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Photo Essay: CET Brazil

Photos by Saradine Pierre, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) Student Correspondent CET Brazil, Summer 2018

For our program, we had a day dedicated to exploring the historic center of São Paulo. During our tour, we went inside the Metropolitan Cathedral, which is one of the largest neo-Gothic cathedrals in the world.

 
In the center of São Paulo is one of the best bookstores I’ve ever seen. Aside from its wide selection of books, what I love most about the store is its playful and inviting layout.

 
Throughout the month of June, Brazil, Portugal, and other lusophone countries celebrate what are known as the festas juninas. As a part of the festas juninas, it is common to eat popcorn, peanut butter candies, and other sweets. Before class, CET set up a little festa junina celebration for us!

 
As one of our cultural activities, we took a trip to the Soccer Museum (Museu do Futebol). The museum took an interesting approach in the way it presented how soccer has evolved over time. A section that caught my eye was one that chronicled the social and political events that surrounded each World Cup.

 
With the World Cup happening right now, you get a great sense of the passion that Brazilians have for their team. Whenever I’m free, I try to go to some of the livelier neighborhoods of São Paulo to watch the games.

 
One of my personal favorite events was visiting Cooperifa. Cooperifa is a coalition of those who live in the periphery of São Paulo. Many of the people who live in the periphery are low income people of color. Every Tuesday night, Cooperifa hosts a performance night where people have the chance to express themselves through poetry, song, or rap. Many people presented pieces dealing with their experiences with racism, poverty, and police brutality. It was a refreshing and humbling change of atmosphere from the more privileged, middle class area we live in.

 
To most, this may just look like graffiti. However, Brazilians will tell you that this is pixo. Pixo is a form of typography that can be found on many building in São Paulo. In our social issues course, we learned that is very highly contested whether or not pixo can be considered art.

 
São Paulo has a ton of neighborhoods that each have their own notable characteristics. The Liberdade neighborhood is known as the hub of Asian culture in São Paulo. Made up of mostly Japanese immigrants, Liberdade contains many nods to traditional Asian architecture.

 
On our weekend off, several other CET classmates and I decided to take a trip to Rio. We had the chance to visit Christ the Redeemer, one of the seven wonders of the modern world!

 

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