The title of a 1957 feature on Brazil published in LIFE magazine reads as if it might have been written last week: “Growing Pains of a Big Country: Ambitious Brazil Has Great Riches, Fine Prospects — and Big Problems.” The operative word here, of course, is “big,” as Brazil is huge in many ways, not least in geographic size (the 5th largest country on earth) and in population (200 million people).
But enormous troubles — many of which stem, at least in part, from the country’s endemic corruption — have held Brazil back from realizing its phenomenal economic potential. As the country hosts the 2014 FIFA World Cup and, in two years, the 2016 Summer Olympics, the world’s attention is focused on Brazil more intensely now than it has been in years. This gallery features color photos made seven decades ago, when beautiful, troubled Brazil was enduring “growing pains” not dissimilar to what it’s going through today.
Caption from LIFE. "Beautiful Rio sits in its great bay. Its peaks are famous -- Sugar Loaf is in center, and dramatic. But they are also troublesome. To despair of residents, they almost strangle traffic. Still they make a lovely sight around city at dusk, when lights lie like pearl ropes along escalopes shores."Dmitri Kessel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1957.Dmitri Kessel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. "Decrepit engines, such as this 1904 wood burner on the Belem-Braganca run, plague railroads. Because eucalyptus logs they burn give off fragrance of cough medicine, engines often seem to have colds."Dmitri Kessel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. "Covering a third of the land is the Amazon rain forest. Below Manaus the river flows in many channels. All but lost in the Amazon basin are 3.5 million people. Some of them are recent colonists here from Japan and Puerto Rico."Dmitri Kessel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. Scene in Brazil, 1957.Dmitri Kessel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. Scene in Brazil, 1957.Dmitri Kessel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. "U.S.-built Dam, Peixoto, was built on Rio Grande by subsidiary of U.S.-owned American and Foreign Power Company. It has cost $41 million, will serve industrial centers outside Sao Paulo."Dmitri Kessel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. Scene in Brazil, 1957.Dmitri Kessel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. Rio beach, 1957.Dmitri Kessel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. Scene in Brazil, 1957.Dmitri Kessel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. "Old Capital was Salvador, north of Rio in the sugar-growing country. It lost its position to Rio in 1763 after gold was discovered farther South. Salvador is a double city, the lower part (foreground) built along the harbor, and the upper part, with churches, monasteries that date to 17th Century, on a high bluff."Dmitri Kessel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. Picking cotton, Brazil, 1957.Dmitri Kessel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. "Coffee plantation stands in the terra rosa (purple earth) territory of the state of Parana. The plantation, or fazenda, has its own little village of warehouses, workers' houses and stores (center), surrounded by symmetrical rows of thousands of coffee trees 5 to 12 feet high. Each of these trees produces about one pound of coffee each year. The country produces almost half the world's supply."Dmitri Kessel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. "Future capital is being built by workers who live in a cluster of 2,000 temporary wooden buildings, near the site of Brasilia. Traders from the nearby cities come to sell dry goods and razor blades from suitcases on the streets. There is no finished road to the site and practically all traffic in and out is by plane."Dmitri Kessel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1957.Dmitri Kessel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesLIFE magazine, Oct. 21, 1957.LIFE MagazineLIFE magazine, Oct. 21, 1957.LIFE MagazineLIFE magazine, Oct. 21, 1957.LIFE MagazineLIFE magazine, Oct. 21, 1957.LIFE MagazineLIFE magazine, Oct. 21, 1957.LIFE MagazineLIFE magazine, Oct. 21, 1957.LIFE Magazine
