Who are these Brazilians? What are they doing? How are they represented? Or are they represented at all?
Recently at the IV Focus – Brazil International Congress of Brazilian Culture and Media, – an event that gathered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Brazilian press from all over the world – the Ministry of External Relations' representative Ambassador Oto Agripino Maia, top officer of the Under Secretary of Brazilian Communities Abroad, spoke of the efforts of his office to broaden understanding of the needs of these citizens and try to find ways to help through diplomatic measures, including some extended action.
According to research done by Brazil Information Center, the Brazilian community in the greater New York and tri-state area is grounded and stable working class and upper business class, with a small recent immigrant segment, with one thing in common: they all hold strong ties to family and even business interests in Brazil. It is not hard to notice in the Brazilian community how the search for the identity as an expatriate is an important issue. It is obvious that among Brazilian expatriates in the United States there is a strong need to reach visibility, a much-deserved affirmation of cultural self, a space where cultural pride can and should be exhibited.
It is often noticed that Brazilians feel excluded as an ethnic group in the United States. Why? Usually whoever is referred to as Latino includes anyone coming from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and all other ethnicities coming from Latin America – all but Brazilians. Brazilians are Latin Americans; they are Portuguese-speaking Latin Americans, and the fact that they speak Portuguese and not Spanish does not make them any less Latin Americans, or Latinos. Brazilians are not Hispanic, but they are Latin Americans. Brazil is not only a South American country, it is the giant of Latin America.
So if Brazilians are Latinos and not Hispanic but Portuguese; if they speak Portuguese but they are not European; where do they fit? They fit where all Latin American immigrants fit, or at least where they should. But just knowing this is no longer enough. There is a need for a stronger representation, of an awareness of the Brazilians' need for inclusion; someone who can speak up for Brazilians from the viewpoint of the interests and needs of the Brazilian community. Time has come for such a representation; it can no longer be postponed.
It is a complex matter and a new one. Brazil has been for too long a country that took in immigrants from all over the globe, and everyone came and stayed, exploring the opportunities and channels for achievement in a growing country. Many grew together with the country.
It was not until the 70s and 80s that it was realized that a growing trend of emigrating Brazilians was a reality. They were leaving in search of a new life, some running away from the hardships of the military dictatorship, and others pressed by economic hardships chose to leave in search of a better life. The country with open doors for immigrants had become also a country whose citizens became immigrants of other lands, and mostly emigrants to the United States of America.
Today, some decades later, the Brazilian community has grown, has become solid. There are new generations of Brazilian Americans, now three generations, who are completely integrated to the American culture and way of life. There are also those who are still in the initial stages of the not-so-easy process of acculturation; however, these groups have one thing in common: they are all Brazilians who live in the United States. As they move on with their struggles, they have an increased need to be brought out to light, a need for visibility as an ethnic group living in this land of opportunity.
Many members of the Brazilian community in the United States are undocumented, anonymous residents, as it is a fact among all other ethnic groups. But they are, nonetheless, hard-working persons with a heart full of hope.
There is renewed hope and a sense the new possibilities opening up with the Obama administration. Now is the time to give the Brazilian community an opportunity to be heard. The time is here and now.
