system looking in and can bring a certain objectivity and a wider knowledge to his statements. He tells the history of Brazil from its discovery by a Portuguese captain in 1500. The land developed as the Portuguese used the Indians as labor on their sugar cane and cocoa plantations, and they did so without acting as ruthlessly as had the Spaniards elsewhere in what would become Latin America. The Portuguese also brought over blacks from Africa as slaves. The slaves were freed when Brazil became a representative government in 1888. While the slavs were free, they did not have sufficient employment in the cities to which they emigrated. This was the beginning of the favelas, or slums, that exist in Brazil today. These villages start small and grow, and the government does nothing to stop them or to do anything about conditions there. Politicians make promises but do nothing. St. Clair also gives some of Carolina's background from her childhood in a rural area of Brazil to the time
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