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This chapter focuses on a plot of rebellion in the captaincy of Minas Gerais. Upon its discovery, Portuguese commissioners named one of their star cartographers, Jose Joaquim da Rocha, as one of the possible instigators of a nascent independence movement. Rocha became a suspect after several co-conspirators had declared his maps to be a practical guide for coordinating the movement's plans. For Rocha's maps to be thus accused came as a surprise to the political establishment and the Brazilian mapmaking community. It was only a decade previously, in 1778, that Rocha had produced, to much official acclaim, five maps of the Minas Gerais region. Using the same scientific protocols that informed imperial land surveys and map publications sponsored by Spain, France, or England, these maps transposed local knowledge into a global archive in which Portuguese names, geographic coordinates, and topographical symbols reified Minas Gerais as a Portuguese possession while making, to use the words of Bruno Latour, “domination at a distance feasible.”

Eustáquio Neves is a self-taught photographer who lives in the interior state of Minas Gerais. Through an examination of several of his photographic series, this chapter discusses how Neves provides rare insight into regional and personal interpretations of the resonances of slavery. He applies his knowledge of chemistry in chemical and physical interferences in the developing process to create visually complex images. Also, he often draws subjects from the African-descendent populations of his home region. Strongly focused on his own identity as a black Brazilian and artist, the chapter exposes Neves’ resistance to the Afro-Brazilian art label, despite his subject matter. The chapter concludes with a look at how Neves confronts contemporary race-related social challenges by reaching for subjects outside the religious realm. His work reveals how the signifiers of blackness are changing with contemporary production.

The Belo Horizonte Observatory for Urban Health is a partnership of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, with the Belo Horizonte Municipality. The Observatory is engaged in a wide range of studies in urban health, including projects that aim to reduce the emergence and reemergence of disease and to study the behavioral influences on health and the role of the social determinants of health. This chapter discusses the work of the Belo Horizonte Observatory, highlighting its core projects and the lessons learned that can inform urban health scholarship and action worldwide.

This chapter first highlights the contributions of musicians of African descent who compose in European and/or Europe-derived genres, beginning with Vicente Lusitano in the mid-1550s. Composers, genres, and individual pieces are repositioned as representatives of art/classical music tradition; a case is made to include them in mainstream musicological discourse. The focus then shifts to the role of black performers of this same tradition and includes ensembles and soloists from the nineteenth century to the midtwentieth century. In so doing, the access of black performers—especially vocalists—to several mainstream resources and venues can be traced. Many of these performers have made substantial contributions at institutions of higher education and have sought to nurture future generations of musicians. Historic events and important recordings are featured in this chapter.