city to work faster on crticial infrastructure projects.

Meanwhile, the Cachoeira corruption scandal brewing in Brasília is threatening to get closer to Rio every day. Rio's governor was caught in photos of European jaunts with the former head of Delta, the construction company at the heart of the scandal. Delta is one of the largest construction companies in Brazil, but 99 percent--yes, 99 percent--of its contracts are with the government. It was the company responsible for reforming Maracanã and for helping build the TransCarioca, but since the scandal broke, the company removed itself from both projects. Now, the company is being taken over J&F, the controlling shareholder of JBS, Brazil and the world's largest meatpacking company. Interestingly, BNDES, Brazil's government-run development bank that funds infrastructure projects across Brazil, has a 31.4 percent stake in JBS.

Crime is unlikely to be an issue, though it may be the top worry for many visitors. The city tends to go on lockdown during large events and is actually a time when crime overall seems to drop. In the end, Rio+20 should help identify remaining challenges for the upcoming mega-events, even if the thousands of delegates at the conference fail to agree on anything.

Q&A With Michael Jerome Wolff

I came across The Rio Blog by way of Julia Michaels, a really interesting Tumblr by Michael Jerome Wolff, a political science doctoral student living in Rio de Janeiro and Recife. The blog depicts life in each city's favelas and an on-the-ground perspective of the favela pacification process. I spoke to Michael about his blog and his time in Brazil, as well as his take on Rio's security policies.

What brought you to Rio and Recife, and what are you working on while you're there? Had you already lived in/visited Brazil before?

I first came to Brazil in 2008 and stayed two months, with the objective of learning Portuguese.  The following year, I returned, and that time stayed for eight months, splitting my time between Rio de Janeiro and Recife. As crime and violence are a particularly ubiquitous concern in both places—and in Rio the situation is cinematographically dramatic—I succumbed to the woeful intrigue of studying it.  In 2011 I received a Social Science Research Council (SSRC) fellowship to sponsor a year of research in both Rio and Recife, and that is what I am currently doing. 

What is the idea behind your blog and what are your goals for it?

The idea for the blog came from two English friends of mine whose wedding I photographed just days before I left for Brazil.  Both artists, they have been publicizing their work for years via blogs.  Knowing that I love to write and photograph, they forced me to open my own blog, which almost immediately became my most pampered hobby.  At the time I had no expectation that anyone would read or view it, but the remote possibility of an audience created an incentive to structure my photos and reflective writings about my research in an attractive and meaningful way.  Originally I intended it to be simply a matter of personal expression, but as I realized that people out in the web world actually read it from time to time, I focused also on its informative aspect. 

That said, it is far from a news blog, as I never intended it to closely follow individual current events.  I see it more as a structured reflection on the nuanced politics of public security in Rio de Janeiro and Recife, oriented by, but by no means beholden to, the research norms and goals of social science.  And, of course, it is a focused outlet for my photography obsession. 

Why is photography an important part of the blog, especially showing what's going on behind the scenes in Rio's favelas?

The invention of the photograph in the mid-1800s dramatically changed journalism and historical documentation by immortalizing and making “real” far off phenomena that would otherwise be lost to the futile abstraction of wordy concepts.   Whether a photograph portrays the “truth” or emboldens a shady stereotype, the sure thing is that it has the capacity to humanize events and situations for the far-off viewer in an immediate and emotionally powerful way. 

This is, in essence, what I am attempting to do with my photography in the blog: humanize and make “real” all that is happening behind the scenes in Rio and Recife’s complicated drama of crime and violence and public security.  Who are the winners and losers? The perpetrators and victims?  The innocent and not-so-innocent bystanders?  Where is all of this happening?  What is the visual “feel” of the stage upon which all these actors play out the ineffable tragedy? 

You've been on the ground during Rio's favela pacification process. What's your take on the UPPs and the effect they're having on the local communities?

To begin, I would emphasize that the UPPs should in no way be treated as a panacea for the public security problems of Rio de Janeiro, nor should they be understood as a serious assault on drug trafficking and consumption of illegal drugs. To be sure, serious crime and violence will continue in Rio de Janeiro until the city’s obscene social inequalities are reversed.  And illegal drugs will be sold for as long as they are illegal and as long as popular demand remains high.

What the UPPs are first and foremost intended to do, and for the most part have done so successfully, is to dismantle the armed territorial authority structures of drug trafficking gangs.  This represents a dramatic change both for favela residents and for outsiders who visit or work in favelas.  Although there may have existed a relative peace under the domain of well-armed and organized drug gangs, there were previously no institutionalized guarantees of security for anyone.  The stability of gang governance, too, was always fragile and prone to violent conflict that threatened the community in a random and deadly way.  I think it is fair to say that in most of the smaller favelas of Rio’s wealthy South Side, the UPPs represent a predominately positive change, having brought greater security (from violent conflict) and greater commercial and social integration with formal neighborhoods. 

That said, there are some serious challenges that cause doubt about the overall success of the program.  A few issues merit special mention: 
-    None of the large favelas thus far pacified are particularly pacific or free from the competitive power mongering of drug gangs, putting to question geography as a barrier to effective policy implementation.
-    Pacification is often accompanied by an increase in property crimes and interpersonal violence in areas where drug gangs had been particularly effective guarantors of community security. 
-    Other State institutions have been slow to follow suit, putting the onus of public security solely the police while leaving the myriad other social problems unattended. 
-    If the pacification program remains incomplete geographically—and it very well might, due to a lack of political will to expand the policy to the greater metropolitan area—the structure of crime, violence, and corruption will spread to other areas and create an even greater monster than that which the UPPs hoped to confront in the first place. 

How does all of this affect favela communities themselves?  On one hand, it is a repressive affront to the unique culture of communities that for decades have lived under the laissez-faire dictatorships of drug gangs.  On the other hand, it allows for a much greater social integration and, by consequence, a social mobility that had previously been blocked by the duality of legitimate and criminal governing authorities.  In any case, the program’s future, I believe, is still up in the air. 

Some argue that one of the biggest threats to security in Rio are its militias, which you've also written about. What's your view on the militias and how the state and city are addressing them?

The common argument that militias are the greatest threat to security in Rio de Janeiro comes from the fact that they are highly professional organizations deeply infiltrated into the security, judicial, and electoral institutions of the State, making them impervious to prosecution while eating away like cancer at the heart of Brazil’s young democracy. 

My personal view, however, is that the threat of militias is somewhat exaggerated.  Notwithstanding uncertainty, my studies of organized crime and recent history in Rio suggests to me that the territorial expansion and the ultimate extension of political power of these paramilitary-type groups are limited by the logic of the type of crime committed.  In the tune of science (or political) fiction, it is completely plausible to foresee a complete criminalization of the democratic process at the hands of militias in Brazil.  I don’t predict that, however.  In fact, I fully expect drug gangs fleeing from pacified favelas to overwhelm most of those communities succumbed to militias during the last six or eight years. 

How does the security situation compare in Recife to that of Rio?

Recife’s homicide rate is nearly twice that of Rio de Janeiro, and the city has won the title as the most violent of Brazil’s state capitals.  Muggings, car-jackings, bank robberies, and other violent assaults are rampant, and this violence has seriously affected social and commercial activity here.  To compare Rio and Recife in a heartbeat, I would stay that while Rio’s security situation is characterized by a much more sophisticated and cinematographic type of violence, Recife is by and large a more dangerous city to live and work in for almost anyone.  That said, since violent crime is less tied into local political structures here, intelligent and integral public security policies may have a greater chance at success than in Rio. 

Xingu, the Movie

When I first read this review of Cao Hamburger's new movie, Xingu, I kept my expectations low when I went to see the movie at the Tribeca Film Festival. While the film certainly has its faults, it's actually a really fascinating true story with the Fernando Meirelles touch and beautiful cinematography.

 

The movie follows the three Villas Boas brothers from a prominent São Paulo family who join an expedition to open Brazil's wild frontier. They encounter indigenous tribes who previously had no outside contact, and become advocates for protecting these groups. Orlando Villas Boas eventually helped convince the Brazilian government to set up Brazil's first indigenous reserve, Xingu National Park, which is nearly the size of Belgium. The brothers also helped convince indigenous tribes to settle in the park and to relocate people who were scattered from tribes and other tribes who would be displaced by the Transamazonica highway construction. It's an incredible story not only about Brazilian history but also about Brazilian-style advocacy. Though it's not about the environment, it does have an underlying message about sustainability and protecting land, which comes at an apt time with the passage of Brazil's Forest Code law by Congress (President Dilma must now decide whether or not to veto it, or make changes and pass it).

I also thought it was interesting to see which companies helped support the movie. Any time you sit through the opening credits of a Brazilian movie, you'll notice that there are quite a few sponsors, and Petrobras, Brazil's oil company, is very frequently one of the top sponsors. But it was noticeably absent from this movie; instead, Eletrobras (Brazil's electric company) and Natura, an environmentally-conscious cosmetics company, were both big sponsors. Other sponsors included Brazil's development bank, Ambev, one of the largest brewing companies in the world, and NET, a cable and internet provider. Just food for thought.

One of the things I did think was missing was more about the relationships with the indigenous tribes on first contact. While it was interesting to see how they would meet the tribes, there was a missed opportunity to show more of how the brothers and the indigenous people adapted to one another during the first year of contact, beyond learning basic vocabulary. There is a fun scene where one of the brothers takes some members of the tribe in a small airplane, but there must be so many fascinating stories surrounding the relationship between the outsiders and the indigenous people. Though the brothers are among the most famous for being advocates for and friends of the indigenous tribes, the picture the movie painted made it seem like everything was quite rosy, while I imagine that this was not always the case in the brothers' relationships with different tribes.

Still, it's definitely a movie worth seeing. Sadly, the movie isn't doing very well in Brazil, where it is currently playing; one columnist says it's because movies about the indigenous don't have much appeal there. But I recommend seeing it if you get a chance, either in Brazil or at future international screenings.