The SFU Brazilian Student Association (BRASA) was established at the beginning of 2025 as a local chapter of the global BRASA network that connects Brazilian university students around the world with academic resources and support. BRASA executives have worked hard over the past two years to establish a community through Brazilian “art, festivities, and Portuguese language.”
In an interview with The Peak, executive of events and student outreach João/Joe Cavalcanti Melo Renzi spoke fondly of joining in the music with his tambourine at the club’s first Carnaval party in 2025. Held with the Association of Latin American Students, it is a mini version of a national celebration. In Brazil, Carnaval (Portuguese for carnival) is a party that takes place throughout the streets for multiple days leading up to the Christian Feast of Lent, a period of prayer and fasting. Brazil is a country with Roman Catholic influences; just over half the population identifies as Catholic. Carnaval is also a secular celebration for many.
The Peak interviewed club president João Vitor Mesquita Souza. “Brazil is a huge country with many cultural facets,” he said. “And this diversity is expressed in our executive team.” He’s from Porto Alegre, a city located in southern Brazil.
“Culturally, we share many similarities with the gauchos of Uruguay and Argentina, and still consume chimarrão (an infused beverage made from yerba mate), traditionally cultivated by Indigenous Peoples, such as the Guaraní People. Brazil, like Canada, is a multicultural nation with a deeply controversial past regarding the displacement and mass conversion of Indigenous Peoples,” he explained.
Unfortunately, Indigenous Peoples in Brazil are not the only group that have experienced systemic oppression. According to a 2010 Census, over “half of Brazil’s population are of African ancestry.” This is due to the history of Portuguese colonizers bringing Africans to Brazil as enslaved people. According to Minority Rights Group, “Brazilians of African descent have preserved their cultural heritage and religions. Brazilian Portuguese was richly influenced by the speech of African peoples.”
Cavalcanti Melo Renzi is from Rio de Janeiro, located in the southeast, where “it’s very rare that you see anyone being introverted at any moment.” Before meeting new people at BRASA, he said he didn’t have great knowledge of the culture further south; “I only knew that there was more cold and it snowed there, which is not common for any other place in Brazil.”
Mesquita Souza noted that language differentiates Brazilian students from many other Latin American students, who mainly speak Spanish. The official language of Brazil is Portuguese.
According to him, while their relationship with the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) is good now, at the beginning it was a challenge to communicate their club proposal. He said the SFSS argued there was already the Association of Latin American Students. Cavalcanti Melo Renzi expressed that while the Latin association is inclusive to the region’s diversity, “Brazilians want to speak Portuguese with Brazilians;” and this club would be a space for that.
He believes SFU should be “investing more in the language itself.” He recalled that a Brazilian Portuguese language course was last offered spring 2025. He added, “introducing Brazilian culture in other subjects like history,” and “highlighting the Latin heritage of South America and beyond,” is important. The Peak reached out to SFU, who explained the language course was a two-year pilot program funded by Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and they would be open to reinstating it if there was sufficient student interest to allocate the limited funding.
Speaking with the two executives, it’s clear how passionate they are about sharing Brazilian culture and creating a welcoming space for Brazilian and non-Brazilian students to connect. They describe SFU BRASA as “friendly” and “colourful.” At clubs day, vines, flowers, and ribbons adorned their table. Mesquita Souza explained that they decorate green because of the Brazilian flag and the Amazon rainforest.
“The executives make a very good effort in including people that don’t speak Portuguese, that are not from South America, that are there just to appreciate our culture,” said Cavalcanti Melo Renzi.
“We have this word in Portuguese: saudade. It is a complex sentiment of longing and nostalgia for the past, but it is not solely a state of melancholy, but acceptance and joy for what is gone.”
— João Vitor Mesquita Souza, president, BRASA SFU
Mesquita Souaza expressed, “I think what inspired me to co-found BRASA was a feeling of nostalgia for what I miss from home. We have this word in Portuguese: saudade. It is a complex sentiment of longing and nostalgia for the past, but it is not solely a state of melancholy, but acceptance and joy for what is gone.”
Cavalcanti Melo Renzi shared that he wants members, especially international students, to “still have a little piece of home with them.” He added, “I know how isolating it can be. So, it’s nice to connect with them, remind them of cultural activities and songs, and meet other people.”
The Peak asked Mesquita Souza and Cavalcanti Melo Renzi to share some of their Brazilian favourites in the following categories:
Food
The club hosted their semester kickoff this past summer at Boteco-Brasil, where they sometimes have live music by local Brazilian artists. “I think that’s a great way to also learn a culture,” Cavalcanti Melo Renzi said. “Just chilling in a restaurant or a bar, just listening to good live music, that’s essentially very Brazilian and very Latin.”
Specialty grocery stores on Coast Salish territories include Mi Tierra Latina and Little Brazil Foods. Favourite drinks and food include Matte Leão (a rich herbal tea), pão de queijo (cheese bread made with yuca root), and brigadeiro (a dessert made with condensed milk and cocoa powder). “In our events we do some catering from Brazilian locals, and we normally have coxinha [crispy chicken croquettes], which is really good,” said Mesquita Souza.
Films
Cavalcanti Melo Renzi’s film recommendations are: City of God (2002), I’m Still Here (2024), and The Secret Agent (2025). His favourite is O Auto da Compadeceda (2000), a surrealist film about two swindlers and their journey in the afterlife. “A lot of Brazilian movies are very sad,” he said. “But most of the sad ones, they’re sad because they’re important. About dictatorship, how the government handles stuff, but I feel like a good middle ground between criticism and comedy is always golden.”
Cavalcanti Melo Renzi humorously added that the animated 2011 film Rio, about “was absolutely iconic” when it came out and captures the “general feeling Rio de Janeiro has” minus the “Broadway singing birds.” He added, “How everything stops for Carnaval, and how Túlio just sees his dentist [in costume] and dancing at Carnaval in the middle of the road, it’s something that happens all the time.”
Books
“My favourite book is one that recently got a translation to English [by Zoë Perry]. It’s called Secret Dinner [by Raphael Montes]. It’s a horror/mystery that happens in Rio,” he said. “I like this book because I feel it’s not afraid to get graphic or realistic, and the fear factor of it is that what’s happening could really be happening, and we just have no idea about it.”
Cultural events
“We really want to do a June fest,” said Mesquita Souza, known as Festa Junina, “but in Brazil, June is winter, but here it will be summer.” Festa Junina is a celebration to commemorate the Catholic Saints John, Peter, and Anthony, dancing forró (the music, dance, and culture of northeastern Brazil) and quadrilles (folk dances), and other celebrations like bonfires and fireworks.
Soccer is a big part of the culture. Cavalcanti Melo Renzi said, “Every time that there is a game, the city stops. Everybody’s screaming. Everybody’s in the bars around a tiny TV or a TV in the ceiling. You know when there is a goal or if a team lost.” During the Libertadores Cup, he said people “can just forget about their problems” and focus on rooting for their team. For him, that team is Fluminense.
BRASA is planning future events including a fall semester kickoff and a movie night. Follow them on Instagram at @brasasfu.
