Word: brazilianizing
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...Brazilian farmers readily embraced such Rebel contributions as the kerosene lamp and the steel-blade plow, a godsend to a country that hadn't got past the simple hoe. The Southern missionaries whom the settlers hired as teachers also had a lasting impact. The educational tradition they began is one reason that Americana has only a 14% illiteracy rate in a country where one-fourth of the population cannot read or write...
Today Americana's population has swelled to 160,000, largely owing to waves of Portuguese, Italian and Japanese immigrants who came to Brazil. It looks like any other small Brazilian city. A tiny cluster of taller office buildings dwarfs a semi-industrial sprawl. Intermarriage has turned today's generation of Confederate descendants into darker-skinned Brazilians...
...Battle Hymn of the Republic float with gentle familiarity through the heavy air. Only the fact that it is sung in Portuguese seems inappropriate. But, in fact, it is fitting because this get-together occurs some 5,000 miles below the Mason-Dixon line, just outside a southern Brazilian city called Americana...
Four times a year, more than 200 members of the Fraternidade Descendencia Americana (FDA), the Fraternity of American Descendants, travel here to renew ties and remember their ancestors who fled the South right after the Civil War rather than live under Reconstruction. Despite their Brazilian residence, they have kept their American roots. Although they are fluent in Portuguese, English is often spoken at home. Along with hammocks and fried bananas, these folks are fond of their rocking chairs and sweet potato pie. Fourth of July barbecues are a tradition...
Time has not broken the lingering connection these six generations have with the U.S. "I got only American blood in my veins, but I'm Brazilian through and through," crows ex-Farmer Claude McFadden, 90, the oldest living Confederate descendant. "Still, I've always felt a little split, like I'll never feel completely at home here." As middle-class Brazilians besieged by high inflation, most of the descendants marvel at the economic stability and the myriad modern conveniences the U.S. has to offer. "All those electric gadgets that make housework easy must give women a lot of free time...