First of all, I just want you to realize that I am in another world. Of course I don’t mean Mars, but I mean my view is the only one that you can look through. So bear with me, while I slowly unfold what I see.
It amazes me that here, in Bahia people are so creative. I have seen art museums back at home and everything is always so organized and clean. But I mean when it comes to art, you shouldn’t have to do the same art like every other artist. As we ride the onibus every day to class in Pelourhino I observe the things that no one really pays attention to here. The way people act on the bus is all literally “An Act”. People literally just want to go to their destination and mind their own. But different from Boston, people don’t just give you dirty looks because you’re foreign, but they give you a smile because they want to know you.
Through people’s faces I have been painting a virtual picture inside my head. Why? Because diversity is alive in Bahia. I don’t mean one black person, one white person, and one Asian. I mean different color of skin, different hair texture, different accents are all alive here in Bahia- like no other place I have ever been (that wasn’t forced to be an interracial group). Everyone makes multiple incomes; from begging people to buy candy on the bus to being a taxi driver at night whom can also sing and write poetry. Like Baba Wes said, “Most Bahian’s make their living out of tourism…” But every time that sentence crosses my thoughts, I kind of argue thinking, “are they just being nice to foreigners because of money or are they really welcoming?” And that is why I connect art to the way people are surviving here in Bahia. No matter if tourism exists or not, people collect their surroundings and make it theirs like no other. In every country there is culture and history. But the usual thought of those two subjects, is that their different. Here, culture is history.
