Week 12 - Brazil 1

Segment 1. Introducing Brazil
Associated Readings

1. Peter Winn, “Capital Sins,” from Americas, pp. 165-199 (2006)
2. Kees Koonings, “Introduction: Brazil under the Workers’ Party,” pp. 1–9

NOTE:  If you find yourself getting interested in Brazil, be aware that SUNY-New Paltz has an excellent study-abroad program in Rio, situated at a world-class university. Check out the details here. 

(Draws from World Scholar/Latin America & the Caribbean, 2011)

Introduction
Brazil, the largest country in South America, contains twenty-six states and the federal district of Brasília (the nation's capital). Mostly tropical or semitropical in climate, the nation encompasses dense forests, including the Amazon Basin, as well a semiarid region in the northeast, mountains and plains in the southwest, midwestern savannas, a long Atlantic coastline, and a vast wetland area.

Inhabited by numerous Amerindian groups, Brazil was first visited by the Portuguese in April 1500. Colonization efforts began in earnest in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with the arrival of European immigrants and the importation of enslaved Africans. Sugarcane (and later cotton and coffee), gold, and diamonds were the major commodities, and by 1807 the colony was both prosperous and ethnically diverse.

With Napoleon's invasion of Portugal in 1807, the prince regent fled to the colony, set up his government there, and expanded trade. Independence was declared in 1822, and after decades of monarchical rule, in 1889 Brazil became a republic. Troubled in its early years by economic and political crises, the nation continued to struggle throughout the twentieth century with questions of national identity and the quashing of freedoms by military dictatorships. A transition to democracy began in 1979 and culminated in popular elections in 1988. Former metalworker and union organizer Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva--usually known simply as "Lula"--was elected president in 2002 and reelected in 2006. Lula completed his second term in 2010. His chief of staff, a former Marxist rebel named Dilma Rousseff, launched a successful campaign and from  January 2011 until August of 2016, a woman presided over Latin America's largest country and economy...Alas, Rousseff was impeached and replaced by her vice president, Michel Temer, who was himself been charged with corruption and began a 12-year prison sentence in January 2018.
 
Michel Temer

First watch this short narrated slide show by yours truly (25 minutes). It is slightly outdated (so much has happened in Brazil in the past couple years), but the information is accurate and will give you a good grounding as we push off into more specific issues.

Watch the following "60 Minutes" episode (14 minutes) to get familiar with Lula, with Dilma, and with Brazil's emergence as a force to be reckoned with in the 21st century.



Please now watch the following clip about President Dilma Rousseff, from lefty journalist Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now" video podcast (9 minutes).



For an early update on Dilma -- how the first 100 days of her presidency went -- please read this short article. Then, for a jarring more recent update, read this  article and watch this short clip. Brace yourself, as Brazil is in the midst of a devastating political and economic crisis--and the worst is probably yet to come.

PART 2. Debora Diniz's Zika: From the Brazilian Backlands to Global Threat, pt. 1
Associated Readings

1. Debora Diniz, Zika, pp. 1-45

To get familiar with the Zika epidemic, please watch this five-minute video from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. To meet the author of our book, please watch this seven-minute interview with Prof. Debora Diniz.