Host Community Information
Brazil's is, undisputedly, one of the world's most colorful and stimulating countries. In fact, some call it the "Land of 1,000 Senses" because of the expressive language, mythology and natural vibrations ringing throughout the country. It's impossible not to become carried away by the sights, sounds, rhythms and rhapsodies that enfold you each hour of the day.
The very historic phenomena that produced such cultural diversity caused great tumult in Brazil's colonial era. From the arrival of the first Portuguese explorers in 1500 until independence in 1822, Brazil was the dominant plantation slave society in the Americas. During the 1700s, Brazil experienced the first major gold rush in the Americas, after explorers discovered gold on inland frontier territory. The influx of fortune seekers from around the world left its permanent imprint on the country's psyche, let alone her history.
As they had done along the African coast, the Portuguese established trading posts, which they called feitorias (factories), along more than 1,000 miles of the South American coastline. Portuguese traders visited the factories with some frequency, primarily to load cargoes of a hard wood that produced a red dye known by its Latin name, brasile. Eventually, the land became identified on maps with the brazilwood it produced, and the Portuguese began to call their small colony "Brazil."
