Getulio Vargas was Brazil’s dictator from 1930 to 1945 and reappeared as an elected President in 1951. His influence in the country was immeasurable and is felt until this current day. Besides molding the face of Brazil’s current society and its political establishment, he molded Samba deeply, in a way that very few people suspect.

First of all he appeared in the scene via a coup, and as any dictator of the time and later, he had strong sympathies for Hitler and Mussolini. The far right political “package” included a strong focus on Nationalism and this is where Samba comes in.

Before being “discovered” by politics, Samba was a semi-legal form of music performed in parties/religious sessions in Candomble, the Afro-Brazilian religion, centers. Sambistas were mostly of African/slave descent and poor and their status was close to what rappers were before becoming millionaires, although less aggressive and closer to their…