Important Notices: Firstly we have to upload a discussion question on the Blog Post on Wednesday Night. Secondly, we have an assignment for the Research abstract and annotated bibliography due on Friday.

Latin American Culture/History Blog Post:

Today, Tongtong talked about Retirement in Brazil and how it works. She stated 3 categories that characterized the modern Retirement system. Those being the requirement, politics, and controversy surrounding it. The minimum age to retire in Brazil is around 60+ years old. However, the real issue is the reforms instituted by Ex-President Tamen and the economic decline of the state. Pensions from the Retirement are not being paid in full and its made people lose faith in the system. Lots of people have received pensions since the dictatorship era. It goes to show that the issue with pensions is far more complicated than how it works in America.

Notes/Movie Discussion (BRIEF):

Today we also talked about the Movie we watched on Sunday (and Monday for others) about Madame Satã. We discussed important concepts that were presented in the film such as the identity of João, which involves concepts of race, sexual orientation, “queerness.” The dynamic of culture back then was very different from our own and especially during the 1930s. But otherwise, all it really was about the movie and very notable/specific things that we saw and thought about. This even goes to thinking about where the camera shots were taken and thinking how the characters relate to the greater cultural thought at the time.