24250: Pacheco: (ask) Haiti and Brazil (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Gustavo Pacheco <gustpacheco@hotmail.com>

Dear Mr. Corbett, could you please send the message below to your list serv?
The message explains itself, but if you have any questions I'll be happy to
answer you. Thank you for your attention.
Yours
Gustavo Pacheco

[Corbett notes:  Mr. Pacheco is not a list member.  Please reply directly
to his e-mail address above.    Thanks,  Bob]



Dear friends,

My name is Gustavo Pacheco, I am an anthropologist and ethnomusicologist
from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the last few years I have been researching
cultures of African descent in Brazil, especially in the northern state of
Maranhao, where I did fieldwork for my Ph.D. thesis at the Museu Nacional,
Rio de Janeiro. For a long time I have been interested in Haiti and in the
connections between Haitian Vodou and afro-brazilian religions such as
Candomble, Xango and Tambor de Mina.

As you must be aware, Brazil is currently leading the UN mission in Haiti,
and this fact caused something unimaginable a couple of years ago: Haiti is
now a priority in Brazil’s foreign relations policy. Together with some
colleagues, I have been thinking of a way to seize this opportunity to
promote mutual understanding between Haitians and Brazilians regarding
religions of African descent in both countries. As a first step, we are
planning a small exhibition of photos and movies dealing with afro-brazilian
religions, to take place in Port-au-Prince. If this succeeds, we plan to
promote similar exhibitions in Brazil dedicated to Vodou. One of my
colleagues works at the foreign office in Brasília and the government has
showed some interest in this project, so he’ll be in Port-au-Prince between
February 21st and 25th to see if, how, where and when it can be done.

The aim of this message is to ask for help concerning contacts in Haiti,
since we don't know anybody beyond the Brazilian embassy personnel. We are
convinced that if the project is to be effective we need to be in touch with
local houngans and mambos, scholars, journalists and people who in fact know
Vodou, otherwise it would be just another diplomatic show-off. It would be
extremely helpful if anybody could suggest names of people who could be
interested in this project.

Thank you for your attention.

Yours

Gustavo Pacheco
gustpacheco@hotmail.com

Rua João Afonso, 95 - apto. 201
Humaitá - Rio de Janeiro/RJ - Brasil
22261-040
+ 55-21-25370964




>From: Elizabeth McAlister <emcalister@wesleyan.edu>
>To: "Gustavo Pacheco" <gustpacheco@hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re: Haiti and Brazil
>Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 18:26:20 -0500
>
>Dear Dr. Pacheco,
>
>Thank you for writing me; your project sounds important for making cultural
>connections between Haitians and Brazilians.
>
>I think the best thing you can do is to write a similar email note and send
>it to a big list-serv on Haiti.  The list serv reaches I think 800 people,
>Haitians, journalists, scholars, many of whom are in Haiti.
>
>The email to send it to is run by Bob Corbett at <corbetre@webster.edu>.
>You can address it to Bob and the whole list.  Also if you send me a copy
>of that email, I can forward it to some specific people in Haiti who are
>involved in Vodou.
>
>Good luck!
>Yours,
>Liza McAlister

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