The Stories Behind the Tweets, hosted by William Parra, seeks to open a window to the world, to get to the bottom of stories larger than 140 characters. Today we have three stories from Brazil. In Samba de Vela, composers come together every Monday in a samba circle in Sao Paulo. They light a candle in the center of the circle, and amidst hand clapping and drumming, they sing spontaneous, original songs to each other until the candle burns out. The songs may relate to the singers’ African origins or social issues, as well as everyday life experiences. We move on to the South of the city, where we find around 1,500 indigenous people of the Pankararu tribe, who have helped build the luxurious buildings that dominate the skyline, but are now isolated and surrounded by many urbanites who wish they would disappear. Their cultural traditions are a key part of their struggle to stay together. A thriving street art scene in Sao Paulo includes the group called Oncalo that has been taking instrumental music to city streets for the last two years, an Elvis impersonator, ping pong enthusiasts, a street artist who creates sculptures out of cigarette butts, a team of women jugglers, a Cajun band, and hackers that share their skills. teleSUR