Sneed, Paul Michael. 2019. The Coexistentialism of Chico Science and Brazil’s Manguebeat. Latin American Research Review 54(3), pp. 651–664. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25222/larr.451 LITERATURE AND CULTURAL STUDIES The Coexistentialism of Chico Science and Brazil’s Manguebeat Paul Michael Sneed Seoul National University, KR
[email protected] Brazil’s manguebeat of the nineties was one of the most fertile Latin American cultural scenes of recent decades, not only for its rich musical creation but also for the playful, yet profound vision of social and ecological justice it championed. Twenty-some years after the death of Chico Science, its most iconic personality, this essay explores the strikingly relational philosophical bent at its core—one molded by the collectivism typical of its origins in local and global expressions of Black Atlantic cultures. Manguebeat was swamped in everyday philosophical questions about which kinds of knowledge, power, and being served to exacerbate violence, inequality, and harm to the environment, and which could instead encourage greater peace and harmony. Analyzing Chico Science’s three music videos, I discuss the “coexistentialism” of manguebeat, not only in a pacifistic sense or one of environmental rebirth but also in its insistence that all real living is “living with.” O manguebeat dos anos 90 foi uma das movimentações culturais mais férteis da América Latina nas últimas décadas, não somente por sua rica criação musical, mas também pela visão brincalhona, contudo, profunda de justiça global que projetou. Mais de vinte anos depois da morte de Chico Science, o vulto mais reconhecido do movimento, o presente ensaio busca explorar o radical impulso filosófico relacional na sua essência—modelado pelo coletivismo típico de expressões locais e globais de culturas afro-atlânticas.