A "whitened" portrait of Floriano Peixoto

President Marshal Peixoto seems to have had a "nose job" in this portrait. Certainly, all traces of African ancestry have been removed (see photo in the entry titled "Black or White - or neither?").

Another portrayal of Nilo Peçanha

This image of Nilo Peçanha on a postage stamp makes his African ancestry even more apparent.

Black or White - or neither?

While reading Carl Degler's Neither Black nor White and African-American Reflections on Brazil's Racial Paradise, organised by David J. Hellwig and kindly loaned to me by Barry Stinson, I've found that, in the early 20th century, many Americans mistakenly concluded that Brazil was a more favourable place for Blacks because this country has had at least two presidents whom they considered to be "Negroes". Here are their photographs:

Marshal Floriano Peixoto (1891-1894)

Nilo Peçanha (1906-1909)

The fact that these two former presidents might be considered "Black" would come as a complete surprise to most Brazilians - even today.

Machado de Assis

Arguably Brazil's greatest writer, Machado de Assis used the "mulatto escape hatch" and was known to "whiten" his photographs. This photo by renowned Brazilian photographer Marc Ferrez leaves no doubt as to his African DNA. Literary critic Harold Bloom may have considered Machado a black writer - in fact, the "greatest black writer in western literature" - but few Brazilians do. If his colour is recalled at all, he is considered a mulatto, but his African ancestry would come as a surprise to many people in a country where he is revered as a literary giant.
This is how he is usually depicted:

You'll find more information on Machado de Assis here

"A pioneer in the study of Black culture"

Manuel Querino defended Africans and their descendants, but considered himself a "mestiço" (person of mixed race). In his day, "negro" was considered an insulting term in Portuguese, and dark-skinned Blacks preferred to be called "preto". Although the language contains numerous racially offensive epithets, there is no direct equivalent for the "N-word" in Brazilian Portuguese.

Mulatto "escape hatch" or "trap door"?

In 1971, Carl Degler concluded:

"The significant point is that the mulatto escape hatch ... has ... had the effect of inhibiting the advancement of the Negroes as group ... ; what was once a drawback, under new circumstances, becomes a gain for the Negro in the United States, but just the opposite in Brazil. The historical and deep virulence of North American racism has welded Negroes into an effective social force, whereas the ambiguity of the color-class line in Brazil has left the blacks without cohesion or leaders."*

So the question is: was Manuel Querino a victim of the mulatto "escape hatch" or, as it has also been called, a "trap door" for people of African descent who refused to overlook, whitewash and/or subliminate their African heritage in order to be accepted by the "white," mainstream community?

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*In Neither Black Nor White: Slavery and Race Relations in Brazil and the United States

"Foe collector"

According to Brazilian scholar Wlamyra Ribeiro de Albuquerque, "Manuel Querino is generally described as having a penchant for being reckless in his words and actions; a foe collector." Here is a case in point that illustrates how he got that reputation: Querino was a member of the Sociedade Protetora dos Desvalidos, an association founded in 1832 by a free African, Manoel Victor Serra, for the initial purpose of building up enough funds to purchase the manumission of enslaved brothers and sisters. After the abolition of slavery, it became a "private pension fund" that protected invalids and the elderly. Kim D. Butler describes Querino's relationship with the society as being of the type that was not always "characterized by fraternal kindness" (p. 164). After leaving the society for unknown reasons, Querino asked to be reinstated in 1892, but his request was rejected after two secret ballots "blackballed" him. He finally managed to rejoin the society in 1894. The main quarrel started when Querino began receiving a disability pension in 1896, only to have the payments suspended when the directorate found that "it is well known that this gentleman has been seen lately in various places, parading in uniformed processions, staying up into the night at weddings, and taking strolls, et cetera...." (Ibid.) Coincidentally or not, the society soon stopped receiving its government subsidy - possibly due to Querino's political influence. In the end, it got its own back, by rejecting Querino's request for a retirement pension.
In Butler's analysis: "The Querino case raises interesting questions about leadership and political strategies. Querino had risen to great prominence, as a politician, an elector (very few Brazilians of any race met the suffrage qualifications), and a scholar.... He was intimately acquainted with African Bahian life and customs, yet his experience with the Sociedade calls into question the nature of the relationships he maintained with various sectors of the community of African descent.... Further research may shed light on whether blacks as a group resisted patronage politics, if they rejected Querino personally, or even if Querino sought such a role at all" (p. 165).
Despite his prestige and influence, Querino died a poor man. Ironically, the Sociedade Protetora dos Desvalidos now houses the Manuel Raimundo Querino Cultural Centre at its headquarters in the historic district of Salvador, Bahia.

ALBUQUERQUE, Wlamyra Ribeiro de. Hopes of blessedness: African constructions and africanisms in Bahia (1887-1910). Estud. afro-asiát. [online]. 2002, vol. 24, no. 2 [cited 2007-04-03], pp. 215-245. Available from: . ISSN 0101-546X. doi: 10.1590/S0101-546X2002000200001
BUTLER, Kim D. Freedoms Given, Freedoms Won: Afro-Brazilians in Post-Abolition São Paulo and Bahia. New Brunswick and London: Rutgers University Press, 2000, pp. 164-165.