Interview Paper
Brazil has seen a large amount of environmental, social, and political changes. Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing my friend Rocky, who preferred not to reveal his real name, about the time he spent in Brazil from birth until age nineteen when he eventually moved out to study here at UCLA. Being colleagues for almost two years now, I chose to interview Rocky in his room because I felt our comfortability level would be high. The interview conducted very smoothly and he was able to answer all of my topic questions. Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Rocky was able to experience first hand numerous social movements and changes throughout his life. He explained in detail his experiences with corruption, the role of women, and pressing environmental issues ongoing in Brazil, and their comparison to issues in the United States. Born in 1995 to a wealthy family in Rio, Rocky lived in Brazil for Nineteen years. He attended a private school where he studied for his entire educational life. When asked about the difference between private school and public school he initially chuckled. He explained that public school was “terrible” and most students never finished and dropped out. He explained that the teachers were poorly paid and did not teach very well at all. I asked him if there were any racial tensions or racism that he experienced thought his life. He said that he had never experienced any kind of racism or any type of negative attitudes towards blacks or other minority groups. However, he remarked that mostly his entire school was white. Furthermore he stated that ninety nine percent of his friends were white as well and stated that within his friend group and social class there was no culture of hate or racism. I asked why he thought this was and he said that he thought racism didn't exist except for the fact that they were typically in a lower social class and didn't have enough money to attend private school. It seems that this inability to access quality education creates a barrier between the races as they have difficulty finding good paying jobs with a lack of education. He then mentioned that this was mainly due to the colonization of Brazil and the enslavement of blacks in the past contributing to their current social and economic status. He seemed to get uncomfortable when speaking about this subject and changed the topic.
As Rocky grew older and into his last few years of school in Brazil, he began to more adequately recognize and fully understand many social movements and issues. He explained that the most pressing social issue in Brazil during that time, and still currently, was corruption. He remembers throughout his whole life presidents coming in and out being accused of corruption. To exemplify his point, recently, Dilma Rousseff, the president of Brazil, was impeached due to corruption. In 2011 Dilma Rousseff was elected the first woman president of Brazil and was even elected for a second term in 2015. Rousseff was charged with “criminal responsibility in the execution of her duties, including administrative misconduct and disregarding the federal budget.” In short, Rousseff was using funds for social programs to instead fund her re-election in 2015. She became a socialist at a very young age and joined left wing guerrilla groups to fight some of Brazil’s earlier dictators. She then became a policy advisor for the committee of energy under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who, in 2005, also stepped down due to a corruption scandal. These are only a few examples of the extensive string of corrupt leaders who have ruled Brazil. Rocky explained that many of these corrupt presidents would guarantee the people these promising socialistic improvements to help poverty, increase access to healthcare, and improve infrastructure. However, many of them would pocket a lot of this government money for themselves and buy fancy houses and cars as well as putting the money to other government expenditures not promised. I asked him when comparing the current protests going on in the United States, what were the major protest in Brazil, if any. He responded quickly saying corruption. He claimed that everyone knew it was happening for a long time and nothing was being done about it. He described people constantly protesting in the streets trying to fight corruption. He said that it wasn't just the lower class protesting either, it was members of all classes fighting the corruption. He exclaimed “something needed to be done… for the betterment of the country and the people as a whole.” I asked him how he felt about the impeachment of President Rousseff and a smile emerged on his face. He claimed that although he was still at UCLA when this happened he celebrated that finally Brazil was cracking down on corruption and change was occurring. Furthermore, to Rocky’s knowledge, he explained another form of corruption that occurred during the recent Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He explained that the government had the power to choose what corporations and construction companies got to build most of the buildings for the games. This led to the construction companies bribing government officials to give them the business. He stated “the companies would tell they government, ‘hey if you give us the job of building the infrastructure for the olympics we’ll personally give you this percentage of the money we make.” This further emphasized that most government politicians in Brazil were basing many of their decisions on bribes and receiving large amounts of money for themselves.
Rocky’s mother works for the government in a fairly powerful position. This was not very common for most women in Brazil. I asked him about women’s roles in the United States versus in Brazil. He was quick to state that there weren't really any women’s right issues going on in Brazil. He remarked that most women, especially in the lower classes, worked as either maids and nannies, or were stay at home housewives. We then spoke about women's roles in the workforce and business world and he claimed that women were definitely more successful in the the United States, “although, there are a few successful women CEO’s and stuff, not to mention we elected a female president.” He explained that although women weren't making as much money in the workforce, most women were okay with their roles as most had to take care of children anyways. According to a report by Plus55, women account for 43% of Brazil’s workforce, however, they spend an average of 10 more hours a week on household chores and taking care of the children. This is one possible reason for the wage gap between genders because some believe that the extra time that a woman or mother takes to endure pregnancy, raise the children, and keep order among the household greatly affects the income a woman can earn. When showing Rocky this article he mostly agreed with the logic. He remarked that his mother did not work during his entire childhood in order to take care of him. “She routinely took care of household chores such as cooking, cleaning, and helping me with school.” It wasn't until Rocky’s last year of school in Brazil that his mother acquired the high paying job. He explained “once I was old enough to take care of myself she started looking for a job. She found one fairly quickly and easily, and it was good one too. She's a smart woman.” Rocky believes that women don't necessarily have a disadvantage in the workforce, it’s just that they choose to spend their time with more important jobs such as raising children. He thinks that in the next couple decades there will be a progression in the money and power Brazilian women make compared to men.
Characteristic to most Latin American countries, Brazil does have a large indigenous population, especially in the native regions surrounding the Amazon River. Although Rocky had never really come into contact with the indigenous population, he has heard issues about industrial development in their native regions which has caused some resistance. Another major issue that Rocky encountered in his life was the major deforestation in Brazil, especially in the northern regions around the Amazon. He specified “besides corruption, deforestation and other environmental issues were the next biggest topics of social debate and protest.” Scientists estimate
that more than 20% of the amazon rainforest is already gone and the rate of deforestation is getting even higher. Almost 20,000 square miles of the forest disappear every single year. Rocky was not surprised with these statistics and hopes that the Brazilian people keep fighting against the large corporations that exploit the Amazon for its rich resources. He recounted that almost everywhere you went in his town there was some environmental organization asking for donations and help in
order to stop deforestation and habitat destruction. These issues also intervene with the indigenous populations of Brazil as the deforestation and development destroys the land they live on and cherish. Since the 1900’s colonists have destroyed over 90 indigenous tribes as well as their land. This inevitably forces many indigenous people to move to urban areas and can significantly alter their way of life and culture. When I asked Rocky why the deforestation was still occurring so extensively he sighed and took a deep breath, “well, the rainforest basically supplies most of the worlds timber as well as tons of pharmaceutical drugs stem from there. That being said, these large
corporations would lose a lot of money without using the forest’s resources, and we all know that the big corporations control everything, including politics, thats why nothing gets done.” His attitude towards this subject seemed grim as if he was apprehensive of Brazils future. This issue is especially alarming because the Amazon Rainforest is considered “the lungs of the earth.” The forest supplies over 20% of the world’s oxygen, meaning our global health would be at great risk if this were destroyed.
In most societies the upper class is exposed to many benefits and privileges that the lower classes do not have access to. The benefits can be things such as education, healthcare, and employment. Rocky considers his family to be fairly wealthy and could elaborate on some of the advantages he had growing up wealthy compared to someone who didn’t. He “definitely had some major advantages growing up which enabled him to be where he is today.” He explained that besides the obvious advantage of education there were many other benefits that he was exposed to. One of them being healthcare. He remarked “since I was wealthy, I had great healthcare and great insurance. I could get a doctors appointment the next day, with the best doctors. Also with my insurance when I went to the emergency room I was the first priority, even if some people had been waiting there for hours.” He concluded by saying that some of the poor people had barely any access to healthcare because it was too expensive to obtain private insurance. The government would give a lot of poor people free public health insurance and access to healthcare but it allegedly was a very basic plan and gave them very minimal access to care since it was a free government program. According to an article from International Living, around 20% of Brazils population uses the private healthcare system, which is only available to the affluent and contains much better service than its public counterpart. This means that 80% of Brazils population has minimal access to healthcare and long waiting times, while the wealthy have extreme advantages.
While Brazil is known for having large income inequality issues creating what is referred to as the “slums”, Rocky was very fortunate to grow up in a wealthy environment. He emphasized “I am extremely appreciative of where I came from and never take it for granted. I always try and help to give back to less fortunate families, as well as my family donates a lot to various charities to help poor people.” Rocky’s fortunate situation also allowed him to leave the country and have the opportunity to study at UCLA which many other students from Brazil could only dream of. He
described “coming to UCLA was the best opportunity of my life, it allowed me to see other parts of the world besides Brazil” and continued to explain that “the Unites States and Brazil actually aren't very different except for the majority of poor people in Brazil and theres much more petty crime.” One topic I wish I could have elaborated more on was the role of his father, he never seemed to mention anything about him. Rocky loves living here in the U.S and plans to apply for full citizenship in the future. While Brazil is still sorting out the ongoing corruption and social issues Rocky’s final remark was “I’ll always love my roots and culture stemming from Brazil, but the United States is where I want to live, I’ve assimilated very well and made many great friends
here. I do, however, believe in Brazils future and will always go back to visit every so often as it is still a great place.”