Isaac Kerstenetzky (1926-1991)
This economist was a collaborator of my fellow Brazilianista (who was with me as a former Harvard grad student—he also began in German Studies before turning to Brazil) Wehrner Baer.
Isaac was quite tall and a wonderful friend. When I knew him, he was head of the Brazilian Census Bureau. The day I went to visit him in his office he was poring over the latest national census returns.
These were official forms filled in by the census takers (usually young women—recent college graduates). The objective of the census was to establish a nutritional portrait of the Brazilian population. Statistical data about the latter was traditionally hard to come by in an economically underdeveloped society. Such information, if accurate and in a form to lay out systematically, was highly valuable.
Each census taker was to interview a series of families, carefully noting down, in detail, what food each obtained and consumed.
The authorities were especially interested in how much meat figured in their diet—significant for its nutritional value. But it was also very expensive. Times were tough and inflation was rising.
These visitations by census takers created tension among the families. They knew that if they were short of food, and especially meat, they would be an embarrassment in the neighborhood and wouldn’t look good in the census reports. The young girls were very clear in noting the difficult living conditions, which they described in very sympathetic and often poetic terms. Isaac let me read through a stack. I was very moved, as I knew he had been. This was the real Brazil in flesh and bone. I resolved then and there to write a bestselling book based on them. Alas, that volume won’t be found on my C.V. I had to write history books to get promoted back home.
Isaac meant many things to me. He taught me much about economics, which is not an easy subject to learn in Brazil. Second, he was a social science researcher with a broad vision. Third, he was a reminder of what a great contribution to Brazilian development immigrants have made (we Americans think we have had a unique immigrant experience. Not so—look south).
FN: The reports indicated that if one housewife knew that a neighbor didn’t have any meat the neighbors would acquire some meat for her so she wouldn’t feel ashamed (just before the census taker arrived). Very Brazilian story.
Further Readings
Baer, Werner, and Isaac Kerstenetzky. Import Substitution and Industrialization in Brazil. New Haven, Ct.: Yale University, Economic Growth Center, 1964.
Baer, Werner, and Isaac Kerstenetzky. Inflation and Growth in Latin America. Homewood, Ill.: R.D. Irwin, 1964.
Baer, Werner, and Isaac Kerstenetzky. Transportation and Inflation: A Study of Irrational Policy Making in Brazil, 1965.
Isaac Kerstenetzky was born in Vila Isabel, Rio de Janeiro. He graduated from the Getúlio Vargas Foundation with a degree in Economics and later served as president of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) from 1970 to 1979. Under his management, IBGE flourished as a vital organization that successfully gathered statistical research on the effects of social and economic policies in Brazil.