Pedro Paulo Vieira

By Andrew Wilke

            My family moved to the United States when I was eleven years old with the same goal that I think most immigrants have of making a better life. My mother moved here two months before me, my brother and my sister, and in that time she met an American man who she ended up marrying and he became my step-father. Her cousin played a big role in helping her get started in the new country; helping her find work and a place to stay.  Moving to the U.S really upgraded our lives. You learn a lot of things. You have to solve your problems alone here; there you can always rely on your family to look out for you. Since we were fewer than in Brazil, here we had to kind of work everything out ourselves.

            Family is such a big part of Brazilian culture, and they are always looking out for each other; even when you are grown up you are thought of as a child by your father and older relatives. It was hard but good being in America where that family was not as big and not as present in day to day life. In Brazil families eat meals together and spend time together throughout the week, especially on Sundays. We consider our second cousins to be like our immediate family, and are just as important to us. Your family is always taking care of you, which is nice to have for support. That was one of the major changes that I experienced when I moved with my mother and siblings here.

            Speaking English is fairly common in Brazil, but when I moved to the U.S I did not speak any English. This was the hardest thing for me when I came here and started school. I felt very lost when I started school. Some of the children at school could speak Spanish but I also could not understand that even though it is much closer to Portuguese than English is. Luckily for me, my step-father was from America, his mother was from Bazil but he had grown up here. I learned a lot about speaking English at school but he really played the largest role in learning the new language. So at home, everything from school that we didn't know like homework and books, he was there to help us. If I had to ask to go to the bathroom or was thirsty or hungry, I would have it written down on a piece of paper so I would know how to ask.

            Getting a decent foundation in English was really essential to me being able to function well in this country. All through middle school I was not very strong in it and it made life and learning fairly difficult. The food and the water was all very much the same, or at least easy enough to adapt to, but the language was so difficult. Even though I didn't know much Spanish in middle school it was almost easier to communicate trying to use Spanish than English in those early days. Once I finally had a decent grip on the language life got easier. This combined with getting citizenship from my mother, who married an American, made adult life a bit easier than for some of my friends who have moved from Brazil. Most of my friends here are of Brazilian decent, and many of them speak very little English and are not citizens. This results in them having a very difficult time getting any kind of work, and when they do it usually pays lower than minimum wage. I find this to be a large problem in this country, and it makes it very difficult for those who plan to stay here and difficult for those who have just come here to work for a time but still greatly contribute to the needs of our nation.

            I did not have to go through such things when it came time for me to start working. Luckily I was able to draw on some of my friends in the Brazilian community to help me get a steady job. It was actually my wife who got me my job working at the Brazilian store that I now work at. I have had many jobs in my time here though, driving trucks, being a cashier, working for Fed-Ex and a few more. The Brazilian community here is almost like a big family that tries to take care of each other. Most people I know have gotten jobs and places to stay when they first move here through others in the Brazilian community. One of my strong connections to the Brazilian community here is that I lead a group that plays popular Brazilian country songs.

            Playing music is one of the ways that I keep my culture close to me. My whole family plays music, and I grew up surrounded by the sounds of Brazilian folk and country music. On my father's side my grandparents would always play music, and it is something that I just grew up with. None of them played music as a career but played it as a pastime. I want to be able to make music my career, and do something that no one else in my family has done. My first instrument was the Brazilian tambourine, which is commonly used in Samba and Bossa Nova. Rhythm is such an important and distinct part of our music, the tambourine and other percussion instruments are very important to our music. I picked up the guitar in 2005, and it is now what I put my focus into. Singing is something that I have always loved to do but never had any training. A few years ago I started to take vocal classes at community college to try to get more of the right technique. Unfortunately in Brazil we do not have music in the public schools so I did not get any musical education from school. They do this to try to keep the focus on the basics such as math and language. One of my goals is to go back to Brazil one day and try to get music classes in the city where my father is involved with the local government.

            Since we did not have music in schools, we really learned from it being taught to us by relatives and others who already play.  There are many private schools where you can go and take lessons, or take lessons from people in the area, but most people in Brazil cannot afford that. Luckily growing up in a musical family helped to nurture what I now truly love.

            Even though I have lived in America for most all of my life now, the majority of people in my life are from Brazil. I work in a Brazilian store where all of the people that I deal with are Brazilian. My wife is also Brazilian, so even though I have been here for sixteen years I am still so strongly connected to Brazil. The group that I lead plays Brazilian music. So all of our fans are Brazilian, but not all of our musicians are. I have been asked on many occasions about why I have people playing these Brazilian songs who are not Brazilian. I believe that music is the international language and that its ties everyone together. A “C” major chord is the same in Brazil as it is in America or anywhere else on the planet. One of the best things about living here, especially the Bay Area since it has such a large Brazilian community, is that I can retain so much of my culture but also interact with people who are from very different backgrounds. So when someone asks me why I have these people playing with me, I simply tell them that they are musicians.

            The music that we play has very old roots in Brazil, and originated similarly to country music in the United States. It branched out of folk music and offered wisdom about things that would happen in people’s everyday life, or about situations that everyone would have to go through. The songs that I play are more about love and are much more modern than the very traditional ones. Lots of people come out to see my band play, and there is tons of dancing and drinking at our shows. The Brazilian people love to have a good time and party until the very late hours of the night. It’s nice to know that the songs that I play help all of the people who come out to see us connect and remember where their home is or once was.

            I have been very lucky to have had such a life in America where I have never had to deal with most of the issues that so many people trying to gain citizenship do. My family has been very happy in the United States and has been very successful in leading prosperous lives.  I am now the proud parent of a little boy who recently just found out he has a younger brother or sister on the way. I have loved my life in America and I think that they will also love it here. I know in my heart that they will always be Brazilian because of their Brazilian blood and will keep strong ties to it. Now that Brazil has been doing much better economically I have seen many of my friends move back to pick-up their lives there. It is a much different country than it was when my mother moved us out sixteen years ago. Perhaps someday my children will move back to Brazil or at least visit there frequently. I know that I will always love Brazil and hope to one day move back there and try to continue my music career there. One of the reasons that I think it took me so long to learn English is because of me being so Brazilian. I am proud to be an American citizen, but I am also proud to be a Brazilian. Because I know the happiness of the Brazilian people; they are really, really happy. No matter if we have money or not, we are always a happy people.