Brazil - BRAZZIL - Young and Restless in Brazil - Brazilian Population

It would be hard to put a label on the 6,000 youngsters from across Brazil who gathered in September in Brasília, the nation's capital, for the I Festival Nacional da Juventude (Youth First National Festival). "Unclassifiable" probably would be the only fair designation. They are not leftist dreamers, conservative proselytizers, nor Pepsi, X, mall or any other kind of generation, but rather, they are all of these. They are a close portrait of Brazil today with its clubbers, rappers, skaters, Fidel Castro lovers, hippie nostalgics, teetotalers and drugheads, punks, goody-goodies, and eggheads, bums and career-minded boys and girls, philosophers and the stark crazy.

One in every five Brazilians is between the ages of 15 and 24. There are 32 million of them out of a total of 161 million inhabitants, according to the latest figures by the IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística—Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics). While the population as a whole grew 7% between 1991 and 1996 the number of adolescents went up 11%. According to projections, this young population will continue growing for two more years, and will be 28 million by the year 2020.

Although inspired by idols as diverse as black slave hero Zumbi dos Palmares, MST leader José Rainha Júnior or late composer Chico Science, politics doesn't seem to interest them. The relaxed tone of the conference was reinforced by the daily generous free distribution of condoms by the Health Secretariat of Brasília and a group called Atitude (Attitude).

"The adults have to find out how we are and what we think. Young people need information," said 18-year-old Josyane Nascimento to Correio Brasiliense, the most traditional and most read daily in Brasília. This rap lover came from Rio with a group of 35 other rap-loving Cariocas (Rio natives). "This event is going to change my life," said André Luiz Lemos, 19. "I've already learned about politics, punk, socialism and geography."

They didn't come only for the song and dance even though the guitar parties and balls were common during the event. The program of conferences started in the morning and went through all day. While many were missing school by being there, they expected to have their absences justified after presenting proof of participation in different conferences. Among the themes discussed: globalization of the culture, violence, media and youth, the job market, and the history of the Brazilian student movement.

Discipline was severe and no alcohol was allowed on the camping grounds. Order and security were guaranteed by the military police and a 30-strong private security force. According to Fórum da Juventude XXI (Youth Forum 21), the organizers of the conference, the main objective of the Brasília event was to prepare a report with proposals by the participants to be presented to state and local governments.

Among the organized political groups there were representatives from UNE (União Nacional dos Estudantes—Students National Union), UJS (União da Juventude Socialista—Socialist Youth Union), JPT (Juventude do Partido dos Trabalhadores—Workers' Party Youth), CDRC (Comitê de Defesa da Revolução Cubana—Committee for the Defense of the Cuban Revolution), and UJC (União da Juventude Comunista—Communist Youth Union) linked to the PCB (Partido Comunista Brasileiro—Brazilian Communist Party) whose members sported a Che Guevara-styled beret. The UJC members were actively trying to get new members for their cause while reading from books by Lenin and Trotsky.

The organizers placed 800 seats in the main auditorium. They soon discovered that this was way too many for the small groups that showed up for the conferences and debates there. The themes that drew more attention and public were Brazilian culture and education. There were always too many events going on on the same time including 15 different workshops on themes as diverse as percussion, circus, and community radio.

Nights were reserved for pleasure and the youngsters had fun listening to all kinds of music, including samba and rock. Brasília's Secretariat of Tourism offered five buses with guides, so the youngsters could visit some city's buildings and monuments like the National Congress and the Justice Palace. The buses however were rarely used.

The conference participants learned that murder was the cause of 41.8% of deaths among Brazilian youngsters between the ages of 15 and 24. The information was given by professor Júlio Jacobo Waiselfisz from UNESCO (United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization) during a debate on violence in Brazilian society. Waiselfisz, who is coordinating a study about violence among youngsters in four state capitals, used data from 1996, the most recent information available.

The UNESCO official criticized the way the media treat the younger crowd. "Youngsters are treated as if they were suspects of violence, when in reality they are its main victim. Governments stage big campaigns against AIDS, which represents 3% of the total of deaths among youngsters, but there is no comprehensive policy against violence," Waiselfisz declared. He also criticized the lack of a national strategy to deal with the situation.

According to him, contrary to the widespread perception, violence is not confined to poverty pockets, but it is present in all social classes. Among the causes uncovered by the study for the growing problem: individualism and competitiveness.

Last July Brazil was shocked by the death of João Francisco Jobim, 18, the older son of late composer Tom Jobim and Ana Jobim, in a car accident in downtown Rio. His mother had just given him as a gift an imported Volkswagen Passat for finishing high school. He was coming back from a night of dance and beer with some friends when he lost control and the vehicle tumbled several times before crashing into a tree. According to friends the young Jobim was a very careful driver. The police report, however, concluded that his car was going 140 km/h (87 mph) when the accident occurred.

There were roughly 7,200 adolescent deaths due to car accidents in 1995, the latest year for which there is data about the matter. This was a jump of 75% over the figures of 15 years earlier. Thirty thousand youngsters had a violent death in 1995 when there was a total of 42,000 deaths among those between 15 and 24. While 24% of them were victims of a car accident, another 45% were murdered. Mortality rates for this age bracket are approximately 50% greater in Brazil than in the United States.

The first generation who grew up in a society where the free vote was allowed after the 1964-1985 military dictatorship doesn't seem drawn to politics or convinced of the importance of their own vote. The 1988 Constitution kept the compulsory vote for people over 18 and extended the voluntary vote to everyone between the ages of 16 and 18. There has been little interest in the privilege though, and there were fewer applicants than ever in this age bracket this year, despite the fact that the country had national elections in October for governor, congress and President.

In Rio, for example, a mere 18,539 16-year-old adolescents applied for their título de eleitor (voter card), a number three times lower than in past polls. This represents 0.09% of the total Rio's electorate. Nationwide there was a slightly larger interest with 1,299,437 applications or 0.28% of the country's voting population.

In an interview with Rio's daily O Globo, political scientist Nélson Carvalho remarked that in contrast with Europe, where teens have oscillated between alienation and adherence to neofascist groups, Brazilian youngsters show interest for politics as long as it is not linked to parties.

"The political theme is not that appealing to youngsters anymore," Carvalho said. "They get organized for other tasks like promoting a demonstration for students rights. They don't have the same disposition though to be active in a party."

Sixteen-year-old Filipe Cândido explained why he passed on the chance to vote that last time around: "If I vote for a politician who does something stupid, I will also be responsible. I intend to put off this responsibility for as long as I can."

Inspired by British youngsters there is a growing number of tattooed-and-pierced clubbers from Rio who frequent Ecstasy-laced raves—rowdy parties with a techno-sound background—and are adept at the ritual known as chill-out, a party after the party, that can last hours or days. Among the drugs consumed during this period there are marijuana and speed (encapsulated cocaine-based powder).

Rio's daily O Dia interviewed a 18-year-old student named Bernardo T., who talked about his experience as a drug-using clubber: "I've participated in a chill out in an Ipanema (upper-class neighborhood in south Rio) penthouse for four whole days. We smoked pot, took Ecstasy and snorted cocaine and speed to the sound of techno. We are not mere drug addicts or little addicted playboys. We have another world and we use drugs only for fun. Only a real clubber can understand what we feel during these drug sessions."

In raves in Rio, São Paulo and other large cities, the public can generally be divided into two broad groups: the mostly well-behaved and conventionally dressed "pats" (for little Patricia) and "boys" on one side and the hardcore clubbers on the other.

Pats and boys just add a few out-of-the-ordinary items to their wardrobe including iron-beaded chains and colorful snow eye glasses. Shiny make-up is de rigueur for the girls. Hardcore clubbers on the other hand are more prone to shock the older crowd with their tattoos, navel and tongue piercings, all kinds of accessories, and psychedelic clothing.

To the surprise of many parents, a rave can be much less wild than their own youth rock parties. While dancing, the participants seem to fall into a trance in which there is no talking, no touching, and no romancing. Two of the favorite places for rave are the beaches of Ipanema and Barra da Tijuca in Rio, which are filled with hundreds of youngsters who dance non-stop from sundown to sunup.

While confined to a ghetto until mid-1997, the clubber culture has gone mainstream in Brazil lately. Bands like Massive Attack and Prodigy can be heard now at the most popular dance clubs. Piercing has become more and more widespread and the same is true for clubber synthetic clothes and items that can be found in large chain stores like C&A, but are also sold by street vendors.

Pecado Capital (Sin Capital), Globo Network's new 6-PM novela (soap opera), has a group of clubbers among its characters. The soap, which premiered in October, is a remake of a highly-successful story that first aired in the '70s. Rewritten by Glória Perez the new version is introducing the clubbers group in place of the original motoscooters gang. The Globo team visited rave parties and talked to clubbers to understand their style and philosophy.

This popularization of the clubber movement is giving pause to some diehard clubbers, some of whom have abandoned the night in protest. Rio's daily O Globo cites Paulo Roberto de Oliveira, someone who considers himself a real and original clubber: "For more than a year I have not gone out to dance. Today I prefer staying at home with my imported records and magazines. There are 200 fake clubbers for every legitimate one. This is their moment."

While the media pours out a never-ending flow of sexual stimulation, sexual education is still very basic. Lack of sexual information does not seem to be a major problem though. According to São Paulo state's Health Secetariat, 96% of the state's teenagers said that they know of ways to avoid pregnancy, even though many of them had not used any kind of contraceptive on their last sexual encounter.

The main papers in Brazil have columns or sometimes entire sections dedicated exclusively to teens. There are at least 32 publications catering to the youth and new ones are testing the waters all the time. They have names like Atrevida (Daring) and Capricho (Whim) and sex is an ever-present theme in their pages.

When asked by CPM—a polling organization specialized in youngsters—to name their favorite music group, kids from 9 to 18 from seven Brazilian capital cities chose É o Tchan, a band better known for the prominent derrière of its dancers and the double entendre of its lyrics. They have popularized across the country such hits as dança da bundinha (little butt dance) and dança da garrafa (bottle dance), both simulating sexual intercourse.

When the same CPM asked the youngsters who were the Brazilians they most admired, the kids talked about the late Betinho—Brazil's mother Theresa —and the athlete of the century, Pelé, but they were low in the list that was lead by Xuxa, a TV hostess who has always used he sex appeal and scanty clothes to build an audience of kids and their fathers. Carla Perez, whose main claim to fame was the ability to shake her buttocks during a É o Tchan presentation, came in fourth place before Pelé and Betinho. She left that band recently to star on her own TV program on SBT, the second largest TV network.

For the president of Flapia (Federação Latino-Americana de Infância—Latin American Federation of Childhood) the erotization of children is out of control in Brazil. "All these dances are an invitation to erotization," she denounces. We are diseducating the youth, skipping stages, causing difficulty in the learning process."

In Brasília roughly 50% of the youngsters have their first sexual relation before they are 18, and among those 75% were less than 16 when they lost their virginity, while 11,9% were less than 12. For most of them (59,4%) the first sexual encounter happened between the ages of 13 and 15.

Almost half of these kids do not wear condoms. Smoking is not considered cool by this group. Only 10% do it, but 19.6% admit using or having used drugs. These were findings from a 1998 study by Codeplan (Companhia de Desenvolvimento do Planalto—Highland Development Company) with high school students (88% of them between the ages of 14 and 18) from the Federal District private and public institutions.

The study also revealed that a more liberal posture in society did not translate into candid talk about sex between children and parents. More than 65% of these youngsters revealed that they do not feel at ease discussing sex at home. A mere 35% said they talk to a parent about the subject.

More sexual freedom also did not eliminate some old expectations about women's roles. Only 15.2% see as irrelevant if a woman is not virgin at marriage. For 29.3% of the youngsters, virginity is very important while 52% agree that this requirement has lost a lot of its bite. On the other hand, just 15.3% of the students see virginity for men before marriage as something important. And marriage is not a moribund institution. For 66% of the youngsters polled by Codeplan, marriage is important and necessary.

In Porto Alegre (capital of Rio Grande do Sul state) a group of doctors of Hospital das Clínicas (General Hospital) led by Dr. Alberto Scofano Mainieri were surprised by the results of a study done in 1997 with 8,356 local youngsters between the ages of 12 and 18. They found out, for example, that 11% of the boys interviewed had started having sex at age 11 or earlier, representing a four-fold increase over numbers from five years ago. There was also a jump of more than 300% in the number of girls beginning their sexual lives before they were 14. While three years ago they represented 1.94%, this percentage has increased to 7.1% today.

Curiously, for the most part the girls were the ones to take the initiative of starting the first sexual relation. For many, the sooner the better to get rid of their virginity, which is seen more as a hindrance than an asset.

Lack of information on sexual matters can be downright scary. Talking to Correio Brasiliense, psychologist Oswaldo Rodrigues Júnior, director of Instituto Paulista de Sexualidade (São Paulo Institute of Sexuality), described a visit to his office by a young couple. "They were college students and they had been married for a year. They wanted to know which was the hole to go into. Their biggest difficulty is to understand how do you arrive at a wholly integrated sexual relation. The main concern of the girls is still the fear of pain and bleeding."

While prostitutes have always had an educational role in the sex life of Brazilian young men, it being common that the father himself would look for a prostitute for his son's first sexual experience, today they have acquired a new status among teens in the big cities. They have been often used even by those kids whose girlfriends have frequent sex with them, for variety, for their perceived ability to give more pleasure and naturally for the lack of commitment in these brief encounters.

Daily Folha de São Paulo recently told the story of a 17-year-old that they identified only by the initials, L.C.S.J.. At least once a month LC finds a prostitute at rua Augusta or at Boca do Lixo (Trash Mouth), two places of low and moderate-priced prostitution close to downtown. "Today all the gang does that," he told the Folha reporter. "I started just for the kick of if, but I ended up liking it. I think this gets you addicted. What happens is that hookers have more experience and know more how to excite us."

Rosely Sayão, a sexologist who writes a column answering teens questions at Folhateen, the Folha weekly teen section, has her explanation for the phenomenon: "They think that their girlfriends are immature." She sees in this new trend another way of treating women as a product. "It's just another item on the shelf to be bought."

According to a working girl interviewed by the paper, the boys expect too much of them and some have the naïve notion they will be able to get a free ride: "They think we do miracles and they stay almost still expecting a truckload of things." She describes her younger clients as very curious, asking questions about their daily routine and about what other johns ask them to do. Rarely does a young client ask to have sex without a condom, she said, something guys over 45 are more prone to do.

For a one-hour session with a prostitute the youngster has to pay around $80, even though the price falls to $50 after 3 AM. Hotel prices are extra and can go from $10 to $30. Sao Paulo has nightclubs where boys from the upper class can meet prostitutes as if they were ordinary girls just looking for some fun. One of these famous nightclubs is Love Story, which on Friday and Saturday nights becomes a techno-frenzied bacchanalia.

Another girl of the night presented as Erika, 19, revealed that her younger clients usually come in trios and love to make a festa (party), i.e., to swap girls among them. Says Erika: "Two friends and I usually take care of them. It's very boring dealing with these boys however and they give you too much trouble. They act as if they are playing a prank in school. Sometimes, when they drink too much, they become violent."

Most parents still avoid sexual subjects. In school there is no lack of information on AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases as well as on how to wear a condom. What's missing according to experts is the total sexual dimension. All the information has not been able to deter the advance of AIDS among the young generation. Today the main victims of the disease between the ages of 15 and 20 are not gay men and drug addicts anymore, but heterosexuals.

This new trend has been noticed in family planning clinics and institutions that care for those infected by the HIV virus, like the Universidade de São Paulo (USP) Casa da Aids (AIDS House). "Today we get more women and they are getting younger by the day," said Casa da Aids supervisor, Olavo Munhoz Leite. "The youngsters know all the risks, but they think that these things will never happen to them," says Albertina Duarte Takeuti, a World Health Organization researcher and coordinator for the Adolescent Program in São Paulo. "The truth is that AIDS did not change the sex life of teens."

The problem is not unique to Brazil. According to the United Nations at least 1/3 of those infected with AIDS worldwide are between the ages of 10 and 24. Since 1982 when a Brazilian adolescent for the first time was found out to have AIDS, 17,000 youngsters have been contaminated by the HIV virus.

As for the choice of first sexual partner, the boys prefer a friend while the girls would rather do it with their boyfriend. Surprisingly, the experience was considered good by 74,8% of the interviewees and 72.6% used some kind of contraceptive, with the condom being the most popular choice (61.6% of the youngsters preferred it).

The number of pregnancies has fallen nationally across all age groups in recent years, but this does not apply to youngsters between the ages of 15 and 19, according to Codeplan. Many kids in this age group don't use any birth control. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were 1 million births last year in Brazil by mothers who were 15 to 19 years old. At least half of these young moms didn't want to have a child just yet. Adolescent mothers are still 10 times more common among the poorer population than the richer one, but the problem has become more and more prevalent in every social stratum.

An alarming 26.5% of the 2,718,265 deliveries performed throughout the country in 1997 by the SUS (Sistema Único de Saúde—Universal Health System) occurred among girls between the ages of 10 and 19. While the SUS is used mostly by those without health insurance, the system is responsible for 80% of all deliveries in Brazil. By comparison, this rate is 2% in Switzerland, 7% in England, and 14% in the US. The majority of these births occurred in the poorer states from the North, the Northeast and the Midwest.

The less schooling a girl has the greater the chances she will get pregnant at an earlier age. 54% of all illiterate girls became pregnant while this number fell to 29% among those with at least three years of school and to 4% when they have gone to school more than nine years.

Traditional O Estado de S. Paulo has concluded in a recent article that the main problem in Paraisópolis—a 60,000-people-strong shantytown in Morumbi, an upper-class São Paulo neighborhood—is not violence, but the explosive growth of pregnant teens, who are becoming mothers earlier and earlier. "Before, there were many 16 and 17-year-old girls with a big belly. But in recent years we see more and more pregnant girls who are 13 or even 12 years old," according to Maria das Dores Gomes, director of the Paraisópolis Residents Union. The Cartório do Butantã (notary public bureau) has offered to issue free birth certificates in the favela (shantytown) and revealed that 10% of all births are by mothers who are 15 years old and younger. But they have just started their work in the last few of months.

The plight of the too-young mother is not one limited to Paraisópolis or large cities favelas. Today, one in four children is born to a mother who is 19 years old or younger. In the early '90s the proportion was one in five. IBGE's (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística—Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics) figures show that the number of mothers who are 15 years old or younger has tripled between 1970 and 1990. The most common cause for hospitalization among girls between 10 and 14 is childbirth, according to the Health Ministry.

O Estado told the story of 14-year-old L.S., who lost her viriginity at 13 and soon after got pregnant by a 18-year-old boy from the middle-class, who then disappeared. "I knew this could happen," said L. S., "but my boyfriend told me that it didn't happen in the beginning and I became careless." After becoming pregnant, the girl who lived with ther dad in Fortaleza—capital of the northeastern state of Ceará—was sent to her mom's house in Paraisópolis. "Before I wanted to be doctor, but now I don't even know if I am going back to school," she said while holding ther 3-month-old baby.

Abortions are frequent and risky. More than half of the teens seen by the Hospital São Paulo's Family Planning Center go through an abortion, one third of the time self induced.

Brasília was shaken by several murders committed by youngsters' gangs in recent years. The most notorious of these crimes—with international repercussion—was the assassination of Pataxó Indian, Galdino Jesus dos Santos, who was set on fire last year while he slept on a bus bench. Those involved in the crime were all kids from rich families who were looking for some fun and thrills. Those who thought that it was an isolated episode have been disproved by the facts. Brazilian kids have been forming unnamed gangs.

The new groups are becoming famous for their cruelty. In September, there were more than 15,000 cases of crimes by minors between the ages of 12 and 17 being investigated by the Promotoria de Justiça da Infância e da Juventude (Justice Prosecution Office for Childhood and Youth). For the most part, analyses have shown that law breakers belong to families where parents are absent or don't offer proper orientation to their children.

Skinheads are among the most dangerous. They usually start a fight and beat people without any provocation. According to Suzana Machado, director of Brasília's Child and Youth Department, gangs are becoming more daring and lethal every day: "These youngsters from the upper middle class have bigger bodies and almost all of them practice martial arts. With this craze of body cult, fights are always more violent."

Another problem with teens, one rarely shown in statistics, is the growing rate of suicides. A study by Claves (Centro Latino-Americano de Estudos de Violência e Saúde—Latin-American Center for the Study of Violence and Health)—an institution in Rio—reveals that the rate of suicides of youngsters between the ages of 15 and 24 has increased by 26% from 1979 to 1993.

Nine state capitals were involved in the research: Rio, São Paulo, Belém (Pará), Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais), Curitiba (Paraná), Fortaleza (Ceará), Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul), Recife (Pernambuco), and Salvador (Bahia). The most dramatic increase (80%) occurred in São Paulo where, in 1993, there were 8.06 deaths for every 100,000 people in that age group compared to 4.47 in 1979. Among the little good news: there was a small reduction in the number of youth suicides in Rio, Belo Horizonte, Belém, and Curitiba.

With 21.7% of all the suicides for this age group in 1995, it only lost to the 25 to 34 age group (24%) as champion of suicides. Despite the severity, by world standards these numbers are not considered high. By comparison, 29 in every 100,000 Australians aged 15 to 24 killed themselves in 1993.

According to the National Cancer Institute's National Coordination for the Control of Smoking and Cancer Primary Prevention (Contapp),12 is the average age at which kids try their first cigarette. Half of them will become addicted. Peer pressure seems to be the main factor behind taking on smoking. WHO's data show that 75% of Latin American smokers started the habit between the ages of 14 and 17.

Alcohol is the preferred drug by both male and female youngsters. A study by Cebrid (Centro Brasileiro de Informações Sobre Drogas Psicotrópicas—Brazilian Center for Information on Psychotropic Drug) showed that half of all children taste alcohol for the first time between the ages of 10 and 12, and that 28.6% of the time they get their first sip at home.

Cebrid polled 15,503 students from elementary and secondary schools from ten state capital cities. The research also revealed that 23.81% were led to drink by peer pressure, that 10.5% missed school after drinking and that 28.9% used alcohol up to the point where they lost control. Other studies suggest that close to 10% of the kids who use alcohol mix it with pot and cocaine.

Veja magazine cites a recent study in 16 large cities by researcher Tânia Zagury in which she found out that 57.7% of kids have their first experience with illegal drugs before they are 14 years old.

Except for the few politicized ones, today's adolescents seem indifferent to politics. There is nothing that resembles the throngs of students defying tanks and police in 1968 or even the much tamer crowd of caras pintadas (painted faces) of six years ago who went to the streets to demand for corruption-plagued President Fernando Collor de Mello's resignation.

In São Paulo and Rio, less than 30% of the 16 and 17 year olds with right to vote have applied for a título de eleitor (voter identication card). In a mere three small states—Piauí, Tocantins, and Rio Grande do Norte—this number surpasses 50% of the eligible voters.

According to a Unesco study with 400 youngsters from Brasília aged 14 to 20, only 0.5% of them trust Congress or their own student representatives. The same study showed that 67% of the respondents would not participate in a strike in their own schools and that 63% never go out on a demonstration, even though 59% of them say that they follow politics through TV news programs.

The main concern for 97.8% of them: to have a good job, to have money, to have a family and to be happy. Two percent only seemed worried about the country's future. "What's going to happen in a few years when it's time for these youngsters to take a position and assume a political post?," asked political scientist Marcos Coimbra, director of the research institute Vox Populi.

Some Personal Questions

In its October issue Capricho presented the results of a questionnaire given to 500 boys from São Paulo, Rio, Curitiba, Belo Horizonte, Brasília e Salvador. The questions couldn't be more intimate.

How many times a day do you think about sex?

Several times 77%

Once 15%

Rarely 8%

Is it uncool for a girl to have a condom in her purse?

No 80%

Yes 12%

Don't know 8%

Is it uncool for the girl to be experienced?

No 49%

Yes 31%

It doesn't matter 20%

Should the girl take the initiative?

No 54%

Yes 25%

It doesn't matter 21%

Is it a problem if the girl is not a virgin anymore?

No 66%

It doesn't matter 22%

Yes 12%

If the girl is menstruating, you...

don't have sex 39%

stay indifferent 28%

don't like it but go ahead 27%

get more excited 6%

The time to put on the condom is

nothing special 39%

exciting or embarrassing depending on the girl 35%

exciting 15%

embarrassing 11%

If you lose your erection you

try again 68%

say: "This never happened to me before." 16%

wait for her action 11%

give up 5%

If she wants to stop in the middle of the action you...

try to understand 57%

you insist 32%

you get annoyed and give up 11%

After sex you

keep to yourself 66%

take care of the girl 25%

lose the interest in the girl 9%

Teens of
All Colors

Earlier this year Correio Brasiliense tried to classify and map what they called the teen tribos (tribes) of the nation's capital. They came up with 12 galeras (groups), which they divided in three groups: those who prefer to have fun at home, the health and adrenaline generation, and those who gather in malls, clubs and streets. They now even have their own magazine, Tribu, a bimonthly publication that started with an initial circulation of 10,000 copies and covers fashion, behavior, and culture.

The street people, i.e. those who socialize in nightclubs, parties, malls and the like are the skaters, the rockers, the clubbers, the patricinhas and playboys (upper-class boys and girls) and the GLS (gays, lesbians and sympathizers). You distinguish one tribe from the other by the clothes their members wear. The clubbers are the most colorful, starting with the colorized hair, plus bright clothing, piercing and appealing earrings.

For them, fun is a dance hall filled with noisy techno music. Their parties, also known as raves, can happen in the most unusual places and have already happened in the subway tunnel, a bathroom at University of Brasília, and even inside a moving truck. Nothing for them could be more uncool than normal events and people. The GLSs have many of the clubbers taste including the choice of meeting places and music, even though they usually stay in their own places known as bares arco-íris (rainbow bar).

Skaters and rockers seem to prefer action to talk and when they open their mouth their talk seems more like gobbledygook to the non-initiated. They use plenty of their in-house slang. sometimes just recycled old slang. They wear baggy Bermuda shorts, T shirts with bands or morbid themes including skeletons, and love their tattoos. As for hair they go from the long-haired manes to the shaved heads. Their favorite hangouts during the day are the alternative and imported CD shops.

Patys (or patricinhas) are the female answer to the mauricinhos. These are well-to-do boys and girls who dress more conservatively. A cellular phone and an expensive as-possible imported car are a must to belong to this tribe. Since they try to mix only with teens of their own status, patys and mauricinhos end up having some bars exclusively for themselves.

The healthy generation loves the outdoors, the fitness club, the special diet and little or no alcohol and dangerous sports like rappelling. The domestic tribes on the other hand find everything they need to have fun at home: the VCR, the computer linked to the Internet, the telephone, or even the Bible.

Tribe Talk

A Taste of Daring

One of the most read teen publications is Atrevida (Daring Girl) from Abril Editora, the same company that publishes leading newsweekly Veja. Take a look at some titles of its extensive table of contents for the October 1998 issue:

"Sabe-Tudo Sobre Sexo" (Know It All About Sex) is one of the sections that invites reader participation. It is a question-and-answer column. A sample:

Question: "Is it true that boys who are taller and have big biceps are better endowed than the shorties?" M., 14 years old, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul

Answer: No. The size of the penis has no relation to the boy's body shape. Short boys can have a big penis or vice-versa. Another common folklore about this subject is that men of certain races like Negro, for example, are usually better endowed than the representatives of other ethnic groups. There is no scientific basis for that either.

The penis size has more to do with the hereditary factor. The son inherits the size of his sexual organ from his father (who in turn got it from his grandfather or great grandfather).

Youth Maze

Who is the Brazilian teenager? He/she is passionate and apathetic, abstemious and drug-addicted, criminal and compassionate. Their numbers are growing faster than any other age bracket. They will soon be Brazil's movers and shakers.

Émerson Luís

Teens of
All Colors

Tribe Talk

A Taste of Daring

Youth Maze

Who is the Brazilian teenager? He/she is passionate and apathetic, abstemious and drug-addicted, criminal and compassionate. Their numbers are growing faster than any other age bracket. They will soon be Brazil's movers and shakers.

Émerson Luís

Teens of All Colors

Tribe Talk

A Taste of Daring

Teens of
All Colors