Contracultura: Alternative Arts and Social Transformation in Authoritarian Brazil by Christopher Dunn (review)

Amongst the military dictatorships that ruled the Southern Cone of Latin America in the second half of the past century, the authoritarian government in Brazil was not the most violent, though certainly one of the longest, having lasted from 1964 to 1985. Despite the actual violence perpetrated by the Brazilian State, the confrontation that arose in the cultural arena has been an object of wide academic interest. Christopher Dunn has been exploring the topic for a period longer than the Brazilian dictatorship itself, and Contracultura: Alternative Arts and Social Transformation in Authoritarian Brazil condenses his efforts to organize the expressions and movements that defined such confrontation. The umbrella of counterculture amalgamates his materials, distributed in five chapters along with a lengthy introduction that provides the essentials of this sociopolitical period in Brazil and lays the theoretical foundation of the book.

In the introduction, Dunn explains that the Brazilian counterculture voiced discontent with the projects of national liberation and development embraced by the dictatorship. Although inspired in the international counterculture, factors like race, social class, and regional cultures came into play in ingenious ways in Brazil. Against the official project of nation where social rifts seemed nonexistent, the counterculture ventured other definitions of brazilianness with creativity and even humor, rescuing the country's native and ethnic heritages from neglect.

Many of such attitudes escaped the censorship, while others were repressed by the police or led to exile. The authorities strived to decipher their witty ambiguity, which broke free from the divisive message sent out by the dictatorship propaganda: "Brazil, love it or leave it" (24). The book delves into four of such distinct yet aligned attitudes in a chapter each, while the fifth and last chapter mostly assesses their results as contenders of the status quo. Dunn investigates the practices adopted by certain social groups as well as mainstream culture, particularly the defying works and behavior of artists in music, film, literature, theater, and the fine arts.

Chapter one is devoted to the anonymous youths, mostly from the middle and upper classes, who did not comply to social expectations, for instance, by refusing to enlist in the mandatory military service. This nonconformist attitude was called "Desbunde" (also the title of this chapter), and is parallel to similar rebellious youth movements that took place in other parts of the world during the 60's. In chapter two, "Experience the Experimental", Dunn disputes the charge that the Latin American counterculture was "imported and inauthentic" (13). The artistic activity that flourished amidst repression in Brazil contests such charge as it combined erudition and popular culture, from the poetry of Waly Salomão to the installations of Hélio Oiticica. Such mixtures mirrored the true fissions of Brazilian society while suggesting that the project of a genuinely inclusive collectivity was possible.

The third chapter focuses on Bahia, a state of predominant African heritage that further supports the author's claims of authenticity in the Brazilian counterculture. The Tropicália, an offbeat lively aesthetic practice, became paradigmatic of an all-encompassing sense of brazilianness. Its quirky forms, embodied by artists like siblings Caetano veloso and Maria Bethânia, were even more elusive to the censorship. Dunn also highlights the influence exerted by syncretic religious practices such as Candomblé, and the importance assigned to a state expected to epitomize the harmonious racial miscegenation idealized by the dictatorship.

After Bahia, Dunn goes back to Rio de Janeiro to explore yet more connections between race and counterculture. Chapter four, "Black Rio," strengthens the author's critique of the prevailing discourse of racial democracy. The empowerment of black individuals in Rio put up resistance to a harshly discriminating environment and was influenced by the African American culture, especially through Soul music. Such influence complicates the defense of Brazilian counterculture as innovative; nevertheless, the dictatorship promptly asserted that the reality of Afro Brazilians was different from that of their counterparts in...