Raised under the knuckles of Mistress Ignacia, the abused, dehumanised leading character in this story is a seven-year-old who, unnamed throughout the story, trusts her real name is Negrinha-a Portuguese word that means little black girl. It's December and the child has a cheerful encounter that changes her take on life. Although it was published for the first time in 1920, Negrinha is a story set some thirty years earlier. The title character was...