I am happy to see the Reader give coverage to Brazilian music. Unfortunately, it must be difficult to fact check when there are few people who speak Portuguese in Chicago. As a Portuguese speaker who lived in Brazil for four years and has interviewed Caetano Veloso, I would like to point out a few problems with both of your Brazilian music pieces on June 11 [Rock, Etc.]:
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- Carmen Miranda was only “generally looked down upon” by the hypernationalist 2 percent of Brazil’s population that made up the ruling elite during the Vargas administration. This common misconception comes from her song, which (translated to English) was entitled “People Say I’ve Come Back Americanized.” This song went to number one on the Brazilian charts. Every year since the 40s, tens of thousands of people across Brazil have dressed up as Carmen Miranda during carnival.
Note: Matos says he is surprised that Os Mutantes never were subjected to the same level of scrutiny (meaning what, torture?) by the military dictatorship that Veloso and Gilberto Gil were. The reason for this is that Rita Lee was the daughter of an American Dow Chemical executive. The fact that Os Mutantes put a jingle for Shell Oil (“Algo Mais”) on their second album didn’t hurt them in the eyes of the procapitalist military either.
Michaelangelo Matos replies:
Peter Margasak replies:
