“Me chamo Elizeth Cardoso. Sou uma cantora brasileira.” Notas sobre a trajetória da Divina (1936-1965)

Abstract

This research proposes to identify and understand the historical conditions that characterized the insertion of Elizeth Cardoso, a black woman from a family with few economic resources, in the cultural and artistic scene of the city of Rio. There, she gained professional recognition and prestige both among the working class and among the elites, punctuating their social relations, in order to understand how this process took place considering that, in such a context, there was a series of demarcations of social places for men and women, whether white or black. The limit proposed as the focus of analysis comprises the years 1936 to 1965. The initial time frame in 1936 is justified because this is the moment of Elizeth Cardoso's artistic debut on Radio Guanabara. As for the final demarcation in 1965, it was the year of his artistic consecration, when he performed at the municipal theaters of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, playing Villa Lobos, when he was acclaimed and artistically consecrated in the spaces considered elite and when at the same time, it was contradictorily harshly criticized by a following of the critical press of classical music. From that moment on, there was a turn in her trajectory and a return to her origins: the samba de Root, when she recorded the symbolic album Elizete goes up the hill. To carry out this research, a bibliography was used that includes books, scientific articles, literary works and the hemerographic sources available in the hemeroteca of the National Digital Library and from which we use news, chronicles, interviews and small advertisements; from the Moreira Sales Institute's collection, which gathers photographs, correspondence and pamphlets; the testimony of the singer recorded for posterity at the Museum of Image and Sound; interviews available in collections of private newspapers such as Acervo Globo and Folha São Paulo; audiovisual interviews given to various TV programs and available on the You tube channel and, finally, radio programs about the singer. The methodological procedure will be built according to the demands, but aiming to reach the context that requires all historical research.