Noel Rosa and Carmen Miranda: The Construction of Brazilian Nationalism

Sarah Jane Smith | Kathy Schauer

POR 204

Paula Gandara

28 February 2013

Noel Rosa and Carmen Miranda: The Construction of Brazilian Nationalism

Locate Authors: A Brief Biographical Overview

            Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha was born on February 9, 1909, in a small Portuguese town. She was the second of six children. Her father was a struggling barber who moved his family to Rio not long after her birth. Miranda grew up in a racially mixed and working-class area known as the Lapa district. She attended Catholic school until she was 14, which is about six years of formal schooling. She was forced to drop out of school in order to help contribute to her family’s household income. She worked at an upscale hat store in downtown Rio called La Femme Chic. In 1928, she adopted the public alias “Carmen Miranda,” a combination of her mother’s maiden name and the Hispanic version of the latter part of her name. This represented more than just a stage name, but rather a conscious reinvention of self that reflected a bold, motivated and audacious woman. (Ruis, Vicki: 2005, 199).

            Miranda’s career took off in 1930 with the recording of the hit song “Tai” composed by Joubert de Carvalho. The expansion of the samba, and of Carmen’s popularity, was greatly influenced by the restructuring of Brazilian nationalism during the President Getulio Vargas regime. During the Vargas era, the Brazilian government attempted to redefine the country’s national identity. The government began promote this new African Brazilian culture through the use of the Samba and through the use of Miranda to bridge the racial gap.

            In the late 1930’s Miranda traveled to the U.S. and soon became a political asset between the two countries. Miranda was strategic in promoting Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy and the Pan-American ideals that were emphasized during this era. With a high demand for Latin American artists, her popularity in the U.S. skyrocketed as films began promoting the benefits of Pan-American friendships. Although, she became very successful, she was stuck playing typecast roles that were not authentic to Brazil. She represented a homogenized view of Latin America. People in the United States were not able to differentiate Miranda from the rest of Latin America due to the number of different films she was in that portrayed her as a mix of multiple cultures.

Upon her return to Brazil, Miranda was met with negativity, criticism and claims that she dishonored her country. Her “Tutti-Frutti” number was censored in the country of Carnival mainly due to the misrepresentation that Miranda embodied in the United States. Some Brazilians saw her as “Americanized” and scorned her for it. Because the samba is considered a quintessential form of Brazil, they did not want the “Tutti-Frutti” number to also be misrepresented in Brazil as well. It was an over-exaggerated and excessive number that explicitly promoted the Good Neighbor message, not the Brazilian culture.  It was a mixed of cultures there were not authentic to Brazil, which justifies why the number was censored. Due to the harsh criticism, Miranda refused to return to Brazil until 1940.

            With the end of World War II, Hollywood’s fascination with Latin America ended. In 1948, Miranda entered into an abusive marriage to David Sebastian. Even though she was a driven and successful woman, Miranda never got a divorce. In 1954, she suffered and emotional breakdown. The following year, Miranda suffered a fatal heart attack at age 46.

Differences in Brazilian Nationalism: Rosa Versus Miranda  

            Noel Rosa and Carmen Miranda are both integral parts of Brazilian culture; both helped define the Brazilian identity and nationalism. Rosa was one of the first to use samba to identify the Brazilian national soul, and is considered one of the fathers of samba. His samba often addresses the authorities and dangers they pose. Noel Rosa once stated in an interview, “Samba is the voice of the people. Without grammar, without artifice, without prejudice, without deceit. It is both crafty and ingenious. The people of Rio feel the soul of the samba” (McCann: 2001, 1).

            Carmen Miranda also played a role in Brazilian nationalism, especially how the Brazilian identity is portrayed in the United States and other countries around the globe. Coming from Brazil during the Vargas era, Miranda was viewed as an ambassador from South America. Both Rosa and Carmen Miranda tailored to different audiences. Noel Rosa’s main audience was the poor people of Brazil. The poorer Brazilian populace loved Miranda, and she also captivated audiences in the United States.

Nationalism and Political Influences

            Noel Rosa was extremely concerned with defining his view of national identity in his sambas. According to McCann, Rosa “among the samba musicians and the down-and-out urban margins, and in the neighborhood camaraderie in the lower middle-class Rio” (McCann: 2001, 2). In Rosa’s logic, he did not only look to define the Brazilian national identity, but to achieve it. He desired to protect this identity, as he saw it as an endangered quality. Rosa believed it to be “threatened by the encroachments of foreigners and squandered by bad Brazilians” (McCann: 2001: 3). Rosa was not alone in his quest to define Brazilian national identity. In the art world starting in the 1920s, artists and musicians had become increasingly concerned with locating Brazilian identity and culture. Many turned their attention to the urban culture with racially mixed backgrounds. The quest to define this identity continued with Getúlio Vargas regime that rose to power in the 1930s. However, the Vargas view of national identity and Rosa’s view contradicted one another. Rosa views the identity as a samba culture with an emphasis on the malandro, Vargas’ nationalistic efforts defined Brazilianness as the hard working man. Vargas also worked to use nationalism to further the modernization of Brazil and promote capitalism.

Vargas, very concerned with nationalism, eventually used Carmen Miranda as a coup for Brazilian nationalism. Carmen Miranda became the “Goodwill Ambassador” between Brazil and the United States. Brazilian’s had even referred to her as their “raw material” (Bananas is My Business). Miranda quickly began stealing the hearts of Americans and became popular in films such as Down Argentine Way. Despite Fox’s insistence that Miranda play typecast roles, she seemed to reaffirm her Brazilian identity. Miranda “attempts to reaffirm her own Brazilian identity, often by merely speaking a few words of Portuguese in a film, and by poking fun at her poor English” (Shaw, Dennison: 2005, 187).

Miranda’s career flourished during the time of the Vargas government in Brazil. During the time “racial politics affected the economies of Brazil, and in an effort to improve Brazil’s economics within global society, the government attempted to create a national identity based on the racial identity politics that were previously established” (Ellis: 2008, 24). As we discussed in class, miscegenation and whitening were promoted throughout Brazil. These efforts, historically, were considered racist until Gilberto Freyre’s Casa Grande e Senzala reinterpreted these issues into African women’s sexuality. This reinterpretation paved the way for Carmen Miranda to be the prominent global face of Brazilian national identity. She is an “Europan-Afro Brazilian” and personified Freyre’s ideas. This is shown by Ellis, “Carmen Miranda was the most prominent global icon of Brazilian national identity because she was able to reinforce Brazilian nationhood through her performance of the ideals set by the Vargas regime, thereby personifying Freyre’s ideas” (Ellis: 2008, 24).

The Modern Malandro in Rap Music

Thomas Herrick & Connor Dickey

The Modern Malandro in Rap Music

Male homosociality, or as Dr. Gandara and our class coined it, the “bros before hoes” mentality, is a central theme in Noel Rosa’s idea of “Brazilianness.” According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, to be homosocial is “of, relating to, or involving social relationships between persons of the same sex and especially between men.” This idea that a man’s place in the social sphere lies with other men is not exclusive to Noel Rosa’s sambas. Indeed, even today, Noel Rosa’s malandro lives on in rap music, both that of the U.S. and otherwise. This connection can be made through the pair’s similar standpoints on women and on identity.
“If you’re having girl problems I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems but a bitch ain’t one” is the iconic opening line to Jay-Z’s hugely successful hit “99 Problems.” The blatantly misogynistic line is not alone in its disdain for the “problem” of having a “girl.” Many of today’s top “gangster-rap” artists play to this idea. In this genre, there has been a  movement towards “Money Over Bitches,” coined by 2Pac and adopted by various artists over the years. This phrase is not exclusive to money; it is the conglomeration of financial success, a strong reputation, and a credible identity. This idea is similar to that of Noel Rosa’s, though the values do differ in some ways. While Noel Rosa sees value in the malandro lifestyle of belittling the importance of a mulata in men’s lives because he thinks they are a distraction to his music (McCann), many gangster-rappers see women as valueless almost entirely, other than for materialistic purposes (sex, bragging rights). Noel Rosa does not convey such intense misogyny in his lyrics. He simply doesn’t want to be strayed from his musical path by the fiscal demands of a wife and family. Gangster-rap music often represents women as hypersexualized “gold diggers” who are not to be trusted, while those men within their cliques, or their “homies,” are the only ones they can begin to trust (Oware). In both cases, a mistrusting misogyny reigns supreme.

On the other hand, the Amelias described in later sambas share an uncanny similarity to the “bad bitches,” or “bottom “bitches,” described by gangster rap. This is a female who will be there for the man, even in the harshest of conditions, and will be faithful to him alone, almost to the point of unquestioning servitude. These Amelias are expected to go out and make a living while the man stays home, defending the honor of his family and creating sambas. In a way, one might argue that much of Carmen Miranda’s lovability with those in Brazil was through her love of samba and willingness to go out and make a name and fortune for herself while the men created music for her. On the other hand, one might beg the question; would Noel Rosa have agreed with the idea of Amelias, or with Carmen Miranda’s “exporting” of samba? Clearly, she is not inhibiting the men from creating samba. However, many felt that she “sold out” in a sense, especially when she bid her Brazilian audience “good night” in English (Solberg). Still, she rebutted these accusations with a song reassuring the people of her love of samba and all things Brazil.

It is in the pursuit of samba creation, and maintaining of honor and identity that Rosa finds the Brazilian man’s identity. Noel Rosa believed that “if he does not remain close to his roots he will succumb to the absurdity of dancing fox trot, instead of samba, thereby turning his back on true nature,” This goes along with Rosa’s description of what the state of Brazilianness is. He claims that it is an endangered state which is constantly threatened by outsiders and “bad Brazilians,” (McCann). Rosa wanted to use homosociality as a vaccine against the pressures of “good women,” that wanted men to get a job and stop playing music. He believed that to maintain the distinct culture of his country he would have to preserve the samba. He pushed homosociality because he believed that, as we discussed in class, homosociality, and the malandros’ samba, unified Brazilians racially and regionally in a common cause.

Noel Rosa’s ideas of nationalism and gangster-rap’s stress on origins and identity are similar and different in a few ways. Rosa emphasizes his practicing of samba skills and performing petty crimes to sustain his passion for music, while gangster rap is almost completely the opposite. Rappers use their music to brag about how much money they make from these crimes. In Noel Rosa’s view, the petty crimes are justified through the preservation of Brazil’s culture through his music. In gangster rap, the music is justified by the rappers’ “street cred” gained from how ruthless his crimes are. This is a fundamental disconnect in the ideologies of the two genres. For Noel Rosa, the crimes are a means to an end, while for rappers, the crimes are in end in and of themselves.

However, the two share a common ground when it comes to identity. Noel Rosa believes that the malandro and the idea of true Brazilianness is from and of the favelas:

“The favelas and streets of Rio are the source of a culture that is irreducibly Brazilian, and therefore resistant to foreign influence.” (McCann)

Rosa grew up in a middle-class neighborhood, but sought out the poor districts where he found adventure and dealt with taxi-drivers, prostitutes and  petty criminals. He learned to appreciate the slums and saw them as a simple and pure representation of Brazilian culture. However, because he was not from the favelas, he was accused of being hypocritical in his identifying with and portrayals of malandros in his sambas. Gangster-rap also identifies with the slums. If a rapper is not from the “ghetto” or “projects,” he or she is discredited because the identity of the artist does not match that of the music. In this way, the idea of “Brazilianness” lying in the streets and slums is reflected in American gangster-rap.
In class, we discussed the similarity between the malandro and the American “cowboy.” Neither are bound to any person in particular, and neither hold any official job requiring them to work any more than they want to. Yet, somehow, they both get by and hold a “folk hero” status because of it. I would argue that today, gangster-rap’s “heros” have replaced the cowboy. While the values and associations we make between the hero and the space he inhabits have changed, the idea has stayed the same; he is independent, untrusting, and (when necessary) ruthless. The malandro, on the other hand, holds a different set of ideals. His soul lies with the samba. It is because of this that he is wary of women and their ability to draw men away from their “duty” to create samba. Whereas the misogynistic gangster-rap values material goods and “street-cred,” Rosa’s malandro believes that “Samba is pure and noble, money and society are vulgar and corrupt.” So then, one might ask the question; is Rosa a misogynist? Or is he simply passionate about his beloved samba?

Works Cited

Carmen Miranda: Bananas Is My Business. Dir. Helena Solberg. Channel Four Films,

1995.

"Homosocial." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, Web. 26 Feb. 2013.

McCann, Bryann. "Noel Rosa's Nationalistic Logic." University of Wisconsin Press.

Oware, Matthew. "Brotherly Love: Homosociality and Black Masculinity in Gangsta Rap
Music - Springer." Brotherly Love: Homosociality and Black Masculinity in Gangsta Rap Music - Springer. Springer Science + Business Media, 01 Mar. 2011. Web. 26 Feb. 2013.

Rosa, Miranda, and Brazilian National Identity

Rosa, Miranda, and Brazilian National Identity
Daniel Huchla and AJ Haight

Both Carmen Miranda and Noel Rosa were prominent Brazilians associated with samba and the development of a Brazilian national identity in the 20^th century. While the works of both Miranda and Rosa appealed to the Brazilian lower classes, the subject matter of their work differed greatly, especially in matters relating to Brazil's role with the foreign nations, especially the United States, as well as the role of women in Brazilian society. Furthermore, both artists were highly controversial figures in their time, often opposed by the ruling, upper classes of Brazil. Despite this opposition from the top, they were undoubtedly highly influential in the creation of Brazilian nationalism.

The 1930's was a time of international strife and turmoil. Nationalism was on the rise in many countries, most prominently displayed in the highly nationalistic regimes of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, in Germany and Italy, respectively. Other countries, Brazil, under Vargas, at the time, sought to capitalize on this nationalism as well, and as a result, popular music in Brazil began to carry nationalistic overtones. Furthermore, the world was just beginning to recover from the Great Depression, and was teetering on the brink of another massive conflict in Europe. As a result, industrial Latin American countries, such as Brazil, were courted by the major powers at the time, among them the United States, which had, in what was described as the Good Neighbor Policy, reached out to the industrialized countries in an attempt to prevent them from supporting America's enemies¹ (Girard, 2013). It is in this context that Rosa and Miranda first rose to prominence in Brazil.

Noel Rosa, born in Rio de Janeiro in 1910, was a skilled and prolific musician who composed sambas that were primarily linked to Brazilian urban culture² (Béhague, 2013). He is regarded as one of the first composers to link samba to Brazilian national identity (McCann, 2001, 1). He primarily identified the “national essence” of Brazil as coming from the urban lower classes (McCann, 2), and his music reflects this belief, with much of his music glorifying the malandro, who, as described in class, is a petty criminal, who constantly seeks to take advantage of everything, and has become something of a folk hero among the urban poor of Brazil. Rosa identified the malandro as being the “guardian of popular cultural essence,” which was in stark contrast to how the malandro was usually unfavorably portrayed (McCann 6). This portrayal of the urban lower classes as being a significant part of Brazil's essence gave Rosa immense popularity amongst the lower classes, but earned him the enmity of the Vargas regime, which did not approve of the glorification of the malandro.

Carmen Miranda, born in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1909, was also associated with Samba during the regime of Vargas³ (Budds, 2013). Like Rosa, she also identified the essence of Brazilian culture as being from the lower classes. However, while Vargas sought to emphasize the malandro as being the essence of samba, Miranda drew primarily on the African roots of the samba. One such example of this would be Miranda's well known Bahian costume, which emphasized the African roots of Brazil (Roberts, 1993, 13). Miranda's choice of clothing while performing indicates how in the 1930's, Brazil began to embrace it's history as a multi-ethnic, multi-racial society (Roberts, 12). Furthermore, like Rosa, Miranda, as discussed in class, Miranda also met with opposition from the upper crust of Brazilian society. One such example of this would be the Brazilian censorship of the song “The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat,” from the film The Gang's All Here. The film sexualizes Miranda by portraying her “as the overseer of countless enormous, swaying phallic bananas buoyed up by lines of chorus girls who dance above other girls who have oversized strawberries between their legs,” (Roberts, 15). This was highly controversial in Brazil, because Miranda portrayed Brazil as a highly sexualized place, a stigma that remains to this day, while Brazilians themselves claim that their emphasis of the human body is more aesthetic than sexual⁴ (Athens-Banner Herald, 2007).

While Miranda and Rosa were somewhat similar in regards to the origins of Brazilian identity, they differed in many other regards. Both held starkly contrasting roles regarding Brazil's role with foreign powers. Miranda remains, to this day, most notorious as Hollywood's “Brazilian Bombshell⁵” (Budds). She acted in American movies, and worked as a cultural ambassador from Latin America to the United States, emphasizing, perhaps inadvertently, the necessity of cooperation between Latin American countries and the United States of America. However, this cooperation often came in the form of Latin American countries having primarily export based economies, exporting goods to the United States, as demonstrated in the film The Gang's All Here, which opens as the “SS Brazil unloads the major exports of Latin America-sugar, coffee, fruit, and finally Miranda herself,” (Roberts, 5). Rosa, however, fought against this exploitation of Brazil. This is best demonstrated in his songs “Nao Tem Traducao” and “Quem Da Mais.” Both of these songs, as discussed in class, portray Brazilians as selling off their national identities to foreigners. Thus, Rosa held a more fiercely Brazilian nationalistic outlook, fighting against foreign involvement in Brazil, while Miranda worked to welcome foreign involvement.

Another point of contention between the two would be the roles of women in Brazilian society. Noel Rosa, for example, often portrayed women, called in his works, mulattas, as a threat to samba, as they cause the malandro to settle down, and provide for his family, rather than writing and performing samba. To Rosa, the ideal woman is what Brazilians call the Amelia, a housewife, who wholly supports her husband, an issue that, as discussed in class, remains a problem in Brazil to this day, often leading to cases of domestic violence. In Rosa's mind, women should not seek work, because “by working in a factory the woman leaves his [her husband's] sphere of influence and succumbs to the authority of another man,” (McCann, 8). Miranda, however, is the exact opposite of Rosa's view of an ideal woman. She was a wealthy, famous, and relatively powerful woman who was able to compose samba as well. This goes against Rosa's view that a woman should remain at home, tied to her husband, and that only men could be composers of samba.

The 1930's was a time in which many countries throughout the world were attempting to define their national identity. In Brazil, this national identity was defined primarily through samba, through the works of artists like Carmen Miranda and Noel Rosa. These two were able to link Brazilian culture to the urban lower classes and explore the multiracial composition of the Brazilian populace. However, they differed in thought regarding both the role of gender in Brazilian society, and the role of foreigners in Brazil. Up until very recently, Brazil took Noel Rosa's approach in regards to gender roles, with most of the country believing that the role of women was to be housewives. On the other hand, Carmen Miranda was successful in promoting her views on foreign roles in Brazil, as she was able to spread aspects of Brazilian culture to the United States.

Works Cited

"At Brazil's Carnival, Naked Bodies Aren't Always Sexual." Online Athens. Athens Banner-Herald, 18

Feb. 2007. Web. 27 Feb. 2013.

Béhague, Gerard. "Rosa, Noel." Oxford Music Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2013.

Budds, Michael J. "Miranda, Carmen." Oxford Music Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2013.

McCann, Bryan. "Noel Rosa's Nationalist Logic." Luso-Brazilian Review 38.1 (2001): 1-16. Web.

Girad, Jolyon. "Good Neighbor Policy." In Encyclopedia of U.S.-Latin American Relations, edited by Thomas M. Leonard, vol. 2. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2012 http://library.cqpress.com/uslar/euslarv1_394.1

Roberts, Shari. "The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat: Carmen Miranda, a Spectacle of Ethnicity." Cinema

Journal 32.3 (1993): 3-23. Web.

1http://library.cqpress.com/uslar/document.php?id=euslarv1_394.1&type=hitlist&num=0

2http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/43505?q=noel+rosa&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit

3http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/47014?q=carmen+miranda&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit

4http://onlineathens.com/stories/021807/news_20070218038.shtml

5http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/47014?q=carmen+miranda&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit

Indefinable, Impossible, Multifaceted: What is Brazilian Nationalism? by Audrey Reeves and Jaime Coaker

Indefinable, Impossible, Multifaceted

What is Brazilian Nationalism?

By Audrey Reeves and Jaime Coaker

Introduction

Brazilian Nationalism is just that...the pride of the nation, Brazil.   There are so many cultural norms, expectations, and images that go into this idea of “Brazilianness”. There are also many different concepts such as gender, class and race that also play into Brazilianness. Getulio Vargas, Noel Rosa, and Carmen Miranda all had different ideas and different aspects of what it means to be Brazilian. There’s a lot of overlap and yet a lot of controversy as well. Basically, one person cannot represent Brazilian Nationalism. It gives an inaccurate and partial representation of Brazil as a whole nation.

Getulio Vargas
Good Neighbor Policy

Getulio Vargas, the president of Brazil in the 1930s, was interested in promoting Brazilian Nationalism. Along with the rise of Brazilian Nationalism and Samba Enredo (which exalts Brazilian Nationalism) in the 1930’s, the Good Neighbor Policy also had a lot of influence. “President Franklin Roosevelt's inaugural address” states that the good neighbor is, “ the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others.” Its main principle was that of non-intervention and non-interference in the domestic affairs of Latin America. In addition, “the policy sought to secure Latin American cooperation in the world war effort by maintaining the flow of petroleum and other raw materials.”[1]. "That's a big word, America. It's easy to forget how much it means . . . We need to remember that America is two continents.... We the people of the United Nations of America now stand together. We ought to know each other better than we do” (Roberts: 1993, Pg. 6). The Good Neighbor Policy was intended for just that, but accomplished something else.

Carmen As The Ultimate Good Neighbor

 At the height of the Good Neighbor Policy, Vargas sent Carmen Miranda to America as a good ambassador to represent Brazil. She not only represented Brazil, but all of Latin American and was now not only Brazil’s muse but also became the United States’ muse. They used her to improve relations with North and South America and promoted what the “ultimate good neighbor” should look like. Not only was she a link between the two America’s, She was also, “Heaven during the war” [World War II was happening at this time] (Carmen: 1995), helping our friends to escape from the dark days of the war.

Working Vs. Being Happy

But this idea of Brazilianness took a toll on Carmen. She worked so hard. She was running from club to club to perform. She even started needing sleeping pills to sleep and antidepressants to wake up.  The fast-paced American lifestyle/“working Brazilian” that Vargas promoted, which was basically saying you can be about the Samba AND work, directly clashes with the mentality that a Brazilian had: relax and concentrate on being happy. As discussed in class, ”The Brazilian would rather be happy and poor than wealthy and working too hard!”

Noel Rosa
Rosa, the Malandro, and Vargas
            As stated above, Vargas was promoting this “working Brazilian” which goes directly against Noel Rosa’s idea of the Malandro. The Malandro figure was a man completely concerned with the Samba and nothing else, not even work. "The Malandro who does not drink / who does not eat, who does not leave the samba / because samba kills hunger" (McCann: 2001, Pg. 6). The Malandro was a “flashy petty criminal disdainful of labor and domestic life, preferring to live by his wits in the brothels, gambling dens and streets of the city.” (McCann: 2001, Pg. 6). This idea of the Malandro figure was not popular with Getulio Vargas. Vargas had a very economically influenced idea of what it means to be Brazilian.  He wanted to unify Brazil and promote pride of Brazil known as Brazilian Nationalism, which was about the working Brazilian. In theory, this “working Brazilian” would also have no need to steal and be this “flashy petty criminal”. He was behind Noel Rosa’s “Brazilian” up until he promoted just composing samba, which was the utmost importance, even over working and supporting a family.
Rosa and the Mulata

Another aspect that Noel promoted as Brazilian was the idea of a Mulata woman, “a beautiful, flirtatious/vain and very dishonest girl”, “sexually alluring, skilled practitioner of the forms of popular culture, but is vain and deceitful and therefore threatening” (McCann: 2001, Pg. 6). According to Rosa, Malandros are supposed to reject women. “Rejecting women...is precisely what makes him [the Malandro] heroic, and is closely related to his skill as a sambista.” (McCann: 2001, Pg. 9).  Women should just be housewives, and even work, and let the man do Samba. Basically, the woman, who cared about raising a stable family, AND wanted the man to work, were the women who distracted men from Samba. Noel’s idea of what a Brazilian woman should be does not align with all of Brazil.  

Rosa and Homosociability

A positive aspect arose from the idea that women were “destroying” the Samba: the idea of Homosociability.  Homosociability (the sticking together of men against women) brought men together, and took prejudice against other men of other races away, while rising the prejudice and poor treatment of women (McCann: 2001, Pg. 9). To Noel Rosa, being Brazilian was to be about Samba no matter the cost whether that be monetarily, relationally, or racially. In this way, Noel Rosa’s “Brazilian” brought the men of Brazil together, regardless of race.  

Carmen Miranda
Carmen and the Upper Class

Just the same as Noel Rosa was criticized for singing about the slums while being from the middle class, Carmen Miranda was criticized for singing “slum music”. Because the Samba was poor African music, the upper class thought that "a Portuguese women (even if she was from the lower class) shouldn’t be singing the Samba, which made the rich elite Brazilians very upset.  They didn’t think that Brazil should be represented by the slums.  Rosa would agree with her representing Brazil because she, in a way, represented the Malandro because of her love of the Samba.  

Carmen as the Representation of Brazil

As said earlier, Carmen Miranda was sent to America to represent Brazil but she represented a highly stereotyped and manipulated character of a “Brazilian”. "Carmen Miranda talks not sings... and stomps around, not dances, something imported from Rio that has a bit of Hawaiian mime.... Carmen does not dance anything Cuban in that 'Weekend' called Havanese” (Roberts: 1993, Pg. 9). She became this sexual yet comedic icon that “couldn’t meet all the expectations everyone had for her” (Carmen: 1995). But at the same time, she was a woman who loved Brazil, who being Portuguese WAS Brazilian. She wasn’t the “ideal housewife” image that was desired by the men, but was able to break through the “man world” and be powerful. Carmen Miranda was the highest paid woman of her time, a woman that was able to dominate a male dominated world, and a woman who had power. The image that she portrayed was very different than the image of a woman Noel Rosa had and a very different image to Americans and Brazilians. To Americans, she was the image of Latin America but to some Brazilians she “dishonored Brazil’s name” by becoming Americanized. She was definitely honored and scared to be given the task of representing Brazil. And what a task it would be to be the face of Brazil. The pressure, the expectations, the duties (plus personal problems) lead to her end.

Carmen and the Lower Class

Although most of the lower class loved Carmen Miranda, one of her later songs, “Tutti-frutti” was actually censored in the country of Carnival.  Carnival was about celebrating the Brazilian Identity of the slums and was very focused on the Afro-Brazilian aspect of the culture.  Miranda didn’t fit well with the Black lower class identity, especially because she was Portuguese.  Also, the song was sung in English, which was troublesome in two ways: First, Portuguese is spoken in Brazil, not English.  And second, America took advantage of both Carmen Miranda and Latin America. The Good Neighbor Policy was more about U.S.’s economic gain from fruit, especially bananas, and the coffee Latin America had to offer and to protect the home front from war attacks.  The U.S. didn’t care to actually get to know Brazil’s culture in depth, as represented in the song when she says, “But if I ever start to take it off, ay, ay!...I do that once for Johnny Smith...And he is very happy with...The lady in the tutti-frutti hat!”  (Carmen: 1995).  The U.S. didn’t want to get to know the real Carmen Miranda.  They just want to see, “The lady in the tutti-frutti hat.”  “North Americans do not want to learn about other countries, especially their language. Yanquis expect us to learn their language instead” (Carmen: 1995).  Carmen Miranda, as discussed in class, didn’t represent Brazil anymore than a “drag queen”. She represented an over the top blended mix of all of Latin America.  Carnival is supposed to celebrate Brazil’s individuality and Nationalism, and Carmen Miranda failed to do that in the song Tutti-frutti.

Conclusion

Noel Rosa, Carmen Miranda, and Getulio Vargas fought for Brazilianness, but all three versions have good and bad perspectives on Brazilian identity and aren’t whole concepts of what it means to be a Brazilian.  Brazil cannot be represented by one person; all of Brazil will never be happy with the person that is representing Brazil. Different classes and genders all have different ideas of who/what should represent Brazil. Different concepts like the Good Neighbor Policy, Mulata/Malandro, and Homosociability play significant roles in shaping Brazilian identity and nationalism. And of course, the mindset of Brazilian’s also plays a huge factor into all three people’s version of Brazilianness. No one song, image, or policy can truly encompass all that it means to be a Brazilian.  Brazil in and of itself is multicultural, and to represent it accurately is impossible through one image; it must also have multiple perspectives and multiple influences that create a unified whole.  

Bibliography

1. Carmen Miranda: Bananas Is My Business. Dir. Helena Solberg.  Perf. Helena Solberg, Eric Barreto, Cynthia Adler. 1995. Film.

2. Class Discussion. Narr. Paula Gandara and Classmates’ Presentations. Irvin 224, Oxford. 12-25 Feb. 2013. Performance.

3. McCann, Bryan. "Noel Rosa's Nationalist Logic." The University of Wisconsin Press Journals Division 38.1 (2001): 1-16. Print.

4.  Online Highways LLC. <http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1646.html>.

5. Roberts, Shari. ""The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat": Carmen Miranda, a Spectacle of Ethnicity." Cinema Journal 32.3 (1993): 3-23. Print.

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[1] http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1646.html