Private Patronage in Early Brazilian Modernism: Xenophobia

and Internal Colonization Coded in Mrio de Andrade's "Noturno

de Belo Horizonte"
Saulo Gouveia
Luso-Brazilian Review, Volume 46, Number 2, 2009, pp. 90-112 (Article)
Published by University of Wisconsin Press
DOI: 10.1353/lbr.0.0095
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of the University of Wisconsin System
Private Patronage in Early
Brazilian Modernism
Xenophobia and Internal Colonization Coded in
Mrio de Andrades Noturno de Belo Horizonte
Saulo Gouveia
Este ensaio investiga possveis motivaes para o envolvimento de Paulo
Prado com o movimento modernista em So Paulo. Em ::, aps uma
visita s cidades histricas de Minas Gerais, os modernistas de So Paulo
produzem textos que resgatam uma viso idlica do perodo colonial e da
herana cultural portuguesa no Brasil. Eu proponho uma anlise de um
poema de Mrio de Andrade, Noturno de Belo Horizonte, de ::, como
exemplar de um texto em que a noo de genealogia, to essencial identi-
dade da aristocracia, recebe um tratamento vanguardista. Andrade concebe
a histria nacional em chave monumental, estabelecendo uma conexo
direta entre o glorioso passado do ciclo do ouro e os bandeirantes de So
Paulo como fundadores da verdadeira nao brasileira e como ancestrais da
aristocracia cafeeira.
Introduction
I
It is widely known that Paulo Prado, one of the most prominent members
of the So Paulo cofee aristocracy, was the grand mcne of Brazilian Mod-
ernism.
2
Without his support, the production and circulation of avant-garde
cultural products in the incipient cultural market of So Paulo in the early
::os would not have been possible. Yet, in the mainstream historical ac-
counts of the modernist movement in Brazil, his patronage does not receive
the attention it deserves. Few scholars have explored the contradiction in-
herent in the fact that private patronage, a cultural policy that has so many
premodern characteristics, helped to foster the modernization of the liter-
ary and artistic felds in ::os So Paulo (Canclini ,). Many literary critics
acknowledge that Prado was involved with the modernist cultural project,
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Gouveia :
but few have actually investigated his motives, other than his disinterested
appreciation of art and his desire to promote artists from So Paulo.
My objective in this essay is to explore some of the historical, ideologi-
cal, political, and economic motivations infuencing the cofee aristocracys
support of the modernist movement. I am particularly interested in dem-
onstrating how modernist artists created cultural products that catered
to their patrons aesthetic taste and political views.
3
Te rapid social and
economic changes of that time caused anxieties that are observable in the
works of the modernists. As an example of a confuence between the mod-
ernist discourse and the interests of the aristocracy, I will provide an analy-
sis of Mrio de Andrades :: poem Noturno de Belo Horizonte, an epic
poem of national identity. In the poems collage of forms, Andrade com-
bines heterogeneous elements in order to devise, conversely, a centralized
and homogenized view of the nation. In spite of its multi-faceted depiction
of nationhood, Andrades poem manages to legitimize the hegemony of So
Paulo and justify internal colonization by naturalizing regional inequalities
and hierarchical social structures.
Modernist Criticism:
Perpetuating the Modernist Grand Narrative
Tough prolifc, the scholarship on Brazilian Modernism has failed to pro-
duce a solid materialist analysis of the movement. In literary studies, issues
related to patronage and sponsorship of modernist cultural production have
been either disregarded or mentioned in passing. For many decades, critics
and historians of Brazilian Modernism simply reproduced the discourse of
modernist intellectuals about the signifcance of the movement for Brazilian
literature, culture and art. It would not be an overstatement to am rm that
literary criticism on Modernism was simply modernist criticism.
4
Highly
infuenced by the tenets of New Criticism, literary criticism about Brazilian
Modernism has focused primarily on formal innovations of modernist
works. Te methodological restrictions of formalist criticism alone cannot
be blamed, however, for the excessive praise with which Modernism was his-
toricized. Modernist criticism cannot be understood without a thorough
historical analysis of the canonization of Modernism in the context of the
creation of cultural institutions promoted by the Vargas administration.
3
In Te Political Unconscious, Fredric Jameson argues that the perfected
poetic apparatus of high Modernism represses history (:8o). Although
Jamesons remark refers to Anglo-American Modernism, the argument
can be applied to Brazilian Modernism as well. Te academic and poetic
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: Luso-Brazilian Review 46:2
apparatuses that supported the progressive outlook of Brazilian Modern-
ism have hidden the broader historical horizon behind the inception of the
movement in Brazil. Te early modernist movement of the ::os has been
treated as a grassroots cultural movement that both transformed Brazilian
culture and challenged Eurocentric dogmas about third world culture. Tis
image of progressivism and defance, created by modernist intellectuals
themselves, proved to be the most enticing aspect of the modernist enter-
prise for literary critics; the not-so-progressive elements within Modernism
were overlooked. It was only in the late :,os and early :8os that literary
critics such as Silviano Santiago demanded the end of immanent modernist
criticism. Santiagos essays appeared in the wake of the work of sociologist
Srgio Miceli, who in :, had published a groundbreaking study of the
relationship between modernist intellectuals and the state in the :,os and
os.
6
Tus, the frst attempts at dismantling the Brazilian modernist edifce
spread to literary criticism from the areas of sociology and cultural history.
Counter-hegemonic readings of the modernist legacy did not generate a
comparable body of work to counteract the stale and repetitive discourse of
modernist criticism and historiography.
Anglo-American critics tend to celebrate the notion of cultural cannibal-
ism as a defying model of resistance that can be updated and used against
Yankee cultural imperialism. Te concepts of cultural cannibalism as well
as the concept of import substitution are sometimes applied retroactively
and uniformly to the entire body of work of Brazilian Modernism. While
Oswald de Andrade only put forth the concept of cultural cannibalism in
::8, and the proponents of the import substitution policies only devised
their economic theory in the late :,os and early :oos, the early phase of
Modernism in Brazil inaccurately receives praise for consciously practic-
ing these policies since the early ::os. Tis anachronism can be detected,
for example, in George Ydices essay, Rethinking Te Teory of Te Avant-
Garde From Te Periphery. Ydice sketches out a materialist defnition for
Brazilian Modernism and addresses the issue of the modernist association
with elite groups. Yet, he seems predisposed to salvage the non-conformist
reputation traditionally attached to the modernists:
Te Brazilian avant-garde emerged in So Paulo. Te elites of this city had
recently adopted a policy of import substitution, which would make sense
within the context of interwar years. Both the political economy and the
modernistas were strongly nationalist. . . . [It] was modernismo that provided
the language of this emergent discourse required for a transformation in
hegemony. Great emphasis has already been placed on this movements at-
tack on the autonomous institution of art, represented in Brazil by realism
and Parnassianism, but it is the language of development, of construo
brasileira, which would imprint itself on the emerging culture. (ooo,)
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Gouveia ,
Te passage brings in literary and economic theories to the analysis of Mod-
ernism in Brazil, but it is full of inconsistencies. First, Ydice interprets the
predominance of Realism and Parnassianism as a sign of the autonomy of
the institution of art, as if the Academia Brasileira de Letras could be taken
as a representative. His reasoning is that the modernists attacked the au-
tonomous institution of art by simply criticizing the Academia and the aes-
thetics of Parnassianism. Tis is a misinterpretation of Peter Brgers con-
cept of the institution of art.
7
In order to construct his arguments, Ydice
makes a number of assumptions that, in spite of their seemingly materialist
claims, ft well with the ideology of immanent modernist criticism. None of
these assumptions, however, could be made without ignoring the specifc
historical context of Brazilian Modernism.
Ydice connects Modernism to the ruling classes, but oversimplifes the
defnition of elite, as if the various sectors of So Paulos ruling classes
shared similar interests. Furthermore, the passage above suggests that the
So Paulo elites could be indiscriminately referred to as an emerging so-
cial group. Ydice overlooked internal conficts that better explain the as-
sociation between modernists and a particular elite group.
Even Mrio de Andrade, the leading modernist writer, was more specifc
in his commentaries about the connections between modernists and the
cofee aristocracy. In O movimento modernista, Andrades :: essay and
one of the frst historical accounts of the movement, Andrade established the
platform for most of the immanent modernist critical discourse in praise of
Modernism. However, Andrades foundational text also revealed some cen-
tral contradictions of the movement. In a passage that is rarely cited by mod-
ernist criticism,
8
Andrade not only admits receiving the support of the cofee
aristocracy, but also provides a brief explanation for the motivations of this
elite group in supporting an iconoclastic project of aesthetic renovation:
Te traditional aristocracy ofered us a strong hand, putting in evidence this
confuence of destiny[the aristocracy] also was, by then, autophagously
[self-devouringly] destructive, because it no longer had a signifcance that
could be legitimate. As for the aristocrats of money [the immigrant bour-
geoisie], they hated us in the beginning and have always looked upon us with
suspicion. No rich persons salon would have us, no foreign millionaire shel-
tered us. Te Italians, Germans, Jews took the role of guardians of the na-
tional prudence more seriously than Prados, Penteados and Amarais. (:)
Certain questions arise from Andrades passage. For example, his assertion
of the aristocracys self-destructive impetus seems implausible. Te aristoc-
racys support of Modernism could only be the opposite of a suicidal act. If
it is true that by the ::os the aristocracy had lost its political signifcance,
as Andrade argues, then their instinctive reaction would have been to cling
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Luso-Brazilian Review 46:2
to power for as long as they could, not to commit an act of public suicide.
Terefore, the aristocracys support of the modernist movement was a self-
promoting enterprise that sought to extend their supremacy in the symbolic
realm of high culture. It is signifcant, though, that Andrade recognizes that
the beginning of the aristocracys downfall coincides with their involvement
with the modernist movement. Also, Andrades portrayal of the immigrant
bourgeoisie as a conservative and nationalist group can help explain why
the nationalism of the cofee aristocracy did not face strong antagonism
from their competitors [i.e., from the immigrant industrialists]. Also to An-
drades credit, he provides a clear distinction between the attitude of the
cofee aristocracy and that of the immigrant bourgeoisie. In what follows,
I will further explain the distinctions between these two groups that were
competing for hegemony in the ::os.
The Political and the Economic Elites
in the 1920s in So Paulo
In his classic study of So Paulos industrialization, Warren Dean proposed
a distinction between two major entrepreneurial groups in So Paulo, which
is basically the same as that suggested by Andrade in the quote above: the
industrial bourgeoisie and the cofee planter aristocracy.
9
Te industri-
alists were mostly immigrants (most commonly Italians), while cofee plant-
ers were native. Dean chose two of the most successful men of the So
Paulo elite to personify this dichotomy: Francisco Matarazzo epitomized
the immigrant industrialist, while Antnio Prado, Paulo Prados father, rep-
resented the archetypical fgure of the native planter. Tese two groups
were related in complex ways. Te cofee trade and the incipient industrial
activity were interdependent; the cofee trade preceded and begot indus-
trialization (Dean ,8). In other words, the cofee boom was responsible
for generating growth, creating a consumer market, and implementing the
infrastructure that made small-scale industrialization viable. Dean am rms
that planters actually founded manufacturing frms that were eventually
bought up by immigrants. Although planters were outnumbered by im-
migrants in the industrial sector, they never ceased to be interested in the
manufacturing of consumer goods (Dean ,).
By the ::os, the immigrant bourgeoisie controlled the majority of the
industrial sector. Although the conficts of interest between the industrial
bourgeoisie and the cofee aristocracy were not signifcant enough to cause
major political battles, the latter felt threatened by the economic progress of
immigrant industrialists:
To the planters, then, the wealth of a Matarazzo appeared frighteningly
large and capable of unlimited ramifcation. Occasionally they spoke of the
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Gouveia ,
industrialists as an aristocracy of money, an industrial plutocracy, or
even a bunch of sharks. When the planters considered how frequently the
new manufacturer was an immigrant, they complained of foreigners who
came over in third class and impoverished old families of the rural aristoc-
racy, genuinely Brazilian. (Dean o8)
Even when it was not so clearly manifested, resentment against the immi-
grant bourgeoisie took the form of a latent anxiety that outlived the busi-
ness mergers and inter-marriage between these groups (Dean o,8o). Te
assimilation of immigrants into Brazilian society may have been easier than
in North America, but it was not as devoid of animosity as suggested by the
prevailing myth of the Brazilian openness, lack of prejudice and racial de-
mocracy.
I0
Contradictory feelings toward immigration were strong among
the political elites. Although they believed that the European work force was
superior to the native one, they also felt threatened by the immigrant con-
tingent (both working class and industrialists) that radically transformed
the So Paulo social landscape.
II
Besides homogenizing the concept of elite, Ydice makes an anachro-
nistic reference to the policy of import substitution,
I2
which he claims was
put into practice by the elites of So Paulo in the ::os. Ydice is applying
an economic concept developed much later (in the :oos by the proponents
of Dependency Teory) to account for supposedly nationalistic economic
policies adopted by the So Paulo elite in the early ::os. Te reasoning is
consistent, since the industrial bourgeoisie was in fact operating by import
substitution; however, it cannot be said that import substitution was an of-
fcial policy at the time. By linking this policy to a nationalistic ideology,
Ydice suggests a level of consciousness and an underlying political struc-
ture that the immigrant bourgeoisie could not have had at the time. Besides,
as Mrio de Andrade himself admits, the group most closely associated with
the modernists was the cofee aristocracy (a group linked with the export
sector), not the emerging immigrant bourgeoisie.
Scholars of Latin American economic history of the twentieth century
have come to realize that import substitution was a reality in the ::os but
not yet a government policy, nor was it exactly a policy of the So Paulo
elite. As Joseph Love points out, it was only in the context of post World
War II that developmentalist policies, including import-substituting indus-
trialization, became a state economic policy: Industrialization in Latin
America was fact before it was policy, and policy before it was theory

(Love,
Crafing Te Tird World ::o). From the early :oos until the :,os federal
and state government economic policies focused almost exclusively on the
export economy, which, in Brazil, was dominated by cofee. Import substi-
tution, on the other hand, was a business strategy used by the immigrant in-
dustrial bourgeoisie. It was opportunism, rather than ideology, that guided
entrepreneurs in the early stages of industrialization. Ironically, the So
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o Luso-Brazilian Review 46:2
Paulo industrial bourgeoisie, which played a pioneering role in the coun-
trys modernization, had no formal connections with the modernist move-
ment and its nationalist rhetoric. Te industrialists savvy business tactics
(later defned and theorized as import substitution) should not be under-
stood as the manifestation of a conscious nationalistic ideology. Immigrant
industrialists saw an opportunity when they realized that the internal mar-
ket was inadequately supplied with manufactured goods, while imported
goods were too expensive.
I3
Since there was no governmental incentive to
industrialization, they relied on the relative lack of market regulation and
on knowledge of immigrant consumer habits.
I4
So Paulo industrialists thrived in a market and infrastructure essen-
tially created by the cofee trade, and, as newcomers, they did not have strong
political representation. In a position of relative dependency, industrialists
avoided political or ideological confrontation with the cofee planter elite. In
fact, they tended to make alliances with the planter aristocracy (Dean ,:,).
In the early :oos immigrant industrialists did not have a well-defned iden-
tity and their consciousness as a social group with distinctive interests was
tenuous. It was not until ::8 that industrialists formed the Center of In-
dustries of the State of So Paulo to strengthen their political participation
(Dean ::). Tus, it is highly unlikely that industrialists or any other emerg-
ing group of entrepreneurs was associated with cultural projects of national
identity in the early ::os.
Brazilian modernists were backed by the cofee aristocracy, which, as
Dean asserts, was the group least likely to favor social transformation. In
fact, the cofee aristocracys identity was based on values that stood in direct
contrast with those of the emerging social groups of So Paulo in the ::os.
In contrast to the self-made man ethic of the nouveau riche immigrant,
the So Paulo cofee planters identity was based on genealogy (Dean o,).
Teir wealth could not be traced back to colonial times, since the cofee
boom started around :8,o, but the So Paulo aristocracy preferred to be as-
sociated with a long line of Portuguese settlers, the Bandeirantes. Te myth
of pioneering entrepreneurship of their Bandeirante ancestors gave them
a noble pedigree, legitimizing their prominent position in the nations
economy and politics.
Troughout the entire Repblica Velha period (:88:,o), the basic prin-
ciples of liberalism (as practiced in Brazil) were rarely challenged. Te gov-
ernments policies favored the export economy and presented no project for
industrialization. Import substitution was practiced by early industrialists
in defance of om cial economic policies with no nationalist ideology attached
to it. On the other hand, the only unorthodox protectionist policy adopted
by the Brazilian government in the period was the policy of valorization,
which benefted the cofee export sector exclusively. Since cofee consump-
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Gouveia ,
tion is inelastic (lower prices do not foster a proportional increase in world
consumption), the oversupply could not be sold at reasonable prices. In or-
der to artifcially maintain high cofee prices in the international market, the
Brazilian government bought and paid for the warehousing of cofee in the
consumer countries. Te stored product was to be used to supply the market
in the years of defcient harvest. What the policy of valorization reveals is the
measure of power of the planter elite as well as the governments disregard for
larger issues of growth and development. It also shows that planters were able
to convert their needs into government economic policies. For the repayment
of valorization loans, the foreign consumer probably had to bear the burden
in the form of an export tax on Brazilian cofee (Love, So Paulo ,). Tis
proves that the valorization policy, though unorthodox, had no connection
with nationalistic ideologies or growth-oriented economic policies.
Paradoxically, the policy of valorization, meant to protect the cofee trade,
placed cofee planters and the nation in a position of increasing dependence
on foreign capital. Te cofee market was irrevocably careening toward di-
saster (Love, So Paulo 8). Valorization kept cofee prices high from :o8
to ::. Tese high prices attracted foreign investors, who soon were able
to dominate the marketing operations of the cofee trade. Afer :o8 the
control of cofee marketing passed to foreign lenders: By ::o, some of the
largest cofee growing operations were in foreign hands. Te states second
largest producer, the British-owned Dumont Cofee Company, controlled
,ooo,ooo trees (Love, So Paulo ). Te planters economic and social
status declined while foreign companies increased their share of the cofee
market and immigrant industrialists expanded their operations by buying
up the manufacturing units that planters had started.
In addition to the ferce competition from business adversaries, the
planters hegemony was also under constant pressure from discontented
employees. Te working class in So Paulo also contained a large immigrant
contingent, whose labor replaced that of the slaves on the cofee plantations.
Tese workers were also the preferred work force in the incipient process
of industrialization in the frst decades of the twentieth century. Te im-
migrant working class was behind the strikes that took place in the early
twentieth century. Teir class consciousness and tradition of labor activism
promoted the mobilization of the urban proletariat, which could eventually
spread to rural areas, increasing also the bargaining power of the rural work
force.
I3
Te mounting social unrest afecting So Paulo, even if not directly
related to the cofee business, contributed to the discomfort of the Prados,
the leading cofee planter clan, who referred to immigrants as Italian ban-
deirantes and Syrian conquistadores (Levi :,o).
Economic, political and social pressures were developing within Brazil.
In ::, rebellious Federal troops invaded So Paulo, occupying strategic
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8 Luso-Brazilian Review 46:2
points, hoping to garner the support of the Army and the militarized So
Paulo State Police. But this support did not develop, and the rebellious forces
were defeated in a confrontation that lasted twenty-nine days, in which the
population was exposed to bombing promoted by the Federal forces. Te
siege of :: is just one glaring sign of the general dissatisfaction with the
political regime.
I6
In summary, the ::os were a decade of escalating social, economic, and
political turmoil for the ruling oligarchies. Te foreign presence among
societys most important productive forces (the proletariat and the indus-
trialists) threatened the aristocracy. Te social, economic, and political
transformations originally brought about by the cofee boom became even
more radical with industrialization. Tese changes certainly contributed to
a sense of loss of identity, and loss of control for the So Paulo cofee aris-
tocracy. While foreign capital had controlled cofee marketing since :o8,
the immigrant bourgeoisie dominated incipient industry, and the largely
immigrant working class challenged the old rules of labor relations in the
country. In this volatile state of afairs, the unprecedented economic devel-
opment spurred by the cofee planters was about to destroy them.
The Emergence of Brazilian Modernism
In the face of the circumstances described above, the cofee aristocracy
knew that their hegemony could not be sustained in the economic or politi-
cal arenas, and cultural politics appeared to be the most em cient strategy.
Paulo Prados involvement with the modernist movement was not just a sign
of his intellectual refnement or of his role as a benefactor of the arts. It had
the practical political purpose of securing a symbolic preeminence in the
face of adverse political and economic circumstances: Paulos sponsorship
of the Modern Art Week in ::: gave rise to his political critique, and by
the late ::os he was calling for an insurrection both moral and material
(Levi :,8).
Paulo Prado was a ferce critic of his own class and of the pact between the
oligarchies of So Paulo and Minas Gerais. However, his party, the Demo-
cratic Party, founded in ::o by his father, Antnio Prado, was a center-right
reformist organism that represented the interests of the enlightened faction
of the cofee aristocracy. Te party did not propose an alternative political
model to the prevailing oligarchic system of the time. Formed mostly by mid-
dle and upper-class lawyers and other white-collar elements, the Democratic
Party wanted reform in order to preserve the old system. Mrio de Andrade
was an important am liate, which is evidence of his loyalty to the Prados.
I7
Te Week of Modern Art, the event that om cially launched the mod-
ernist movement, was conceived, organized, publicized (and later mytholo-
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Gouveia
gized) by individuals within the highest echelons of government and the up-
permost social classes of So Paulo. In fact, the Week of Modern Art marked
the moment in which the So Paulo cofee aristocracy assumed a leading
role as promoters of a nationalist high culture in Brazil. Te Week of Mod-
ern Art was defned by literary historians and by the modernist intellectu-
als themselves as a gathering of discontented artists who faced enormous
resistance among the dominant cultural agents and institutions. Here is an
account of one of the most conservative participants, Menotti Del Picchia:
When the thing was mature in So Paulo, Graa Aranha arrived here. He
was a captain of prestige. Paulo Prado, one of the most illustrious rebels,
goaded the bandeirante aristocracy to support the event. I assigned myself
the task of stirring up the government. Dr. Washington Luis, who is a great
spirit, sympathized with the insurrection. Famnio Ferreira joined us. We
had the great vehicle for the idea: the newspaper of greatest tradition in Bra-
zil [Correio Paulistano]. (:8)
It is hard to imagine what forces could pose signifcant opposition to the men
behind the event. Del Picchia lists the names of top political authorities as
illustrious rebels, which is a revealing oxymoron. Against what or whom
could these prominent men be rebelling? Washington Luis was mayor of So
Paulo (::o:) and later President of the Republic (::o,o). Paulo Prado
was at the time one of the wealthiest men in Brazil. Moreover, the Municipal
Teater, built during Antnio Prados tenure, was a semi-om cial institution,
a place where the Republican Party held conventions and where the most
well-to-do members of society attended concerts. Te main media vehicle
for the promotion of the Week of Modern Art, the Correio Paulistano was
the om cial organ of the Republican Party (the establishment party). Tis
newspaper would continue to be an important venue for the promotion of
various modernist projects.
I8
It is clear, then, that the Week of Modern Art
should be understood as an om cial event sponsored by the political leaders
of the city and the state of So Paulo. However, in the coverage it received in
the scholarship about the modernist movement, this aspect was downplayed
while the event was portrayed as a raucous festival promoted by the young
modernist artists themselves.
So Paulo in the ::os was leading the country in every aspect except in
the feld of art and culture, which was still dominated by Rio de Janeiro. Te
Week of Modern Art was intended to bring attention to the incipient and
still obscure cultural scene of So Paulo. Hence the modernist assault on
om cial cultural institutions, especially the Academia Brasileira de Letras.
Located in Rio de Janeiro, the Academia was accused by the modernists of
privileging writers who gravitated toward Rios highest political and intel-
lectual circles.
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:oo Luso-Brazilian Review 46:2
However, the rivalry between Rio de Janeiro and So Paulo cannot be
singled out as the most important motivation behind the realization of the
Week of Modern Art. Te masterminds of the modernist movement in So
Paulo aspired to lead the new intellectual generation nationally, and re-
gional rivalries and loyalties were played down in Modernisms nationalistic
campaign. What could hardly be minimized, however, was the anxiety that
pervaded the So Paulo cofee elite of being overcome by foreign forces.
Tis anxiety, converted into conspicuous xenophobia, received the enthusi-
astic applause of Paulo Prado in Poesia pau-brasil, his preface to Oswald
de Andrades Pau brasil:
Brazil-wood poetry fnds its most beautiful and fecund inspiration in this
nationalism that should break the ties that link us from our birth to the
old decaying and exhausted Europe. In our history this aggressive feeling
came about once before, at the time of the anguished revolution of ,, when
Brazil-wood was [present in] the Jacobinism of Florianos Tiradentes. Let
us now be once more, in the fulflling of our ethnic and protective mission,
Jacobin-like Brazilians. Let us free ourselves from the damaging infuences
of the old decaying [European] civilizations. (,)
Judging by the way that Prado refers to the European civilizations, it seems
that he does not recognize any contradiction in the fact that the aesthetics
of Brazilian Modernism was heavily infuenced by ideas imported from Eu-
rope. Prados attitude in this particular fragment also goes against his own
profle as an art collector whose frequent trips to Europe denote, at least in
part, his own reverence to the hegemony of European art.
I9
Modernist intellectuals of So Paulo created cultural artifacts that
helped forge an identity centered on genealogy, heritage, native traditions,
and linkages to bandeirante forefathers. But this elemental underpinning of
their project of national identity had to be adorned (sometimes concealed)
by the most up-to-date aesthetic techniques, so that the aristocracy could
maintain a cutting-edge image of social refnement. Te present, marked
by accelerated modernization and industrialization, had to be repressed be-
cause it threatened to condemn the cofee oligarchy to obsolescence. Instead
of dealing with this state of afairs, the modernist discourse of national iden-
tity ofen suggested the reconciliation of tradition with modernity, but with
no reference to immigration. Trough Modernism, the cofee aristocracy
succeeded in reclaiming paternity of two major historical developments: the
cofee boom and the subsequent modernization and industrialization of So
Paulo and Brazil. Most importantly, they also succeeded in marginalizing
the immigrant proletariat and the immigrant industrialists who were actu-
ally at the forefront of the process of industrialization.
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Gouveia :o:
The Early Poetry of Mrio de Andrade:
Myths of an Idealized Place and its Past
Mrio de Andrades early modernist poetry, that is, his production in the
::os, is considered to be among the most radical, experimental and icono-
clastic of Brazilian Modernism. Conventionally, the frst eight years of the
modernist movement (from ::: to :,o) have been defned as the heroic
years, a period in which the modernists fought hard against the backward
mentality that predominated in the cultural feld in Brazil. One of the most
radical premises of the modernist literary project insisted that literature, es-
pecially poetry, should be concerned with the present. Modernists proposed
to utilize images of everyday life and a down-to-earth language in order
to shorten the distance between life and art. Andrade, a leading voice for the
entire modernist project, wanted to counteract what he felt was the verbose
and alienated literature of the Belle poque.
Early modernist poetry did incorporate language, forms and themes that
were considered too low to be part of the Parnassian lexicon. However, that
does not mean that modernist poetry was more accessible or less erudite.
Most importantly, in spite of incorporating quotidian themes, free forms,
blank verse, and popular culture, the modernists avoided certain realities
that had become part of everyday life in So Paulo. For instance, Mrio de
Andrade, who started out with odes to the cosmopolitan life of So Paulo,
soon immersed himself in a quest for an untouched source of Brazilian
identity, which, he seemed to believe, could be found in the countryside.
As Benedict Anderson points out in Imagined Communities, one of the
most common features of nationalist discourses worldwide can be detected
in their subjective antiquity in spite of the objective modernity of na-
tions (,). Afer wholeheartedly embracing modernity, So Paulo modernists
started to feel the pressure to incorporate past traditions into their literary
and artistic production to supply their discourse of national identity with
credible historical depth. So Paulo was the fastest growing urban center in
the world and it seems that modernity alone threatened to erase any signs of
the local uniqueness. Modernity caused too much anxiety in So Paulo, es-
pecially because the city was, by ::, already dominated by the immigrant
presence.
Finding traces of the political anxiety of the ::os in modernist texts
is no easy task. How can we recognize that which has been repressed? An-
drades poems reveal their repressed matter only when analyzed against
an ample historical background, which I have tried to delineate above. Some
aspects are clearly absent from Andrades poetic universe. If we take, for ex-
ample, Andrades silence with respect to the :: siege and bombing of So
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:o: Luso-Brazilian Review 46:2
Paulo, or the fact that themes related to the immigrant working class are less
central in his poetry,
20
the elided content of Andrades poetic representation
surfaces. Such tendencies in Andrades texts can be read as congruent with
the cofee elites anxiety in the socio-economic context of the ::os.
In his essay Permanncia do discurso da tradio no modernismo,
Santiago noted that elements of tradition do constitute a signifcant part
of modernist discourse. Tis aspect should not be considered an anomaly
of Brazilian Modernism, since even in the context of the European avant-
gardes this tendency had already been detected by Renato Poggioli. in the
fourth chapter of Te Teory of the Avant Garde, in which he points out that
certain branches of the European avant-garde seeks to justify itself by the
authority or arbitration of history . . . even it deigns to look for its own patent
of nobility in the chronicles of the past and to trace for itself a family tree of
more or less authentic ancestors, more distant precursors (,o). In the case
of Brazilian Modernism, Santiago makes a distinction between the parodic
reference to elements of tradition, which represents an aesthetics of rupture
and transgression, and what he defnes as simple activation of traditional
elements without irony. Both traits are present in modernist texts. In order
to demonstrate how non-parodic references to tradition make their way into
the early modernist movement, Santiago alludes to an episode in :: in-
volving many modernist intellectuals. Sponsored by Paulo Prado and Olvia
Guedes Penteado, Brazilian modernists and the Swiss avant-garde poet
Blaise Cendrars took a trip to the historical villages of Minas Gerais. Te
group that participated in the tour of Minas Gerais, which also included the
carnival in Rio, was composed of Mrio de Andrade, Oswald de Andrade
and his son, Non (Oswald de Andrade Filho), Olvia Guedes Penteado,
Ren Tiollier, Godofredo Silva Telles and Blaise Cendrars (Amaral o).
According to Santiago, the tour was a landmark moment that marked the
emergence of primitive aesthetics in the works of Brazilian modernists. At
the time, the excursion was baptized as the Rediscovery of Brazil, ::.
Modernist intellectuals who once preached against passadismo [conformity
with the past], were now immersing themselves in it. Te historical villages
of Minas Gerais constituted a new universe for the modernists. Te re-
vival of colonial Brazil served the purpose of linking the mythical bandei-
rante explorer to the entrepreneurial spirit of the So Paulo cofee aristoc-
racy. Descendents of the earliest cofee planters, such as the Prados, sought
to secure social status by taking possession of colonial history. Tey sensed
that rapid socioeconomic transformation would sooner or later cause the
economic and political downfall of the ruling oligarchies. Te year :: was
one of the most tumultuous in the history of So Paulo, in which the episode
of the siege and occupation of So Paulo by a faction of the army signaled
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Gouveia :o,
the increasing pressures against the oligarchic system. Yet, none of these
historical conficts are explicitly touched upon in the modernist production
of ::.
Several cultural artifacts came out of this momentous tour of Minas
Gerais, including Mrio de Andrades famous poem, Noturno de Belo
Hori zonte. Te poem is the centerpiece of the collection O cl do jabuti.
Quite innovative as far as form and concept are concerned, the poem resem-
bles a kaleidoscope of images and sensations that brings together multiple
places and temporalities. Andrade structured the poem through a seem-
ingly random accumulation of bits of history, myths and folklore in one
uninterrupted fow. Te word noturno in Brazilian Portuguese could be a
reference to night trains and also to a genre of symphonic poetry that re-
vived the spirit of the eighteenth-century serenades. Andrades poem con-
tains elements of both; it can be read as a reproduction of a journey by train
through Minas Gerais, while the predominant tone of the message func-
tions as a serenade inside a long and fragmented symphony:
Marvel of thousands of glassy slitherings
Calm in the Belo Horizonte night train . . .
A fresh silence falls out of the trees
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Te police among roses . . .
Where they are is not needed, as always . . .
Tere is an absence of crime (:,)
Recurrent soothing messages collaged among several songs and poems
taken from local oral culture make the poem resemble lullabies strung to-
gether into one long piece. Everything that appears in this poem evokes
peace, calm and social harmony. Te poem depicts a place that has pre-
served national memory intact since colonial times. Minas Gerais appears
here as a national memorial where all is calm and orderly.
Te opening image of shimmering pieces of glass radiating a multi-
tude of colors establishes a surreal atmosphere. Tis is a journey through
a dream-like landscape. Te poem reenacts utopian scenes of the past and
present that inspire and incite the national spirit. In Andrades view, Minas
Gerais is such a calm location that the police have no place or function in
this environment. Unlike the city of So Paulo, which in :: was host to
a whole month of military confict, the towns of Minas appear as sanctu-
aries of peace, because they lack the anarchic component of the immi-
grant proletariat and the greediness of immigrant entrepreneurs. In a place
where there is no social confict, the police become part of the background,
standing among fowers and functioning as mere ornamental fgures. Tis
W5230.indb 103 1/8/10 12:02:05 PM
:o Luso-Brazilian Review 46:2
opening stanza tells of Andrades preoccupation with issues of social con-
trol, perhaps a sign of the anxiety being experienced by the So Paulo ruling
classes. Te poet longs for a peaceful nation where all conficts are settled
and where hierarchies cannot be challenged.
In a place where political and social hierarchies are not challenged, ev-
erything appears as natural. Tat is why nature occupies such a prominent
role in Andrades representation of Minas Gerais. In various passages in
the poem Andrade makes reference to a power struggle between nature
and civilization. Nature seems to defy modernity and impose its own kind
of civilization in Minas Gerais. Te poet wishes that the confict could be
resolved with natures victory. In the poem, natures power and resilience
prevent Minas and its capital, Belo Horizonte, from becoming the faceless,
dehumanized and generic landscapes of modernity. Te ultimate victory of
nature against civilization in this poem confrms the poets romantic and
nostalgic inclination. His concept of modernity is melancholic. He strives
to fnd a neoclassical locus amoenus that could preserve the past within the
present in this idealized landscape:
What a terrifying fght between the forest and the houses. . .
All of the human ages
Imitated by historical architectures
Towers large towers small towers foolishness
[Tey] Fight in the name of?
Te Mineiros answer in unison
in the name of civilization!
Minas progresses.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Te woods invaded the railing of the streets,
Street cars saddled by the weight of Herculean trunks [of trees],
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Te victorious woods camped on the hills. (:,8o)
Typically for someone who came from a larger urban center, Andrade adopts
a patronizing attitude toward the fact that Minas Gerais aspired to have a
modern capital, like So Paulo or Rio de Janeiro. Tis condescending tone
conveys the idea that this longing for modernity could be imprudent. In fact,
throughout the poem Andrade restates his concern with modernity because
of its role as the agent of cultural transformation and loss. Te architecture
of Belo Horizonte, for instance, is dismissed because of its imitative charac-
ter, its tasteless combination of disparate temporalities and its desire to erase
the past. Andrade constructs his discourse in opposition to these modern-
izing impulses. Tat is why the symbols of modernity in the stanza appear
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Gouveia :o,
damaged and burnt down in a sort of apocalyptic scene. Nature triumphs by
taking up the hills and by destroying street cars.
Te poet longs for stability and order in a changing environment. Te
hierarchical society of Minas Gerais embodied the perfect model for An-
drades goal. In ::os Minas, it was still possible to tell who was who just by
the way people dressed: In traditional society, the vast gulf between rich
and poor served not to challenge but rather to enhance and to legitimate
the social order. Maintaining a genteel life-style was not easy in the impov-
erished interior, where status was so clearly revealed in dress, possessions,
and access to education (Wirth o,). Terefore, in spite of the inevitable ero-
sion of traditional values produced by modernization, the society of Minas
Gerais kept the old order alive in the remote areas of the interior.
Despite acknowledging the progress made in Minas Gerais, Andrade
chooses to depict the state as an untouched matrix of the Brazilian civi-
lization, because the countryside of Minas had preserved a great deal of
its past. Te gold rush of the :,oos lasted for about a century, and then all
gold-mining activities rapidly declined before the :8oos. By the time An-
drade visited Minas, the historical towns had been practically abandoned
for at least ::o years. Tus, in the case of the historical sites of Minas Gerais,
abandonment actually helped preserve the physical and cultural landscape.
For the modernists, these towns of had stopped in time, becoming living
museums, preserving the true Brazilian character. Furthermore, Minas
could be linked to the past of So Paulo, a state where traces of the past had
ofen been erased. According to the bandeirante legend, some of the earli-
est settlers of Minas Gerais came from So Vicente, the capitania that later
became the state of So Paulo. Tey had come in search of gold and precious
stones, but they also captured indigenous people to sell as slaves to land-
owners. Te Noturno de Belo Horizonte basically reconstructs the ban-
deirantes steps. Andrade pays homage to the bandeirante myth on several
occasions in the poem. So Paulo appears accordingly as the creator of the
marvelous historical sites of Minas. Te legends of Brazilian Independence,
such as Tiradentes, the Christ-like martyr, furnish the material for the re-
enactment of the nations immutable historical core:
In the apathy of the stagnant villages . . .
Te past whispers to the souls,
Altar ghosts, of golden steeples
And of the palaces of Mariana and Vila Rica . . .
Tat is: Ouro Preto.
And the gorgeous name of So Jos dEl Rei changed into an
odontological Tiradentes. . .
We must respect the martyrs
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:oo Luso-Brazilian Review 46:2
Calm on the Belo Horizonte night train. . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Minas Gerais, So Paulos fruit
Fruit that has rotted. (:8,)
Te tone here is elegiacal and reverential. Once more, all the monuments
of the past are evoked for their capacity to petrify historical time and thus
provide an amalgam for the discourse of national identity. On the one hand,
these historical towns are living pieces of history that inspire the modernist
discourse of national identity. On the other hand, it is exactly the phan-
tasmagorical atmosphere of these historical towns that triggers the poets
imagination. Tese places retain the messianic energy of a theocratic era
that Andrade rescues as an element that defes modernity. He summons up
the ghosts who inhabit old churches as well as the spirit of Tiradentes. Tis is
done in a language similar to prayers in which saints are invoked. By doing
so, the poet makes reference to two myths at once: the Christian myth and
the myth of Brazilian Independence. Tere is a striking similarity between
the martyrs of these two myths. Andrade superimposed Christ upon Tira-
dentes following the suggestion provided by the conventional pictorial rep-
resentation of Tiradentes, which resembles classic images of Christ. Tere-
fore, these two characters are mingled in one, which could be interpreted
as sympathetic to the merger between Church and State. In this obsolete
theocratic utopia, everything remains calm because no hierarchy is chal-
lenged. Andrade depicts colonial times as an eternal, static and inescapable
part of the present.
Te concluding couplets reveal the poets view of Minas Gerais as an
appendage of So Paulo, not as a new frontier of development, but as a de-
funct, yet remarkable, part of the past of So Paulo and Brazil. In this po-
etic representation, the glorious past of the So Paulo bandeirante explorer
remains alive, albeit in the neighboring state of Minas Gerais. Te link
between Minas and So Paulo that Andrade emphasizes has a particularly
strong symbolic meaning, since it refers to two important economic cycles
in the countrys history: Te Gold Rush of the :,oos and the cofee business
that had been going on since the mid-:8oos. Tese symbolic links reinforce
the notion of an identity based on genealogy. Te powerful family clans
of the Nobreza do Caf in Minas had ties to their paulista counterparts: Te
Sul and the Tringulo formed two more subsystems, each having exten-
sive family and commercial links with So Paulo. Tus the subregions into
which the state was divided by economics and geography also had distinc-
tive clan links (Wirth o). Andrade, then, not only admires the model of
social stability in Minas Gerais but also celebrates the old alliances between
So Paulo and Minas, both in the familial and political ties between the two
W5230.indb 106 1/8/10 12:02:05 PM
Gouveia :o,
states. By doing so, he justifes and reinstates the hegemonic position of So
Paulo in the federation.
Toward the end of the poem comes the most unabashed celebration of
Brazils Lusitanian roots. Afer reproducing a number of local legends, An-
drade addresses a collective readership, the people of Brazil, speaking of
his desire to tell all of Minas folk tales to the whole of Brazil. Minas, in his
view, was one of the oldest and best preserved sites of colonial Brazil and
thereby guarded the essence of an identity that was shared among all other
regions of the vast Brazilian territory:
I would like to tell the stories of Minas
To the Brazilians of Brazil
Sons of the Luso and of melancholy
Come people from Alagoas and Mato Grosso,
From north and south river men of the Amazonas and of the Paran river
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I swear it was Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself
Who planted his cross in the atrium of the chapels of the hill!
It was he Himself who in So Joo dEl Rei
Sculpted the images of his saints. . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spain shattered itself in a dust of American nations
But on the sonorous trunk of the language of the o
Portugal gathered :: unequal orchids.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
We are on Earth the great miracle of love!
And although our lives are so diverse
We dance together in the carnival of peoples
In the cheerful samba group of the It takes long but it goes (:8:)
Andrades poem celebrates melancholia as a trait of the Brazilian national
character and is itself a melancholy discourse of national identity. Te
past of Minas Gerais with its traditions, myths, martyrs, the oral legends
and its architectural monuments, all of them symbols of the Portuguese
colonization, provide the model for the integration of Brazil as modern
nation. Andrade pleads to his countrymen in every corner of the nation,
especially rural areas, to join him in the celebration of Brazils Lusitanian
heritage. Te urban proletariat with its multitudes of nationalities and lan-
guages are either marginalized or homogenized with the peasant folk in
Andrades poem.
In a series of references to religious imagery, the poet pays tribute to the
popular notion that God is a Brazilian as he swears that Christ himself
planted his cross in some remote Minas Gerais church and sculpted the im-
ages of saints that grace these religious sites. Te poet gathers mostly reli-
W5230.indb 107 1/8/10 12:02:05 PM
:o8 Luso-Brazilian Review 46:2
gious but also pagan myths in order to appeal to multiple tastes and creeds.
Brazils integration, which at the time was still a political dream, is praised
as a distinctive trait of Brazil vis--vis all the other Latin American coun-
tries. His argument is that the twenty-two states (at the time) were inte-
grated by the resonant Portuguese language that united the nation, while
in the rest of Latin America the states were separated by a shared language.
Tus, Brazil is the great miracle of love on Earth. To conclude this se-
ries of populist/nationalist clichs, Andrade cites the myth of Brazilian
racial democracy through the image of carnival, the nations most appeal-
ing popular festivity, in another attempt to blend cultures and reconcile
diferences.
Te list of symbols of nationality used in this poem is long and diverse.
Andrade calls on autochthonous views of history, popular culture, folklore,
religion, language, race, ethnicity, class, territoriality, heritage, politics, art,
architecture, music, literature, and a variety of myths to construct this co-
lossal piece. However, all of these heterogeneous and discontinuous aspects
of Brazilian culture appear in perfect harmony within the poem. It was
by glossing over a placid picture of that particular historical moment that
Andrade performed the occultation of history and the aestheticization
of the political in his poetic discourse. In a seemingly depoliticized man-
ner, Andrade portrayed a landscape almost devoid of immigrants, where
the supposed native social and ethnic components occupy the center.
Tis epic poem, central to Andrades line of Modernism, put forth a grand
narrative of the nation that conveyed a false sense of peace and harmony
and downplayed social conficts. His selection of subject matter privileged
imagined places and temporalities of Brazilian history and traditions.
Taking into account that these choices were made in the ::os, a partic-
ularly transformative historical moment, it becomes clear that Andrades
view of nationhood concurred with the view and interests of the oligarchic
classes. In Noturno de Belo Horizonte, the myth of bandeirismo receives
an avant-gardish patina while the monumental character of its discourse
evinces a hegemonic view of history. Tis merger of past and present forms
a symbolic representation of an idealized present. It is worth mentioning
also that this poem was published in the early days of the Brazilian modern-
ist movement, which is conventionally referred to as the heroic years, the
phase in which Andrade and other modernists supposedly promoted a radi-
cal rupture with the aesthetics and the values of the past. I demonstrated,
instead, that Andrades orthodox representation of nationhood displayed
reactionary overtones, celebrated internal colonization, and posed no threat
to the status quo.
W5230.indb 108 1/8/10 12:02:06 PM
Gouveia :o
Notes
:. A short version of this essay was presented at the8th Annual Convention of
the Midwest Modern Language Association in November of :ooo in Chicago, Il-
linois. All translations of texts originally in Portuguese are mine.
:. Not only Paulo Prado, but also Olivia Guedes Penteado is ofen cited as a sup-
porter of the early modernist movement in So Paulo. For more on the Pradoss and
the Penteadoss patronage of Brazilian Modernism, see Miceli Intelectuais e classe
dirigente, and Nacional estrangeiro, Sevcenko, and Amaral. For biographical infor-
mation on Paulo Prado, see Levi.
,. Te claim that artists and writers would cater to their patrons taste used to
be an extremely unpopular one in the scholarship about Brazilian Modernism. It
was believed that artists had complete autonomy and would never risk their integ-
rity as independent artists in order to please those who commissioned their work.
However, more recently, a number of studies try to prove that there can be vari-
ous degrees of compromise between artists and patrons. In the case of Brazilian
Modernism, two excellent studies in this vein are: Miceli, Nacional estrangeiro; and
Noland.
. Wilson Martins actually defned his own generation of critics and literary
scholars as modernist critics. In his essay, A crtica modernista, he argued that
this generation brought about the Tird Phase of Brazilian Modernism. Te frst
phase, according to his categorization, was the early ::os period. Te second phase
of Modernism took place in the :,os and os. Tough questionable, Martinss cat-
egorization gives us a prime example of literary critics am liation with the nation
building project of Brazilian Modernism. See Martins ,,,,.
,. For an analysis of the institutional and historical background upon which
modernist criticism was constructed, see Gouveia ,. See also, Johnson.
o. Silviano Santiago published two articles in the :8os following the publica-
tion of Micelis book. See Santiago and Miceli, Intelectuais e classe dirigente. Nico-
lau Sevcenkos Orfeu exttico na metrpole is another excellent counter-hegemonic
reading of early Modernism.
,. Burgers concept of the institution of art has to do with the modes of pro-
duction, reception and circulation of the work of art. Te avant-gardes attack
on the institution was not a mere textual critique directed at a specifc cultural
institution, or style. It was an attempt to subvert the material and ideological foun-
dations that sustained the artistic feld as an autonomous social sphere. For more
details on the concept of Art as an Institution, see Burger :,,.
8. Some critics openly refuse Andrades public admission of this connection be-
tween Modernism and the aristocracy. For example, Alceu Amoroso Lima am rms
that: A reviso crtica do modernismo comeou a ser feita por Mrio de Andrade
por ocasio da conferncia por ele pronunciada no Itamarati, em ::, verdadeira
bomba de retardamento. A declarou que o modernismo foi um movimento aris-
tocrtico. Tenho contudo a impresso de que Mrio de Andrade no foi fel em sua
reviso. Lima ,.
W5230.indb 109 1/8/10 12:02:06 PM
::o Luso-Brazilian Review 46:2
. For a detailed distinction between the cofee planter elite and the immigrant
industrialist elite, see Dean ,8o.
:o. Dean briefy compares the experiences of Italians in Brazil with the Irish and
the Jewish experience in the United States and concludes that the prejudice against
Italians in So Paulo was insignifcant compared to the animosity among elites
of Boston and other cities of the northern United States. According to Dean, the
immigrant elites in the U.S. struggled harder to acquire social status than they did
to get rich. See Dean ,,.
::. For an analysis of the planter elite belief in the European racial superiority
and prejudice against the native population, see Dean ,8.
::. For a historical overview and an explanation of the ideas behind the concept
of import substitution, see Montecinos & Markof :o,:.
:,. For more about the inadequacy of the internal market supply of manufac-
tured goods, see Dean ; and Montecinos & Markof :o8.
:. Dean argues that immigrant industrialists ofen started as importers of
manufactured goods. Teir knowledge of the market came from their experience
with imports. Tey started producing cheaper manufactured goods to substitute for
the pricier imports. See Dean ::,,.
:,. According to Dean, the European tradition of labor militance was imported
by the laborers themselves. See Dean :,o.
:o. For a detailed description of these events, see Sevcenko ,o:o,.
:,. For more about the Democratic Party composition, see Levi :o,.
:8. Nelson Werneck Sodr argues that the Correio Paulistano promoted the
modernist manifestations, although the avant-garde magazines were the main
feld for the circulation of the modernist production. See Sodr :o.
:. Srgio Miceli argues that Paulo Prado and other rich foreign collectors
helped maintain the viability of the modern art production in Paris. Miceli argues
that Prados importance as an art collector was such that artists such as Lger even
wrote dedications to Prado in an efort to please his client. See Miceli, Nacional
estrangeiro :::,.
:o. Although there are references to the immigrant proletariat in Andrades
work, this theme is certainly not as prominent in Andrades work as it is, for ex-
ample, in the prose of Patrcia Galvo or Alcntara Machado, both modernist prose
writers that published their most important work in the late ::os.
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