In
Brazil, commerce is everywhere. You can find everything in the street:
toys, luggage, towels, beauty products, candydrinks, ice cream, tools,
furniture, books, discs, cigarettes, medicinal plants, umbrellas, restaurant
tickets. The services offered on the street are also innumerable: you
are asked whether you want your umbrella or frying pan repaired, your
chairs restrawed, your future read in a crystal ball, whether you want
to play an underground lottery, your blood pressure checked, or whether
you'd like to join a religious sect on the sidewalk.
The stores occupy the smallest of spaces in houses and buildings, porches,
stairways, corridors. Stores are not limited to the ground floor; they
also occupy upper floors. It is not unusual to have to go to the eighthfloor
to find a bookstore or a computer seller, and sellers often sub-let a
corner of their store to someone else. For example, you can sometimes
make photocopies in a pharmacy.
But business is not limited to the street and stores. Individuals often
turn their home into a sewing shop, a travel agency, a bakery, or a telephone
message service.
The pedestrian is thus continually solicited and this spectacle is permanent
and all-encompassing. The eyes no longer know where to look with advertisements
everywhere, on a banner hung between two trees, on the shoulders of a
sandwich guy, painted on a wall, engraved in the asphalt of the sidewalk.
The hustling of a seller of frying pans, who will net let go of his microphone
except to talk to a customer, mixes with the dialogue of a soap opera
broadcast on giant televisions from the neighboring merchant, which is
drowned out by the melodies emanating from the more powerful speakers
of the seller of compact discs.
To better take in the spectacle or to relax for awhile, the pedestrian
will undoubtedly feel like sitting down at a set table on the sidewalk,
where he can order skewers of grilled beef with black beans and rice.
Or perhaps you might want to quench your thirst with the juice of a green
coconut opened with three vigorous hacks of a machete. If you're bored,
you can always read the dozens of leaflets that you will have received
by walking a mere 100 yards.
What is striking
is that these leaflets are offering solutions to the problems of everyday
life: financial troubles, health and family problems… It's not surprising:
the life of the lambda in Brazil is hard. He hardly makes a living, works
hard, and the government gives him neither free healthcare nor education.
So, he barely gets by, by saving as much as possible, by often having
two or even three professional activities, and, at the same time, buying
on credit (In Brazil everything, even food, can be purchased on credit).
I picked up some leaflets in the streets of São Paulo . They provide
a visual insight into the daily life of Brazilians.
In
Brazil, like everywhere else, psychological or economic distress can mean
big business. Clairvoyants and psychics of all kinds fight over the purse
of the wife that was cheated on, the business man who is no longer able
to pay his debts, or the unemployed person. The leaflets are their primary
marketing tool, but they also use posters.
The leaflets
are all designed with the same principle in mind:
A
title in big, bold letters. In general, the subtitle attempts tries to
get the passer-by to focus on his problems.
The title is followed by some slogan like the following: "Nothing
happens by chance, everything has a reason." Or better yet: "Don't
lose hope of being happy one day, because those who look for it always
find it!"
A small paragraph of 5 to 10 lines comes after that. It is divided into
two parts. First is the "problems" part. The reader is directly
addressed: you are depressed, stressed, lost, unmotivated. Then every
possible problem is listed: house is a mess, impossible love or not loved
in return, son or daughter problems, unlucky, sexual impotence, bad judgment,
professional failures, or, more generally, "any problem that is preoccupying
you."
Second is the "solutions" part. The reader is quickly reassured,
since, for Dona Lucia, Sister Maria Angelina or Professor Monique, "Every
problem has its solution." The solutions are communicated by reading
cards or "runes." They might also rely on "veritable guides
of the Light of the White Table," or on "angelology," or
still yet, they might offer the customer an "energizing bath."
The last part gives explicit instructions on how to get to the psychic's
residence, as well as her business hours and the cost of the consultation
(between 2.5 and 5 US$).
The
leaflet is often adorned with various religious and mystical symbols,
such as the ying and yang, the Start of David, or the Muslim Crescent,
for all chance, the triangle. It's undoubtedly an attempt to give some
credibility to the psychic besides that of crystal balls.
How to Solve one's
Financial Problems in the Street?
If, despite her powers, the psychic does not succeed in
the solving the financial problems of her client, he will undoubtedly
have to seek a loan, sell his goods, or, as an act of desperation, try
his luck with the lottery.
In Brazil credit organizations, which are more or less serious, are very
numerous and their ads, which promise money from a simple telephone call,
crowd the walls and newspaper, and leaflets are distributed everywhere.
They have evolved strongly since the end of hyperinflation in 1995.
The
"Credit company" advertises how convenient its services are
and the leaflet clearly states it: "We go all the way to you"
and "Approval by telephone." After having received an inquiry
over the phone, the lender sends an employee on a motorcycle to the customer's
home to give him the money and take the checks. (This kind of convenience
is not uncommon in Brazil. Since salaries are so low, businesses and other
services can afford many employees. Thus, the delivery and home services
sectors are very robust. Restaurants are always full of zealous servers,
and supermarkets, which are often open 24 hours a day, may have as many
as three employees per check-out stand: one person at the register, one
bagging purchases, and another to take your purchases to your car, or
to your home, if you live close by.)
Even if there are very few guarantees, the lender will always be highly
profitable because of the exorbitant interest rates that he charges, and
because of the sometime rough-and-tumble methods used to recover his loans.
Despite all these efforts, it can happen that the borrower is not able
to reimburse all of his debts. He is then arrested and his name is placed
in the files of public and private organisms in charge of overseeing credit,
and he will no longer be able to use checks. His name will be "dirtied."
We
can cleanse your name! This despachante (in Brazil, the despachante is
an intermediary who offers to solve administrative problems of all sorts,
thanks to his contacts and his keen understanding of how the bureaucracy
works) assumes in his own name the debt of the unfortunate borrower, and
makes him pay it off over time. Similarly,
he will take the necessary steps to get the borrower's name out of the
files of the central banks or the SCPC, the credit protection service
To face up
to his problems, the borrower can also sell his gold or his watch (the
watch is an essential accessory for masculine fashion in Brazil).
This buyer of watches and gold also buys travel vouchers and restaurant
tickets, which employers give to their employees. These vouchers and tickets
act as a true alternative to currency in Brazil. The employee manages
by going home by bike or on foot and by bringing in a lunch made at home,
thereby saving his travel vouchers and restaurant tickets, which he will
sell to supplement his salary. These vouchers and tickets are, furthermore,
accepted as a method of payment by all street vendors and by many stores.
by returning the little leaflet of this buyer of vouchers and tickets,
one discovers a veritable menagerie, which indicates that underneath this
business, he is in fact a bicheiro, someone who takes bets on jogo
do bicho, the animal game, a clandestine lottery that is very popular.
For each animal, there is a corresponding series of numbers on which the
gamblers can place their bets, but they are not choosing randomly. Dreams,
in particular, play a very big role in the jogo do bicho. You have
to interpret them to discover which animal is hidden and then bet on that
one. This interpretation is consistent with the rules and is the subject
of endless discussions between the gamblers.
The jogo do bicho is against the law in Brazil, but it is tolerated
everywhere. From one state to the next, it is more or less visible. In
São Paulo, for example, where I picked up this ad, the bicheiros
operate under the cover of other activities and they don't always operate
in the street. In Rio, where the jogo do bicho was born and where
the bosses of the game are the richest and most powerful people (their
money notably finances the Carnaval), on every street corner there are
people sitting at a small, bustling table noting the bets on small notebooks.
In Belem, the jogo do bicho is all over the street: it's possible to bet
in stores, one corner of which is often made into a bar. These stores
are designated by a "JB" painted in big red letters on a yellow
background.
Hugues,
from Cologne, sent the following information to Ruavista
: the jogo do bicho was born in Rio in the 19th century.
The manager of a zoo, in an attempt to attract more business, printed
an animal on the zoo tickets. One animal was randomly selected each day
and those who had a ticket with that animal's colors received a share
of the lottery. Little by little, this promotional lottery became so popular
that people bought tickets just to participate in the lottery.
A
title in big, bold letters. In general, the subtitle attempts tries to
get the passer-by to focus on his problems.
The
leaflet is often adorned with various religious and mystical symbols,
such as the ying and yang, the Start of David, or the Muslim Crescent,
for all chance, the triangle. It's undoubtedly an attempt to give some
credibility to the psychic besides that of crystal balls.
The
"Credit company" advertises how convenient its services are
and the leaflet clearly states it: "We go all the way to you"
and "Approval by telephone." After having received an inquiry
over the phone, the lender sends an employee on a motorcycle to the customer's
home to give him the money and take the checks. (This kind of convenience
is not uncommon in Brazil. Since salaries are so low, businesses and other
services can afford many employees. Thus, the delivery and home services
sectors are very robust. Restaurants are always full of zealous servers,
and supermarkets, which are often open 24 hours a day, may have as many
as three employees per check-out stand: one person at the register, one
bagging purchases, and another to take your purchases to your car, or
to your home, if you live close by.)
We
can cleanse your name! This despachante (in Brazil, the despachante is
an intermediary who offers to solve administrative problems of all sorts,
thanks to his contacts and his keen understanding of how the bureaucracy
works) assumes in his own name the debt of the unfortunate borrower, and
makes him pay it off over time. 
Similarly,
he will take the necessary steps to get the borrower's name out of the
files of the central banks or the SCPC, the credit protection service
