BRAZILIAN MUSIC AND SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS: - Elisabeth Blin

Haussman. In the name of “urban renewal,” the purpose of this re-organization was
simply to eliminate the poor and colored population from big city centers. 101
The particular topography of Rio made it easy to separate the blacks from the
whites, because the city is topographically divided between the steep hills, set on abrupt
solid granite, and the beach area where the Portuguese had initially established their
headquarters and commerce. Two zones were then created in Rio: The Zona Sul, or
southern area, traditionally white and rich, and the Zona Norte, or northern area, where
the black poor population lives in shacks on the hills, called morros or favelas. Rio de
Janeiro, now with a population of six million, is still divided today between the
prosperous white south, and the darker, poorer north. 102
Inspired by Haussman’s plan, poor quarters in Paris, Chicago, New Orleans, Buenos
Aires and Rio de Janeiro were similarly destroyed under the pretext of “sanitization,” and
their inhabitants were evicted. 103 Pequena Africa (Little Africa) was the area of old Rio
de Janeiro where most blacks and black immigrants used to live, next to the port. The
colored population was so important that the place looked like “a true Africa in
miniature. 104 ” There, in the late 1800s, they had established not only their homes, but
also religious places of gathering where they kept their African rituals, music and dance
alive. The famous Praca Onze (Square Eleven), where the first sambistas used to meet
and jam, was destroyed at that time, and their music “expressed and incarnated a social
101 In the early 1900s, a peculiar societal coincidence placed the samba and black community of Rio in
a situation very similar to the jazz and black community of New Orleans (de Carvalho 1999, 37)
102 Guillermoprieto 1990, 8
103 Place Congo in New Orleans, U.S., was destroyed during the same years (note of author)
104 McGowan 1998, 22
33