Diary of a North American Researcher in Brazil III is the last in the series Stories I Told My Students. It is the continuation of the author’s love affair and odyssey in Brazil, this time from 1988 to 2005.

The volume brings to the present moments lived in Brazil and is written much more in the framework of a travel diary in Brazil. Short vignettes about people and places flavor the book. There is emphasis on academic conferences with many Brazilian Stories, the publication of works in Brazil, and more important, times shared with cordel poets, professors and researchers of Brazilian literature, folklore and popular literature in verse.

Something new in this final phase of research, writing and professional life was the time spent in the city of Sao Paulo, at first glance an unlikely place for a student of folklore. A special moment was the participation in a unique event: 100 Years of Cordel sponsored by the SESC-POMPEIA in 2001 in that city. Others were with cordel poets and poet-singers in the Northeastern Cultural Center in Sao Paulo, and with Sergio Miceli of the University of Sao Paulo Press and Plinio Martins of Atelie Press, dealing with the publication of Curran’s final research efforts in Brazil.

And lastly the book recalls fondly the time spent with friends who were with me in moments of happiness but also of solitude and some loneliness. I dedicate the book to all of them: cordel poets, researchers, professors, writers, friends, and to the person who sustained me most, my wife Keah.