Selling Black Brazil Selling Black Brazil Race, Nation, and Visual Culture in Salvador, Bahia Anadelia A. Romo University of Texas Press Austin Copyright © 2022 by the University of Texas Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First edition, 2022 Publication of this book was made possible in part by support from the Pachita Tennant Pike Fund for Latin American Studies. Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to: Permissions University of Texas Press P.O. Box 7819 Austin, TX 78713-7819 utpress.utexas.edu/rp-form The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R1997) (Permanence of Paper). Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Romo, Anadelia A., author. Title: Selling Black Brazil : race, nation, and visual culture in Salvador, Bahia / Anadelia A. Romo. Description: First edition. | Austin : University of Texas Press, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifi ers: LCCN 2021020084 ISBN 978-1-4773-2419-6 (cloth) ISBN 978-1-4773-2420-2 (PDF) ISBN 978-1-4773-2421-9 (ePub) Subjects: LCSH: Culture and tourism—Brazil—Salvador—History—20th century. | Tourism and art—Brazil—Salvador—History—20th century— Pictorial works. | City promotion—Brazil—Salvador—History—20th century. | National characteristics, Brazilian. | Blacks—Brazil—Social conditions. | Indigenous peoples—Brazil—Social conditions. | Salvador (Brazil)—Guidebooks—History—20th century—Pictorial works. | Salvador (Brazil)—Guidebooks—History—20th century. Classifi cation: LCC G155.B6 R66 2022 | DDC 338.4/7918142—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021020084 doi:10.7560/324196 For Lily and Emmett Contents Preface ix Glossary xiii Introduction: Race, Identity, and Visual Culture in the Americas 1 1. Precedents and Backdrops: Racial Types and Modern Ports 22 2. Colonial Churches and the Rise of the Quintessential Black City: Modernism, Travel, and the Pathbreaking Guide of Jorge Amado 58 3. Pierre Verger and the Construction of a Black Folk, 1946–1951 93 4. Festive Streets: Carybé and Bahian Modernism 138 5. “Human and Picturesque”: Consolidation in the Bahian Tourist Guides of the 1950s 183 6. All Roads Lead to Black Rome: How the Religion of “Secrets” Became a Tourist Attraction 210 Epilogue: Refl ection and Refraction 253 Acknowledgments 262 Appendix 267 Notes 268 Bibliography 299 Index 318 Preface This book began its life as a very specialized study of one capital city in Brazil’s Northeast: São Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos, more commonly known as Salvador or, simply, Bahia. As I began to write, however, I soon realized that my initial framing was far too limited: this was not just a story of Bahian identity or regionalism in Brazil, two well-respected themes in Brazilian history to which I had intended to contribute. It was, rather, a story familiar across the Americas, even the United States. It was a story of making the local national and of using native elements to build a larger national identity. And it was a story familiar across the diaspora, one that spoke to the deep power of racial stereotypes and the diffi cult trajectory of Afro–Latin Ameri- cans in the larger visual register. I have written, therefore, a book that I hope speaks to these broader concerns, and a book that I believe expresses the larger trajectory of the Americas rather than of Brazil alone. I have also written the type of book I like to teach. I place Bahia and Brazil fi rmly within the trajectory of Latin America, rather than as regions best treated apart. I show that ideas of race permeate every- thing, and I make Blackness, not just Indigeneity, a part of the con- versation. I use a close case study to bring texture and life to larger regional trends, with vibrant images as primary sources. And I have tried throughout to write concisely in a language free from jargon and unnecessary complications so that students as well as specialized scholars may follow along. Equally important to this book is my treatment of images as central to the argument itself. This too came gradually. I started off interested in the many tourist guides written within Salvador, works that I had