Under the shadow of Carmen Miranda and carnival: brazilian women in Los Angeles

Abstract

This article discusses how middle and upper-middle class Brazilian women deal with their exoticized images in Los Angeles. It points out that although originally articulated from Hollywood (Carmen Miranda), within the limits of the hierarchy of nations and colonialism, today these images are also fed and recreated by Brazilians. One of the central ideas presented is that, despite constraining the movements and actions of the women, imposing on them the need to dialogue with their content, these exotic images do not do it permanently. In other words, in the process of integration, there is always room for negotiation of other images and contents that depend on factor other than exoticization itself.

Brazilian Immigrant Women; Brazilians in the United States; Exoticization; Negociation of Images