Brazilian Day Festival and The Cleansing

BRAZILIAN DAY FESTIVAL AND
THE CLEANSING OF 46TH STREET:

REPRESENTING BRAZILIAN IDENTITIES
IN NEW YORK CITY
NATALiA COiMBRA DE sá
Department of Human Sciences, Universidade do Estado da Bahia
Abstract: This article addresses the historical transformations that have taken
place in the Brazilian Day Festival—held annually in Manhattan, New York—
over the past decades. Since the mid-1980s, when it was first promoted, this
event has accompanied the changes of the city’s Brazilian immigrant com-
munity. Currently it is a large-scale event that represents a civic celebration, a
block party, an ethnic street fair, and/or a musical concert. It is also a festival
that encompasses other cultural activities during the same weekend, such as the
Cleansing of 46th Street. The fieldwork for this study was carried out between
2009 and 2010, and the data were collected through historical and ethnographic
research, including 2,560 different newspaper sections (articles, editorials, in-
terviews, advertising, etc.), 18 in-depth interviews, and participant observation
at Brazilian cultural centres, events, clubs, bars, and restaurants. In this article,
I argue that mega-events are key elements for constructing powerful images
and symbols associated with national identities.
Resumo: O presente artigo registra as transformações históricas pelas quais
vem passando a festa do Brazilian Day, realizada anualmente em Manhattan,
Nova York. Este evento tem se transformado desde a década de 1980, quando
surgiu, à medida que acompanha as mudanças na comunidade brasileira imi-
grante residente na cidade. Trata-se de um evento de grande porte que apresenta
elementos de festa comunitária, celebração cívica, feira de rua étnica, espetá-
Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Vol. 37, No. 74 (2012): 109–136
109
110 CJLACS / RCELAC 37/74 2012
culo musical e engloba ainda outras manifestações culturais que acontecem
de forma simultânea no mesmo fim de semana, como é o caso da Lavagem da
Rua 46. A pesquisa de campo para este estudo foi realizada entre 2009-2010
e os dados foram coletados através de levantamento histórico e etnográfico,
incluindo 2560 seções de jornais (artigos, editoriais, entrevistas, propagandas
etc.), dezoito entrevistas em profundidade e observação participante em centros
culturais, eventos, clubes, bares e restaurantes brasileiros. Neste artigo, discuto
que os megaeventos são elementos-chave para a construção de poderosas ima-
gens e símbolos associados às identidades nacionais.
Introduction1
The Brazilian Day Festival in New York is the longest running
Brazilian event outside of Brazil—as much in terms of individual
participation as of spatial and media presence—and is the pioneer of
the “Brazilian Day” brand, which has been replicated in other major
cities worldwide. The festivities began in 1985 on New York City’s
West 46th Street, in an area subsequently known as “Little Brazil,” a
central geographical symbol of the Brazilian presence in Manhattan.
It was originally a civic and community celebration designed to pay
tribute to Brazilian Independence Day but, since its foundation, it has
been recognized as an “ethnic event” in the official cultural program
of the city, organized by Brazilians who resettled in New York.2 Since
its inception the event has gone through many different phases: for
example, being co-opted by the Brazilian TV network Globo and in
2008 introducing the Cleansing of 46th Street, which draws inspira-
tion from the Cleansing of Bonfim Church in Salvador, Bahia, and
serves as a community-based counterpoint to the main event.3
While completing my doctoral research, I became increasingly
cognizant of the scarcity of published work documenting Brazilian
festivities that occur outside of Brazil. Margolis (1994, 293) notes the
existence of the Brazilian Day Festival as the main ethnic Brazilian
event in New York City during the 1990s. And Meihy (2004, 115)
points out that the event’s has been important for the community since
its inception, primarily because it is conducted in Midtown Manhat-
tan, an area considered wealthy and of great commercial and touristic
visibility in the city. Beserra (2005a, 2005b) and Ribeiro (1999) are
Natalia Coimbra de Sá / Representing Brazilian Identities in New York City 111
among the few authors who have analyzed the relationship between
US-bound Brazilian immigration and popular festivities in Los An-
geles and San Francisco, respectively, successfully demonstrating the
value of such research on festivities and Brazilian identities in interna-
tional contexts. More broadly, studies regarding other Latin American
festivities have demonstrated successfully the value of such events in
understanding diasporic phenomena—such as the celebration of El
Cinco de Mayo in the US, especially in California (Hayes-Bautista
2012)—and the use of transnational commemorations in the creation
of local immigrant identities.
This article seeks to address the gap in research by presenting
a detailed analysis of the historical transformations that have taken
place in the Brazilian Day Festival in New York over the last few
decades. By doing so, I unpack the negotiations and alliances behind
these transnational commemorations between large media (repre-
sented by the Globo network and Globo Internacional), community
media (represented by The Brasilians and other local agents, such as
Figure 1. Cleansing of 46th Street: Cortejo pelas ruas de Manhattan, 2009.

Source: Natalia Coimbra de Sá.
the online VejaTV channel), and the Brazilian community, paying
attention to how the organizers of the celebration act as “translators”
(Bhabha 1998) of Brazilian culture to wider audiences. I also discuss
the significance of the Cleansing of 46th Street as a counter-event.
I show how the “Cleansing” gets re-signified in New York City as
a transnational cultural practice, removing its religious background
while retaining some important performative elements to convey a
positive multicultural message to both Brazilians and non-Brazilians.
Brazilian identities are here understood in the terms elaborated by
Sovik (2003, 15), as “a space that is embraced, a weaving together
of position and context, and not an essence or substance to be ana-
lyzed.” Moreover, these celebrations must be described and under-
stood within their social, cultural, and economic contexts, comprising
transformative processes and particular motivations (Amaral 1998).
The observations reported here are the result of fieldwork con-
ducted in New York City (NYC) during 2009 and 2010. Throughout
this period, I conducted interviews with the organizers of both the
Brazilian Day Festival and the Cleansing of 46th Street (Lavagem
da Rua 46). I also analyzed the information published in the monthly
Brazilian community newspaper in New York City, The Brasilians,
between January 1985 and December 2009.4 This 25-year timeframe
coincides with the first two and a half decades of the event’s annual
September realization. The pages of this publication document the
history of the festival, including information on all of its transforma-
tions. Indeed, this is the oldest Brazilian newspaper in circulation
outside of Brazil (Vieira 2008; Borges, Mendes, and Lima 2009), and
the newspaper’s staff has participated in the organization of Brazil-
ian Day ever since its inauguration. It bears mentioning, however,
that this newspaper does not represent a single perspective. Rather,
it comprises the opinions and views of many of the collaborators,
columnists, photographers, sponsors, and readers who interacted with
and in the newspaper’s pages. Part of my fieldwork also included in-
terviews with Brazilian immigrants and, in particular, those involved
in the field of cultural promotion.5
New York’s Brazilian Day is unique each year. Yet, as revealed in
my diachronic analysis of the newspaper The Brasilians during the
event’s first 25 years, the event has gone through important changes
that I organize into four historical moments. I also show how the
Brazilian community has contested the development of the com-
memoration into a large-scale event. The Lavagem da Rua 46 has
therefore been created as a counter-event, drawing inspiration from
the Cleansing of Bonfim Church in Salvador, Bahia. However, as the
section on the historical origins of this religious and profane event
from Bahia shows, the various elements of the Lavagem needed to
be mediated and translated for a new context so it could be shared
with members of New York City’s Brazilian immigrant community
and with wider audiences.
The First Years: Celebrating the Democracy (1985–86)

Jota Alves was the main force behind Brazilian Day. The creator and
then president of The Brasilians, he had already been involved in the
organization of popular and successful Brazilian Carnival festivities
in Manhattan for many years. In 1985, with the end of the military
dictatorship in Brazil, Alves decided to bring the community together
to commemorate this landmark with a public event, which would take
place on Brazilian Independence Day (7 September) in a central loca-
tion of the city: West 46th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
Since the 1960s, this address had been a hub for various Brazilian
shops and offices, as well as for the headquarters of numerous public
and private Brazilian institutions (Meihy 2004).
This first celebration, a “block party” held in 1985 in commemo-
ration of 7 September, was considered the first “Brazilian Independ-
ence Day Street Festival” in NYC. In February 1986, Jota Alves
organized his last Brazilian Carnival in the city, Baile da Democracia
(Democracy Dance). In July of the same year, the calls for the Brazil-
ian Day Festival, published in The Brasilians, stated that the festivi-
ties would be dedicated to the “centennial celebration of the Statue
of Liberty.” Published in the same edition was a proclamation from
Ed Koch, mayor of New York City, declaring that 7 September was
officially “Brazilian Day.” In 1986, the mayor made an appearance
at the event and took the stage to thank Brazilians for the celebra-
tion: “Thank you, Brazil, for such a beautiful celebration, in my city”
(The Brasilians September 1986). The newspaper covered the party,
underscoring the community’s involvement, publishing many photos,
and calling attention to the participation of local musicians and bands.
At this time, the celebration was characterized primarily as a
tribute to Independence Day. The discourses and practices celebrated
were those that linked the festivities to the return of democracy, to
patriotism, and to a sentiment of community integration, an oppor-
tunity to bring friends together and experience a nostalgic sense of
“Brazilianness.” The primary motivation of the party was to create
a space for the community to celebrate publicly. Of particular value
were spontaneity, improvisation, and the meeting of the Brazilian
residents of the city, as well as foods, drinks, popular dances, and
crafts, among other things that were regarded as typical aspects of
Brazilian culture.
Ethnic Street Fair: The Transition Years (1987–91)

In 1987, Brazilian Day’s new president, João de Matos, began to
organize the event together with the staff of The Brasilians, which
was run by Edilberto Mendes, editor of the newspaper and general
coordinator of the Brazilian Day Festival. This change was moti-
vated by Jota Alves’ return to Brazil, after which he sold the news-
paper and entrusted Matos, an established NYC-based Brazilian en-
trepreneur, with organizing the annual street party. The newspaper
published the official attendance numbers released by the New York
police department, indicating an estimated 100,000 attendees in
1987 and 250,000 in 1988. During these years, the celebration dem-
onstrated the same characteristics as its first two years: it continued
without the participation of big name artists or media personalities.
However, as noted in The Brasilians, there was a stage on which lo-
cal musicians played for the Brazilian expatriates who lived in the
city and in nearby areas.
Some important factors contributed to the significant increase
in the number of participants. The presence of the mayor in 1986
received widespread community press coverage and was recalled
repeatedly in the pages of The Brasilians throughout the year. This
worked as an important factor in legitimizing the celebration. Fur-
thermore, the event’s date changed; rather than always occurring
on 7 September, the celebration was transferred to the weekend that
precedes Labor Day in the US, which continues to be the case today.
The chief Brazilian Day activities always occur on the Sunday of
the holiday weekend, which marks the end of summer in the United
States. This change was an important strategic decision for the event’s
growth, as it gave Brazilian expatriates living in other parts of the
country (even those in relatively distant places) the chance to come
to New York City and participate in the party. At the same time, NYC
receives a dense flow of tourists on this holiday weekend. The years
1987 and 1988 also mark the first spatial expansion of the celebration,
when it extended its presence to Madison Avenue, thus becoming one
of the largest street festivals in the city.
At this transitional moment, while Brazilian Day was already un-
der the direction of João de Matos and the staff of The Brasilians, its
structure, organization, and objectives reflected a small- to medium-
sized community party, just as it had originally been conceived. All
of the event’s promotion and advertising were guided by a focus on
the maintenance and value of community spirit. Indeed, a large part
of its goal was to encourage the recognition of the city’s Brazilian
presence—as is revealed in an analysis of the discourse in local me-
dia—and the event acted as a symbol of the search for a collective
Brazilian social and political agency. The street party, with its ven-
dors’ stands and, later, artistic presentations, aimed to call attention
to the immigrants, local artists, community leaders, and Brazilian
commercial establishments.
During this period, a problem occurred vis-à-vis city deadlines
and permits, and the event had to be cancelled. The situation was
later resolved and The Brasilians spearheaded a campaign, together
with the city’s Brazilian community, to officially promote West 46th
Street as the Brazilian street in Manhattan, a locale where anyone
could find a piece of Brazil in New York City. An intensive effort was
made during the following years to mobilize the community around
this objective. The cover of the newspaper’s April 1990 edition stated:
“Our street, our people, our activities. In New York, West 46th Street
is the place to find Brazilians and all things Brazil” (The Brasilians
April 1990).6
The Renewal: Bringing Big Name Stars (1992–2002)

In its May 1992 edition, The Brasilians announced that the Inde-
pendence celebration would return that year bigger and better than
ever, and João de Matos explained why there was indeed cause
for excitement. For the first time, the celebration would bring in
people from outside the local Brazilian community. Whilst locally
based and itinerant Brazilian artists had always been well repre-
sented at the celebration, this marked the first year the stage would
welcome a big name Brazilian act: Lulu Santos, a major Brazilian
pop star.
From that moment on, the celebration grew significantly. Not
only did the number of participants and sponsors increase, but also it
drew much more attention from Brazilians and the media. In 1993,
the event’s main attraction was Elba Ramalho. In attendance were
other stars, such as actors Maitê Proença and Sonia Braga, as well as
singer Gal Costa. Many of the invited performers were popular stars
from Bahia, and particularly those who were integral to Bahia’s Car-
nival. This predilection for Bahian artists was not a coincidence, as
was stressed in interviews with João de Matos and Edilberto Mendes.
The organizers of the event explained that, according to the attendee
feedback they received annually, the Bahian attractions, as well as
the country music (música sertaneja) singers, were crowd favourites.
These artists were very popular attractions for similar events held in
Brazil, especially Carnival and summer festivals.
Between 1992 and 2002, the period in which João de Matos and
The Brasilians organized Brazilian Day, the party attained great popu-
larity in Brazilian communities outside New York City, particularly
those along the East Coast. During this period the festivities attracted
hundreds of thousands of participants to NYC, who enthusiastically
dressed in the symbolically Brazilian colors of green and yellow.
The event, which Brazilian expatriates began to view as a tradition,
had by this time acquired a significant number of sponsors—both
Brazilian and American companies—and had also become a regular
performance venue for well-known Brazilian stars, with an increas-
ing celebrity presence. Additionally, caravans came from all over the
United States for the event.
During this 10-year period, although the event had yet to receive
attention from large Brazilian media outlets such as the Globo net-
work, the Brazilian Day Festival grew to be much more than a make-
shift immigrant community street fair. It had become a celebration
with a strong presence and an impressive logistical and structural
organization. It was indeed these aspects that captured the attention
of Globo, the television network that had gone international in 1999
(Globo Internacional), prompting the network to initiate talks with
the event’s local organizers.
The Internationalization Years: Globo’s Involvement

(2003–present)
In 2003 Globo Internacional began to participate in the organization
of the event. That year’s shows included well-known singers Daniel,
David Moraes, and Ivete Sangalo. For 2004 it was the bands Skank
and Timbalada, and in 2005 the musical attractions were Chitãozinho
& Xororó and Araketu. The following year marked the first broadcast
of the event, for which Banda Calypso, Babado Novo, Leonardo, and
Sandy and Júnior performed. With a continued tendency to include
Bahian artists, the 2007 event included Asa de Águia, Jota Quest,
and Bruno and Marrone. Jorge Benjor, Lulu Santos, and Banda Eva
performed in 2008. And finally, in 2009, Brazilian Day featured Vic-
tor and Leo, Elba Ramalho, Marcelo D2, Arlindo Cruz, and Alcione,
with a guest appearance by Carlinhos Brown.
That these are currently among Brazil’s most popular performers
demonstrates the interest of the Globo network in defining lineups for
the musical show that appeal to broad audiences. Indeed, the focus
is placed on elements of spectacle rather than on local artists (as was
the case during the event’s initial years) who primarily appeal to the
NYC-based Brazilians. Furthermore, the local promoters, associated
with The Brasilians, contend that these are the artists whom immi-
grants want to see, and, given that most expatriates cannot afford to
go to Brazil annually for Carnival or other similar events, the Bra-
zilian Day Festival may be their only chance to see these big name
Brazilian stars.
It is important to note that until 2002, the name “Brazilian Day,”
so well recognized by the public today, did not appear as the event’s
official title. Indeed, this expression was primarily used by the event’s
organizers in English-language editions of The Brasilians. In the Por-
tuguese-language editions, the name of the celebration was commonly
written as Dia do Brasil (Day of Brazil) or Festa da Independência
(Independence Day Festival). Moreover, the event’s press coverage
appeared less interested in the number of attendees each year than
with the attention the event garnered in the city’s streets and the im-
pact the event was having in the community.
João de Matos made clear that the partnership he formed with the
Globo network was decidedly pragmatic: “I gave Globo the rights
to broadcast worldwide. In exchange, they send me performers. In
other words, our partnership is nothing more [than] that. The event is
mine and Globo is my partner” (interview, 1 December 2009). Pres-
ently, Globo participates not only in NYC’s Brazilian Day, but also in
“Brazilian Days” held in many other places around the world, and it
holds the broadcast rights both in Brazil and worldwide.7 This cover-
age includes reports and headlines about the event in news sources
such as the Jornal Nacional (National News), Jornal Hoje (Today’s
News), and Fantástico. But special segments are also produced for
popular entertainment programs such as Caldeirão do Huck (Huck’s
Melting Pot), Video Show, and Altas Horas (Late Night). The net-
work’s presenters are often invited to host the festivities, including,
most recently, André Marques, Luciano Huck, Serginho Groisman,
Xuxa, and Regina Casé. Furthermore, some of Globo Internacional’s
programs, such as Planeta Brasil (Planet Brazil), produce specials
on Brazilian Day, in which they focus on Brazilian communities in
the United States.
While expatriates commemorate Brazilian independence in any
number of ways, The Brasilians has always publicized Brazilian Day
in New York City as the grandest of these events, as is clear in the
publication’s pages since the late 1980s. However, since the Globo
network’s involvement in the promotion of the party starting in 2003
and, later, when it began broadcasting the event in 2006, the name
“Brazilian Day” has become internationally recognized. The way in
which the television network publicizes the event gives the larger au-
dience the impression that all of the world’s “Brazilian Days” are part
of the same grand project. This direction is defined by the network’s
marketing, which, using Globo Internacional’s advertising machine,
publicizes the events taking place around the world as though they
were in fact associated with each other. Indeed, this development is
shown in the abundance of news, reports, press releases, TV com-
mercials, interviews, and special shows promoting any given overseas
Brazilian Day.
In recent years, the Globo network began to expand its internation-
alization model not only through its international channel but also in
part by creating similar Brazilian Day-like events in other cities around
the world, with an eye toward locations in which large numbers of
Brazilian immigrants reside. This decision has successfully expanded
the network’s foreign markets. By associating its brand with popular
street festivals—cultural events that are considered key elements of
Brazilianness (Amaral 1998)—Globo aims to connect with Brazilian
immigrants around the world in order to promote its cable television
channel. After all, providing information about Brazil to Brazilians as
well as to foreigners interested in Brazil (by way of a paid subscription
TV channel) is an efficient means of opening new consumer markets
for Brazilian culture in countries with a Globo presence.
The strategic and commercial vision for the event was not a
Globo innovation. Still, João de Matos worries about the expansion
of the “Brazilian Day model” that the network is employing. Indeed,
his preoccupations are fomented by the commercial aspects of a cel-
ebration that has, for over two decades, exclusively represented New
York City’s Brazilian community, in a one-of-a-kind event to both the
US and the world. Matos believes that from the moment the Globo
network began to work with businessmen and cultural producers in
other cities, any problems that develop in relation to these other events
could have positive or negative repercussions for the pioneering New
York City event, which was initially created through the innovative
entrepreneurial efforts developed by his team together with the NYC-
based Brazilian community.
What began as an entirely free event is now cordoned off into
reserved areas for paying audience members. By buying and wearing
special shirts, people receive access to the boxed seats (camarotes)
and the VIP section; space is also reserved for those who participate
in the caravans. This model of commercialization is no doubt observ-
able in public street parties in Brazil, particularly during Carnival
and Carnival-like festivities. In addition, the renting of space and the
obtaining of permits for vendors of food, drink, and crafts are negoti-
ated by a festival productions company that specializes in street fairs
and is not reserved solely for Brazilian merchants and products, but
are instead open for people and merchandize of any national origin.
With Globo’s participation, the promotion and publicity of the
event has been decentralized—no longer being handled exclusively
by members of the Brazilian immigrant community—and the event’s
direction follows the network’s model for the representation of Brazil-
ian culture during the festival. The musical attractions that make up
the show are now the primary focus of Brazilian Day’s publicity, and
are widely recognized around the world, not just within the expatri-
ate community. The show’s duration increases in accordance with the
duration of the festival, and although the event still has its street fair,
merchants now must compete with the numerous performances that
take place all day on the main stage.
Currently, two distinct moments of the celebration occur simul-
taneously in adjacent spaces. On one side is the “ethnic” aspect,
characterized by the street fair—with its usual merchant stands—that
continues to take place on 46th Street (Little Brazil), and which was
predominant during the event’s initial years. On the other side is the
“media” aspect, which has gradually gained a stronger presence in
recent years, and which presently is characterized by the musical
show that takes place on the enormous stage erected on 43rd Street
and that is broadcast on television by the Globo network.
In addition to the Globo network’s broadcast, US networks have
begun covering Brazilian Day as part of their local programming,
including it among their cultural news stories.8 With this rise in in-
terest on the part of North American media outlets, chiefly among
those serving a Latino audience—which also represents a signifi-
cant presence at the celebration—the event was (re)discovered from
the “ethnic” viewpoint, given its association with a broader cultural
context of the city, that of multiculturalism. Brazilian Day is no
longer seen from the viewpoint of the media and potential sponsors
as a solely Brazilian celebration, but rather as a multi-ethnic show,
and thus creating new commercialization and contextualization per-
spectives, from the social and cultural to the economic and politi-
cal. The focus for both the media and business owners is the Latino
population that is targeted in the United States as a burgeoning con-
sumer market (Dávila 2001).
Contestations
There are also other preoccupations that extend beyond these eco-
nomic or commercial concerns. For Edilberto Mendes, as well as
for other members of the local organizing staff, Brazilian Day has
one essential purpose: to be a community party. Besides acting as
a commercial model, the event has the symbolic function of calling
attention—by way of the festivities, arts, and shows—to the issue of
immigration and the representations of Brazilian cultural identities
outside of Brazil.
While these goals are no doubt complementary, they do not
always work harmoniously. That is, despite the critiques levelled
against it, no one seemed indifferent to the event. Indeed, the contra-
dictory discourses of my interviewees regarding Brazilian Day only
reinforce the significance of the festival. After analyzing the opinions
collected through interviews, and also the material published in The
Brasilians, I perceived remarkable changes in the sentiments im-
migrants expressed regarding Brazilian Day since it became a mega
event. Below I present some of the comments given to me during
interviews conducted in New York City between November 2009
and March 2010. These comments encapsulate the issues concerning
Brazilian identity in connection to the festival, its history, and the way
it is currently practiced:
The festival started small. It was growing gradually. Nowa-

days it’s business. It’s not a party. It’s an event. People come
from all of the United States. It’s on Globo. (H.S., musician)
It’s much bigger now with Globo [involved]. It was big. But
it’s much bigger now. I remember when it started it was only
one street. They had some balloons and some food. That was
it. Just like all the other [street parties]. And I think that was
cool. They had no partnership, not this whole thing. Nowa-
days, they have these shows and they close from 6th Avenue
up to 57th Street. Between 5th Avenue and Broadway. I mean,
it’s a big deal. Huge. But is it good? Well, I don’t know if this
is good. I don’t know if it’s good for Brazil’s image. (S.S.,
designer)
I have never been to Brazilian Day. I think that is totally fo-

cused on Globo. I think that it’s a TV Globo event, and not a
Brazilian event. (T.M., journalist)
I’m aware of Brazilian Day, and it’s important it exists because
it promotes Brazil somehow. And it is, if I am not mistaken,
the greatest street festival in NYC. But I get worried when you
establish [cultural] patterns for the country and bring these
standards here as if they were the only representation of the
country. Our country is very diverse. (D.T., journalist)
Brazilian Day used to be [held] only on 46th Street, between

5th and 6th [Avenues]. That was it. Few people attended, you
know? Then it started expanding, it became bigger. Nowadays
you have about one and a half million people [on the streets].
I don’t think we have any other event in New York City like
that. I believe its importance is huge. It brings the community
together. It raises our self-esteem. It promotes Brazil inter-
nationally. It makes Brazil become part of the world culture.
(M.E., actress and singer)
I argue that the Globo network’s involvement in the event may be

the main reason behind such conflicting opinions. Johnson (2006) also
observed strong contradictory opinions about Globo Internacional
among Brazilian immigrants living in Miami and Toronto, further
noting that the same is true for Brazil: people love to hate Globo.
There is a cultural reason for this: despite its position as the main
television channel in the country, Globo has also been involved with
polemical historical and political issues, such as being linked to the
military dictatorship (1964–85), among other more recent episodes.
Introducing New Cultural Elements: From Bahia to

New York
In 2008, concerned with representing Brazilian identities in a more
diverse way than that of the festival and interested in introducing new
cultural aspects, Silvana Magda, Brazilian Day coordinator, suggested
to local Brazilian Day organizers the idea of the Cleansing of 46th
Street (Lavagem da Rua 46). Entrepreneur João de Matos, Brazilian
Day executive director, together with the newspaper The Brasilians,
supported the idea, and thus the event “became part of the official
calendar of the largest Brazilian party outside of Brazil. The purpose
of the Cleansing is to create a unique cultural celebration experience
in the Big Apple” (Lavagem da Rua 46 2008).
This event comprises a parade, followed by smaller shows, all
occurring the day preceding the main Globo-partnered event. This
activity has a distinct backstory and aims to reclaim the spirit of the
celebration’s initial years. Silvana Magda explained in an interview
(20 November 2009) that when she first conceived of the Cleansing,
she had in mind something that would serve as a community-based
counterpoint to the main event. The Cleansing of 46th Street, in addi-
tion to other cultural activities promoted by local cultural artists and
producers (film showings, photography and art exhibits, lectures and
debates, among other things) occurring during the week prior to the
Brazilian Day Festival, operates as an important strategy by which
the local Brazilian Day in New York organizers maintain their active
and dynamic roles in supporting Brazilian culture in New York City.
The Cleansing of 46th Street is inspired by and refers explicitly
to the ritual cleansing of the Bonfim Church (Lavagem do Bonfim),
which is held annually in Salvador, Bahia, and, characterized by its
blending of profane and sacred Catholic and Candomblé elements,
is one of the most traditional and popular religious events in Brazil.9
This cleansing was subsequently re-signified in New York as a tran-
scultural practice, removing its religious background while retaining
some important performative elements.
The organizers strove to maintain the positive multicultural mes-
sage of bringing the community together by way of
diverse voices and rhythms to genuinely represent the en-
chantment, the tradition of not only Bahia but of all the people.
This glorious event will celebrate the purification, the energy,
the nature, the unification of the people and the perpetuation
of peace. The traditional Baianas [women in colonial garb],
dressed in white, bejeweled with cordons and rosaries in
honor of every saint, will bring their vessels of perfumed wa-
ter, energizing the whole route of the parade in Little Brazil.
(Lavagem da Rua 46 2008)
To understand the origins of the New York-based celebration, it is im-
portant to review some historical aspects of the Cleansing of Bonfim
and recount briefly its own transformational developments.
The Origins: The Cleansing of the Bonfim Church in

Salvador
The devotion to Senhor Bom Jesus (Good Lord Jesus) derives from
the Middle Ages. The cult dedicated to Senhor do Bonfim (the Lord
of the Good End)—a colonial designation assigned to the Crucified
Christ that represented the death of Jesus on Calvary—is one of the
best known and widespread in Bahia. In Brazil, the largest and best-
known locus of devotion to this saint is located in the city of Salvador,
where the iconic representation, or imagem (image), arrived in the
mid-18th century, brought from Portugal by Captain Theodózio Rod-
rigues de Faria (Santana 2009). This image was said to be miraculous
and was very well received by the local community. Consequently, by
1754 a church had been constructed on the apex of the hill situated
on the Itapagipe peninsula in order to house the image (Serra 1995).
Initially, the celebrations in honor of Senhor do Bonfim were
carried out on moveable dates. Documentation shows, however, that
beginning in 1773, the celebration occurred periodically in January,
on the second Sunday after Epiphany.10 The festivities included nine
days of Mass and prayers, but did not yet have its eventual proces-
sion. Some scholars suggest that the act of washing churches on the
Thursday prior to religious festivities is a Portuguese tradition and
was a practice typically carried out by people who lived in the church
vicinity or by brotherhood members who completed this task while
also having fun (Santana 2009; Sansi 2003; Serra 1995). Basing their
information on data from Verger (1999) and Bastide (1978), these
three authors emphasize that the practice has its roots in the payment
for divine graces received by devotees, which would become a tradi-
tion by the mid-nineteenth century. As Sansi (2003) notes, historical
documents from the period demonstrate that as early as 1881, nearly
500,000 people were already participating in the celebration of the
Cleansing of Bonfim, which also included food and drink stands as
well as music and dance in the church square.
During this period, the Catholic Church in Brazil, in an effort to
separate “folklore” and “superstition” from “religion,” sought to re-
place popular religious practices with more orthodox ones. In 1888,
the year slavery was officially abolished in Brazil, a bishop pushed
for the elimination of the Cleansing of Bonfim. In 1889, the Bahian
government banned it and other popular festivities. However, due
to pressure from the populace, the Cleansing returned in later years,
taking the form of a “profane” celebration in the church square, thus
quite distinct from the “sacred” activities that took place inside the
church (Sansi 2003).
Serra (1999) notes that one can observe contradictions in these two
celebratory spaces in many Bahian popular religious celebrations: on
one side, what happens in the church—order, solemnity, circumspec-
tion, self-communion, decorum, discretion, a peaceful and reverent
public attitude, contemplation of the eternal—and on the other, what
happens in the square—informal and spontaneous conduct, sensuality,
irreverence, promiscuous and permissive dispositions, provocative
attitudes with erotic or aggressive intentions, drunkenness, conflicts
and tumults, with interest only in the ephemeral. The author explains
that this ritual opposition between the spaces of the church and those
of the square has, in Bahian culture, effectively become stigmatized
by way of expressive symbolic procedures that specifically involve
the interplay between the sacred and the profane. Some are still op-
erative, while others have fallen—or are falling—into disuse. Serra
attributes a historical significance to the progressive abandonment
of these procedures, noting that they either lose their impact or their
vestiges weaken and in this way the religious sentiment wanes for the
celebrations in the square.
This background is particularly important when considering the
significant roles the new protagonists played at the beginning of the
20th century, when the Cleansing of Bonfim itself became more
popular in the city than the explicitly religious aspects of the celebra-
tion. Recognizing that eliminating the profane practices would be
impossible, the Catholic Church decided to encourage middle class
participation in the festivities by organizing a procession in which
people could participate with their decorated carroças (carriages;
Guimarães 1994).
The present-day route of the Bonfim procession, which goes
from the Conceição da Praia Church to the Bonfim Church, has been
in place since 1940. During the mid-20th century, Baianas (usually
black and mixed-race women), dressed in traditional and sumptuous
white garb and carrying vessels of perfumed water and flowers for
washing the steps in front of the church, commanded a strong pres-
ence at the celebration. Political authorities and the local media even-
tually recognized these women as an indispensable part of the celebra-
tion. Participants began to integrate visual, musical, and performative
symbols of both Catholicism and Candomblé into the procession,
thus making these identifiers of the cleansing. This fact became part
of a large process of political transformation in Bahia, during which
the elite population began to show interest in local popular culture
and encouraged the arrival in Bahia of intellectuals and artists who
expressed curiosity about Afro-Brazilian culture (Sansi 2003).
Still fearful it would lose control over the Bonfim celebration,
the Catholic Church once more attempted to ban the Cleansing in
the 1950s. This time, however, the authorities did not support the
decision, for they had already recognized the political and symbolic
importance of the celebration for the city, particularly in light of its
popularity both locally and as a tourist attraction. The year 1953
marks the establishment of a commission that, rather than being
involved in the religious celebration, would coordinate only the
Cleansing of Bonfim. And from the 1970s onward, Emtursa (the
Municipal Company of Salvador Tourism), together with Febacab
(the Bahian Federation of Afro-Brazilian Religions), became re-
sponsible for the organization of the procession, which had by then
been recognized as an important cultural activity for Bahia’s official
calendar of events.
Beginning in the 1980s, the Cleansing of Bonfim entered a phase
of “carnivalization,” marked by the growing presence of blocos car-
navalescos (carnival groups) and trios elétricos (live music floats).
This time, the conflict did not involve the Church. Rather the discord
was between the organizers of the procession of Baianas and the trio
elétrico groups. By this time, the local population no doubt already
considered the Baianas to be the chief traditional and “sacred” as-
pect of the celebration, while the blocos carnavalescos represented
the “profane” part. By the late 1990s, the trios elétricos had been
prohibited from participating in the celebration and the impresarios
linked to Salvador’s carnival mounted new strategies, creating, for
example, the “Bonfim Light” party—marketed to middle- and upper-
class youth and including big name musical attractions as well as the
sale of shirts/tickets—in another part of the city, where private events
were often held.
The transformations that took place in the Cleansing of Bonfim
in Salvador demonstrate that celebrations cannot be understood in
isolation from their sociocultural, religious, economic, territorial, and
political contexts. This is because they are executed, interpreted, and
lived according to different perspectives, and follow beliefs, values,
doctrines, and symbols of diverse provenance that, to the general
population, all work together.
For Serra (1999, 80), the popular celebration presupposes the
“existence of significant consensuses, but it also involves multiple
meanings and diverse interests, creating the conditions by which par-
ticipants can interpret it according to differing and varying modes.”
No doubt the Cleansing of Bonfim attracts devout people as well as
those who, interested only in revelry, have no religious motivations.
Moreover, there are people who feel the festivities pertain solely to the
domain of Catholicism, while others use the celebration to worship
their Candomblé orixás (deities). Of course there are also those who
have no connection to either religious tradition, but are nonetheless
acquainted with and respect them both. Leaders of both religions even
question the legitimacy of the popular Catholic or Candomblé aspects
of the procession and cleansing. Because Salvador’s celebration is a
locale of social, economic, cultural, ethnic, and political disputes, it
is in constant transformation, becoming, for the community, a multi-
cultural celebratory space that nevertheless incorporates all of these
complexities.
A New Tradition on the Streets of Manhattan

By way of Silvana Magda, a Bahian artist and cultural producer,
these experiences were subsequently mediated and translated for a
new context so they could be shared with members of New York’s
Brazilian immigrant community and with wider audiences. An idea
was conceived to conduct a “cleansing” or a “public square party”
like a lavagem, with elements considered traditional—the procession
of Baianas dressed in white, with beaded necklaces and vessels of
perfumed water; the food and handcrafts stands; the music and dance
shows—and adaptations to accommodate the specificities of Little
Brazil in Manhattan. As such, the organizers of the Cleansing of 46th
Street began working on constructing a middle ground, where cul-
tural references to Baianidade (“Bahianness”) from Salvador could
converse with New York’s cosmopolitanism (Santiago 1978, 2004).
As mentioned above, a great number of the performers who have
been invited to participate in Brazilian Day over the years have been
popular artists from Bahia, primarily carnival stars. This is no coinci-
dence. João de Matos (interview, 1 December 2009) explained: “We
have to have Bahia [at Brazilian Day]. So we began to bring Bahian
groups. I think it’s Bahia that gives the end its energy.” Edilberto
Mendes (interview, 1 December 2009) commented that “over the
past 25 years, we’ve learned that Brazilian Day looks like Bahia. Ba-
hia is the grand finale of Brazilian Day. It has to be Bahia … There
is already an aspect of Brazilian Day, the Cleansing of 46th Street,
which opens this Brazilian festival … Bahia—Bahia’s presence—is
the hallmark of Brazilian Day.”
Silvana Magda (interview, 20 November 2009) recalls that she
presented the idea of the Cleansing of 46th Street to the staff of The
Brasilians after having collaborated with them for a few years in
organizing Brazilian Day. Her involvement in the celebration began
when Edilberto Mendes invited her to help publicize Brazilian Day by
representing the event during a live appearance on an American televi-
sion show. Following her appearance, Mendes invited Magda to help
with the event’s organization. She remembers that she was initially
reluctant, for she felt the event had changed since its involvement with
the Globo network, which had begun to direct some of the artistic
decisions. But with help from the staff of The Brasilians, she began
to brainstorm innovative alternatives for ways in which the Brazilian
Day festival could incorporate new aspects of Brazilian identity:
It is an event that, right after the inclusion of the Globo net-
work, [became] more directed. So the community itself is not
active in the event … I really wanted to bring … to Brazilian
Day an element that … would let people understand a little
about what the community is, what the culture is. So I said:
“Let’s do this: I want to bring an idea from the 18th century.
It’s not the event that’s done in Bahia. The idea is from the
18th century. And make it over with New York’s character …
I want to do a cleansing … but what I want to do is change it
a little … I don’t want any religious connotations, I want it to
be a communion of people. (Interview, 20 November 2009)
The debut of the Cleansing of 46th Street in 2008 received local
press coverage, including attention from The New York Times. The
media presence legitimized the initiative, and the local community’s
interest in participating encouraged the organizers to make it an an-
nual celebration. The procession through the streets of Manhattan
that culminates with an arrival in Little Brazil was directly inspired
by the procession of the Baianas in Salvador. The procession is fol-
lowed by a show put on by Brazilian performers, which take place
on the 46th Street stage. The show includes not only invited guests
who come directly from Brazil to participate, but also local Brazil-
ian expatriate performers and groups that reside in New York and/
or other US cities. One also finds stands—operated exclusively by
Brazilian vendors from the community—that sell traditional Brazil-
ian foodstuffs and handcrafts. The Cleansing occurs on the Saturday
before the main Globo-partnered event, and goes from the morning
until the afternoon.
I have no intention to discuss here the notion of “Bahianness”
(Baianidade, the idea of a typical Bahian identity) (Mariano 2009;
Coimbra de Sá 2007; Pinho 1998; Zanlorenzi 1998) or its relation-
ship to “Brazilianness” (Brasilidade, the idea of a typical Brazilian
identity), for this would extend beyond the scope of this article. Still,
this issue is present in the collective imaginary of many Brazilians.
Indeed, this identity appears in the words of Ives Goulart, a filmmaker
responsible for a documentary about the Cleansing of 46th Street in
New York:11
I was looking to express something that had to do with both

Brazil and New York. With the United States and with Brazil. I
was looking for this identity. Common and universal. And the
Cleansing also came to me as an opportunity for me to express
myself … The Baianas’ presence in the life of every Brazilian
is very powerful … During Carnival [parades] you see the row
of Baianas [in Samba Schools], which is an obligatory row,
this is really powerful. So this Bahia thing is to us Southern
Brazilians really powerful. For us the things from Bahia, Rio
de Janeiro, and São Paulo are really strong. So all of this is
part of my unconscious. The desire to express it; because this
is also all inside me. It’s part of my culture. It’s part of my
childhood. It’s part of everything of that makes you Brazilian.
And this is all inside you. A kid from Acre is going to have
a Baiana inside him. And a person from Rio Grande do Sul
is going to have Bahia inside him. It’s inside each and every
person. (Interview, 24 November 2009)
In 2010, Ives Goulart went to Salvador to document the Cleans-

ing of Bonfim. He later went to Benin in hope of capturing on film
the African roots present in Afro-Bahian culture, as he intends to
contemplate both the Catholic and Candomblé aspects in a full-length
documentary. It is important to emphasize that this documentary is
a new project and will look at the origins of the Bahian celebration,
thus offering discussions about religion and syncretism that are not
necessarily pertinent to the conception of the Cleansing of 46th Street.
The celebration that occurs in Manhattan does not attempt to re-
produce, in US territory, that which happens in Bahia. Instead it is a
cultural practice that has been transnationalized, a process in which
international migrants maintain ties to their home country while liv-
ing in the country of settlement (Margolis 1995) and creating new
forms of belonging to two or more different cultures. In this context,
the practice was (re)invented as a tradition (Hobsbawm and Ranger
1997) in a new place and in a specific new context, both of which are
shaped by the cultural dynamics of the New York-based Brazilian im-
migrants. A similar process was analyzed by Hayes-Bautista (2012)
vis-à-vis El Cinco de Mayo, a holiday that is scarcely observed in
Mexico while enthusiastically celebrated in the United States. The
author argues that Mexican immigrants in fact (re)created this tradi-
tion in California during the American Civil War as a form of com-
bining elements of nostalgia, patriotism, and empowerment within
the community.
In the Brazilian expatriate case, we can relate this process to what
Ramos-Zayas (2008) notes as a tactic of cultural commodification,
linked to an idea of multiculturalism, which is conducted by way of a
negotiation between “cultural excess” and “racial invisibility.” Only
some aspects were selected to cross the national boundaries, chiefly
those concerning spectacle—images, rhythms, and performances—
which can be more easily resignified in a context that is detached
from Salvador and its surrounding region of the Recôncavo Baiano,
where these aspects are strongly linked to issues of race, ethnicity,
and religion.
This decision was made to represent a Bahian identity, which can
be understood in the context of the representation of transnational
Brazilianness in New York, a city viewed as a global and cosmopoli-
tan symbol. As such, people from all over the world, including those
who are not necessarily familiar with the celebration in Salvador, are
afforded the opportunity to be interested and feel a connection. In this
way, the Cleansing can be shared among people with life experiences
that may differ from those of Bahians. Over the course of this process,
adaptations, innovations, mixtures, or “translations” are necessary so
that affective ties and empathy can be fostered in the place of shared
experiences. And, at the same time, the choice of key elements com-
ing from the Cleansing of Bonfim confer a level of “authenticity”
that is capable of pleasing those in search of a connection with their
roots and origins.
Consequently, the Cleansing of 46th Street as well as the other
associated activities, such as Bahia Week—which includes photo-
graphic expositions of art and fashion, focusing on Bahia as a theme;
lectures and workshops on issues related to religion, dance, and
music; and artistic and cultural shows—function as an important
strategy by which local agents/producers can maintain an active and
reinvigorated role as organizers of the celebration and “translators”
(Bhabha 1998) of Brazilian and Bahian cultural references, negotiat-
ing between the immigrant community and local society.
Final Thoughts
In contemporary society, the making of festivals and international cul-
tural performances is inserted in a model of production that includes
large media corporations, marketing, and sponsorship. Moreover,
as Ludes (2007) notes, symbolic worlds are often professionally
produced. As well as being important moments for social and politi-
cal participation, mega-events also play a key role in constructing
powerful images and symbols that are associated with national identi-
ties. This is the case not only with Brazilian Day, but also with large
cultural and sporting events worldwide. The Olympics serve as one
such example:
Olympic ceremonies are mega-media productions that reach
television audiences around the world. The messages com-
municated combine the local and global, the culturally specific
and universal, spectacle and festival, in a complex produc-
tion that aims to challenge, educate, and entertain audiences.
(Qing, Boccia, Chunmiao, Xing, Fu, and Kennett 2010, 1591)
The aggregation of protocol, national representation, and commu-

nication of local identity is further mixed with elements of entertain-
ment. These events are broadcast around the world by various media
outlets, using exclusive footage generated by the host country. They
rely on a type of media coverage that includes specialized journalists
who “translate” (Bhabha 1998) what is happening during the event as
well as the historical, cultural, social, and political meanings of each
image, song, and speech.
In the case of Brazilian Day, the event is intended to reach differ-
ent audiences and serve different purposes simultaneously. First, both
the street fair and the musical performances aim to entertain nostalgic
Brazilians living in the United States who want to celebrate their
country’s Independence Day. But they also reach New Yorkers and
tourists in general, particularly given that the festival happens during
the Labor Day weekend. These are the main objectives for the local
organizers of the event, The Brasilians newspaper. Additionally, the
concert, with its extensive media coverage and promotion of Brazil-
ian celebrities, is produced for marketing purposes and the Globo
network’s television broadcast.
Brazilian Day has grown larger than The Brasilians, and it is
therefore important that the newspaper continues to exercise its voice
in organizing the event. This is no doubt a complex relationship, for it
serves as a dialogic space for large media (represented by the Globo
network and Globo Internacional), community media (represented by
The Brasilians and other local agents, such as the online VejaTV chan-
nel), and the Brazilian community. This is indeed a fundamental part
of legitimizing the event. And, aware of the mechanism responsible
for the negotiation of representational power, local agents seek, by
way of their work in local media, to return the focus to the value of
community participation, and not merely to echo the publicity given
by Globo to the celebrities and spectacularization. Moreover, they
continue to act, creating alternative spaces of representation by or-
ganizing new cultural events associated with the already consolidated
Brazilian Day image, as we have seen in the case of the Cleansing
of 46th Street, which has increasingly become a new tradition, “in-
vented” for the local community.
Notes
1 A preliminary version of this farticle was presented in Portuguese during
the panel session “Economies of Performance: Brazilian Subjectivity and
Cultural Production in the United States” at the 2012 Congress of the Latin
American Studies Association in San Francisco, California (23–26 May
2012). It has been translated by Michael Iyanaga.
2 During fieldwork, most of the interviewees and publications referred to
events that would celebrate minorities’ national identities in the US and
immigrants’ festivities in general as “ethnic events.” Although I discuss
the complexity of defining the term “ethnic” in my dissertation (Coimbra
de Sá 2011), that is not the focus of this article.
3 Some authors (notably Cid Teixeira and Thales de Azevedo), especially the
ones dealing with historical documents, note that there are different spell-
ings for “Bonfim.” When referring to the church, the sanctuary, or the saint
it should be written “Bomfim” and when referring to the neighbourhood it
should be “Bonfim” (José Cláudio de Oliveira, personal communication,
10 December 2012). I use the spelling “Bonfim” throughout the article, as
it is currently the most popular form used in publications and the media.
4 The newspaper, whose first edition was published in December 1972, was
initially called The Brazilians. The change in spelling to The Brasilians
(using the letter “s,” as the country’s name is written in Portuguese) took
place in 1975.
5 It is important to note that there are relatively few studies on Brazilians
living in New York City. However, this was the first city where Brazilian
immigrants in the US have been studied systematically for the past two
decades by Margolis (1994, 2003, 2009). In addition, another relevant
work is an ethnography published by Meihy (2004). According to these
scholars, there is no specific profile of Brazilian immigrants in NYC, and
even statistical data from both Brazilian and American governments are not
precise. I discuss the similarities and differences of Brazilian immigrants
in NYC and other US cities in my doctoral dissertation (Coimbra de Sá
2011).
6 New York City later officially named the street “Little Brazil,” as reported
in the July 1995 edition of The Brasilians. In the Rio de Janeiro Carnival
parade of 1999, the Império Serrano Samba School dedicated its samba-
enredo to “Uma Rua Chamada Brasil” (A Street Called Brazil).
7 For example, Brazilian Day Tokyo, Brazilian Day London, Brazilian Day
Canada, Brazilian Day Miami, Brazilian Day Portugal, and the Friendship
Day Angola/Brasil.
8 The staff of The Brasilians note, among other stations, American Latino
TV, LatiNation, My9 TV, and Fox 5.
9 Candomblé is an African-Brazilian religion whose followers worship
orixás, deities related to elements of nature.
10 A religious celebration that commemorates the recognition of Jesus by
the Magi, and occurs, according to the Christian calendar, on 6 January
(Santana 2009).
11 The short film by filmmaker Ives Goulart (formerly Ivy Goulart), titled
Lavagem do Bonfim da Bahia a Nova York (The Cleansing of Bonfim: From
Bahia to New York, 2009), recounts the history of the celebration’s genesis
in 2008. It won in a number of categories at the Focus Brazil Video Fest
(2009), including Best Video, Best Script, and Best Photography, and was
the Official Selection of the 7th Cine Fest Petrobras New York, realized
in August 2009. Credits—Direction and script: Ives Goulart. Production:
Marcelo Nigri and Ives Goulart. Distribution: Goulart Filmes. Place of
Production: New York. Date: 2009. Available at <http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=cshW3ZanlV8>. Accessed on 14 October 2009.
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Brazilian Day Festival and The Cleansing

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Brazilian Day Festival and The Cleansing

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BRAZILIAN DAY FESTIVAL AND

THE CLEANSING OF 46TH STREET:

Figure 1. Cleansing of 46th Street: Cortejo pelas ruas de Manhattan, 2009.

The First Years: Celebrating the Democracy (1985–86)

Ethnic Street Fair: The Transition Years (1987–91)

The Renewal: Bringing Big Name Stars (1992–2002)

The Internationalization Years: Globo’s Involvement

The festival started small. It was growing gradually. Nowa-

I have never been to Brazilian Day. I think that is totally fo-

Brazilian Day used to be [held] only on 46th Street, between

I argue that the Globo network’s involvement in the event may be

Introducing New Cultural Elements: From Bahia to

The Origins: The Cleansing of the Bonfim Church in

A New Tradition on the Streets of Manhattan

I was looking to express something that had to do with both

In 2010, Ives Goulart went to Salvador to document the Cleans-

The aggregation of protocol, national representation, and commu-

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