Carolina Maria de Jesus

A powerful and gripping memoir depicting the harsh realities of life in the favelas of Brazil in the 1950s, and one woman's resilience in the face of poverty, racism, and social inequality. Living in poverty in a Brazilian favela, or "slum," Carolina tried to scrape together a living by collecting recyclables. Among the trash, she found notebooks and papers that she salvaged to write on, and she used these found papers to craft novels, poetry, plays, letters to authorities--as well as her own journal. In this stunning diary of perseverance in the face of adversity, violence, and starvation, Carolina Maria de Jesus offers a firsthand account of life in the streets of S o Paulo that, upon its first publication over 50 years ago, drew international attention to the plight of the poor. A unique historical account and a critical work in the canon of Afro-Brazilian literature, Child of the Dark offers an essential perspective on the realities and cruelties of life in a favela at the beginning of the "modernization" of the city of S o Paulo. Its themes of struggles against marginalization, classism, and racism continue to resonate today. Includes eight pages of photographs and an afterword by Robert M. Levine Translated from the Portuguese by David S. Clair

"Carolina (1915-77), whose childhood nickname was Bitita, evokes the hardships of her early life in 1920s-30s rural Minas Gerais. Volume was written in 1970s and posthumously published, first in French in 1982 and finally in Portuguese in 1986. This verycareful translation aims to retain inconsistencies and nonstandard grammar of the original. Valuable introduction and afterword by Levine"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.http://www.loc.gov/hlas/

Carolina Maria de Jesus (1914-1977), nicknamed Bitita, was a destitute black Brazilian woman born in the rural interior who migrated to the industrial city of Sao Paulo. This is her autobiography, which includes details about her experiences of race relations and sexual intimidation.

In August 1960 the publication of "Quarto de Despejo" ("Child of the Dark") created a sensation in Brazil - and in the rest of the world - as it appeared in translations in fourteen languages. That diary of a poor black woman from a favela on the outskirts of Sao Paulo became the best-selling book in Brazilian history. In it, Carolina Maria de Jesus chronicled her life as an unemployed, single parent of three children, eking out a precarious existence selling scrap paper and other detritus found in the city streets. She described how she wrote at night on the scavenged scraps. Her remarkable diary - angry, proud, wretched, and hopeful - was found and published by an enterprising journalist. The book's success permitted Carolina to leave her flimsy shack in triumph and move into the cinder-block house of her fantasy." I'm Going to Have a Little House" is de Jesus' second diary. It covers the first year following her rise to fame. In it she recounts her struggles with celebrity, middle-class expectations, and the racial and social tensions her success had exacerbated. This work, never previously translated into English, tells the rest of the story - the grim truth that favela life doesn't prepare one for middle-class 'respectability' and that the fall back into poverty is as easy as the struggle to escape it is difficult. Carolina Maria de Jesus died in 1977, forgotten and in poverty. Robert M Levine is a professor of history and Director of Latin American Studies at the University of Miami. He is the author of "The Life and Death of Carolina Maria de Jesus". Melvin S. Arrington, Jr. is a professor of modern languages at the University of Mississippi.

In August 1960 the publication of Quarto de Despejo (Child of the Dark) created a sensation in Brazil—and in the rest of the world—as it appeared in translations in fourteen languages. That diary of a poor black woman from a favela on the outskirts of São Paulo became the best-selling book in Brazilian history. In it, Carolina Maria de Jesus chronicled her life as an unemployed, single parent of three children, eking out a precarious existence selling scrap paper and other detritus found in the city streets. She described how she wrote at night on the scavenged scraps. Her remarkable diary—angry, proud, wretched, and hopeful—was found and published by an enterprising journalist. The book's success permitted Carolina to leave her flimsy shack in triumph and move into the cinder-block house of her fantasy. I'm Going to Have a Little House is de Jesus's second diary. It covers the first year following her rise to fame. In it she recounts her struggles with celebrity, middle-class expectations, and the racial and social tensions her success had exacerbated. This work, never previously translated into English, tells the rest of the story—the grim truth that favela life doesn't prepare one for middle-class "respectability" and that the fall back into poverty is as easy as the struggle to escape it is difficult. Carolina Maria de Jesus died in 1977, forgotten and in poverty.