Selena Texeira could be considered beautiful by just about any standard of beauty around the world. The six-foot-tall, curvy young woman with the light brown skin, stylish Afro, and curvaceous figure usually saunters into a room like she owns the place. Selena isn't the type to strut, she saunters, and there's a big difference between the two. Looking at the world through confident golden brown eyes, Selena not only expects nothing but the best, but demands it...
Born in the City of Salvador, Brazil, to an Afro-Brazilian father, Caesar Texeira, and a white American mother, Elisabeth Sweeney, Selena Texeira is indeed the daughter of two completely different worlds. Selena's parents, devout Catholics from opposite ends of the world, met while in university in the Brazilian region of Bahia during the 1990s. It was a time of change and tumult for the nation of Brazil and much of South America, come to think of it.
Elisabeth Sweeney, a native of Boston, Massachusetts, first came to the City of Salvador to teach English literature at the Federal University of Bahia. She'd just gotten her Master's degree in Business from Northeastern University in Boston and wanted to spend a summer teaching abroad before taking on the New England business world. Fate definitely had much bigger plans for Elisabeth Sweeney...
The Federal University of Bahia is a real fine school, one with an international reputation. It's also where a handsome black Brazilian gentleman named Caesar Texeira happened to work as a security guard. Indeed, the campus security office was located within walking distance of the English Department, where the six-foot-tall, blonde, nerdy and bespectacled Elisabeth Sweeney was teaching.
Caesar, a five-foot-ten, dark-skinned, curly-haired son of the Afro-Brazilian realm happened to be a new hire at the school when Elisabeth started teaching there. They first bumped into each other while he was patrolling the campus library. For the seemingly mismatched pair, it was love at first sight. In spite of cultural differences and a language barrier, they got married, and settled in the trendy Barra suburb of Salvador.
Brazil is perhaps the most racially diverse nation on the planet earth, but Caesar and Elisabeth were often stared at wherever they went. Seeking better opportunities, the Texeira-Sweeney family moved to the City of Toronto, Ontario, for while Brazil is a diverse and vibrant nation, opportunities for people of color tend to be scarce due to systemic discrimination.
In Brazil, there is a caste system based on skin color, education, and financial mobility. The racism is quite cleverly disguised but omnipresent. As a white American woman married to an Afro-Brazilian man, Elisabeth Sweeney-Texeira was keenly aware of Brazil's subtle social issues. One had to navigate Brazilian society carefully and see the hidden truths behind the policy of multiculturalism.
Elisabeth's hubby Caesar Texeira knew this all too well. Indeed, the brother was well aware that Brazilian society continued to discriminate against Afro-Brazilian peoples in ways big and small. Caesar had a degree in Criminal Justice from the Catholic University of Salvador and wanted to be a policeman, but couldn't find better gig than working private security. The two of them wanted a better future for their daughter Selena, hence the move to the City of Toronto, Ontario.
"Canada will be good for our family," Elisabeth said to her husband Caesar and her daughter Selena as they checked out a four-bedroom furnished townhouse in the Parkdale area of Toronto. Caesar, who'd grown up in a tiny, poor village in Bahia, Brazil, was impressed by the lovely townhouse, but Selena found it to be simply "meh," to use the lexicon of young women and young men of today.
"Toronto doesn't impress me much," Selena replied, and Elisabeth rolled her eyes while Caesar chuckled softly. The family patriarch flashed his peeved wife a smile, then playfully poked his daughter on the nose, something she found both endearing and supremely annoying. Just like Caesar expected, Selena shook her head and then burst out laughing.
"Garota Alta ( tall gal ), give Toronto a chance, you will see," Caesar chided his daughter, and Selena nodded. She missed her old life in the City of Salvador and her old friends sorely, and found the City of Toronto to be quite boring. At twenty years old, Selena was a veteran of the night life of Salvador. Selena missed hanging out with her girlfriends at San Sebastian, a trendy night club near downtown Salvador that would make the best of Toronto's club scene pale by comparison.
"Meu pai ( my father ), you are right," Selena conceded, and father and daughter exchanged a hug. Selena had always ridden the fence between tomboy and girly gal, and she was extremely close to her father. Caesar prayed for a son when Elisabeth was pregnant but fate blessed him with a daughter...whom he raised like a son.
Selena could rock the hell out of skimpy skirts and take the night clubs by storm with her sexy dance moves and boldness, but she also knew how to shoot, and kick box. Caesar taught his daughter well. The streets of Salvador City, in the Bahia region of Brazil, were wild and fun, but they could also be quite dangerous, especially for an attractive young woman with an appetite for adventure.
"Selena, you're going to love the University of Toronto," Elisabeth said hopefully, and Selena nodded. Back in Salvador, Selena had started her first year at her parents alma mater. Now, with Elisabeth having accepted a teaching position at York University, she'd moved the family to Toronto, supposedly because the Canadian metropolis offered more opportunities than Salvador. Selena wasn't convinced, she knew that her mother missed living in the West.
Elisabeth had even gone as far as getting her husband Caesar a management job with Garda World, something the 50-something Afro-Brazilian former security guard was overjoyed about. Selena missed the City of Salvador, and not just because of her old campus, or her friends, or the wild night life. There was someone back there whom Selena missed dearly, her former roommate Jamila Ahmed.
"Oh Jamila, how I miss thee," Selena privately lamented, thinking about the five-foot-ten, curvy, lovely young Somali-American Muslim exchange student she'd met during orientation day at the Federal University of Bahia. From the moment Selena looked into Jamila's eyes, she simply knew. Women who love women look into the eyes of other women looking for that sameness. That's how it's been done since the dawn of humanity.
"Salaam, sister, I'm Jamila, from Minneapolis, Minnesota," Jamila said to Selena with a bright smile and a handshake. Selena looked at Jamila, who looked lovely yet alien in a somber blue hijab, long traditional dark blue Islamic dress, and shiny ebony cowgirl boots. Jamila didn't carry herself like the Afro-Brazilian women who were everywhere in the State of Bahia. Nope, this gal was one hundred percent American for real...
"Good to meet you, Jamila, I'm Selena," replied the young mixed woman, and she blushed when Jamila looked her up and down before grinning appreciatively. Selena had known from day one that women were beautiful, and that she was attracted to them. Lucky for Selena, her parents Caesar Texeira and Elisabeth Sweeney-Texeira were very liberal, and fully supportive of her life choices.
Even though Brazil is fairly tolerant of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals, not every family is accepting of those who are different. That's one of the many fascinating things about Brazil, the degree of coexistence between conservative types and liberal types is almost eerie. On the streets of Salvador City, one can see interracial couples, transsexual dancers, Catholic processions, Islamic festivals, and the like. A delicate balance is maintained between all...
"Selena, you are one beautiful gal and I sense you're a good soul, we're going to have a fabulous time," Jamila said, and the surprisingly bubbly, hijab-wearing American gal gave Selena an impromptu hug. Selena hugged Jamila back, feeling her heart skip a beat as they shared their first embrace. For the remainder of the afternoon, as campus tour guides showed them around, Selena and Jamila were quite inseparable. Indeed, they kept talking, laughing, and looking into each other's eyes like old pals...or something.
Selena originally insisted on living at the dormitories of the Federal University of Bahia campus because she wanted to be on her own. Never mind that her parents house was just a couple kilometers away. Selena got herself a job as a cashier at Salvador Norte Shopping, a trendy shopping center, just to make some extra cash. Her parents money paid for her studies. Life was good, and with Jamila in the mix, things got even better for Selena.
"Sweetie, I came to study in Brazil to get away from my parents, my family is Somali and staunchly Muslim, if they knew I liked girls, I'd be a dead woman," Jamila said to Selena, as they chilled during their first weekend together at the two-bedroom student apartment they shared. Sitting on a rocking chair wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt featuring Jay-Z and blue jeans, her long dark hair sans hijab for once, her dark brown skin glowing, Jamila looked lovely.
"Damn, that sucks, my parents know I like girls and they're cool, in fact, my Papa keeps trying to fix me up with every dyke my age he meets at work," Selena laughed, and Jamila looked at her, mystified. For the young Somali-American Muslim lesbian, the idea that a young woman of color who loves women might be supported by her parents seemed almost impossible...
"You're so lucky, and so beautiful," Jamila said wistfully, looking at Selena, the fearless and oh-so beautiful young Brazilian woman. Jamila felt her heart skip a beat whenever Selena looked at her. For Jamila, giving into her feelings for women seemed so impossible. Back in Jamila's native Minnesota, her parents, Khadija and Awaleh Ahmed, who were quite active in the local Islamic community, would flip their wig if they knew she liked women...
