A Cause for Reflection: Imagining Brazil at 100 Years of Independence

Abstract

In this paper, I examine the press of Rio de Janeiro in August and September 1922 to argue that Brazil’s centennial celebrations represented a novel, yet culturally conservative, attempt by Brazilian and Portuguese political elites to frame the young nation’s heritage in a European light by focusing exclusively on the Portuguese past. The centennial can therefore be held up in contrast to more daring conceptualizations of Brazilian national identity that were emerging around the same time, most notably during São Paulo’s Modern Art Week.