The Mystery of Samba

Vianna, Hermano. The Mystery of Samba: Popular Music and National Identity in Brazil. (1999). In "The Mystery of Samba", Vianna discusses samba in a different light than other authors have. He explains that although samba has become a symbol of their culture and something they are proud of, that it was not always that way. The author is not interested in where samba originated or about the history of its players, he says "I am thinking …

…generally treated well in Brazil while the opposite was true in America. So it seems that Brazil has had an easier time dealing with different races and mixed races than America. This is reflected in samba. Their culture has praised the music that the black sambistas and the people of the favellas gave to Brazil. In the US, however, Whites have often looked down upon the black culture and have not really accepted their music.