Icon: We Still Have Bananas; Carmen Miranda is back, and more colorful than ever.

Byline: Mac Margolis

It's easy to slight Carmen Miranda. She stood 1.52 meters, shorter than most of today's sixth graders. She spoke halting English, wore preposterous get-ups and starred in no less preposterous films. Even in Brazil, the country she made famous, her legacy has always been sweet and sour. Many of her compatriots never forgave her for the pastiche of mischief and malaprops that became not only Miranda's trademark Hollywood act but also synonymous with Latin America itself. So when a handful of devotees in Rio de Janeiro prepared last August to mark the 50th ...