A Confusion of Race and Culture

The musical comedy Forrobodo from Luiz Peixoto & Carlos Bittencourt first performed in 1912 in Rio de Janeiro opened way to broadening the interest of Carioca middle classes in the culture produced in what was then qualified as "Little Africa." The region around Onze Square concentrated most of the spiritual & cultural leadership of Afro-Brazilians & had become a coop of manifestations that would have an enormous influence on the city & the country. This analysis focuses less on the text & more on the performance by itself, aiming at learning how the myths of a mestiza identity started to comprise. All the elements of the production of the play mingle to fill the necessity of Carioca middle class groups for an ambiguous & ambivalent representation of race & class in the culture of the city. Adapted from the source document.