Adventures of a Gringa

Just wanted to share this resource that I use a lot when wanting to read current events about Brazil. I have been reading it for about 5 years now. It is written by an American who lived in Brazil for several years, married a Brazilian, lived in Rio, and then a few years later moved in New York with him. Her blog now focuses on her connection to Brazil while living in New York but also does feature a lot of articles take from sources such as the O Globo newspaper in Brazil.

The name of her blog is a word of important significance in Brazil. Gringa(female) or Gringo(male). In other South American countries, it can be considered offensive. In Brazil, this is not the case. It is simply a word used to call someone who is not from Brazil. Typically though, there are times, in my experience where Brazilians use the word to poke fun at things that foreigners do in Brazil. Examples:

1. Wearing socks with flip flops or wearing flip flops to go out somewhere other than a cafe or the beach. The only other time it’s acceptable to wear flip flops is in the house, like slippers. Most Brazilians never walk around bare foot in their home!

2. Someone who is very pale, really burnt and not use to a warm climate full of sunny beaches.

3. Not wearing a two piece on the beach. It is rare to see any women where a one piece.

4. Your accent when trying to speak Portuguese.

Those are just a few but believe me, I heard it a lot while living there. It kind of became a mission of mine to assimilate out of respect to my family and friends but also so I would stop hearing the word so much. What I ultimately learned is that no matter how hard I tried, I would always be a gringa in Brazil. I am not Brazilian and never would or will be.

It makes me think about labels and our sensitivity towards certain labels. How could the sensitivity differ amongst different cultures? countries? Which ones do we find difficult to deal with? Which ones do we accept? For example in the film, the catadores. Just a thought.