Observer Viewfinder Sun 12.8.12

[chokkie]

Am completely stuck on this, have spent the last couple of hours trying to work this out ....
This Southern state is still home to plenty of cowboys and a few "Indians". During WW2 many inhabitants were imprisoedaving the wrong surname. A native with one such name has one of the world's most famous faces. Another local hero, while at the opposite end of the beauty scale, plays beautifully. Name the state.
The pictures are (a) the bottom half of a female face (b) a cliff that sort of looks like Ayers Rock, but obviously can't be because it's by the sea (c) a modern white building in an empty street (d) a native American guy being thrown from a white horse, at some sort of rodeo event.

Hope someone can help, many thanks, Chox.

[noodles]

Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

[chokkie]

Noodles, you're a star. Many thanks foryour help, Chox.

[pentland53]

I'm stuck too, but if it helps I think the actress is Julia Roberts. Although she was born in Georgia, the other clues don't sell Georgia to me. But Julia Roberts now lives (or is native to) New Mexico. In New Mexico there are local indian tribes and there's certainly rodeo's. But I can't fathom the "imprisoned for wrong surname" clue. Also New Mexico does not have a coast so I'm stumped by the beach and cliff photo.

[noodles]

No, it's Rio Grande do Sul all right. The toothy smile is Gisele Bundchen, the world's highest paid model who was born in Três de Maio, Rio Grande do Sul. The rocky outcrop is Morro da Guarita in Torres, also in Rio Grande do Sul. The white building is the Ibere Camargo Foundation in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. The gentleman having a problem with his horse is a Gaucho, a local cowboy of the region. The "Indians" refer to decendants of the original residents who lived there long before European settlers arrived. There are a lot of decendants of German settlers in the region. Some of these were interned during World War 2. The local hero who "plays beautifully" is Ronaldinho who was born in Porto Alegre.

[AgProv]

"Native America Rodeo" suggests New Mexico or Arizona. (there is a seperate rodeo riders' association for native americans, based in Arizona.) But Arizona doesn't have a coastline, unless "Ayers Rock" is on a river or lakeside; I hear the eccentric rich bloke who bought London Bridge artificially enlarged a river to a lake so as to have somewhere for it to go...
However, the wartime internment of Germans and Japanese (but not italians?) sugggests Texas, esp. since Renée Zellweger comes from Texas and is of German ancestry. Texas had three internment camps for enemy aliens. Can't place the architecor the ugly local hero, though.

[AgProv]

AARGH! This is like the one a few weeks ago that screamed "somewhere in Africa" but turned out to be Paris... deliberately misleading? By "southern state" do they mean, as you would expect, Southern state of the USA, or Southern American state, as in country????? And if it turns out to be Georgia, Kim Basinger was born here - also German-American and a good fit for that half a face. Georgia also had internment camps for enemy aliens and it does rodeos. Think I may have a match to "Ayers Rock" - Panola Mountain National Park, which overlooks a river with a beach... the multi-storey car park still defeats me.

[AgProv]

If it turns out to be Brazil, which I honestly doubt (take a close look at the central rocky outcrop of Panola Mountain National Park in Georgia - google for images and compare them to the picture) then what is the building? Any explanations for the multi-storey car park? I can't find a match in Georgia, but other things fit here...

[AgProv]

I surrender. It's Brazil. How misleading can they get??? Interesting coincidence, though, that an American national park has a lookalike mountain!

[pentland53]

Yep deffo Rio Grande do Sul, it's Brazil's southernmost state. After posting my reply I found an image of Torres Beach which showed an almost unmistakable same cliff face / mountain. Also found references to nazi organisations and german immigrants that were outlawed but I found no reference to people being imprisoned just because of their name or being of german descent. So noodles was right all along.