University Degree Equivalency? (São Paulo)

If I have an undergraduate degree (bacharelado) from an American university and I wanted to attend university in Brazil, would I be a graduate student (mestrado)?

Or do Brazilian universities not recognize American undergraduate degrees?

I have a feeling this is the case, from what I've experienced about pay scales at work for a Brazilian company, but that might just be a tight-fisted company ("well WE don't recognize that degree"...) I'm curious about what the universities think.

Anybody know anything about this?