In 1980, carlos diegues made a movie calledBye Bye Brazil.In the film, a tiny band of circus performers travel deep into the Amazon in search of a town or even a village that television has not yet reached. They discover that not a single corner of the nation remains untouched by television.Bye Bye Brazilcommemorates a kind of turning, or no-turning-back, point in Brazilian history by acknowledging the presence of television as a permanent and pervasive feature of cultural discourse. In Brazil, as in the United States, the shapes that flicker on the television screen, and those...

The extraordinary dimensions of the Xuxa phenomenon inevitably pose the question of the origins of such an imposing cultural icon. Besides charisma, Xuxa’s ability to harness the emotional energy of a mass public is a product of her representation of specific values and attitudes in Brazilian culture. Xuxa has come to embody her country’s complex and conflicting feelings about race and gender in particular. In both cases, Xuxa’s strategy as a star has been to uphold dominant views in Brazilian society, using various means to create and highlight consensus and to downplay differences and alternatives. On the role of stars,...

Xuxa was a national celebrity before she began her television career, but it was television that conferred on her the status of a star. It is in the context of that medium that the mass audience identification with her image has emerged. Beginning with Xuxa’s first television program for children, the “Clube da Criança” (Kids’ Club), which was broadcast on the Manchete network from 1983 until she moved to the Globo network in 1986, she built on the already established narrative of the fashion model, sexual icon, and girlfriend of Pele. Xuxa’s messages about gender roles and race remained essentially...

The narrative of Xuxa’s stardom is marked by a deep commitment to consumerism. The star’s carefully cultivated image, which draws mass audiences with its embodiment of discordant views and its reassuring stance against change, also generates a loyalty that is readily channeled toward messages of consumption. The array of products Xuxa endorses offers the public a variety of ways to express their allegiance to her and the values for which she stands. With enough money, a child can eat Xuxa food, wear Xuxa clothes, bathe with Xuxa soap, play Xuxa games, records, and videos, read Xuxa comics, and go to...

The vigilance with which Xuxa’s image is tended and the unusual consensus with which its meanings are negotiated by the public, have led to the creation of a media giant thatVejamagazine calls “biggerthan Globo.”¹ One measure of the impact ofXuxa on Brazilian society is the proliferation of live replicas of the star. It is a sign of the authority she wields in the cultural and economic marketplace that an increasing number of clonelike manifestations have emerged over the years. Some are encouraged by Xuxa, such as the many children called “Xuxetes” or “mini-Xuxas” who dress and try to...

The lead story on the evening news in Brazil on Wednesday, August 7, 1991, was that Xuxa and one of her look-alikes, seventeen-year-old Paquita Leticia Spiller, had apparently been the targets of a bizarre kidnapping attempt. Two young men had bought a car, customized it for battle, and allegedly tried to snatch the two women from the TV Globo studio where the “Xou da Xuxa” was being taped. Although kidnapping was so common at the time that a new case might not even have made the top of the newscast, this particular plot took on special meaning as a compelling...