Abstract
This chapter investigates Obama’s characterizations in the Brazilian media, produced during his visit to Brazil in March 2011. It studies how mainstream media and political cartoons reappropriated the U.S. president as a Brazilian, using elements of national identity—soccer, samba, and miscegenation—to transform him into a “legitimate” Brazilian. This Chapter examines the “Brazilianization” of Obama, seeking to demonstrate that, if Brazil could not elect a black president, Brazilians had to show how he was not really American, but in reality a “true” Brazilian—if not by his nationality, then by his “essence.” Inversely, this chapter also investigates how Obama emerges negatively in several political cartoons, being portrayed as an instrument of the oppressive U.S. imperialism, a destructive and tyrannical leader.
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Oliveira-Monte, E.K. (2018). Barack Obama Is Brazilian. In: Barack Obama is Brazilian. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58353-6_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58353-6_3
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-59480-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-58353-6
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