
The Sao Paulo Stock Exchange
Source: Rafael Matsunaga

Getulio Vargas, center, and supporters after leading a successful coup d'etat in 1930
Source: Public Domain

The 2003 inauguration of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, with presidential sash, flanked by outgoing President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and both men's wives
Source: Agencia Brasil

Brazil's National Congress, Brasilia
Source: Public Domain
Brazil's outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
Source: Agencia Brasil

Marina Silva of Brazil's Green Party with supporters
Source: Agencia Brasil

Brazil's flag
Source: Public Domain

Celebrations following Dilma Rousseff's victory in Brazil's 2010 elections
Source: Agencia Brasil

Brazil's outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his successor, Dilma Rousseff
Source: Agencia Brasil

Brazil's outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his successor, Dilma Rousseff, following Rousseff's electoral victory
Source: Agencia Brasil

Brazil's outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left, U.S. President Barack Obama, and Dilma Rousseff in 2009
Source: Agencia Brasil (Ricardo Stuckert/PR)

Jose Serra of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party casting his vote
Source: Agencia Brasil
Campaign literature scattered outside a Brazilian polling station
Source: Agencia Brasil

Fernando Henrique Cardoso, President of Brazil 1995-2003
Source: Agencia Brasil

The Sao Paolo prison where now Brazilian President-elect Dilma Rousseff was held during the country’s military government
Source: FrancisW

The ratification of Brazil's democratic constitution, 1988
Source: Agencia Brasil

Pedro Americo’s 1888 “Independence or Death,” depicting Brazil’s independence earlier in the century
Source: Public Domain

Dilma Rousseff (left), Jose Serra, and Marina Silva, the main candidates in Brazil's 2010 presidential elections
Source: Agencia Brasil

Brazil's currency, the Real, which helped bring stability to the country with its introduction in 1994
Source: Wikimedia Commons/ Zolotov

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (center, looking up) poses with workers at a refinery of Petrobras, Brazil’s government-controlled oil company
Source: Agencia Brasil

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hold a picture of themselves that reads “Long live the friendship between Iran and Brazil”
Source: Agencia Brasil

Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro
Source: Klaus with K

A favela, or shanty town, on the outskirts of Sao Paulo
Source: Public Domain