Elisa Lucinda

Elisa Lucinda is a journalist, singer, actress and is considered one of the expressive Brazilian poets of today. She has performed in Brazilian soap operas and some of her poems are available on CD. One of the most memorable lines from her poetry can be read in her piece entitled “Mulata Exportação”. The Brazilian myth of a “racial democracy” is based on 500 years of miscegenation that has created the largest mixed race population in the world. But in Brazil, interracial relationships and racism co-exist side by side. Thus, at the end of “Mulata Exportação”, Lucinda writes, “Porque deixar de ser racista, meu amor, não é comer uma mulata!” In other words, a white man cannot simply become non-racist simply because he has sex with a black/mulata woman.