ABSTRACT
Brazil use the concept of the mixed-race nation to promote trade and gain international legitimacy reveals the extent to which foreign relations had expanded beyond their traditional concern with political affairs. The past two decades have witnessed a transformation in the relationship between Brazilian state and society. Black movements, labor organizations, and human rights groups pressed for changes in government policies even before the end of the military regime. These new social movements recreated civil society, expressing democratic aspirations and broadening the experience of citizenship. Government action toward Afro-Brazilians in the 1970s and 1980s was guided by an official system of representations constantly being reelaborated in response to the changes taking place in a society passing from an authoritarian period to its so-called redemocratization. The official policies show how the state's political goals have guided its definition of Afro-Brazilian cultural expressions. To reiterate the positive value of Brazils race mixture implied demarcating a nationality characterized by a plurality.
