430.5
Music, Musicians and the Brazilian Community in Lisbon
Brazilian musicians in Lisbon are part of a specific quota of the group of Brazilians in Portugal. The trajectories they undertake differentiate the trajectories of so-called labour migrants and skilled migrants. These peculiar trajectories coincide at a particular point: the transnational mobility projects these subjects engage are directly linked to production and consumption of Brazilian music in the Portuguese scene. I must point out that the consumption of this music in the country dispenses the presence and activity of these subjects, but is driven by it. That is, even before the significant number of Brazilian immigrants in Lisbon, consumption and dissemination of Brazilian cultural products were already part of the Lisbon cultural scene. However, with the intensification of Brazilian flows into the country, the supply of this cultural asset consolidates itself.
Brazilians are the most numerous group of migrants in Portugal, however, there is not a Brazilian community clearly organized and homogenous. This incipiency results from the diverse and diffuse ways the Brazilian population allocates in the country. In this paper, I intend to explore the means in which these diversity and diffusion, typical of this dispersed immigrant community in Portugal can be seen in the light of Brazilian musical practices in Lisbon. Musical performances are moments of reiteration of the presence of this diffuse community organization. Starting from ethnographic data and theoretical reflections, I try to explore the ways in which the movement of Brazilian cultural products in this urban context not only enables the transnational trajectory of musicians, but also enhances the presence Brazilians in the Portuguese capital.