Vera Cruz is a Brazilian song written by Milton Nascimento and Márcio Borges. The original release appeared in 1968 by Eduardo Conde. The title Vera Cruz refers to the coast named by Portuguese explorers as Brazil’s northeast coast, and the lyrics lament a lost Brazil during the dictatorship, portraying the country as an elusive woman. The tune sits in the Brazilian Popular Music (MPB) tradition with jazz inflections and is associated with the Clube da Esquina circle. It has been covered and reinterpreted in various contexts, including Milton Nascimento’s performances and Sandy Cressman’s Cantos do Povo arrangement, and it appears on the 2005 album The Milton Nascimento Songbook by Danilo Perez.
