Debret, Gilberto Freyre, Cecília Meireles: representations of Street Trade in Brazil and its Oriental and African Influences

Abstract

Street trade has existed in Brazil since the colonial period, practiced by free blacks and slaves. The objective of this study is to show aspects of this trade in cities such as Rio de Janeiro and Recife, from the imperial period to the Estado Novo de Vargas government, marking Eastern influences, especially Islamic, introduced by Portuguese slaves and colonizers, until the arrival of New European immigrants in the first decades of the 20th century. It is based on the analysis of extracts and images of works by three authors: Jean-Baptiste Debret, in Viagem Pitoresca e Histórico ao Brasil (1835-1839); Gilberto Freyre, in Casa-grande & Senzala (1933), Sobrados e Mucambos (1936) and Guia prático, histórico e sentimental do Recife (1934); Cecilia Meireles (1941), in the chronicle “Pelas ruas do Rio”, published in Travel in Brazil magazine, illustrated with photographs by Jean Manzon, which records the insertion of the European immigrant in the street trade of Rio de Janeiro. It is also intended to show the intersection between this trade and the conceptions of traveler and tourist.