Gustavo Barroso

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Gustavo Dodt Barroso (born December 29, 1888 in Fortaleza - died December 3, 1957 in Rio de Janeiro[1]) was a Brazilian writer and politician associated with Brazilian Integralism.

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[edit] Early life and writing

A half German by birth, his mother coming from Württemberg, Barroso made his name as a journalist and was for a time involved with the socialist Clube Maximo Gorki.[2] However his politics became more conservative after he secured a law degree in Rio in 1910 and he soon became an important figure in Ceará state, serving variously as Secretary of the Interior and Justice and federal deputy. He even formed part of the Brazilian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, 1919.[3] He would later rise to hold such positions as President of the Academia Brasileira de Letras and Secretary-General of the International Committee of Legal Advisers.[4] As a novelist he also produced the work Terro de Sol (1912), which demonstrated his admiration for the people of north-east Brazil's rural areas.[5] A keen Folklorist, Barroso built up a collection of exhibits relating to Brazil's past at the Historical Museum in Rio and produced around 50 non-political books including historical and regional novels, folklore studies and biographies of figures such as Manuel Luiz Osório and Joaquim Marquez Lisbôa.[6] As a novelist, Barroso was often linked in with the neorealist school of Brazilian literature, although he differed from the neorealism typified by the likes of Erico Verissimo, Amando Fontes and Telmo Vergara by his emphasis on rural rather than urban settings.[7] Barroso thus belonged to the regionalist documentary strand of Brazilian neorealsim, although, along with Mário Sete, he rejected that modernism inherent in the works of contemporaries in the genre such as Jorge Luis de Rêgo and Jorge Amado.[8]

[edit] Politics

Barroso joined Plínio Salgado's movement in 1933 and soon became the head of the extreme pro-Nazism faction within the greenshirts.[9] Noted for his hard-line antisemitism, he took charge of the group's militia from 1934 to 1936 before being appointed to the Supreme Council. An extensive writer, his polemical works at this time included O Liceu do Ceará, Brasil: Colonia de Banqueiros, Historia Secreta do Brasil and the journals Fon-Fon and Seculo xx.[10] Always armed with a pistol, Barroso came to be regarded as dangerous by the more constitutionally minded Salgado and he was for a time banned from A Ofensiva journal by the leader.[11] However Barroso continued to pursue his antisemitic ideals, translating the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion into Portuguese and even suggesting setting up concentration camps.[12] As Brazil had few Jews Barroso's writings tended to focus on the conspiracy theory of Jewish world control, as espoused notably in his book The Paulista Synagogue.[13]

Following the formation of the dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas Barroso continued his involvement with the Integralists and was arrested in 1938 for his involvement in their minor attempt at a coup.[14] However Barroso was never tried due to a lack of evidence and he subsequently left political activism and became largely accepting of Vargas, serving as a special ambassador to Uruguay (1952) and Peru (1954). His death followed an award of an honourary doctorate from a Rio university.[15] A museum in his home town, the Museu Gustavo Barroso, bears his name.[16]

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] References

  1. ^ Rees, p. 25
  2. ^ Rees, p. 25
  3. ^ Rees, p. 25
  4. ^ Rees, p. 25
  5. ^ Rees, p. 25
  6. ^ Percy Alvin Martin, 'Reviews of Orosio o Centauro dos Pampas and Tamandaré o Nelson Brasileiro by Gustavo Barroso', The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 15, No. 1. (Feb., 1935), pp. 67-69
  7. ^ A. Coutinho, An Introduction to Literature in Brazil, Coulmbia University Press, 1969, p. 247
  8. ^ Coutinho, op cit, p. 248
  9. ^ Rees, p. 25
  10. ^ Rees, p. 25
  11. ^ Rees, p. 25
  12. ^ Rees, p. 26
  13. ^ R.M. Levine & J.J. Crocitti, The Brazil Reader: History, Culture, Politics, p. 182
  14. ^ Rees, p. 26
  15. ^ Rees, p. 26
  16. ^ Museum details