Salvador, Bahia
One of my favorite travel experiences was going to Brazil with my boyfriend and his parents. The country is rich in history, culture and diversity. One facet of Brazilian culture that is underappreciated is the multi-ethnic population.
My favorite city in Brazil was Salvador, which means “Salvation” in Portuguese. Historically, the city was the center of slave trade under Portuguese colonial rule; however, today it is the center of Afro-Brazilian culture.
A 2010 census of Salvador revealed 2,480,790 people residing in the city of Salvador with the following self-identification: 1,382,543 persons identify as pardo (multiracial) (51.7%); 743,718 as Black (27.8%); 505,645 as white (18.9%); 35,785 as Asian (1.3%); and 7,563 as Amerindian (0.3%). The Pardo and Black ethnicities drive the culture of Salvador and created a unique and rare experience for me, as a multi-ethnic American.
