This essay presents insights into the early career of Ruth Guimarães (1920-2014), the Afro-Brazilian writer from the São Paulo area renowned for her depiction of the Brazilian countryside. Coming of age in Brazil – an ex-colonial and post- emancipatory society, deeply (though unconsciously) shaped by both its oppressive past and present inequalities – her take on Brazilian national identity and on blackness is full of ambiguity but with a sharp sense of Africa`s impact on its history. Becoming part of a literary avant-garde group (the Baruel Circle) at the end of the 1930s allowed Ruth Guimarães to publish her early writings and enter the realm of Brazil`s literary establishment. With her first novel (Água-funda) published in 1946, she rose to prominence, but her first publication was the poem Caboclo originally appearing in 1939 – already full of hints to the issues of identity, rootedness and belonging, seen through the lens of mixture; the poem is republished here in its entirety for the first time. As none of her many works have been translated to English to date, this essay serves as an introduction of this Black woman writer – and of the worlds of Brazilian literature, journalism and publishing in the late 1930s and 40s, in which she launched her career – to an international audience.

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Stichproben. Wiener Zeitschrift für kritische Afrikastudien / Vienna Journal of African Studies

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