Two Different Worlds

Topic: Cultural Text - Soccer

Source: My observations from my trip to Brazil about how the soccer culture there differs from the soccer culture here in the United States.

Relation: As discussed in Chapter One: Culture and Meaning from Robbins, a cultural text is a way of thinking about a culture as a text of significant symbols such as words, gestures, drawings, and natural objects that carry meaning.

Description: Last summer I took a week long trip down to Sau Paulo, Brazil to visit one of my good friends, Bruno da Matta.  Bruno currently lives in San Diego but his mother and father were born in Brazil and own a house there.  My parents bought my tickets and told me that it was my graduation present.  I could not have received a better present.  I graduated high school and a week later I was off to Brazil with two of my other really good friends who also play soccer.  After a very long 13 and half hours we finally landed in Sau Paulo.  This was the second time I was out of the country.  The first was visiting Canada.  I did not know what to expect.  Bruno and his family picked us up and we were off to there house.  The da Matta's speak Portuguese as their first language but also speak fluent English which made it easy to communicate with them.  As we drove I remember looking out the window and seeing how much different Brazil was then the United States.  The monuments and statues were impeccable and simply stunning.  We arrived and Bruno's house and unpacked all of our stuff.  I knew the da Matta's were huge soccer fans but I did not know the extremes of their passion and love for the game.  Their whole house was very eloquently decorated but different from a traditional American decorated house.  Bruno, my two friends, and I walked down to a soccer field one day to play.  I remember on our way, we saw people ranging from little kids to adults playing little pickup games in the streets.  They used makeshift goals and many would play bare foot.  I looked up at the billboards we passed and mostly all of them were advertisements for soccer.  When we got to the field, we joined a random pick up game.  Everybody was playing with so much heart and dedication even though it was just a game that did not matter.  We played for hours until it got dark and then we went back to his house.

Commentary/Analysis: Looking back at my week long trip to Brazil now, I discovered that I can use the beautiful game of soccer as a cultural text.  In the United States soccer is growing in popularity but it is no where as popular compared to big time sports such as football, basketball, and baseball.  I learned that even in college sports the popularity of the sport determines how much funding it is going to receive.  For instance big football programs get all of the nicest equipment, training facilities, and most of their games on television.  They get these privileges because the sport is extremely popular and rich boosters want to donate all the money they can to see the program succeed. The United States has always been raised like that though and soccer has never really been at the top of the popularity list.  On the other hand, in Brazil, soccer is basically integrated throughout their whole culture.  Most people live and breathe the game.  It was very interesting to compare both cultures.  Turning on the sports channel in Brazil you will find games and highlights from soccer matches and basically nothing else.  People ranging from all ages don't need a grass field to play, they play wherever they can, with whoever they can, and whenever they can.  The passion Brazilians have for the game has been instilled in them since they were born.  To many Americans soccer is just another sport, but to many Brazilians soccer is life.