The Northeast ( nordeste) of Brazil covers an
immense area and features a variety of climates and scenery, from
the dense equatorial forests of western Maranhão, only 200km from
the mouth of the Amazon, to the parched interior of Bahia, some
2000km to the south. It takes in all or part of the nine
states of Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte,
Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia, which together
form roughly a fifth of Brazil's land area and have a combined
population of 36 million. When nordestinos living outside
the region are included, they make up about a third of Brazil's
total population. Within Brazil, the Northeast is notorious for its
poverty, and it has been described as the largest concentration of
poor people in the Americas. Yet it's also one of the most
rewarding areas of Brazil to visit, with a special identity and
culture nurtured by fierce regional loyalties, shared by rich and
poor alike. You'll come across echoes of Northeastern culture all
over Brazil - in the Amazon highway towns or the favelas of
Rio and São Paulo - engendered by the millions of Northeasterners
who migrate out of the region.
The Northeast possesses an identity forged by
geographical contrasts, as most of the Northeastern states
have three distinct areas. First is the flat coastal strip, the
zona da mata , which literally means "forest zone". Little,
apart from the name, is now left of the coastal jungle which
greeted the first European settlers in the sixteenth century: at
the same time as they marvelled at its beauty they cut it down and
planted sugar cane, taking advantage of the heavy tropical rains
and rich soils. It was on the coast that the first towns and cities
of the Northeast grew up - not for nothing are all the region's
state capitals, save one, coastal cities - and to this day the
coastal strip is by far the most thickly populated part of the
Northeast. Unfortunately, this fertile coastal belt is rather
narrow, and nowhere does it extend inland for more than a hundred
kilometres. It gives way to an intermediate area, the
agreste , where hills rear up into rocky mountain ranges,
and the lush, tropical vegetation of the coast is gradually
replaced by highland scrub and cactus. Finally comes the
sertão , the vast semi-arid interior that covers more than
three-quarters of the Northeast but houses a relatively small
proportion of its population. The soils here are poor, the rainfall
is irregular, and only the hardy can scrabble a living out of the
harsh landscape.
The contrast between the coast and the interior is the most
striking thing about the region. You could have a fascinating time
in the Northeast without ever leaving the zona da mata, but
unless you make at least one foray into the interior you'll only
get a partial view of what is the most varied region in Brazil. It
is not just a difference in the way the country looks. Much of it
also has to do with the racial mix, a product of the
region's economic history. Blacks were imported to work on the
coastal sugar plantations, and relatively few of them made it into
the interior. The Northeast has the largest concentration of black
people in Brazil, but most of them still live either on or near the
coast, concentrated around Salvador , Recife and
São Luís , where African influences are very obvious - in
the cuisine, music and religion. In the sertão, though,
Portuguese and Indian influences predominate in both popular
culture and racial ancestry.
As far as specific attractions go, the region has a lot to
offer. The coastline is over two thousand kilometres of
practically unbroken beach, much of it just as you imagine tropical
beaches to be: white sands, blue sea, palm trees - the stuff
advertising campaigns are made of. The colonial heritage
survives in the Baroque churches and cobbled streets of Salvador,
Olinda and São Luís, often side by side with the modern Brazilian
mix of skyscrapers and shantytowns. And in Salvador and Recife,
with populations of around two million each, the Northeast has two
of Brazil's great cities . Head inland , and the
bustling market towns of the agreste and the enormous jagged
landscapes of the sertão more than repay the journeys. But
above all, in both city and countryside, there's the force of a
richly diverse popular culture which you will find reflected
not only in arts and crafts, but in the texture of everyday life.
The Brazilian caricature of frenzied partying and football worship
fits this region better than most.