Brazilians are very accustomed to beauty in women,
inasmuch as they have produced several Miss World and Miss Universe winners. Most
of them had come from European genetics. My particular favorite region is the
southern portion of Brazil with all of its gorgeous Gauchas (Brazilian cowgirls . . . the farmer’s daughters). In fact
this was the first place or region I came to know in Brazil. It’s an area
famous for its beef production and I recall a young beef-fed lass remarking
that her beauty came from the fact that she ate the best beef of her region. I
am absolutely sure that there are gorgeous vegetarians as well, although I’ve
never conducted a study of those statistics.
Misha is blond with deep green eyes and her 18 years
surely does not distract from her beauty. So you could imagine a herd of
country bumpkins from Minas Gerais and its interior to be drooling over this
young and earnestly kind ocular feast. Although boys are attracted to her, The
Rotary prohibits and discourages any option of independent dating during these
exchanges.
As unsettling as these overtures might be to Misha,
she has experienced a loving and caring reception (Brazilians are extremely
warmhearted in general) in addition to the sincere attempts by her host
families to make her feel welcomed and to make sure that she wouldn’t want for anything
as long as they had the means to provide. Misha is already starting to dread
the day she has to leave this wondrous new land. She misses her family in the
States; however, she is going to experience and is already starting to dread
the onset of “saudade.”
[Phonetically: Sal
(like the shortened form of “Sally”) dodge (like “dodge ball”) gee
(like the letter “g” of the alphabet] “sal-dodge-gee”
Brazilians brag about this word (saudade) as being
solely Brazilian and have been told that this word has no English equivalent.
Those of us who understand both idioms (and are older than 50) know that there is
a word in English that has become almost extinct. That word is “pining” and it is
simply a nostalgic “longing” for a thing, place, time, song, era, person or
situation that one remembers with great fondness to the point of missing it and
wanting vigorously to experience it again even if it is only as a memory.
From Webster’s Dictionary
(1913)
3. To languish with desire; to waste away with longing for
something; -- usually followed by for.
I personally pine and long for that old girlfriend’s
kiss while parking at Rice’s Pond when I was seventeen, but even more . . . I
pine over not being seventeen any more. I pine over a seventeen year old youth’s
dreams of being a successful big band leader and jazz soloist when he finally
has grown up and is ready for the “big league.” I pine over my mother’s
Hungarian goulash (and she wasn’t even Hungarian). I pine over my first “razor
cut” in an actual men’s hair stylist salon. I pine over the Breyers ice-cream
the soda jerk used to make my hot-fudge sundae. I pine over the word “soda
jerk” and soda fountains and phosphates in different flavors and colors.
I remember returning to Rio after many years of being
abroad and sitting at the bar in the Grand Hotel San Francisco listening to a
fantastic 
classical guitarist who sang bossa novas and sambas that stirred up
such memories . . . all of which made me weep with such happiness and joy.
That’s my “saudade” and you can’t have it!
Brazilians cannot write a letter to old friends and
family members without telling them how they sorrowfully miss them and that they
have such a large “saudade” for them and this must be said several times for
emphasis. “Homesickness” is also “saudade,” but the deeper meaning is still “to
pine over” . . . to greatly desire
that thing over which you are pining almost to the point of fanaticism.
I have a theory that the reason why we long for the
past (and the events and people we find there) is because we made it though
that same past and we are still here to remember it . . . to plant our flag on
it! We succeeded! We made it! We don’t recall the pain. We don’t have any
nostalgic longing for failure, yet the good parts are pleasing to our memory.
We remember and embrace these pleasing and gratifying times, things, events and
people in a sort of positive reinforcement that our lives are good and have
been worthy to be lived . . . that we can survive our future using our past as
proof. We re-live these times, places and events constantly. On occasion,
“saudade” or “pining” is the only thing that comforts my being away from Brazil
for such prolonged periods. I may spend more time away from Brazil than I would
desire, yet I find promise in my “saudade” and use it and these articles to
give me something to hold onto. I hope that doesn’t sound too saccharin or
self-serving.
When my Brazilian friends travel to other countries,
they experience an extreme dietetic “saudade.” They can’t find “farinha de mandioca”
which is a course m
eal made from ground yucca root also know as “manioc.” It is
a staple to all Brazilian diets (even though they may be ashamed to admit it at
times) and is used as a thickening agent in making various specialty dishes.
In Vitoria, Espirito Santo and as well as Bahia it is
used to makes a “pirão” or reddish seafood paste used in the very specialized
dish called a “moqueca” which is simply
a fish stew baked in a tempered black clay covered dish with shrimp, garlic,
onions, tomatoes and cilantro (lots of fresh cilantro) as seasoning. The fish
may be jumbo shrimp, Seabass or various other warm water fish found in the regional
waters offshore. “Eye of the Hound” and “Eye of the Bull” are excellent moqueca
fish as well. I better stop talking about food, because now I am feeling a
saudade coming on. But I cannot stop!
Some very odd
things that bring on “saudade” are specialty dishes . . . codfish dishes .
. . like “torta de bacahlao.” This is a codfish cake made at Easter time and it
obviously uses Cod as its main ingredient. Cod is neither a warm water fish nor
native to Brazilian waters, so it is imported as a dried and salted fish from
Portugal which also has no native Codfish. The Cod is from Norway and for the
love of me I have no idea how it became so popular in Brazil unless it was
heavily traded in Europe and the tradition carried forth to the new world.
Today there is very little Codfish available in Brazil due to the prohibitive
costs in harvesting and exportation, so “Saith” is commonly substituted. Yo
u
figure it out; it’s giving me a migraine. How dare Brazilians have a “saudade”
about Codfish? It’s crazy. Right?
Another food that a Brazilian might feel “saudade”
over is “carne seca” or “carne do sol.”
Each is a form of jerked beef. It is often eaten with fried “aipim” which is
part of the “mandioca” family. Obviously this jerky is a hangover from colonial
times before refrigeration came on the scene.
“Feijoada” is about the worlds most famous Brazilian “saudade”
dish and is commonly made with black beans and every part of the hog (except
for the squeal) as a form of seasoning. This traditional Saturday feast 
brings
drool to the mouth just in thinking of it and is only enhanced when served with
seared “couve” (extremely thin fried strips of fresh collard greens) “arroz
tropeiro” (a rice dish that carries back to mule skinners who first made this
dish while transporting farm produce to major towns and cities). “Farinha de
mandioca” is used for thickening the juicy and succulent blacks beans are
dished out of small black clay pots where they have been steeping are either
served over the traditional white rice or along side of the soft and separate
mounds of stuff that North Americans will never learn how to make and then
gradually incorporated during the feeding frenzy. There’s “pimenta malageta”
(watch out for hot pepper burns) and small fried cubed pieces of fatback bacon
or salt pork is added for flavor, texture and color. Fried plantains (“banana
da terra”) are served as a side dish while sliced and peeled oranges are served
on the side as well. There really is no end to this feast. You find Boston
lettuce on the table as well as neatly chopped tomatoes, green peppers and
onions ala vinaigrette. And no Brazilian table would be complete without the
mandatory can of Portuguese olive oil (any other type would be an effrontery to
a true Brazilian). Everything is a matter of personal taste and regional
customs and I’m sure I omitted many other items. This is all I can remember off
the top of my “old bean” (no pun intended).
Brazilians in foreign countries will practically “kill”
for these things in order to placate their “saudade.” A common phrase is, “I
finally killed what was killing me!” . .
. of course referring to that particular “saudade.”
There are two other things that are generally part of
the “saudade list” of displaced Brazilian nationals: “Futbol” and “Samba.” I don’t believe 
this needs translating or
explanation.
The last item of “saudade-dom” (a word I just
invented) to complete this “incomplete list” of the longings of our displaced
brothers and sisters is “cachassa, pinga or mé” (Brazilian “white lightning”) accompanied
with loud and enthusiastic singing of carnival hits while semi-inebriated . .
. not always . . . but it does help. Everyone else makes rhythms
with improvised percussion instruments (my favorite instruments are my car
keys). Oh yes! . . . At these times the famous homemade “churrasco” (Brazilian barbeque) takes place. (Churrasco will be
discussed at a later time, as it is a whole topic onto itself.)
It’s all a very Bohemian thing to do!!!!
The strange thing about Brazilians in foreign lands is
that they don’t ban together very well, unless there’s a lot of family involved
in their displacement. I don’t believe I have ever seen a Brazilian ghetto in
other countries. However, all of the things that I have listed as part of this
“saudade list” do bring all of us together at times . . . just a small festival
to declare our heritage ever so
infrequently.
I don’t want to leave you with the impression that
Brazilians act this way normally. In Brazil these things are readily available
and so there is no “saudade;” however, in the absence of these things “saudade”
then happens and it must be killed by all means.
In Novo
Cruzeiro (a small village in the mountains of the state of Minas Gerais)
they still are talking about the crazy “gringo” who setoff a most elaborate
fireworks display on July 4th of 1989 when there wasn’t even a
soccer game going on. You should have heard the “oooos” and “ahhhhhs.”
O, meu Brasil!!!! Que saudade que tenho!!!
