The religious rituals Teatro Terreiro Encantado incorporates into Auto do Negrinho are syncretic in nature due to the history of colonization in Brazil that combined Catholic and African traditions. They also point to a history of existential and cultural survival, and more importantly, to a resistance to slavery and the continued presence of white supremacy in Brazil.  The theater group uses these syncretic practices to not only educate their community about these histories and cultural traditions, but as a way to connect them to Black culture today that must continue to resist larger state mechanisms that have the goal to control, confine, and criminalize Black bodies and expressions that do not fit within hegemonic frameworks of culture. 

Terreiro

The group's name, Teatro Terreiro Encantado, is a direct reference to a specific Afro-Brazilian religious tradition: Candomblé. This syncretic religious tradition developed in the 19th century from practices from West Africa, in particular Yoruba, Bantu, and Gbe peoples with some influences of Roman Catholicism. Several hundred thousand Brazilians today are active practitioners of the religion with millions more make reference to the orixás, or deities, and other elements of it in their cultural traditions, including music, literature, and theater. The temple or house of workshop where Candomblé rituals take place is known as the terreiro. 

Therefore, the use of the term terreiro in their group name can be interpreted to serve two functions:  the actors see the theatrical work they engage in as more than just a performing art, but 1) as a cultural and spiritual practice meant to educate and edify the people that come into their sacred space of the theater and 2) to position themselves as part of this larger tradition of the sacred found in Afro-Brazilian populations and its role in empowering its community members.

Saints & Orixás

The apparition of the Virgin Mary to Negrinho in the myth of Negrinho do Pastoreio highlights the centrality of the saints and divine personages in these syncretic traditions. In the Auto de Negrinho play, the Virgin Mary makes an appearance and dances with Negrinho. The blue and white colors and adornments on her mask reference the orixá, or Afro-Brazilian deity Iemanja, who is the goddess of water, seas, and rivers and is the mother of all orixás. Like the Virgin Mary, Iemanja is seen as motherly figure who is protective of all her children.  Due to syncretism between African religions and Catholicism, they are typically seen as the same deity.  That she chooses to appear to Negrinho in the face of adversity alludes that he is one of her children, thereby pointing to his humanity and importance as a child of the divine, which challenges the racial hierarchies perpetuated by the logic of white supremacy.




Throughout the play Auto do Negrinho, the actors sing to and hold a banner of São Benedito (Saint Benedict), a Black Catholic saint born to enslaved Africans in 16th century Europe who was known for his charity and patience in the face of racial prejudice. He has become a patron saint among Afro-descendant Catholic communities throughout the Americas, including in the United States and Brazil. Saint Benedict's inclusion in the play transforms him into a symbol of resistance to the racial prejudices and violence that Afro-Brazilians are subjected to and as remainder to persevere in the face of oppression. 

Afro-Centric Auto Sacramental

The format of the play is also rooted in religious theatrical traditions. The title of the play, Auto do Negrinho, places it within the larger tradition of the auto sacramental. The auto, or act, were typically one act plays in verse that used comedy and allegory to teach about faith, hope, sin, and death. This dramatic literature originated in the Iberian peninsula and became common in Latin America as way to convert indigenous populations and enslaved Africans to Catholicism during the colonial period.  Contemporary writers in Brazil have called upon the auto tradition to comment on the social conditions of marginalized populations. The Brazilian modernist writer João Cabral de Melo Neto, for example, wrote the play in verse Morte e Vida Severina with the subtitle of Auto de Natal Pernambucano (Auto of Penambucan Christmas), which uses the allegory of the Nativity of Jesus to highlight the Brazilians fleeing the drought and poverty of the sertão, or backlands of northeastern Brazil in search of a better life. 

Teatro Terreiro Encantado takes the auto tradition and makes it contemporary and Afro-centric. The group adapts the literatura de cordel poem O negrinho do pastoreio by Klévisson Viana into a one act theatrical play in verse that incorporates Afro-Brazilian religious practices like the congada. The theater group takes the myth of Negrinho do Pastoreio to serve as an allegory of the current genocide of Black male youth in Brazil.