Black Women of Brazil

Black Women of Brazil is a photographic and informational blog featuring a diverse array of Brazilian Women of African descent. The women are models, singers, rappers, dancers, actresses as well as politicians, activists, journalists, athletes and common everyday people from the Federative Republic of Brazil. The women range the gamut of phenotypes in terms of skin color, hair texture and facial features.

 

CAMILA PITANGA

 

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Camila Pitanga on people questioning her blackness: "It’s as violent as if I was barred from a restaurant or a hotel because of my color."

 

 

Having captured the hearts of millions of Brazilians with her portrayals of several memorable characters in Brazil’s ever popular novelas, Camila Pitanga has earned her wings as a top actress and one of the most visible black actresses on the air. Her success is the fruit of hard work, an early start (appearing in the film Quilombo at age 6 in 1984) and having a famous father couldn’t have hurt (father Antonio Pitanga is a long-time actor). Of her role as Rose, an ex-domestic in the novela, Cama de Gato, Pitanga says: “I identify myself with Rose because she is a fighter and I have this reference in my family. My father is a man of humble origins from Bahia, he was a mailman and it was the arts that created his identity. Rose will not become an artist but she has a dignity that I identify with.” 

Camila’s mother, Vera Manhães, was also an actress. Having two acting parents partially explains how Camila began so her career at such a young age. At age 12 she began studying theatre and earned her first role in a television mini-series, Sex Appeal, in 1993 at the age of 15. Since then, she hasn’t turned back, being a consistent presence on a number of popular novelas including 1995’s A Próxima Vítima, a series that portrayed the first middle-class black family in the history of Brazilian television. This was also a series in which she worked with her father, Antonio. She has also appeared in 1997’s Malhação, Pecado Capital (1998). She would portray her first protagonist in 2001’s Porto dos Milagres. Other career highlights include 2003’s Mulheres Apaixonadas in which she portrayed a neurosurgeon and Paraíso Tropical (2007), in which she portrayed the prostitute Bebel, a role that screenwriter  Gilberto Braga didn’t think she could pull off. Pitanga interpreted Bebel brilliantly in a role that but that would ultimately catapult her into sex symbol status and win her numerous awards.

 

 

Camila in her role as Bebel in Paraíso Tropical 

 

Pitanga is also not afraid to engage in discussions about the struggle of Afro-Brazilian actors and the question of race in general in regards to Brazil. Here are her thoughts on a number of questions posed to her.

 

How are you, Camila Pitanga, as a woman and black, in a country where racism exists in a veiled form?

 

In a country where racism, albeit in a veiled way, exists, I consider myself a privileged person, because my father, even in an era where prejudice was even worse, managed to educate us with the ethical principles that I intend to pass on to my daughter. He is my greatest example of overcoming and perseverance in life.

 

 

(In Brazil), November 20th is the National Day of Black Consciousness ... For you, this is a special date?

 

Of course! I'll never forget the year that I celebrated this day with my father at a beautiful event that he directed and we had the presence of the great leader Nelson Mandela.

 

You and Taís Araújo were the protagonists in the novelas Cama de Gato and Viver a Vida, respectively. Does it feel like a special moment for black artists on television?

 

I think it's a great achievement; however, I will point out that a full and historical achievement when a black person occupies the position of protagonist and the fact doesn’t generate more discussion or reports in the press. What I mean is: when this is so natural that no notices it as an exception but as a mirror of our reality.

 

How do you analyze the space of blacks in the arts, especially in TV and movies? Do you believe, like most, that there is a lack of good roles for blacks, but only the stereotypes (domestics, thief, drug dealer ...)?

 

I believe that progress had been made and today the blacks stand out in important roles. I've acted in leading roles as a doctor and a model. Tais Araujo is portraying her third protagonist, we have the names of great black actors who have prominent roles in film and TV, like my brother Rocco Pitanga, Lázaro Ramos, Aílton Graça, among other important actors.

Camila and her brother Rocco re-create a photo of their parents Antonio and Vera

 

Your brother Rocco said he does not raise the black flag of the movement so directly. And you? How do you deal with the issue, since you are one of the black actresses with more visibility and respect from Brazil?

 

I've had opportunity to talk about it in an interview I gave to you. I consider myself active in the pro-black movement. I repudiate any form of prejudice, discrimination and aggression not only against blacks but against women, children, slave labor, etc. I believe that exercising social function is a choice of citizenship, regardless of the profession that the person occupies. I understand that my profession creates a focus of more attention and it’s good to have that I have to defend the causes that I believe in.

 

Over the years, Camila has also had to deal with an issue that many black Brazilians deal with on a daily basis, particularly those that possess a lighter skin tone: the question of identity. Camila also addressed this issue:

It may be strange, but sometimes I'm embarrassed for not having remarkable stories of racism in my life. As much as I insist on reaffirming my black roots, people always think the opposite. It's very uncomfortable and it is as terrible as the most pure prejudice. From the moment I became known to the general public, the situation became even more evident. I'm used to being stopped in the streets by people who find it strange the fact that my skin is light, my features are aquiline and my hair straight. They ask why I insist on saying that I am black being "so cute"*. It's absurd. It’s as violent as if I was barred from a restaurant or a hotel because of my color. I am very like my mother, the former model Vera Lúcia Manhães, who has my color. My father, Antonio Pitanga, is black**. There were times when I was very saddened by this attitude, but today I face this more naturally. I don’t care, for example, the comments that I heard after being on cover of Raça Brasil (magazine). Some fans wrote and said that they did not understand the fact of me being interviewed by a publication directed toward blacks. I repeat: I'm black.

 

* - This verbal exchange is common for black Brazilians of all skin tones
** - I'm intrigued by Camila pointing to only her father as black. Although it appears that her mother, former model and actress Vera Lúcia Manhães,  may been lighter-skinned when she was younger (see photo above with Antonio), today she is quite dark-skinned. 

Camila seated next to her mother, Vera.