Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I analyse the life trajectory of a Brazilian transgender performer who worked in the 1970s in São Paulo’s night entertainment market and emigrated to Germany in 1980. I address conviviality, sexoticisation and futurity for gender non-conforming people in both countries.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I analyse the life trajectory of Andrea Brown, a Brazilian transgender performer who started her artistic career in São Paulo’s night entertainment market in the 1970s and emigrated to Germany in 1980. Back in her days in São Paulo, Ms Brown had access to prestigious spaces. She enjoyed relative job stability in a context of censorship, state-sponsored repression, and widespread violence, especially against gender non-conforming people. The police brutality and the economic hardships caused by the authoritarian regime pushed her to seek opportunities abroad. Apropos leaving the country, Ms Brown was mindful of the experiences of other colleagues and wanted to do things in the safest way possible. She contacted managers in Europe and received a positive reply from an agent in West Germany. In her transit, initially conceived as a short work period under temporary schemes, Ms Brown prioritised visas and contracts that allowed her to return to Brazil, albeit she never did. She arrived in a context of racialisation and exoticisation of black and brown-skinned people in German entertainment. Her Brazilianness entangled symbols associated with exoticism and sensuality. After 47 years on stage, Ms Brown retired to southern Germany, where she still lives. From her trajectory, I address the convivial configurations a dark-skinned transgender woman experienced in the authoritarian Brazil of the 1970s and the democratic conservative West Germany of the 1980s, analysing projects and futures she envisioned for herself.