The Defining of the Brazilian Identity

People all around the world like to rebel against the status quo, desiring change. Brazilians are no different, having used cultural movements as an effective way to help bring about change over the centuries. From Baroque to Cinema Novo, complex ideas have been expressed in artistic ways throughout Brazil's history. Over the last one hundred years many Brazilians have become concerned about the effects of "imported culture" in their country (Levine, 148) and have endeavored to create a national culture. Three cultural movements from the twentieth century can be considered important in the defining of Brazilian identity. These are the Week of Modern Art and Tropicália, which are associated with the growth of the modernist movement, and Bossa nova, a music style which became popular throughout the world in the 1960s.

The 1920s was a time when ideologies began to be altered in Brazil. It was also a time when, according to Teresa Meade, "members of the artistic and intellectual sectors emerged as members of the active citizenry" (138). These factors allowed for the 1922 Week of Modern Art to take place. This event is usually recognized as beginning the modernist movement in Brazil. Meeting in São Paulo, a group of intellectuals led by Mário de Andrade created an exhibition which showed a deliberate disregard for past restrictions in art (Vincent, 151). The revolutionaries wanted to create a uniquely Brazilian kind of art, hoping to rid themselves of the influence of Europe. They extolled indigenous cultures and Brazilian sentiments in their works (Meade, 139). Those with educations were open-minded to this event, but the common people were skeptical, some even going as far as to disrupt the demonstrations (Levine, 92). To some degree these freethinkers succeeded in their goal of a cultural break with Europe, but foreign influence can still be seen in the work presented, even in that two works are titled "Café Turco" and "Cubismo" ("Semana da Arte Moderna"). The event has also been criticized for being only accessible for the wealthy, as many of the artists were connected to men with power (Jackson, 3). Whatever the controversies, the Week of Modern Art showed that Brazil could compete with the rest of the world in contemporary art.

Music in Brazil has often expressed the general mood of the people. Such is the case with Bossa nova. This music style originated in the 1950s during Juscelino Kubitschek's "Golden Years," a time of Brazilian progress and optimism. Men like João Gilberto and Vinícius de Moraes led the way in this radical new music style-a music style which takes the Brazilian samba and marries it with American jazz. Peter Winn suggests that the light-hearted Bossa nova lyrics show an "idealized Brazil," (422) and it certainly is true that the words are simple. Perhaps this is to emphasize the music over the lyrics in the songs: the songwriters perfer that the listener is humming the song after hearing it rather than singing it. Bossa nova might not have lasted long, but its impact was quite extraordinary. It influenced American music and impacted the way in which many people perceived Brazilian music, both in Brazil and around the world (McGowan and Pessanha, 73). Bossa nova is almost without question the most important Brazilian music style since samba.

The Week of Modern Art established the modernist movement in Brazil, ensuring that Brazilian modernism would thrive for the next few decades. The modernist movement was revived in the late 1960s by the Tropicália movement, also known as Tropicalismo. This cultural movement encompassed music, literature, art, and even motion pictures. Tropicália was, at least in part, a reaction against the military regime, which troubled Brazil from 1964 until 1985. Although it was very important in all the arts, its most lasting impact was the music which sprang from this movement. The time of Bossa nova was over with and the future of Brazil no longer seemed so bright. The songs associated with Tropicália were designed to encourage the listener, usually a young person, to think about the serious issues facing him and about the major problems confronting Brazil (Levine, 133). These songs were not usually positive: Caetano Veloso said that Tropicália was trying to capture "that violent feeling of oppression" that prevailed during the dictatorship (Winn, 424). The musical compositions experimented with different styles, intending to fuse traditional Brazilian rhythms with popular music like rock (Hollander, 20)-a musical genre that originated in the United States. Once again it can be seen that the Brazilian pioneers took a foreign idea and combined it with an aspect of Brazilian culture, creating a new concept. As one can imagine, the military government was angered by many of the songs. Although the regime managed to censor the disagreeable songs and incarcerate songwriters like Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil (Hollander, 20), Tropicália still changed the concept of Brazilian music. It showed a different side of Brazil than was usually seen by an international audience. Tropicália was an important cultural movement of the twentieth century in Brazil because of the complexity of the movement, the historical context, and the influence it had on other singers and songwriters.

The Week of Modern Art, Bossa nova, and Tropicália were attempts to create works and styles that were Brazilian in nature, rather than European or American. Whether the men and women who set out to accomplish this task actually succeeded is debatable. As one can see, all three cultural movements borrowed from other cultures to some degree. Both Bossa nova and Tropicália feature distinctively American elements; and even Modern Art Week can be construed as a Brazilian re-working of European, particularly French, ideas. Menotti del Picchia, a poet involved with Modern Art Week, proclaimed an objective of the "Brazilianization of Brazil" (Bradford, 377). That was eighty-six years ago. Has Brazil finished arriving at forging for itself a new culture? Probably not, but because of the efforts of men like Mário de Andrade and João Gilberto, Brazil is much closer to having a unique identity than ever before.

Biography: List of Works Cited

Burns, E. Bradford. A History of Brazil. New York: Columbia University Press, 1980.

Hollander, Malika. Brazil: the Culture. New York: Crabtree Pub. Co., 2003.

Jackson, K. David. Literature of the São Paulo Week of Modern Art. http://www1.lanic.utexas.edu/project/etext/llilas/tpla/8708.pdf> (accessed 18 September 2008).

Levine, Robert M. The History of Brazil. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999.

McGowan, Chris and Ricardo Pessanha. The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova, and the Popular Music of Brazil. New York: Billboard Books, 1991.

Meade, Teresa A. A Brief History of Brazil. New York, NY: Facts On File, 2003.

"Semana da Arte Moderna." http://www.pitoresco.com.br/art_data/semana/> (accessed 18 September 2008).

Vincent, Jon S. Culture and Customs of Brazil. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2003.

Winn, Peter. Americas: the Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean. New York: Pantheon Books, 1992.