The Rio World

Brazil's finishing school

by Michelle Chihara

photos by Geoffrey Kula

Cleidson Rangel has Brazilian political ambitions, but he uses an American politician's English to describe them.

"Here in Boston, as students, we have a kind of a think tank," he says. "We have a responsibility, since we have the opportunity to study." Later, he adds, "We're benchmarking against this country."

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Rangel is an MBA student at Boston College, one of an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Brazilians here on student visas. Most of them are scions of middle- to upper-middle-class families, here for the imprimatur an American education can provide.

They're following in influential footsteps. Rangel can reel off the names of a series of Brazilian politicians who came to America for their political grooming -- starting with his role model and former adviser, Brazilian presidential candidate Ciro Gomes (see main story). Gomes spent time at Harvard, and his political guru is Roberto Mangabeira Unger, a Harvard law professor.

Rangel and three of his friends -- Boston University MBA student Lafayette Torres, Northeastern undergrad Bruno Girão, and Mass Eye and Ear/Harvard medical student Fabio Thiers -- let the Phoenix listen in on a casual get-together over pasta and tomato sauce.

Bruno Girão: I come from a political family, and I have to be prepared to take over my father's business. So I wanted to have a broader view of the world.

Q: Why Boston?

BG: It's the best place in the whole world to study. There's a huge student community, the best schools. And a huge Brazilian community, which makes our lives easier.

Cleidson Rangel: I rethink my country from here.

BG: There is a group who just came here to flee the country, though -- because it looks good to be here, and because there's violence there.

Q: Where are they?

BG: Some BU undergrads.

Lafayette Torres: Be careful of stereotypes, my friend.

Q: Are your parents paying? Are they glad you're here?

BG: The norm is to get help from your parents or your family. It's very expensive for people from outside the country.

Fabio Thiers: I've got a fellowship from Harvard. But in science and medicine today, to be on the cutting edge of medicine -- you have to come here. Mass Eye and Ear is the best in the country, all over the world, in fact. Having this education -- in the US, at Harvard, it puts you . . . up there, back home. But they'll also be very demanding of you. I have to acquire the most medical knowledge possible, because they're going to ask for it.

Q: What do you think you'll bring back?

LT: I think I've learned to work with girls. With women. In Brazil I would never have felt comfortable working with women as equals.

CR: Eh. His chauvinism is his own.

Q: Do the difficulties that the current government is having in effecting real change in Brazil discourage you?

LT: No. It's a challenge. I hate the current government. But strangely, I believe they're trying their best. I believe they're doing what I would do if I were in their place. I believe [current president Fernando Henrique] Cardoso has excellent goals.

CR: There's no continuous process in Brazil. The mood of the people goes up and down after there are no real results. People's hope starts to fade. There's corruption and other problems. Everyone knows what needs to be done, there's just a lack of expedience.

LT: But we are going to change that.