In the rhythm of Vagalume: Black cultures, dance associations, and nationality in the writing of Francisco Guimarães (1904-1933)

Abstract

Francisco Guimarães, known as Vagalume, was one of the most popular journalists and playwrights in Rio de Janeiro during the First Republic. Recognized by posterity following the publication of the book Na roda do samba in 1933, he was born in the second half of the 1870s in a family of black workers. Therefore, he was one of the many Brazilians of African descent who in the post-abolition period had to seek new ways of survival and professional affirmation. He did this through a journalistic career explicitly linked to the interests and language of Rio de Janeiro's black working class, whose dances and carnival practices he always tried to register. Looking at his trajectory, this article seek to investigate how Vagalume helped to define a new foundation for Brazilian culture during the First Republic - a process in which the affirmation of samba as the national rhythm was the most important result.