It’s my 37th birthday, and I’m seventy days into social isolation in my hometown. Being from Belém has gifted me with a taste for the wonders of brega popular music, a knowledge of traditional herbal baths and an ability to cope with extreme heat and humidity…
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The first time I traveled to the Brazilian Amazon some years ago, I visited my friend Simone in Macapá. The capital of Amapá, one of the nine states that make up Brazil’s Legal Amazon region, Macapá is a sleepy town on the northern bank of the Amazon River, close to…
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English + Português
In December 1849, U.S. ships from California passed by the Brazilian coast and the doctor of the foreigners’ ward at the Santa Casa de Misericórdia in Rio de Janeiro suspected that he was facing yellow fever cases. He visited taverns frequented by sailors and informed the…
Every Thursday at 5:30 a.m., I leave my house in a residential section of São Paulo to shop for fruits and vegetables at a nearby outdoor organic farmer’s market. Since the second week in March, it is the only time I venture forth from my home. Since the second week in March…
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Morning fog obscured all but our immediate surroundings as César Cerda, former president of the Organization of Indigenous Peoples of Pastaza (OPIP), navigated his white Ford pickup truck along the winding, paved road toward the town of Arajuno. It was the summer…
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