Becoming Brazilians
Race and National Identity in Twentieth-Century Brazil

This book examines how Gilberto Freyre's notion of mestiçagem (race mixing) became the overwhelmingly dominant narrative of national identity in twentieth-century Brazil.

Marshall C. Eakin (Author)

9781316626009, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 25 July 2017

343 pages, 14 b/w illus.
22.6 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.5 kg

'… this book presents an interesting cultural history of nation-state making for modern Brazil, and therefore joins … the growing historical scholarships of race and nation in Latin America. It will be widely adopted as a textbook in undergraduate and graduate courses in Brazilian and modern Latin American history, and should serve as a helpful guide for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students for their research on the role of mass media in Brazil's modern nation making.' Mieko Nishida, The American Historical Review

This book traces the rise and decline of Gilberto Freyre's vision of racial and cultural mixture (mestiçagem - or race mixing) as the defining feature of Brazilian culture in the twentieth century. Eakin traces how mestiçagem moved from a conversation among a small group of intellectuals to become the dominant feature of Brazilian national identity, demonstrating how diverse Brazilians embraced mestiçagem, via popular music, film and television, literature, soccer, and protest movements. The Freyrean vision of the unity of Brazilians built on mestiçagem begins a gradual decline in the 1980s with the emergence of an identity politics stressing racial differences and multiculturalism. The book combines intellectual history, sociological and anthropological field work, political science, and cultural studies for a wide-ranging analysis of how Brazilians - across social classes - became Brazilians.

Introduction: creating a people and a nation
1. From the 'Spectacle of Races' to 'Luso-Tropical Civilization'
2. The sounds of Mestiçagem: radio, samba, and Carnaval
3. Visualizing Mestiçagem: film, literature, and the Mulata
4. 'Globo-lizing' Brazil: televising identity
5. The beautiful game: performing the Freyrean vision
6. The sounds of cultural citizenship
7. Identity, culture, and citizenship
Epilogue: nation and identity in the twentieth century, and the twenty-first.

Subject Areas: Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies [JFSL1], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], History of the Americas [HBJK]