Brazilian Things

Brazil was a colony of Portugal until 1822. However, for over 100 years after “independence” the country remained economically tied to Portuguese Crown. Only in the later 1950s Brazil began to trade with the rest of the world.

Curitiba - PR

Dilma Rousseff is Brazil's first woman president, in office since 1 January 2011. Fighting the underground battle against the ruling military dictatorship landed her in prison in 1970, where she spent nearly three years and was tortured with electric shocks. After her release, she finished her studies (1977) and pursued local politics as a member of the Democratic Labor Party. Over the next two decades, Rousseff's major role was as a behind-the-scenes party consultant and able administrator, with a specialty in energy concerns. When Luis "Lula" da Silva campaigned for the presidency in 2002, he tapped Rousseff as one of his top consultants. After his election, he named her to his cabinet as Minister of Energy. Rousseff's success in that position led to her job as Lula's Chief of Staff in 2005, a post she held until deciding to run for election as Lula's successor in 2010. Her leftist past and later pro-capitalist leanings mean that Rousseff is considered a hypocrite to a some, but a pragmatist to most.

Brazil's Morpho Butterfly

Ipê Roxo - Found in most areas below 1000m elevation along the brazilian coast, in the Atlantic forest and in the Pantanal.

Sergipe - Aracaju

Maceió - Alagoas

 Kids Music & Entertainment - Trem da Alegria

What caused more Portuguese to come to Brazil around 1530? The Portuguese began to cultivate sugar and settle on the east coast of Brazil. The growing number of sugar plantations demanded more workers, and the Indian population had become smaller because many Indians had died. To deal with this labor shortage, the Portuguese began to import slaves from Africa into Brazil to work on the plantations.

Touradas de Madrid - Mauricio Pereira