The Cultural Diplomacy between Brazil and United States: The Bossa Nova at Carnegie Hall (1962)

• In Event: US-Latin America Relations

Abstract

This paper analyses the modus operandi of the Cultural Diplomacy between Brazil and the United States, focusing on the historical concert Bossa Nova at Carnegie Hall (1962). Having as written sources the Bossa Nova at Carnegie Hall Program and articles published by Brazilian and US newspapers on the concert organization and outcomes, it will be discussed the following hypothesis: the international repercussion, resulted from the release of Black Orpheus, of an image of Brazil considered, at that time, negative by certain sectors of Brazilian society, led the Ministry of International Relations (Itamaraty) to industriously participate in the promotion of bossa nova in the U.S. It is argued here that Brazilian diplomats tried to control such enterprise (originally developed by Sidney Frey, an US businessman) in order to promote a modern and sophisticated image of Brazil – attributes normally used to describe bossa nova. It will be analyzed the precariousness, exclusions and emerging practices – including tensions in agreements, strategies, and conflicts - that occurred among the many agents involved in the concert (musicians, concert organizers, diplomats, and journalists), ranging from the precarious organization and troubled selection of musicians to the media dissemination of scarce positive and several negative outcomes of the concert. The paper intends to shed light on controversial aspects of the international relations of Brazil and USA through the diplomatic use of bossa nova as a cultural product historically rooted in the context of the Cold War, during which an unprecedented worldwide promotion of the Brazilian music took place though.

Author

• Marli Rosa