Carmen Miranda

Biography

Carmen Miranda was born in Marco de Canaveses, in Portugal on February 9, 1909. Her birth name is Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha, which was derived from her godmother's name, Maria do Carmo Pinto Monteiro. Her father, José Maria Pinto da Cunha, was a barber and her mother, Maria Emília Miranda da Cunha, was a housewife. Carmen had three sisters and two brothers: Olinda (1907), Mario (1911), Cecília (1913), Aurora (1915) and Oscar (1916). The family moved to Brazil when Carmen was only one year old.

At the age of seven, Carmen started attending the Santa Teresa School in Lapa, Rio de Janeiro, which had been built for the poor children of the region. When Carmen was 14, her sister Olinda caught tuberculosis. Since the treatment was expensive, Carmen started working in a tie shop to help pay for medication. Afterwards she started working in a boutique called La Femme Chic, where she learned how to make hats. In no time she started her own small business making hats, and it became so profitable that her brother Mario quit his job to help Carmen deliver the hats she made.

In 1926 at the age of 17, Carmen already had acting in mind. She would perform at family parties and participate in some small motion pictures. In 1928, Aníbal Duarte, a Brazilian Member of Parliament, who used to have lunch at the small Inn run by Maria Emília Miranda, introduced Carmen to Josué de Barros. Josué worked at a local radio station, where he took Carmen to sing. He wanted to listen to her voice on record, so he introduced her to the director of the Brunswick record company. In 1929 she recorded her first song – the Samba Não vá Simbora, with lyrics by Josué. Carmen was later introduced to the director of another record company RCA Victor, where she started her career recording Dona Balbina and Triste Jandaia. A few months later she recorded Barucuntum and Laiá Ioiô.