The goal of the Rio Branco Forum on Brazil is to encourage the study and research of Brazilian politics and culture at Berkeley and in the Bay Area. In addition to the public forum, which includes lectures, conferences and cultural activities, CLAS hosts the Rio Branco Visiting Chair of Brazil. These activities have resulted in a transnational working network of Brazilianists.

Jorge Wilheim
"The São Paulo New Strategic Master Plan"

São Paulo, Brazil’s most important city and a global metropolis, is celebrating its 450th birthday. The São Paulo of today, a metropolitan area of more than 17 million, has come a long way since 1880 when it was a small town of 60,000. A true new-world city, with its mobile society and migrant culture, São Paulo is a thriving, cosmopolitan city with many dramatic problems to face, from the unfair distribution of income to high unemployment rates, from its public transport challenges to the drainage of its hilly urban site. The recently approved Strategic Master Plan and its new zoning regulations are a pragmatic answer to many of these problems. However, the Plan’s innovations caused contentious local debate and were not easily approved, because, as J.J. Rousseau said in the 18th century, “the public interest is not the same as the interest of everybody.”

Jorge Wilheim is a well-known architect who recently commemorated 50 years of professional practice. He is currently responsible for the Municipal Urban Planning Department of São Paulo, in the Workers Party local government and also holds the Rio Branco Chair in Brazilian Studies at UC Berkeley for Spring Semester 2004. The former Deputy Secretary-General of Habitat II, Jorge Wilheim has also been the country’s Secretary of State for Planning and for the Environment. His books include Fax: Messages from a near future and Projeto São Paulo.

-Interview with Jorge Wilheim on city planning in São Paulo (in Portuguese)
-"Melting Pots and Marketplaces": an article by Jorge Wilheim on the future of the city

Wednesday, February 4, 4:00 pm
CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street

Analysis and photos of the event

Paulo Lins
"Cidade de Deus/City of God"

Paulo Lins holds the Mario de Andrade Chair in Brazilian Culture at The Center for Latin American Studies at UC Berkeley. He is the celebrated author of Cidade de Deus (City of God), first published in 1997 and recently made into an acclaimed movie of the same name.

Mr. Lins book was based on "10 years of research and 30 years of life experience" in the Cidade de Deus housing project in Rio de Janeiro and is as much a memoir as a novel.

-A short interview with Mr. Lins, from Hispanic News

Thursday, March 4, 4:00 pm
Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall

Photos of the event

Cristovam Buarque
Title to be announced

Cristovam Buarque is a Senator of the Republic in Brazil. He served as Minister of Education for the 2003 year term.

POSTPONED until Fall 2004