ABSTRACT
The dominant intellectuals shared similar social experiences which placed them in a favorable situation as caretakers of Brazilian national culture. Intellectuals, politicians, artists, and even the layman will continue to reinterpret and redefine their national cultures. The relationship of nationalism to civil rights and race consciousness in Brazil was not dissimilar to that in other Latin American nations. Nationalism and the forging of a unified national identification have played significant roles in mitigating racial and class tensions in a number of Latin American countries. Employing internal categorizations of race in Brazil, the number of persons classifying themselves as blacks had diminished significantly. The 1964 military coup, which put an end to Getulio Vargas’ political legacy, stifled any meaningful contribution to any national debate on race, culture, and social issues and other issues which lay outside of the military’s new modernization scheme.
