In the popular imagination, Brazil is an eternal carnival of sun, samba and soccer on the sand in Rio de Janeiro. Yet many Brazilians claim that the real Brazil is actually the country’s sprawling northeast region, which is a long way from the golden beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. The Northeast is the home of capoeira, the hypnotic Afro-Brazilian martial art; the sertão, the country’s semi-mythical scrubby outback; and forró, the folk music that farmers sang in hope of bumper harvests of corn, sugarcane and coffee.