Speaker A
Oh, [Music] um [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] shoulders [Applause] [Music] controllers [Music] [Applause] [Music]
Anthony Bourdain explores Salvador da Bahia, Brazil: its African-rooted music, caipirinhas, Pelourinho's history of slavery, and a defiant local artist.
Key Takeaways
- Salvador da Bahia's culture is deeply shaped by African heritage, music, and spirituality.
- Pelourinho's beauty and nightlife coexist with a painful legacy of slavery and ongoing inequality.
- Gentrification is changing the neighborhood, displacing long-time residents and altering its character.
- Food and drink, from caipirinhas to Bahian seafood, are a vehicle for understanding local culture.
What the video covers
- Bourdain introduces Salvador da Bahia as Brazil's first capital and a wellspring of African-influenced culture, drums, and spice.
- He highlights Afro-Brazilian traditions such as Candomblé, capoeira, and African spiritualism as sources of the city's artistic life.
- Food and drink are central, including caipirinhas and hearty meat dishes with farofa, and the difficulty of finding food for vegetarians.
- Bourdain walks through Pelourinho at night, following free street parties and music spilling from many gatherings.
- The episode explains Pelourinho's history as the center of the slave trade and plantation economy, with nearly 5 million Africans brought to Brazil, 1.5 million of them to Bahia.
- Pelourinho's name derives from the whipping post, and the neighborhood later became a mix of cheap long-time housing and new galleries and cafés.
- A local artist who wears armor and hides his face in protest against gentrification and the city's occupiers is featured.
- The artist reflects on feeling out of place in Brazil and mentions his musical tastes, including heavy metal and Beethoven.
- Bourdain reflects on the magic of Salvador alongside the lasting suffering of Black Brazilians and the karma of its history.
- The episode closes with a segment on fugu-style blowfish, comparing Japanese and Brazilian preparation of a toxic fish in a Bahian-style recipe.
Chapters
- 00:00Opening and Introduction to Salvador
- 02:42Drums, Culture, and Caipirinhas
- 06:56Food and Nightlife in Salvador
- 12:12Evening Street Parties in Pelourinho
- 21:30History of Slavery and Pelourinho
- 26:01The Armored Artist and Gentrification
- 35:10Reflections on Race and Heritage
- 37:42Blowfish Segment and Closing
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
just follow the sound of the drugs this is salvador da bahia city of three million people first capital of brazil the wellspring for everything african and spicy where things seem to just sway and move constantly it's a place where everybody
Speaker A
In Bahia, you find yourself in the heart of the heart of Brazil, where the magic comes from.
Speaker A
If you want to get there, just follow the sound of the drums.
Speaker A
This is Salvador da Bahia, city of three million people, first capital of Brazil, the wellspring for everything African and spicy, where things seem to just sway and move constantly.
Speaker A
It's a place where everybody is sexy, where even the ugly people are hot.
Speaker A
Unsurprisingly, this is where artists come from: African spiritualism, occult magic, Candomblé, capoeira, and caipirinhas.
Speaker A
Did I mention caipirinhas? They do those here too.
Speaker A
I like them. I like them a lot.
Speaker A
What's magical about this cocktail is the first taste.
Speaker A
It's like, I don't know, man, it's a little too something, and then that second sip, it's like, oh, that's kind of good.
Speaker A
Then the third sip, it's wear my pants.
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[Music] Fortunately, food in these parts tends to be, shall we say, party.
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For instance, a delightful meal of fried meat with plenty of absorbent starch product like farofa, the perfect accompaniment to many, many caipirinhas.
Speaker A
Oh, excellent. Oh my god.
Speaker A
Now we're talking. It's a tough town for vegetarians.
Speaker A
Oh, cherries, good. And I'll have six more of these, please.
Speaker A
People are staring at me. They say, "Look at the even hump of an American, how much he's eating."
Speaker A
Just line them up, my friend, right here.
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Oh my god, so nice walking around here. [Music]
Speaker A
The audio component is really amazing. There's always drums somewhere. [Music] [Music]
Speaker A
Welcome to Salvador, my friend.
Speaker A
Oh, good to be here again. Yeah, oh yeah, I love it here. Wow.
Speaker A
Please, Bangkok for you, man. Come on, chill. Welcome to Salvador, right?
Speaker A
Thank you. What a good scene this is.
Speaker A
Claudio and Marilyn, it's good to have friends at a place like Salvador. In fact, you're pretty much lost without them.
Speaker A
For next stop, right? Cool. Tuesday night in Palo Alto, and the Tuesday nights are very impressive.
Speaker A
Many people coming to church first, next going to drink. It around the right, try something's listed.
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Good meals on the corner here, man.
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People have to work tomorrow. All right, I guess that's Brazil, right?
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Yeah, it's Brazil, but you have this kind of behavior here, but not the whole city.
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So how different is Salvador from Rio and São Paulo, man?
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Salvador is a mother, you know? The music here, the kind of lad, the architecture, this area. It's amazing.
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It is amazing for eats, drink, history, memory, anything.
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Pelourinho, or Pelô for short, was Salvador during the Portuguese colonial period.
Speaker A
It's almost always a party, a series of parties, actually, but tonight is special. [Music]
Speaker A
Oh, look at this. Smell, man, smells good. Yes. [Music]
Speaker A
Oh, that's good. Y'all, where'd you next go? To the stairs? Yeah. [Music]
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I'd like to bring you in today, because you're coming here, people everywhere.
Speaker A
This is our free party. You can drink your beer everywhere.
Speaker A
It's about to see the show inside. It's [Music] amazing. [Music]
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Alcohol of unknown origin, dispensed from atop the head of the stranger.
Speaker A
That's good, that's good. Mama always said that was a good idea. [Music]
Speaker A
I don't know if it's the booze or the music or the tropical heat, but after a while, bouncing from place to place, wandering down old cobblestone streets, different music issuing from everywhere, a different party, people flowing out of buildings, one gathering commingling with another, the music mixing, it really does seem that everybody is moving to some mysterious, unknowable pulse, some unheard throb that moves people to constantly touch each other: stroke hips, necks, limbs. [Music] [Music]
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It is useful to know that of over 12 million Africans dragged, ripped, and kidnapped from their homelands, nearly 5 million ended up in Brazil, 1.5 million of them in Bahia alone.
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Pelourinho became the locus of a vast infrastructure of plantations and the slave trade that powered them, making this city and northeastern Brazil the most opulent in the New World.
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Pelourinho, it's worth pointing out, gets its name from the whipping post.
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A hundred years after slavery was outlawed in Brazil, Pelourinho had been forgotten, but of course the neighborhood had its charms.
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If you were an artist, a musician, a writer, you could afford to live here: cheap rent for long-time locals, or shiny new art galleries and hipster cafés.
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We know which way the current of history runs. [Music]
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Oh. [Music]
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A poet, sculptor, painter, musician, and perhaps his own greatest artistic creation, he's chosen to hide his face from view and to stand in opposition, an eyesore, a rebuke, a defiant guard, like embarrassment to the occupiers.
Speaker A
As he addresses us now, this is for protection, but as I understand, also protest.
Speaker A
Foreign, how long have you been wearing the armor? How long, in quality seasons?
Speaker A
For six years. 46 years. That was a long time ago.
Speaker A
You ever go to the beach?
Speaker A
No sun, only shadow in the darkness, and beer and nose. We're goth. Whiskey, whisky.
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Just down from where we're sitting is Jaime's Pelourinho studio. His water and power have been shut off, but he insists he's going nowhere.
Speaker A
Brazil is supposed to be about what? Music, dancing, sun, hot women. Does he reject those things? Does he think it's vegetable? [Music]
Speaker A
He tells us, "I am in the wrong country."
Speaker A
Where would the perfect place be?
Speaker A
The rock city. Rock city, that's Detroit.
Speaker A
Detroit, that's right. Detroit, rock city.
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What music inspires him? Hider Maiden, Iron Maiden, though I think they're touring actually. Nirvana, Metallica, Beethoven, Beethoven, Carlos.
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What do you think about all this?
Speaker A
I think anybody who comes here recognizes immediately that this is a really uniquely extraordinary, and despite many problems, a uniquely wonderful, magical place.
Speaker A
It's a magical place, but also, for us, for me, and for him, here is a place where many people, Black people, have suffered. That is still one kind of karma of this old history here, you know.
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So what is the real coloring? We don't know. We are. [Music] [Music]
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So. [Music]
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Me. [Music]
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So. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]
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I don't like piña coladas, but I like walking in the rain.
Speaker A
I like wandering through markets as much as the next guy, but what I really like are neurotoxins.
Speaker A
In Japan they call it fugu.
Speaker A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Its eyes, ovaries, and internal organs are just packed full of varying amounts of toxins, and some hysterical minds will tell you that tetrodotoxin, present in the blowfish, is 1,200 times more potent than cyanide.
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And they'll tell you how, if it's consumed, you remain conscious while your muscles gradually become paralyzed, and death, like a slow-moving freight train, looms closer and closer.
Speaker A
And whatever you do, just make sure you cut out that liver.
Speaker A
I say, so we're eating blowfish?
Speaker A
Yes, it's an adventure. Like the Japanese, they like the poison.
Speaker A
I know, I know, I know. Yeah, so do they. But they remove the liver or the skin, and all that's supposed to be removed properly, right?
Speaker A
Properly, right? I saw a Simpsons episode. I think this guy makes it great.
Speaker A
Poisonous blowfish, Mukecha recipe: add to said fish lemon, coriander, onion, tomato, coconut milk, dendê oil, cover, and simmer.
Topics:Salvador da BahiaPelourinhoBrazilAnthony BourdainParts UnknownAfro-Brazilian culturecaipirinhaCandombléslavery historytravel documentary
