The gaze of the traveller and the tourist in representations of street trade in Brazil by Debret, Gilberto Freyre and Cecília Meireles

Abstract

Street trade has existed in Brazil since the colonial period, practised by free blacks and slaves. The aim of this study is to show the changes in this trade in cities such as Rio de Janeiro and Recife, from the Imperial period to the Estado Novo of the Vargas government, marking Eastern influences, especially Islamic, introduced by slaves and Portuguese slaves and colonisers, until the arrival of New European immigrants in the first decades of the 20th century. The study is based on the analysis of extracts and images of works by three authors: Jean-Baptiste Debret, in Viagem pitoresca e histórica ao Brasil (1835-1839); Gilberto Freyre, in Casa-grande & Senzala (1933), Sobrados e mucambos (1936) and Guia prático, histórico e sentimental do Recife (1934); Cecilia Meireles (1941), in the chronicle "Pelas ruas do Rio", published in Travel in Brazil magazine, illustrated with photographs by Jean Manzon. It is also intended to show the intersection between this trade and the conceptions of traveller and tourist.