In the 1980s and 1990s, Maria da Graça Xuxa Meneghel, known universally as Xuxa (pronounced SHOO-shah), was Brazil’s biggest television star. Generations of children spent mornings watching her play, sing and dance for hours on her wildly popular variety show. “I was a doll, a babysitter, a friend to these children,” Xuxa, 60, said in a wide-ranging interview. “A Barbie of that time.”“She came with a pink car,” she added. “I came with a pink spaceship.”Like the famous doll, Xuxa, too, is thin, blond, blue-eyed and white.

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Persons: Maria da Graça, ” Xuxa, “, Barbie, ”