I think I may have a New Favorite Music Video!

So of course most people that follow me know that I have been on this “Brazilian” Portuguese learning journey. There doesn’t exist a night that I don’t go to sleep watching a Brazilian National movie or documentary, and when I run out of Brazilian options, I usually opt for a dublado (dubbed) movie. I completely gave up bumping American music out my ride, as I did two years prior when learning spanish. With that said, the Brazilian music scene is top notch and offers a wide spectrum of choices.

This song “minha alma” from O Rappa is so simple, yet so revolutionary! I can’t stop listening to it and watching the video. Here you have an uprising being started by everyday people to avenge the death of a poor child begging for money. This poor black boy was an honest panhandler, when a man, unknowingly dropped money from his wallet, the boy could have ran with it. Instead he picked it up and offered to give it to the man. Just then the boy was ambushed by the police and eventually shot and killed. It looks extreme, but Brazil is the nation where Police kill more suspects than any other place in the world! Police in Rio alone last year killed 1 person out of the 229 they arrested, in comparison with the US, who as brutal as we make it sound has a much different figure; 1 killed out of every 31,575 arrested. You can only imagine how that number as risen with the coming of the world cup in 2 days. The image of safety and progressiveness has to be upheld, and with that the favelas have been occupied like never before, and any type of strike or uprising has been violently quelled. After the boy is killed, the town uprises against the police in a violent display of comradery that really excites me and warms my heart. I watch it with the hopes of someday being in the situation that I am maybe walking down the street and witnessed something like this with a group of strangers, and we all jumped in, in a similar manner.

“Pois paz sem voz, paz sem voz ”
Não é paz, é medo!
(Medo! Medo! Medo! Medo!)”

“Peace without voice isn’t peace, It’s fear”
(fear! Fear! Fear! Fear!)

enjoy!