Literature

               Brazilian fiction, poetry, and drama account for about half the literary output of Latin America, calculated by the number of titles of individual books.
               Literary development in Brazil roughly follows the country's main historical periods - the Colonial Period, from 1500 until independence in 1822, characterized mostly by writings in the Baroque and Arcadian styles, and the National Period since 1822. Important literary movements during the National Period can be linked to the country's political and social development: The Romantic Movement in literature coincided roughly with the 57 years of the Empire; the Parnassians and the Realists flourished during the early decades of the Republic, followed, around the turn of the century, by the Symbolists. In the 20th century, the ascendance of the Vanguards or Modernist Movement, with ideas of an avant-garde aestheticism, was celebrated during the famous São Paulo Week of Modern Art in 1922. This movement profoundly influenced not only Brazil's literature, but also its painting, sculpture, music, and architecture.
               Many of the notable writers of the Colonial Period were Jesuits who were fascinated by the new land and its native inhabitants.
               The transfer, in 1808, of the Portuguese royal family to Brazil brought with it the spirit of the incipient European Romantic Movement. Brazilian writers began to emphasize individual freedom, subjectivism, and a concern for social issues. Following Brazil's independence from Portugal, Romantic literature expanded to exalt the uniqueness of Brazil's tropics and its Indians, concern for the African slaves, and to descriptions of urban activities.
               Machado de Assis (1839-1908), widely acclaimed as the greatest Brazilian writer of the 19th century and beyond, was unique because of the universality of his novels and essays. Today, Machado de Assis remains one of the most important and influential writers of fiction in Brazil. His works encompassed both the Romantic style and Realism as exemplified in Europe by Emile Zola and the Portuguese novelist, Eça de Queiroz.
               Beginning in the 20th century, an innovative state of mind imbued Brazilian artists, culminating in the celebration of the Week of Modern Art in São Paulo. This new way of thinking propelled an artistic revolution that appealed to feelings of pride for national folklore, history, and ancestry. Participants in the Week of Modern Art resorted to experiments in writing and in fine arts known elsewhere as Futurism, Cubism, and Dadaism. Poet Menotti del Pichia summarized the aims of the new artistic movement with these words: "We want light, air, ventilators, airplanes, workers' demands, idealism, motors, factory smokestacks, blood, speed, dream in our Art." The most important leader of the literary phase of this movement was Mário de Andrade (1893-1945) who wrote poetry, essays on literature, art, music, and Brazilian folklore, and Macunaíma, which he called "a rhapsody, not a novel". Oswald de Andrade (1890-1953) wrote a collection of poems entitled Pau-Brasil (Brazilwood) that evaluated Brazilian culture, superstitions, and family life in simple language, economically, and, for the first time in Brazilian poetry, with humor.
               The transition to a more spontaneous literary approach is represented by poets Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987) and Manuel Bandeira (1886-1968). The former used irony to dissect the customs of the time, while Bandeira built language associations around proverbs and popular expressions. He also wanted his last poem "to be eternal, saying the simplest and least intentional things."
               The modern Brazilian novel took on a new shape and social content after José Américo de Almeida (1887-1969) wrote A Bagaceira, a pioneer story about the harsh conditions of life in the backward northeast. Graciliano Ramos, whose books were also widely adapted to films and television, is the strongest representative of a generation of writers who dedicated their prose to combat social inequalities. They also raised concern for the subsequent ousting of the authoritarian regime of the first Vargas era (1937-1945).
               Jorge Amado's first novels, translated into 33 languages, were heavily influenced by his belief in Marxist ideas and concentrated on the sufferings of workers on the cocoa plantations of his home state of Bahia and on humble fishermen in seaside villages. In the 1950's he opted for a more jovial approach to the joys and sorrows of the middle classes of Bahia.
Arguably the most innovative Brazilian writer of his century was João Guimarães Rosa (1908-1967). A career diplomat, he first captured the attention of the public and critics alike with a volume of short stories, Sagarana, soon followed by his best known work Grande Sertão: Veredas, translated into English as The Devil to Pay in the Backlands.
               There are many other noteworthy Brazilian writers. Gilberto Freyre (1900-1987), a master of style and a pioneer of the new school of Brazilian sociologists, is the author of Casa Grange & Senzala (The Masters and The Slaves) a perceptive study of Brazilian society. One of the best known Brazilian poets is João Cabral de Melo Neto (1918-). Special mention must be made of Vinicius de Moraes (1913-1980). His poetry became part and parcels of the bossa nova musical movement, which produced a new style of samba, that typically Brazilian rhythm. Vinicius (as he is known worldwide) also wrote a play, Orfeu da Conceição, which became internationally famous as the film Black Orpheus.
               Florestan Fernandes (1920-1995) together with Gilberto Freyre, the most prominent Brazilian social thinker, analyzed the main contradictions of Brazilian society and political system.

Music

               Brazil's origins --the Indians with their reed flutes, the Portuguese with their singers and viola players, and the Africans with their many thrilling rhythms-- make it a musical country. From the classical compositions of Villa-Lobos, to the soft sounds of bossa nova, to the driving beat of samba, Brazil has developed music of striking sophistication, quality and diversity.
               When the Jesuit fathers first arrived in Brazil they found that the Indians performed ritual song and dances accompanied by rudimentary wind an percussion instruments. The Jesuits made use of the music to catechize the Indians by replacing the original words with religious ones using the Tupi language. They also introduced the Gregorian chant and taught the flute, bow instruments, and the clavichord. Music accompanied the sacramental ceremonies which were performed in village and church plazas.
               African music was introduced during the colony's first century and was enriched by its contact with Iberian music. One of the most important types of music used by the Negro slaves was the comic song-dance called Lundu. For a long time it was one of the typical popular musical forms and it was even sung in the Portuguese Court during the 19th century. In the second half of the 18th century and during the 19th century the sentimental love song called the modinha was popular and it was sung both in Brazil's salons and at the Portuguese Court. No one knows if the modinha was born in Brazil or in Portugal.
               Schools of music existed in Bahia in the early 17th century and religious music was played in churches throughout the colony. As with other art forms, musical activity intensified with the arrival of the Royal Family in 1808. King João VI, a music lover, sent to Europe for the composer Marcos Portugal, and for Sigismund von Neukomm, an Austrian pianist, a pupil of Haydn. Local musicians also attracted the King's attention, such as José Maurício Nunes Garcia (1767-1830) who was a notable improviser on the organ and clavichord. João VI appointed him Inspector to the Royal Chapel, a body which had more than 100 instrumentalists and singers, many of whom were foreigners.
               By the end of the century, Carlos Gomes (1836-1896), born in the town of Campinas in the state of São Paulo, produced a number of operas in the prevailing Italian style, especially Il Guarany, an opera based on a famous Brazilian novel by José de Alencar.
               Brasílio Itiberê (1848-1913) was the first Brazilian composer to use a popular national motif in erudite music. His 1869 composition, A Sertaneja (The Country Maiden) was played by Franz Liszt and has remained active in piano repertoires.
               As in literature and painting, the Week of Modern Art in 1922 revolutionized Brazilian music and brought acceptance to a crop of new composers. Led by Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959), they brought avant-garde techniques from Europe and undertook the challenge of transplanting Brazilian folkloric melodies and rhythms to symphonic compositions. Their music often incorporated many popular musical instruments into classical orchestras.
               After a time, two principal trends in Brazilian music became identifiable. Writer Mário de Andrade had advocated that composers should seek inspiration in national life with special emphasis on Brazil's musical folklore. Composer Camargo Guarnieri, an adherent of Andrade, heads the musical school known as "Nationalist". In widely differing compositions, these composers searched for a national language which would not lose the universal character of musical language. After 1939, another musical school began to assert itself principally as a result of the work carried out by Hans Joachim Koellreutter, the creator of the Live Music Group. This group and others based their music on the universality of musical language. They defended the use of atonalism and dodecaphonic as composition resources.
Brazil's popular music developed parallel to its classical music and it also united traditional European instruments --guitar, piano, and flute-- with a whole rhythm section of sounds produced by frying pans, small barrels with a membrane and a stick inside (cuícas) that make wheezing sounds, and tambourines. During the 1930's Brazilian popular music played on the radio became a powerful means of mass communication. Three of the best known composers of this period are Noel Rosa, Lamartine Babo, and Ary Barroso (1903-1963). Barroso's principal singer, Carmen Miranda, went on to achieve an international reputation when she appeared in a series of Hollywood films.
               In the mid 1960's, the haunting, story-telling lyric of The Girl From Ipanema, carried by a rich melodic line, was the first big international hit to emerge from the bossa nova movement of Brazilian singers and composers. It put Brazilian popular music on the map and brought instant fame to composer Tom Jobim and lyricist-poet Vinicius de Moraes.
               The bossa nova appeared in Rio de Janeiro in the late 1950's. At first it was played as an intimate music in the apartments of Rio's middle and upper-middle classes. The music mingled the Brazilian samba beat with American jazz. Later on bossa nova became a trademark of a new concept of music - a little sad, sometimes sung off-key, and where the lyrics have great importance.
               In 1968, in a period of dictatorship, urban guerrillas, and anxiety about how to change the political system, the Tropicalists appeared: Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and Gal Costa. Tropicalism can be described as a blending of international music (such as Latin beats and Rock'n Roll) with national rhythms. It is very much its own creation: lyrical, intelligent, with faster tempos and fuller rhythms than bossa nova.
               Popular regional music in Brazil includes the forró from the northeast where the accordion and the flute join guitars and percussion in a foot stomping country dance; the frevo also from the northeast, which has an energetic, simple style; the chorinho (literally "little tears") from Rio which combines various types and sizes of guitars, flutes, percussions, and an occasional clarinet or saxophone in a tender form of instrumental music.
               Some people believe that samba was born in the streets of Rio de Janeiro with contributions from three different cultures - Portuguese courtly songs, African rhythms and native Indian fast footwork. Others believe samba is simply African in origin and that it evolved from the batuque, a music based on percussion instruments and hand clapping. Today in Brazil, popular music continues to explore new rhythms and new melodies. Its interpreters and composers make use of all music's resources to compete for and please the world's many music audiences.
               Music in Brazil has clearly developed through two distinct movements: the written tradition (transposed from European music), also called "learned" or "concert", and the non-written tradition (resulting from the mixing of European, indigenous and African music). Both have developed in their own way and, as has also happened in many other countries, they have converged at certain points. In Brazil, those encounters between the popular and learned traditions have a specific importance because there is no doubt that therein lies one of the extraordinary features of Brazilian musical production.

Cinema and Television

               Within a year of the Lumière brothers' first experiment in Paris in 1896, the cinematograph machine appeared in Rio de Janeiro. Ten years later, the capital boasted 22 cinema houses and the first Brazilian feature film, The Stranglers by Antônio Leal, had been screened. From then on, Brazil's film industry made steady progress and, although it has never been large, its output over the years has attracted international attention.
               In 1930, still the era of the silent movie in Brazil, Mario Peixoto's film Limit was made. Limit is a surrealistic work dealing with the conflicts raised by the human condition and how life conspires to prevent total fulfillment. It is considered a landmark film in Brazilian cinema history. In 1933 Cinédia produced The Voice of Carnival, the first film with Carmen Miranda. This film ushered in the chanchada, which dominated Brazilian cinema for many years. Chanchadas are slapstick comedies, generally filled with musical numbers, and thoroughly appreciated by the public.
               By the end of the 1940's Brazilian filmmaking was becoming an industry. The Vera Cruz Film Company was created in São Paulo with the goal of producing films of international quality. It hired technicians from abroad and brought back from Europe Alberto Cavalcanti, a Brazilian filmmaker with an international reputation, to head the company.
               In the 1950's, Brazilian cinema radically changed the way it made films. Nelson Pereira dos Santos would become one of the most important Brazilian filmmakers of all time, and it is he who set the stage for the Brazilian cinema novo movement. Other directors went outdoors to shoot, and production of films increased. In 1962, The Payer of Vows (O Pagador de Promessas) by Anselmo Duarte won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival. By this time cinema novo had established a new concept in Brazilian filmmaking - an idea in mind and a camera in the hands. The cinema novo films dealt with themes related to acute national problems, from conflicts in rural areas to human problems in the large cities, as well as film versions of important Brazilian novels.
               At the end of the 1960's, the Tropicalist movement had taken hold of the music, theatre and art scenes in Brazil. It emphasized the need to transform all foreign influences into a national product. Cinema also came under its spell; allegory was its means of expression. The most representative film of the Tropicalist movement is Macunaíma, by Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, a metaphorical analysis of the Brazilian character as expressed in the tale of a native Indian who leaves the Amazon jungle and goes to the big city. The film is based on Mario de Andrade's 1922 novel of the same name.
               Working at the same time as the Tropicalists, another group of directors emerged in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro who also made low cost films. This movement, cinema marginal, produced films with themes that refer to a marginal society. Their films were considered difficult.
               The Government film agency, EMBRAFILME, created in 1969, was responsible for the co-production, financing, and distribution of a large percentage of films in the 1970's and 1980's (EMBRAFILME ceased operations in 1990). EMBRAFILME added a commercial dimension to the film industry and made it possible for it to move on to more ambitious projects.
               In the 1980's movies were not well attended. This was due in part to the popularity of television. Many theatres closed their doors, especially in the interior of the country. Nevertheless, some important films were made. Many were concerned with political questions. One of the most outstanding films of the 1980's was The Hour of the Star (A Hora da Estrela), 1985, directed by Susana Amaral and based on a novel by Clarice Lispector. It relates the poignant story of an immigrant girl from the northeast in a big metropolis. Today many contemporary Brazilian films are being shown on television and in cinemas all over the world.
               Brazil is also an important producer and exporter or television programs, especially telenovelas, the Brazilian unique genre that combines elements of the mini-series and the soap operas. The Brazilian soap operas are seen and appreciated in several countries around the world.

Fine Arts

               From the 16th century, Brazilian craftsmen who had been trained in European methods decorated, in the European style, Roman Catholic churches and convents. During the 17th and 18th centuries, baroque and rococo patterns imported from Portugal dominated Brazil's religious architecture and its interior decor. Many of these churches can be seen today.
               The most impressive artist of the whole colonial period was the architect and sculptor Antônio Francisco Lisboa (1738-1814), better known as Aleijadinho (Little Cripple). The self-taught son of a Portuguese settler and a slave mother, he was a master of sophisticated rococo decoration and his painted wood sculpture and stone statuary have a timeless grandeur of feeling.
               During the last four decades of the 18th century, new art appeared (especially in Rio de Janeiro) in which religious themes were no longer predominant. Works with temporal themes, such as portraits of exalted personages, became part of Rio's artistic production. At the beginning of the 19th century there was a process of "Europeanization" with the coming of the Portuguese Court to Brazil as the result of the invasion of Portugal by Napoleon Bonaparte's troops. Dom João VI, the refugee Portuguese monarch, encouraged Rio de Janeiro's intellectual activity, founding cultural institutions such as the Royal Press and the National Library. In addition, he brought a group of French masters to Brazil to establish an Academy of Arts and Crafts after the style of European art academies and to implement the neoclassic style in the "modernization" plan for the royal capital of Rio de Janeiro.
               At the Week of Modern Art held in São Paulo in 1922, artists discussed their dissatisfactions with the "academic" world in all fields of the Brazilian arts. The modernists wished to shock the academicians. It is not clear if the 1922 movement caused or coincided with some changes in outlook. It certainly opened broad new avenues such as the critical pursuit of quality, the search for new values, and the rejection of the old European stereotypes. There was no precursor of genius in Brazilian painting: in the 1920's painting simply emerged out of the shadows of the academy and joined the wave of innovation then sweeping Europe. The techniques were imported, but the moods and themes were clearly Brazilian.
               Cândido Portinari (1903-1962) was one of the first Brazilian artists to paint his way to international fame. Coming from a small coffee plantation in the interior of São Paulo, he experimented with Brazilian themes and colors. Portinari captured in his canvases the way of life of ordinary people, conveying their joys and sufferings in a dramatic way. The universality of his work led to invitations and commissions from many sources, among them the monumental murals at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, and murals on the theme of war and peace at the United Nations in New York.
               World War II brought about an interruption in the contact of Brazilian artists with the international art world, even though many foreign artists lived in Brazil. With the end of the War, financial sponsorship began to stimulate artistic production. In the late 1940's the Modern Art Museum was founded in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo got two museums: the Art Museum of São Paulo, founded by Assis Chateaubriand, and the Museum of Modern Art. With the numerous courses given in these museums, art exhibitions and other museum activities were stimulated throughout Brazil.
               Today, the art scene in Brazil is self-assured. Brazil's painters, sculptors, engravers and lithographers show their works both within Brazil and in museums and galleries throughout the world.

Architecture

               Brazilian colonial architecture was derived from Portugal, with adaptations demanded by the tropical climate. The more enduring examples of this very attractive style are to be found in the churches and monasteries of the older cities, but most spectacularly in Ouro Preto, the first capital of the province of Minas Gerais. This city has been meticulously restored and protected as part of Brazil's heritage and it is now on UNESCO's World Heritage List.
               From the second half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, Brazilian architects were under a pervasive French influence. Since then, without losing contact with innovators in other countries, such as Le Corbusier in France and Frank Lloyd Wright in the US, architecture in Brazil has evolved its own style. It now attracts worldwide attention as one of the country's most characteristic art forms. The volume and pace of urban expansion during the last 30 years have provided exceptional opportunities for combining social and functional needs with artistic expression. The result has been not only the burgeoning of many fine buildings, but also the birth of entire suburbs and completely new cities.
               Of course, the best-known example of modern Brazilian architecture is the new capital city of Brasília, where imagination was given full flight. The urban plan conceived by Lúcio Costa and the design of the main public buildings by architect Oscar Niemeyer have become landmarks in the realm of architecture on a massive scale.
               New buildings alone cannot create beautiful and harmonious urban environments. Alongside the bold new architectural concepts, a school of landscape designers headed by Roberto Burle Marx has arisen in Brazil to balance the images of concrete and glass structures with the welcoming greenery of gardens and parks. As a result of his work in many Brazilian cities, Burle Marx has acquired an international reputation. Examples of his work are now to be found in public and private gardens and parks in the Americas and in Europe.

Ceramics and Sculpture

               While the Portuguese were still forming small, cautious groups to explore the unknown beaches, native Indian potters were at work. Indigenous craftsmen were polishing ceremonial axes of flint. Musicians and dancers decked out in fiber masks, plaited straw and fantastic feather helmets were retelling the legends of the flood and the creation. Brazilian culture is more than the simple result of specific contributions by European whites, African blacks, and aboriginal Indians. Miscegenation among them has been taking place ever since their very first contacts. These three cultures have insinuated themselves into the way Brazilians feel and act. Today it is difficult to trace their dividing lines. Brazilian folk arts are among the richest and most varied in the hemisphere.
               In the northeast of Brazil, the most popular sections of the large markets are the displays of potters and vendors of artistic clay objects, many of which are true sculptures. A number of these local artisans are known not only to Brazilian folklorists, but also to artistic circles outside Brazil.
               Today's potters follow traditions laid down by Indian cultures that existed in the Amazon region well before the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century. At least four of these cultures are noteworthy for their ceramics: on the vast island of Marajó in the mouth of the Amazon River, potters melded vases that were later decorated with labyrinthine patterns. The last of five archaeological periods on the island, the Marajoara, is the most famous. In the Santarém region, Indian potters made urns and igaçabas (funeral urns) embellished with and amazing panoply of animals. They transformed the fauna of the Amazon into intricate and baroque fantasies of men and animals. The cultures of Cunani and Maracá (in the present-day state of Pará) also produced remarkable pottery.

Folk Dance

               There are dozens of Brazilian folk dances: everything from dramatizations of the early wars between the Portuguese and the Indians (Caboclinhos and Caiapós performed in the states of Pernambuco and Alagoas), to the Cavalhada of Pirenópolis in the state of Goiás, a theatrical pageant, lasting three days, which depicts the fight between the Christians and the Moors on the Iberian Peninsula. The Cavalhada survives from the tradition of medieval tournaments.
               Capoeira, a ritualized, stylized combat-dance, having its own music and practiced primarily in the city of Salvador, Bahia, is a characteristically Brazilian expression of both dance and martial arts. It evolved from a fighting style that originated in Angola. In the early slave days there were constant fights between the blacks and when the owner caught them fighting, he had both sides punished. The slaves considered this unfair and developed a smoke screen of music and song to cover up actual fighting.
               Over the years this was refined into a highly athletic sport in which two contestantstry to deliver blows using only their legs, feet, heels and heads. Hands are not allowed. The combatants move in a series of swift cartwheels and whirling handstands on the floor. The musical ensemble that accompanies capoeira includes the berimbau, a bow-shaped piece of wood with a metal wire running from one end to the other. A painted gourd, which acts like a sounding box, is attached to the bottom of the berimbau. The player shakes the bow. While the seeds in the gourd rattle, he strikes the taut wire with a copper coin, which gives off a unique, moaning sound.

Folk Drama

               There are many dance dramas (really theatrical productions) popular in Brazil that traces their histories directly to the Middle Ages. Portuguese in origin, these dance dramas have been modified considerably by centuries of exposure to Brazil's diverse cultures. Mario de Andrade, the great authority on national folklore, has classified these dance dramas into four principal groups: reisados, cheganças, pastoris, and ranchos.
               Reisados:The reisados consist of a series of 24 folk plays of which the most popular is the Bumba-Meu-Boi. The plot of the Boi drama centers around the misfortunes of the prize bull which a wealthy cattle rancher has arduously searched for to improve his herd.
               Cheganças: Cheganças (arrival) is a folk play performed during the Christmas season. It tells of the arrival by sea of the Moors, their defeat, and their eventual baptism by the Christians.
               Pastoris: Pastoris (sheperds) started as a performance of Christmas carols in front of the Nativity scene in preparation for midnight mass. Today pastoris is a secular event. Female street revellers parade in parallel lines called the red and blue lines. Each line has the same characters: the teacher; Diana, the pretty angel; the gypsy; the old man (a comedian); the Northern Star; and the Southern Cross, among others. The girl shepherds sing and rattle tambourines accompanied by guitars and a solo wind instrument.
               Ranchos: Among the most primitive forms of carnival, as celebrated in Rio de Janeiro, were the ranchos, solemn and romantic love stories acted out by dancers to the beat of a marching rhythm. New ranchos were written every year and groups of dancers representing various districts of Rio performed them. They competed for recognition and prizes thus becoming the forerunners of today's samba schools.

Food and Drink

               Like "Fish and Chips" and "Steak and Kidney Pie" in the UK, Brazilian cuisine is the product of tradition and happenstance. Each region of Brazil developed its own very diverse dishes, depending on its indigenous culture, which European group influenced it, its nearness to rivers or the ocean, annual rain and soil conditions.
               The cuisine from Bahia dates back to the time of slavery when the masters saved scraps from the table or leftovers from the previous day’s meal to give to the slaves. Some slaves were allowed to fish and look for shrimp and clams. Remembering their cooking-pot training from Africa, the women would put bits of ingredients together and add the milk of coconuts or the oil from the dendê palm. Over the years these concoctions were worked out in recipes and were given names. Today it is called Bahian food. Some of its delicacies are:
               Vatapá -- Shrimp is cut up or ground together with pieces of fish, then cooked with dendê palm oil, coconut milk and pieces of bread. The dish is served over white rice.
               Sarapatel -- The liver and heart of either a pig or a sheep are mixed with fresh blood from either animal. Tomatoes, peppers and onions are added and everything is cooked together.
               Carurú -- Sauteed shrimp is combined with a very sharp sauce made of red peppers and tiny okra.
               In the Amazon region a favorite dish is pato no tucupi, which is pieces of duck in a rich sauce which is loaded with a wild green herb that tingles in the stomach for hours after eating. Another typical dish is tacacá, a thick yellow soup that is laced with dried shrimp and garlic.
               In Rio Grande do Sul, churrasco is the big dish. Here, large pieces of beef are placed on large metal skewers, and roasted outdoors over hot coals. A tomato and onion sauce can be served over the roasted meat. The gaúchos of the interior barbecue an entire steer this way.
               If there is one dish that typifies Brazilian cooking, it is feijoada. In Rio de Janeiro, where it is especially popular, feijoada is a complicated bean dish prepared with air-dried beef, smoked sausage, tongue, pig's ears and tail, garlic and chili peppers. It is customary to fill a soup plate with white rice and spoon feijoada on top. Over this is added pulverized manioc flour, a starch that thickens the sauce. The whole dish is garnished with spring greens and slices of oranges.
               Many international travelers think that Brazilian beer is one of the best in the entire western hemisphere. For generations there have been expert German and Dutch brewers overseeing the manufacturing and processing of all major companies.
               Guaraná, a delicious soft drink unique to Brazil, is made out of a fruit from the Amazon.
               Brazil also produces a powerful, clear spirit called cachaça, made from fermented sugar cane. Combined with crushed lime, sugar and ice, cachaça becomes a very popular drink called caipirinha.
               Cachaça is the national spirit of Brazil, enjoyed by all segments of Brazilian society and praised by the most demanding connoisseurs of distilled beverages. Cachaça is also known as aguardente de cana and, in the best Brazilian tradition, by hundreds of nicknames.
               Cachaça is a sugar cane spirit, defined by Brazilian legislation as the alcoholic beverage obtained by distillation of fermented sugar cane juice, with alcoholic strength between 38 and 54 percent by volume.
               Its history starts about 500 years ago, and there are nowadays over 4,000 brands made throughout Brazil in large and small distilleries. Production of 1.3 billion liters a year places cachaça among the five most consumed spirits in the world, with a diversity going from white cachaças to all sorts of golden, aged cachaças, from big industrial installations to small backyard producers.
               According to one of many legends, it all started in the 16th century, when a slave drank the foam of fermented sugar-cane juice - the cagaça. In fact the word cachaça seems to come from the Spanish cachaza, a term used in the Iberian peninsula as a pejorative term for grape brandies, such as the portuguese bagaceira.