Brazil. The South

79 Pages·2009·1.58 MB·English

by  John Waggoner

Brazil - The South:
Paraná, Foz de Iguaçu National Park,
Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul

John Waggoner

Hunter Publishing, Inc.

Introduction
Brazil is one of the most fascinating countries on the planet. Virtually a
continent unto itself, this largest and most important country of South America is
also the least understood. Travel here can be the experience of a lifetime, and yet
most people don’t know where to begin in planning their trip.
Everyone knows about the Amazon and Carnival, and most have ideas about the
sultry city of Rio de Janeiro. People may think of the tropical beaches, the soccer
legends, the supermodels, or perhaps they have seen films that expose the hard
reality in the favelas like City of God. Many people know about Brazilian coffee
or the national drink cachaça, or the churrascaria steakhouses that are opening
up around the world.
It seems that every day more and more people are getting to know the rich
culture and the arts, the customs and the cuisine. The rhythms of Brazil, the great
musicians and singers, and its dances like capoeira, catch everyone’s attention.
But in spite of it all, the lyrics of this music and the inspiration for these arts
remain an enigma for most of the world.
Unlocking these mysteries for you has been one of the greatest joys of my
lifetime.
I had been living in Brazil for nearly a decade before I started writing this book.
Working as a foreign correspondent and as the editor of a now defunct English-
language newspaper called the Brazilian Post, I had a chance to study this
country in detail. It was here that I met my wife and it is here that I was made an
honorary citizen in a tiny town called Piancó, in the northeast of Brazil and the
state of Paraíba.
As the plane descended the first time in São Paulo I recall being staggered by the
size of the country and those endless city blocks. I realized that no matter what I
had read, Brazil remained a blank page. The real identity of Brazil, its essence,
somehow was different from what I thought I would find. The travel books I had
read were hopelessly out of date or even misleading, and they all said the same
thing. So I decided to write my own book from what I had seen with my own
eyes, about the very best of what Brazil has to offer.
This does not necessarily mean the most expensive places or the best known, nor
have I included every city or even every state. The idea all along was not to chart
out every square inch, but to suggest ideas based on what visitors actually do –
sightseeing, outdoor adventures, dining, shopping, and getting to know the
locals. Every destination in this book has a compelling reason for you to visit –
whether it be for the natural beauty, for the nightlife, the cuisine, the shopping,
or most importantly for the culture.
On every page I have tried to bring you something unique.
In writing this book, I went wandering through cities to find the best restaurants
and nightclubs, came face to face with a charging tapir, drifted through the
Amazon after my boat ran out of fuel, peered over rusty cannons through cracks
in fortress walls, went rappelling and scuba diving in a primordial cave, saw
dinosaur tracks in the scalding desert, traveled to indigenous villages and went
scrambling through abandoned mines.
Along the way I made some important discoveries. I spoke with locals to get
their advice and tried to avoid the clichés that seem always to find their way into
the travel literature. I discovered what was interesting and what was not, what
was safe and what was not, and have tried to include something in this book for
everyone, no matter what your age or interests.
Most of all I found confirmation for what I suspected all along – that Brazil is
the most amazing country on the planet. I think that you will agree.
History
Indigenous groups, mainly Tupis and Guarnanis, lived here for as much as
30,000 years, according to some archeologists. We didn’t know much about the
way they lived until the arrival of Europeans in 1500.
When Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral anchored his fleet of 13 ships
at the coast in southern Bahia (in the Northeast Region) he discovered Brazil
wood, a valuable resource used to make red dye. It that gave the country its
name.
After the coast was mostly mapped out, in 1532 King João III of Portugal
divided the country into 15 horizontal bands, called capitanias. Each was the
responsibility of a different nobleman. The latter were more or less on their own
to explore the lands and make them profitable, but most were unsuccessful. In
1549 João III decided to set up a Colonial government with a strong military and
Jesuit presence in Salvador (in the Northeast Region).
At that point, under the governor Tomé de Sousa, colonization became more
violent. The colonies produced sugar by use of indigenous and African slave
labor, and warfare and disease began wiping out the indigenous population.
The Dutch took control in 1578 of most of the Northeast coast. In the Southeast
the Brazilian settlers, many of them by now mestizos, continued to explore
inland in mercenary groups called Bandeirantes, searching for wealth and slaves.
By 1640 Portugal reconquered the Northeast and continued into the Amazon and
the Southern Region. By 1670 gold was discovered, starting another phase of
intense migration inland.
Empire & Gold
One after another, gold was found in the Southeast, the Center West and the
Northeast. Brazil became the envy of the world. With the wealth came new ideas
and, in 1778, a revolution called the Inconfidência started in Minas Gerais but
was rapidly crushed.
In 1807 something unheard of happened. The Portuguese royal family fled
Europe to escape Napoleon Bonaparte, and moved to Rio. Expanding the
borders in a war with Argentina, they continued to face growing internal
opposition. In 1822, the royals returned, and crown regent Pedro I declared
Brazil independent. Rio de Janeiro became the capital of this new “constitutional
empire.” After a flurry of hope among Brazilians tired of the old ways, the
situation grew more and more chaotic, and Pedro I was forced to abdicate in
1831.
His young son, Pedro II, remained in Brazil and took power in 1839. Opposition
began to rise in Europe against the slave trade – on which Brazil relied heavily.
Meanwhile, more and more immigrants were pouring into Brazil from all over
the world.
In 1865 Paraguay declared war and the Triple Alliance was formed between
Brazil, Uruguay (by this time independent) and Argentina. In three years
Paraguay was defeated and Brazil expanded into its territory. But the Empire
was crumbling.
In 1887, Pedro II, plagued with scandal and losing power, finally fled to Europe.
One year later his daughter, Princess Isabel, abolished slavery with the Áurea
law and a short while later ended the monarchy and transferred power to a
Republic.
Old & New Republics
The new government implemented major social changes, and it was a period of
hope and inspiration for Brazil. The gold was long gone and agriculture became
the source of Brazil’s wealth: coffee, rubber, and cocoa.
As the country began to industrialize, social problems became more apparent in
the growing cities. In 1917 a huge labor strike paralyzed Rio de Janeiro and São
Paulo, and radical new political parties were taking shape with socialist and
anarchistic views.
By 1922, frustration with the corruption and inefficiency of the government led
to military uprisings in the cities. The greatest of these was the Prestes Column,
a group of lieutenants under the command of Luis Carlos Prestes, which
marched through the entire country from 1924 to 1926, before fleeing into exile.
In 1929, the price of Brazil’s main product, coffee, fell drastically and the
economy spiraled into ruin. Unemployment and poverty plagued the country,
and the solution came in 1930 with the rise of a charismatic politician named
Getúlio Vargas, below, who staged a revolution, declared a New Republic and
began to rule with an iron hand.

The dictatorship made sweeping changes to help the urban working class, while
at the same reducing the power of the unions that threatened it. The economy
was departmentalized into separate political groups, which consolidated Vargas
as the supreme authority and led to the emergence of Brazil as a global economic
power.
Vargas admired the fascist state of Europe at the time, but was thrown into
World War II on the side of the Allies after the Nazis sank Brazilian ships. When
the war ended in 1945 and fascism was crushed, the dictatorship lost support and
Vargas was forced to renounce.
From Dictatorship to Democracy
Under the new democratic government, in 1950 Vargas once again rose to power
– this time as an elected President. Incredibly popular among some segments of
society, he faced increasing opposition from more conservative officers in the
military. On the brink of a military revolution to depose him, Vargas committed
suicide in 1954.
Juscelino Kubitschek was elected President in 1955 with a new vision for
Brazil. He moved the capital to Brasília (in the Center West Region) and
oversaw more social reforms. This was a great period in Brazil, when music like
bossa nova gained popularity around the world and the Brazilian soccer team
won a dramatic World Cup victory in 1958.
Through successive presidents and a period of cultural growth, the economy
continued to decline, and in 1964 the military seized power. This dictatorship
was supposed to be temporary but remained in power until 1984, with periods of
harsh social repression.
Though the dictatorship had ended, Brazil’s huge foreign debt led to constant
crises for the next 10 years. In 1994 President Fernando Henrique Cardoso
initiated reforms that almost overnight halted inflation of thousands of
percentage points per year. This stability strengthened the young democracy and
set the stage for economic prosperity.