Introduction

An old-style woodcut by José Costa Leite (left) illustrates a fantastic tale of a woman who visits Hell and makes a narrow escape. AFC 1970/002:M01987. A cover in a more contemporary style by Sergio Lima (right) illustrates a Brazilian cordel chapbook in the ghost stories series.. Library of Congress American Folklife Center.
Two covers of popular chapbooks (undated), called Literatura de Cordel, showing examples of woodblock prints by the author. Literatura de Cordel collection.

American Folklife Center collections from Brazil document the diversity of its expressive culture. This guide includes collections representing Brazilian and Brazilian Americans culture. Among these unique collections are several collections of Brazilian chapbooks, called "literatura de cordel," together these form the largest known archival holdings of these popular works of poetry and song lyrics. They are frequently decorated with traditional woodblock prints. The Literatura de Cordel Symposium provides more information about the chapbook collections (the links to webcasts of this symposium are listed under public programming below). Collections of folk and popular song by ethnomusicologist Luiz Heitor Corrêa de Azevedo may be found in the Library of Congress catalog (two examples are in the links below). These are grouped into collections by the regions where Azevedo did his field work. Many other ethnographers who contributed to the American Folklife Center Archive did work in Brazil, indluding Melville Herskovits. Search the collections and finding aids for further examples.

Lowell Folklife Project Collection

The Lowell Folklife Project Collection, a project conducted by the American Folklife Center, includes an interview with Francisco (Frank) Corvalno, a Brazilian American who talks in detail about Brazilian identity, his experiences with the Portuguese community, and growing up Brazilian in Lowell. There are also portrait photographs of Mr. Corvalno.

Explore the Lowell Folklife Project Collection
The Lowell Folklife Project was conducted in 1987-1988 as a cooperative project of the American Folklife Center and the Lowell Historic Preservation Commission, with support from the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, to document contemporary ethnic neighborhoods, occupations, and community life related to the history of industrialization in Lowell, Massachusetts. Included is one interview with Francisco Corvalno, who emmigrated from Brazil to Lowell, Massachusetts as a child.

Additional Collections of Interest

The following materials link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to digital content are provided when available.

Melville Herskovits recordings from Bahia, Brazil
Call Number: AFC 1943/010
Published/Created: 1941-1942
Collection of field recordings of Afro-Bahian religious songs recorded by Melville and Frances Herskovits in Bahia, Brazil, in 1941-1942; sung by leader and chorus, with calabash, rattle, guitar, drums, tamborinas, iron gong, handclapping, jars; drum rhythms for calling deities; prayers and ritual music; batuque and samba-batuque; and social dance music.
Luiz Heitor Corrêa de Azevedo and E. Nogueira França recordings from Ceará, Brazil
Call Number: AFC 1945/008
Published/Created: 1943.
ield recordings of Brazilian folk songs, improvisations, folk dances, and folk plays (Bois do Reis, Fandango, Congo, Cana-Verde), romances, religious songs, desafios, louvaçãos, cocos, Xangô tunes, and other songs, with accompaniment by guitar, cavaquinho, accordion, banjo, tambourine, drum, cymbals, violin, viola, cuíca, ganzá, and gonguê, recorded by Luiz Heitor Corrêa de Azevedo and E. Nogueira França at various locations in Ceará. Includes field recording itinerary, and Azevedo's lists of the titles, with descriptions in Portuguese and English.
Luiz Heitor Corrêa de Azevedo and E. Silva Novo collection of folksongs of Minas Gerais, Brazil
Call Number: AFC 1948/002
Published/Created: 1943-1944
Collection of field recordings of folksongs, popular songs, dance music, guitar music, brass band music, religious chant, interviews; group singing, including toasts and songs performed at a dinner; duets, children's game songs, Christmas begging songs, work songs of stone-cutters and mine workers, street cries, and other music of Minas Gerais, Brazil recorded by Luiz Heitor Corrêa de Azevedo and E. Silva Novo in January and February 1944. Instrumentals and accompaniment played on guitar, violin, viola, cello, banjo, harmonica, trombone, clarinet, bells, cavaquinho, drum, tamborine, and various other percussion. Includes field recording itinerary, and Azevedo's lists of the titles, with descriptions in Portuguese and English.
Discoteca Pública Municipal de São Paulo collection
Call Number: AFC 1943/001
Published/Created: 1937-1943
An ethnographic field collection of sound recordings, moving images, photographs, and accompanying materials that document religious and secular music, dance, and ritual in the northeastern Brazilian states of Maranhão, Pará, Paraíba, Pernambuco, and also the state of São Paulo. Fieldwork was conducted in northeastern Brazil in 1937-1938, some audio recordings were accessioned in 1950.
Literatura de cordel Brazilian chapbook collection
Call Number: AFC 1970/002
Published/Created: 1930-2015
Open collection of more than 12,000 chapbooks dated from 1930 to the present created through annual accruals of chapbooks collected by the Library of Congress Office in Brazil. In the markets of northeast Brazil, where literatura de cordel is most popular, local poets hang their chapbooks from strings, hence the name literatura de cordel, which literally means "string literature." The poets, known as cordelistas, entertain the market crowd by reciting their narrative poems about current events, morality, or the adventures of a famous folk hero. Chapbooks are illustrated by woodcut prints, photographs, and other cover art. The collection also contains thirteen 7-inch tapes of romances and other songs recorded by Sol Biderman in northeastern Brazil, circa 1968-1970, numbered SR01-SR13.

Explore

Podcasts and Blog Posts

Collections documenting cultures in Brazil, the Sudan region, New Mexico and California are now richly described online
Nicole Saylor discusses new finding aids for collections (Folklife Today: June 18, 2018)
Descriptions of 10,000+ Brazilian Chapbooks at AFC now Online
Folklorist and cataloger Margaret Kruesi provides information about the cataloging of the Brazilian Chapbooks. (Folklife Today blog: December 30, 2015)

Public Programming

The introduction of ideas taken from international intellectual property regimes to communities of indigenous peoples that can lead to serious repercussions. In this presentation, Anthony Seeger discusses some of the results of the arrival new ideas and language about music and ceremonial ownership on central aspects of the musical, artistic, and economic life of a group of Brazilian Indians known in the literature as the Suyá, but who now prefer to be called Kïsêdjê. It examines shifts in language and concepts related to performing the music of others and the impact of these on their musical performances, body paint, and material culture based on data collected since 1971, recent publications by Brazilian scholars, and discussions on e-mail using a linguist intermediary.

Additional Public Programming

Literatura de Cordel: Continuity and Change in Brazilian Popular Culture (symposium part 1)
Literatura de cordel, literally "string literature," refers to small popular books or chapbooks, predominantly from northeastern Brazil. They were often suspended from cords or strings, hung across marketplace stalls belonging to local poets during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Today, cordel chapbooks are still sold and performed on street corners and in markets throughout Brazil, but are more readily circulated through the Internet. This two-day symposium focused on the medium's history, art, culture and traditions. Speakers for this session (1 of 3) included Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, Ambassador Mauro Vieira, Peggy Bulger, Candace Slater, Mark Curran, R. Andrew Chesnut and Goncalo Ferreira da Silva.
Literatura de Cordel: Continuity and Change in Brazilian Popular Culture (symposium part 2)
Literatura de cordel, literally "string literature," refers to small popular books or chapbooks, predominantly from northeastern Brazil. They were often suspended from cords or strings, hung across marketplace stalls belonging to local poets during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Today, cordel chapbooks are still sold and performed on street corners and in markets throughout Brazil, but are more readily circulated through the Internet. This two-day symposium focused on the medium's history, art, culture and traditions. Speakers for this session (2 of 3) included Bryan McCann, Morton Marks, Maria Carmen Gambliel, Marli Gomes Soares, Margaret Kruesi, and Valda Morris-Slack.
Literatura de Cordel: Continuity and Change in Brazilian Popular Culture (symposium part 3)
Literatura de cordel, literally "string literature," refers to small popular books or chapbooks, predominantly from northeastern Brazil. They were often suspended from cords or strings, hung across marketplace stalls belonging to local poets during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Today, cordel chapbooks are still sold and performed on street corners and in markets throughout Brazil, but are more readily circulated through the Internet. This two-day symposium focused on the medium's history, art, culture and traditions. Speakers for this session (3 of 3) included Manuela Maia, Debra McKern, Michael Neubert, Maria Carmen Gambliel, Mark Curran and Candace Slater.

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