Saudades

SAUDADES

Brazilian Family Memories
          from Monarchy to Millennium

a new book by Annita Clark-Weaver

Saudades preserves an account of the tumultuous transition of Brazil from 1868, when it was a monarchy and slavery was still legal, into the modern state it is today, told through the lives and observations of two women: Chiquita, a Brazilian, and her granddaughter Annita.

Chiquita’s stories are expanded as Annita explores the culture of past and present Brazil through the stories of her family, and the old women she meets in her grandmother’s small Brazilian town. The book deals honestly with issues of race, religion, gender, and most of all, cultural duality. The Brazilian landscape, family life, and Chiquita’s husband’s work as founder of the YMCA in Latin America comprise important features of Saudades.

“Saudades is a fascinating and poignant historical journey. Annita Clark-Weaver has woven together memoirs from Brazil, Europe, and the US—and from generations going back almost a century and a half—to create a tapestry of family experience and connection. This is a book about community, memory, migration, love, faith, family, and much else besides; but above all, it is a book about how women can hold families together in the face of the great challenges of time and distance.”

– Matthew Restall
Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Latin American History Pennsylvania State University

“Imagine at age 50 opening an attic drawer to find a stash of journals from Vovó, your long departed Brazilian grandmother. This treasure of family stories turned Annita Clark-Weaver’s life upside-down and topsy turvy, magically connecting her to the lives and culture of her foremothers. The author’s passionate, poetic response to the discovery of parallel emotional lives in succeeding generations gives credence to the power of artful storytelling, and the art of everyday life.”

– Amy Gorman
Author, Aging Artfully: Profiles of 12 Women Artists