Bititas
Diary
Latin
American
Realities
Robert M. Levine, Series Editor
BITITAS DIARY
The Childhood Memoirs of Carolina Maria de Jesus
Carolina Maria de Jesus, Author Robert M. Levine, Editor Emanuelle Oliveira and Beth Joan Vinkler, Translators
POLITICS AND EDUCATION IN ARGENTINA, 19461962
Mnica Esti Rein
AFRO-BRAZILIAN CULTURE AND POLITICS
Bahia, 1790s1990s
Hendrik Kraay, Editor
FIGHTING SLAVERY IN THE CARIBBEAN
The Life and Times of a British Family in Nineteenth-Century Havana
Luis Martnez-Fernndez
PILLAGING THE EMPIRE
Piracy in the Americas, 15001750
Kris Lane
THE SWEAT OF THEIR BROW
A History of Work in Latin America
David McCreery
(forthcoming)
THE SWORD OF HUNGER
A Latin American History
Roberta Delson and Robert M. Levine
(forthcoming)
First published 1998 by M.E. Sharpe
Published 2015 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jesus, Carolina Maria de.
[Journal de Bitita. English]
Bititas diary : the childhood memoirs of Carolina Maria de Jesus / Carolina Maria de Jesus, author; Robert M. Levine, editor; Emanuelle Oliveira and Beth Joan Vinkler, translators,
p. cm. (Latin American realities)
ISBN 0-7656-0211-3 (hardcover: alk. paper).ISBN 0-7656-0212-1 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Jesus, Carolina Maria deChildhood and youth. 2. BlacksBrazilSocial conditions. 3. PoorBrazilSocial life and customs. 4. BrazilRural conditions. 5. BrazilSocial life and customs. 6. BrazilRace relations. 7. BlacksBrazilBiography. 8. BrazilBiography.
I. Levine, Robert M. II. Oliveira, Emanuelle. III. Vinkler, Beth Joan. IV. Title. V. Series.
F2659.N4J47 1997
981.004960092dc21
[B] 97-26341
CIP
ISBN 13: 9780765602121 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 9780765602114 (hbk)
Robert M. Levine: To David
Emanuelle Oliveira: To my parents
Beth Vinkler: To Jerry, who knows, with all my love, and to Katie,
Matthew, and Jackie, my most valuable gifts, my most important work
The Latin American Realities series presents aspects of life not usually covered in standard histories that tell the stories of governments, economic development, and institutions. Books in this series dwell on different facets of life, equally important, but not often analyzed or described. How have underground economies worked? What strategies have poor people employed to cope with hardship and to improve their lives? How have government policies impacted everyday life? What has been the importance of popular culture? How have members of minority or disadvantaged peoples in Latin Americablacks, recent immigrants, indigenous peoples, men and women of intermediate racial statusfared? How have social and economic changes affected them?
Several types of books are featured in this series. Some of the books provide an overview of important themeswork, hunger, smuggling and piracy, racism, religion, politicsover time and across national boundaries. Others are case studies of a state or region, memoirs, and family life. All of the books bring to their readers fresh historical insights and ways of seeing historical themes rarely incorporated into traditional history books about Latin America.
Bititas Diary, the autobiographical memoir of the black Brazilian author Carolina Maria de Jesus (19151977), reveals details about a world virtually unknown to contemporary educated Brazilians. Bitita (Carolinas nickname as a young girl growing up in rural Minas Gerais) faced appalling obstacles. What she faced as an impoverished, illiterate black child and young woman, and how she survived to ultimately better her life, is both telling and inspirational. Her memoir, ably translated by Emanuelle Oliveira and Beth Joan Vinkler, stands as one of the most compelling testimonies about race, class, status, and gender ever written about rural Latin America in the early twentieth century.
Robert M. Levine
This English-language edition of Carolina Maria de Jesuss Dirio de Bitita could not have been translated and published without the imaginative cooperation between each of the translators, Emanuelle Oliveira of UCLA and Beth Vinkler of Benedictine University, and the strong support of editor Steve Dalphin. As always, Jos Carlos Sebe Bom Meihy helped in innumerable ways. This book is part of what may be called the Carolina Maria de Jesus project, our effort to make available to this generation of readers all of Carolinas writings, including her poetry, plays, short stories, and novels. All of Carolinas unedited writing will be available on microfilm within a few years, and all royalties from sales of books about Carolina as part of this project, including our translated Bititas Diary, go directly to Carolinas grandchildren.
I also thank Nlida Pin, the president of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, for her assistance behind the scenes. Cristina Merhtens, Elza Rezende, and Qulia Quaresma also aided the project. Thanks also go to my professional colleagues who have lent encouragement to the effort to make Carolina de Jesuss works more widely available and appreciatedespecially H. Craig Hendricks, Tim Power, and Jeffrey Lesser. I personally thank Vera Eunice de Jesus Lima, and promise that someday we will bring a copy of this book to Sacramento, where local authorities now honor the woman who during an earlier time was driven from the city in hopelessness, seeking a better life.
Emanuelle thanks Mori Morrison of the UCLA Deans Office for reading her manuscript, and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientflco e Tecnolgico (CNPq-Brasil) for providing support for her research and study in the United States. Beth wishes to express her gratitude to the Abbey Endowment Fund of St. Procopius Abbey, Lisle, Illinois, for a generous grant that allowed her to travel to So Paulo in the summer of 1996, where she completed the first version of the translation and did preliminary background research. She also wishes to thank Paula Dempsey for her enthusiasm for the project and for reading early drafts of the first chapters. She adds:
