ABSTRACT
While provincialism prevailed in Latin American literature and arts under the umbrellas of regionalism, nationalism, indigenism, and social realism, Brazilian poet Oswald de Andrade had a different plan for his fellow artists: cannibalism. As writers, painters, and musicians from other Latin American nations launched manifestos and journals debating whether to dedicate themselves to local themes or remain open to foreign influences, Oswald urged Brazilian artists who found themselves on the global periphery to consume, digest, and regurgitate anew everything they could to make the entire universe their aesthetic patrimony. In the “Manifesto antropófago” (“Cannibalist Manifesto,” 1928) Oswald urged artists to essay all themes and to incorporate an international repertoire of styles, assimilating them in the local vernacular in a practice of cultural devourment. “Only cannibalism unites us,” wrote Andrade, “socially, economically, philosophically.” 1
