Modo de vida, imaginário social e cotidiano

This social and cultural history of homosexuality in twentieth-century Brazil examines the development of a subculture in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo and the appropriation, use, and expansion of urban space for same-sex erotic sociability. The image of uninhibited and licentious Brazilian homosexuals, expressing sensuality, sexuality, and camp during Carnival festivities, has come to be equated with an alleged cultural and social toleration for homosexuality or bisexuality in Brazil. Apparent permissiveness during Carnival, so the stereotype goes, symbolizes a sexual and social regime that unabashedly accepts fluid sexual identity, including male-to-male sexuality. By widening the perspective beyond the gender transgressions which take place during Carnival, this study examines the broader social and cultural realities of male homosexuality. Using police and medical records, newspapers, literature, homecrafted newsletters, and oral interviews, this project recreates the lives of men coping with arrests and street violence, negotiating around family restrictions, developing alternative support networks, having sexual adventures, and maintaining relationships. The first two chapters examine the formation of same-sex subcultures in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in the early twentieth century. This is followed by an analysis of the medicalization of homosexuality in the 1920s and '30s and the means by which medical and legal professionals attempted to control, contain, and cure this "deviant" behavior. A fifth chapter maps the expansion of urban spaces, both public and private, in the post-World War II period. The final section explores the emergence of new gay identities in the 1960s and the first stages of politicalization of activists in the late 1970s. By this time, I argue, a new social and political situation among Brazilian gay men led to the development of a social movement that mobilized its members against discrimination, social stereotypes, and the marginal status of Brazilian homosexuals in everyday life. This study of men who have crossed sexual boundaries, in turn, reflects back on the overall framework of Brazilian social values and rules of acceptable behavior and as such reveals much about normative definitions of masculinity and femininity.

This dissertation analyzes the physical expression of modernity through two overlapping narratives: the emergence of women in public spaces of leisure in Brazil, and the history of movie-going in its largest city, São Paulo. In the early and mid-twentieth century, both cinemas and movie-going women were powerful symbols of what was modern in Brazil. Cinemas screened the latest Hollywood films and imported advanced projection technologies. The presence of women in cinemas, streets, and shops signaled Brazil's entry into a cosmopolitan culture that was represented in glamorized images of Paris and New York. The focus on movie-going rather than movie-making reveals how modernity was physically constructed in the built space of cinemas, in the slender bodies of fashionable women, in the "photogenic" gestures of actors, and in the practices of everyday moviegoers. It also emphasizes the transnational dimensions of local film culture as Brazilian movie fans wrote letters to their favorite stars and interpreted the images of Hollywood. The geographic, material, and social accessibility of movie-going offers the opportunity to analyze how people of various class and racial backgrounds came together within cinemas, simultaneously sharing spaces and creating difference. An investigation of class in cinemas reveals the history of middle-class culture in Brazil, and how it was constructed through rituals of dating and images of romance. Through the close analysis of diverse sources such as photographs, blueprints, oral history, and literature, this dissertation examines how modern girls and cinema kings, Catholic women's societies and shopgirls, municipal officials and everyday moviegoers, constructed modernity in Brazil through their interaction with cinema.

This paper provides some preliminary understandings of how well the Brazilian law of Social Quotas is working since it’s passing in 2012, focusing on student attitudes toward this law, their progress towards university degrees, and presumably middle-class status. By interviewing ten students (selected largely from the educational non-profit, Educafro) from various universities throughout the city of São Paulo, this essay peers into the lives of black students enrolled in affirmative action programs. In addition to public university students, I also include private university students who have received financial assistance (grants, loans, and scholarships) from programs to increase accessibility for underrepresented communities. I chose black university students as my primary informants as they are the population most equipped to comment on and detail the successes and failures of affirmative action policies. I confirmed my hypothesis that black students would generally provide positive responses to the Law of Social Quotas, as the majority of informants reflected positively of the legislations. Though some rejected the Law of Social Quotas, all of the informants closely understood why some applicants might opt for preferential selection through the law of Social quotas. Informants seemed to understand how dire the economic situation is for many poor afro-Brazilians, regardless of their personal opinions on affirmative action. Furthermore, many support affirmative action legislations as academic research has disproven misconceptions regarding the intellectual capability of quota students. My research argues that most Black university students have a holistic understanding of the issues that closely considers both sides of the debate. These students reflect critically upon the societal and social implications of the “Law of Social Quotas” as they must negotiate their personal politics with consistent claims of a post racial society.

This project examines Brazilian debates and projects of modernization during the Second Empire. To date, no such study has been undertaken; the majority of works that treat this subject center on European and North American influences, or on strictly economic components of modernization. By contrast, this project recovers an endogenous discourse, relying on government reports, government-sponsored journals, and manuscripts for a view of the "official" discourse on modernization, while letters to the editor, illustrations and advertisements, and caricatures provide insight into "public" responses. The first chapter locates and analyzes a Brazilian vocabulary of modernization; a key term was aperfeiçoar meaning "to improve or perfect." Aperfeiçoar conveyed an Enlightenment sensibility, and best captured the cautious approach of elite Brazilians towards modernization; they wanted the improvements of the modern age, but without the revolutionary consequences that often resulted from technological and social change. The challenges of building and improving the transportation network in the challenging topography and climatic conditions of this tropical nation comprise chapter two. On this topic, government officials and members of the public agreed: the deplorable state of transportation networks required immediate remedy. A discussion of the supporting technologies that developed, or failed to develop, around the transportation sector is included. Subsequent chapters examine efforts to develop native forest resources in support of domestic and international industrial production, and the parallel need to reform Brazilian agriculture. It was hoped that mechanized agricultural production would reduce the presence of slave laborers on plantations and farms in addition to ending slash-and-burn agriculture. This last practice was blamed for environmental and social problems, including the devaluation of land after its initial fertility was exhausted. An examination of Brazilian agricultural technology completes this chapter. The final chapter turns to the public sphere for responses to the arrival of Brazil's first railways, street trolleys, and factories. Conflicts between workers and passengers revealed social and class tensions. These interactions enliven the transformations then unfolding in Brazil, and offer a distinctly human voice to counter and complement more statistically derived economic analyses.

This thesis is based on my practicum I completed at the Physical Fitness Research Center of São Caetano do Sul. I sought to answer three questions: (1) What are the strategies and outcomes of international community-based interventions aimed at promoting physical activity in children and adolescents that have been implemented to date?; (2) What is Agita São Paulo's community-based model for partnering with organizations to promote physical activity in children and youth?; and (3) How has Agita leveraged the sociocultural influence of futebol and the hosting of mega sporting events such as the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics to influence physical activity in children and youth? This project is descriptive in nature and included an extensive literature review and the administration of two semi-structured interviews and seven self-administered surveys to staff members (i.e. planners and coordinators) of the Agita São Paulo program (n=9). Interviews were transcribed and surveys were translated from Portuguese to English. Thematic content analysis was then employed to search for common and recurring themes. In addition, data were recorded from participants observations of daily operations and attendance at daily meetings held at the Agita São Paulo's research center. My observations were recorded and served as another source of data to verify my findings. Findings from my research indicate that the Agita program has been successful in large part due to its wide network of intersectoral (e.g. state secretariats and universities) and intrasectoral (e.g. service organizations such as the Rotary Club and Lions Club) partnerships. The Agita program uses an adaptable mobile management style (see Fig. 2) that allows the program to change its focus based on needs of a given community or region. For example, if intrapersonal factors have been successfully targeted, resources and efforts may be redirected to address components in the physical environment. Social marketing and non-paid media have contributed to the visibility and successful dissemination of Agita's messaging. The intervention program hosts two annual mega events to increase its visibility: Agita Galera and the walking parade to celebrate World Day for Physical Activity. Agita has marketing plans with World Cup and Olympics organizers in the form of cartoons and posters to be displayed publicly, t-shirts, and mega-events that will attempt to involve spectators and the local community to participate in physical activity and exercises. Unfortunately my research concluded before these events took place so I cannot speak with certainty that these proposed actions will even be implemented. At the start of my research, I believed that the spectacle of mega sporting events would induce some increase in physical activity of the population; however, my findings suggest otherwise. Across my key informant interviews, informants were skeptical that Brazil's hosting of the World Cup and the Olympics would bring about any positive changes related to physical activity among the general population. As a result, and serendipitously through my own personal experience living in São Paulo, I proposed that CELAFISCS turn to a more innovative use of social media (i.e. YouTube workout videos) to try and reach more of the general population. While the program has traditionally used print media such as sticker, flyers, posters, and cartoons, the Agita program has been underutilizing online social media sites. This method is cost-effective, has the potential to reach a wide range of people in the general population, and is not subject to the corruption of politicians that so many Brazilians have a disdain for. The key themes I identified in exploring the success and lessons learned of the Agita program included the pioneering efforts of Agita in placing physical activity on the public policy agenda; the dissemination of strong scientific evidence-based research; and the clear, simple messaging of Agita and leveraging of the unpaid media marketing to disseminate messaging through strategic partnerships. Ongoing challenges for Agita include and financial self-sustainability, program evaluation, and lack of domestic recognition for Agita's many achievements. Despite these obstacles, Agita continues to be a model for promoting physical activity in youth through community partnerships and social marketing across public schools, government entities, and sport clubs. Promising future directions for strengthening the Agita program include more proactive efforts in procuring partnerships and alternative funding opportunities as well as utilizing an established Internet presence to explore online social media networks to more creatively promote physical activity in the community.

In the 1920's and 1930's, three Latin American literary figures associated with their city's avant-garde movements were also being recognized as cronistas (chroniclers): Roberto Arlt in Buenos Aires, Mário de Andrade in São Paulo and Salvador Novo in Mexico City. Writing chronicles enabled them to earn an income, gain public recognition, and access a much broader audience than would have been possible through mediums such as books or literary magazines. They shared their city's public spaces (streets, buses, street-cars and taxis) and its popular culture (magazines, newspapers, cinema, and radio) with their readers, and strove to document these experiences. Their articles formed part of an urban dynamic characterized by the constant movement of texts, citizens, and commodities that overflowed into a conceptual movement between literature and journalism, art and commerce, frivolity and intellect. I argue that Roberto Arlt, Mário de Andrade and Salvador Novo's practice of the chronicle responds to the changing place of literature in Latin American urban cultures of the early XXth century. Because of their link to commercial culture, they authorize themselves through the recognition of their readers, more than simply through their links to high culture. Their practice of the chronicle thus imagines, or rather generates, a communal practice of reading. The mocking tone through which they fashion their public image recalls the confrontational strategies of the avant-gardes and indicates their resistance to institutionalized definitions of art and literature. These chroniclers entice their audience through a rhetoric of accessibility that promises intimacy with their readers, yet still leaves them room to elude it. The first chapter looks at Roberto Arlt's Aguafuertes Porteñas to explore his relationship to the space of Buenos Aires, and his self-fashioning as a both a spokesperson and a member of an urban community. The second chapter explores Mário de Andrade's column Táxi , focusing on the links established between commercial texts, nation building, and the city of São Paulo. The third chapter studies Salvador Novo's chronicles through the prism of Mexico's debates on the feminization of literature in the 1920's, and his elaboration of the chronicle as a genre that performs both the “masculinity” of literature and the “femininity” of mass culture.

The early decades of the twentieth century witnessed acute political conflict in the southeastern Brazilian state of São Paulo as the existing political system—formally republican but oligarchic in structure—came under increasing criticism. Disaffected patricians, ambitious newspapermen, militant workers, idealistic students, and rebellious military officers assailed the leaders of the ruling Republican Party at different points in time, while these same leaders struggled amongst themselves for patronage, party leadership, and that most intangible of vital assets, “prestige.” “A Place in Politics” offers a new interpretation of the political history of Brazil's most important state during these crucial decades. Where the existing historiography has found class or corporate interests of some sort at the root of political conflict during this period, the dissertation emphasizes the political itself, from the influence of political traditions and ideas to the ubiquitous haggling over patronage, local improvements, and social standing, in the making of the different political movements of this period. These disparate movements contributed to three important changes in the nature of regional politics. First of all, they served to encourage, and in turn profited from, an incremental but nevertheless significant increase in political participation, which took place not only through the formal mechanism of voting but also through petitions, rallies, and on rarer occasions riot, and included groups, such as workers and middling folks, long presumed to have played little or no role in formal politics. Second, the political discourse of this period was the site of the construction and/or elaboration of various political symbols of lasting import and influence, including the heroic, young military rebel (who would come to be called a tenente), the enterprising and patriotic explorer (the bandeirante, borrowed from regional lore), and the secret ballot itself, to which was attributed all manner of political miracles. Finally, these movements effected the modification of the traditional structures, practices, and political culture of republican politics. These developments, in turn, helped to shape subsequent politics, playing into the “Revolution” of 1930 and the regionalist revolt of 1932 and coloring subsequent experiments in democratic and authoritarian rule in Brazil's most economically dynamic state.

This doctoral dissertation is an ethnographic study of musical culture among Japanese Brazilians in São Paulo, Brazil. Specifically, the study explores how the musical culture of this community has changed in recent years as a result of the dekasegui movement, the migration of hundreds of thousands of Japanese Brazilians who have traveled to Japan since 1990 in search of work. In order to explore these questions, I conducted fieldwork between May and November of 2003 on three musical groups, Zhen Brasil, Ton Ton Mi, and Wadaiko Sho, each of which have found different ways to invoke, contest, and reinvent their Brazilian and Japanese musical heritages. By exploring these groups’ musical practices, texts, dance, costumes, and discourses of self-definition, this study offers insight into shifts in the ethnic self-definition and racial consciousness of the Japanese Brazilian community that have taken place as the result of face-to-face contact between Japanese Brazilians and Japanese under the conditions of contiguous globalization. This study contributes to our current understandings of the impact of circular forms of migration on the musical culture and ethnic identity of diasporic communities in the contemporary world.

A presente dissertação tem como tema a memória dos ex-trabalhadores do complexo industrial do bairro do Jacaré, Zona Norte da cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Entre os anos 1960 e 1990 esta região foi caracterizada pela forte presença dos trabalhadores. A maior parte da mão-de-obra empregada no complexo industrial residia no bairro, na Favela do Jacarezinho. O objetivo deste trabalho é, através da memória, analisar a história desse grupo de trabalhadores, sua atuação no movimento operário e a importância da esfera comunitária para formação da identidade de classe. Aspectos do desenvolvimento urbano, do lazer e da religião também serão abordados, além do processo de migração que impulsiona a formação do Jacarezinho.

O objeto de estudo deste trabalho trata-se do Turismo de Favela realizado nas comunidades pobres do Rio de Janeiro. O objetivo geral deste trabalho é o de descrever os seus mecanismos e compreender o alcance e os limites desta atividade econômica no contexto de uma reflexão sobre desenvolvimento sustentável em comunidades urbanas pobres. O Turismo de Favela, como sabemos, vem sendo praticado no Rio de Janeiro desde do início da década de 1990, tendo aumentado significativamente a sua demanda nos últimos cinco anos. Os roteiros oferecidos pelas agências de Turismo Receptivo são progressivamente mais invasivos sendo, praticamente, todos iguais. São visitados os becos e vielas das comunidades pobres com o objetivo de explorar um espetáculo de pobreza e violência. Muitos são os fatores que instigam o turista a procurar esse tipo de Turismo, principalmente o marketing feito pelas empresas de Turismo e veículos de comunicação de massa, sendo o mais importante deles, o filme Cidade de Deus. Como conclusão, discutimos algumas idéias para um Turismo menos preconceituoso nas comunidades pobres da cidade do Rio de Janeiro, tendo como premissa que para o sucesso desta atividade é necessário incorporar os moradores das comunidades visitadas.