Last night I went to a local bar to “tomar uma capirinha” with my housemate, Rildo, and some of his Brazilian friends. It was an interesting crowd: Rildo, my housemate, who is a 42 year-old translator, speaks 5 languages, smokes and drinks way more than he should, and believes in living life “au natural”. Fabio, a young, educated and very successful Bahian, who when the law passed for no drinking and driving, decided to sell his car and succumb to the “ônibus” because he couldn’t give up his addiction to brazilian cerveja (beer). Saraja e Rubinha, a lesbian couple who also happen to be 1st cousins with a 13 year age difference, hence are the scandals of their family (in their words, not mine!). Vagabondo, the local vagabound whose name I didn’t quite catch, but refers to himself as a “vagabondo”, who left his mother in Zaragosa, Spain to return to his native country and pursue teatro (theater). And of course, myself, the “local” American Capoeirista with a little bit of Brazilian soul!
So I made my first mistake by introducing myself as an “Americana”. I immediately saw eyebrows rise. These sharp-witted and clearly educated Brazilians were quick to claim that they too, are “Americanos”. In reality, we are all Americanos. It is an indistinguishable term. Unless, of course, I specify, “Americana do Nord” (North American), which is still ambiguous as it refers to Canada, U.S.A, and Mexico. It sounds silly, and to most of us Americans, a waste of an argument, but to these passionate Brazilians who feel so strongly (against) American politics, it is a very significant difference. So I promised to them, and to myself, from here on out to introduce myself as “ Meu nome é Meagan e sou dos Estados Unidos”. They have a point, and I think it is a good one.
You can imagine how the rest of the night went after starting off on that note! Saraja had an earful to say about our President Bush, pronounced here as “Bushy”. I smile, just thinking about it. So fitting. It made for some very one-sided conversations, though. I have a hard enough time talking politics in English, let alone in Portuguese. But it was fun. I had a good time, and I think convinced them that not all of us from the United States are in agreement with our “ President Bushy”.
