Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
Machado was a notable Brazilian novelist, poet and short story writer who is widely regarded as a classic master of Brazilian and world literature, Machado wrote nine novels, eight short-story collections, four volumes of poetry, 13 plays, and numerous critical essays. Harold Bloom said that Machado is "a kind of miracle, another demonstration of the autonomy of literary genius in regard to time and place, politics and religion".
Edison Arantes do Nascimento (Pele)
Best known by the name 'Pele', he is a former Brazilian football player who is regarded as the most illustrious football players of all times, a living sporting legend. Pele was honored with the title of Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee. He is the all-time top scorer in the history of the Brazil national football team and is the only footballer to be a part of three World Cup-winning teams.
Cândido Portinari
Portinari was one of the most important Brazilian painters, muralist and also a prominent and influential practitioner of the neo-realism style in painting. He is regarded as the greatest artist Brazil has produced. After the 1940s Portinari became an international Brazilian icon. Café, Morro, Monumento Rodoviário da Estrada do Rio-São Paulo are some of the works that consecrated him as a distinguished painter. “Portinari’s ultimate artistic consecration came with his War and Peace murals of 1953, which he painted for the entrance hall of the United Nations headquarters in New York.”
Adriana Lima
The blue eyed Brazilian supermodel, Adriana Lima, is best known as a Victoria's Secret Angel since 2000 and a spokes model for Maybelline cosmetics. Moreover, she is one of the most in-demand runway models un the world and has walked the catwalks for famous designers such as Vera Wang, Christian Lacroix, Emanuel Ungaro, Giorgio Armani, Fendi, Ralph Lauren and Valentino. She is considered by many to be one of the most popular and beautiful models in the world.
Andreas Pavel
Is a Brazilian inventor who is the 'father' of the portable personal stereo cassette player, the Walkman. “Pavel invented the device known today as the Walkman. But it took more than 25 years of battling the Sony Corporation and others in courts and patent offices around the world before he finally won the right to say it," reports The New York Times.
Paolo Coelho
"When you want something, the whole universe conspires in helping you achieve it."
Coelho is a famous Brazilian lyricist and novelist. Coelho is in fact one of the most successful authors, because he has sold over 101 million books in over 145 countries worldwide and his works have been translated into 67 languages. The Alchemist, The Manual of the Warrior of Light, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, The Fifth Mountain, Veronika Decides to Die, The Devil and Miss Prym, Eleven Minutes, Like The Flowing River and The Valkyries are some of his best sellers.
Carmen Miranda
Carmen Miranda was a very famous Brazilian samba singer and actress, a true Broadway star, one of the highest-paid artists in Hollywood, and by some accounts the highest-earning woman in the United States. In Hollywood she starred with most of the greats of the 30s and 40s; Marx, Roony, Jerry Lewis, Cesar Romero, Alice Faye. Some of the movies of her "Hollywood phase" are: Copacabana, The Gang's All Here, Down Argentine Way, Weekend In Havana and many others.
Ronaldinho
Ronaldinho is a Brazilian soccer player who is considered by some one of the best footballer in the world. He was voted FIFA World Player of the year 2004 and 2005. He won the Championship league with FC Barcelona and won the world cup with Brazil and continues to be one of the most skillfully dominant players today.
José Lutzenberger
"We must learn to look at Nature, at Creation, as something sacred of which we humans are only a part-or we will have no future. We need a new, actually very old, holistic ethics, an ethics of reverence for life in all its forms and manifestations."
Lutzenberger, an ecologist and former Brazilian Minister of the environment, is one of the principal founders and most outspoken advocates of the environmental movement. He was Brazil's first internationally known environmental activist. In 1988 Lutzenberger was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, known as "the alternative Nobel Prize."