By Tricia Alkmia Cochée
Salvador is the capital of the Brazilian state of Bahia.
Bars, restaurants and clubs were filled to overcrowding from Santa Barbara to San Diego with Southern Californians captivated watching the World Cup held in Brazil this year, many rejoicing and eventually crying with their fellow Brazilian fútbol fans. What many Southern California’s may not know is that the oldest California sister city committee is right here in Los Angeles, which is a city sister to Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
The Los Angeles Salvador Sister City Committee, which has had a few years of hiatus, has been back on track for the past 3 years and is celebrating 52 years of friendship with Salvador, Bahia residents. The Los Angeles committee hosted a mixer, complete with traditional Salvador Bahian food, and invited friends and colleagues that have an interest in Brazil and Salvador in particular, to find out more about the committee, to learn more about Salvador and want to travel there, are interested in doing business and trade exchange in Salvador or are interested in developing cultural and educational collaborations and programs in Salvador.
The mixer was also an opportunity to hear about the interests and expertise of the guests and projects that they would be interested in developing in Salvador. Salvador is the largest city and the third-largest city on the northeast coast of Brazil, and is the capital of the Northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. The Los Angeles Salvador Sister City is a part of the Sister Cities of Los Angeles, Inc. which is a network of over 20 Sister Cities and 3 Friendship Cities on 6 Continents. This network is part of Sister Cities International, created at President Eisenhower’s 1956 White House conference on citizen diplomacy.
Los Angeles Sisters Cities sign in downtown L.A
The mission of each Sister City – To promote peace through mutual respect, understanding, and cooperation – one individual, one community at a time. It is this people to people interaction, building friendships and collaborations, promoting tourism and business trade, solving problems and transferring of resources and ideas that is the mission of the Los Angeles Salvador Sister City. The Chairman of Sister Cities of Los Angeles is Councilmember Tom LaBonge, 4th District, City of Los Angeles.
Brazil has captured the imagination of many from filmmaker Orson Welles back in the 1950s to Michael Jackson, who filmed one of his video’s in Salvador and Rio, Brazil in 1996. The film, Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus) introduced the world to the music of bossa nova and samba and the beauty of Brazilian culture, people and the landscape. The members of the Los Angeles Salvador Sister City feel strongly that part of their mission is to correct the many misconceptions about Brazil, to educate about the sometime harsh realities of Brazil, to educate those outside of Salvador to the history, cultural and business potential of Salvador, in particular the rich African legacy that is so much a part of Salvador, and to promote cultural tourism between Los Angeles and Salvador.
Committee chair, Linda Yudin stated, “there are many commonalties when you look at the issues facing Los Angeles and Salvador”. One guest to the mixer expressed that she felt that Salvador is indeed the “central beginning, the soul of Brazil”. A new member to the committee, Barry Stinston, put in simply when asked why he wanted to participate and offer his time and resources to the committee and the people of Salvador, “I’m Salvador and Salvador is me”.
A cultural and business tour to Salvador, Bahia Brazil is to be scheduled for committee members and interested business people. For more information about the tour, to join the committee or hear about our upcoming events please reach the Committee members, at our Facebook Community Organization page: Los Angeles-Salvador Sister City Committee. To be updated about Brazilian events in Los Angeles, we invite you to check the events page of Soul Brasil, updated twice a week.
