These Brazilian caramel-colored stray dogs were long overlooked. Now, they're having a major moment

SAO PAULO (AP) — For decades, they have scrounged for food on streets across the country — undesired, abandoned and overlooked.

But today, the caramel-colored mutts of Brazil are having a major moment. The “vira-lata caramelo” (literally: caramel trashcan-tipper) is being exalted in memes, videos, petitions, an upcoming Netflix film, a Carnival parade and draft legislation to honor it as part of Brazilian culture. Caramelos' newfound cachet speaks to the value of resilience in Brazil — a melting pot of 213 million people known for weathering hard knocks with a smile — and inverts its supposed “mongrel complex.”

A scene from Netflix's “Caramelo” shot in October featured a beige puppy sitting beside a river in Sao Paulo watching picture-perfect families pass with their impeccable purebreds — a golden retriever, a miniature collie and a Doberman. At the director of photography’s signal, a delivery boy cycled past and the plucky mutt gave chase, following the scent of pizza and seeking a way to get by.

“The caramelo ended up becoming the great symbol of Brazil, a symbol for the people,” Diego Freitas, the film's director and co-writer, said after the day's shooting. “Netflix was sensitive to what’s happening with the zeitgeist. The caramelo is the spirit of our time.”

The caramelo craze started online around 2019. People posted the tongue-in-cheek phrase, “This represents Brazil more than soccer or samba,” along with photos of distinctively Brazilian phenomena, including caramelos galore. Social media accounts paid tribute to the caramelos' antics: One invaded a dance show and relieved itself on stage; another played dead while receiving chest compressions for a CPR training video. Online retailers started hawking caramelo-shaped throw pillows.

A petition to replace the macaw on Brazil’s 10-reais ($1.65) bill garnered 50,000 signatures in 2019.

“The caramelo has established itself as a landmark of the Brazilian people, being well loved and received in all states of the country, being an excellent representative of our culture,” it proclaimed. “Therefore it deserves mention on our currency.”

The next year, another petition to emblazon the medium-sized dog on the 200-reais note received triple the support.

Many cite kindness as the caramelos' secret charm, but more often say it's that they're savvy survivors.

Case in point is a caramelo in the northeastern city Joao Pessoa. Last year, Khelson Silva, 59, left the gym with a friend and found the stray waiting. It took Silva's friend’s finger gingerly between its teeth and led them for three blocks.

“He got to my building, walked straight into the garage, went up the elevator and right into the house,” said Silva, who learned this caramelo, now named Persistent José, had attempted similar gambits before. “It was him who chose us. He knew where we lived.”

Writer Nelson Rodrigues coined the now-infamous term “mongrel complex” after the national soccer team’s humiliating World Cup defeat in 1950, aiming to encapsulate what he perceived as Brazil’s sense of inferiority compared to other nations. Today, many see Brazil’s diverse roots — immigrants, enslaved Africans and Indigenous people — as a source of pride.

Tina Castro, an English teacher in Rio de Janeiro, equates owning a caramelo with loving the “crazy mixture" of Brazil and its people.

“It comes from a marginal place, like Brazil. It has a history of survival and marginalization," said Castro, 32. "We value the caramelo in the way we value our country, as it is.”

“Caramelos will dominate the world!” has become a jokey rallying cry online, and foreign allies are lending a hand. After touring Brazil in November, singer Bruno Mars posed with a caramelo in his viral farewell video. Staff of the British mission to Brazil overwhelmingly voted in July to christen their new digital mascot, a Welsh Corgi, “Lord Caramelo.”

The budget for Netflix's “Caramelo” is part of 1 billion reais ($164 million) spent from 2023-24 on Brazilian productions to capture eyeballs in one of the world’s biggest video streaming markets. Netflix hasn’t set a release date.

"The movie is a big bet for Netflix, a superproduction,” Netflix Brasil's press office told The Associated Press. “It’s the first Brazilian film with a dog as a protagonist, and it couldn’t be any other than the caramelo, a national icon.”

Others catapulting the caramelo into the spotlight include Rio's Sao Clemente samba school. At its three-story workshop downtown on Nov. 28, seamstresses churned out strips of sheer yellow fabric for dozens of towering caramelo costumes. Each will feature a giant foam head in the school’s 2025 Carnival parade, whose theme is animal abandonment and abuse.

“It’s our starlet,” gushed workshop director Roberto Gomes. “The caramelo is the beautiful, likeable little dog — not the purebred. It’s the cutie, that dog that’s always funny, always in our hearts.”

A few blocks away, Lt. Col. Sidnei Robson Pazini says Brazilians are merely rediscovering long-lost devotion. He directs the Rio military police's museum and archive, and says the “most iconic, most emblematic” piece — more than the muskets, cannon or painting worth almost $1 million — is a taxidermied caramelo that's about 150 years old.

The dog often visited a Rio police battalion for food — earning the name Bruto — then joined officers shipping off to war in Paraguay, despite efforts to stop him boarding. Bruto alerted troops to approaching enemies, signaled where soldiers needed rescue and, after surviving a gunshot, returned to Rio a hero. When he died, police took up a collection to have him stuffed, with a silver collar bearing the words “Constancy, Love and Fidelity.”

Street dogs still find succor inside police battalions. One in Rio adopted a caramelo in 2018 and gave him the rank of corporal. At a ceremony in July, he was promoted to sergeant.

Amid this caramelo hype, one might think Brazilians would be jostling to adopt their own. But volunteers at two shelters told the AP they still get passed over for smaller, fluffier or whiter dogs.

The Indefesos shelter in Rio had 217 dogs on Dec. 12 — about half caramelos. One clambers over a 6-foot wall to welcome visitors, his favorite ball in his mouth.

Whenever Indefesos receives a litter with caramelos, volunteers scramble to post Instagram photos. Caramelo puppies are inevitably picked last.

“It's absurd. We rush because we know that animal, when it grows up, will never have the chance for a home,” said Rosana Guerra, the nonprofit’s president. “They end up staying, waiting for adoption that never comes.”

In the Netflix film, the stray scampers into the hectic life of a career-driven chef and helps him find meaning in the present. Freitas, the director, said he aims for it to touch Brazilians’ hearts and transform caramelo affinity into action.

The puppy that pursued the delivery boy that gray October day had been found in a box beside a highway with its nine siblings. Four play the young version of the film's 1-year-old star that was also a stray. Since filming wrapped Nov. 26, six of the film's once-homeless canines were adopted by crew members and others.

“It’s a story that I hope is worthy of the dogs, because they are incredible,” Freitas said, with his own caramelo — the film’s inspiration — at his feet. “They change our lives.”

Caramelo dogs and others play at the Indefesos dog rescue shelter in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Carnival costumes sit at the Sao Clemente samba school, whose theme for 2025 is animal abuse and abandonment, in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Lina the caramelo dog lies on a table at Indefesos dog rescue shelter in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Crew members work on the set of the Netflix film "Caramelo," in Sao Paulo, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

A caramelo dog pokes its nose through a fence at the Indefesos dog rescue shelter in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Dog trainer Luis Estrela plays with a caramelo dog on the set of Netflix film "Caramelo" in Sao Paulo, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Lt. Col. Sidnei Robson Pazini stands next to an exhibition of Bruto, a caramelo dog-turned-national hero from a war in Paraguay, at the Military Police Museum in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Bruto, a caramelo dog-turned-national hero from a war in Paraguay, is on display in the Military Police Museum in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Sao Clemente samba school workers make costumes for Carnival, in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Workshop director Roberto Gomes inspects a caramelo dog costume at the Sao Clemente samba school, whose 2025 Carnival theme is animal abuse and abandonment, in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Sao Clemente samba school seamstresses make costumes for Carnival, in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Director Diego Freitas plays with caramelo dogs on the set of the Netflix film "Caramelo" in Sao Paulo, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge has halted efforts by the Trump administration to collect data that proves higher education institutions aren’t considering race in admissions.

The ruling from U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV in Boston on Friday granting the preliminary injunction follows a lawsuit filed earlier this month by a coalition of 17 Democratic state attorneys general. It will only apply to public universities in plaintiffs

The federal judge said the federal government likely has the authority to collect the data, but the demand was rolled out to universities in a “rushed and chaotic” manner.

“The 120-day deadline imposed by the President led directly to the failure of NCES (National Center for Education Statistics) to engage meaningfully with the institutions during the notice-and-comment process to address the multitude of problems presented by the new requirements,” Saylor wrote.

President Donald Trump ordered the data collection in August after he raised concerns that colleges and universities were using personal statements and other proxies to consider race, which he views as illegal discrimination.

In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled against the use of affirmative action in admissions but said colleges could still consider how race has shaped students’ lives if applicants share that information in their admissions essays.

The states argue the data collection risks invading student privacy and leading to baseless investigations of colleges and universities. They also argued that universities have not been given enough time to collect the data.

“The data has been sought in such a hasty and irresponsible way that it will create problems for universities,” a lawyer for the plaintiffs, Michelle Pascucci, told the court, adding that the effort seem was aimed at uncovering unlawful practices.

The Education Department has defended the effort, arguing taxpayers deserve transparency on how money is spent at institutions that receive federal funding.

The administration's policy echoes settlement agreements the government negotiated with Brown University and Columbia University, restoring their federal research money. The universities agreed to give the government data on the race, grade-point average and standardized test scores of applicants, admitted students and enrolled students. The schools also agreed to be audited by the government and to release admissions statistics to the public.

The National Center for Education Statistics is to collect the new data, including the race and sex of colleges’ applicants, admitted students and enrolled students. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has said the data, which was originally due by March 18, must be disaggregated by race and sex and retroactively reported for the past seven years.

If colleges fail to submit timely, complete and accurate data, the administration has said McMahon can take action under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which outlines requirements for colleges receiving federal financial aid for students.

The Trump administration separately has sued Harvard University over similar data, saying it refused to provide admissions records the Justice Department demanded to ensure the school stopped using affirmative action. Harvard has said the university has been responding to the government’s requests and is in compliance with the high court ruling against affirmative action. On Monday, the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights directed Harvard to comply with the data requests within 20 days for face referral to the U.S. Justice Department.

President Donald Trump arrives to speak about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)