December 1,1967—Recife. After flying all night from Miami, I arrived in Recife this morning.’ I wanted to see the town, the shanty towns which are called “favelas” (the word is the Portuguese equivalent of the Spanish “barriadas”), the dry “sertao” of the interior if possible and one or more of the coastal sugar plantations.

The northeast of Brazil is divided into two general regions: the coastal sugar plantations, owned by powerful but not always prosperous sugar barons and worked by illiterates, most of whom receive less than the Federal minimum wage of $26 a month; and the interior sertao, populated by illiterate and extremely poor farmers who, in the frequent droughts, often starve or pour desperately intd Recife or other cities.