Posts from April 2008

“Naturalidade” means where someone is from in Brazil, either referring to the state or city of origin. Just as we would refer to people from New York City as “New Yorkers” and people from Texas as “Texans,” Brazilians define people by exactly where they’re from. Note that naturalidades are written in lower case letters.

Let’s look at the Northeast region today.
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A person from the state of Bahia is called baiano, and a person from the capital of Salvador is called salvadorense.

A person from the state of Sergipe is called sergipano, and a person from the capital of Aracajú is called aracajuano.

A person from the state of Alagoas is called alagoano, and a person from the capital of Maceió is called maceionense.

A person from the state of Pernambuco is called pernambucano, and a person from the capital of Recife is called recifense.

A person from the state of Paraíba is called paraibano, and a person from the capital of João Pessoa is called pessoense

A person from the state of Ceará is called cearense, and a person from the capital of Fortaleza is called fortalezense.

A person from the state of Piauí is called piauiense, and a person from the capital of Teresina is called teresinense.

A person from the state of Maranhão is called maranhense, and a person from the capital of São Luis is called são-luisense.

A person from the state of Rio Grande do Norte is called portiguar or norte-rio-grandense, and a person from the capital of Natal is called natalense or papa-jerimum. Portiguar means shrimp in the indigenous Tupi language, and papa-jerimum comes from a traditional fish dish from Natal called pirão de jerimum, which is Tupi as well.

Here’s how you use the naturalidades:

Um paraibano está na foto encima. A man from Paraíba is in the picture above.
O baiano casou com a maranhense. The man from Bahia married the woman from Maranhão.

With only 59 square kilometers and 3,600 residents, the tiny town of Tupandi would at first glance appear to be like any other town in Brazil’s southernmost state. But thanks to a plan to diversify agriculture instead of relying on the traditional textile industry, the town now has one of the highest GDPs per capita in Brazil and a Human Development Index score higher than the national average. (In Portuguese, GDP is PIB, which stands for produto bruto interno, which means gross domestic product).

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In the 1990s, private and public organizations came together to develop the agricultural plan, and the city now produces mainly chicken, pork, and citric fruits. Farmers were trained and given incentives to produce milk, reforest land, and to adhere to environmental standards. The economy grew by more than 500% between 1993 and 2006.

As a result, the unemployment rate and infant mortality rate is zero, and health and education are on the level of developed countries. the GDP per capita was R$14,544 in 2006, higher than the national GDP per capita of R$11,658. the Human Development Index score is 0.822, compared to Brazil’s HDI of 0.800.

Like other communities in the region, a strong German influence permeates the town’s culture and history, visible in the town’s architecture and cuisine.

Today we’re going to look at some interjections.

1.Oba [oh-bah] — Wow! Woah!

Example:

Oba! Você está linda. Wow! You look beauitful.

Oba! A casa está muito limpa.
Woah! The house is really clean.

Also, in the countryside and rural parts of Brazil, you’ll hear people use “oba” as a greeting, instead of “oi” or “óla.”

2. Opa [oh-pah] — Oops! Whoops!

Example:

Opa! Derrubei a cerveja. Whoops! I knocked the beer over.

Opa! Pisei em você, desculpa.
Oops! I stepped on you, sorry!

3. Putz! [poots] — Oh boy. Oh no!

Putz! Eu esqueci o projeto em casa. Oh no! I forgot the project at home.
Putz! Eu perdi a nota fiscal. Oh boy. I lost the receipt.

Zuzu Angel was a famous Brazilian fashion designer in the 1970s. Born in Minas Gerais in 1921, she lived in Bahia during her childhood and then moved to Rio de Janeiro, where she began her career. Her clothes were influenced by Bahian culture, with vivid colors and splashy designs, and they eventually became so successful that they were exported to the U.S. and throughout the world.

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But Zuzu’s life as she knew it changed forever when her son, Stuart, disappeared. He was a leftist activist against the Brazilian military regime, and as a result he was imprisoned, tortured, and murdered by the dictatorship. Zuzu devoted her life to trying to find out the truth about what happened to her son, and to revealing the abuses of the dictatorship to the rest of the world. She began stitching angel designs into all of her pieces, a symbol of retaliation against the regime.

Since her ex-husband was American, she tried appealing the U.S. government to condemn the Brazilian government, and delivered a document to Henry Kissinger during his visit to Brazil describing the atrocities taking place.

Unfortunately, Zuzu’s efforts were cut short when, on this day, April 14th, in 1976, agents of the dictatorship murdered Zuzu and made the scene of the crime look like a car accident.

Today, her memory lives on in a film about her life and an institute founded in her name. Also, the tunnel where she was killed in Rio was renamed after her. She is a real Brazilian hero.

This week, the São Paulo Jockey Club was the host of a major bazaar and auction — the sale of the worldly goods of one of the world’s most infamous drug traffickers, a Colombian by the name of Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia. He was arrested in Brazil last year, and is currently convicted to thirty years in jail there.

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The government sold and auctioned off his goods, which included his car collection, his twelve flat screen TVs, furniture, women’s and men’s clothes and shoes–even his underwear. Most of the items were sold within three hours of the start of the auction. Only a few watches are left.

The sale and leilão (auction) raised $R1.1 million, most of which is being donated to two Brazilian charities.

Click here for more pictures of the event from BBC.

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