Fresh Look
415 pages Rohter, a 59-year-old native of
Chicago, came to Brazil for the first
time in 1972 as a translator for an international song festival. It was the
start of an evident love affair with
the country (he eventually married a
Reviewed by Joshua Goodman Brazilian) that, as he writes, steered
him away from his graduate studies
on May 2004, Brazilian Presi- from 1999 to 2007, as Rio de Janeiro in modern Chinese history into a cadent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva bureau chief for the Times. Never- reer-changing fascination with the
set off a diplomat spat with theless, in Brazil, Rohter remains so continent’s most populous nation,
the U.S. when he threatened to expel closely identified with the cachaça its culture and its music.
cident, called “Lula and Me,” appropriately appears in the middle of the
book, surrounded by essays on subjects as diverse as Brazil’s complex
web of class and race relations to its
incipient relationship with China.
Interspersed throughout the book
By Larry Rohter are 50 of his most probing articles,
many of which are familiar to his
Objetiva, 2007, Softcover, U.S. (and Brazilian) readers.
New York Timescorrespondent Larry incident that after his book was Culture, in fact, forms one of the
Rohter. The grievance: an article by featured in November on the cover important themes of Rohter’s book.
Rohter alleging that the president’s of the influential Veja magazine, it Brazil’s rich and abundant cultural
taste for cachaça—a popular Brazil- soared to best-seller status. exports, ranging from soccer to
ian sugar-cane liquor—was affecting That reflects the extraordinary samba, he argues, represent a criti-his jobperformance. Fouryears later, attention paid to the original New cal key to understanding how Bra-Brazilians continue to be absorbed York Times article, the discussion of zil earned international respect. At
by Rohter’s hard-nosed reporting which dominated the book’s mixed the same time, he targets some of
on their country, at least judging by reviews in Brazil. Even though local the hackneyed myths that Brazil-the attention paid to his journalistic media had long alluded to Lula’s love ians perpetuate about themselves.
memoir Deu No New York Times, or of drink, when a story about the Pres- For example, he considers Carnival
The New York Times Had It. The col- ident’s drinking habits appeared in over-hyped and sees the architecture
lection of original essays and articles, the world’s most influential news- of Oscar Niemeyer, the father of fu-published in Portuguese, will form paper, it triggered the equivalent of turist Brasilia, as elitist. By contrast,
the basis for an English-language a public lynching. the folkloric riches of the racially-book on Brazil due out in 2011. Lula’s supporters held up the story, mixed Northeast are looked down
Fewjournalistscanmatch Rohter’s whose sole quoted source was a upon by the country’s elites as vul-track record for fairness, versatility sworn enemy of Lula’s, as evidence gar and backward. “This is a mani-or prolificacy. Until he returned to of the U.S. government’s interest in festation of something in Brazilian
New York in 2007, he was considered weakening Brazil’s working-class culture I consider unfortunate,” he
by his peers the dean of foreign cor- president. The President’s backers writes. “An anxiety and lack of self-respondents in Latin America. Sadly, are likely to be equally displeased by confidence that leads Brazilians to
as print journalism struggles and Rohter’s recapitulation of the story, only value what’s theirs after it has
infotainment overtakes hard news, particularly since he uses it to illus- been validated by foreigners.”
he’s also one of the last such experts. trate his critical analysis of Brazil’s He’s equally critical of Brazilian
Rohter’s deep knowledge of the re- president and the leftist government attitudes toward the Amazon, where
gion earned him Columbia Universi- he has led since 2003. Rohter has made 30 trips. Instead of
ty’s Maria Moors Cabot Prize for out- A lthough no explanation will confronting the complex forces driv-standing reporting of Latin America ever satisfy Rohter’s critics, his book ing deforestation of the world’s larg-in 1998. In his memoir, Rohter draws leaves no doubt he knows Brazil like est rainforest, even educated Brazil-on four decades covering Brazil for few other foreign observers. The con- ians reflexively blame foreigners for
Newsweek, the Washington Post and, troversial chapter on the cachaça in- meddling in their affairs, or worse,
Deu No New York Times:
O Brasil segundo a ótica
de um repórter do jornal
mais influente do mundo
