Caetano Veloso, I’m reminded again why I’m a fan.  And I’m getting the history that I wanted!  Or at least some of it.

I’ve started “Tropical Truth: A Story of Music & Revolution in Brazil” by Caetano Veloso (again).  One of those books I’ve read half of twice.  I think because it’s so much to take in. Maybe this time I’ll make it.

I remember when I first really started to learn about Brazil, I was struck with the similarity between our histories. The colononlization by a European power of a much smaller geographical size, the battle with an indiginous population, slavery, exploration of the land, immigration – we really do have quite a bit in common.  Or so it would seem.  Caetano, much smarter than I, says it thus (as translated into English):

“The parallel with the United States is inevitable….Brazil’s case is even more acute, since the mirror image is more evident and the alienation more radical.  Brazil is America’s other giant, the other melting pot of races and cltures, the other promised land to European and Asian immigrants, the Other.  The double, the shadow, the negative image of the great adventure of the New World.  The sobriquet “sleeping giant,” which was applied to the United States by Admiral Yamamoto, will be taken by any Brazilian as a refernce to Brazil, and confused with the seeming ominious words of the national anthem, “forever lying in a splendid cradle.” (p4)