To Dr. Vânia Penha-Lopes, the selection of Rio de Janeiro to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, the first in South America, is a teachable moment.
“I feel great that the International Olympic Committee recognized that the continent of America has a South,” said Penha-Lopes, a sociology professor at Bloomfield College in Bloomfield, N.J., who was born and raised in Brazil.
“In terms of the United States, it will educate more people that there is a huge country south of the equator. Maybe [Americans] will learn we speak Portuguese and not Spanish.”
However, she’s concerned that the millions spent to host the major sporting events will not benefit all Brazilians.
“For example, public schools and low-income neighborhoods far from the center of Rio are in need of infrastructure repairs such as sidewalks and piping systems,” she said. “There are going to be millions of people descending upon Rio. We are talking about traffic jams. There is a lot of urban violence there, which is a concern of the residents. I am sure there will be security measures, but I would like them to continue once the events are over.”
Penha-Lopes, who has written 17 articles— both in English and Portuguese — on race, religion, ethnicity and multiculturalism, teaches students at Bloomfield about her native culture.
Although Brazil ranks second in the world behind Africa with the most Blacks, it was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery in 1888.
