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Brazil: Debunking Travel Myths
Posted by: Angela Corrias
Tags: brazil,Culture,drugs,Latin America,Poverty,Travel,USA,world Posted date:
October 18, 2012 |
4 Comments
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Popular misconceptions about Brazil are rife, but rarely do these myths have any solid grounding
Before travelling to Brazil for the first time, my friends gave me pretty concerned looks.
“Are you not afraid of being shot in the street?”
“I heard during Carnival the death toll is in the thousands.”
I could go on and on listing the prejudices people have towards Brazil (and many other countries, for that matter), as the mere fact of being “foreign” is often enough to make many people uncomfortable. However, unwilling to form my own opinion without evidence, especially when it comes to travelling, I’ve always preferred to verify information first-hand. As such, travelling to Brazil multiple times has given me the opportunity to fall in love with this “controversial” Latin American country.
Be it because of distorted media coverage or other reasons, many people seem to know everything about Brazil. As it happens, most of the time, such opinions are as alarming as they are lacking in actual evidence.
So let’s debunk some common myths about Brazil.
Copacabana Promenade
No, Rio de Janeiro is not a city at the mercy of drug gangsters. For sure, drugs circulate in a metropolis of 14 million people, but I believe this happens in many other places, and if you don’t look for it in Rio, you won’t find it in the markets.
No, I didn’t get mugged every time I went to Brazil. As a matter of fact, I went seven times, travelled around extensively and have been to Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro (allegedly the most dangerous area in the most dangerous city) – never once was I robbed. I have been through robbery/pickpocketing experiences elsewhere though, three times in Rome and once in Seville.
No, Lula did not “ruin” Brazil as many people would think – and which has also been suggested by some media outlets. As a Brazilian friend of mine who didn’t vote for Lula put it: “I didn’t like him before, but I have to admit that now the poor in Brazil can eat.”
No, Brazilian women are not promiscuous. Brazil has been a poor country until relatively recently, and sex tourism was one of the worst aspects which, thankfully, is now being properly addressed. It goes without saying that this is a vulgar generalisation and stereotype of Brazilian women.
No, Brazilians do not party every day. Maybe due to their samba and capoeira traditions, it’s a common belief that nationals spend their lives dancing, singing and partying, but I can pretty much vouch for most Brazilians leading normal working lives. They do smile a lot though, and maybe this also contributes to confusion about their lifestyle.
No, Brazilians do not live in forests. Some native tribes of the Amazon do live in the rainforest, far from modernity and happy to preserve their culture and heritage away from the modern onslaught, but Brazil is a huge country with big cities, small towns and tiny villages. All of them with their own municipality council, offices, schools, hospitals and with the modern facilities we see in the rest of the world.
No, Carnival is not a massacre. Every year around February, I witness an escalation of alarming headlines warning citizens from participating in a potentially deadly festival – leaving behind thousands of victims. These reports do not mention that the statistics also include people who have died as a result of accidents, illnesses, etc., unrelated to Carnival.
No, you are not going to get Brazilian full residency just because you are European or because Latin Americans will be honoured for you to grace them with your presence. Getting full residency in Brazil is a hard process unless you have a spare £50,000 or €70,000 to invest in a local company – either yours or someone else’s.
Last but not least: yes, Brazil is a very friendly and welcoming country where tourists will most certainly spend a great holiday and may return with lovely hand-crafted souvenirs, gained kilos, and a better working knowledge of samba steps!
Morro Branco Beach
Photo Credits: Angela Corrias Featured image is of the Jericoacoara dunes
About the author
Angela Corrias
Angela Corrias is a freelance journalist. She specialises in travel writing with the aim to combine her passion for travelling with a socially aware writing. She regularly updates her travel website Chasing The Unexpected.
Angela Corrias is a freelance journalist. She specialises in travel writing with the aim to combine her passion for travelling with a socially aware writing. She regularly updates her travel website Chasing The Unexpected.
4 Comments
Lucas Maciel
So funny this article… You “gringos” don’t know anything about Rio, nor about Brazil. Sad, your defense is weak because of total lack of knowlodge. “Gringos” only know Copacabana district or what is shown in soap operas and cheap travel advertisements.
Did you go to other zones beyond the south side? Like North or West side, Baixada Fluminense, Niterói, Pavuna…? I suppose not. They are not robbed or raped in 3 minutes because they walk in rich areas. Don’t go to Brazil, Lula and Dilma sale lies for foreign newspapers. Brazilian immigrants love Brazil so much that they never come back again or live here definitely. That’s it, try to be a bold tourist and visit the districts and regions worse than your ghettos.
B. Leão
Angela Corrias, I’m really glad you enjoyed my country and I feel deeply ashamed by the negative message you received from another brazilian fellow.
It is great to see that you had a great experience here and that you returned so many times.
It is true that some zones are more dangerous than others, but that happens in other countries as well. I lived abroad for a while and even if you are in a ‘developed country’ you usually know the ‘areas to avoid’ and you usually avoid it at all coasts.
So, NO, I don’t think the fact you didn’t visit ‘poor’ and ‘dangerous’ areas undermines your article.
There are a lot of misconceptions about Brazil, as you wonderfully explained, and I think it is something bold enough the fact that you are spreading the word against these stereotypes. So, thank you for not believing in them. Thank you for coming here to check if all this ‘misconceptions’ were true, thank you for sharing that they are not.
Keep up the good work and next time you are around, let’s drink a guaraná together 
Camila
Hi,
I just found your blog accidently what I have to tell you, is that you have a very touristic view about Rio, but not exactly about the rest of Brazil, however yes in many aspects of your article I kind of agree, I am from the countryside of Sao Paulo and I was a tourist in Rio once as yourself and the secret of having a good time in Rio is just knowing where you are and not venturing yourself out of the area where you are, stick it to the city, to the sea side and you will be alright, people like to make a drama about brazil and brazilian people, prejudice, racism and xenophobia have been common in my experiences in europe after 6 years living here I can surely tell that our national media and european media does not really help in their stereotype they just pick the worse, for their own reasons and benefits of course.
It is true that carnival is a dangerous time during the year depending where you are and where you go, where I come from we don’t have carnival, I can’t call what we have of carnival, it is just a couple of free days during summer where people are able to go out, they go to bars, pubs or concerts that might be involving samba music background or metal rock for example, it is hard to explain that for foreigners, especially europeans, that brazilian women don’t go out dancing naked during carnival, that media created this idea of Carnival, I mean our media, to please the north american Bias during the 80’s. The Usa needed to create a stereotype and take advantage of our situation and so did our media and the government at that time, and that is the main reason that we had a certain “sexual” tourism adressing for a couple of years however 15 years ago it changed, our own government is annoucing to be against it and some north americans newspaper made the reference and kind apologised, there are many poor people in Brazil yes, but there are many poor people in europe as well, east europe is really poor for example. Brazil is not a poor country in terms of economy there was your mistake when you wrote so, Brazil is in the top ten most powerful economies of the world , we are not economically poor but we are socially poor, because of our bad administration, corruption is the main reason and now after the world cup it got even worse. Tv GLobo is responsible for all the bad stereotype we have and for the ignorance of our people, our government just makes what is convernient for the sake of the own politicians and their pockets, Dilma, LULA, Fernando Henrique they are corrupted people and our media make whatever they can to protect them and hide the obvious true.
Hi,
Interesting information. I have a couple of Brazilian students, and one told me that he got mugged when walking to the parking lot from his office! You did not mention anything about the language. Can you get by without knowing much Portugese?