This is a reflection that my friend wrote close to the end of her stay at Casa do Campus. I wish I could say I wrote it. Although the words didn’t come from me, I identify with them. They express my deepest feelings about my stay in Porto Alegre.
At first I wasn’t going to try to translate it so as not to miss any signification or nuance, but I suppose it’s worth the attempt.
As she stayed a whole semester rather than just a couple of months, it was an even more transformative experience for her.
In the short time that I’ve been here in Porto Alegre, many have compared the State of Texas with o Estado do Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. At first, I wasn’t really sure what the deal was besides the obvious geographic correlation. Now that I have a better feel for the region, though, I can clearly see the parallels. Here is a blog post (in Portuguese) written from the perspective of a brasileira (Brazilian) who now lives in the the United States. Among other similarities, she writes about churrasco and barbecue, vaqueiros and cowboys, geography, German influence, and state pride.
CHURRASCO AND TEXAS BARBECUE
Churrasco is one of the first cultural phenomena that I experienced in Brazil. In fact, our first meal in Brazil was a welcoming churrasco. It’s a style of meat that originated in gaúcho (similar to the word cowboy, originally used to refer to a person with experience in livestock and farming) culture. The word “churrasco” seems to encapsulate the way that the meat is cooked, the way it is eaten, and the social gathering that is centered around it. A lot of houses in Rio Grande do Sul have a churrasco-style grill, and churrasqueria restaurants are everywhere. Similarly, Texas is known for it’s barbecue – and not only in the U.S. A fair number of Europeans also associated Texas with this style of cooking.
