Background: Coffee economic cycle

Production was inexistent at start of 19th century.

Industry boom from 1830 to 1850s; 1880 to
1930s
• By 1840s, accounted for 44.1% of exports.
Brazil was largest producer.
• Mainly around São Paulo. Led to the State’s
economic and political predominance (shared
with Minas)
• Encouraged industrialization
• Led to growth of a middle class
• 1, 5 million slaves in coffee plantations
• Immigrants replaced slaves after abolition
(1888)
Coffee plantations
C19 Brazil:
Victor Frond
 Pilagem de café, Frond C19

Carregadores de
café, Debret
Santos harbor, 1880s
Background: Transatlantic Slavery
• Slavery to Portugal – 1433; to Brazil – 1538
• Total 3,500 million (conservative estimates): 16th century – 100,00; 17th century –
600,00; 18th century – 1,300,000; 19th century – 1, 600, 000.
Ethnic groups
• Sudanese groups: Yoruba and Dahoman (Liberia, Nigeria, Ghana, and Dahomey).
• Guinea-Sudanese groups: Malé and Hausa.
• Bantu (Angola, the Congo, and Mozambique).

Variation through time in origin:

• 16th century – Senegambia; 17th century – Angola and the Congo; 18th century -
Mina Coast and the Bight of Benin.
Trans-Atlantic slave trade: principal routes
Background: enslaved people in Brazil
• Concentrated mainly in the coast: Maranhão,
Pernambuco, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, and Minas
Gerais. Slavery will accompany the expansion of the
territory.
• Trade route 16th and 17th century: European goods
to Africa; slaves to Brazil; Brazilian sugar to Europe
• Angola becomes a Portuguese province of Brazil
(Luanda is recovered from the Dutch by “Brazilians”)
• Slaves played a huge role: labour, services, cultural
(religious synchretism), militarily (whole batallians)
• Organized resistance in the form of an African state:
Quilombo de Palmares was the most famous one
(grew during Dutch occupation, destroyed only at
the end of the 17th century – see extracts from The
Brazil Reader)
Images of the nation can, and do, change
Vitor Meirelles, “Primeira Missa no Brasil” (1860)
Glauco Rodrigues, “Primeira Missa no Brasil” (1971)
The Sound of Music

Brazilian popular music

“The daily bread of our cultural consumption”

Antônio Cândido: “one of the most important facts of our

contemporary culture”

Mário de Andrade: “the most powerful creation and most

beautiful characterization of our race”

Gilberto Freyre: “the most Brazilian of arts”; the manifestation

of “the pre-national and national spirit of the Luso-American
people, whether aristocratic, bourgeois, plebeian, or rustic”
Batuque – a circle dance
performed in colonial
plantations, with
percursions disguising
its ritual significance

18th century – calundus

or lundus

Umbigada – samba:
kimbundu words

Early 19th century:

accompaniment to the
dance on viola
Samba comes to town
1822 – National Independence
1888 – Abolition of Slavery
1889 – Brazilian Republic

Rio de Janeiro – a European capital in a process of modernization

Modernization implied dislocation of populations – the morros and the favelas

Fusion of different influences:

Semba (Angola), samba de roda or chula + Modinha (Portugal)
1916 – First samba record (Donga)
1928 – First samba schools (GRES)

1930 to 1945 – Gertúlio Varga and the Estado Novo

a) Samba is a crucial factor for national identity – it is a legitimate symbol of
national identity
b) Samba is adopted and adapted – it must be “national(ist)”
samba enredo and samba canção
• 1. What are the origins of samba? How does samba evolve from the late nineteenth to the
early twentieth century?
• 2. Why and how did Samba become the ‘national song’ of Brazil? Why was samba the object
of interest by politicians such as Vargas?

• 3. Would you agree that Vargas instrumentalized Samba? What were the policies and actions
taken by Vargas regarding samba and carnival?
• 4. What was the image of Brazil that samba songs (either sponsored or fostered by the
Vargas' regime, such as those by Ary Barroso) promoted? What would they achieve, in your
opinion?
• 5. How did sambistas (such as Noel Rosa) found ways to resist or criticise the Estado Novo?
• 6. The term "racial democracy" comes up a number of times in the documentary, as well as
mentions to "miscegenation" and "mixing". If you are not familiar with the term, do a quick
search on the subject and think of a definition that you can present to class.
Brazil, early 20th century – Historical coordinates

• Young democracy (1889), ruled by strong, traditional oligarchies –

Política do café com leite (São Paulo and Minas);
• Sharp asymmetries between regions and states in terms of population,
industrial and economic development: Nordeste, the South and the
interior vs São Paulo/Minas Gerais and Rio.
• Positivistic outlook – embraced eugenics (Nina Rodrigues) and actively
defended the whitening of population. Brazil had a problem to solve: the
three sad races.
• Cultural and ethnic heterogeneity, accelerated by large migratory
influxes (European, Middle East, Japanese) following abolition of
slavery– Brazil, land of contrasts (Roger Bastide)
Political instability
• Already under Empire (Farroupilha in Rio Grande do Sul, Cabanagem in Grão-Pará
[now Belém], Balaiada in Maranhão)
• Tenentismo: a Revolta dos 18 do Forte de Copacabana em 1922, a Revolta
Paulista de 1924, a Comuna de Manaus de 1924 e a Coluna Prestes.
• 1930 Revolution: Military coup led by Vargas
- modernization programme;
- populism
• Revolução Constitucionalista (São Paulo), 1932
• Vargas reinforces powers with the constitution of 1934.
• Estado Novo from 1937 until 1945
• – Vargas assumes dictatorial powers
Vargas’ cultural policy
Objectives Methods:

• Consolidate power, increase popularity • Develop propaganda;

of the regime; • Create or develop nationalist images
• Construct a positive national identity; and discourses.
• Overcome fatalist visions of the • Brazil’s population is not an obstacle for
country’s “atraso”; progress; diversity is an advantage;
• Unify Brazil (strengthening the Federal • Foster “Brazilianness” and Brazilian
State); popular culture;
• Create a modern vision for the country. • Investment in technology to promote a
new, positive culture.
Gilberto Freyre (1900-1987)

Casa-grande & senzala (1933)

The Big House and the Slave Quarters

Lusotropicalism – a social theory, eventually

turned into colonial policy during Freyre’s
lifetime (and with his active participation)
O Mestre de Apicucos (Dir. Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, 1959)
Gilberto Freyre’s contribution
• Publishes Casa-Grande & Senzala (1933) [The Master and the Slaves]
• It opposes eugenics and whitening of population – diversity is a plus;
• First book to propose Africans as “co-colonizers” of Brazil;
• Proximity (at all levels) between masters and slaves led to the formation of
a diverse, original Brazilian society;
• Despite differences at surface level, Brazil is homogeneous in terms of
social structures and cultural practices;
• Brazil is an ethnic democracy: far ahead of other nation: positive vision;
• Football and Samba can be seen as examples of African and mixed heritage
contributions to Brazilian culture; in a sense, they are Brazilian culture.
Freyre and Vargas
• Freyre provides Vargas’ regime with a unifying, positive vision for the
nation;
• Freyre proposes Brazil as an original country with an exceptional legacy –
and free of social and racial tensions; [criticism of Freyre will be
discussed in coming sessions]
• Freyre’s idea of Brazilianness (plus acritical vision of historical past) ties
in with Vargas’ nationalism and populism;
• Freyre’s appropriation of (elements of) African cultures helps diffuse
tensions and preempt reinvindication by coopting these elements and
placing them symbolically at the centre of Brazilian cultural life (e.g.
samba and carnaval).
Vargas’ policies
• Clean up samba and carnaval:
- prizes and awards for musics/parades which best expressed
or embodied the vision of the State (a positive vision);
- censorship: social and political criticism was not welcome,
could not record or participate;
- tight control over carnaval (becomes official, regulated,
loses subversive power); parades had to sell a positive
national vision;
• Investment in radio: the cheapest, most effective way to
reach the entire country (and the illiterate population); -
create an imagined community.
 From margin to centre: morro to sambódromo, the radio star

• Samba carioca colonized Carnival (1930s): local became global -

“Samba enredo”

• Samba becomes an operative element for the construction of a

renewed national identity

• Samba is adopted and adapted – it must be “national(ist)”

• Regime takes advantage of samba’s and carnaval’s great

popularity
- Promote the state’s vision for the nation;
- Promote the regime itself by association (populism).
 Carnaval

Cultural miscigenation: Portuguese

influences (diverse in itself) and African
influences (from diverse areas)

Slavery: sugar, gold and coffee economic

cycles (North East to Minas Gerais to Rio
and São Paulo)

Entrudo: Azorean tradition, outlawed 1853;

traced back to Lupercalia

Praça Onze – samba, low income classes,

links to cultural and religious manifestations

Avenida Central (now Rio Branco) – marcha

carnavalesca (bourgeois origin; marchas)

Marcha Alfama
 “Samba has no owner. It is ours.”
“To a greater degree than cinema, popular literature, or sport, it emerged as a decisive forum
for debate over national identity, and Brazilian began to view the exercise of musical
preference in the cultural marketplace as an act with enormous consequences. Popular music
also became a signature export product, one whose fortunes abroad were anxiously debated
back home.” (McCann, p. 5)

Promotion abroad

-Samba-exaltação: unofficial anthem of Brazilianness – “Aquarela do Brasil” (Ary Barroso,

1939)
-Carmen Miranda – exporting Brasil
From Brazil to the
world: Good Neighbor
policy
• “Ao Voltar Do Samba” (Silva, 1934). Performed by Carmen
Miranda, this samba refers to samba parties in the asfalto
(downtown), the famous Praça Onze. The singer professes her
love for her mulato (term referring to mixe-race heritages,
European and African in this case). Carmen Miranda was an
extremely popular figure and became a global superstar. Video

• “Disseram que eu Voltei Americanizada” (Peixoto/Paiva, 1940).

Performed by Carmen Miranda, this samba is a response to
critics that thought that Carmen Miranda had degraded samba
in her flamboyant performances in the United States of America.
She was doing a disservice to Brazil, in their opinion; Miranda
replies that she is as Brazilian as ever. The video presents footage
from Miranda’s performances in several Hollywood films. Video
What was in it for sambistas?
Sambistas (in radio, carnaval, records) supported and fostered by the regime and the cultural
marketplace.

Social mobility and artistic recognition – opportunity to leave a mark, if they bought in to the
debate.

“Afro-Brazilian sambistas, for example, did not merely provide grist for the mill of commercial
popular culture. They engaged the cultural market and played crucial roles in shaping new cultural
expressions, gaining a cultural influence over the nation that stood in marked contrast to their
continued marginalization in the economic and formal political spheres. The critical consumption
of popular music, moreover, made connoisseurs of everyday Brazilians, frequently prompting them
to join explicitly in the debate over national identity.” (McCann, p.11)

“Brazilians – including composers, performers, producers, bureaucrats, and fans – consistently

justified their musical preferences on the basis of what was good for the nation. In doing so, they
struggled to elevate popular music above the level of mere entertainment into the realm of public
culture. They sought to turn popular music into the foundations of a unified national culture, one
that would bridge long-standing chasms of class and regional distinctions in order to bring
Brazilians together on an equal footing with a shared experience.” (McCann, p. 15)