Abstract

FINN, John. Propaganda, grafite e as representações de uma cidade negra. ETD [online]. 2010, vol.11, n.02, pp.75-101. ISSN 1676-2592.

In the geographical imagination of the United States, Brazil is a country of soccer, samba, and bikinis. Representations of Brazil enter the United States through the cultural filters of Pelé and the Girl from Ipanema. This view misses, however, the intricacies of Brazil’s troubled racial history, especially in the northeast city of Salvador, Bahia. Attempting to understand Salvador’s racial make-up in terms of popular visual media in the urban landscape, an outsider might never guess that more than 80% of the city’s population is of African descent. In this paper I will first contextualize Salvador in terms of race in Brazil. After briefly interrogating current thought in race and representation, I will then deconstruct some of the most shocking and contradictory representations of race in this Afro-Brazilian urban context. I conclude by wondering if much of the city’s graffiti isn’t an informal, grassroots medium through which representations of race are democratized on the vertical surfaces of Bahia’s capital.

Keywords : Advertises; Graffiti; Representation; Black City; Race.

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