The Evocation Of Carmen Miranda - Research Paper Example

The Evocation Of Carmen Miranda Carmen Miranda was born in a small Portuguese town on 9th February 1909 (Martha, 1989). She grew up in a working-class and racially mixed area, which was known as Lapa district. Her name represented more than just a stage name, but instead a conscious innovation of self that reflected a motivated, audacious and bold woman. According to Martha, her career took a center stage in 1930 when she recorded her hit song Tai, which was composed by Joubert de Carvalho (1989). Miranda’s popularity and the expansion of the samba were greatly influenced by the Brazilian nationalism restructuring during the regime of President Getulio Vargas. The thesis will be examining the representation of Brazilian women by Carmen Miranda and how her representation affected the Americans outlook on Latin women. In the Vargas era, the government of Brazil was attempting to redefine the state’s national identity to the world. Therefore, the leaders started promoting this new African-Brazilian culture via the use of Samba and also used Miranda in bridging the racial gap. Examining how Miranda represented the Brazilian women, it is true to say that Brazil will forever owe Carmen Miranda un-payable debt. It is evident in how she carried the Brazilian woman luggage and taught her people who did not have any idea of their existence in adoring their country’s culture, music, and rhythm. In the 20th century, she assisted in the development of her country’s national identity (Luz and Anglesey, 1986). Her work appealed to the lower classes, whereby she represented their grievances and the rights of the Brazilian women. She was very interested in the Brazilian culture, thus identified its essence as being from the lower classes. She drew the Brazilian culture of the lower classes by emphasizing the Brazil African roots. Her choice of clothing as she performed indicated how in the 1930’s, the Brazilians had began embracing their history as a multi-racial and multi-ethnic society. She represented the lower classes by meeting with the opposition from the Brazilian upper crust society. For an instant, in her song “The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat,” this was the Brazilian censorship song adapted from the film “The Gang’s all here” (Shari, 1993). Miranda is sexualized in the film by portraying her as the superintendent of the countless tremendous, swaying priapic bananas lightened up by lines of chorus girls dancing above other dancers who have outsized strawberries between their legs. However, this representation was very controversial all over the world and especially in Brazil. It is because Miranda portrayed Brazil as being a highly sexualized place, therefore causing stigma to remain until this day, while the Brazilian women themselves arrogate that their emphasis of the female body is more aesthetic than sexual. She represented the value of the Brazilian woman body and the significant of her body in the entertainment. It is evident in her decorated flowing skirts, wearing platform sandals, puffy sleeps and an iconic torque of fruit where she seemed on the international stage. Her sensual hand movements were meant to mimic the Brazilian woman of Bahian North. Similarly, Miranda’s characteristic costume resembled that of the Bahiana, who is a Brazilian woman of Lower-class, and she is almost of mixed race or black (James, 2001). Miranda, to this day has remained as the most figure that played the role with respect to Brazilian’s role with foreign powers. Miranda fought against the exploitation of the women by the working-class and against the exploitation of Brazil by other foreign countries. She worked in welcoming the foreign involvement in Brazil without exploiting the Brazilian woman. In 1939, after the Brazilian film “Banana Da Terra” Miranda incorporated the role of Bahian in her performance in order to represent the Brazilian women through film (Shari, 1993). It was one of the essential figures of national narrations that combine blackness, sensuality and feminism of the Brazilian women. The character incorporated by Miranda is an actualization of the “mulata” figure, which is a racially hybrid woman, whom according to the Brazilian imaginary would relate herself with a white man in order to create a “whiter” nation for Brazil. However, in the late 30’s, she had traveled to U.S. and soon had become a political asset between Brazil and America (Luz and Anglesey, 1986). Miranda was dedicated to promoting the Pan-American and Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy ideals that were underlined during that era. With the high involvement of Latin American artists, Miranda’s popularity in America skyrocketed as movies began to promote the benefits and significant of Pan-American friendships (James, 2001). While Miranda played the role in Brazilian national identity, particularly on how the identity of Brazil is portrayed in America and other countries worldwide. She also represented the Brazilian woman in the film industry especially in Hollywood. She acted as an envoy of Brazilian woman and later Latin America, which was a culture to American social-political thought. Through the development of Miranda’s career, it is evident in how she represented the Brazilian woman and how her representation affected the Americans outlook on Latin women (Luz and Anglesey, 1986). This is through her negotiation between her country and the transnational identity – her character as a cultural ambassador of the Brazilians to the U.S. It revealed her function as a transnational character in politics, economics and social negotiation at the time and after the World War II. Nevertheless, her participation in her cultural stereotyping that further complicated her transnational role and positioned her as a highly politicized and debated pawn in the process of building the national in these post-war societies. Miranda’s Bahian look of wearing big costume jewelry, full skirts, platform sandals and a basket-like turban acted as a Brazilian’s national symbol and as an exotic and vibrant personality to the U.S audiences. Therefore, the fluidity of both the U.S. and Latin American, cultural identities and within Brazil itself was apparent in the very composition of her transnational identity. Before and throughout the World War II, the U.S. and Brazil had particular agendas in respect to improving and securing their economic, political and social climates. Hence, Brazil anxiously exploited Miranda and her continued representation of the Brazilian woman culture to the Americans in the hopes of improving their economic relations (Anthony, 2008). Moreover, the U.S. sought to address the policy objectives and goals of the Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy. The various social climates of the U.S. and Brazil and later of Latin America more broadly offered a foundation for practices and policies that further carved Miranda’s transnational identity. Simultaneously, she participated in creating her ethnic identity whereby she adopted the Bahian persona. It amplified her accent and sexuality, thus maintaining her role as a non-threatening other, and insisted on the cultural wholeness of the acting and music (Luz and Anglesey, 1986). Because of Miranda’s efforts in uniting and bring the U.S. and Brazil together, both saw the potential political and economic advantage that they would all benefit fro the culture exchange. It was clear that at the time, so as to maintain the United States economic prosperity; there was need for constructive interaction between the U.S. economies and those of other countries - especially those of Latin American, which needed to be fostered. Therefore, with the introduction of Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy there was improvement in the international hemispheric relations via economic and cultural contact. The policy was on the basis that as a good neighbor, the U.S. respects himself and since he does so, will be respecting the rights of others (Anthony, 2008). It was seeking in maintaining the hemisphere unity in the presentation of foreign invasion; thus promoting a shift from military interference to other ways of influence. These included Pan-Americanism, the training of national guards, supporting strong local leaders, economic and cultural incursion, financial supervision, export and import of bank loans and political supervision. Miranda, with her explosive popularity among the international audiences allowed the United States this cultural contact. This was instead of U.S. intervening directly in the Brazil’s internal affairs and other Latin American nations. The Brazilian president, Getulio Vargas, allowed Miranda to be the ambassador or an object of economic exchange between cultures of the foreigners so as to maintain the hemispheric hegemony via importing and cooperating of an important cultural figure. Therefore, this cultural exchange gave an opportunity for both the U.S and the Latin American to export their economic and political agendas hoping to achieve their respective national targets (James, 2001). Miranda’s diplomatic role in World War II when it came to the international relations was governed by the convergence of the production studios and Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy, which promoted her popularity. Being a woman, it proved the power of the Brazilian and Latin America woman in the effort of bringing various countries together by incorporating each others’ culture. Therefore, the film produced in the 1930’s and 40’s, good neighbor, incorporated pro-U.S. participation messages in the films both directly and indirectly. In conclusion, it is through Miranda’s music and dance, which is a universe language that helped her achieve so much, whereby many of her songs involved a theme like “Getting to know you.” The main characters in her songs represented Latin American woman and the U.S. and demonstrated the ease of anyone can learn the language, songs and music; hence, easy to acquire each other country’s culture. It is clear that she was a socio-cultural representative between the U.S. and Latin America. By contrasting crisply against American gender cognitions and social practices, Miranda defined herself as well as Latin America; she acted as a non-threatening yet sexually implicative other (Anthony, 2008). Miranda was an international icon of the Brazilian woman culture, providing significant context to understand her social role. In Hollywood films, Latina stresses fit neatly with the following stereotypes of the foreign other, which are the ignorant comic actress and the exotic sex object. Therefore, Miranda was representing the Brazilian woman in the following qualities in the Hollywood films, which were a vamp and a joke (Bianca, 2002). They depicted the sexuality of a Brazilian and Latin woman. References Freire-Medeiros, Bianca (2002). “Hollywood Musicals and the Invention of Rio de Janeiro, 1933-1953:” Cinema Journal, 41.4: 52-67. Gil-Montero, Martha (1989). Brazilian Bombshell: The Biography of Carmen Miranda. New York: Donald I. Fine, 1989. Mandrell, James (2001). “Carmen Miranda Betwixt and between or, Neither Here nor There:” Latin American Literary Review, 27.57: 26-39. Mendez de la Vega, Luz, and Zoe Anglesey (1986) “Evocation of Carmen Miranda:” Massachusetts Review, 27.3: 660, Print. Roberts, Shari (1993). “The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat:” Carmen Miranda, a Spectacle of Ethnicity. Cinema Journal, 32.3: pp.3-23. Shay, Anthony (2008) Dancing Across Borders: The American Fascination with Exotic Dance Forms: Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc. Read More