LETTERS

Brazzil in
the Trash

The Consulate regularly receives copies of different local publications meant for the Brazilian community. We are glad to distribute them since they are important vehicles for divulging information about Brazil and the Brazilian culture. Newspapers, magazines, bulletins received by the Consulate are regularly put at the disposal of the public that visits the consulate. Lamentably, however, I will not be extending this treatment to Brazzil magazine for the reasons explained below.

2. Although containing some articles with good journalistic quality, Brazzil includes a section with theme and pictures from the yellow press. The approach, perfectly suitable for a pornographic publication, cannot find a place in a magazine meant for distribution to a public with varied interests and ages, that is unaware and even deceived by a cover in disagreement with the tenor of certain pages of the magazine.

3. Along with the responsibility of the Consulate concerning material that it offers for reading to its visiting public, I must note that it is with sorrow that I observe a situation in which a vehicle of wide distribution, that could greatly serve the interests of the Brazilian community in the United States, is detrimental to this same community it intends to reach, discrediting the country's image by implicitly linking "brazilianism" to the image of sexual debauchery and gratuitous pornography.

4. This letter, then, adds itself completely with the arguments of several members of the Brazilian community who have already expressed themselves about the subject. Our goal is that the problem be evaluated in the light of the interests of the public to which the magazine in principle is meant for.

5. For now, I ask you to exclude the Consulate General in Houston from your mailing list, since, barring a revision of your editorial orientation, the destination for the copies gently mailed can only be the recycling bin.

Maria Lúcia Santos Pompeu Brasil
Consul General
Houston, Texas

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Brazzil in
Washington

I have a long history in the Brazilian media in the US. More than 20 years. In 1985, I created the newspapers Florida Review (the first Brazilian newspaper in Florida, which I sold in 1992), the Brazil Review and the American Times (Orlando). I also created the first radio program in Orlando (Alô Brasil), published the magazine Ícaro and on May 5 I will be dropping anchor in Miami Beach to launch The Brazilian Sun newspaper.

I learned about Brazzil by the hands of the Press Attaché of the Brazilian Embassy in Washington, Pedro Bório, who showed me the publication on the Internet and told me: "This is the best publication about Brazilians in the United States." Congratulations. I would like to contribute with information about our region. Feel free to call our live radio program (on Fridays, from 8 to 11 PM) so we can talk on the air.

Francisco Moura
Miami Beach, Florida

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Two Cents Worth

Thank you for your magazine. I just read the article about homosexuality in Brazil which I enjoyed very much. However, it seems from the wording of a few sections that either the author was not gay or some things in English were foreign.

Therefore, with all due respect for the difficulty of writing in another language, I would like to make the following comments: in the article it said that gay tourists spend $160/day in Rio, compared with $130/day for an American tourist. Where is the opposition? I am gay and American...but not straight. It would be clearer to write "straight American tourist" if that is your meaning.

Next, the information about Paris was a little funny, to describe the Hotel etc. as "pleasures". Pleasures is a strange word in this case. The last thing I would note is the sentence that "Brazil, like the US and other countries, has difficulty suppressing its homosexual population." Not every country is trying to suppress its homosexual population, which is what this sentence makes it sound like.

All of the New England states, for example have passed strict antidiscrimination laws. I don't want to criticize anyone's effort—surely I could not write as well in Portuguese even after years of trying, but it is important to work on tone. I appreciate your magazine greatly and have learned much from its articles and short stories. Muito obrigado.

John Thiels
Cambridge, Massachusetts

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And the Other Voices?

I have enjoyed reading the informative article "Gay Power Gives Show of Strength" (Brazzil, May 1997). But the author writes as if the Church, i. e., the Roman Catholic church, is the only Christian denomination or religious group in Brazil. If the information of how other religious groups are dealing with the homosexual community was not available, the author could have at least mentioned it. I am not anti-Catholic, yet I stand up for a truly democratic society, in which the voices of the minorities are not suppressed by the majority.

I would like also to add my agreement with Rozemary Sabino, who had her letter published in the latest issue of Brazzil opposing the cheap, distasteful notes and photos of Brazilian women. Because of the stereotypes of Brazilian women in the "Rapidinhas" column, I feel embarrassed to introduce Brazzil to any of my North-American friends. Why do you not publish these pictures in a teenager magazine?

Pr. Alex Busch
Newton, Massachusetts

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Relax, It's
Just Sex

Well, isn't it too bad you hit a raw nerve in the American society? I'll be old and gray and will never understand this obsession the American public has for nudity. They despise it and at the same time revere it. So what if you show a few nude pictures in this magazine? From what I've seen so far most of these pictures were taken in public places or are widely available to the Brazilian public.

Have any of you seen one of Brazilian soap operas lately? What they show in prime time TV would not be shown in the US before midnight and yet the Brazilian public feels OK with that. So, what is the big deal????? Maybe if people accepted sex as a normal part of their lives there wouldn't be so many perverts out there.

Marcos Coimbra
West Hollywood, California

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Lively Land

I have received your magazine for a few months now and want to thank you for putting together an informative and entertaining magazine. My three visits to Brazil were each enjoyable in a different way (São Paulo, Brasília and Conceição do Almeida). I love the culture and the people. In all of my travels, I found Brazil to be the country that is most alive and vibrant. I am studying the Portuguese language by way of tapes and phrase books in my spare time. (Not the best way to learn a language.) Are there any good workbooks out there for learning basic grammar? Again, thanks for publishing a truly enjoyable and informative magazine.

Steven Wilkerson
US Department of Commerce
Washington, DC

And what do you think?

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