Daisy Buazar, by Paige Monagan & Dominique Young

Paige Monagan & Dominique Young

Paula Gandara

BWS 383

May 11, 2014

Daisy Buazar

REBRA writers are influential in more ways than one. They allow for women to have a place in society that is not seen as inferior to men. These writers serve as outlets to women who are not able to voice their opinions, but through these women writers, many Brazilian women are being represented. Daisy Buazar, a great writer is an example of an influential Brazilian woman whose work and efforts have impacted the writing community. We asked Daisy some questions regarding women’s rights, religion, and racial relations in hopes to further understand women of Brazil. Daisy’s responses allow us to have a better understanding of the role of women in Brazil and how they view their own society.

Daisy Buazar was born in Sao Paulo, state of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Daisy graduated in Law at Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, PUC. She spent her first years working in law offices and financial institutions and served as what we would consider a modern day prosecutor for a small claims court. After working for some years in law offices and financial institutions, Daisy went into Procuradoria Geral do Estado de São Paulo in July 18, 1984.by joyning a titles and evidences public contest. In this public institution, Daisy contributed for jurisdiction assistance areas being responsible in attending deprived people, and the public administration in general. A couple years later Daisy took charge as Assistant for the State Attorney and as Chief State Attorney for the Centro de Estudos, Procuradoria Geral do Estado, which among other accomplishments, was responsible for the editing of the CE bulletin and the PGE magazine when contributed with doctrine and allegation articles. After she worked with jurisdiction assistance areas she was elected for the Procuradoria Geral do Estado Council and acted as Representative of the Jurisdiction Assistant Area for the 1989/1990 mandate. To continue her education and strengthen her love for law she took specialization law courses at Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de São Paulo-USP such as "lato-sensu" in Direito Processual, and mastery in Processo Constitucional.

In March of 2001 Daisy received an invitation from a special friend, Kina de Oliveira, to join AJEB - Associação de Jornalistas e Escritoras do Brasil - Coordenadoria São Paulo, she felt blessed to see her old dream manifest and come true: to simply become a writer. Daisy wasted no time and started, then, to write poetry, short stories and articles published in Literata Brasileira and in the anthologies "Constelação de Sonhos" and "Em Cada Alma, O Sentido da Vida", in which she worked as a coordinator and reviser. Daisy’s work began to become recognized and liked and in 2003 she was invited by the AJEB National President, Giselda Medeiros de Albuquerque, to participate in the "Antologia Letras". 

 For Brazilian women at this time this was a big deal, she was slowly becoming a role model and public figure for women writers at the time. Besides the writing, Daisy also dedicated numerous hours to the proofreading of literary and scientific texts. Daisy still currently does work with writing and helps different students in Brazil by tutoring and editing. Daisy has positively impacted her community, but still believes women live in an unequal society and there is more work to be done.

Women’s rights within Brazil have advanced immensely from earlier years. Women were viewed to be domestic and pious. As time progressed, women’s rights in Brazil also progressed. Ms. Daisy Buazar is an example of the progress that has been made regarding women’s rights. We asked Ms. Daisy “Do you believe that women’s rights have been achieved in Brazil” her reply was “…yes, most of them were achieved in the past years giving them chances to rise to most expressive positions in public sectors and private companies.  Still, there is much to be done to women in our country, to get to an ideal level of respect regarding women’s work, especially concerning their earnings.”

Daisy, who is an influential figure within the writing community, is an example of the progress, regarding women’s rights, that has been made. Daisy believes that there needs to be more progress in order for women to become equal to men in Brazil. Another writer who has a similar view as Daisy regarding women’s rights is named Sayonara Salvioli. Sayonara Salvioli says “ that there has been great progress in the workplace, however women are in need of a strong representative to provide an example of change” (class May 7). Both writers feel that women’s rights have changed for the better, but there is still work that needs to be done regarding the equality of women in Brazil. Along with women’s rights, another aspect of life involving women is religion and its effect on their writing.

Brazil is the largest country in South America, with a population of 196.5 million people (“Brazil”). In a country this size there are many different religions, however the dominant religion is Catholicism. Catholicism is, and has been for many years the foundation of Brazilian culture. The Catholic faith, which is very important to those who practice, will often include said beliefs within their work. Daisy Buazar, like other authors, find unique ways to express their beliefs through their work.

Daisy was asked “Did religion play a part in your writing?” she responded with “…I believe it’s difficult for writers not to express their beliefs, philosophical or mystical, in their writings.” As an author Daisy is aware of the influence of ones beliefs within their writing. Without some kind of opinion or outlook on life, it would be hard for an author to write about anything. As an example of influence within writing, the piece Suddenly written by Daisy allows for the audience to interpret whether she is referring to religion or a philosophical meaning.

“Suddenly, I was deaf. Without a sign or notice. Although, by genetic inheritance, I should imagine that someday this would happen. All the uncles were deaf. My mother was deaf. But her deafness was emotional and not karma. She just did not hear what she did not want to. I wondered what the cause of my deafness was...”

            The reference to “deafness” in this piece can be interpreted to mean a religious bias or a deeper meaning of life. A religious bias suggests that one can be deaf to other religions and intolerant. As for a deeper meaning of life, one can be deaf to reality in the sense that they only see and believe what they want to. Each meaning can be interpreted by the audience. If the reader is more influenced by religion, than they are more likely to interpret this piece through a more religious stand point and vice versa.

Another short novel that we read of Daisy Buazar is the story “Yasid”. In this story Yasid, the main character feels held in her profession as a lawyer in which she set out to be in her early teens. In a classroom with some of her colleagues she is asked what she would do for her dream job and her and her three friends all answer that they want to be lawyers. “The teacher, a lawyer who had not wish well in such profession, was surprised and stunned by the boldness of three teenagers and tried in every way to dissuade them of their intent. All in vain. The three rebels, who have become inseparable friends, took the course of law, formed and built their dreams, (REBRA Writers)”. When Yasid asked the teacher why law wasn’t the way to go, the teacher replied saying “law is beautiful, all right, although theory and practice are quite different. Justice is something untouchable -, he philosophically answered and showed a sad expression in his eyes. The three friends looked to each other with questioning eyes trying to understand the professor’s point of view. They respected the master’s opinion, but didn’t take it. They followed the way they had decided to go through, (Rebra Writers)” Despite what the teachers tells Yasid and her friends she goes on to work in a medium sized law firm in which she acquired some experience, decided to pursue a public career while her friends established themselves as professionals, opening their own office. Yasid and her friends are living what they consider to be their dream job and when they reflect on their times in college “her friends laughed when they recalled the discouraging words of Professor Mariano and his desperate attempts to make them realize that they were going the wrong way. - Someday you’ll give me reason, and will regret it as I did, (Rebra Writers)”. As many years past Yasid and her friends are still very close, so close that Yasid adopts one of her friends children as her son in law. Often times (saturday afternoons) Yasid and her friends meet up with each other to reflect on the college days and joyful days, while talking about their passions, delusions, and the non-corresponding lovers. “Passion is suffering -, said now Yasid, - it brings nothing but sorrow and despair, it’s something which I do not want to deal with. Love? I have loved a lot, but don’t know if I have been love, (Rebra Writers).”  Yasid soon retires from law and began to dedicate her time to another dream, which was literature. “Yasid was now retired and dedicated her time to another old dream, the literature. She associated herself as member of a women writers institution and had published some poetry and short-stories, but still remained unknown. Her friends still worked as lawyers, and conquered great success and influence in the lawful world. But what really mattered was the friendship that gathered them as an unbending elo and tie and the love Yasid still felt for the little boy, (Rebra Writers)” This story is a retelling of her life using Yasid as the unknown character that is portraying her life.

One of the things that we were interested in was the racial relations that were present in Brazil. This was something we felt would be good coming from her point of view because she has been born and raised in it and has seen the transition over time for racial relations. As Americans we always focus on race here and the civil rights movement/events in the past and never think about where race may still be an issue in present day time and how other parts of the country deal with race relations. We asked Daisy how she felt about racial relations and she replied “Racial relations is a very hard question to talk or write about.  It’s difficult to cite a non-racial country in a world-wide basis.  In Brazil we have a great variety of human races besides black and white people. However we assist to a large number of black and white couples marriages nowadays and it’s growing, but there still are racial discriminations among sectors of the society.  You can see it happens when watching recent news about Brazilian football player in Spain.” This made me compare Brazil to America in the sense that the main racial problem is white vs. black to where they have a variety of races besides black and white people that experience racism. After doing my own research we came to the conclusion that Brazil has a complex view on racism. I feel that racial relations are improving but in some places it happens more than others. The fact that more interracial couples are being accepted lets us know that racism is not as big of a deal as it may of been 50 years ago.

Lastly, we asked Daisy if she had any final thoughts, what she feels can improve or quotes that she wanted to leave us with just so we can have a better understanding of her and the culture she is apart of.  Daisy replied saying “I think that the most important thing to improve our current civil situation is that Brazilian men reach their maturity, in order to respect women as a human being like any other. With their dignity preserved, they would be able to show their ability to work the same as men do and then finally improve their lives and their family’s lives.” From this statement I can see a resemblance between on women in America and Brazil feel about men. In both places you will find men that look down on women solely off the fact that they are females.

Works cited

Gandara, Paula. "REBRA Writers." REBRA Writers. Miami University, Oxford. 2014. Lecture.

"REBRA Writers." Message to Daisy Buazar. 8 May 2014. E-mail.

"Brazil." OECD Better Life Index. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 May 2014.

"REBRA - Rede De Escritoras Brasileiras." REBRA - Rede De Escritoras Brasileiras. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2014.

Hanrahan, M. (2011, April 11). Black In Latin America: Brazil's Complex View Of Race And Color. The Huffington Post.

"Timeline Photos - AJEB - Associação De Jornalistas E Escritoras Do Brasil | Facebook." Timeline Photos - AJEB - Associação De Jornalistas E Escritoras Do Brasil | Facebook. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2014.