The capital of Brazil is Brasilia, a city bulldozed from the wilderness in 1957. This city holds a special place not only because it was a planned city but because it has become the focus for various groups that see the region as mystic in nature. Brazil is a gigantic country that offers startling geographic and socioeconomic contrasts. The culture that has developed in this area, constituting the fifth largest nation in the world, is marked by the use of Portuguese as the official language and the mixture of Portuguese and Brazilian cultures makes this area subtly different from its neighbors with their Hispanic heritage. Brazil is also the largest Roman Catholic nation in the world. The nation is also made up of many immigrant groups from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including millions of Italians, Germans, Slavs, Arabs, Japanese, and others, all of whose descendants today speak Portuguese (Nyrop xxi).
Regionalism has also characterized Brazilian culture, and numerous barriers existed that discouraged communication among the far-flung settlements of colonial-era Brazil that helped create this regionalism. The varied history and diverse geography of the nation are reflected in contemporary social, political, and economic cleavages. As noted, the population and the ethnic background in the various regions are very different (Nyrop 97-98).
The political structure of the country also reflects its cultural attitudes and institutions. Brazil has been an independent country since 1822. It was first a constitutional monarchy and then a loosely federated republic. After 1930 the regime changed to a populist dictatorship, and a more liberal federal republic emerged after 1945. Between 1964 and 1985 the country was dominated by a collective military leadership, and after that the "New Republic" was started, led by civilians, and with a new constitution promulgated in October 1988. The new constitution...