Brazil: Fortress São Paulo
Self-confessed city-lover Jean-Francois Cote visits South America’s biggest metropolis, and finds himself a little intimidated.
Brazil has always been appealing to me – not its beaches, nor its perfect bodies, but its culture, its contrast. When I decided to jet off to Brazil, the first question that my friends asked was: “Where in Rio are you staying?” And the simple fact they’d assume I’d be going to Rio irritated me. I’ve never been much of a beach bum; always preferred the city’s noise to crashing waves.
“Rio?” I’d reply proudly. “I’m going to São Paulo!” And their interest would vanish automatically.
I must admit going to São Paulo by myself felt like a risk.
I had read the horror stories about the express kidnappings, the muggings, and the corruption. Heck, even the Brazilian Consulate in Toronto was questioning my motive for visiting SP all alone.
My Brazilian acquaintances had warned me to bring a Portuguese dictionary, or even a sentence book. Being stubborn, I thought my knowledge of Spanish would be sufficient to help me get around. Certainly they know a little bit of Spanish, I thought. How naive I was. The first thing I learned when I landed is that Paulistas (locals) do not speak the slightest bit of English or even Spanish, nor do they wish to try.
Despite having read that São Paulo is the most populous city in South America and one of the largest in the world, nothing could have prepared me for the intense feeling of intimidation I felt when entering the city. São Paulo stimulates all your senses; its smells, its noises, its traffic even its people – it seems everything about this megapolis was designed to intimidate. From the endless rows of private residences decorated with electric fences, to its teenage-looking policemen and security guards walking proudly around the street and banks with their AK 47s, it’s as though all surroundings were designed to install fear.
Perhaps this had to do with decades of violence, or more recently, with the riots that killed over 40 policemen in the city.
In 2006, violent prison gangs revolted against state security forces and the conflict spilled out into the streets. The violence was mainly the work of one organization known as the First Capitol Command (PCC), a violent prison gang which reputedly controls the majority of illegal contraband and drugs coming in and out of the prisons in São Paulo.
All of this I understood, but I wondered why two years later, I could still feel Paulistas’ fear as I walked down the city’s streets.
“You just never know. Something bad could happen again. Overall I’d say that yes, we are maybe a bit too precautious,” Emerson told me, one of the staff of the hotel I was staying.
Once you dig deeper into the city’s pavement and look past its cosmetic flaws, you find inner beauty in a city that could use a facelift.
I stuck around the Jardins area for most of my stay, home of the famous Oscar Freire Street (imagine a South American Rodeo Drive), this part of the city consists of the most exclusive, frequented, and safest, part of town.
From delicious bakeries, mouth-watering churrascarias (Brazilian steakhouses), to art and fashion, São Paulo does not disappoint.
Out of boredom one night and perhaps out of utter stupidity, I paid one of the hotel staff to drive me to a favella – a Brazilian shanty town, or slum, where roughly one million people live. I saw everything that I expected to find: thousands of houses made of scrap, built on top of one another, young children selling chocolate bars in the middle of traffic, a horrific smell and a strange sense of security I had found nowhere else in the city.
Ironically, the lack of policemen, barb wire and electric fences had made me feel more welcome than inside the walls of the fortress that has become São Paulo.
I left Brazil wondering whether I had been extremely fortunate to not have been robbed, or if I had arrived at a time where the city really had changed for the best.
Recent reports now indicate the city’s crime has dropped significantly over the past five years.
Despite what the emerging practice of bullet-proofing cars (the trend among those in the middle and upper classes) may suggest, I predict São Paulo will continue recovering from its violent past.
And what I will always remember of São Paulo is its people – its people who are so proud of their city, and so kind to its very few visitors.
Jean-François is a marketing professional and writer whose passion for traveling has led him to various South American countries. After graduating from university in Sydney, Australia, J.F. returned to his native Canada in 2005 and continues to explore the world to fulfill his passion. Jean-François currently resides in Toronto, Ontario.
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