Growing community watches Brazil defend title

Friday, June 16, 2006 | 7:26 a.m.

Neise Cordeiro remembers driving around town shortly after her arrival two years ago and spotting a store sporting Brazil's green and yellow flag.

Inside, a compatriot told her that Brazilian Novelties, across town on West Charleston Boulevard, had more offerings from her homeland.

On Wednesday, Cordeiro, who performs in a samba dance group, was at that store with a shopping list ranging from powdered bay leaves to a Brazil soccer team jersey.

Antonio Cajueiro, the store's owner, remembers when he opened his doors five years ago and people would come in and exclaim, "I've waited years for something like this!"

This week, the store is filled with World Cup paraphernalia - right down to green-and-yellow bikinis.

Joao Augusto Silva rents a corner of the store for his travel agency, Carnaval Tours. His father, Tomeh da Silva, came to Las Vegas in the mid-1980s as a member of Oba Oba, a Brazilian group that performed at the Aladdin. The members of the group may have been among the pioneers of today's Brazilian community, Silva said.

The arc in the local Brazilian population from Da Silva's arrival to Cordeiro's has been one of slow growth capped off by a spurt in the last five years or so - a period of economic instability in the South American nation marked by falling wages and growing foreign debt.

Many of the Brazilians at Cajueiro's store - and at a Las Vegas restaurant where about 100 gathered earlier this week to watch their team beat Croatia 1-0 - have come to the U.S. in the last five years.

They look to one another for jobs, places to live and news of home. In the past five years, an Internet forum has grown to 500 members and will soon be transformed into a Web site (brasileirosemlasvegas.com). A newsletter produced at Brazilian Novelties has increased from one to 12 pages, and for the first time, the local Miss Brazil contest sent the winner to the annual Miss Brazil USA beauty pageant.

There is also a Brazilian Social Club, and a Dom Pedro II Foundation - named for a Brazilian emperor - that recently brought a Brazilian consular official to Las Vegas for the first time.

As with most small immigrant communities, the number of Brazilians in the Las Vegas Valley is unknown. The U.S. Census Bureau in 2004 estimated the number at 1,322; Cajueiro thinks it is closer to 6,000, because his newsletter is sent to about 1,500 homes.

Information in the newsletter ranges from people offering housecleaning or baked goods to important events such as carnaval, perhaps the country's most identifiable symbol, apart from soccer.

Silva said local Brazilians work in a wide range of jobs, depending mostly on their immigration status and level of education. Silva and several others said 30 percent to 40 percent of the valley's Brazilians may be undocumented immigrants, often because they have overstayed their visas. Many of them work in the same jobs as undocumented immigrants from other countries, such as housecleaning and construction.

On the other end of the spectrum, Silva - who arrived here as a legal resident four years ago - is studying civil engineering while running his travel agency. He said Brazilians may own as many as 50 businesses in town, only some of which are tied to the country's culture, such as three studios that offer classes in a Brazilian style of jujitsu.

Immigrants such as Silva tend to learn English quickly, perhaps because of the relative absence of Portuguese in their daily lives compared to the experience of Spanish speakers.

They gather at restaurants, casinos and homes to celebrate carnaval in February, Easter and a traditional June festival.

They also gather spontaneously, like the get-together this week at Inka Torero, a Peruvian restaurant, where they cheered the Brazilian team's win and a chance at a possible sixth World Cup.

Sitting at a table near a large screen about 20 minutes before the game, Daniel Colla was content with the growing tide of yellow and green shirts filing through the door.

But he couldn't help but note the significance of the location.

"Many of the Spanish-speaking countries (from Latin America) have their own space," he said, "but we don't."

Indeed, though there are at least three Brazilian restaurants in town, they don't exclusively cater to Brazilians. And though Cajueiro's store serves as a miniature town square of sorts for local Brazilians - you can send money home (about 500 dollars every month), buy phone cards to call Brazil, watch soap operas in Portuguese on an overhead TV, pick up a CD of samba or buy a can of guarana (an Amazonian nut) soda - its narrow aisles just can't accommodate 100 soccer fans.

As if it weren't clear enough from the blanket of yellow and green that soon covered the restaurant, the vibe at Inka Torero really turned Brazilian about 31 minutes into the first half, when the surdo, or bass drum, arrived. The rest of the samba instruments followed, and the soccer star Ronaldinho's graceful footwork in Germany was soon accompanied by rhythmic bobbing and swaying in Las Vegas.

After the game, Daniele Eastwood - who arrived here last year and sells time shares - said she was content not only because her team had won, but because she had just spent a few hours "feel(ing) like I'm in Brazil."

"Here I can dance; I can talk to anybody I don't know, or if I touch somebody as I'm passing by, I don't have to say, 'Excuse me.' It's not like that outside."