Brazil

When you think of Brazil the first images that come to mind are usually football, carnivals, and pristine beaches.  These do make it a fantastic place to visit but there is much more including the people, the rain forest, the music and the untouched islands of  Ilha do Mel or Ilha Grande which together make it an unforgettable experience.

Festivals

The most famous of all carnivals is the held in Rio where the schools of Samba prepare the whole year for this one event and be  part in the procession on the Marquês avenue of Sapucai with  thousands of tourist flying in from all over the globe in to take part in the party event of the world.  Marquês avenue, known like the footbridge of the dream, is arranged to receive the spectators, mainly Brazilian tourists, personalities and artists.

Previously, for more than 30 years, the processions of the schools of sambas were organized in a very spontaneous way. But starting from 1963 they started to sell entries to attend the processions. The festival now can be quite expensive and  is not easily accessible to everyone, even to the participants. Some save a whole year to be able to pay their costumes in order to dance in a school of samba.

The procession is a contest between the various schools of samba, those consequently seek to improve to the max with presentation and style. To prepare the annual procession, the school chooses a topic and organizes its presentation according to this topic: the choice of the samba-enredo (song), the costumes and the floats depends on the topic of each school.

Another characteristic of the Carnival of the schools of samba is the existence of the “suporters”. The membership of a school of samba could be compared with the membership of a football team. Moreover, each school has its own flag and its colors: and are invloved  all the year, they sing the “enredos” together at the rates/rhythms of the samba and they aim to be the victorous school to the sambodromo

People

The origins of the Brazilian people are multiple and are explained particularly by two phenomena which are colonization and slavery. Until the XIXe century, the Brazilian interbreeding was the fruit of the exchanges between the original Brazilian people - Indians, Portuguese colonists and slaves - African.

More recently, the economic wars and problems caused migratory flux resulting from Europe and Japan. At the beginning of the XXe century, immigrants coming from Europe (Italian, German, other nationalities) and Japan arrived at Brazil. The majority of these immigrants settled in the south of the country, in particular in São Paulo.

In the north of the country, the population of Indian origin prevails. In the North-East of Brazil, especially in the State de Bahia the population is mainly black and mongrel.

Brazilians of Indian Origin

The conquest of the Brazilian territory was done with the detriment to the  Indians. Indeed those were massively exterminated by the “white” or died of the diseases conveyed by the colonists. According to recent anthropological studies, it was noted that in 1500, at the time of discovered Brazil, the Indian population was around five million.

Currently the Indian population in Brazil accounts for only 0,2% of the total population of the country, that is to say approximately 250.000 Indians. This community lives mainly in Amazonia (60%). The 40% remainder are dispersed in the North-East and the center-south of the country. They occupy a territory of approximately 900.000 km ² which are reserved to them by the Brazilian government.

The difficulty in having grounds is one of the problems lived through the Indians of Brazil. In 1973 the “Statute of the Indian was written” who defined officially the territories which were allotted to them. But that does not do enough to dissuade the owners from wood, the garimpeiros (gold digger) and the peasants without ground who continue to settle on Indian grounds.

According to the Constitution of 1998, the State is charged to ensure the physical integrity and cultural of the Indian people. In spite of that, many tribes are still threatened of disappearance. In a recall with the rights of the Indians on April 19th one national day  is dedicated to them.

The song of Jorge Ben - singer and Brazilian type-setter - us says that in the past “the every day was days of Indian”:

“? Brazilian grounds
Were inhabited and liked
By more than three million Indians
Happy Masters
Brasilis ground
In the past, the every day was days of Indians
Now they have only on April 19th ? “

The Brazilian of African origin

The black account for approximately 46% of the total population of Brazil. The majority are in the North-East and south-east of the country. Salvador de Bahia is the city where the black population is very majority is approximately 86% of its population.

In 1532 first African was reduced in slavery to Brazil. Until 1888, year of the abolition of slavery, more than three and a half million African blacks set off towards Brazil. The slaves provided the muscle essential with the culture of the cane to sugar, with the plantations of the coffee, the exploitation of minerals and much of other very profitable activities for the colonists.

Today, the blacks in Brazil are far from occupying a privileged position in the Brazilian company. In general, they live under conditions not as good as the remainder of the population.