Despite Brazil being the last country to abolish slavery in 1888, there was a considerable amount of resistance to slavery before this, so much that runaway slaves formed separate communities called Quilombos. Throughout history, slave resistance has taken many forms. During Latin America’s colonial period in which the film is set, escape was the most tangible slave resistance method. Thus, escape occurred constantly both individually and through large rebel slave groups. This is how Palmares, an area in the mountains of northeastern Brazil, became the center for blacks seeking refuge from enslavement at white sugar plantations. In contrast to other Quilombos, Palmares was rare for its longevity and for its ability to grow as a society despite …show more content…
The film touches on the history of Palmares as a community of resistance to the oppressive institution of slavery in Brazil. Quilombos provides the viewer with a window into the life of someone living in Palmares during the 17th century. Today, the community of Palmares is a symbol for the continued resistance by Afro-Brazilians against slavery as well as an active choice for freedom and equality in Brazil. Palmares, even at its end, became an inspiration for other quilombo communities, not only because it was one of the first, but because of the strength and duration of the fight it put up against the Portuguese. Palmares represented tolerance and harmony for Africans, and still is an inspiration to Brazilians today. The film presents a historical context for Palmares’ social, political and religious preservation of African culture, as well as an analysis of this context for the purpose of understanding Palmares’ role in Brazilian history. Quilombos not only unveils the political and social structure of Palmares but also its place as a resistance to slavery and racial oppression. Palmares’ internal structure resembled that of African Kingdoms in that it was a version of a confederacy with a ruler presiding over the community. Palmares made its mark in Brazilian history as one of the earliest and largest quilombos, able to …show more content…
Half large armies, half democracies, Quilombos were multiethnic communities that were remarkably resistant to Portuguese invasions. Carlos Diegues’ Quilombos depicts the rise and fall of Palmares, as told through the epic battles of great heroes, the self sacrifice of black slaves, and the victory against both racism and slavery. In part, this movie is about creating a history of the transfer of African culture to the Americas. The institution of slavery, which lasted longer in Brazil than most colonies, is the very basis for mythologizing stories through the use of factual history as a context for fantasy. Thus, this film is not simply a history of a slave community attempting to recreate Africa. It is the early history of Brazil, and because of this, the film redefines Brazilian national identity through myth and fantasy intertwined with the gruesome and oppressive history of Afro-Brazilian
When we assess the evils of slavery, we typically think of the North American slaves plight. We think of the beatings, murders, hangings and mistreatment of the Southern slave. But what about the slaves of Latin America? Who hears their cries of woe because of their evil slave masters? Is their treatment the same of their brethren under slave rule in North America? In order to answer these questions, it is necessary to look into the lives of both North and Latin American slaves. For our purposes, we will utilize two slave narratives. One account will come from the North American slave, Frederick Douglass, and his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. The other account will come from the narrative Autobiography of a Slave by the Cuban slave Juan Francisco Manzano. In analyzing these two slave narratives, we will compare the childhood, slave communities, slave/master relations, and literature of both Douglass and Manzano. By taking a comparative look at Frederick Douglass and Juan Francisco Manzano we will be able to hear the voices of the slaves and understand their plight.
This text exhibits the events of the 1937 Parsley Massacre. Similar to Junot Diaz’s, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, this text refers back to Trujillo’s dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. Trujillo organized a genocide of Haitians who were in D.R. Danticat allows readers to experience this traumatic event through the perspective of Amabelle Desir, the main character.
Tompkins, C., 2009. The paradoxical effect of the documentary in Walter Salles’s “Central do Brasil”. Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature 33 no1 p9-27
Slavery as it existed in colonial Brazil contained interesting points of comparison and contrast with the slave system existing in British North America. The slaves in both areas had been left with very little opportunity in which he could develop as a person. The degree to which the individual rights of the slave were either protected or suppressed provides a clearer insight to the differences between North American and Brazilian slavery. The laws also differed greatly between the two areas and have been placed into three categories: term of servitude, police and disciplinary powers, and property and other civil rights.
Like many Latin American countries, Brazil was originally inhabited by over two thousand distinct Native American tribes who’s history goes back over 10,000 years. However, they left scarce written records, hence little is know about them. Even so, today, Brazil is home to the largest population of un-contacted people in the world. During the age of colonization, Portugal flourished as it expanded its territories in both Africa and India. Yet, competition among colonizers increased as Portugal continued to zero-sum vie for territory against Spain. Pope Alexander VI fearing trade wars between two Catholic countries, declared in the Treaty of Tordesillas that newly discovered land, outside of Europe, to the west of the antemeridian* line to be considered Spanish and east Portuguese. Yet, unbeknownst to Pope Alexander VI, Brazil jettisoned into the Atlantic well beyond the antemeridian. In 1500 CE Portuguese’s explorers made first contact in Brazil and claimed it for Portugal.
The novel ‘The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao’, by Junot Diaz gives a very entertaining insight towards many social dynamics that are relevant to Dominican culture, and it fits very well within the scope of the course; and, although it is a work of fiction, this novel is set in New Jersey, and deals specifically with the Dominican Republic experience under the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. From what I’ve learned after reading the first half of this book, there is certainly a lot that can be discussed. Thankfully the book’s versatile portrayal of vivid topics that are seldom discussed shine light upon these many issues that face such an overlooked culture, especially for the American audience.
The cultural importance of soccer is essential to an understanding of the progression of cultural practices in Brazil and the formation of culture in Brazil today. In particular, soccer in Brazil has greatly broken down barriers of a racial stigma that still exists in many well-developed nations today. Franklin Foer discusses this importance in his essay “The Brazil Syndrome.” One of his first main notes is that soccer arrived in Brazil at just about the same time as emancipation in the country, in the late nineteenth century (Foer 41). The significance of this fact is not that soccer was something for every Brazilian to turn to at the time, but that there was a certain shame in the separation of white and black soccer players. The slaves were recently freed and became very intrigued by the sport, as did many of the elite white Brazilians. The elite Brazilians were very prejudiced but were quite undecided about allowing blacks onto their teams, especially considering the shame of slavery due to the recent emancipation. Regardless, African-Brazilians made it onto some soccer teams, whether they were allowed or they snuck on by hiding their skin color in some way. Eventually, the allowance of African-Brazilians onto soccer teams became a requirement for the teams to be successful, because the teams that were not mixed race were simply not good enough to compete with those that
Rafael Trujillo’s rule over the Dominican Republic is considered one of the bloodiest era’s in history. Responsible for the deaths of over 30,000 people, Trujillo became infamous for his tyrannical reign. The four Mirabal sisters, Patria, Dedé, Minerva, and Maria Teresa, along with friends and family, were activists in the revolution to overthrow Trujillo. Affected by his harsh dictatorship, changes in Maria Teresa’s character are evident in Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies. Although Maria Teresa’s cautiousness and sensitivity remain constant during the revolution of the Trujillo Era, her consideration for others weakens.
Just as the Olympics were held in Brazil, we heard on the news the constant increase of violence in children, and the even higher increment in the organized crime events in this country. But few of us understand the cold, horrific, and the traumatic experience of living surrounded by violent children in organized crime gangs, as well as the characters of City of God. The director of the movie Fernando Meirelles purposely shows us the way in which young children in Brazil learn to become violent at a young age, eventually still young get involved in organized crime gangs and their drug business, as well as in the gangs’ battles over territory and power. The director succeeded in presenting his point of view by using a different variety of movie
...spoke a Spanish Creole. This made a clear distinction between the two and made it easy for the government to identify the difference. The reader sees how such themes of Birth and Death show so prominently throughout the characters that one must focus on how birth and deaths affect the concept of the individual relating to their own Negritude. It is culture, not skin tones but rather the beliefs and values that each country be it Haiti or Dominican Republic relate to. Danticat’s novel helps us understand the strengths and limits that Rene Depestre states in The Birth of Caribbean Civilisation “there is a progressive ‘negritude’ that expounds the need to rise above all the alienations of man . . . and there is “an irrational reactionary and mystic version of ‘negritude’ which serves . . . as a cultural base for neo-colonialist penetration into our countries” (244).
...lm of curanderismo can be misconstrued due to the ideas and images set upon by another culture. Many of the stereotypes that the author Avila mentions in her book, such as “a folkway” (p.4) and “the devil’s work” (p.5), are said to originate from the dominating culture that tried to paint these traditional practices in a bad light in order for the conquered people to practice the traditions of the dominating culture. An example of this can be drawn from the early attempts to push the dominance of the Catholic Church onto many of the natives, forcing them to assimilate and forget about their ancestral roots. Instead of this choice of either or, the idea of black or white, Elena and La Malinche reveal a choice of gray, one in which all of the choices are meshed together not in order to avoid one culture or the other, but to better and broaden their cultural horizons.
Myth and reality have gone hand in hand in every culture since the beginnings of time because mixing the two is an effective method of teaching values and morals– the modern term for this is “magical realism.” Because all cultures have mythical representations of life and death and love, the magical realism used in both Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus and Zakes Mda’s Ways of Dying is effective because, while it is specifically aimed towards either the Brazilian and South African cultures, it can be interpreted by any culture at all because of the universal themes it emphasizes. Mixing magical realism with realistic forms of expression allows a story to be rooted in and yet above humanity. This enables the reader to aspire to the precedents set by the characters while at the same time not feeling that they are entirely out of reach. Dealing with cultural issues through magical realism adds a dreamlike quality to the violence, corruption, and poverty, making it more palatable than bald honesty but at the same time adding a touch of familiarity through the common subjects of love, life, and death– the three topics broached by Black Orpheus and Ways of Dying. These cultural themes are approached differently in each but both Camus and Mda address the cultural issues of Brazil and South Africa through the use of magical realism.
Veloso, Caetano, and Barbara Einzig. Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 2003. Print.
In the Brazilian Amazon, the young men of the Xicrin tribe observe a rite of passage to prove their manhood and gain the right to be called warriors. The young females take on the nurturing role. They help prepare the feast ...
“A formal public commitment to legal racial equality, for example, had been the price of mass support for Latin American’s independence movements. In the generation following independence, the various mixed-race classifications typical of the caste system were optimistically banished from census forms and parish record keeping.” This was meant to make all slaves citizens, equal to all other citizens. Slavery receded in Latin America, except in non-republican Brazil, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. However, Brazil’s pursuit of independence was the least violent and provoked the least amount of change. The case of Brazil suggests that retention of colonial institutions such as monarchies lent to stability. “Brazil had retained a European dynasty; a nobility of dukes, counts, and barons sporting coats of arms; a tight relationship between church and state; and a full commitment to the institution of chattel slavery, in which some people worked others to death.”