Mongrel complex

“Mongrel complex" (Complexo de vira-Lata in Portuguese) is an expression used to refer to a collective inferiority complex felt by some Brazilian people in comparison to Europe or the United States. The reference to a "mongrel" (as opposed to "pure-bred") carries negative connotations attributed to most Brazilians being racially mixed as well as a perception of lacking cultural refinement.

Background

It was originally coined by novelist and writer Nelson Rodrigues, in which originally he referred to the trauma suffered by Brazilians in 1950, when the National Soccer team was defeated by the Uruguayan national team in the final match of the Soccer World Cup in Maracanã. Brazil would just recover in 1958, when it won the World Cup for the first time.[1]

For Rodrigues, the phenomenon was not exclusive related to soccer. According to him:[2]

“ By "Mongrel Complex" I mean the inferiority in which Brazilians put themselves, voluntarily, in comparison to the rest of the world. Brazilians are the reverse Narcissus, who spit in their own image. Here is the truth: we can’t find personal or historical pretexts for self-esteem. „
~ Nelson Rodrigues

The expression "mongrel complex" was rediscovered in 2004 by the American journalist Larry Rohter, in an article for The New York Times about the Brazilian nuclear program, he wrote:

“ Writing in the 1950's, the playwright Nelson Rodrigues saw his countrymen as afflicted with a sense of inferiority, and he coined a phrase that Brazilians now use to describe it: "the mongrel complex." Brazil has always aspired to be taken seriously as a world power by the heavyweights, and so it pains Brazilians that world leaders could confuse their country with Bolivia, as Ronald Reagan once did, or dismiss a nation so large – it has 180 million people – as "not a serious country," as Charles de Gaulle did.[3] ”

See also


References

  1. ↑ A pátria em chuteiras de Nélson Rodrigues por Fernando Bandini. Em Com Ciência – SBPC/Labjor. Visited in 16 November 2007.
  2. ↑ Humberto Mariotti. "O Complexo de Inferioridade do Brasileiro". Instituto de Pesquisa BSP. Archived from the original on 25 December 2007. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  3. ↑ If Brazil Wants to Scare the World, It's Succeeding". The New York Times. Visited in 16-11-2007.
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