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Journey on the Estrada Real: Encounters in the Mountains of Brazil
Life along the Estrada Real is still very much in the 19th century. Women cook meals on wood stoves. Men go about their business on horseback. Mules carry firewood and such. People will invite a stranger into the house and offer him food. Cheney's book is a unique look at the cradle of Brazilian culture. This isn't the Brazil of beaches, rain forests, and slum-infected cities. It's a place where tradition, architecture, food, music, and values go back hundreds of years. But the quiet, rural life along the Estrada Real is under assault from global culture, a concern Cheney grapples with as he makes what may be the last observations of a dying way of life. The book includes photographs taken along the Estrada Real.
- GenresTravel
245 pages, Paperback
First published October 30, 2004
56 people want to read
About the author
Glenn Alan Cheney
91 books64 followersGlenn Alan Cheney is a writer and journalist. He is the author of more than 20 books of fiction and nnfiction and hundreds of articles, op-ed essays, translations, short stories, and poems.
Among his most recent and well known books are "Thanksgiving: The Pilgrims' First Year in America," "Journey on the Estrada Real: Encounters in he Mountains of Brazil," and "Journey to Chernobyl: Encounters in a Radioactive Zone."
Cheney is editor and translator of "Ex Cathedra: Stories by Machado de Assis -- Bilingual Edition."
Cheney's nonfiction uses a strong human element and touches of humor to bring life into subjects that might otherwise be dull or technical.
Cheney has a B.A. in Philosophy, an MA in Communication, an MA in English, and an MFA in Creative Writing.
See cheneybooks.com for free excerpts and discounts on Cheney titles.
Among his most recent and well known books are "Thanksgiving: The Pilgrims' First Year in America," "Journey on the Estrada Real: Encounters in he Mountains of Brazil," and "Journey to Chernobyl: Encounters in a Radioactive Zone."
Cheney is editor and translator of "Ex Cathedra: Stories by Machado de Assis -- Bilingual Edition."
Cheney's nonfiction uses a strong human element and touches of humor to bring life into subjects that might otherwise be dull or technical.
Cheney has a B.A. in Philosophy, an MA in Communication, an MA in English, and an MFA in Creative Writing.
See cheneybooks.com for free excerpts and discounts on Cheney titles.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 29, 2010
I've got to tell the story of this book coming into my hands before I review it, so please bare with me...
I won this book on the first reads giveaway and the author PMed me to very politely tell me he didn't think this was my type of book and that I wouldn't like it. He didn't suggest that he not send it, just that I might like one of his other books better.
I tried to strike up a conversation about hookers and waited for the book arrive.
It did, along with his other book "Frankenstein on the Cusp of Something" and a letter in which he again (politely) tells me he doesn't think this book is my style and he doesn’t think I would like it. At one point he said "It's dull as dirt. Or I guess you would say (I'd say, anyway) it's as interesting as dirt if you like dirt."
This is an interesting marketing strategy.
Here is my review:
I feared parts of Cheney's tale would be insufferably long and tedious, as I find even the travel to my mailbox to be so, but he did a great job of editing the book down to highlights. There is a good amount of personal commentary on the traveling itself (I was privy to the state of Cheney's clothes more than I would have liked) so the personable aspect one expects from a travel log are here.
Unfortunately, the thing I was most relieved about turned out to be the book's biggest problem; the content of the book itself is made up of events alone (for the most part) and there is little reflection made on the study of culture. Really interesting themes of gender relations, race relations, spirituality, political and educational climate are presented but just skimmed over. I wanted to hear more about what made Brazil what it is and what makes Brazilians what they are. Not that I expected a text book read, but I was looking forward to seeing an outsider's interpretation of the country and people. I would have liked to hear more about what and how the people Cheney met affected him.
This is a book for those who want to go on the journey themselves, not for those who want to go on the journey through the writer's eyes.
I won this book on the first reads giveaway and the author PMed me to very politely tell me he didn't think this was my type of book and that I wouldn't like it. He didn't suggest that he not send it, just that I might like one of his other books better.
I tried to strike up a conversation about hookers and waited for the book arrive.
It did, along with his other book "Frankenstein on the Cusp of Something" and a letter in which he again (politely) tells me he doesn't think this book is my style and he doesn’t think I would like it. At one point he said "It's dull as dirt. Or I guess you would say (I'd say, anyway) it's as interesting as dirt if you like dirt."
This is an interesting marketing strategy.
Here is my review:
I feared parts of Cheney's tale would be insufferably long and tedious, as I find even the travel to my mailbox to be so, but he did a great job of editing the book down to highlights. There is a good amount of personal commentary on the traveling itself (I was privy to the state of Cheney's clothes more than I would have liked) so the personable aspect one expects from a travel log are here.
Unfortunately, the thing I was most relieved about turned out to be the book's biggest problem; the content of the book itself is made up of events alone (for the most part) and there is little reflection made on the study of culture. Really interesting themes of gender relations, race relations, spirituality, political and educational climate are presented but just skimmed over. I wanted to hear more about what made Brazil what it is and what makes Brazilians what they are. Not that I expected a text book read, but I was looking forward to seeing an outsider's interpretation of the country and people. I would have liked to hear more about what and how the people Cheney met affected him.
This is a book for those who want to go on the journey themselves, not for those who want to go on the journey through the writer's eyes.
May 4, 2010
Just about two months into my 1500-mile walk across Finland (research for my book “Notes for the Aurora Society”) I came to a crossroads. No, not a literal fork in the road but rather a forced choice-point in life where the cognitive dissonance in my soul demanded a solution.
I had come to a research station deep in the boreal forest where a boisterous woman with a loose eye and jarring laugh was heading up a government-funded wetland restoration project. Ecological restoration is my passion. The “job” I had given myself on my walk however was one of impassioned observer only- not that of a participant. However, there I was, not wanting to walk on but instead stay and help this woman restore these wetlands. I did walk on of course and over the coming days found a resolution to a question that plagued me most of my adult life – participant or observer?
And so, for me the most profound point of Glen Alan Cheney’s “Journey on the Estrada Real – Encounters in the Mountains of Brazil” doesn’t come until page 167 when, falling away from a community party in the town of Serro, Cheney observes of himself:
“I’m over here, everyone else is over there…for the last 30 years or so, I’ve been sitting off to the side…essentially talking to myself by outing thoughts on paper…I will always be on the outside, looking in, observing, writing about it, a sad detachment that began in youth and evolved into a profession.”
Cheney is a kindred spirit.
Brazil’s Estrada Real – Royal Road - climbs from the port of Praia dos Mineiros on the Atlantic, over the Serro do Mar, to Diamantina, a place “where creeks were exposing diamonds to daylight.” The Portuguese Crown ordered the road (the oldest European road in the western hemisphere) built in 1697 to control trade with the interior. Much as colonial British laws did in North America, the Portuguese action was intended to keep Brazil from developing its own industrial capacity by making the interior dependent on European imports. The Americas existed for one reason – to make Europe rich.
This lovely little book is an eye-opener to a place and a trail and a people I had no idea existed. The world of the Estrada Real is a fascinating one. As Brazil pushes its way in to the 21st Century and finds itself not only a regional powerhouse but a growing player on the world stage, this cradle of Brazilian culture – strung out along a highway built well before Benjamin Franklin was born – finds itself under great pressure to change – and to stay the same. And so, Cheney set out by foot about halfway up the approximately 400 mile road in the town of Mariana. He proceeded 200 miles on foot to Diamantina to document how these global forces are both effecting and being dealt with by the people and communities who live on the road. How is this part of the world handling the age of the internet, GMOs, corporate domination, global warming and extractive industry (although the extraction is nothing new - Cheney visited some of the dark precious metal mines worked by slaves whose lives valued little). Given that these stark global forces are questions many of us struggle with these days, it’s fascinating to grasp how these rural Brazilians deal and how we might deal if we were in their place – and given the current economic situation, many more of us are in this situation than were when Cheney made the trip just a few short years ago.
Cheney is uniquely suited to both make this journey and write this book. Married to a Brazilian and capable in Portuguese, Cheney had at one time spent several years banana farming in these same mountains of Brazil. That background opens new doors on his ability to translate this culture for those of us who have never been to Brazil or seek to know more about the place.
Be it a teenager who goes out his way to scoop up and depot in the trash can a plastic bottle on a street in Catas Altas or the drivers who thoughtlessly toss trash out of their windows and into the streets of Sao Goncalo do Rio das Pedras, Cheney masterfully captures the economic and social struggle playing out in these communities. And he does it with many beautifully crafted descriptions: “And she has a current husband, a toothless old man who keeps on taking snuff from a tin in his pocket” , “Viscous yellow-gray smoke hemorrhages from a short, fat smokestack and blends into the low-lying clouds” and “She no longer eats compete meals, living instead by nibbling cheese and crackers. She never drinks water. Her coffee is Nescafe instant.”
Wonderful.
I have two complaints about “Journey on the Estrada Real”. First is the lack of maps. I’m a stickler for good maps and having a detail of where the author is going day by day at the front of every chapter is invaluable – a failing I note in my own book.
The other complaint is a general pet-peeve of mine about current travel literature. That is the constant and offensive use of the present tense. I’m talking about such gunk as “I stop to check my map” instead of “I STOPPED to check my map.” Nearly every work of travel literature I pick up these days from the Smithsonian magazine to National Geographic to books like Cheney’s attempts to hoodwink the reader with the ridiculously unattainable proposition that I’m right there with the traveler. It is distracting and off-putting. The trip happened in the past, write it as such. I as a reader want to know what happened not get jerked along on some fantasy that I am actually there.
In the end, Cheney’s “observer”, while skilled in his reportage, is a little unconvincing. Why? I just don’t think he is as firm in that role as he thinks he is. It is because Cheney cares. Just a few pages after his ‘I’m just an observer” epiphany, Cheney comes to a village that lacks in many simple comforts and economic activities. Upon finding an industrious woman in this village, Cheney offers up a litany of solutions and things he’s like to do to help that woman meet her goals and grow the local economy. Every single one of those solutions is closely within his grasp – simple and inexpensive. His “observer” knows what it will take to improve life there. My “participant” wanted him to act. But would I appreciate such an intrusion?
Well. …yes. I would love for some rich Russian or Arab to come to my high desert community and drop me enough to finish my landscaping and to bury the power and telephone lines and close unused roads and build sidewalks and…
And I’d love to see Glen Alan Cheney take up just a thousand dollars and a wash machine and go…
(Cheney offers this book at a discounted rate to members of goodreads at: NLLibrarium.com/goodreads/Estrada)
I had come to a research station deep in the boreal forest where a boisterous woman with a loose eye and jarring laugh was heading up a government-funded wetland restoration project. Ecological restoration is my passion. The “job” I had given myself on my walk however was one of impassioned observer only- not that of a participant. However, there I was, not wanting to walk on but instead stay and help this woman restore these wetlands. I did walk on of course and over the coming days found a resolution to a question that plagued me most of my adult life – participant or observer?
And so, for me the most profound point of Glen Alan Cheney’s “Journey on the Estrada Real – Encounters in the Mountains of Brazil” doesn’t come until page 167 when, falling away from a community party in the town of Serro, Cheney observes of himself:
“I’m over here, everyone else is over there…for the last 30 years or so, I’ve been sitting off to the side…essentially talking to myself by outing thoughts on paper…I will always be on the outside, looking in, observing, writing about it, a sad detachment that began in youth and evolved into a profession.”
Cheney is a kindred spirit.
Brazil’s Estrada Real – Royal Road - climbs from the port of Praia dos Mineiros on the Atlantic, over the Serro do Mar, to Diamantina, a place “where creeks were exposing diamonds to daylight.” The Portuguese Crown ordered the road (the oldest European road in the western hemisphere) built in 1697 to control trade with the interior. Much as colonial British laws did in North America, the Portuguese action was intended to keep Brazil from developing its own industrial capacity by making the interior dependent on European imports. The Americas existed for one reason – to make Europe rich.
This lovely little book is an eye-opener to a place and a trail and a people I had no idea existed. The world of the Estrada Real is a fascinating one. As Brazil pushes its way in to the 21st Century and finds itself not only a regional powerhouse but a growing player on the world stage, this cradle of Brazilian culture – strung out along a highway built well before Benjamin Franklin was born – finds itself under great pressure to change – and to stay the same. And so, Cheney set out by foot about halfway up the approximately 400 mile road in the town of Mariana. He proceeded 200 miles on foot to Diamantina to document how these global forces are both effecting and being dealt with by the people and communities who live on the road. How is this part of the world handling the age of the internet, GMOs, corporate domination, global warming and extractive industry (although the extraction is nothing new - Cheney visited some of the dark precious metal mines worked by slaves whose lives valued little). Given that these stark global forces are questions many of us struggle with these days, it’s fascinating to grasp how these rural Brazilians deal and how we might deal if we were in their place – and given the current economic situation, many more of us are in this situation than were when Cheney made the trip just a few short years ago.
Cheney is uniquely suited to both make this journey and write this book. Married to a Brazilian and capable in Portuguese, Cheney had at one time spent several years banana farming in these same mountains of Brazil. That background opens new doors on his ability to translate this culture for those of us who have never been to Brazil or seek to know more about the place.
Be it a teenager who goes out his way to scoop up and depot in the trash can a plastic bottle on a street in Catas Altas or the drivers who thoughtlessly toss trash out of their windows and into the streets of Sao Goncalo do Rio das Pedras, Cheney masterfully captures the economic and social struggle playing out in these communities. And he does it with many beautifully crafted descriptions: “And she has a current husband, a toothless old man who keeps on taking snuff from a tin in his pocket” , “Viscous yellow-gray smoke hemorrhages from a short, fat smokestack and blends into the low-lying clouds” and “She no longer eats compete meals, living instead by nibbling cheese and crackers. She never drinks water. Her coffee is Nescafe instant.”
Wonderful.
I have two complaints about “Journey on the Estrada Real”. First is the lack of maps. I’m a stickler for good maps and having a detail of where the author is going day by day at the front of every chapter is invaluable – a failing I note in my own book.
The other complaint is a general pet-peeve of mine about current travel literature. That is the constant and offensive use of the present tense. I’m talking about such gunk as “I stop to check my map” instead of “I STOPPED to check my map.” Nearly every work of travel literature I pick up these days from the Smithsonian magazine to National Geographic to books like Cheney’s attempts to hoodwink the reader with the ridiculously unattainable proposition that I’m right there with the traveler. It is distracting and off-putting. The trip happened in the past, write it as such. I as a reader want to know what happened not get jerked along on some fantasy that I am actually there.
In the end, Cheney’s “observer”, while skilled in his reportage, is a little unconvincing. Why? I just don’t think he is as firm in that role as he thinks he is. It is because Cheney cares. Just a few pages after his ‘I’m just an observer” epiphany, Cheney comes to a village that lacks in many simple comforts and economic activities. Upon finding an industrious woman in this village, Cheney offers up a litany of solutions and things he’s like to do to help that woman meet her goals and grow the local economy. Every single one of those solutions is closely within his grasp – simple and inexpensive. His “observer” knows what it will take to improve life there. My “participant” wanted him to act. But would I appreciate such an intrusion?
Well. …yes. I would love for some rich Russian or Arab to come to my high desert community and drop me enough to finish my landscaping and to bury the power and telephone lines and close unused roads and build sidewalks and…
And I’d love to see Glen Alan Cheney take up just a thousand dollars and a wash machine and go…
(Cheney offers this book at a discounted rate to members of goodreads at: NLLibrarium.com/goodreads/Estrada)
April 9, 2011
The other book that I read of Cheney's was a historical book about the Pilgrims, and while I did enjoy that one I wasn't quite sure of what to expect with this book. This is more of an autobiography of his life, as well as the real story of road in South America.
The book started out a little slow, but the further along the Estrada Real we were taken the more interesting the story of this road becomes. The people he meets while walking each have such great stories. They're not amazing people, they're not rich and famous, they're just real people living the lives that they were given. While some of the people have high hopes, they aren't any different than anyone else. Everyone had dreams right?
While I don't know that I would ever try and tackle the feat that Cheney did I would at some point in my life like to see some of the places that Cheney visited on his journey. Some of the cities seem so vibrant and some of the wilderness was described so beautifully. By the time Cheney makes it to the end of his journey I was so enthralled with the journey that I didn't want it to end. I could feel the happiness, tiredness, and humbleness that Cheney experienced while on his journey.
When Cheney first described some of the places he was staying I thought to myself "I could never stay someplace like that". But the more he travels and the more commonplace these accommodations become I realized that for these people this is what they know. I can't imagine not having electricity and my luxuries and these people can't imagine having them. I was truly humbled by the lives of these people and by the fact that they have stuck to their way of life despite the fact that the whole world is changing around them.
A review copy of this book was provided by the author. This is not a paid review and is a truthful and honest review.
The book started out a little slow, but the further along the Estrada Real we were taken the more interesting the story of this road becomes. The people he meets while walking each have such great stories. They're not amazing people, they're not rich and famous, they're just real people living the lives that they were given. While some of the people have high hopes, they aren't any different than anyone else. Everyone had dreams right?
While I don't know that I would ever try and tackle the feat that Cheney did I would at some point in my life like to see some of the places that Cheney visited on his journey. Some of the cities seem so vibrant and some of the wilderness was described so beautifully. By the time Cheney makes it to the end of his journey I was so enthralled with the journey that I didn't want it to end. I could feel the happiness, tiredness, and humbleness that Cheney experienced while on his journey.
When Cheney first described some of the places he was staying I thought to myself "I could never stay someplace like that". But the more he travels and the more commonplace these accommodations become I realized that for these people this is what they know. I can't imagine not having electricity and my luxuries and these people can't imagine having them. I was truly humbled by the lives of these people and by the fact that they have stuck to their way of life despite the fact that the whole world is changing around them.
A review copy of this book was provided by the author. This is not a paid review and is a truthful and honest review.
July 22, 2010
Although I'm not much of a traveler, I enjoy reading books about different countries - for me, it's all the good stuff about seeing and hearing about new things without all the expense and hassle of actually getting there. This book was generally quite satisfying on that level. It had a good balance of providing some background information on the area and its history without being repetitive or talking down to the reader. I enjoyed "meeting" all the interesting people the author met along the way, and felt like I had learned a little about each one without a numbing amount of detail. I also really appreciated the author's honesty about his thoughts and opinions - he did veer into the zone of sounding like a "blame America first" commentator a few times, but generally he presented a realistic conflict between wanting the region to retain its culture and environment while still having improved infrastructure and opportunities for the residents. I would have enjoyed an epilogue or final chapter with his thoughts after he returned home - the book ended rather abruptly. But I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys travel writing - you do not have to be knowledgeable about Brazil in advance of reading it to learn a lot and enjoy the journey.
January 8, 2010
Reading this was like walking along with the author. I felt the heat of the South American sun and smelled the woods and foods of the area. (I am glad I missed the dust and dirt and the lack of a complete bathroom) I could picture what this trip was like and what could be learned. While I was in Argentina and Peru, I saw and experienced some of the views and sights of poverty as outlined. One thing remains as a reminder, poverty does preserve; there is no money to develop. We of the modern society could learn a real lesson that Less is Really More.
Anyone who likes to hike in remote areas will enjoy this travel (like) guide.
Anyone who likes to hike in remote areas will enjoy this travel (like) guide.
October 24, 2010
I really enjoyed reading this book. I was captivated in Brazil and the residents there. The story has many caracters and I enjoyed all of them. The journey by foot through a very remote portion of Brazil was vastly entertaining, yet had a sadness because the people are living so desolate an area. The rural areas and a long time of old rituals made me think that there is a better way for them.
I think the last chapter was too short and I was a little sad that Mr. Cheney didn't elaborate on his own thoughts after coming back to modern civilization.
I think the book is a great read.
I think the last chapter was too short and I was a little sad that Mr. Cheney didn't elaborate on his own thoughts after coming back to modern civilization.
I think the book is a great read.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews