Lourdes Garcia-Navarro

This is the time of year subsistence farmers clear land by setting fires in the Amazon. They say it's the only way they can make a living, but it's delivering another blow to the rain forest.

For generations, the rubber tappers of the Amazon have gone about their business in a way that preserves the rain forest. Today, they are increasingly in conflict with criminal logging gangs.

It's a place where girls can play volleyball. They can do ballet (of course).

But soccer is a no-no.

That's the way it goes in Brazil, the country that famously loves soccer. There was once a legal ban — from 1941 to 1979 — noting that "women will not be ...

At the parks and beaches of Rio de Janeiro on a Saturday, you're likely to find photographers clicking away at pregnant women with form-fitting outfits that highlight their bellies.

An enslaved woman is sitting with her white charge in her lap. She is well dressed in a pristine white headdress and an off-the-shoulder blouse, wearing bracelets and rings and necklaces. She stares straight at the camera, somberly.

The image was probably commissioned by the family as a memento, according ...

On a Saturday morning, in a group of Rio de Janeiro's notoriously violent shanty towns, or favelas, heavily armed pacification police stand on one side of the street, on the other side, protestors call for them to withdraw.

On the protest side, Mayse Freitas lists the people she knows who ...

My parents are Cuban and Panamanian. I grew up in Miami. I travel broadly in Latin America but reside in Brazil, which speaks Portuguese, not Spanish.

So what am I?

This may seem an irrelevant question to many, but as the American presidential season kicks into high gear there's been ...

Brazilians bedeviled by mosquitoes bat away the nuisances with an electrified tennis racket. (This piece initially aired on June 14, 2015 on Weekend Edition Sunday).

Under a centuries-old law, a small group of families has rights over swaths of land — including some of the country's most valuable areas — collecting taxes and taking a cut of property sales.

Once the darling of emerging world economies, Brazil is deeply mired in recession. Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians poured onto streets across the country this past weekend to voice their anger.

Thousands of Brazilians demonstrated in protests across the country Sunday. Many called for the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, who has become increasingly unpopular.

In Brazil, people have tended to describe themselves by skin color rather than race. But that's all changing, as the country's black pride movement gains traction.

Mediums say they can tap into the spirits of famous artists and authors to create new works. In other countries, it might be called fraud. In Brazil, it's considered a form of religious worship.

#NPRreads is a weekly feature on Twitter and on The Two-Way. The premise is simple: Correspondents, editors and producers throughout our newsroom share pieces that have kept them reading. They share tidbits using the #NPRreads hashtag — and on Fridays, we highlight some of the best stories.

This week, ...

In Brazil, the countdown has begun for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Brazilian organizers say everything is on track, but concerns persist over the water quality for some of the events.

Processed and fast food have become status symbols in Brazil, while some are frowning on local fruits and vegetables. Bela Gil is trying to change the conversation.

Brazil's so-called economic miracle appears to have stalled, or worse, gone into reverse.

#NPRreads is a weekly feature on Twitter and on The Two-Way. The premise is simple: Correspondents, editors and producers throughout our newsroom share pieces that have kept them reading. They share tidbits using the #NPRreads hashtag — and on Fridays, we highlight some of the best stories.

This week, ...

Competition was fierce at the Rubik's Cube world championship in Brazil. There was a 4-year-old and a category for those who do it with their feet. The overall winner needed less than 6 seconds.

#NPRreads is a weekly feature on Twitter and on The Two-Way. The premise is simple: Correspondents, editors and producers throughout our newsroom share pieces that have kept them reading. They share tidbits using the #NPRreads hashtag — and on Fridays, we highlight some of the best stories.

This week, ...