Vocabulary:
- a Brazilian real estate mogul
- gleefully bashing Trump
- so little uproar that
- lavish new Trump HOTEL here
- marred by the skeletons
- Mr. Trump’s immigration remarks
- despite energetic diplomatic efforts
- his nasty remarks
- Turkish marble
- where bolstering the playgrounds
- remained bullish
- in the gritty area
- who loathe Brazil’s
Text:
Paulo Figueiredo Filho, a Brazilian real estate mogul (=magnata) and self-described conservative libertarian, at the building site of the new Trump HOTEL IN RIO DE JANEIRO. Credit Marizilda Cruppe for The New York Times
RIO DE JANEIRO — The Peruvian Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa calls Donald J. Trump a “racist imbecile.” In Mexico, people are gleefully (=alegremente) bashing Trump piñatas after his caustic remarks about Latino immigrants in the United States. In Guatemala, a liquor company is putting up posters of Mr. Trump using a term that, when translated charitably, describes him as a jackass.
Then there is Brazil, where Mr. Trump’s new 171-room stamp on the Rio de Janeiro skyline has generated so little uproar (=alvoroço, tumulto) that his business partner feels perfectly comfortable trumpeting his contentious stance on immigration.
“I’m a Latin and I have to say, I didn’t get offended at all with his comments,” said Paulo Figueiredo Filho, 33, a Brazilian real estate mogul and self-described conservative libertarian who is building the lavish (=luxuoso) new Trump HOTEL here.
“I spend a lot of time in the U.S.,” Mr. Figueiredo added, “and I have seen a lot of illegal immigrants that are causing problems, causing trouble in the country, and I actually agree with him.”
The relative paucity of tension around Mr. Trump’s lavish new HOTELventure here — in contrast to reactions elsewhere in the Americas, where some media giants and other companies have cut ties to Mr. Trump — may reflect how Brazil is changing, and how it is not.
Rio’s skyline, marred (=marcado) by the skeletons of various high-profile HOTELprojects that have been abandoned, serves as a constant testament to the souring of Brazil’s economy, making just about any big real estate venture with a chance of being completed an inviting prospect as the city gears up to hold the 2016 Summer Olympics.
“It’s a privilege to have a Trump property in our city,” said Alfredo Lopes, the president of the city’s HOTEL association and the Rio Convention and Visitors Bureau, emphasizing that he had not paid much attention to the controversies surrounding Mr. Trump in the United States. “This project is a gift to Rio that will serve a very exclusive segment of the market.”
But there is a cultural dynamic at work as well. Scholars attribute some of the indifference here about Mr. Trump’s immigration remarks (=observações) to an entrenched tradition in Portuguese-speaking Brazil of seeing the country as separate from its Spanish-speaking neighbors in Latin America, despite (=apesar) energetic diplomatic efforts in recent decades to forge stronger ties in the region.
Many “Brazilians are not offended by Trump’s remarks concerning Latinos because they don’t think his nasty (=desagradaveis) remarks” refer to them, said Maxine Margolis, an anthropologist at the University of Florida who is a leading authority on Brazilian emigration to the United States. “He is talking about a population they see as ‘the other.’ ”
Estimates vary widely on the number of Brazilian immigrants in the United States because most of them are thought to be there illegally, but Dr. Margolis placed the number at around 900,000 to one million, close to the figures used by Brazil’s Foreign Affairs Ministry.
While some Brazilian immigrants returned to Brazil in the years after the 2008 financial crisis, a period when Brazil’s economy was booming, Dr. Margolis said it now appeared that Brazilians were moving yet again to the United States as Brazil’s economy remains mired in a multiyear slowdown.
Of course, Mr. Trump and his new landmark have their fair share of detractors. In a city long defined by its enormous gap between rich and poor, not everyone agrees that Rio needs yet another LUXURY HOTEL, much less one planning to charge $500 a night for rooms with floors made of imported Turkish marble (=marmore).
Adding to the extravagance, the 13-story HOTEL, which is designed with jagged, terraced suites facing the Atlantic, will feature an infinity pool made of glass suspended above a nightclub with capacity for 600 people.
“We live in a city that was the biggest slave port in human history, producing a legacy of inequality that is pervasive across Rio,” said Theresa Williamson, an urban planner and director of RioOnWatch, an organization reporting on the city’s favelas, the relatively poor urban areas that largely emerged as squatter settlements.
“Instead of focusing on ways of alleviating that inequality, there’s a push to use the Olympics to benefit the most privileged sectors of society,” Ms. Williamson added. “The Trump HOTEL is just the latest fixture in a city where bolstering (=reforçando) the playgrounds for the rich is a priority for the authorities.”
Still, criticism of the $120 million HOTEL, which is scheduled to open before the Olympics, remains subdued in Rio. Despite the economic headwinds in the country, a spokeswoman for the Trump Organization said the group remained bullish (=otimista) about doing business in Brazil. And even as Mr. Trump faces criticism in various parts of the region, she said, “There is tremendous support for Trump and the brand across Latin America.”
Mr. Trump also recently expressed optimism about Brazil, even though the construction of another of his organization’s projects in Rio, a complex of five office towers in the gritty (=arenoso) area around the port, has been delayed, with no public completion date.
“I love Brazilians, especially Brazilian women, which are absolutely incredible,” Mr. Trump said in a 2014 INTERVIEW with Veja, a Brazilian magazine. Mr. Trump boasted that he had something to teach the Brazilian people, emphasizing that his lessons for Brazilians would involve providing an example of entrepreneurism and good service.
“I love teaching,” he said. “I’m a great teacher.”
When asked in the same interview if he had met Dilma Rousseff, Mr. Trump, apparently unaware that she is both a woman and the nation’s president, responded: “No. Who is he?”
Being less than reverential toward the Brazilian president, whether unintentional or not, did not seem to fan the flames, either. After all, dismissive views about Ms. Rousseff are fashionable in Brazil these days, as she grapples with approval ratings in the single digits. Huge street PROTESTS have called for her impeachment over the country’s sagging fortunes and a colossal graft scandal at the national oil company.
Mr. Figueiredo, the developer who will own the Trump HOTEL and have his American partners operate it, counts himself among those who loathe (=detesta) Brazil’s leftist president. He is a grandson of João Figueiredo, the last autocrat of a 21-year military dictatorship that ended in economic disarray in 1985.
While it might be expected for a business partner of Mr. Trump’s to promote their venture, Mr. Figueiredo goes beyond simply defending a project, as backers of a Trump tower under construction in neighboring Uruguay have done. Now Mr. Figueiredo says he wants to limit the government’s sway in the economy (though Barra da Tijuca, the beachfront district where he lives and is building the HOTEL, benefits from an onslaught of public transportation projects).
When Mr. Figueiredo’s blunt-spoken grandfather was stepping down in 1985, he remarked that he preferred the smell of horses to people. When asked what he wanted Brazilians to think of him, the four-star general replied, “I want them to forget me.”
But the frustrations with Brazil’s government have given new momentum to right-wing groups, and some in Brazil’s antigovernment PROTESTSare now openly calling for a return to military rule, a subject that was until recently politically taboo. Mr. Figueiredo exudes pride when talking about his grandfather, and he heaps praise on Mr. Trump, a figure under fire elsewhere in the region.
“He’s one of the most recognized businessmen in the world, and if anything, we’re getting more exposure,” Mr. Figueiredo said. “I don’t think anyone is going to decide not to stay in a fantastic HOTEL just because of his political views.”
