São Paulo

Brazil, specifically São Paulo, has been a heavily colonized place from the genocide of the indigenous people of Brazil to the colonization of enslaved Africans. São Paulo, for all of Brazil, is where people come to find jobs. It’s an actual city that has more buildings than trees. Green spaces in São Paulo are similar to those in the U.S., as only white wealthy people can access them in comparison to polluted spaces where the majority of black and brown people live. The town where I live, Perdizes, is one of the wealthier places in São Paulo, and nature is where my sit-spot is situated. I think about that often about the land that was stolen and what this tangled tree before me has experienced. This relates to the race relations in Brazil that are deeply divided by class, so much so that the people in the country, even those marginalized, have placed blame solely on class for the oppression that is faced in Brazil. The big gap in wealth distribution has resulted in sustainable practices that result from economizing or, as Brazilians would say, “econimizando”. A significant example is public transportation usage, which is huge even amongst those considered middle class. 

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