Ester de Abreu and the Interpretation of Fado in the Southeast of Brazil (1950-70)

• In Event: Becoming Brazilian: Migrant Cultures in Contemporary Brazil

Abstract

Taking into account that culture is mobile, migrants take it with them when they move to a different country. As such, fado – a traditional Portuguese rhythm – constitutes a mobile cultural artifact (Greenblatt 58), and re-inscribes geopolitically the Portuguese ethnic enclaves in the Southeast of Brazil. Starting with the Vargas’ regime (1930-45), fado has been coopted politically to highlight the Portuguese cultural roots of the Brazilian nation. Therefore, it worked as a tool to manipulate those who wanted to fit into the propagated “Brazilian race” (Dávila 3), and so become Brazilian citizens despite of their origins. Ester de Abreu (1921-1997) not only was a famous fado singer in Brazil from the 1950’s to the 1970’s, but she also allowed her music to be used as part of that political propaganda. In exchange, she used fado to become herself a respected Brazilian citizen, to distinguish herself from other immigrants, and to experience a unique cultural imaginary through which she’d become social and geographically mobile, going back and forth between Portugal and Brazil. By analyzing some of Abreu’s fado lyrics and performances, I argue that she was a disjunctive post-colonial subject, experiencing double sociopolitical and cultural roles from the stage to her own personal life.

Author

• Celia C Cordeiro, Bridgewater State University