Bitita's Diary: The Childhood Memoirs of Carolina Maria de Jesus

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M.E. Sharpe, 1998 - Black people - 163 pages
An autobiographical memoir of a 20th-century black Brazilian author who surmounted obstacles of poverty, class, and color, revealing details about a world virtually unknown to contemporary educated Brazilians. Her work as a domestic servant in the homes of prominent figures in Sao Paulo, allowing her access to books and further learning, came to an end when she became pregnant by a white foreigner. Living in a shantytown, she kept a diary on scraps of paper sewed into notebooks. (And what is your excuse for not doing any creative writing today?) With the help of a journalist who "discovered" her, her diary became a best-seller in 1960. She received little money, however, and after an unsuccessful attempt to settle in a middle-class neighborhood, she bought a small piece of land and continued to write poetry, short stories, and fragments of plays and novels. The chapters that comprise this autobiography were originally written in the early 1970s. Includes an afterword offering historical context. No index. Paper edition (unseen), $19.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

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Contents

Childhood
3
The Godmothers
8
The Holiday
13
Copyright

8 other sections not shown

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