Welcome to Tobias Barreto

View of Tobias Barreto, June 7th Avenue

My main purpose with this blog is to write about what is like to live in a small northeastern Brazilian town. Tobias Barreto - the town I live in - is located in the south of the smallest Brazilian state, Sergipe; the city is well-known for its handmade textile products, like embroidery home stuff (you know, table cloth, towel, blouses, shorts, baby clothes and so on). Such products are all produced and sold here, and there's an outdoor market, called the Owl Market, which is crowded during certain periods of the year, like Christmas, Mother's Day and sacred holidays. It starts on Sunday evenings and goes on through Monday all day long, that is the reason of the name "Owl". Few local people have become rich by selling these products. Of course they had to take some "detours" in law in order to achieve such wealth, but that is only a tiny detail. At least it is for them.

The reason why I'm saying this is because here in Tobias Barreto, just like most cities in Brazil, there is one main characteristic called "Brazilian Way" (Jeitinho Brasileiro, in Portuguese), which works as an excuse for some people to break some uncomfortable laws in order to achieve their purposes. Allow me to explain: there is this tract in our culture that if you need something to be done, it doesn't matter how you manage to do it, as long as you fulfill your task. The ends justifiy the means. That is why Brazilian people are seen so negatively among hotel employees around the world. We throw our garbage away wherever we want; we think everything can be achieved just by offering bribes. And so on.

Surely we cannot be so general about these things, since there are people who don't offer bribes nor throw their garbage on the floor. But they are quite rare. Almost invisible. A little walk around the town shows us that no matter how clean you are, or how concerned about environment you must be, the streets are dirty, the alleys are stinky, and people just don't care.

"Bordadeiras", the craftswomen who create the best selling products of the town

Anyway, I was describing my town, so let's go ahead. Textile products are the moving wheels that make money flows in Tobias Barreto, and people come from all over the region just to buy themselves a new table cloth or towel. They also take the opportunity to buy these things here in order to resell them in their cities, to their neighbors, or in shops elsewhere. Things are cheap, so it is really worth. There are people from Bahia (Tobias is located right on the state limit between Bahia and Sergipe), Alagoas, Minas Gerais, etc. Even from other countries! I have already met a group from Italy, who came here just to buy stuff. Some guys from the Netherlands have come here to settle a commerce project that didn't work out, and they just loved all the embroidery craftswomen who work all the day in their houses, sewing, painting and packing their work.

If there's one thing people hate about in here, it has to be the way the shop owners treat the customers. They're rude, as if they didn't earn nothing from the customers. Sometimes they refuse to deal with a customer they don't feel like getting along. It is something really weird, but that's the way it is.

In coming posts I will do my best to tell stories about my city, which I have adopted (I was born in Rio de Janeiro). I also want to write about my region, the northeast of Brazil, a place very different from the Brazilian worldwide known cities, like Rio or São Paulo.

I really hope  you enjoy my blog!