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Adventures with Tempo's Brazilian Furry Friends
9 years ago
It was really great going to Abando, the Brazilian furry con. : ) This was the first time I'd been in South America and having furry tour guides made it even better. Like Camp Feral, it's an outdoor convention with around 100 furries, so I made it a point to talk to everyone at least once. While most of the furries spoke English and/or some Spanish, Brazil's official language is Portuguese, which meant that this eventually happened:
~ ~ ~
Tempo: "Hey, how's it going?"
Random furry: "Huh?"
Tempo: "How are you?"
Random furry: "Huh?"
Tempo: "¿Hablas español?"
Random furry: "?"
Tempo: "Um, don't worry about it."
Random furry: "...?"
Tempo: "..."
Random furry: "..."
Tempo: "...Hakuna matata?"
Random furry: "Hakuna matata."
~ ~ ~
Some observations, for the curious:
- Most of the furries I talked to used Facebook more than FA.
- OMG, the fruit. In North Dakota, people sometimes have crabapple trees, chokecherry bushes, or unkillable rhubarb plants growing on their property. (One of my co-workers at the college had to build a shed over a massive rhubarb plant to kill it.) Often, because of the work involved in making these palatable, they go uneaten. In Brazil, somebody did a find-replace with MANGOS and GUAVAS. They're all over the place! The locals thought it was kind of a hassle. I spent the week throwing sticks at trees to hunt the mangos.
- OMG, the BBQ. Seriously, these guys know what they're doing. Also, all the cows have humps because they're from India.
- Furries used Facebook more than FA to communicate. Some didn't even have FA/SF/We/IB accounts. I found this surprising, since most furries here have been slowly leaving Facebook for things like Twitter or Tumblr—and membership in at least on furry art site is a must have for all but the most casual furry. I'd blame it on our sites only being available in English, but other non-English communities are totally on our sites (like German furries and Russian furries). If you guys have any guesses, I'm still wondering about this.
- Overall, the Brazilian furries were less shy than in the US/Can. Normally, I run into a few furries who are just too shy to talk to me at North American cons, but Brazilian society seems to expect people to be willing to talk to strangers more. It was pretty cool.
- Contrary to my assumptions, didn't really find any spicy food. When I asked my distributors there what they wanted me to bring them from the States, they eventually settled on Mexican seasoning. So I brought some (approved by my Mexican furry contacts). And I made fajitas. : 9
- I brought an entire suitcase of Windfall through customs. It was pretty rad.
- We also translated Sixes Wild: The Bluff into Portuguese (and Spanish!), so that will be available soon. : )
- Magic: The Gathering cards are super expensive there. They're the only place in SA that doesn't speak Spanish, cards are both rare and expensive to order from abroad. Magic is such an easy way for people to make new friends at US/Can furry cons, so I thought it would be a cool gesture of friendship to bring some down. So I gathered >4000 furry-themed Magic cards from local furs and gave them away at the con so we could have a tournament. Over half the people at the convention played! It was super fun.
- They totally play the Nordguard game there. : D As its lead designer, I was super happy. *wags*
- Fursuits are a sometimes outfit. Especially when it's 90F (32C) and 90% humidity. (Remember, it's summer down there.) Also, there didn't seem to be a taboo against showing skin while wearing a partial fursuit.
- Most of the fursonas there were still wolves, foxes, big cats, et cetera. That surprised me, since South America has all kinds of different animals. I did hang out with a toucan, though. And saw my first (orange!) beaver fursuit. I theorize this is due to them being based on Disney films and other Western/Japanese media.
- It was all super exciting. *wags*
Ask me other questions if you have them!
TL;DR: Furries are furries, everywhere.
~ ~ ~
Tempo: "Hey, how's it going?"
Random furry: "Huh?"
Tempo: "How are you?"
Random furry: "Huh?"
Tempo: "¿Hablas español?"
Random furry: "?"
Tempo: "Um, don't worry about it."
Random furry: "...?"
Tempo: "..."
Random furry: "..."
Tempo: "...Hakuna matata?"
Random furry: "Hakuna matata."
~ ~ ~
Some observations, for the curious:
- Most of the furries I talked to used Facebook more than FA.
- OMG, the fruit. In North Dakota, people sometimes have crabapple trees, chokecherry bushes, or unkillable rhubarb plants growing on their property. (One of my co-workers at the college had to build a shed over a massive rhubarb plant to kill it.) Often, because of the work involved in making these palatable, they go uneaten. In Brazil, somebody did a find-replace with MANGOS and GUAVAS. They're all over the place! The locals thought it was kind of a hassle. I spent the week throwing sticks at trees to hunt the mangos.
- OMG, the BBQ. Seriously, these guys know what they're doing. Also, all the cows have humps because they're from India.
- Furries used Facebook more than FA to communicate. Some didn't even have FA/SF/We/IB accounts. I found this surprising, since most furries here have been slowly leaving Facebook for things like Twitter or Tumblr—and membership in at least on furry art site is a must have for all but the most casual furry. I'd blame it on our sites only being available in English, but other non-English communities are totally on our sites (like German furries and Russian furries). If you guys have any guesses, I'm still wondering about this.
- Overall, the Brazilian furries were less shy than in the US/Can. Normally, I run into a few furries who are just too shy to talk to me at North American cons, but Brazilian society seems to expect people to be willing to talk to strangers more. It was pretty cool.
- Contrary to my assumptions, didn't really find any spicy food. When I asked my distributors there what they wanted me to bring them from the States, they eventually settled on Mexican seasoning. So I brought some (approved by my Mexican furry contacts). And I made fajitas. : 9
- I brought an entire suitcase of Windfall through customs. It was pretty rad.
- We also translated Sixes Wild: The Bluff into Portuguese (and Spanish!), so that will be available soon. : )
- Magic: The Gathering cards are super expensive there. They're the only place in SA that doesn't speak Spanish, cards are both rare and expensive to order from abroad. Magic is such an easy way for people to make new friends at US/Can furry cons, so I thought it would be a cool gesture of friendship to bring some down. So I gathered >4000 furry-themed Magic cards from local furs and gave them away at the con so we could have a tournament. Over half the people at the convention played! It was super fun.
- They totally play the Nordguard game there. : D As its lead designer, I was super happy. *wags*
- Fursuits are a sometimes outfit. Especially when it's 90F (32C) and 90% humidity. (Remember, it's summer down there.) Also, there didn't seem to be a taboo against showing skin while wearing a partial fursuit.
- Most of the fursonas there were still wolves, foxes, big cats, et cetera. That surprised me, since South America has all kinds of different animals. I did hang out with a toucan, though. And saw my first (orange!) beaver fursuit. I theorize this is due to them being based on Disney films and other Western/Japanese media.
- It was all super exciting. *wags*
Ask me other questions if you have them!
TL;DR: Furries are furries, everywhere.
my god.
That was good.
Also wish I could think of any other questions. You answered the big social ones I could think of; and I wouldn't expect you to do an off the cuff analysis of the marketplace, although... did you notice anything majorly different in what was offered for sale at it?
I've only really known US or Canadian cons, so thus was curious if there was going to be a difference in the types of things and merch preferred by congoers, or if it was the same basic stuff as here in the States.
In the local artwork and suits, did you notice any distinctive commonality of style that differed from US? One of the things I've noticed over the years is that I can often tell European from American from Japanese designs for suits, primarily the heads - but haven't noticed something similar for art, excepting some East-Asian stuff that others borrow from or are inspired by.
Crash's suit is a nice example of a made-in-Brazil suit: https://www.facebook.com/crash.azarel.12?fref=ts
I'll look at the rest went I get home and I'm not tethering through a hotspot xD
That's a rather interesting mental visual. I've been to Feral's location in cottage country (but never to Feral) so I'm familiar with the layout. How was transiting Sao Paulo customs and immigration with all the furry kit?
Well, my bags got inspected by TSA about four times—probably because it being full of books looked weird on the scanners. I didn't have a fursuit to bring through customs, though, so I didn't get to have any fun conversations with customs about that. Brazilian customs didn't seem to take much interest in what I was hauling with me.
It was also a surprise to me that they use facebook over art sites to connect, only when my profile became full of furry people added was when I felt really connected to the brazillian part of it
I hope you enjoyed your experience here
As a Brazilian furry, do you have any questions for furries elsewhere?