Natal
Thanks to American GIs, "Natal was the first place in Brazil to wear jeans, chew chewing gum and wear Ray-Bans," says Mayor Carlos Eduardo Nunes Alves.
Quite a coincidence, then, that the U.S. team will play one of its World Cup group games in the Atlantic coast city.
Watching Brazilians turn a day at the beach into art, surfing the warm waves and frolicking in the sun, it's now hard to imagine how important Natal was to the war effort. Its Parnamirim field became the largest U.S. air base outside the United States, a "Trampoline to Victory" for troops and supplies heading for combat in Africa, Europe or Asia.
