Luz del Fuego
Black and white photograph of Luz del Fuego, smiling, holding a snake across her chest
Luz del Fuego, c. 1946
Born
Dora Vivacqua

(1917-02-21)February 21, 1917
Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, Espírito Santo, Brazil
DiedJuly 19, 1967(1967-07-19) (aged 50)
Cause of deathMurdered
Other namesLuz Divina
OccupationBallerina
Known forActing; Dancing nude with snakes; founding Brazil's first nudist club
Political partyBrazilian Naturist Party
MovementFeminism, naturism
Parents
  • Antonio Vivacqua
  • Etelvina Vivacqua

Luz del Fuego (née, Dora Vivacqua; early stage name, Luz Divina; February 21, 1917 – July 19, 1967) was a Brazilian feminist, ballerina, naturist, and striptease artist who performed with live snakes.[1][2][3] Comfortable with nudity, she wrapped pythons around her body and became famous in her time.[3]

Biography

Born in Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, Espírito Santo, she was the fifteenth child of the Italian immigrants Etelvina and Antonio Vivacqua, and the sister of Senator Attilio Vivacqua.[3] In 1932, her father was murdered by a group of people that, days before, he had expelled from his lands [4]

After her father's murder, the fifteen-year-old Dora Vivacqua was sent to live with her sister Angélia. Angélia's husband then began to sexually harass her. When caught by his wife, he blamed Dora and convinced the family that she was schizophrenic.[4] As a result, she was hospitalized in Belo Horizonte for two months in 1936. [3] After her release, Vivacqua had lost ten kg. Her brother Achilles, who was worried about her health after her time in the asylum, suggested she move to the farm of another brother, Archilau.[4] At the farm, she caused controversy by mingling with the lower-class farmhands and appearing onstage at an event for the farmworkers dressed as "Eve" - with grape vines on her breasts and pubis, and carrying two vine snakes. When Archilau scolded her for soiling the family name, Dora assaulted him. She was hospitalized again, this time in Rio de Janeiro.[3]

Luz del Fuego, 1944

In 1944,[3] she began performing as a dancer using the stage name "Luz Divina",[2] changing it to Luz del Fuego in 1947,[3] the name of a lipstick in the Argentine market.[5] In 1946, she appeared in Franz Eichhorn's film No Trampolim da Vida, and the following year, starred in Luis Moglia Barth's Argentine-Brazilian co-production Não Me Digas Adeus.[6] In 1948, she appeared in Moacyr Fenelon's musical comedy Poeira de Estrelas opposite Lourdinha Bittencourt and Emilinha Borba, and also had a role in Manoel Jorge and Hélio Thys's musical comedy Folias Cariocas.[7]

On the Ilha do Sol (Sun Island),[8] she established the first naturist club in Brazil, the "Brazilian Naturist Club". In the early 1950s, she founded a political party called the Brazilian Naturist Party and ran for Congresswoman for this party.[9] She lost the election as her brother, Attilio, denied the party's official establishment.[3] In 1956, she made an appearance in Curt Siodmak's Curucu, Beast of the Amazon which was being filmed in rural Argentina,[10] and in 1959 starred in Al Ghiu's comedy picture Comendo de Colher. Del Fuego had a final role, which went uncredited, in Robert Day's Tarzan and the Great River in 1967 before she was murdered by a fisherman that year whom she had threatened to denounce for overfishing.[9]

Legacy

Her life was portrayed in the 1982 film, Luz del Fuego, directed by David Neves and featuring Lucélia Santos in the lead role.[11] In November 2013, a lost documentary titled A Nativa Solitária was found by the Espírito Santo Public Archive and restored by it.[12] Because of her courage to face the prejudice of her time with regard to nudity, and for pioneering the creation of the first naturist club in Brazil, her birth date, February 21, is remembered and celebrated among Brazilian naturists as "Day of Naturism".[3]

References

  1. ↑ Eleanor Mannikka. "Luz Del Fuego (1982)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 22 June 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  2. 1 2 Revista estudos feministas (in Portuguese). CIEC, Escola de Comunicação, UFRJ. 1994. p. 545.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Luz del Fuego". O Estado de S. Paulo (in Portuguese). Grupo Estado. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 "Luz del Fuego". Retrieved 2023-02-03.
  5. ↑ Scolforo, Jória Motta. "Arquivo Público remasteriza o raro documentário "A Nativa Solitária" com Luz del Fuego" (in Portuguese). Arquivo Público do Estado do Espírito Santo. Archived from the original on 31 May 2015. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  6. ↑ Neto, Antonio Leão da Silva (1 January 1998). Astros e estrelas do cinema brasileiro (in Portuguese). Edições Loyola. p. 143. ISBN 978-85-900595-1-6.
  7. ↑ "Folias Cariocas" (in Portuguese). Internet Entertainment Database. Archived from the original on 28 January 2015. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  8. ↑ "Jayne Too Modest to Visit Nudist Colony". Tucson Daily Citizen. Gannett Company. February 28, 1959. p. 2.
  9. 1 2 Schumaher, Schuma; Brazil, Erico Vital (2000). Dicionário mulheres do Brasil: de 1500 até a atualidade : com 270 ilustrações (in Portuguese). Zahar. pp. 347–348. ISBN 9788571105737.
  10. ↑ Weaver, Tom (2000). Return of the B Science Fiction and Horror Heroes: The Mutant Melding of Two Volumes of Classic Interviews. McFarland. p. 308. ISBN 978-0-7864-0755-2.
  11. ↑ "Luz del Fuego" (in Portuguese). Cinemateca Brasileira. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  12. ↑ "Arquivo do ES digitaliza filme raro de 1954". A Gazeta (in Portuguese). Globo.com. November 16, 2013. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
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