Brazilian like Us: Saudade and the U.S. Brazilian Diaspora in Kathleen de Azevedo's "Samba Dreamers"

• In Event: U.S. Latino/a Studies and Our Latin American Continent

Abstract

In her first novel Samba Dreamers (2006), U.S. Brazilian Kathleen de Azevedo creates a narrative that constitutes an important moment for Brazilian diasporic communities in the United States. This novel is considered the first published in English that contributes to the literary representation of the Brazilian diaspora in the United States. Samba Dreamers not only represents the traumatic experiences of Brazilian exiles and immigrants who are forced to leave their homeland, but it also addresses how the United States government and Hollywood constructed and commodified an image of Brazil as tropical and exotic through an allusion to the iconic figure of singer, actress, and entertainer Carmen Miranda. Indirectly, Azevedo critiques the exploitation of Miranda’s body and mind that eventually led to her early death. Though successful in Hollywood and in the United States, Miranda like most Brazilian immigrants and their families longed to return to her home in Rio de Janeiro but was no longer accepted as she had once been. Azevedo alerts us to how saudade (nostalgia or longing for the homeland) affects the Brazilian diaspora, be they exiles or immigrants. This novel is also a dialogue between the cultural dominance of Rio de Janiero (Azevedo’s birthplace) and Los Angeles, home of Hollywood, invention, and the possibility of the American Dream by showing that the Global South is alive and well in the Global North.

Author

• Juanita I Heredia, Northern Arizona University