Wednesday’s Wise Woman …

Tia Ciata and Little Africa in Rio de Janeiro Roberto Moura

This weeks post does not venture far from the Brazilian music theme I have recently adopted.  However we do go back in time to the late 19th century;  To Rio in the hillside favelas where the modern samba emerged among the black and mixed-race peoples.  It was during the time that slavery was abolished, the monarchy had ended and the first republic was being formed.
The question of citizenship was the topic of debate in literary and political circles.  The Brazilian elite discussed the role of former slaves,immigrants and others who until now had been socially and politically excluded.  According to some studies it was when the European dances such as the polka and Brazilian musical practices intertwined that the mediation began.  It was a long slow process but it did give rise to Brazil’s first distinctly national urban…