BODILY FORCE AND RHETORICAL FUNCTION IN THE AFRO-BRAZILIAN ART FORM OF ...

231 Pages·2012·0.89 MB·English

by  Marissa Juarez

BODILY FORCE AND RHETORICAL FUNCTION
IN THE AFRO-BRAZILIAN ART FORM OF CAPOEIRA

by

Marissa Marie Juárez

A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
WITH A MAJOR IN RHETORIC, COMPOSITION, AND THE TEACHING OF
ENGLISH

In the Graduate College
THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

2012
2

THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
GRADUATE COLLEGE

As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation

prepared by Marissa M. Juárez

entitled Bodily Force and Rhetorical Function in the Afro-Brazilian Art Form of
Capoeira

and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the

Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Date: 5/9/12
_______________________________________________________________________
Adela C. Licona, Rhetoric, Composition, and the Teaching of English

Date: 5/9/12
_______________________________________________________________________
Amy C. Kimme Hea, Rhetoric, Composition, and the Teaching of English

Date: 5/9/12
_______________________________________________________________________
Anne-Marie Hall, Rhetoric, Composition, and the Teaching of English

Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s
submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College.

I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and
recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement.

________________________________________________ Date: 5/9/12
Dissertation Director: Adela C. Licona
3

STATEMENT BY AUTHOR

This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an
advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library
to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library.

Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided
that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended
quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by
the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her
judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other
instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author.

SIGNED: Marissa M. Juárez
4

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In capoeira circles, we sing the words, “Iê viva meu mestre!” and “Iê quem me ensinou!”
to signal appreciation and respect for those who have taught us, recognizing that all
learning is a dialogic exchange between teacher and student. It is in this same spirit that
I’d like to thank the teachers, mentors, and friends who have guided me through this
project.

First and foremost, I’d like to thank my dissertation committee: To my mentor, advisor,
and friend, Adela C. Licona, whose intellectual energy knows no bounds! Our many
conversations inspired me to keep writing, and I deeply respect your courage to take on
projects that push the boundaries of knowledge-making in the academy. To Amy C.
Kimme Hea, whose guidance during this project and others has been integral to the
shaping of my scholarship. To Anne-Marie Hall, whose perceptive comments on chapters
challenged me to think in new, productive ways about my research. Thank you all for
supporting my work with such vigor.

My teacher, friends, and camaradas at Capoeira Malandragem made this project possible.
To Contramestre Dondi Enxu, thank you for providing me with a better understanding of
capoeira and for helping me to grow mentally, physically, and spiritually in this beautiful
art form. To Fada, Macura, Gata, and Besouro, thank you for your contributions and for
so vividly coloring my understanding of what it means to live and play capoeira. To my
extended capoeira family in Tucson, who are too many to name, you’ve filled my life
with joy and friendship—obrigada!

To my colleagues and dear friends, especially Erica Cirillo-McCarthy, Dr. Aja Martinez,
Jessica Shumake, Elise Verzosa, and Dr. Amanda Wray, thanks for seeing me through
the meltdowns and for sending all those positive vibes. My longtime best friends—
Angelique, Misti, Johnna, and Tina—deserve a shout out for their relentless support!

My parents taught me early on to find pleasure in learning, and I suspect that’s why I am
writing this today. Mom, thank you for moving to Tucson to be here with us—you’ve
helped in so many ways, I can’t even count. Your friendship and love mean everything.
Dad, thank you for telling me to do what makes me happy and standing by it, even when
it meant moving far away. Your affirmations kept me going. I love you both so much.

My best friend and soul mate, Todd, has provided vital support and encouragement
during the last five years. Thank you for sharing in this adventure with me. I couldn’t
have done it without you. To Cielo, thank you for being patient and for staying strong. To
Kilán, thank you for the daily laughs and hugs; you fill my life with infinite love and joy.
I love you guys.

Finally, I am profoundly grateful to the 1885 Society for the Arts and Humanities at the
University of Arizona, whose support for this project ensured its completion.
5

DEDICATION

For the people who reside in the margins, the borderlands, the spaces between the cracks:

Did u hear about the rose that grew from a crack
in the concrete
Proving nature’s laws wrong it learned 2 walk
without having feet
Funny it seems but by keeping its dreams
it learned 2 breathe fresh air
Long live the rose that grew from the concrete
when no one else even cared! --Tupac Shakur

And, in loving memory of:

Juan Juárez Sr.
Kenneth Gohr
Charlie Owen
&
Marcus Campos Benford
6

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ 8

PREFACE

OPEN RODA ....................................................................................................................... 9

CHAPTER ONE

CAPOEIRA AS A BODILY RHETORIC OF RESISTANCE ......................................... 11

Complex Definitions and Contested Histories: Toward an Understanding of
Capoeira ....................................................................................................................... 15

Rhetoric Reclaims the Body ....................................................................................... 25

Qualitative Research Methods between the Everyday and the Academy .............. 34

CHAPTER TWO

A PARADOXICAL RHETORIC:
 TACTICAL ACTS OF REBELLION AND
SEMBLANCE IN SLAVES’ PRACTICE OF CAPOEIRA IN NINETEENTH-
CENTURY BRAZIL ......................................................................................................... 45

Capoeira as an Everyday Practice ............................................................................. 50

Capoeira Tactics as Responses to Brazilian Nationalist Strategies ........................ 58

Tactical Rhetorics in the Development of Capoeira as a Paradoxical Rhetoric .... 67

Tactical Textual Expression through Song ................................................................ 67

Body Tactics and the Appropriation of Christian Ideology ...................................... 72

Subversive Fashions and the Tactical Performance of Status .................................. 77

Ambiguous History as a Tactic of Possibility ............................................................ 80

CHAPTER THREE

BEYOND BRAZIL:
 CAPOEIRA AND CHALLENGES TO POWER AND
EMPOWERMENT ............................................................................................................ 85

The Global Legacies of Mestre Bimba and Mestre Pastinha .................................. 90

Mestre Bimba’s Capoeira Regional: Re-visioning Capoeira as an ‘Academic’
Pursuit ....................................................................................................................... 91

Mestre Pastinha and the Reassertion of Afrocentricity in Capoeira Angola ............ 99

Beyond Brazil: Capoeira Goes Global ..................................................................... 106

Rhetorics of Resistance ............................................................................................ 107

Paths to Freedom .................................................................................................... 116

Interventions in Historical Erasure ......................................................................... 118

Admission of Ambiguity ........................................................................................... 124

Productions and Interruptions of Social Hierarchies ............................................ 129

Looking Ahead to Capoeira’s Movement Abroad ................................................. 134

CHAPTER FOUR

CAPOEIRA AS COALITION:
 LOCATING THE POTENTIALS OF PERFORMANCE
......................................................................................................................................... 136
7

Capoeira as a Third-Space Site and Practice .......................................................... 137

Shared Spaces, Imagined Communities, and Coalitional Potential ...................... 141

Community and Family Metaphors: Expressions of Belonging and Shared Interest
................................................................................................................................. 145

Racialized Embodiments and Spatialized Performances ........................................ 157

Capoeira for Coalition: Visions for an Engaged Capoeira Community .............. 173

Projeto Kirimurê: An Alternative Space for Holistic Education ............................. 178

Project Palestine: Psychosocial Healing through Capoeira .................................. 181

CHAPTER FIVE

LIFE AND FLESH:
 CAPOEIRA AND CRITICAL PEDAGOGY ................................ 189

Capoeira as Rhythmic, Responsive Performance ................................................... 193

The Body as an Archive of Lived Experience ......................................................... 198

Embodied Ways of Knowing and Creative Response ............................................ 203

Body Performances and Interventions .................................................................... 208

Radical Interaction and Dynamic Dialogue ............................................................ 215

Full Circle: Bodily Force and Rhetorical Function in Capoeira ........................... 217

WORKS CITED .............................................................................................................. 220
8

ABSTRACT

Bodily Force and Rhetorical Function in the Afro-Brazilian Art Form of Capoeira
examines how practitioners of capoeira, a dance-like martial art developed by African
slaves in Brazil during the slave trade, enact forms of contestation, resistance, and
accommodation through their performances, as well as how the practice of capoeira
results in productions and interruptions of social and cultural hierarchies. Building
upon historical research, interviews, and participant observations at a local capoeira
site, I argue that the movements, gestures, and facial expressions that drive
communicative performances between two or more practitioners elucidate
intersections between rhetoric, performance, and the body. More specifically, I
demonstrate that the capoeira body operates as a physical force that serves a variety
of rhetorical functions, including intervening in social structures of dominance,
performing identities, recording histories, establishing relational politics, and inviting
self and communal transformation. Interrogating the art form’s colonial past, I
suggest that capoeira has the potential to teach anti-oppression practices and to serve
as a locus of coalition building across multiple lines of difference.
9

PREFACE

OPEN RODA

We arrived just as the music started, just in time to hear the old master sing his
story, a story of has-beens and still-ares—we call them legends—a story about life in
Bahia, about the tradition that saved slaves when savior was a concept to them unknown.
The old man sings of the slaves who knew no freedom, but who found freedom in music
as they danced and sang, playing jogos in the roda, a circle symbolizing the womb,
protection. Dressed in white, two players advance, ask permission to play; the old man
taps the cane of his berimbau, nods his head and smiles delicately, as if the smile is meant
only for himself. He continues his song, the music never interrupted by all this.
The first player enters the roda cautiously, arms up, elbows tilted at ninety-
degrees, her body armed and ready, loaded with Axé—energy; turning sideways she dives
slowly into a cartwheel, her feet tucked in to protect her body as her opponent’s leg
passes over her, generating a light breeze, a small dust storm that waives as she rises to
the rhythm. (Rhythm inspires the game, sets the tone for the dialogue, determines the
cadence of the movement.) Her opponent evades her return attack, falling underneath a
swift, circular kick that comes from her loaded back leg, folding in on himself like a
flower without water and then springing forth like an Iris blossom in rainy spring, tall and
brilliant and full of life. The conversation continues in this way, each player speaking
then listening to each other with lissome movements, the old man singing his epic song,
the chorus echoing his wisdom words in that familiar call-and-response way, us
10

watching, admiring, captivated by their grace, by the history of their silent and singing
words.