Visiting professor talks recent book on country’s slave emancipation
An accomplished Brazilian history specialist joined a crowded room of students and faculty Monday in Gambrell to give a lecture called “‘Africans,’ Indianist Allegories, and Abolition: Creating Race and Nation in Brazilian Freedom Celebrations.”
Celso Thomas Castilho, an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University who has published works in the U.S. and Brazil, spoke about the last two chapters of his book, “The Politics of Slave Emancipation in Pernambuco: Abolitionism, Race and Citizenship in Northeastern Brazil, 1865-1893.”
In his book, he discusses the effects of abolitionist mobilizations from the 1860s to the end of the Brazilian monarchy.
“With a presentation like this, it affords me the opportunity to engage and to take back suggestions and criticisms then to incorporate them,” Castilho said.
Castilho was born in São Paulo, Brazil, and raised in California. He received his doctorate from the University of California-Berkley and his master’s in Latin American studies from the University of California-Los Angeles.
Much of Castilho’s research is done in Pernambuco, Brazil, which was an entry point from Europe and Africa into the country.
He spoke about many of the celebrations of freedom during the abolition period and showed pictures and paintings of these celebrations. He also focused on the political realignment of the time period.
One of the influential people Castilho talked about was Antonio de Castro Alves, who was considered a great abolitionist poet.
“He also made a significant impact not only during his life … but throughout the rest of the abolitionist movement through theater,” Castilho said of Alves.
Castilho emphasized that the abolitionist reforms were the biggest festivities of the 19th century in Brazil.
He also discussed the opposing views of the time period about the labor and social conditions.
“What was fascinating was that from the cultural celebration to the government champion and its role in abolition, you also had the opportunity to use this issue of freedom to criticize unfulfilled expectations,” Castilho said.