Brazil: Punk Rock and Skateboarding
words & photos by amanda marsalis

“Why did you come to Brazil?”, was the question I heard more than any other, the whole time I was in Brazil. I guess “what is your name” and “where are you from” were asked more but “why did you come” was definitely up there. I traveled with my two friends Jon and Alex, and none of us really had an answer for why. We were interested in punk rock, graffiti, and skateboarding. We knew we could find it in Sao Paulo. I guess we all had our own reasons for going, but the inspiration and planning of the trip all happened with no real reason in mind. Alex was the only one with somewhat of an agenda, and for the rest of us, why not? Brazil seemed as good a place as any.
We arrived in Sao Paulo after a long flight with just a few hours of uncomfortable airplane sleep at something like seven in the morning. None of us knew any Portuguese, except for a few basic words and some cuss words, of course. But we found a taxi, showed the driver the address, and were on our way. When we arrived, Carol, our hostess, was walking down the path of her apartment building to greet us. She was actually just about to leave for the day because she had no idea when we were going to arrive. We had just contacted her for the first time a few days before we left and had not spoken to her since. But luck was on our side.
She led us up to the top floor of the apartment building and our temporary home, where we crashed right away.
Carol returned later in the afternoon to take us out for our first day in Brazil. In a daze we followed her out into the city. I had no idea what to expect. The first place we went was to Carol’s old work place, which happened to be MTV Brazil. It’s small and all of the filming and design is done in house. Most of the people we met in Sao Paulo who were artists had worked for MTV at one time or another; it is one of the only jobs available for artists.
After that experience, we walked over to meet up with friends of Carol’s at their house to go to an art opening at the Museum of Modern Art. We stepped into a house filled with drawings and art. This is where we met Caca, Tomas, John, Chalabi, and Marina, our soon to be new favorite people. After many introductions, lots of kissing and all the same questions, we piled into a taxi to head to the Museum. When we arrived, the exhibition had been closed because people kept touching the art, and only the room that was serving alcohol was left open. So it was now only a party, not an art party.
I found this to be very Brazilian. “Oh, it is closed but we will hang out here for hours and sit and drink and smoke... no rush.” If you are going to Brazil and planning to be in a rush, don’t go. You will have a heart attack. When I was going from Sao Paulo to Salvador I went to go get on a plane I had a ticket for. I showed up at the airport to find out my flight no longer existed. It wasn’t canceled, they just didn’t have that flight anymore. But there was one in 4 hours. I got to know the airport well.
Nothing moved fast. There was so much traffic, cars are only allowed to drive at certain times of the day depending on the license number, to cut back on traffic. We had gone to the skatepark one afternoon with Alexandre and just as we were getting ready to leave he remembered that it was now past five o’clock and we couldn’t go anywhere in his car until eight. The days he could drive had recently been changed and he had forgotten. I think Sao Paulo is in need of new plan ‘cause that one isn’t working. (Sao Paulo is the second largest city in the world with a population of 22 million people; Mexico City is the only city that is larger.)
When we left the museum party to go eat, we went to the car and got eight, count them, eight people into a two door Fiat. I got to know our new friends quite well after that experience. So, driving through the city in a car filled to capacity, at one in the morning, still making our way through traffic, I just watched the city pass me by. Sao Paulo is so polluted, I felt like I was always eating car exhaust. One night, I left my bag unzipped next to a window and in the morning the pollution in the air had left a line of dirt on the fold mark of my tee shirts. My eyes were swollen and itchy the entire time and I was always sneezing; it really was gross. But, I loved Sao Paulo; it’s beautiful in its obesity. So incredibly huge. An urban monster. As far as the eye could see in any and all directions lay building after building. I never saw the end of the city.
Before going to Brazil, I was not doing a very good job of enjoying the life I had. I was stressing out over things that didn’t matter, school, work, etc. It was bad news. This trip and the people I met on my way reminded me of what is good and what is worth believing in.
The original inspiration for choosing Brazil as the destination of our journey was Alex’s desire to go and meet Os Gemeos, “The Twins,” who are graffiti artists. He wanted to go stay and paint with them. So we all wanted to go, all meaning myself, Jon, and Alex....that was the idea. Alex tried contacting The Twins by phone, fax, e-mail, you name it; but we never heard back from them. We were still determined to go, though: we had plane tickets. We had no place to stay and did not know a single person in Sao Paulo. Just before we left, a friend of a friend that is from Brazil, Fernanda (to whom we are all eternally grateful) gave us some phone numbers of her friends in Sao Paulo. That’s how we got in contact with Carol, and in turn met every rad person in the city. I really think it was the forces of the universe bringing us all together. I had no reason to go before I left, but when I came home I had every reason to have gone. I am a better person because of the friends I made on this journey. There is comfort in flying to the other side of the world and finding people who feel and think the same way you do. It was Carol who finally got us the correct number for The Twins, so Alex could meet his long lost brothers. The Twins are super talented painters who are consumed by drawing and covering the world with their vision. They use lots of red and yellow in their paintings, they are powerful. Inside of their vision lays a fantasy world which is the place that they exist in. They are inspiring.
Os Gemeos actually are twin brothers, Otavio and Gustavo. They always work as a team and sign Os Gemeos, never distinguishing between the two. What team work. Alex and The Twins got along famously. They related to each other by painting and drawing because The Twins speak about as much English as we do Portuguese. They know only the important phrases, like “don’t stop the body rock.” They always seemed to put them in and just the right time, too; it was brilliant. They can cover twice as much wall in as much the time as anyone else. Sao Paulo is covered in graffiti. Most of it is not what we would consider graffiti in the US. It’s sort of heavy metal style writing done with 3 inch rollers and toxic house paint, and it is everywhere. There is not a lot of buffing, so most everything stays up where it’s put. I saw some crazy roll out on the tops of buildings that were under construction. I’m not talking just some houses, I mean something like a 15 story building some kid would climb to the top of to write his name.
We saw lots of art everywhere we went, in friends homes, in the subways, and on the sides of buildings, all over. At the house where Tomas and Caca lived, they were constantly painting and drawing all over the walls. The house had been sold and was scheduled to be torn down in a month, so they invited all of their friends over to make art. They had an art opening the night before we left; called Draga. Caca puts on lots of alternative art shows and always titles them Draga. A bunch of bands played and art was everywhere, even in the bathroom. Cacas’ drawings are done with a lot of rub type, he did portraits of all of his friends using only letters. Small beautiful pieces. Tomas does lots of drawings of burning houses and buses. He said he does not like the bus. I don’t blame him. The Twins showed up for the opening, and lots of art happened. It made me really sad to know that the house was going to be torn down, because so many good people had lived there for a long time. But it was great to have free range of the walls and not have to worry about a rental deposit.
Sao Paulo has good punk rock and lots of it. I went to lots of good shows and listened to so many good bands. The first show we went to was at a community center out from the center of town. One of the bands playing the show was Carol’s band No Class. No Violence and Neu Speak were also included on the bill. The show was a mix of hard core, punk rock, and emo rock. I couldn’t tell if I was in Brazil or in the US All of the bands sang in English, but there has been somewhat of a movement lately toward Portuguese lyrics. Carol’s new band, called Trabalhar Para Morrer (which means Working To Die) sings in Portuguese. TPM are very good, all girl, fast screaming punk rock. Another really good all-girl punk band is Dominatrix. I had the honor of taking their band portrait while I was there. They rock.
The music scene in Sao Paulo is very diversified, everything from vegan straight edge to grind core to pop punk. Most of the people we met were in bands. Teenager in a Box is a record label based out of Sao Paulo that puts out a lot of these bands. Our friend Caca’s band is named Pendedor. They are an experimental band that even included a typewriter as an instrument. Each member of the band played every instrument, they all switched instruments continuously throughout the show. I enjoyed them a lot. The rock stars of the Sao Paulo bunch were Forgotten Boys, playing very catchy poppy rock with lovesick lyrics. If they make it to the US they will be a hit: I now rock out to them in my car almost daily.
Cars. There are just so many cars in Sao Paulo. People drive like they have invisible force fields around their cars. Brazil has the highest mortality rate from auto accidents of all the countries in the world. I walked to most places I had to go because I could beat the bus that way or at least it felt as if I could. Traffic on the major streets is often at a standstill. I also could never figure out where the buses were going because there is no such thing as a bus map in Sao Paulo. I guess that would be too easy or something. Each bus line is owned by a different company so they just won’t get together to tell people where they are going. Out of pure frustration, if I wasn’t with a local, I mostly walked. Sao Paulo also has a subway that might as well not have a map, because the one they have is so poor and confusing that you usually end up going the wrong direction. The map only shows the line that you are on at the time, not any of the other subway lines that attach to it. It was really a mess.
Jon and Alex and I were all excited about finding the cement skate parks that Brazil is famous for. When we first arrived, there were rumors of old snake runs and pipes that could be found on the outskirts of the city. Of course we made plans to spend a day driving to find them. Unfortunately this was one of the many plans that never came to be. Sao Paulo has two cement parks inside the city but they were both closed down. I have no idea why, but the park we did go to was called Roller Brother. It was in a large warehouse and had miniramps, a halfpipe, and the weirdest skate structure I have ever seen in my life. I don’t know what anyone was thinking when they built it. It was a half pipe with one side that was a quarter pipe with a launch ramp and a channel. I cannot imagine how it was skateable. I saw some half hearted attempts, but all who tried failed. We were taken to the park by Alexandre Braga a pro skater who rides for Simms, not the US snowboard company but the Brazilian skate company. Alexandre is super cool, he smiles all the time and he drove us everywhere for days. Thumbs up to Alexandre.
Alexandre ruled it, and started off the day with a 360 kickflip to fakie. There were a few girls at the park too, and they were skating, not watching. At the Roller Brother park all women skate for free while men have to pay. Latin machismo at work, but I didn’t complain. The owner of the park was so cool he even let Alex paint a mural inside the warehouse.
After spending two weeks in Sao Paulo the three of us traveled up to Salvador to spend a few days with an old friend of mine.
Salvador is a beautiful and spiritual city. It is on the Bay of Saints and always hot, and they really know how to party in Salvador. It is the Afro-Brazilian cultural capital, and rich in history. We saw all kinds of traditional things like drum band and capueria, which is basically a Brazilian martial art. It looks like dancing but is choreographed fighting. After a few days in Salvador we all flew back down to Sao Paulo to spend the rest of our time with our new friends.
Sao Paulo is really a large mix of culture and styles. My most favorite thing of all was the wonderful array of fruit that could be bought anywhere and everywhere. I had fresh mango juice every morning. All the corner restaurants and bars served fresh juice. All you need to do is point at your fruit of choice and they would turn it into juice. It was cheap too, not like a 4-dollar smoothie. I miss having fresh mango juice every morning. There are a lot of things I miss about Brazil, but most of all I miss the people.
My purpose for telling this story is to say that a reason is not always necessary. Just go, do... whatever you can imagine. The world is actually a very small place and I strongly encourage exploration of it. It is worth it. Jon and Alex and I all made some really great new friends in a short amount of time. Without them, our trip would have been a bust. We are forever indebted to these people. Thank you so much Daniel, Caca, Alexandre, Chalabi, John, Joanna, Maria, Gustavo, Otavio, Marina, Catlin, Margaret, Gaucha, Elisa and Dominatrix, and most of all thank you to Carol and Tomas, we could not have done it without you.