I have lived to see São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro say bull and wolf. 20 years ago, when I left Recife and arrived in the capital of São Paulo, pejorative terms were widely used in relation to the inhabitants of the Northeast. Everyone had a dismissive way of calling the northeast: it was “Bahia”, “Paraiba” …

The inhabitants of the northeast and their children could not affirm themselves positively; I myself have vilified my accent because of the false idea that people cannot understand what I am talking about. It’s funny that I’ve never seen this happen to a gringo.

When this happened, I could see that the Italian, Japanese and Jewish heritage was displayed in a way that showed superiority over my “North-Eastern affiliation.” It hasn’t changed much, but yes, there has been a shift. Today you can see many people from São Paulo say “bull”, “wolf”, “very good” in a northeast restaurant, eat jerky (beef jerky) and, why not, vote for the president of the Northeast son of Pernambuco. hinterlands that objectively recently brought the Northeast into a place of positivity.

I saw the maracatus enter Sao Paulo, just like I see the spread of festa junina and forró in a less stereotypical format. Discrimination and xenophobia among the inhabitants of the Northeast again became widespread; today it is easier to find it after its movement from the cultural to the political spectrum, in a dynamic that has a feedback: from culture/public to politics/institutionality.

Unfortunately, xenophobia is reintroduced every election year, highlighting the political stance of those who practice it. There are many historical and economic factors that help to understand the geography of political power in Brazil. In a brief analysis, I am thinking of replacing the political and economic influence of the Northeast—sugarcane and cocoa—with a “Coffee au lait Republic” centered in the Southeast of the country, and the ensuing migration flows, which intensified in the 1970s due to drought. in the region.

I also think of the gallery of northeastern presidents in Brazilian history – Deodoro da Fonseca, Floriano Peixoto, Epitasio Pessoa, Aurelio Tavares, Cafe Filho, José Linhares, Castelo Branco, José Sarni, Fernando Collor – and how they are all children of the North -Eastern political oligarchy, white and rich. These residents of the Northeast were “possible”, without xenophobia.

It’s about race and class, other than gender, of course: there’s not a single woman mentioned above. Northeastern oligarchies rise to power unhindered, but Luis Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) is the man who brought with him a northeastern Afro-Indian sertanejo. And that seems to be too much.

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