A critical analysis of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s PBS documentary film series Black in Latin America. The author discusses Gates' exploration of the history of early race mixture, the contemporary valorization of Blackness, and racial inequality in Brazil.
There are 38.9 million blacks in the United States. According to the 2000 census there are 75.9 million citizens of Brazil who would be classified as African American in the U.S. Since there are only 91.3 million Brazilian whites, who dominate the country, one wonders why so many blacks are living in poverty in favelas (slums).
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
videorecording; 1 videodisc (75 min.), Provides a portrait of rural communities in Brazil that were either founded by runaway slaves or began from abandoned plantations. This type of community is known as a quilombo, from an Angolan word that means "encampment." As many as 2,000 quilombos exist today.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
1 videocassette (ca. 20 min.), Employing footage shot between December 5 and 9, 2003, this documentary looks at the history, life, traditions, and celebrations of the black population of the municipalities of Baião and Mocajuba, located in the Brazilian state of Pará.
