Real Drama

I have been told that you cannot understand Brazil unless you at least watch a few of the novelas. So yes, in an effort to better understand the local culture, I have indeed been watching Brazilian soap operas. Now let me inform you about TV here. Most people don’t have cable. The vast majority of households here, mine included, have access to two, maybe three, channels. And here’s how the schedule goes: early afternoon and late night are dominated by American movies dubbed in Portuguese (except one of the channels seems to always be showing the American TV series “Lost”). Besides that, most of the rest of the day is split between news, the biggest soccer match going on at the time, your typical Latin American afternoon variety/game show, and Big Brother Brazil (and I thought reality TV back home was bad…) But primetime is dedicated to novelas. They are basically soap operas, but each episode is a chapter, and they only last for three to six months. Everyone in the country watches them. But unlike in the US, where we have sitcoms, dramas, and different types of shows, novelas are it here…and therefore, they’re a bit more diverse than your typical As the World Turns, or Bold and the Beautiful. They have novelas about everything. One, called JK, is about Joselino Kubicek, the President of Brazil responsible for constructing the city of Brasilia, the country’s current capital, during the 1950s. There’s actually a new novela that just started this week. I missed the first two chapters, but finally caught it tonight. Guess what…it’s about slaves. I kid you not. A soap opera about slaves….only in Brazil. Maybe it will be just like Roots... I remember my Dad told me about when he saw Roots. It was actually back in Nigeria in the 70s. He saw it at the national theatre on the big screen. He told me how after it was finished, everyone was really amped, just waiting to get their hands on one of those damned “white oppressors,” and enact some revenge on behalf of brotha Kunta. Fortunately, there basically are no white people in Nigeria, so no one got hurt.

Speaking of enacting revenge…we all went to a meeting for the Steve Biko Cultural Institute last night. It was very interesting…basically a lot of folks that are active in the black movement and the fight for affirmative action here in Salvador. There were some presentations and speakers, one of which especially interested me. His speech actually wasn’t that interesting. It had been a fairly long night, and the room was very full, and very hot. This guy’s speech had been going on for awhile, and to be honest, I was getting pretty tired of hearing Portuguese. So I was really only half listening, probably picking out about 20% of what he was actually saying. But in what I assumed to be his closing he started to get a bit more dramatic. There was some fist waving and his demeanor started to take on that of a fiery black nationalist. To me it was all still just a lot of loud Portuguese, but at the very end of his speech, as he got really energetic I understood him crystal clearly when he, still in Portuguese, said, “We’re going to kill racism. We’re going to kill the racists!” which of course was followed by raucous applause and a standing ovation. I looked over at Tudo Bem (both of us were already standing in the back of the auditorium) to confirm that my Portuguese did not fail me and that he did indeed say “We’re going to kill the racists!” He gave me a nod of affirmation, but was clearly taken aback by this momentary call to arms. Fortunately, the night did not end with a massive horde of black people searching the streets in an effort to forcefully exterminate racism and its adherents. I think the speech’s ending was more a moment of overzealous rhetoric than anything else. But you never know…