Dance Lest We All Fall Down - Margaret Willson [0]
Breaking Cycles of Poverty in Brazil and Beyond
margaret willson
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS
Seattle & London
© 2010 by Margaret Willson
Originally published in 2007 by Cold Tree Press.
First University of Washington Press edition published in 2010.
Printed in the United States of America
15 14 13 12 11 10 5 4 3 2 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS
PO BOX 50096, Seattle, WA 98145–5096 USA
www.washington.edu/uwpress
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Willson, Margaret, 1953–
Dance lest we all fall down : breaking cycles of poverty in Brazil and beyond / Margaret Willson.
p. cm.
Originally published: Brentwood, TN : Cold Tree Press, 2007.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-295-99058-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-295-80168-1 (electronic)
1. Poor girls—Brazil—Salvador. 2. Young women—Brazil—Salvador. 3. Education—Brazil—Salvador. 4. Salvador (Brazil)—Social conditions. 5. Salvador (Brazil)—Economic conditions. I. Title.
HV747.B82W55 2010
362.7—dc22 2010021042
The paper used in this publication is acid-free and 90 percent recycled from at least 50 percent post-consumer waste. It meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Dedicated to
Rita Cassis dos Santos de Conceição
aka
Rita Cliff
contents
Acknowledgments
part one: learning to dance
1 Seduction
2 The First Return
3 Agnaldo and Candomblé
4 Letting Salvador Inside
5 Learning to Dance
6 A Dangerous Embrace
7 Marginals
8 Sex and Friendship
9 Rain
10 Burnt Knives
11 A Stranger
part two: treading water
12 Encountering Seattle
13 Ideas
14 Life Change
15 Letting the Outer Skin Be Social
16 Of Race and Remembrance
17 More Sides of Bahia
18 A View Into the Abyss
19 Power and Presence
20 Trust
21 Tall Poppy
22 A Shadowed Color of Shade
part three: laughter lessons
23 Leaves of Understanding
24 Love
25 Barriers of Glass
26 Storms
27 Sharing a Lifeboat
28 Heartbreak
29 Evolution
30 Resting on the Wings of a Butterfly
Afterword
acknowledgments
This list of friends who have contributed in various ways to this book is inadequate and represents only a small number of those involved. The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research gave me the first grant that made this entire journey possible. I am grateful to all the people who have helped and guided me in Bahia, many of whom appear in the pages of this volume. Naming just a few include the Santos family, the McCallum-Texeira family, Jair, Zeze, Lazaro, Jogo de Dentro, Lula, Curioso, Don and Luzia. During the creating of Bahia Street, I have also been guided and supported by many people—some of whom also appear in this book. In particular, I would like to mention the first Bahia Street Board, Margaret Schulte, Pat Ingressia, Eduardo Mendonça, and Mark and Carol Salkind, and our first sustaining contributors Alex Uxbridge, Ina Whitlock, Michael and Beret Kischner, Betsy Willson, and Roger Clark. To all of our other donors and volunteers—far too many to list—you have made Bahia Street possible. Susie De Paolis has spent invaluable hours managing the Bahia Street Trust. Bobbi Ballas, Robert Barclay, Gus Stewart, and Henry Schulte read early versions of the manuscript and made comments that I found greatly helpful. Early versions of various encounters from Part One of the book appeared in the Clam Cove Report of Vashon Island. My editor, Ashley Shelby was invaluable, guiding me to transform the manuscript into a strong, readable narrative. Bryan Blondeau and Kyra Freestar very kindly inputted my handwritten edits into the computer