An insight into low rider culture in Brazil

Riding the streets of São Paulo

Ethnicity and identity are fluid concepts. Much more fluid than you might think and with a reach that goes beyond borders.

Even though the Latin American interpretation would be more indigenous, think Cholo and, if you´re from the US, you will conjure up ideas of baggy khaki shorts, white wife-beaters and tattoos with Catholic imagery all rolled up in a Latino gangster or pseudo-gangster look. Now, not all Cholos are low riders but more importantly when you think of low riders you think Mexican in LA, you certainly don’t think Brazilian living in São Paulo. But subcultures sometimes move fast and move far and, believe it or not, in São Paulo there is a small but growing group of self-styled Brazilian cholos on oversize handlebar bikes or custom-made low-riders.

More fascinating still, is that the subculture has not leaked down the continent, as you might expect, from Mexican-Americans to Portuguese speaking latinos, it went via Japan. The current street culture in São Paulo can be traced back to Japanese immigrants in the 1990s who came to join the already huge Japanese community in São Paulo and introduced low rider culture.

Car-hopping in São Paulo

South American Cholo is a documentary that takes a look at São Paulo's low rider culture and in it Sergio Hideo Yoshinaga, 43, the owner of a garage in São Paulo where many retro cars are turned into low rider monsters, explains how he was one of the Japanese pioneers of the movement admiring the aesthetics of the Japanese low rider offshoots and taking the concept to São Paulo. The Brazilian interpretation is just that, an interpretation, adapted to São Paulo, not just an imitation of Mexican-American street culture. As such it provides insights about how fashion spreads, the meaning of identity for both the low rider himself and for São Paulo, his city.

Here is the trailer to the documentary:

The film will be released in two versions: English and Portuguese

Urban Sketchers: Autumn in São Paulo

From dynamic cities like São Paulo, London, New York, San Francisco or Seoul, sketchers across the globe portray everyday life on Urbansketchers.org

Below are some recent sketches of São Paulo:

Avenida Paulista - São Paulo

Trianon-MASP - São Paulo

Reblogged from Urban Sketchers: Autumn in Sao Paulo

Urban Sketchers is a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering the art of on-location drawing. For more sketches from Brazil see: http://brasil.urbansketchers.org/

Where there is a problem there is always a (Brazilian) solution...

Anyone who has tried to catch a bus in São Paulo and had the misfortune of not consulting Google Maps before embarking on their journey will know that it is near on impossible task to get any intelligible information on routes, numbers or bus times at a São Paulo bus stop. Mostly they are just metal poles cemented to the pavement which serve to flag the existence of a bus stop but not much else.

Such is the lack of readily-accessible public information around São Paulo bus routes and numbers that a grass roots movements has sprung up to take over what should otherwise be the local city council’s responsibility. “Que ônibus passa aqui” offers downloadable templates from its Facebook fanpage for you to print and paste onto your local bus stop and write up which buses pass by. Here are some pictures of local interventions:

I doubt this is the solution but it may serve as a wake up call to the local administration to label up public transport in time for the World Cup in 2014.

The fact it's happening at all is an interesting reflection on both Brazilian openness to innovation and local political ambivalence towards basic public infrastructure.

Street Art in São Paulo Part 8 - Felipe Yung

Felipe Yung is an artist / muralist from Vila Mariana in São Paulo and one of the best known names on the street art scene. Even though he is Brazilian his creations often feel more asian than latin american but always abstract enough to create intrigue. Using a lot of brushwork and presumably a lot of time he recently create a new mural in downtown on Rua Augusta.

Check out the pictures below of his latest brightly coloured piece:

What would São Paulo's night sky look like without light pollution?

That is the question posed and answered by Thierry Cohen's "Darkened Cities" photography project. By merging two sets of photos he recreates what would be the view from the city, if it were not producing light pollution.

The process involves taking a photograph in the countryside, verified to be at the same latitude as the city shot and using an identical camera angle in order to record the "same" sky a few hours earlier or later. Through this technique Cohen is able to show the "real" sky, the one you should be seeing if the city was not so big and wasn't emitting so much light.

The resulting photos are a powerful warning that as more and more of the world's population becomes urban, and as we lose our connection with the natural world, we become oblivious to our impact. At the same time they are a beautiful reminder of the context to which our cities, and humanity in general, belong:

São Paulo, Minhocão

São Paulo, Paulista Avenue

Hong Kong

Rio de Janeiro

Shanghai

Shanghai

New York

VIDEO: I Charleston SP

I Charleston the World is a crowdfunded global movement which pays homage to the classic dance from the 1920´s by recording videos in various cities around the world.


The first Latin American city to be "Charlestoned" was São Paulo in January 2013 and the result is the video below which is also the official video for "Musica" by Bluebell, a Brazilian singer who was born and raised in São Paulo.






And for those that are interested below are the other cities in the world that have been "Charlestoned"