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Black woman, singer and activist at ninety: Elza Soares and the history of women in post-abolition Brazil

2023; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 33; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09612025.2023.2253597

1747-583X

Otávio Daros,

Race, Identity, and Education in Brazil

ABSTRACTElza Soares (23 June 1930 to 20 January 2022) was one of the greatest icons of Brazilian popular culture, being recognized as a singer who crossed generations. This piece recovers episodes from her personal and professional life, marked by tragedy and heroism, with the aim of showing how her trajectory and work relate to the defining problems and issues of the formation of modern/contemporary Brazil. That is, how a woman’s biography can be thought of as a synthesis of the history of a country and its society.KEYWORDS: Brazilian societyblack womenpopular music Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 João Marcello Bôscoli, host, ‘Sala de Música’ (podcast), Futebol Globo CBN, January 20, 2022. https://cbn.globoradio.globo.com/media/audio/364495/elza-soares-representa-uma-voz-que-nao-vai-se-cala.htm (accessed March 30, 2022).2 Katia M. De Queiros Mattoso, To Be a Slave in Brazil: 1550–1888 (Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1986).3 Elza Soares, ‘Sou negra e celebro com orgulho a minha raça desde quando não era ‘elegante’ ser negro nesse país’, Instagram (post), February 10, 2019, https://www.instagram.com/p/BttijVNhzUJ (accessed April 8, 2022).4 Rachel Soihet, ‘Mulheres pobres e violência no Brasil urbano’, in História das Mulheres no Brasil, ed. Mary Del Priore (7th ed., São Paulo: Contexto, 2004), 367.5 Brodwyn Fischer, A Poverty of Rights: Citizenship and Inequality in Twentieth-Century Rio de Janeiro (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008).6 Renato Ortiz, A Moderna Tradição Brasileira (São Paulo, Brasiliense, 1988); Otávio Daros, ‘Interview with Renato Ortiz: Intersections Between Sociology and Anthropology’, Theory, Culture & Society 39, no. 7–8 (2022), 312–313, https://doi.org/10.1177/02632764221140753.7 Carla Bassanezi, ‘Mulheres dos Anos Dourados’, in História das Mulheres no Brasil, ed. Mary Del Priore (7th ed., São Paulo: Contexto, 2004), 609–10.8 Muniz Sodré, Samba, o Dono do Corpo (2nd ed., Rio de Janeiro: Mauad, 1998), 16.9 Rafael Lucas Santos Silva, ‘Elza Soares em face da outremização: a busca de um projeto musical de superação da condição de subalternidade’, Raído 15, no. 37 (2021), 121. https://doi.org/10.30612/raido.v15i37.14488.10 Bassanezi, ‘Mulheres dos Anos Dourados’, 636.11 Zeca Camargo, Elza (Rio de Janeiro: LeYa, 2018).12 João Carlos Lopes, ‘Elza Soares: vida e obra sob o olhar da fonoaudiologia’ (PhD diss., Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, 2018), 78.13 Marcelo Yuka, Seu Jorge, and Ulisses Cappelletti, songwriters. ‘A Carne’ (song), recorded by Elza Soares in 2002 (Salvador: Maianga Discos), https://youtu.be/yktrUMoc1Xw (accessed April 8, 2022).14 Evelyn C. White, Chain, Chain, Change: For Black Women in Abusive Relationships (Seattle: Seal Press, 1985).15 Bebel Nepomuceno, ‘Mulheres negras: protagonismo ignorado’, in Nova História das Mulheres no Brasil, ed. Carla Bassanezi Pinsky and Joana Maria (São Paulo: Contexto, 2013), 382–3.Additional informationNotes on contributorsOtávio DarosOtávio Daros is a postdoctoral researcher at the Graduate Program in Communication at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul. Previously, he was a guest researcher in the communication history divisions of the Free University of Berlin and the University of Bremen. His works can be found in journals such as Media, Culture & Society, Philosophy & Social Criticism, and Journal for Cultural Research.