Entre Hollywood e o Brasil: Carmen Miranda e a invenção da mulher latina no cinema da Política de Boa Vizinhança

Abstract

This article analyzes the construction and circulation of the image of Carmen Miranda within the context of cultural relations between the United States and Latin America during the 1930s and 1940s, a period marked by the implementation of the Good Neighbor Policy. Based on the analysis of the film Week-End in Havana (1941) and the examination of visual materials circulated in the press, the study investigates how the artist’s image became associated with a set of representations that linked tropicality to a simplified portrayal of Latin America. In this process, Miranda’s figure was incorporated into a narrative that diluted the cultural specificities of Latin American countries, promoting a feminine representation marked by comic sensuality and subordination. The article aims to analyze how the film contributes to a depoliticized representation of Latin America and its women, who are mobilized as objectified symbols of exoticism within a colonial logic. In doing so, the study proposes to rethink symbolic mechanisms of domination and highlights the importance of an intersectional reading of identity, visual culture, and international relations.