Brazil — A New Superpower in the Americas

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EL PASO, Texas — Beyond colorful bikinis and carnivals, Brazil increasingly draws more attention to its emergence as a rising world superpower. “Brazil must have done something right,” said Heitor Santos, specialist in Brazilian politics, in a discussion panel held recently during the second annual Brazilian Festival at The University of Texas at El Paso. Besides publicizing Brazil’s international economic and social influence, its samba steps and Capoeira moves, the annual festival aims to create a greater understanding of the growth and cultural richness of this nation also known as the verde amarela. As part of Brazil’s economic success, Santos pointed to the country’s production and sales of flex-fuel vehicles, which burn either ethanol, gasoline or a mixture of both, and the semi- public oil company Petrobras, which recently discovered a new oil reserve off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. “Brazil used to export to the U.S. 22 percent [of all exports] and they brought that down to 14 percent, becoming a good model to Mexico and other countries that are totally dependent on the U.S. economy,” said Cesar Rossatto, a UTEP professor of US-Latin American studies.

Typical Parisian Women

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In fact, it only takes a simple metro ride to get a sense that the idea of “a typical” Parisian woman—or man, for that matter—seems more of a fiction than a reality. If, for instance, you ride the metro from Odeon to Chatelet—two central and important metro exchanges—you will probably see a number of Parisian women who would not match the “typical” description: from college students wearing chador to women wearing Benetton garb, from girls in military fatigues to women in Senegalese kaftans.