São Coisas Nossas: Samba and Identity in the Vargas Era (1930-45)

Author(s): LISA SHAW

Source: Portuguese Studies , 1998, Vol. 14 (1998), pp. 152-169
Published by: Modern Humanities Research Association

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41105089

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 São Coisas Nossas:
Samba and Identity in the Vargas Era (1930-45
LISA SHAW

In the wake of the revolution of 1930 which brought Get

power the issue of Brazilian identity was to feature prominent
regime's political agenda. In the course of the ensuing fift
forging of a national consciousness and the manipulation of a
iconography of State were to form the basis of cultural policie
to both a need for national integration and to the challen
Brazil's increasingly multi-ethnic demographic profile. Withi
popular song, this officially promoted nationalist fervou
accompanied by hyperbolic displays of patriotic sentiment an
by parodie and often irreverent expressions of a more int
belonging to a wider community. Samba, whose creators an
by the 1930s enjoyed easy access to the newly available meios
namely the radio and the record industry, and yet were incr
opted and censored by the political regime as the decade
became the mouthpiece for the official version of nationhood,
with the directives of the State, as well as the vehicle for
popular composer's more personal interpretation of brasilidad
This article seeks to explore the ambivalent relationship bet
populist discourse and popular identity. It will begin by e
nation-building strategies of the Vargas administration, a
analyse a selection of lyrics written by two of the most fam
of the era, Noel Rosa and Ari Barroso, who both actively
notions of identity. Although both were white and from lowe
backgrounds, their approach to this thematic could not have d
Noel Rosa was a scathing iconoclast with little respect for aut
Barroso a fervent supporter of Vargas and a confirme
illustrating their divergent interpretations of Brazilian identit
intends to challenge assumptions about the pervasive impact o
and co-option, and to highlight the problematic nature of th
between popular culture and the ideology of the State.

The Forging of Brasilidade

In 1930 Brazil was a complex multiplicity of racial, ethnic and re

identities. The definition of the Brazilian nation was further blur
large-scale immigration from Europe, which had begun towards the e
the nineteenth century, but continued unabated into the 1930s.
fledgling regime thus became increasingly concerned about the is

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 SAMBA AND IDENTITY IN THE VARGAS ERA I53

national consciousness. In the period of political uncertainty an

which followed the military coup, the need for a strong, unifyi
was paramount. The local particularism of the Old Repu
attached great importance to regional politics and identities, an
size of the country, exacerbated this lack of cohesion. The
rivalry between the most powerful states, especially São Paulo
Gerais, and the exclusion of the North East and the South from
political stage, had to be overcome. As early as Novemb
Revolutionary Legion was created in an attempt to establish
political movement in support of the revolution, and to foster
unity.1 The regime's fears of regional opposition were proved j
the Paulista civil war which began on 9 July 1932, and end
surrender of the São Paulo forces at the end of September that
Between November 1932 and May 1933 a commission was inv
drafting of a new constitution, and the resulting document
pronounced nationalist undercurrent. The quest for brasilid
undertaken by the right-wing Integralists. As well as adopting
paramilitary apparatus based on the models of Mussolini's
Hitler's Germany, they greeted each other with the Tupi In
Anauê, and their leader, Plínio Salgado, learned the Tupi lan
effort to define a distinctive national character.2
Throughout the Vargas era debates on the issue of ident
profound impact on policy-making. The regime's immediate
this concern was to tighten immigration policy. In the long
effort was made to promote a self-consciously national culture
popular culture formed an important part, and to mould a new
identity for Brazilians. The early 1930s witnessed a percepti
Brazil's self-image. Whilst white European immigration and
of branqueamento continued to be glorified and encouraged
europeu ceased to embrace Jews or Arabs, who were now
undesirable and portrayed in the press as a threat to the f

1 On 15 November 1930 a manifesto outlining the Legion's objectives was p

Diário de Notícias, which called for a profound transformation of national life, bu
this should be achieved in a specifically 'Brazilian' manner or brasileiramente.
idea of brasilidade also dominated the manifesto of the Revolutionary Legio
published on 4 March 193 1, which Peter Flynn describes as follows: 'The aim
Brazil's specific problems, finding equally specific Brazilian answers, solving t
mente, as the manifesto of the previous November had put it. There should be n
on foreign, imported political systems [. . .] Foreign models, whether from the
Italy, or Russia, were unsuited to Brazil. So there must be Brazilian laws an
constitution'. 'The Revolutionary Legion and the Brazilian Revolution of 1930',
Affairs, St Antony's Papers, no. 22 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970), pp. 68
Plínio Salgado argued that the Brazilian people were unihed racially in the figu
breed caboclo.

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 154 LISA SHAW

nation.3 The brasilidade cam

schools, and the use of the
throughout the Brazilian pres
larly targeted the German and
and the Japanese and Itali
nationalism and xenophobia
scientific, racialist doctrin
credence in Brazil, the regim
the nation based on a mythic
President Vargas' personal fa
tion of Brazil's heritage mani
1930 revolution when he dona
in the state of Paraná to the
traditional archive of histor
national heroes, such as Dom
the leader of the failed ind
century. Consequently, a b
brought Vargas to power beca
process of forging a strong,
regime went on to establish
preservation of the nation's h
museum, which was totally r
tion, and displayed an incon
contemporary objects. The m
lier aspects of Brazil's histor
country's continuing successe
the regime sought to justif
process of nation-building w
period.5

3 See Jeffrey Lesser, immigration and Shifting Concepts of National Identity in Brazil during
the Vargas Era', huso-Brazilian Review, 31 (1994), 2.3-44. F°r a more detailed study of Brazilian
anti-semitism during the period following the end of World War I until the end of World War II
see Jeffrey Lesser, Welcoming the Undesirables: Brazil and the Jewish Question (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 199O.
4 See Daryle Williams, 'Ad perpetuam rei memoriam: the Vargas Regime and Brazil's National
Historical Patrimony, 1930-1945', huso-Brazilian Review, 31 (1994), 45~75- Vargas was also
responsible for the creation of the Museu Imperial in Petrópolis, the summer retreat of the
imperial court. He took a personal interest in returning there the mortal remains and possessions
of the emperors, and as Daryle Williams explains, he clearly wanted to remind Brazilians that
their nation had imperial, European origins. When the museum was opened to the public in 1943
a bust of Vargas was positioned next to the entrance, a constant reminder of his desire to be
associated with Dom Pedro II and the ideals of empire.
5 The Vargas regime introduced a wide-ranging programme for managing Brazil's national
memory. The most important body was the Serviço do Património Histórico e Artístico Nacional,
which was responsible for preserving the country's heritage on a truly national scale. Its work
centred on tombamento, the registering of all cultural manifestations in one of four so-called
livros de tombo, which signalled their consecration as an accepted element of Brazilian culture.

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 samba and identity in the vargas era i55

The Estado Novo and the Manipulation of Myth

The establishment of the Estado Novo, announced by Vargas on io No

ember 1937, was partially a response to his desire, and that of the militar
to forge a strong nation-state and to overcome regional divisions. A new
constitution was swiftly introduced, and article two evidenced the N
State's commitment to creating a national iconography and consciousness
It prescribed that there should be only one flag, hymn and motto for t
whole of Brazil, and in accordance with its directives there followed
emotional flag burning of the regional emblems in a Rio de Janeiro squa
as a formal display of integration. The urn containing the ashes of the fl
was donated to the Museu Histórico Nacional.
Throughout the Estado Novo era the State and its individual representat-
ives were endowed with a mythical significance. Official commemorations
and celebrations, such as the Dia do Presidente, were employed to engender
and reinforce the myths, and thus the regime came to be identified with
leaders of unique qualities and abilities, who nevertheless paled into
insignificance alongside Getulio Vargas himself. The press was particularly
instrumental in enhancing the image of the President, whom it regularly
referred to as 'o homem do destino', 'o maior trabalhador' or 'o pai dos
pobres'. The following excerpt from the magazine Cinema of May 1941
epitomizes the obsequious praise that was poured on Vargas:
Graças à visão - diríamos profética - do Presidente Vargas, deve o Brasil a esplêndida
posição que ora ocupa num mundo em chamas. Esse verdadeiro homem do destino
soube conduzir com mão firme a nau do Estado através de um oceano borrascoso . . .
E o Brasil assistiu ao milagre de uma verdadeira eclosão das suas forças económicas.6

Newspapers were obliged to publish articles written by the State's press

agency, the Agência Nacional, the tone of which was typically solemn and
grandiloquent, and thus the image of a picture-postcard Brazil of endless
riches was perpetuated. The city of São Paulo, for example, became the
'metrópole das chaminés altaneiras' and the river Amazon was described

The Serviço restored buildings, chiefly those dating back to the colonial period, especially
churches (many in the state of Minas Gerais), which were symbols of authority and therefore
fitting focal points for patriotic pride. Vargas cleverly combined a cult of saudade, or nostalgia
for past glories, with enthusiasm for the present and future. See Williams, pp. 52-67.
In Imagined Communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism (London and
New York: Verso, 1993), Benedict Anderson illustrates the way in which emerging nation-states
emphasize their immemorial past and, more importantly, their limitless future (pp. 11-12). As he
states: 'It is the magic of nationalism to turn chance into destiny' (p. 12). By creating personal
associations with the Dom Pedros and by restoring colonial churches, Vargas sought to align
himself and by extension his regime with two large cultural systems that predated it, the dynastic
realm and the religious community. Anderson also identifies three 'institutions of power' that
affected to a large extent the way in which colonial states imagined their dominions and
legitimized the latter's existence: the census, the map, and the museum. He states: 'museums and
museumizing imagination, are both profoundly political' (p. 178).
6 Cinema, 45, (1941), 2.

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 156 LISA SHAW

as 'um capítulo da historia d

extraordinária, que pelo trab
disciplinada'.7
Vargas' cultural policies closel
Italy of creative writers, artists
of optimism, vigour and efficien
the distinctions between art a
power on the other. After 1937 t
culture intensified. Profession
ostensibly to support cultural
Livro and the Instituto Nacion
institutions constituted a mech
The creation of the pervasive
(DIP) on 29 December 1939 led
imposed on all the media, partic
radio and popular song lyrics.8 U
media were encouraged to reit
Vargas regime, and to obtain con
propaganda machine of the State
easy-going, cordial Brazilian tem
of national character as a conseq
with no reference to the realit
Consequently, any unrest amon
viewed as unnatural and deviant
this context of cordiality.9

Radio and Popular Music

The radio played a crucial role in popularizing the New State sin
enabled its ideology to reach even the most remote rural areas of
which would otherwise have been outside the normal range of the St
populist discourse. Regional differences were attenuated via the
which was used as a means of standardizing and integrating the c
and politics of the nation as a whole. During the 1930s the regime in
radio receivers and loudspeakers in public squares throughout the int
which paved the way for the ascendance of the airwaves. The H
Brasil, broadcast daily between 8 pm and 9 pm by all radio statio
Brazil, was the flagship programme, designed to promote socia

7 Silvana Goulart, Sob a verdade oficial: ideologia, propaganda e censura no Estado No

Paulo: Marco Zero, 1990), p. 116.
8 The Provisional Government established the Departamento Oficial de Propaganda o
193 1, a body that was transformed into the Departamento de Propaganda e Difusão Cu
10 July 1934. The DIP grew out of the latter but signified an intensification of ce
restrictions.
Goulart, p. zo.

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 SAMBA AND IDENTITY IN THE VARGAS ERA I57

political unity. It claimed to have an informative, a civic a

function. Its civic role took the form of references to the nat
source of pride and enthusiasm which could be channe
realization of current objectives. The cultural dimension
promotion of Brazilian music and popular song. Seventy per
music it broadcast was homegrown, and the work of Brazil's m
popular composers and performers was transmitted to the entir
Popular song constituted the ideal vehicle for spreading the
message to the illiterate masses and for integrating th
mainstream population. Tight control of the content of son
assured by the censors of the DIP, whose stamp of approval w
before lyrics could be reproduced on sheet music or reco
These repressive measures were accompanied by the co-option
ers and performers. The DIP coerced popular composers into w
that were patriotic in character by offering attractive incent
sponsorships, subsidies and competition prizes. If they toed the
and espoused the new work ethic of the Vargas regime, public
the traditional theme of samba lyrics, malandragem or a
idleness, crime and debauchery, songwriters could receive
commercial rewards. The DIP was instructed to record the voi
grandes cidadãos da Pàtria, regional songs, and the most famou
tions by the leading popular composers of the day, in addition
which could serve as patriotic propaganda. In January 19
Musica Popular was first celebrated in the capital Rio de Janei
the Estado Novo9 s national exhibition, which brought togethe
of Brazil's popular musicians and performers. It is against this
nationalist fervour on the one hand, and the prominence of p
on the other, that the lyrical production of the two sambistas
and Ari Barroso must be viewed, particularly if we are to und
conflicting ways in which they engaged with notions of
community.

Noel Rosa (1910-37): São Coisas Nossas

Noel Rosa was a consummate wordsmith, whose song lyrics display a wit
and linguistic dexterity unrivalled by his contemporaries. He earned the
title of filosofo do samba for the realism and universal truths that served as
inspiration for many of his sambas, but he was essentially a bar-stool
philosopher whose short life was largely spent in the botequins of Rio's

10 The DIP's Divisão do Ràdio created other official broadcasts for overseas audiences, and
under its guidance Radio El Mundo in Buenos Aires transmitted the Hora do Brasil twice a week.
Programmes in English or Spanish, which aimed to promote the different regions of Brazil and
regional folklore, as well as boost tourism and trade, were transmitted in the USA and Spanish
America respectively.

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 158 LISA SHAW

more humble northern districts

capital's red-light district. Ro
inhabited Rio's poorer quarters
malandros or black spivs that he
of Vila Isabel, where he grew
theme of malandragem in h
perspective as the following sam

'O ORVALHO VEM CAINDO' (1933

O orvalho vem caindo
Vai molhar o meu chapéu
E também vão sumindo
As estrelas lá no céu
Tenho passado tão mal
A minha cama é uma folha de jornal
(Do Diário Oficial)
Meu cortinado é o vasto céu de anil
E o meu despertador é o guarda-civil
(Que o salário ainda não viu)

A minha terra dá banana e aipim

Meu trabalho é achar quem descasque por mim
(Vivo triste mesmo assim)

A minha sopa não tem osso nem tem sal

Se um dia passo bem, dois e três passo mal
(Isto é muito natural)

In this samba the malandro, the anti-hero of poor black Brazilians, is

demythified. His supposedly bohemian existence on the fringes of society
and outside the law is exposed here as squalid and degrading. Likewise the
regime itself is ridiculed by the reference to the Diário Oficial, an
establishment broadsheet, which here has no greater function than to
provide a warm cover for the homeless, and by the mention of the
policeman who has not been paid on time. An ironic contrast is drawn
between officialdom and the grim poverty endured by the idle spiv and the
hard-working civil servant alike. Rosa's Brazil can only offer manioc and
bananas, two cheap staples of the diet of the poor; hence the phrase a preço
de banana or dirt cheap. There is a distant echo here of the highly patriotic
poem 'Canção do Exílio, by the Romantic poet António Gonçalves Dias
(1823-64), which begins:
A minha terra tem palmeiras
Onde canta o sabiá [ . . . ]

The intertextuality has an ironic intention. In spite of the stirring

rhetoric of patriotic literature such as this ultra-famous poem, many

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 SAMBA AND IDENTITY IN THE VARGAS ERA I59

Brazilians are hard up and the governing elite is totally inept.1

hero of poor blacks, the malandro, the incarnation of the
jeitinho, has a meagre existence. Jeitinho, that most Brazili
institution, a way of subverting authority for personal ad
celebrated elsewhere in Rosa's work. As Lívia Neves de H. B
jeitinho is a positive way of interpreting and portraying Brazil
and racial legacy, and emphasizes the human and natural aspect
reality, rather than the political, bureaucratic, official in
aspects.12 It is thus the essence of the brasilidade depicted in R
lyrics.
A debunking of national mythology and iconography can be seen in
many of Rosa's sambas. The samba 'Cordiais saudações' of 1931, for
example, takes the form of a letter dated 7 September 1931. It is no
coincidence that 7 September is the Dia da Pátria, when a military parade
is held to commemorate the granting of Brazil's independence, forming
part of a week of celebratory activities. The anthropologist Roberto da
Matta draws a distinct dichotomy between this formal celebration and
carnaval in Brazil.13 With this tongue-in-cheek allusion to the Dia da Pàtria,
and the stiff and starchy officialdom that it represents, within a form of
popular culture intrinsically linked to the celebration's antithesis, carnival,
Rosa derides the pomp and ceremony of the white elite's event of the year,
in which the military must symbolically express their respect for authority
and national emblems, like the Brazilian flag and the Republic's arms.
Similarly, in his samba entitled 'Positivismo' or 'Araruta' the Positivist
philosophy of Auguste Comte (1798-1857), adopted by the Republican
regime, is Rosa's target for ridicule, especially the slogan ordern e progresso
which appears on the Brazilian flag. The motto is transplanted into the
realm of affairs of the heart, and another symbol of the Brazilian nation is
exposed as hollow and meaningless.
O amor vem por princípio, a ordem por base
O progresso é que deve vir por firn
Desprezaste esta lei de Augusto Comte
E foste ser feliz longe de mim

11 The poets Oswald de Andrade and Carlos Drummond de Andrade both reworked this classic
poem. Oswald did so in his poem 'Canto do regresso à pátria' ('Minha terra tem palmares/Onde
gorjeia o mar [...]') from Pau-Brasil (1925). See Oswald de Andrade: Literatura Comentada
(São Paulo: Abril Educação, 1980), p. 27. Drummond parodied it in his poem 'Nova canção do
exílio' from A Rosa do povo (1945). See Reunião: 10 livros de poesia (Rio de Janeiro: Olympio,
1977), P- 94-
See Lívia Neves de H. Barbosa, 'The Brazilian Jeitinho: An Exercise in National Identity', in
The Brazilian Puzzle: Culture on the Borderlands of the Western World, ed. by David J. Hess and
Roberto A. Da Matta (New York: Columbia University Press, 199O, PP. ^-48.
13 Roberto Da Matta, Carnavais, malandros e heróis: para uma sociologia do dilema brasileiro
(Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 1979), pp. 41-49.

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 l6o LISA SHAW

Rosa allegedly parodied t

the opening bars of the o
1929. The lyrics of this s
survival and announce t
lifestyle. Brazil's economi
Crash of that year, whic
precarious position. Sinc
censors had he recorded t
to change some of the no
Rosa's lyrics are concern
daily life in Rio's poorer
cotidiano. The samba 'Co
fascination with the mi
treatment of the well-wo

'Conversa de botequim' (1935), Noel Rosa

Seu garçom faça o favor
De me trazer depressa
Uma boa média que não seja requentada
Um pão bem quente com manteiga à beça
Um guardanapo
E um copo d'água bem gelada
Fecha a porta da direita
Com muito cuidado
Que não estou disposto
A ficar exposto ao sol
Vá perguntar ao seu freguês do lado
Qual foi o resultado do futebol
Se você ficar limpando a mesa
Não me levanto nem pago a despesa
Vá pedir ao seu patrão
Uma caneta, um tinteiro
Um envelope e um cartão
Não se esqueça de me dar palitos
E um cigarro pra espantar mosquitos
Vá dizer ao charuteiro
Que me empreste umas revistas
Um isqueiro e um cinzeiro
Telefone ao menos uma vez
Para 34"4333
E ordene ao seu Osório
Que me mande um guarda-chuva
Aqui pro nosso escritório
Seu garçom me empreste algum dinheiro
Que eu deixei o meu com o bicheiro
Vá dizer ao seu gerente
Que pendure essa despesa

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 SAMBA AND IDENTITY IN THE VARGAS ERA l6l

No cabide ali em frente

Adopting the persona of the malandro here, Rosa intro

into the typical treatment of the theme by incorpor
everyday discourse and mundane aspects of daily life
establishes himself as a silver-tongued spiv in the openin
polite form of address to the lowly waiter, and with
respectful third-person command forms throughout.
captured in this use of direct address, the colloquial s
the banal nature of the objects requested (such as
toothpicks) and the inspired inclusion of the telepho
neatly fits into the rhyme scheme. Rosa has a keen eye
and the inherent tragi-comedy of life. Here the pennile
admits, euphemistically, to having left all his money wi
demanding impeccable service from a down-market, mo
which he ironically terms his 'office'. Rosa gives status to
of carioca life, such as football, the disreputable jogo
figure of the malandro himself, which are all unofficial n
albeit associated primarily with the poor, and contr
ginalized in the case of the latter two. This samba e
iconoclastic approach to the lyrics of popular song, and
his unique portrayal of the cotidiano, which combined a
but quirky details and street vernacular.14
Rosa's love of Rio's low-life and the miúdo is exemplifi
samba 'São coisas nossas' of 1932, inspired by the firs
entitled Coisas nossas, which premiered in 193 1. In this
and shabbiness of life are evoked by the references to t
hunger of the malandro, to parasitic loan sharks and
shoulders with newspaper vendors and tram drivers
ubiquitous skirt chasers.

'São coisas nossas' (1932), Noel Rosa

Queria ser pandeiro
Pra sentir o dia inteiro
A tua mão na minha pele a batucar
Saudade do violão e da palhoça
Coisa nossa, coisa nossa

14 Affonso Romano de Sant'arma comments that the rhyming techniques in this samba reinforce
the ironic and musical sense of the 'text'. Although some of the rhyming combinations are fairly
straightforward, such as the 'depressa/à beça' and 'Osório/escritório' couplings, he identifies
others that are much more unusual, such as the 'vez/344333' rhyming pair, where the repetition
of três reinforces a certain ironic harmony present in the 'tintureiro/charuteiro' 'cinzeiro/isqueiro'
sequence. Affonso Romano de Sant'anna, Mùsica popular e moderna poesia brasileira (Petrópolis:
Vozes, 1978), p. 192.

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 l6z LISA SHAW

O samba, a prontidão e
São nossas coisas, são co
Malandro que não bebe
Que não come, que não
Pois o samba mata a fome
Morena bem bonita lá da roça
Coisa nossa, coisa nossa
Baleiro, jornaleiro
Motorneiro, condutor e passageiro
Prestamista e vigarista
E o bonde que parece uma carroça
Coisa nossa, muito nossa
Menina que namora
Na esquina e no portão
Rapaz casado com dez filhos, sem tostão
Se o pai descobre o truque dá uma coça
Coisa nossa, muito nossa

Rosa does not embellish reality, but portrays the seedier side of life with
genuine fondness. Here, for example, the tram is lovingly mocked for being
clapped out.15 In this one line ('E o bonde que parece uma carroça') the
dualities inherent in carioca life are epitomized. The electrified tram,
introduced into Brazil in 1892, was still the vehicle for physical mobility
and supposed social advancement in the 1930s, since it transported Brazil's
new urban workforce to their places of employment. In total contrast, the
cart {carroça) is a vestige of colonial, agrarian Brazil, yet is still very much
in evidence. For the inhabitants of the favelas and working-class suburbs
of Rio, the first-world trappings of the city have only a superficial effect on
existence. Their tram is not gleaming and sprightly, but a rickety old
wreck.16

15 The bonde, which first appeared in Brazil in the 1860s, was already the butt of jokes in the
1880S and 1890s. See the crónicas by Machado de Assis in A Semana, 16 October 1892, and Balas
de Estalo, 4 July 1893. Machado de Assis, Obra completa, 3 vols (Rio de Janeiro: Aguilar, 1962),
m, 414-16 and 550-52. It served frequently as inspiration for sambas written in the 1930s and
early 1940s.
In this context it is worth noting that Oswald de Andrade's poem 'pobre alimária' (Pau-Brasil,
1925) reflects this same juxtaposition of the modern and the colonial:
'pobre alimária', Oswald de Andrade
O cavalo e a carroça
Estavam atravancados no trilho
E como o motorneiro se impacientasse
Forque levava os advogados para os escritorios
Desatravancaram o veículo
E o animal disparou
Mas o lesto carroceiro
Trepou na boleia
E castigou o fugitivo atrelado
Com um grandioso chicote

In this poem the first-world city is symbolized by the lawyers, their offices and the tram, but the

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 SAMBA AND IDENTITY IN THE VARGAS ERA 163
Rosa's representation of Brazil hinges on a rejection or debunking of the
phoney symbols of an imagined Brazilian identity based on European
models. Thus icons and emblems of a mythical national consciousness as
promoted by the Vargas regime, such as the national anthem, an example
of ufanista Romantic poetry, the formal military celebrations to com-
memorate independence, and the motto on the Brazilian flag, are replaced
by cultural products of the humble povo, such as the botequim, or lowly
bar, the illegal but very popular gambling game known as the jogo do
bicho, football, samba, the ethos of malandragem itself, jeitinho, the favela
or morro, the palhoça or barracão, the absurdities of daily life and of
bureaucracy, the peculiarities of Brazilian Portuguese and the gíria of the
uneducated, and the insipid diet of the poor, all of which are portrayed
with humour and affection. Rosa elevates these commonplaces of everyday
existence to the status of foci for local rather than national pride. He
considers the question of identity, but concentrates on the community of
Rio's shantytowns and lowly suburbs. Just as the malandro is an anti-hero,
Rosa's view of brasilidade is based on an alternative, unofficial, unsophist-
icated anti-identity. He blows away with total irreverence the myths and
traditions on which national identity is precariously built, and although he
does not deny the existence of a national community, he redefines it. He is
not really interested in the nation, but rather in the bairro or the hillside
shantytown, and he emphasizes the human aspects of Brazil's social reality
rather than political, bureaucratic or institutional features.

Ari Barroso (1903-64) and the Samba-Exaltação

The sambas of Ari Barroso, the chief exponent of the samba-exaltação, the
sub-genre of samba characterized by its patriotic lyrics which extolled the
virtues of Brazil and its people, to a large extent endorse the Vargas
regime's construction of populist mythology.17 The Utopian Brazil that he
depicted was welcomed by the State as a perfect propaganda tool. He thus
enjoyed considerable commercial success and an official stamp of respect-
ability. What would appear to have been his genuine patriotic zeal and
support for Vargas complemented the nationalistic drive of the regime, and

tram is delayed by the horse and cart, vestiges of colonial times, which are stuck in the tram rails.
In the words of Roberto Schwarz: 'De um lado, o bonde, os advogados, o motorneiro e os trilhos;
do outro, o cavalo, a carroça e o carroceiro: são mundos, tempos e classes sociais contrastantes,
postos em oposição'. The similarities with Noel's observation ('E o bonde que parece uma
carroça') are striking. In both cases, this duality inherent in urban Brazil in the 1920s and 30s is
viewed with affection and not in a totally negative light. This dichotomy is, in fact, the essence of
Brazil. With respect to Oswald's poem, Schwarz says of this juxtaposition: 'Surpreendentemente,
o resultado é valorizador: a suspensão do antagonismo e sua transformação em contraste
pitoresco, onde nenhum dos termos é negativo, vem de par com a sua designação para símbolo
do Brasil'. Roberto Schwarz, 'A carroça, o bonde e o poeta modernista', in Que horas sãoi (São
Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1987), pp. 11-28 (pp. 15 and 21-22).
This sub-genre of samba is sometimes referred to as the samba-civico or the samba-apoteose.

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 I&4 LISA SHAW

he was consequently given free r

he was one of Brazil's most im
context of the cultural exchang
Neighbour Policy' towards the
Barroso's sambas are distinguis
romanticizing condescension, an
samba, which featured in the so
and allegedly served as Disney's
performed by a hotel band durin

'Aquarela Brasileira' (1939), Ari Barroso

Brasil
Meu Brasil brasileiro
Meu mulato inzoneiro
You cantar-te nos meus versos
O Brasil, samba que dá
Bamboleio, que faz ginga
O Brasil, do meu amor
Terra do Nosso Senhor
Brasil
Brasil
Pra mim
Pra mim

O abre a cortina do passado

Tira a mãe preta do cerrado
Bota o rei congo no congado
Brasil
Brasil
Deixa cantar de novo o trovador
A merencória luz da lua
Toda canção do meu amor
Quero ver a sá dona caminhando
Pelos salões arrastando
O seu vestido rendado
Brasil
Brasil
Pra mim
Pra mim

Brasil terra boa e gostosa

Da moreninha sestrosa
De olhar indiscreto
O Brasil, verde que dá

18 This samba was retitled 'Aquarela do Brasil', the title by which it became most widely known.
The rights to perform it in the United States were purchased by Southern Music Publishing,
which went on to launch the song on 680 radio stations in the USA on 7 September 1941 to
commemorate the granting of Brazil's independence.

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 SAMBA AND IDENTITY IN THE VARGAS ERA 165
Para o mundo se admira
O Brasil do meu amor
Terra do Nosso Senhor
Brasil
Brasil
Pra mim
Pra mim

0 esse coqueiro que dá coco

01 onde amarro a minha rede
Nas noites ciarás de luar
Brasil
Brasil
0 oi essas fontes murmurantes
01 onde eu mato minha sede
E onde a lua vem brinca
Oi, esse Brasil lindo e trigueiro
E o meu Brasil brasileiro
Terra de samba e pandeiro
Brasil
Brasil
Pra mim
Pra mim

In this world-famous samba and tour de force of patriotic pride Barroso

portrays an idealized, fertile land of plenty, peopled with lazy but astute
mulattos and their wily, lascivious female counterparts. It is significant
that the first aspect of the Brazilian nation to be venerated is the figure of
the mulatto, used to symbolize the nation as a whole, the Meu serving to
reinforce the idea of belonging and racial equality. The mulatto is,
however, inzoneiro, an unusual colloquial term used to refer to a liar or a
gossip, and thus he is caricatured as a dishonest malandro. The Afro-
Brazilian legacy, in the form of samba and the seductive movements that
the music inspires, is revered, but is portrayed as a focus for national pride,
as opposed to racial identity. Although Brazil is described as dark or
swarthy, the representation of the mulatto and of black culture is both
patronizing and clichéd. The impression that these banal, ingenuous lyrics
seek to create is that the Brazil of the 1930s is a nation free from racial or
social tension, with a harmonious colonial past. Barroso's view of his
homeland and its history centres on well-worn images and established
literary motifs, such as the nostalgic allusions to the black wet-nurse, the
court of the Congo worshipped by blacks in the Northeast since colonial
times, and the elegant ladies of the plantation house. The Northeastern
thematic flourished in Brazilian narrative in the 1930s, but unlike the often
gritty realism of such regional literature, Barroso looks to the templates of
nineteenth-century Romantic literature in order to portray his rural idyll.
As is characteristic of much of his work, this samba portrays the Brazilian

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 l66 LISA SHAW

people as being united by

faith, and draws heavily
prosperity and natural be
In much of his work Bar
Brazilian culture and iden
of 1944, for example, in
slavery, Barroso adopts t
speech by referring to h
failing to pluralize noun
using the corrupted defer
the popular imagination
simplified pronunciation

'Terra Seca' (1944), Ari

O nego tá moiado de su
Trabáia, trabáia, nego
Trabáia, trabáia, nego
As mão do nego tá que
Trabáia, trabáia, nego
Trabáia, trabáia, nego
Ai meu sinhô, nego tá v
Não aguenta
Essa terra tão dura, tão
Trabáia, trabáia, nego
Trabáia, trabáia, nego
O nego pede licença pra
Trabáia, trabáia, nego
O nego não pode mais t
Quando nego chegou po
Era mais vivo e ligeiro q
Varava estes rio, estas m
Nego era moço, e a vida
Mas esse tempo passou
Essa terra secou
A velhice chegou e o brinquedo quebrou
Sinhô, nego véio tem pena de tê-se acabado
Sinhô, nego véio carrega este corpo cansado

Barroso's treatment of Brazil's racial make-up picks up on the most

obvious myths and stereotypes which permeated Gilberto Freyre's seminal
work Casa-grande e senzala, published in 193 3. 20 For Freyre Brazil's
colonial history was essentially a harmonious uniting of races, which

19 In Brazilian folklore the sad is a one-legged black man who ambushes travellers.
Gilberto Freyre, Casa-grande e senzala (Rio de Janeiro: Olympio, 1933).

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 SAMBA AND IDENTITY IN THE VARGAS ERA 167

resulted in the imagined racial democracy of the early twentieth centu

the flesh and blood symbol of which was the mulatto himself. By draw
on his own memories of his childhood on a plantation and the observat
of nineteenth-century travellers, rather than any scientific or reli
documentary evidence, Freyre naturally fell into the trap of romantic
the past in what was an inaccurate account. His theories give us a c
insight into the national mythology of the 1930s and the paternalism of
Vargas regime. In an attempt to counteract increasing centralization
Northeastern Regionalist movement, led by Freyre, set out to assert th
importance of the traditions of the region, and to emphasize the posit
legacy of miscegenation in order to instil a sense of pride in the popul
as a whole. Despite his efforts to dispel many existing prejudices
preconceptions concerning the African contribution to the formation o
Brazilian culture, Freyre perpetuates certain myths, such as that of
licentious mulata, and is equally guilty of patronizing blacks and t
heritage. The legacy of blacks and Indians is seen as having enhanced
dominant white culture of Brazil, thus perpetuating the theme of mes
ismO) with its tacit racist connotations. His blatant simplifications of s
relations and naive representations of the negro and the mulatto, like
stereotype, contributed to the marginalization of black Brazilians l
after this book was published, in spite of his efforts to create a m
positive impression of blacks. Barroso's condescending depiction of b
Brazil is in tune with that of the white plantation aristocracy to w
Freyre belonged, which looked back with nostalgia to the old order of
rural plantation society when faced with political and social instability
uncertainty in the 1930s and early 1940s.
Around 1920 there had been a perceptible shift in the cultural establ
ment's attitude to Brazil's African heritage. Most intellectuals no lo
rejected it as a dangerous menace to society, and instead began to view
as an integral part of Brazilian culture. As Dain Borges states:
this new attitude toward the Afro-Brazilian heritage coincided with the mobiliz
and commercialization of festive aspects of Afro-Brazilian urban popular cultu
between 1910 and 1940. This mobilization undermined the formal and info
discriminatory policies of the First Republic. By making Afro-Brazilian practices
visible, less clandestine, it abated some of their connotations of polluting menace. S
or sincerely renamed as 'schools', samba societies and capoeira martial arts circ
sought and won police permission to meet and perform on the streets. Re
companies commercialized samba marches, legitimating Carnival music as a pr
[ . . . ] Eventually, in a variety of ways, Brazilian intellectuals unbarred access to cr
popular traditions, to symbols and ideas that had previously been stigmatized an
out.21

21 Dain Borges, 'The Recognition of Afro-Brazilian Symbols and Ideas, 1890-1940', huso-
Brazilian Review, 32 (1995), 70-71.

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l68 LISA SHAW

The Vargas regime ack

tions of black Brazil, su
candomblé, in order to
markers, and to incorpor
national identity. In 193
Brazilian carnival was bro
a national festival. The
regime clearly fits the pa
which divides the proc
follows: firstly the reje
repressive apparatus of
form of the eradication o
censorship, and greater i
sial, eulogistic, pro-esta
separating these danger
can be used in a proce
nationalistic features of
national as opposed to rac
The culture industry and
these desirable elements
the purposes of ideologi
industry, and so on.22 (
such as feijoada, Brazil's
national symbol produc
society and projected a
democracy.)23
Ari Barroso's treatmen
pattern. Whilst appearing
presenting blacks and t
Brazil different, the cari
Afro-Brazilian culture a
identity marker. He san
Brazil's colonial history t
white, middle-class au

22 Feijoada is thought to have

combined beans and other ingre
their masters.
In the words of Peter Fry: 'a c
oculta uma situação de dominaç
Quando se convertem símbolos
nacionalidade, converte-se o q
"domesticado". Agora que o ca
perderam o poder que antes
manipulação de símbolos étnicas
brasileira (Rio de Janeiro: Zahar

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 SAMBA AND IDENTITY IN THE VARGAS ERA 169
backdrop of the branqueamento policy, the marginalization of blacks in
relation to the mainstream urban-industrial society of the Vargas era, and
the transformation of black popular art forms into the harmless picturesque
or folkloric, Barroso chooses to represent Afro-Brazilians not in contem-
porary life, where they are a stigmatized, undesirable element, but in the
romanticized context of the colonial plantation, where they can exist a
quaint, side-show curiosities, frozen in time.
In Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of
Nationalism, Benedict Anderson defines a sense of nationality as the
personal and cultural feeling of belonging to a nation. It is this persona
dimension that is tackled in popular lyrics like those of Noel Rosa
Anderson argues that popular nationalism can differ greatly from its officia
equivalent, and states that often they are conceived very differently. With
specific reference to former colonies he writes that £so often in the "nation
building" policies of the new states one sees both a genuine, popular
nationalist enthusiasm and a systematic, even Machiavellian, instilling o
nationalist ideology'.24 Obvious parallels can be drawn between thi
pattern and Vargas' Brazil where, on the one hand, the political regim
harnessed popular culture in order to foster a heightened sense of
community or belonging and yet, on the other, popular artists attempted
to challenge the nation-building strategies of the State in their work, at
least before censorship restrictions made this impossible. Consequently
the official version of nationhood promoted by the regime differed greatly
from more intimate, personal expressions of popular sentiment, such as in
Rosa's work. However, the situation was complicated further by the effects
of censorship and co-option, and as is evident in the lyrics of Ari Barroso's
sambas, particularly in their treatment of Brazil's racial identity, popular
culture did not always call into question the hegemonic, ufanista discourse
of the State, but rather served to uphold many of the latter's key ideologies
by echoing its mythology.
University of Leeds

24 Anderson, pp. 11 3-14.

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