The town in Brazil that embraces the Confederate flag

[EX500rider]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33245800
The debate over flying the Confederate flag has reignited in the US, but the American South isn't the only place in the world you'll see the emblem - it's also proudly displayed in the rural Brazilian town of Santa Barbara D'Oeste.
Once a year, the descendants of about 10,000 Confederates that fled the United States to Brazil after the US Civil War have a sort of family reunion.
"They all take part in stereotypically southern things like square dances, eating fried chicken and biscuits, and listening to George Strait," says Asher Levine, a Sao Paulo-based correspondent for Reuters. "And a lot of Confederate flags everywhere, all over the place."
Despite being six or seven generations removed from their antebellum ancestry, many local Brazilians still maintain strong ties to Southern culture, and proudly wave the Confederate flag.
But for them, Levine says, the flag is much more of an ethnic symbol than a political one.
"They see themselves as ethnically American to some degree," he says.
"At an Italian festival, you would see people waving an Italian flag. Or on Saint Patrick's Day you see people waving the Irish flag. They see it that way. They don't have any political affiliation to it whatsoever."


I didn't know that many Confederates fled to Brazil after the war.

[virgogal]

1. It looks like these folks need a history lesson. Shame on them.

[HassleCat]

2. Brazilian specialty

Brazil was a hiding place for Nazis, after WWII. Do they have some anti-extradition tradition, or something else that makes them a good place to hide out? I like the sneakers with the confederate uniform. Nice touch.

[appalachiablue]

4. The Confederados. In 1865 at the end of the American Civil War a sizable number of Southerners left

the South. Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil wanted to encourage cotton cultivation so after the war he offered Southerners subsidies for travelling to Brazil, cheap land and tax cuts. Many who left the South had lost their land during the war, were unwilling to live under a conquering and occupying army or saw no economic future in the South.

Last year I researched this topic and it appears the community is mostly centered in one region, has declined somewhat and is fairly small today. The residents include people with Brazilian ancestry from intermarriages over the years.

Wiki, Confederados
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederados

[HassleCat]

14. Accent?

Do they speak Portugese with a drawl?

[appalachiablue]

15. I doubt it after 150 years.

[KamaAina]

3. Excellent!

All these Confederate irredentists that are crawling out of the woodwork can go down there!

[appalachiablue]

6. That's what I've been saying for a year to no avail. After the 2012 election there were many

news articles about northern, blue states wanting to secede from the southern states that are less economically successful and the recipients of government tax dollars, among other issues. And there are right wing conservatives who also want a separation. One OP last year was about a new book by a former Reagan supporter who called for the creation of a family based, Christian 'Reaganland' in the southern states which I thought was a good idea. Before that, the notion of a colony for right wing ultraconservatives away from the US mainland occurred to me as the best solution, but most commenters to my post didn't agree.

[KamaAina]

7. "a family based, Christian 'Reaganland' in the southern states"

They can't have New Orleans, dammit! Or Atlanta, either.

[appalachiablue]

11. That's what I think and a main reason why I suggested they relocate to another continent, far away!

That way the south and US could be preserved, and most importantly there would be no shared BORDERS which would be used to spread incompatible ideology. But no one approved the idea. Love New Orleans, have visited coastal SC and Georgia- saw beautiful, charming Savannah, Charleston and St. Mary's next to wild, natural Cumberland Island where JFK Jr. and Caroline Bessette were married in an historic black church in the mid 90s. But something must change to resolve this county's many, many problems!

[appalachiablue]

13. Douglas MacKinnon book. (Sorry) but his idea and book didn't do very well, thankfully!

http://www.salon.com/2014/10/22/reagan_aide_south_should_secede_and_create_a_new_anti_gay_country_called_reagan/

[Humanist_Activist]

5. These people should be ashamed, not proud. n/t

[JI7]

8. no surprise they went to Brazil when you look at its history

I bet they are probably same ones who don't think there is racism there now.

[appalachiablue]

10. When Emperor Dom Pedro made the proposal in 1865 slavery existed in Brazil. That there is racism in

Brazil today I can believe, unfortunately. In the 1970s I travelled there when young and found the county very beautiful especially Rio de Janeiro. And the Portuguese language so interesting to hear. Several months ago I was disappointed to read a DU poster's comment that many Caribbean Spanish, Latin people are prejudiced, even though I know it's probably the (awful) truth. I just put a post here #9. about a Havanna born, South Carolina white supremacist, GOP self-described "Cuban Confederate."

- Rio de Janeiro, Sugar Loaf Mountain, Ipanema beach

[appalachiablue]

9. Roan Garcia-Quintana, right wing white nationalist, Council of Conservative Citizens

member, Reaganite, Lee Atwater associate and self described "CUBAN CONFEDERATE". Garcia-Quintana was born in Cuba in 1950, considers himself to be of European, Spanish heritage, not Latino, was raised in Savannah, and is a resident of Maudlin, South Carolina. He works as a GOP operative, was a staffer briefly for Gov. Nikki Haley's 2014 re-election campaign until forced to resign and is the head of the anti-immigrant bashing group, 'Americans Have Had Enough'.

- Roan Garcia-Quintana, "Cuban Confederate", white supremacist, GOP operative & Council of Conservative Citizens member



- SPLC, Roan Garcia-Quintana, PROFILE
http://www.splcenter.org/get%20informed/intelligence%20files/profiles/Roan%20Garcia-Quintana

- Sourcewatch, Council of Conservative Citizens, white supremacist and nationalist organization
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Council_of_Conservative_Citizens

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. They did and they are somewhat confusing

[kelliekat44]

16. Many Nazi fled to Brazil and some Jewish sympathizers who were uncovered during holocaust and after.

[appalachiablue]

17. Dr Josef Mengele, Butcher of Auschwitz fled to Argentina, Paraguay then Brazil 1960 where he died.

Wiki, Josef Mengele
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Mengele

[joeybee12]

18. Wasn't it Brazil the Nazis all fled to, also?

Must be something in their water

[EX500rider]

19. Actually more went to Argentina then Brazil

Argentina gave refuge to some of the worst Nazi criminals, including Auschwitz doctor Josef Mengele and Adolf Eichmann, one of the main architects of the Holocaust.

Thousands of former SS officers and former Nazi party members were welcomed with open arms by Argentina’s then-president Juan Perón, who sent secret missions to Europe to rescue them from Allied justice between 1945 and 1950.

[joeybee12]

20. I guess I'm thinking of the movie, The Boys from Brazil...

Thanks.

[appalachiablue]

21. A number of Nazis escaped after the war to to Brazil and other SA countries. Some higher ranking

officers and SS officials received assistance from their wealthy families, SS organizations and other groups. Fortunately aggressive Nazi Hunters like Simon Wiesenthal (who was a Holocaust and Maulthausen Slave Labor Camp survivor), the Mossad group and others pursued Nazis and caught some of the notorious ones like SS officer Adolf Eichmann, a major organizer of the Holocaust.
See post above,*Dr. Joseph Mengele, Butcher of Auschwitz who fled to South America.

As to why the Nazis chose SA I'd say it was because it was far from Europe, Israel and the US, somewhat rugged and remote, and certain countries there like Argentina under Pres. Juan Peron who admired Mussolini since the 1920s and 30s, had fascist like governments that looked the other way or were tolerant of ex Nazis. Some escapees blended into local communities with altered names and identities and others even found employment in government intelligence and goon squad operations in SA I've read.

Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann



Eichmann was hunted and captured in Argentina and brought to trial in Israel in 1961. As a young child I remember hearing of this international event and Eichmann's name because it was so explosive and retribution for one of the most evil crimes of humanity.


- Video, Trial of Nazi Leader Adolf Eichmann, Israel 1961 (In bullet proof witness booth)

-Wiki, Adolf Eichmann
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Eichmann


- Simon Wiesenthal, Holocaust and Slave Labor Camp Survivor and Nazi Hunter