Draft:Brazilippines

Brazilippines is a phenomenon of perceived cultural solidarity between residents of the Philippines and Brazil. The concept is often identified with the idea of the two countries acting as "sisters" or "cousins" to one another.

Origins

Originating largely on social media during the 2024 Olympics in Paris, the concept came about through Brazilian users celebrating the achievements of the Filipino team, especially the gold medals of gymnast Carlos Yulo. It later gained relevance through several notable incidents, such as the Brazilian women's football team win over Spain, who had previously administered the Philippines under colonial rule.

Social Media Popularity

On the 3rd of August 2024, A Brazilian user posted on X (formerly Twitter) “A Filipino won a gold medal and it’s gold for Brazil too because we are cousins". The post went viral, having garnered in excess of 17.4 million views. Following Brazilian Gymnast Rebeca Andrade's medal in the women's division of the same event, a Filipino user posted a comparative photo captioned "Matching gold medals on floor exercise, we truly are cousins", also on X and itself amassing 217,000 likes.

Scope Beyond Sport

Building from the popularity of the term in the sporting sphere, social media users observed other examples of ties between the Philippines and Brazil. One commonly cited example was the fact that travel between the Philippines and Brazil does not require a visa; shared cultural practices such as the lining of one's house with broken glass in order to deter theft or the use of avocado in desserts were also noted.

A popular post on the platform Tumblr written by Brazilian user "Ryan-Sometimes" observed multiple cultural similarities between the Philippines and Brazil which he believed contributed to the phenomenon, including the notion that both countries, due to their ethnic makeup, occupy a "black sheep" position in their respective continents. Though predating the term 'Brazilippines', such similarities have been independently discussed in literature in the past. Filipino ethnomusicologist José Maceda wrote in a 1964 article for Asian Studies entitled "Latin Qualities in Brazil and the Philippines"

The ideals and problems of present-day Brazil have a number of things in common with the Philippines, a country that has assimilated many cultural habits from a European country with a psychological and historical background very similar to that of Portugal. In Brazil and the Philippines the question of implanting Christian Mediterranean concepts among people with a long tradition of equatorial living has involved an adjustment of temperate-zone habits to local conditions.