Rio Gringa

Juliana Barbassa's "Dancing with the Devil in the City of God"

Juliana Barbassa is a person I've known through the grapevine for years since she arrived in Rio as the Associated Press correspondent. I didn't meet her in person until two years ago, when I was in Rio at the tail end of the massive street protests. I was fascinated by her trajectory and her unique eye for reporting in Brazil.

Barbassa was born in Brazil, but grew up all over the world because of her dad's oil company job, living not only in Rio but also in Iraq, Malta, Libya, Spain, France, and the United States. She went to UT Austin for undergrad and to UC Berkeley for graduate school. She joined the AP in 2003, and became the AP Rio correspondent in 2010.

Back in 2013, Barbassa was kind enough to invite me over to her beautiful home in Flamengo, where I also met her dad and now-husband Christopher Gaffney, every Rio journalist's favorite curmudgeon and one of the top experts on global mega-events. We talked about the protests and the World Cup and Barbassa's career and what it was like to go from writing for a wire service to writing her first book. We also talked about her experience going to grad school for journalism, which in retrospect I credit her for inspiring me to do.

That meeting confirmed what I suspected: that Barbassa is someone special when it comes to understanding Brazil and being able to translate its cultural idiosyncrasies. She's able to capture the nuances of a native while also providing the perspective of an outsider.

And now, finally, you can see the result of Barbassa's hard work with her new book, coming out July 28. (Pre-order your copy of the book here.) Below, see my impressions of the book, my Q&A with the author, and when you can meet Barbassa during her book tour.

My Thoughts on the Book

Called Dancing with the Devil in the City of God: Rio de Janeiro on the Brink, the book explores what's been happening in Rio over the last few years in a way that I really think has never been captured as well as she does. The reporting is incredibly deep and thorough, from poring through documents to an exhausting number of hours spent in the field.

Overall, the book is exquisitely written, a blend of a memoir and some of the best reporting you will find on Rio de Janeiro. Some parts are heart-wrenching (see the chapter on the mudslides), and some parts are laugh-out-loud funny (don't miss the anecdote about the Mexican entrepreneur and how he got his Brazilian visa.)

Not only does she get into the nitty gritty of security, gentrification, evictions, environmental degradation, and mega-event preparation, but she digs deep into the history of Rio's ongoing conflict. She revealed things that were new even to me, including a Rio policy that helped drive killings by police.This book should be required reading for any journalist who plans on covering the 2016 Olympics.

And instead of devoting a whole chapter to 500 years of Brazilian history, as is common in English-language non-fiction books about Brazil, she elegantly weaves historical facts into the narrative about what's happening now. And when she explores historical sites few people even know about it, you feel like you're there with her.

Barbassa combines the reporting with her own story of living in Brazil and around the world, making it an even more intriguing read. (Warning: if you have ever lived in Brazil, her chapter on trying to find an apartment may give you PTSD flashbacks.)

And even though during her time in Rio she went from being single to getting married, her relationship isn't part of the book. For this I really admire her, since this is usually a big part of female-written memoir-style books. It's clear that her time in Rio was a personal journey about coming to terms with her birthplace.

In other words, read this book ASAP.

Meet Juliana

Barbassa and Gaffney are now living in Switzerland, but Barbassa is heading to  the U.S. for a book tour this month. Meet Barbassa and get a signed copy of the book on the following dates:

• JULY 29: Porter Square Bookstore, Cambridge, MA
• AUGUST 4: The BookMark Shoppe, Brooklyn, NY
• AUGUST 5: Americas Society, New York, NY
• AUGUST 7: Books & Books, Coral Gables, FL

 Q&A with Juliana Barbassa

What was the most surprising thing you learned while researching the book?

I was taken back by the early history of the Comando Vermelho. When I first became aware of the gang in the late 1980s, they were already a powerful, violent entity making headlines with boastful interviews, a cinematic prison escape, or bloody confrontations with police. But they had that motto, Peace, Justice and Liberty. It seemed incongruent.

Reading about the gang’s early days in the Ilha Grande prison from books like “Quatrocentos Contra Um” or Carlos Amorim’s “Comando Vermelho” made me curious about the environment that shaped these men and their aspirations. I sought out those who were there or remember that time, like the Professor, dug for old news clippings, and finally, searched what’s left of the uncategorized prison archives, trying to understand who they were, how they lived, what influenced their thinking.

 

In particular, I spent hours going through daily prison logs, fascinated by the the minutia of everyday life in this terrible place - who fought with whom, which prisoners were punished for smoking marijuana, gambling, fighting, what there was to eat, what each man brought with him when he came in, who got visits. Much of it was mundane and unvarying, but the accumulation of details made them, their needs, their cells more real.

I enjoyed most the occasional finds that came from from the hands of the prisoners themselves -- a crude playing card made from the page of an encyclopedia, part of a seized deck, that was stuck inside one of the thick log books; the letters from inmates to those on the outside. The best examples of those were in the little museum that now exists on the site of the demolished prison: they have missives written by gang members on the inside asking their ‘brothers’ for some help with the prisoners’ Christmas celebration. These things were reminders of a time when the Comando Vermelho was an entirely different creature.

Was there a part that got cut that you especially liked?

Of course! There were long sections cut out to streamline the story. Within them were characters who deserved whole chapters to themselves -- in another book. One of my favorites was the section about Flávia Froes, an attorney whose list of clients reads like a who’s-who of Rio’s drug traffic dating back to the 1990s. She dredges up references to class warfare to frame the conflict between the state and gang members convicted in horrific murders.

But she’s not a lefty, bleeding heart sort; she’s tough, and she plays her over-the-top Carioca sexy to the hilt. The first time we met she was picking her way around crack users in trash-strewn alleys wearing six-inch stiletto heels, rhinestone studded jeans and a corset, her long blond hair swaying down to the middle of her back. But when we made our way to the heavily-armed dealers standing guard over tables stacked with baggies of crack, they respected her: it was all, “yes, ma’am,” “no, ma’am.” What makes her interesting as a person, and as a character, is that you’re left wondering how far she would be willing to go -- how far she has gone -- for her clients.

During the days of chaos that preceded the take-over of the Complexo do Alemão, when someone was carrying orders from imprisoned gang leaders to their soldiers on the outside, a judge ordered her arrest. Forty officers and a helicopter were sent out, but she got wind of it and went on the lam without a computer or a cell phone, untraceable. Later the charges were dropped for lack of proof, and Flavia was back, jaunty as ever, but there are many who never got over their doubts.

How did the book-writing experience compare to your work with the AP?

Daily news has specific requirements -- you work under deadline, keep your articles short and to the point. That’s the nature of news. It often meant having to do grab-and-run interviews, leaving before the conversation got really interesting; other times it simply meant leaving much of the nuance out of the final article.

My motivations for writing this book were many, but at the core was a desire for more time to report and more space to write. This came, in part, from my relationship to Rio. I wanted to bring the city to readers, but I also wanted to get into it myself, really get into it. Covering the city as a correspondent gave me breadth of experiences; reporting the book allowed me to return to the same person or place and see various layers. It gave me depth.

What do you miss most about living in Rio?

Living with my windows wide open all the time, except when it stormed. But then I miss the spectacle of those extravagant summer downpours. Friends and family, of course, particularly my nieces and nephews. The açaí from Tacacá do Norte in Flamengo. All the fruit. And the fresh fruit juice. The sweet man with the white handlebar mustache who sold vegetables at the farmers’ market in front of my building, and greeted me with a hug and a kiss every week. Running on the sand. The weather. I even miss the heat!

If you could write another book, what would it be?

I have some ideas. We’ll see!

Images courtesy of Juliana Barbassa.

Q&A on A Voz do Alemão

René Silva, the wunderkind of Rio's Complexo do Alemão favela, has another accomplishment to add to his list. He has co-authored a new book, called A Voz do Alemão. The book tells the story of René's community, the newspaper Voz da Comunidade which he started at age 11, and his rise to fame as a young journalist. Published last month, the book is now available throughout Brazil.

René is quite busy these days, traveling to book launches and continuing his work at Voz da Comunidade, as well as being very active on social media. He's also working on rebuilding Voz da Comunidade's offices, which were destroyed in a fire in July. I spoke briefly to René about the book and his views on the project.

What is the book about?

The book tells the story of residents of Complexo do Alemão that helped give a voice to the community. These are the people who helped change the image of the community through social projects.

Journalist Sabrina Abreu co-authored the book. How did you two divide the work?

Sabrina Abreu and I divided the work here in Alemão like this: I recommended everyone who made up the story of the newspaper and who developed social projects [in the community], and she began interviewing them. I went with her to a few places. She based a lot of the story on the Voz da Comunidade newspaper to write the book.

What do you hope to accomplish with the book? What's the most important message in the book?

I hope that the authorities focus more on communities, and that big businesses develop more educational projects in favelas so we can have a better future, without poverty. The message is that it's not enough to just put police in communities and think that all's well; you also need to bring more government investment.

What's your favorite part of the book?

Every part of the book is really neat. But I really liked the chapter that explains how I became famous overnight...it was really fast. I've never heard another story like it.

The book came out after Brazil's protests in June, with ongoing demonstrations in Rio. Do you think these protest could benefit communities like Alemão?

Yes, I believe the protests could benefit communities, because government agencies are going to look at favelas differently.

Q&A on Julia Michaels' New Book

Julia Michaels, the talented and prolific writer behind RioReal blog, is publishing a book in August about her life in Rio. Solteira no Rio de Janeiro comes out August 1, and will be available throughout Brazil. For those interested, the launch of the book takes place on August 5 in Rio.

I spoke to Julia about this autobiographical project, the process of writing the book, and the upcoming English version.

Why did you decide to write the book?

I happened to be lucky enough to publish Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love when I was working at a publishing house here, and, as I was editing the translation and working on the promotional materials it occurred to me that I also had some stories to tell. I'd been doing some online-induced dating, single after 25 years of marriage...

Briefly, what's the book about?

I originally wrote the book in English, for a foreign audience. My aim was to tell my funny dating stories and explain some cultural differences I'd come across. But when I was finished, I discovered I'd changed quite a bit--that I'd taken one of those silly "personal journeys"--and it seemed that my experience and reflections might be useful and entertaining for others. Also, on one of the last rewrites, I saw that my own transformation had paralleled the start of Rio's transformation, and that this was very interesting. So it is, as the subtitle indicates, the adventures of a gringa in the Cidade Maravilhosa, the marvelous city. Then a local editor, Hugo Gonçalves, of Editora Língua Geral, read the book. He saw something I'd never considered, that Brazilians would be interested--especially because Rio is so different now from when I began to write Solteira, in 2007 or so. In one of the revisions, I had to change verb tenses and explain that Rio used to be more dangerous than now, that people drank and drove, that not long ago you could smoke in restaurants and bars, etc. So the book is being published in Brazil first! Soon, I'm going to revise the English to reflect some of the very good changes that Hugo, as my editor, encouraged me to make. And then I hope to publish in the U.S. and Europe.

What do you hope to gain with the book?

I tried, for a while, to find a U.S. agent for the book, but found no success. One reason given for its rejection was that, unlike Eat, Pray, Love, there's no happy ending, no prince who shows up to make a perfect match for the woman who's done all her requisite soul-searching. That bothered me. I wanted a prince, too! But now I see that many women, of all ages, are dealing with the issues of their individuality versus being part of a couple. What are the tradeoffs and how much should or can you give in to the other person? How much to keep of your own self? And who are you, anyway, without a man? Also, women my age are dealing with the fact that there just aren't many available men. So I hope the book examines some existential questions and reassures readers (as well as myself!) that a life well-lived can be one lived on one's own.

What was your favorite part about writing the book?

My favorite part was writing with one hand and, with the other, throwing a ball for my dachshund Strudel, who was a puppy. He--and running--kept me sane in my early years of over-fifty singlehood.

What was the hardest thing about writing the book?

The hardest thing was being honest.

May Reading Recommendations

My March reading list is coming along a bit slowly, but while I'm working on longer blog posts I've put together some of the things I've read recently that I recommend.

• Já Matei por Menos: Here's an explanation of how I came to follow Juliana Cunha's work. Her book was a quick and delightful read, a compilation of some of her blog posts dating back to 2008. One of the reasons I like Juliana's work is because she's a brutally honest, a no-BS kind of writer. No "homem cordial" (or rather, mulher cordial) here. Some of my favorite stories are about how she managed to get a steady stream of newly released books when she was young; the stereotypes of Bahians she's encountered in São Paulo; her favorite things about Salvador; her observations about her neighborhood; and her idea for a personal trainer for freelancers.

• 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus: Without a doubt, this is one of the most fascinating books I've read in a long time. It presents theories about the indigenous population in the Americas before European colonization, claiming that these civilizations were much bigger than previously estimated, with even more sophisticated societies than thought. It covers a large portion of the Americas, but the parts about Brazil and the Amazon are really interesting. It discusses the formations found in parts of the Amazon, and introduces a theory that parts of the rainforest were actually planted by humans.

• 1565: Enquanto o Brasil nascia: As expected, this book provides an intriguing look at Rio de Janeiro's early history. It really gives you a better sense of the importance of indigenous tribes in the city's founding and development. There's a lot more about the city's original inhabitants and their lasting impact on the city than in other books I've read about the city. It also provides interesting insight into the attempted French conquest of Rio. Other cool facts: where the word Copacabana comes from, how Botafogo got its name, and how the Angolan queen N'Zinga impacted Brazilian history.

• Why Everything Costs So Much in Brazil: This Superinteressante article brings together a lot of the numbers and facts you've probably heard before about why things are expensive in Brazil. But it does so in an engaging and coherent way, and gives a good, simple overview. It's available in Portuguese and English.

• Cars Made in Brazil Are Deadly: An excellent piece of investigative work on Brazil's car industry by the Associated Press. That cars made and sold in Brazil are less safe than in other countries is not exactly a revelation, but this is the kind of piece that has the potential to have an impact and inspire a movement for higher safety standards.

March Reading List

As I'm preparing for some longer posts and interviews, I thought I'd share some books I'm reading or that are on my to-read list.

• 1565: Enquanto o Brasil nascia. Written by tech journalist Pedro Doria, this book looks at the early history of Rio de Janeiro and to a lesser extent, São Paulo. Since it's written by a journalist rather than a historian, it's a much more fun read, giving you some amazing descriptions of what Rio looked like during the colonial period. It's a fascinating read for history buffs, though it's only available in Portuguese at the moment. I'm a huge history nerd, so I ordered this for a sort of absurd price and waited a month for it to arrive in New York.

• Brasil, País do Presente. Also written by a journalist, I'm eager to get my hands on this book. It's by Daniel Buarque, editor-in-chief of content at Terra and a blogger who writes about Brazil coverage in the international media. The book examines Brazil in the eyes of the United States, looking at the continued clichés Americans tend to reference when it comes to Brazil, as well as Brazil's changing image as an economic giant.

• O Jeitinho Americano. Written by American Brazilianist Matthew Shirts, who is editor-in-chief of National Geographic Brasil and a columnist for VEJA SP, this book is a collection of stories about life in Brazil, where he has lived for over 25 years. It also as looks at Brazilian and American cultures and the differences between the two. It's also available in e-book format which should make buying it from abroad a bit easier.

• Brazil Is the New America: How Brazil Offers Upward Mobility in a Collapsing World. "As the future of the American economy seems to get bleaker by the day, it is tempting to look abroad for business opportunities. Europe and Asia don't provide much hope, but what about somewhere that's both closer to home and sunny year-round? In "Brazil is the New America: How Brazil Offers Upward Mobility in a Collapsing World," James D. Davidson shows that the current financial situation in Brazil is a haven for those looking to make money in a world in turmoil." In other words, could be interesting, or could be kind of bad. But I'm curious.

• A alma encantadora das ruas. Paulo Barreto, also known as João do Rio, was a writer and journalist living in Rio at the turn of the 20th century. He was quite the colorful character, and this book is a collection of his newspaper articles published between 1904 and 1907 describing a changing city. I've had this one on my list for a while, and luckily it's considered public domain and can be downloaded from the web.

• Já Matei por Menos. I first learned about Juliana Cunha's blog, Já Matei por Menos, through Alex Castro a couple of years ago. I started following her blog and later befriended her when she was in New York last year. Juliana is a journalist and student by day, and a blogger by night. (She's currently on an amazing adventure in Asia, which she's chronicling on her blog). Her first book is coming out soon, featuring some of the best posts from her blog about her life in São Paulo and her travels. It's available for pre-sale in Brazil, and although the site doesn't accept foreign addresses, you can also order directly from the publisher.

The Brazilian Saga

You can read hundreds of news stories and dozens of books about Brazil's global rise as an economic powerhouse, but I've read few books that come close to putting in such sharp perspective how far the country has come as with Saga brasileira, by one of Brazil's most famous economy reporters, Miriam Leitão. There's a possibility you have opinions on Leitão, but either way, it's worth putting them aside for the sake of the book. While I think it could potentially be interesting for Brazilians, especially for econ nerds and those who were born after the worst of the economic crises, it may not be that much of a revelation. But for foreigners who work with Brazil, live in Brazil, or have any sort of interest or stake in Brazil, you really should read this book.

First, just be warned that it is heavy on lots of economic nitty gritty details, though fortunately there are interesting narratives in between. The other thing to know is that there were occasionally times where on one shoulder, there was a little Alex Castro, rolling his eyes and muttering "Classe média sofre," and on the other, a little Reinaldo Azevedo, yelling in all caps "QUE PAÍS É ESSE?!" Because there are some parts where, for example, the author tells anecdotes about families who suffered from the country's economic woes that you don't feel terribly sympathetic to, such as a couple who couldn't take their honeymoon in Bariloche and instead had to take it in Brazil--a story she mentions not once, but twice. This is a book written by someone of privilege for people of privilege, and that's very clear, so you just have to take it in stride. But there are also some shocking tales, such as grocery stores running out of stock during they hyperinflation years, or of just how disorganized the country's federal financial institutions used to be, that are quite eye-opening. And the last thing to keep in mind is that as far as non-fiction goes it's not the greatest; the narrative doesn't always seem to be coherent and sometimes skips around a bit, but this is the type of book you can read gradually in little chunks. (Also, it's in Portuguese, and I don't think there's an English translation available.)

The moral of the story is that Brazil's economic rise stems from finally succeeding in creating a stable currency, a long-fought battle after years of hyperinflation and 8 different currencies since the 1940s, as well as the battle for economic coherence and reforms in the federal government. Leitão touches on other important factors as well, including a drop in fertility and the creation of key social programs. She also puts Brazil's rise in historic perspective, demonstrating that it was a much longer process than commonly belived and that the country experienced other consumer booms in the recent past. But it really is worth dedicating a book to the fight for a country's currency, a fascinating and sobering tale that really is foreign to those of us who haven't experienced hyperinflation.

For Americans in particular, the concept of money is something practically sacred; despite the 2008 crisis and other economic busts, it's pretty much unthinkable to imagine using anything else other than the dollar. But in my lifetime, Brazil has gone through six currencies, from the cruzeiro (1970-1986), to the cruzado (1986-1989), to the cruzado novo (1989-1990), back to the cruzeiro (1990-1993), to the cruzeiro real (1993-1994), and finally, to the real. The story of how Brazil "won" its currency and beat hyperinflation, as well as the brilliant plan to make the switch to the real, really is an incredible saga.

It's hard to imagine what it was like during the time of triple-digit inflation, but Leitão gives you a pretty good perspective. Housewives would have to use price tables to figure out the values of food at the supermarket, which during some periods changed daily. In 1993, the minimum wage was initially set at 4,693,800 in cruzeiro real, but was the equivalent of US$64. Because inflation rose so quickly, "people lost the notion of the connection between the value and the price," Leitão explains. She recalls buying a VCR for 470,000 cruzados in 1988 and buying another VCR for 18,000 cruzeiro real in 1993, and of having credit card bills of over 1 million in 1985. "We lived in the Middle Ages," one businessman remembers. Meanwhile, a bank manager who was arrested when her branch ran out of cash in 1990 commented to Leitão, "Brazil hasn't had a war? It has, yes--a psychological war. We all participated in the war of the economy."

Leitão closes the book quite beautifully, explaining that it's not only important to remember and reflect on Brazil's economic past, but to learn from how Brazil treats its history. "Brazil has a strange tendency to erase the brightest colors of its history, as if it needed sepia tones to recognize itself as [having] a cordial people. But our merit is another: to overcome our traumas, even when they are difficult and painful." She warns that one of the real enemies is complacency, and that it was a mistake to accept rising levels of inflation, just as it is a mistake to accept corruption today. "We lost the notion of value and price in the economy during hyperinflation, like today we are losing the notion of values and preserving the quality of our democracy. We are not condemned to clientelism...nor to corruption."

Because there's so much to discuss from the book beyond hyperinflation, I'll come back to it later in separate posts about specific topics about Brazil's transformation.

Interview With Alex Castro

This week, I had a chance to catch up with Alex Castro, one of my favorite Brazilian bloggers. He has a  keen and critical eye for some of the most sensitive social issues in Brazil, including racism, machismo, and domestic workers. After living abroad, he also writes with an fascinating perspective on social differences between the United States and Brazil. He writes his own blog, Liberal Libertário Libertino, as well as contributing to Papo de Homem. He's also written several books, including short stories and novels. He also was one of the founders of the hit Tumblr Classe Média Sofre, a crowdsourced blog that pokes fun at Brazil's middle class. It's become a cultural phenomenon in Brazil, falling somewhere between Lamebook and White Girl Problems, but providing more insight into social idiosyncracies. 

We chatted about his return to Brazil from New Orleans, emblematic of Brazil's increasing reverse brain drain, his various projects, and his thoughts on Brazil's changing role in the world.

What were you doing abroad?

I was living in New Orleans. I was a Ph.D. candidate at the department of Spanish & Portuguese at Tulane University. As such, part of my duties included teaching classes on the Spanish and Portuguese languages, plus the odd Brazilian literature and culture classes. My dissertation is about slavery (or the lack thereof) in Brazilian 19th century literature.

‪Can you tell me about why you decided to move back to Rio from New Orleans?‬

I came back because a man who is a living god to me once said: "I celebrate myself, and sing myself, / And what I assume you shall assume, / For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. // I loafe and invite my soul, / I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass. ... / I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin, / Hoping to cease not till death." And even though he has never died, because he cannot die, I know for a fact that he suffered a stroke 18 years after writing those words.

So, when I turned 37, last year, still in perfect health, and hoping not to cease till death, and not knowing how long would I have before my heart attack, I decided to return home and live the life of a writer. Because if even HE died, what hope can I have? On the contrary, I have to RUN and LIVE. I realized that I was and had always been a Brazilian writer. So even though I had lived in New Orleans for 7 years and could write in English, I had never felt the urge to write to New Orleanians about Rio but, on the contrary, I was always coming up with new things about New Orleans and the U.S. to tell Brazilians. I realized that, in my head, I was always talking and writing to Brazilians. They were my core audience, and so it made no sense to stay away.

Throughout the years, there had always been events and stuff that I was invited to and couldn't attend because I was in New Orleans. None of them by themselves were a major deal, but the career of a minor independent author is made of baby steps, so I felt my incipient (actually, non-existent) career was at a standstill. Now, for example, I'm going to Belo Horizonte in April for a roundtable about e-books. So I came to Rio and I'm now making a living as a writer, writing and editing for Papo de Homem, translating for Editora Record, and trying to finish my dissertation and my novel.

Tell me about your book, Onde Perdemos Tudo.

It's actually an old book, written in the early 90s. But I think it withstood the test of time, so here I'm publishing it. It is the only one of my books to be actually published by an actual publishing house. All my other books were self-published. It's composed of five short stories about loss, all kinds of loss, from losing a friend to losing your wife, or your career.

Why'd you go the self-publishing route with the other books and the publishing house route with this one?

It wasn't a choice. Nobody wanted to publish the other ones. For Onde Perdemos Tudo, I had a publisher interested in my work and an able literary agent who got her interested. Still, unless you're a best seller, one can make a lot more money self-publishing.

How has the book been received?

It's very hard to break through. It has been positively reviewed in blogs here and there, but nothing in the mainstream press. It's as if the book has never existed. But I have a loyal following of readers, and so it keeps selling. It can be frustrating, but it's the only way. Baby steps, as I always say. But at least now I'm here to network and promote the books.

In Papo de Homem and your blog Liberal Libertário Libertino, you write a lot about racism and machismo with a critical eye. Why are these issues important to you?

That's a very good question. I really don't know. I guess I had a very very privileged, sheltered upbringing, something that I only realized very late in my adult life. So I felt the need to.... give back? Finally look at other people other than myself? That sort of thing. Also, the American academic environment was the main catalyst, that's for sure. If I had stayed, maybe I'd be reading Veja. I remember I rather liked Diogo Mainardi, if you can believe that.

You have a really unique perspective that's sometimes hard to find in Brazil, particularly with racism. How did your views on that issue evolve?

People say that I'm bringing racial conflct into Brazil and I argue, Yes! We need more racial confrontation! One of the major problems in Brazil is the fact that we never "confront" the issues.

You've also written quite a bit about domestic workers, which is also something of a taboo topic in Brazil. What got you interested in this?

Well, actually it was my interest in slavery. I think domestic workers, as the profession has established itself in Brazilian culture, is a direct relic of slavery. Only a former unapologetically slave-owning country such as we are could ever have such a slavery-like institution as our live-in maids. So it is a bit of the past alive in our daily lives up to today.

On the subject of your blogs, given your perspective and knowledge of these issues, why is it more important for Brazilians to be your audience, rather than an international one?

It's the other way around. It's not that talking to Brazilians is more important than talking to an international audience, but rather that I feel I have something to tell, teach, show to a Brazilian audience that I don't have to an international one.

Let's talk about Classe Média Sofre, but I noticed you don't seem to have your name on the blog, at least not very visibly. Is there a reason for that?

Well, for starters, it is a collective and collaborative enterprise, so it's not mine per se but I'm one of the founders and co-creators. Since then, everyone else has left, other people have gotten involved and left again, and now, pretty much, I'm the only one left managing the business. But the site still depends of the anonymous collaboration of hundreds of people every day. I'm more of a curator than anything else. I try to keep it faithful to its original vision, but mostly the only reason I'm the visible face of it is because I'm a writer, so I need the visibility and it does help me to sell some books. Actually, if it weren't for that, the site would either still be 100% anonymous or, more likely, I'd have gotten bored and left with everyone else. Still, it's the one thing I've done that I'm actually proud of.
 
Can you tell me about how the blog got started, and why you thought it would be worthwhile?

Its major inspiration was White Whine and Louis C K, when he says something like this. So a friend and I had the idea, and we started looking for examples. They were so numerous that it took us a day to fill several pages, and two days later we were already receiving more contributions than we could handle. On day 4, I kid you not, on day FOUR, we got our first complaint that the tumblr was no longer as good as it once was.

It caught on pretty fast.

Yes, it was amazing. And people were already self-censoring their worst bullshit pretty fast too. It was inspiring.

The blog's been featured around the web and it's literally become a cultural reference. Why do you think it hit a nerve?

Well, on one hand, lots of people feel really really defensive about it. They take the site as a personal attack to them. On the other hand, for several other people, the blog gave them their first way to vent their frustration at some of the most whiny, elitist comments their friends make. You can bet people will say that there's nothing more classe media sofre than giving this interview in English! I especially love it when people accuse us of being "middle class too," and of course we are. What did they think we were? Millionaires? Favelados?

What's the absolute worst thing you've posted on there?

There can be no worst. You can always sink lower.

Ok, so your favorite?

"Pior dia da minha vida: acabou o chocolate." [Worst day of my life: the chocolate is gone.] Simple yet perfect.

Can you tell me your thoughts on the complexo de vira-lata and the obsession with everything foreign/in English?

Brazilians are obssessed with Brazil to an extent that only Americans are obssessed with the U.S. We are truly kindred peoples, yours and mine. I'm pretty sure, given the power, Brazilians would have done every single thing Americans have. Brazilians are as proud, egocentric, and naive as Americans. We have our own version of manifest destiny (the Bandeirantes), etc.

I've never seen any people as interested about what people are saying about them abroad. In a way, in Classe Média Sofre, we talk about both sides of this coin. So, in a very schizophrenic way, what comes from abroad can seem very important or not at all important. And of course, I'm guilty as charged, because I travelled, and I studied abroad, and I could have studied anything, I could have dedicated myself to ancient Greece or pure mathematics, but here I am thinking about Brazil and writing about Brazil. It's kind of a curse, but it was also my choice, so I don't in any way exclude myself from this. I'm part of it.

Brazil is undergoing so many changes in terms of its place in the world. Is there a chance it could become more insular and inward looking like in the U.S., or is this fascination with other countries here to stay?

I think Brazil is in fact getting more powerful as a country, so other countries will tend to seek Brazil's opinion or support more often, and consequently, Brazilian politicians and statesmen will be forced to be more versed in international affairs than their predecessors, and consequently, the Brazilian voter as well. You can see that starting. These past years, Honduras, Cuba and Iran were more talked about, even during elections, than I had ever seen before. In elections before 2010, foreign affairs had never had any relevance at ALL.

When I started teaching Portuguese in the U.S. in 2005, most of my students were there because they had a Brazilian signficant other, or a Brazilian parent, or liked bossa nova and City of God. Period. When I left, in 2011, most of my students were actually seeking employment, business or research opportunities in Brazil. There were lawyers and business majors; most of them had not watched City of God, but they knew about Petrobras, pre-salt and biofuel. It was a complete revolution in less than 6 years. Several  of my former students are now either working and living in Brazil, or living in the U.S. but working as "Brazilian liasons" with companies that do business in Brazil.

I think it's exciting and I'm a part of it. I'm part of a large reverse migration of Brazilians coming back from abroad these last few years, exactly because of all these opportunities, but it's important not to let this go to our heads.

Why's that?

The United States was once a country that was actually a beacon of democracy and of high ideals, before it stated having imperial dreams and conquering Mexico, the Phillipines, Cuba, etc. Brazil was an actual empire-empire once. People were afraid of us in the 19th century (my main area of knowledge). Brazil used to topple Uruguyan presidents in the 19th century the same way Americans did to Central American ones in the 20th century. Besides, we do tend to be overconfident and overindulgent. Raising people from poverty should continue to be number one priority.

So you don't want history to repeat itself, in other words.

Actually, that particular history has no chance of repeating itself, I think. But we can be stupid and overconfident in several new ways now.

What are your hopes for the future now that you're back in Brazil?

My main priority is being a writer. That's all I know how to do. Write, write, write, until I die. That's my only ambition. Get some writing done. Publication will take care of itself, or not. But time is running out and I need to get some books out of me. That's it.