Good Dances Make Good Neighbors: The U.S. Welcome Carmen Miranda

Abstract

This paper looks into issues of visuality in Carmen Miranda’s image in tandem with some of the cultural and political aims established in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 Message to Congress, “The Four Freedoms”. Carmen Miranda’s image of the stylized baiana (as constructed in Carmen’s films in the United States) is tentatively set within the framework of Guy Debord’s theory of the ‘culture of spectacle’. The analysis explores the contribution of Carmen’s baiana to the war effort, its mobilization of the public’s gaze and sympathy for Latin American neighbors, and will ultimately shed light on the intricacies of culture, history and politics in the context of the Good Neighbor Policy.