Are Brazilians Latinos?

Of course we are, at least if Latino means Latin American!

I'm always puzzled by some American doubts! Here in Brazil, people unaware of US made definitions and succeeding cultural dilemmas, call Latino any culture or people whose language has Latin as its major influence.

My personal perception is that the US made definitions of LATINO and HISPANIC are just bad generalizations, just like GRINGO is a Latin American one. Why? Because Latino and Hispanic are neither races, nor cultures. In fact, Latin America is a geographic definition: Brazil plus all Spanish speaking countries in the American Continent.

While you stick to North American stereotypes (trying to find more or less common ground from Rio Grande to Ushuaya), you will be in doubt for ever...

Car Thefts in São Paulo x US

I was so sure that Brazil had a much higher car theft rate than the one in the US...

Then I did an online research and what have I found out?
It depends on what you drive and where you are!

The Brazilian Private Insurance Supervision Board (SUSEP -- www.susep.gov.br) publish car theft statistics every semester. The results are available online and are very reliable, since they come from the insurance companies and not from local police departments. The statistics cover only insured vehicles and theft rate per 100 vehicles per semester is presented for each Brazilian region and car model. In São Paulo, there are roughly 1 car per 2 persons, so the theft rate per 100 people per year is approximately the same. One can suppose also that the same rate applies to insured and not insured vehicles as well.

The US data I retrieved from Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_cities_by_crime_rate.

And the winner is...
Of course, Brazil has more car thefts, BUT depending on WHERE you are and WHAT you drive, Brazil may be safer than the US. Believe me...

Some results. If you live in:
1. Detroit, there are 1,400 car thefts / 100,000 people per year.
2. Los Angles, there are 450 car thefts / 100,000 people per year.
3. The São Paulo state countryside and have a Citroen C4 (as I have one), the car theft rate for this car model is only 180 thefts / 100,000 people per year. VERY civilized! Very low even for US standards...
4. São Paulo capital and have an affordable, compact car (like VW Gol), the theft rate can be as high as 2,500 thefts / 100,000 people. WOW! That's dangerous and compact cars are more than 50% of São Paulo's fleet!!
5. São Paulo capital and have a Ford Focus, the car theft rate is below 1,000 car thefts / 100,000 people per year. Better than Detroit!
6. São Paulo capital and have a Toyota Corolla (an average car for US standards), the car theft rate is below 800 car thefts / 100,000 people per year. Not worse than many US cities!

I was almost forgetting: car theft rates in Rio are 30% to 50% higher than those in São Paulo...

So now you have a choice: buy a cheap car and get robbed at gun point and loose your property or buy a more expensive one and get carjacked!

So Many Years Reading Expat Blogs...

And now I decided to start my own blog. Why? To give my contribution to the community. I always read posts I would like to talk about. So, from now on, I'm going beyond the comments sections. I would like to find your comments here too. Bem vindos!