Igreja de São Francisco

This experience affected my awareness of other cultures and my attitudes towards other cultures in a very small way. The reason for this is because I am very culturally informed and influenced. I come from one of the most segregated cities in the world, and not only that I was raised in the country that was built by immigrants. 

My morals have taught me that a skin color doesn't define a person, a social class does make anyone better than anyone else. This experience just opened my eyes to a different reality. A reality that no one seems to understand, because we are so caught up on the beauty of the country. Latin American countries are known to be corrupt, regardless of all the beauty that they have we never sit and discuss their political standings. We don't analyze that there are far more reasons why the Brazilian president was getting impeached. 

The Olympic/Paralympic games are beautiful events, they gave jobs to many people, but they also took away from many more. Growing up my parents always told me don't do things that make others feel bad just to make yourself feel better, and this is how a viewed many things in Brazil. I define corruption that way, people making others feel bad just to make themselves feel better. 

Brazil is an extraordinary country, full of life and this experience made me acknowledge that beyond the beauty of the country there are politics in the back doing dirty work and hurting those that don't have money to fall on. 

When meeting with the university law students, we spoke on politics, A topic that I didn't think I'd had to touch for a few weeks, but I did. We spoke on US politics as well ass Brazil's politics, we spoke on race, sex, class, etc... I asked one of the students, "Since Brazil is such a large melting pot of color, is there preferences or racism towards the color of one's skin." She responded, "No, here what matters is how much money you have. You could be a mulato with lots of money, and people will respect you." 

It was hard for me to accept this, because back home it's different. The color of one's skin makes a difference. In Brazil's past there were differences in skin, people had to attend different churches according to their skin, class, economic position, career position.  

Brazil is the most Catholic country in the world, this is something I knew for a while now and during this experience the religious culture made me see how this was true. While riding through the cities I saw churches, so many of them and the best part they are all established up so high that everyone can see them. Many of the monuments we saw had religious aspects, for example the fountain where women washed. There was an image of religion above the other images, depicting that God was more important and always came first. Also, when entering stores or restaurants, there was always a saint somewhere. The stores sold objects with religious meanings or little saints as well. Many of the Brazilian people praise and love "Nossa Senhora de Conceição Aparecida"  (Our Lady of Aparecida). This reminded me of me, of Mexico and how much we honor "Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe" (Our Lady of Guadalupe). The similarities to the customs, festivities and so forth were impeccable, that is why Brazil made me feel as part of her and made me feel as I truly belong there. Their culture made me embrace mine, but also made me fall in love with a new one that I can now identify myself with.