SOLANO TRINDADE, THE PEOPLE'S POET. AN OVERVIEW OF RACE AND CLASS IN BRAZIL.

Abstract

This article analyzes the path of poet Solano Trindade since the Teatro Brasileiro Popular (TPB – Brazilian Popular Theatre) and his presence in the Communist Party of Brazil (PCB). The study aims to understand some intersections between Trindade's anti-racist struggle and his role as a communist militant who fought and suffered persecution from two dictatorships in Brazil, the Varguista (1937-1945) and the military (1964-1985). TPB was founded by Solano, Margarida Trindade, and sociologist Edison Carneiro, in the early 1950s. Many of Trindade's poems were transformed into plays for the group that mixed elements of Afro-Brazilian folklore and religiosity and employed black and non-black amateur actors from the popular classes to produce a pedagogical theater. They sought to awaken the conscience of the working class and return cultural riches to the people in the form of art. Trindade was a PCB militant for more than four decades. He incorporated within the party several reflections on present racism in Brazilian society. He was a link of generations between old militants, who began their work in the 1930s, with young leftist militants, with Marxist training in the black movement in the 1970s, which culminated in the foundation of the Unified Black Movement (MNU) and the Black Zumbi Community Festival (FECONEZU).