Brazilian American

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Brazilian American

• By Kelson Sakzenian

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Ethnography and Genealogy

• I was born in Campinas, Brazil on March 21, 1989.
• I grew up in Mogi-Guaçu, which is a small city in
  the state of São Paulo.
• The first half of my life was spent in this city,
  where I attended a private school and received
  some of my education.

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Ethnography and Genealogy
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Ethnography and Genealogy

• I moved to Garland, Texas in December of 1998.
• My family moved to start a Brazilian church here
  in Texas.
• I only spoke Portuguese and could not speak
  English and had no friends at all until I met
  some more Brazilian kids my age.
• They helped me to learn English and also
  influenced my musical taste.

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Ethnography and Genealogy

• I grew up in church and was always very involved.
• I began playing the saxophone when I was in the
  6th grade and played for four years until my
  freshman year in high school.
• I played at many school events as well as in
  church.

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Ethnography and Genealogy
Italy Armenia

• My family is from all over the world.
• My grandfather on my fathers side, is from Syria
  and his parents are from Armenia.
• My grandmother on my fathers side is from Brazil
  but her grandparents were from Italy.
• On my mothers side, my great-grandparents are
  from Italy and Portugal.

Syria Portugal
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Abraham de Campos Sakzenian

• My father Abraham de Campos Sakzenian was born
  May 21, 1955 in Mogi Mirim, São Paulo, Brazil.
• He is the third child of four.
• He has one older brother and two younger sisters.

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Abraham de Campos Sakzenian

• His mothers grandparents were Italian.
• His father was born in Syria and his parent were
  from Armenia.
• His fathers side of the family went to Brazil to
  escape the Armenian Genocide.
• He married my mom March 2, 1979.

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Abraham de Campos Sakzenian

• In Brazil, he owned a retail store selling
  clothing and shoes from July 1977 until March
  1999.
• This store was called Aigue Magazine and was well
  known in our hometown and we had many local
  customers.
• Aigue Magazine was handed down from his father
  when he finished school.

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Abraham de Campos Sakzenian

• He graduated from the State University of
  Campinas.
• He received a Bachelors in Economics.
• In 1995 he returned to school and completed 2
  years of Business.
• In 1997 he completed another semester of Economic
  Studies.
• In 2000, he graduated from Florida Christian
  University with a Bachelors Degree in Theology.

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Abraham de Campos Sakzenian

• He has been a Protestant Christian pastor since
  January 19, 1988.
• He pastored a church in Brazil called Igreija
  Evangelica de Pinheiros for 10 years.
• He continued to pastor a local Brazilian church
  inside of an American Assembly of God church
  called First Assembly of God at Firewheel. He has
  been a pastor there for another 10 years.

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Personal Culture and Interests- The Arts

• My friends influenced me the most in the society.
  My beliefs had a major role in my taste of music
  as well.
• Because of my Brazilian friends, I became fond of
  Christian rock music.
• From there I went on to like other genres in the
  realm of rock like metal, hardcore, and indie
  rock.

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Personal Culture and Interests -
Religion/Language

• I often went to concerts and began playing bass
  at church.
• I go to a Brazilian church of the Protestant
  denomination of Christianity.
• We sing in Portuguese and the sermons are in
  Portuguese as well.

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Personal Culture and Interests- Dress/Language

• I grew to like hardcore music so much, that the
  idea sprung in my mind of starting my own band.
• I went to many concerts, where I got my clothing
  style from. (Tight-fitting clothing.)
• My band wrote songs in Portuguese but most of our
  songs were in English.
• We were called Dying to Myself.

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Personal Culture and Interests- System of
Belief/Morality/Arts

• To the band, all that mattered was the right mind
  set. We played to bring people to Christ.
• We hoped that through our music, people that came
  to talk would open up in an opportunity to share
  our faith.
• We designed shirts and merchandise to sell to our
  fans.
• To the right, you can see the design me and my
  band mate drew for our shirts.

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Personal Culture and Interests

• We played at local clubs in Dallas and won first
  place at the battle of the bands at the door.

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Personal Culture and Interests

• When the band was at its highest, all of the
  members began to work.
• Having no time for practicing, the band slowly
  decayed.
• I think this experience shaped my future in the
  sense that I only wanted to learn to play even
  more instruments and eventually, I learned to
  play drums and guitar.
• I hope to one day have another band in which I
  play one of my newly acquired instrumental skills.

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The Society I Live In

• I believe this generation is one of the most art
  centered yet.
• People all around care so much about the music
  and arts that is a definite cause of the way I
  feel about the music and the arts.

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The Society I Live In

• The way people dress has also been affected
  greatly by music.
• Its almost as if you can look at a person and
  say what kind of music they listen to just by
  seeing the way they are dressed.
• The same goes for hair styles.
• I feel like I dress in such a way that you can
  look at me and know what kind of music I might
  like.

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The Society I Live In

• The gangster part of society is what I despise
  most.
• I love all races of people, but when they try to
  be gangsters like its a good thing, I nearly
  lose my mind.
• I believe this also influences my disliking of
  rap and hip hop.

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The Society I Live In

• I love the different languages spoken in our
  society.
• It is cool to hear and be able to understand
  Spanish from the many Mexicans and other
  Hispanics around Texas.
• I hope to one day be able to speak Spanish
  fluently from practicing with Hispanic friends.

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The Society I Live In

• My least favorite part of society, is the lack of
  originality everywhere.
• It seems to me that everyone just follows the
  leader and if one person thinks its cool, then
  everyone else will tag along.
• There is so much more to creativity, I just feel
  like our society is lazy and does not try hard
  enough.