Santarem, Para, Brasil
This is a photo that every time I look at, I become sad. It was taken during my January Term class in Northeastern Brazil. We went there to work with a small community; we taught the children in the village and helped to renovate a boathouse that the community uses for many different uses. This photo is an image of the street that we rode our bikes down every day to work. The car in the image has a large speaker on top of it and drives down the streets of Santarem advertising beer, music and local events.
The people in Santarem can’t escape advertising because these cars drive right past their houses at all hours of the day. It reminds me of advertising in the United States because advertisers take advantage of every opportunity they can to send a message to people. One can’t even go to a public restroom without staring at an advertisement. This attitude has traveled its way to all corners of the world, and even in a small village in Brazil had accustomed themselves to this sort of advertising; it’s a clear example of globalization.
This image, which is a combination of three different images that I found on the internet, is meant to represent the changing of the times, and in a way is supposed to be a foreshadowing of the coming future. This 1960s housewife is clearly ahead of her time with her robot as a helper in the kitchen.
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