Latin-American Studies

Being the largest country in Latin America Brazil has been said to be one of the richest countries in terms of culture and history. It is also the only country that speaks Portuguese. This paper takes an in depth look at the history and culture of Brazil in the 20th century. The culture in Brazil has always been known to be diverse unlike many other cultures of the world. The Brazilian society can best be described as a multicultural society as it is composed of many communities some of which include Americans, Italians, and Portuguese among many others (Bakewell, J. 2004).
Brazil was under the rule of Portuguese for more than 300 years. During this period of colonization many settlers from Portugal arrived in large numbers and brought with them their cultural practices in Brazil. The indigenous people of Brazil had close ties with the colonialist and they therefore took up many traits from the Portuguese. Back in the years Brazil would import large numbers of slaves to work for them. Most of the slaves that were imported in Brazil were male slaves. It was also as a result of this slave trade that Brazil ended up having a mixture of races (Bradford, B.1993).
Although Brazil considered as being one of the strongest states due to its cultural and racial diversity some people especially foreigners have said that this is a form of backwardness. It is argued that it is this racial mixture that has led to lack of development in this South American country. During pre-colonial times, the national identity in Brazil was pretty similar to those of other European countries Top positions were accorded to those who were born in Portugal. In terms of power and wealth Brazil was dominated by the small group of elites from Portugal. This group initially owned sugar plantations where the employed slaves of African and Indian origin. Portuguese of humble background belonged to the middle class who were mainly shopkeepers, artisans and foremen (Valdes, M. 2004).
Upon attaining her independence in 1822 many things in Brazil changed. The political and economic life in this country was still dominated and controlled by a small group of elites. However the source of wealth had since changed from sugar to gold. Gold would later be replaced by coffee (Bakewell, 2004). However despite some of these changes that took place, one thing remained the same the large group of Brazilians lived like slaves.
The first census in Brazil took place in the year 1870 with more than half of the population being classified as either black or of mixed ancestry. However later a massive migration of people from Europe helped balance the racial imbalance that characterized Brazil at the time. The practice of slavery was brought to halt in the year 1888 in Brazil. This led to a high number of people migrating to Brazil. The migrants were from all pats of the world Lebanon, Japan and Europe being the main sources of the immigrants (Bradford, B.1993).
After the 2nd World War Brazil embraced assimilation which was common in may countries with large number of immigrants. The concept was that when the second and third generations moved up the ladder of economy they thought of themselves as Brazilians and abandoned their ancestral culture having intermarried with the native people in Brazil. Those Brazilians that are considered contemporary have a couple of things in common. Besides sharing a common culture they also prefer to distinguish themselves in terms of language and ethnic origin (Oliven, R. 1996). Looking at ethnic relations in Brazil one cannot fail to observe the racism that is so widespread. However in Brazil it is not as bad as it maybe in other countries like the U.S but instead it is somewhat subtle. It is this hidden racism that makes it so hard to abolish as it is not easily identifiable.
In Brazil unlike in the U.S. the one drop rule does not exist. The one drop refers to any person who has any black ancestry. In Brazil classification based on race is not only complex but more based on biological reality. To begin with racism in Brazil has never been on blackwhite basis. Instead there are many races that exist in Brazil and there is an accepted name that is used to refer to each race. In this country for one to be considered to belong to a certain race there are many factors that are considered and not only the physical appearance and skin colour. Other key factors include social class and mode of dressing. However it has been argued on several occasions that the racism in Brazil is slowly turning to be like that of the United States which is purely based on skin colour (Valdes, M. 2004).
In light of the foresaid, we can conclude discrimination of Brazil is more based on an individuals social class than their race. It is still remains a subject of discussion on whether the racism in Brazil is purely based on how much one has.