With the heady beat of samba coming from a trio of students in the corner and the smoky aroma of grilled meat filling the air, the sixth annual Brazilian-American Friendship lunch turned the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School culinary arts dining room into an international cafe Friday afternoon.
Following a demonstration of Capoeira, the Brazilian martial art that blends dance, music and acrobatics, students of the high school Brazilian history class, their friends and the performers crowded into the dining room for a traditional Brazilian lunch prepared by Gabe Nunes’s mother, Alexandra, and several students. Plates were piled high with churrasco, Brazilian chicken stroganoff topped with shoestring potatoes, white rice and linguiça calabresa, while green cups were filled with Guarana Brazilia.
As he has in the past, Cord Bailey stood security outside, dressed in a suit and flip flops, holding a list of the invited students (about 10 people were added after he had printed the list, he said). The lunch is limited to students and teachers invited by the Brazilian history class.
“You’re here, if you’re not a member of the class, because we like you and we value you in our lives,” said history teacher and department chairman Elaine Cawley Weintraub, who began organizing the lunch in 2010. As students filled their plates, she explained the lunch celebrates the cross-cultural friendships at the high school.
“The focus is on Brazilian-American friendships,” Mrs. Weintraub said. “It’s a nice group of kids who are genuinely friends, not a random group of people.”
Students from the class wore black shirts printed on the back with a quotation from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:
We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.
“Sometimes we get criticized about our security, but it’s for our friends,” said Amadine Muniz of the event. “Everybody wants lunch, but not everybody wants to be our friend.”
Marlla Lemos said every student in the class invited a friend to join them for the lunch. As they created the list, they kept thinking of people to add, resulting in a slightly higher number than lunches in the past.
One of the Capoeira performers, Neila Silva, attended the regional high school about 15 years ago. She and her troupe joined the students for lunch. Every table was full; Mrs. Weintruab said about 70 people attended this year.
The camaraderie was clear as students grooved to the music at their tables and shouted across the room to each other. They wore beads around their necks and sparkling masks pushed up on their brows; the atmosphere was decidedly more party than cafeteria lunch.
Mrs. Weintraub looked approvingly over the room, “This is an opportunity for Brazilian students to strut their stuff,” she said.
Before everyone dug into their heaping plates, she reminded them: “You are the future.”
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