The tenacity of Afro-Brazilian writers in general is unquestionable as they negotiate the stifling effects of the racial democracy mythology on their cultural production as well as on their threatened humanity. It must also be noted that the criticism of the new generation of Afro-Brazilian writers has been scanty at best, but also quite limited if not dismal when it comes to particular authors. Hence, beyond the freedom to write, there is a constraining block on critical production due to a lack of sustained critical practice and development as well as limited publishing outlets for Afro-Brazilian issues.

Shortly after the Brazilian military dictatorship ended, cultural entities experienced relief from official censorship as well as self-censorship. It was during this wave of artistic “freedom” that the four writers under consideration in this chapter launched their writing careers only to mature and become “visible” two decades later. Cuti (Luiz Silva), Arnaldo Xavier, Ronald Tutuca, and Carlos de Assumpção may not all be contemporaries by age, but their works, linked by an ideological commonality, strike a common chord of disenchantment, rebellion, and transgression with the object of affirming their existence, dignity, and humanity. As much as these writers try to escape their ancestrality through conscious experimentation with multiple forms, they actually refine and reaffirm that same tradition.