Setting up a nationality icon: the aunts from Bahia in Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

The text analyzes how the Baianas became a powerful icon of Brazilian nationality. To do so, we use as main references the clues found in some researches and studies, as well as those observed in other types of representations, such as journalistic texts and lyrics of national popular songs. In this sense, this article presents in what context, to what extent and in what sense the Baianas - black women egresses from Salvador and cities in the Recôncavo region of Bahia state - disembark in Rio de Janeiro in the mid-nineteenth century, then the national capital, emerging in the collective imagination as spokespersons of an ancestry that represents a perspective of nationality that announces, enunciates, integrates and socioculturally identifies a significant portion of the population of this country. The Baianas are a remarkable and unmistakable presence in some festivals such as carnival in Rio de Janeiro or in those read as public and popular in Bahia such as Santa Bárbara, Senhor do Bonfim, and Yemanjá. They vector and bring together tradition and modernity in distinct temporalities.