Editorial Note

This current issue of the Luso-Brazilian Review comes to you with a robust line-up of articles that represent the different areas of the journal within the Portuguese-speaking world. We are extremely grateful for the many authors who submit their excellent work and follow through with revisions through the peer-review process. As seems to be a trend across the humanities over the past few years, it has become increasingly difficult to secure reviewers for the articles that we publish. We remain committed to this double-blind peer review process and on behalf of all of us at the LBR I would like to thank those of you who respond willingly to our requests for review and provide insightful evaluations in a timely fashion for the journal.

The lead article for this issue is by Angela Rodríguez Mooney, “Trans* Narratives in Brazilian Cinema: An Analysis of Trans* Youth Representation in Alice Junior and Valentina.” This historically grounded and theoretically sophisticated article provides an in-depth panoramic overview of the representation of female trans* and travesti characters and trans* sensitivity in Brazilian film from the beginning of the twentieth to the twenty-first century. As indicated in the essay’s title, this study analyzes two contemporary films, Alice Junior (Dir. Gil Barone, 2019) and Valentina (Dir. Cassio Perreira dos Santos, 2020) to illustrate the trajectory of the depiction of trans* characters from comic, burlesque, disrespectful, and violent, to empowered representations that focus on communities of support, joy, safety, dignity, and healing.

Following on with the thematic of Brazilian cinema, the next article discusses the audiovisual collaboration between a filmmaker and a samba and choro composer. “Filming Creative Resistance in 1970s Rio de Janeiro: Leon Hirszman, Paulinho da Viola, and Partido Alto (1976–1982),” by Victoria R. Broadus, analyzes the political, historical, and cultural context of the making of the film Partido Alto (1976–1982) at a time when Brazil experienced a decompression of the military regime that had been in power since 1964. This study explores the importance and legacy of this improvised form of samba—considered by some as the essence of samba and therefore at the heart of Brazilian popular culture—and reevaluates this period that witnessed the beginning of a cultural opening and greater visibility of Black activism in Brazil.

The multifaceted work of Mário de Andrade is the focus of the next article, “The Affective Bodies of Mário de Andrade: Poetics and Politics of Narration in O turista aprendiz,” by Renata Pontes. This study examines Mário de Andrade’s photographic and essayistic travel book O turista aprendiz as approached through the Modernist author’s artistic knowledge, musical talent, sonorous sensibility, and writings on music.

Next, Marcio Siwi proposes a transnational perspective to explore the international cultural geography in the Cold War period. “ ‘Art in Orbit’: São Paulo, New York, and the Internationalization of Abstract Expressionism” reevaluates the role of the São Paulo Biennial within a larger, international network of artistic exchange and the broad implications of cultural dialogs between São Paulo and New York, especially the role of the Biennial in the internationalization of the New York School and MoMa. Siwi also discusses the rise of abstract expressionism and how the São Paulo Biennial offers a lens through which to explore the position of artists and critics in Brazil in relation to this new artistic movement. This study brings us to revisit the notion of cultural capitals, a title just as deserving for São Paulo as New York and Paris.

We remain within this timeframe of the after-war period and the internationalization of the arts with the following article, “Universal, Diverse, Representative: Exporting Brazil through UNESCO,” by Maria G. Gatti. The focus of this study is the initiative of literary translations promoted by UNESCO to foster greater understanding between nations by publishing literary works that were considered representative of national genius and of universal nature. In this article, the translation of Manuel Antonio de Almeida’s Memórias de um sargento de milícias, originally published in 1850 and translated into English under this translation program in 1959, is the main case study that offers us important insights through which to understand this period of literary export.

The theme of literary translations is also the topic of the next article, “Camilo Castelo Branco as Translator: A Contextualization and an Updated Bibliography,” by Chris Gerry. This study fills an important gap in the critical, biographical, and bibliographical work on Camilo Castelo Branco that to date has mostly neglected the author’s significant corpus of translation work. In this discussion, Gerry also examines the reasons and contexts of some of these works, as well as the participative role of Ana Plácido in Camilo’s translation endeavors. This study and the accompanying bibliography will no doubt constitute a valuable starting-point for future work on this aspect of nineteenth-century literature and the field of Camiliano studies in particular.

The following article, “Todo publicista era um jornalista? A contribuição de Isabel Lustosa para a história da imprense na Independência,” by Otávio Daros, continues within the nineteenth-century timeframe. Daros discusses the work of historian and political scientist Isabel Lustosa (1955–) and proposes a reevaluation of what we consider journalism, Lustosa’s methodological practices, and the origins of journalism during Brazil’s move towards independence from Portugal (1821–1823).

Looking at contemporary Brazilian literature, in “End Times: Catastrophy and Chronology in Contemporary Brazilian Fiction” Chloe M. Hill discusses a Brazilian “cli-fi” novel A morte e o meteoro (2019), by Joca Reiners Terron. Through this analysis of the novel, Hill revisits what we can understand as “world literature,” working with Pascale Casanova’s World Republic of Letters and Mikail Bakhtin’s concept of the chronotope, to add to the discussion on climate change, global warming, and apocalyptical literature. As this issue goes to press, the southern city of Brazil, Porto Alegre, is facing devastation due to intense flooding. We stand in solidarity with our colleagues in the region and encourage all to help as possible this region that is living the nightmare of Terron’s fiction turned reality.