I arrived in São Paulo, Brazil in the mid-morning, went to my hotel, and grabbed a train to the Japanese section of Liberdade where they were having a Japanese Festival. I had been enormously curious for years about the Japanese who immigrated to Brazil a century ago. My grandfather, who had been a diplomat throughout South America during that era, had told me about them.
I was completely surprised! So many, many Japanese people, yet they looked so not-Japanese in many ways. Only the ones over 80 spoke Japanese, and all around me were images that were somewhat Japanese, but from decades long past. What really surprised me is the community's embracing of images that would be considered stereotypical and derogatory by Critical Race Theorists -- yet clearly used as cultural identifiers here.
Here, I ordered a "shrimp tempura" and got this -- shrimp with skins, legs, tail on a skewer. A Brazilian interpretation of tempura, I suppose, as it was deep fried, but without batter and with all those parts still on the shrimp. I took a bite, wondered what to do with the shell in my mouth, and still holding the skewer in one hand, held out my camera with the other hand, and shot this image.
Love the commentary to go with the shot! And the shot is really pretty elegant, but not what I'd call tempura either! Really interesting about the self-stereotyping from days gone by.
@blueberry1222@realrown365@roseolivia@pennyp@agedrunner@gabberwocky -- thanks for your lovely comments! I'm sorry I have had virtually no reliable internet access while traveling this trip, so I am enormously behind in uploading, and in viewing others' photos. Looking forward to catching up at some point . . .
@steampowered@darylo -- I did eat the shell. I don't speak Portuguese, and the Japanese Brazilian people at the festival didn't speak Japanese, so I had to resort to looking around and imitating what others were doing.
@taffy@darylo -- thanks for taking time to read the narrative. You know for me, every experience is about how I can make meaning out of it. Images are the "plus" of each experience. I had to laugh when after a day of shooting the Japanese festival in Brazil, this is the one image I thought turned out best. :)
@steampowered @darylo -- I did eat the shell. I don't speak Portuguese, and the Japanese Brazilian people at the festival didn't speak Japanese, so I had to resort to looking around and imitating what others were doing.
@taffy @darylo -- thanks for taking time to read the narrative. You know for me, every experience is about how I can make meaning out of it. Images are the "plus" of each experience. I had to laugh when after a day of shooting the Japanese festival in Brazil, this is the one image I thought turned out best. :)