Screaming vagabonds

Last night we went to the movies to celebrate Brazilian Independence Day. We saw Os Normais 2, a physical comedy shtick that taught me two new hilarious Portuguese slang words for "vagina," insulted the entire state of Bahia (racially?) and managed to work a baby sloth into the plot - brilliant.

The theater is near the top of a tall hill, and by the time we had lopped to the bottom, those potatoes I had pealed and cut up for dinner were simply not going to do the trick. Fortunately, there is a cheap restaurant at the bottom of the hill.

Now, this street during the day is a busy shop lined avenue. At night, however, it is the great divide between light and dark. Marginal and mainstream. Vagrancy and... dinner.

Basically the street lights on the side of the road opposite the restaurant have been burned out since I got here shrouding the area in darkness. This has facilitated the growth of a HOBO COLONY.

I'm not sure when they set up shop or where they go during the day, but after dark a cardboard city springs up. Pedestrians cross over to the well-lit restaurant side, which conducts a lively business. Well, my laziness landed us there last night as well.

It was disconcerting to say the least to eat dinner some 20 feet away from a homeless person, cracked out and screaming incomprehensibly for a good ten minutes at his friends. The entire restaurant collectively shuddered when he stormed off down the street flailing his arms and sputtering.

City dwellers can sympathize with scenes like this one that push you towards the "clean up the rabble" argument. Then there are the little moments that remind you of their humanity like the ancient woman napping on a door step that makes you wish you could "do something." Like poverty, tacky clothing and other social problems, I'm sure the solution is complex.

In the meanwhile, I sure do hope they managed to resolve their problem last night. A HOBO WAR just doesn't seem like it'd be in anyone's interests.

The Travesti Who Could

In the previous post, I noted the grim reality that most travestis end up working in prostitution. However, Ricardo told me about a case in the Northeastern state of Ceará about a travesti who managed to graduate from college and even pass the rigorous public exam to work in the school system as a teacher. I looked up the story written by Kalima Fernandes in the January 4th, 2009 ed. of the Folha de São Paulo.

It was so inspiring, I thought I'd share the main points with you. João Filho, or Luma as she prefers to be called, is the first travesti to enter into a doctorate program in Brazil. She also works in the school system managing 28 schools in 13 districts of the state.

Luma is the child of illiterate poor parents. She chose to study to support her family instead of entering into prostitution. In the school system, she was the constant victim of ridicule and physical violence. She tells the story of once running to a teacher for help after being assaulted by a classmate only to be told, "Good job, and who was it who forced you to be this way?" She remembers that the persecution would only diminish around exams when her classmates would ask her for help with math.

Upon graduating, despite her exemplary performance and grades, she was singled out to be monitored for a over a month by the school director. Another attempted to block her assignment all together. In the classroom, she often would face ridicule from her own students.

Now, as she continues her doctorate research, there is no questioning that she is highly qualified. Apart from her professional performance, her own truly heroic struggle against intense discrimination and ridicule to obtain an education and a respectable job is a testimony to her strength of character. Hopefully, her courage will open the doors for other young travestis in education and provide new opportunities away from a life on the streets.

Why face all this grief? Why come out of the closet?

Integrity.

Do what they will, no one can rob you of your freedom and dignity if you are true to yourself.

You go, girl.

Gender B-b-b-b-bender!

I finally trusted someone here to crop my increasingly unruly mane. That person was the oh so fabulous travesti who reigns from her beauty parlor on the north shore of the lake.

When we walked in the door, I met a large black woman. Everything about her physical appearance was somewhat contradictory. Her feet were huge, but beautifully manicured. Her face had the strong jaw of a man, but was framed by elegantly styled long hair and softened with makeup. She served us coffee and we chatted for a while. She went out of her way to make me feel welcome and to cut my hair... I couldn't help feel she was trying to search out my impression. Is he okay with me?

While I never got breast implants, began dressing in women's clothing, adopted a woman's name and started wearing make up, I do empathize. Being known as gay also tends to put you on edge around new people you're not sure will accept you. Fortunately, for me I just don't care anymore what people think (most of the time). But then again, I have it easier than my hairdresser.

People might forgive an alternate sexual preference, but mess with their concept of gender roles and boy do they get uncomfortable! Man = this. Woman = that. In fact, we often praise people for having characteristics in line with our ideas about gender. "He's so strong and manly..."

Now to clarify, travestis are not transsexual women, nor are they cross dressing men. In America, we like dualities: man v. woman, right v. wrong, gay v. straight, Republican v. Democrat, white v. er... well, not white. Travestis are more like the Libertarian party of gender. Americans might manage to recognize their existence, but they aren't really sure what to do with them on election day.

To explain: men who have sex with travestis are not considered homosexual; however, travestis generally are biologically male with varying degrees of modification. We don't really have a way to work them into our rigid Anglo categories. Nevertheless, many other cultures do have a parallel third gender. Take the Berdache or "Twospirits" in Native America or the Hijra of South Asia. While in Latin America and South Asia, these people are often forced into prostitution due to a lack of opportunity in the formal job market, this is by no means always true. Take my hairdresser for example. Really they're fairly common in Brazil...

In fact, in Native American cultures, these people were often high status individuals performing certain roles in society such as medicine and religious rituals. Unfortunately, in all these cultures the Anglo idea of fulfilling a gender role equaling morality has taken hold and resulted in intense discrimination. Or maybe it comes from the familiar case of economically empowered straight men sitting at the top of the heap. Whatever the reason, violence against travesti prostitutes is often horrific. Their HIV infection rates tend to be much, much higher than the rest of the population. No wonder they have the reputation for being fighters... you don't want to mess with someone backed into a corner.

p.s. Watch this movie!

Extra! Extra! The TV wants your mind!

I watched a news report the other day on the Globo. The well-produced video footage, clear narration and array of interviews deeply impressed me. Informative, concise, emotionally impacting, tasteful, almost artistic... This is high quality journalism, people.

As the report drew to a close, the reporter concluded with (my translation - more or less) "THIS IS THE MORAL OF THE STORY. THE CORRECT INTERPRETATION OF THESE EVENTS IS THIS. THESE ARE THE ACTIONS SOCIETY SHOULD NOW TAKE."

I wish I had been drinking something so I could spray it out my nose for a more appropriate demonstration of my shock.

Gasping for air in a thick cloud of righteous-indignation, I exclaimed, "That would never happen in the US!" Ricardo dryly murmured, "Well, I guess you guys have it all figured out then..."

"Yep. Pretty much," just didn't seem like a very good response.

As I calmed down and thought, I realized it's not really like reporting in the US is unbiased. Fox News anyone?

ALL reporting selects images, quotes and words to leave the viewer with a certain impression... Here it's just a little more obvious: to say the least.

We can never expect journalists to fairly represent all possible view points without humanizing some and villanizing others. After all, journalism isn't a public service so much as an economic activity. Fox News, CNN and the local channels only put up content people will watch and generally people don't want to disinterestedly examine an event or issue from all view points to reach a well-informed, personal conclusion.

We watch to be shocked and titillated. Consider the latest Michael Jackson bruhaha. We want journalists to scratch our cultural bellies.

So I guess, I'm actually alright with patent editorializing. After all, the more obvious it is, the easier it is to refute.

Remember, this is a country were the press was [very recently] the government's key tool to repress political dissent and control the nation's diet of information. A little blatant moralizing in an otherwise fantastic report pales in comparison to relentlessly squashing a politician's career and wrecking his private life just because he pissed off the news editor. Huzzah for progress...