O Brasil e o espelho português: Gilberto Freyre, Plínio Salgado e os usos políticos de Portugal no século XX

Abstract

This study presents a comparative analysis of two Brazilian intellectuals, Plínio Salgado and Gilberto Freyre, focusing on how the persistent presence of Portugal shaped their intellectual and political trajectories. It begins by outlining a panoramic view of their long careers in order to understand how Portuguese influences contributed to the consolidation of their worldviews. In this regard, particular attention is given to the shared influence of the Portuguese monarchist intellectual and politician António Sardinha, leader of Lusitanian Integralism, whose Iberist, nationalist, and municipalist ideas influenced Brazilian thinkers within a context of transnational intellectual exchanges. The study then examines the genesis of the concept of miscegenation in both authors, a theme that proved decisive for Gilberto Freyre’s intellectual career, especially following the publication of the classic Casa-Grande & Senzala in 1933; and for Plínio Salgado’s political trajectory, marked by the founding of the Brazilian Integralist Action in 1932, the most significant fascist movement outside Europe. Freyre’s engagement with North American culturalist anthropology, particularly through the influence of Franz Boas, and Salgado’s involvement in the more conservative strands of the modernist movement are identified as key stages in their intellectual formation. The study further analyzes the direct experiences of both authors in Portugal and its colonies. In the case of Plínio Salgado, this includes his exile during the Brazilian Estado Novo (1939-1946), when he found in Portuguese Salazarism a model for political survival and began to identify himself as a Luso-Brazilian writer. In the case of Gilberto Freyre, special attention is given to his journey to the Portuguese Overseas Provinces between 1951 and 1952, during which he observed Portuguese colonial practices firsthand and gathered material to expand the ideas developed in Casa-Grande & Senzala into a broader framework, conceptualizing Lusotropicalism, the notion that Portuguese colonization differed from others due to cultural interpenetration and a Christ-centered orientation. At a time of increasing pressure for decolonization, Freyre’s Lusotropicalism was adopted by the Portuguese Estado Novo in international forums, particularly at the United Nations. Finally, the study examines whether Brazilian integralists, staunch defenders of Portuguese colonialism, incorporated elements of Freyre’s ideas into their discourse. This thesis contributes to a comparative understanding of two key twentieth-century intellectuals and seeks to further complicate debates on race within Brazilian integralism as well as transnational intellectual exchanges between Brazil and Portugal.