“Representing the Good Neighbor:

Material for U.S. and Brazilian

Relations during World War II”

A thesis submitted by

Isabel Loyola

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts

in

History

Tufts University

May 2018

Adviser: Peter Winn i

Abstract

The thesis focuses on U.S. and Brazilian relations during World War II.

In an effort against the spread of European fascisms in Latin America, the United States started a mission to secure Brazilian loyalty. For

Brazil, to break relations with the Axis, was a difficult choice. Given that it had a well-established trade relation with Germany and a numerous

German, Italian, and Japanese immigrant populations. Brazil saw U.S. interest as an opportunity to gain much needed profitable economic agreements that would advance the development of the country into a regional and international power. In this mutually beneficial agreement propaganda played an important role; it crystalized the partnership. Two examples have been chosen to analyze how the campaign reflected wartime representations of Brazil for a U.S. audience: the Brazilian

Pavilion for the 1939 New York World’s Fair, and the wartime films of

Carmen Miranda.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my professor Peter Winn and professor David

Ekbladh for helping me develop this project, from its beginnings as a final essay to this thesis.

I would like to thank the History Department and the Graduate School of

Arts and Sciences for awarding me with the funds needed for my multiple research trips. Thank you for believing in my project.

This process would not have been the same without the support of faculty, administrative staff, friends, and family. These last three years of graduate education have been full of sacrifice, challenges, laughter, learning, and dedication. This thesis is the materialization of that.

Finally, I would like to dedicate this thesis to my grandmother, mi güeli

Mary. Vio que le hice caso y me seguí educando?

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Table of Contents

Introduction ...... 1

Chapter 1. Context, and Key Concepts and Institutions...... 13

The Good Neighbor Policy ...... 22

Chapter 2. U.S. and Brazilian relations through the sources...... 28

Bilateral relations through archival research ...... 32

Chapter 3. Brazilian Pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair: representations of Brazil for the U.S...... 40

The Brazilian Pavilion through written word ...... 44

The Brazilian Pavilion Exhibits ...... 52

Chapter 4. Carmen Miranda: Entertainment promotes international relations ...... 74

The films: on and behind the screen ...... 78

a. On Brazil ...... 78

b. Beyond Carmen Miranda ...... 86

c. On Latin America: a comparison ...... 89

Conclusion ...... 94

Bibliography...... 98

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Introduction

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was sworn in a President, he announced a new era of relations between the United States and Latin

America. An attitude of good neighbors was to rule this new period of intercontinental dynamics. Even though this declaration was not made into official policy until the middle of the 1930s, it still made a profound mark on the history of the Americas. Never before (and arguably not even after the end of World War II) a similar rhetoric fed U.S. foreign policy where collaboration and understanding were over imposed domination.

While this change in policy was being developed in the United

States, Brazil, Latin America’s biggest country was changing as well. A political and military revolution in 1930 changed the direction in which the country was going. Getulio Vargas, the head of the Brazilian government, came to power in 1930 with the intention to inaugurate a new stage in State development. The created new ministries, new legislation, and a new relationship with the intellectual and cultural movements of the past decade renovated Brazilian nationalism.

These changes would prefigure the attitudes that each country was going to have once the world conflicts reached an overwrought point and World War II dominated international relations. The United

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States had to secure strategic alliances with the American Republics, a challenge that would prove slow and contested by Latin American governments that distrusted, with good reason, the United States. Thirty years of American aggression in Central America and The Caribbean, accompanied by a quickly expanding economic and cultural presence in

Latin America, had made “the other Americans” very hesitant to fully ally themselves with the United States. Brazil became one of the most important targets of American diplomacy in the late 1930s. This was because of its military strategic geographic position, its supply of raw materials for the war effort, and because it would be an important sign to the rest of the continent that even a country with an active Nazi party and pro-fascist government would break away from the Axis into the

Allied forces. Yet Brazil would not make this transition easy, or cheap.

The material we will be analyzing was created to support and encourage a Good Neighbor bilateral relationship that would foster a formal agreement to secure this hemisphere against antagonist international forces. While doing this, it is our purpose to suggest that because it was a Good Neighbor Policy-era relationship the character behind the production of the material was collaborative between the two governments. This implies that the Brazilian government had an important role to play in the construction of such material. Because it was in the best interest of both governments to have popular support when entering wartime negotiations, both sides needed the material to

2 portray Brazil in a positive manner. The main evidence used will be the

Brazilian Pavilion for the 1939 New York World’s Fair, and a selection of the wartime films that feature Brazilian actress and singer Carmen

Miranda.

The topic of wartime relations between the United States and

Brazil is hardly a new one. It represents important efforts by both countries to advance their own national and international agendas. And it is a relationship in which many important historical figures had a role to play; diplomacy alone is just a fraction of all the governmental agencies, and private enterprises and people that got involved. A review of bibliography available on such a topic is necessary to frame the argument we are trying to convey.

The spectrum of themes within this topic go from studies centered on Brazil’s context during the 1930s until the end of the war in

1945, to analysis and descriptions of U.S. institutions (both that preceded the war and those created because of the war) in charge of international affairs in the late 1930s – 1940s. Because of the nature of the material selected as evidence to support our argument, the cultural relations aspect of the bilateral relationship are of the greatest importance. The bibliography that analyzes this aspect of the bilateral relation can be organized in at least two groups: the authors that study the impact of U.S. influence in Brazil, and those that study

3 representations of Brazil created by Americans for an American audience.

Author Neill Lochery studies in his book Brazil: The Fortunes of

War: World War II and the Making of Modern Brazil (2014), how the wartime relationship between the United States and Brazil impacted

Brazil’s economic development. As he mentions his interest is to tell a story that has never been fully told, how Brazil went “miraculously” from a “[...] lush but neglected tropical backwater to one of the most dynamic nations in South America, and indeed in the entire world.”1 Lochery’s analysis states that that “miraculous” change started with the beginning of World War II. The development of Brazil into a modern nation is in large part due to the economic-military alliance the country signed with the United States in the early 1940s. This resulted in a new steel mill, new roads and railways, improvements in Brazilian agriculture, and in a transformation of Brazil’s military forces. Lochery also directly connects the U.S-Brazilian alliance as one of the reasons why Getulio Vargas’ regime fell in 1945.

A different perspective on how the United States influenced Brazil is the one studied by Lori Hall-Araujo; even though her study is not exclusively centered on wartime relations, it reflects on other ways in which the United States influenced Brazilian reality. The popularization of American mass media, cinema, radio, and publishing (including

1 Lochery, Neill. Brazil: The Fortunes of War: World War II and the Making of Modern Brazil, New York: Basic Books, 2014, pp. ix. 4 advertising) in Brazil was a phenomenon encouraged by the government of Getulio Vargas. For Lori Hall-Araujo the cultural influence of Hollywood’s cinema and fashion were central to the development of a modern Brazilian cinema industry. Hall-Araujo focuses on U.S. cultural influence on a key character for wartime U.S.-Brazil relations: Carmen

Miranda. She concludes that Miranda’s fusion of Hollywood’s style and the typical attire of a baiana (an icon of Afro-Brazilian population in the

Bahia region) served as a demonstration of a modern nation, which at the same time respected and valued its racially and culturally hybrid population. This image fit harmoniously with the image of Brazil that the

Vargas regime exported during the war to the United States.

The second theme within the bibliography deals with questions of representation of Brazil during the Good Neighbor Policy years and its wartime version. Under this big analytic umbrella, many authors have researched institutions and people that were involved in the creation of wartime representations of Good Neighbor relations. The intellectual production is focused on the analysis of concrete materials, people, and institutions that made that relationship successful.

Carol Hess and Ana Maria Mauad analyze the representations of

Brazil in Good Neighbor artistic production. Hess focuses in her book

Representing the Good Neighbor: Music, Difference, and the Pan

American Dream (2013), on two questions: what do people in the United

States know about Latin American art music? And, how do they know

5 it? For Hess the Good Neighbor Policy and Pan Americanism were central to the popularization of different Latin American art music composers in the United States. For Brazil, Hess describes the visit of

Heitor Villa-Lobos to perform in the 1939 New York World’s Fair. The author focuses on the reactions by American critics to Villa-Lobos’ performance, and how they understood his art music within the context wartime Good Neighbor Policy.

Ana Maria Mauad on the other hand studies the collaboration between photography and government to bring Brazil to the United

States. In her article “Fotografia e a Cultura Política nos Tempos da

Política da Boa Vizinhança” (2014), Mauad focuses on the commissioned work done by photojournalist Genevieve Naylor in Rio between 1941-1942. For Mauad, the photography of Naylor represented the reality of Rio beyond the Good Neighbor image that the government of the United States and Brazil controlled. This, Mauad recognized, is both a blessing and a curse; it is a blessing for those interested today in seeing an authentic representation of Brazil of the 1940s beyond the stereotypical touristic image of Rio, yet for the moment of production it was a curse. Naylor’s work was subject to governmental control and censorship, both in Brazil and in the United States, because it showed the contradictions within Brazilian society.

Commercially successful formats, especially film, were the most popular ways in which Brazil was represented for American audiences.

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Hollywood and the entertainment industry were an important part of the war-effort. The bibliography written about this relationship has three central figures: Walt Disney, Orson Welles, and Carmen Miranda.

Disney and Welles both traveled to Brazil in order to create new material about the country to be broadcast in the United States. Disney’s main collaboration was not commercial animation (although he did have commercial success with the film Saludos Amigos and The Three

Caballeros), it was in the elaboration of educational material, for example on public health issues such as the control of malaria. Welles, as an accomplished director, actor, and radio personality, was hired to film a documentary about Rio’s Carnaval, and to develop and broadcast radio programming about Brazil’s film industry, theater, and arts in general.2 Carmen Miranda, a Euro-Brazilian singer and actress, made her mark on American pop culture during the wartime Good Neighbor years when she became one of the biggest film stars of that time.

Miranda arrived in the United States in early 1939 to perform on

Broadway; however, her talent drove her to Hollywood a year after. In

1942 Miranda became the best-paid actress in Hollywood, and was the first Latin American artist to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The prolific production of books, articles, and documentaries on these three film powerhouses has surrounded topics of biographies,

2 Hirano, Luis Felipe Kojima. “Imagens de ‘Má’ Vizinhança: It’s all true, de Orson Welles, e a Desconstrução Racial na Forma Cinematográfica,” Política & Trabalho: Revista de Ciências Sociais, nº 44, Janeiro/Junho de 2016, pp. 125-143, pp. 127-8. 7 representation, misrepresentations, race relations, gender, exotisization and ethnicity, among others. Analysis of Walt Disney and the production of material for the war effort are centered on describing how the collaboration occurred. Given that the main production using Disney’s animations were military training films and educational propaganda, the analysis describes how the war transformed Disney Studios into a military base.3

For the studies on Welles, the discussion focuses on why his main body of work while in Brazil, the documentary It’s All True, was shelved. Authors Luis Felipe Kojima Hirano and Catherine Benamou discuss the relevance that Welles’ documentary still has. For Benamou this documentary has been overlooked as a key piece in the study of

U.S. foreign policy during World War II because it did not reach completion; and most importantly, as Kojima Hirano describes, the context in which the documentary was filmed and shut down reflect the politics that were behind the war effort in the U.S. and in Brazil. The latter discussion relates, as Kojima Hirano points out, to the racial politics of both countries at the time of production of the documentary.4

3 For more details go to: Gabler, Neal. "Disney Joins Up: To Claw Its Way Back from Catastrophe, the Studio Dove into Defense Work." World War II 30, no. 6 (2016): 52 – 59; Solomon, Charles. "The Disney Studio at War." In Animation: Art and Industry, edited by Furniss Maureen, 145-50. Indiana University Press, 2012; Cunningham, Amanda. "Walt Disney and the Propaganda Complex: Government Funded Animation and Hollywood Complicity during WWII." Order No. 1562797, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2014; Shale, Richard Allen. "Donald Duck Joins Up: The Walt Disney Studio During World War II.” Order No. 7708034, University of Michigan, 1976. 4 For more details go to: Benamou, “Catherine L. Retrieving Orson Welles's Suspended Inter- American film, It's All True,” Nuevo Texto Crítico, Año XI, Número 21/22, Enero-Diciembre 8

Authors Lisa Shaw, Martha Gil-Montero, and Shari Roberts explore Carmen Miranda’s biography, her music, her films, her wardrobe, her merchandising, even the parodies made of her, as a way to understand her transition to United States’ show business and the mark left by her wartime stardom on U.S. pop culture. For authors like

Ana Maria Mauad, Tania da Costa Garcia, and Ana Rita Mendoça,

Carmen Miranda’s career in the United States reflects the relationship between culture and politics. Miranda’s transition and popularity in the

United States after her arrival in New York City in 1939 was intimately related to the Good Neighbor Policy; Miranda was considered a goodwill ambassador of Brazil in the United States. From that perspective these authors analyze the capacity of Miranda’s film to represent Brazil, or

Latin America, in a context when a good image of both Brazil/Latin

America and the United States was imperative.5

A final theme within the reviewed bibliography is the Brazilian

Pavilion for the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Even though world fairs have been the subject of multiple studies related to economy, trade,

1998, pp. 249-276; Kojima Hirano, Luis Felipe. “Imagens de ‘Má’ Vizinhança: It’s all true, de Orson Welles, e a Desconstrução Racial na Forma Cinematográfica,” Política & Trabalho: Revista de Ciências Sociais, nº 44, Janeiro/Junho de 2016, pp. 125-143. 5 For more details go to: Gil-Montero, Martha. Brazilian Bombshell: The Biography of Carmen Miranda. New York: D.I. Fine, 1989; Mendonça, Ana Rita. Carmen Miranda Foi a Washington. Rio De Janeiro: Editora Record, 1999; Shaw, Lisa and British Film Institute. Carmen Miranda, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013; Da Costa Garcia, Tania. “Carmen Miranda E Os Good Neighbours,” Diálogos 7 (2003), pp. 37–46; Mauad, Ana Maria. “As três Américas de Carmem Miranda Cultura Política e Cinema No Contexto da Política da Boa Vizinhança,”Transit Circle, vol. 1, 2002, pp. 52 – 77; Roberts, Shari. “‘The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat’: Carmen Miranda, a Spectacle of Ethnicity,” Cinema Journal 32, no. 3 (1993), pp. 3–23; Shaw, Lisa. “The Celebritisation of Carmen Miranda in New York, 1939–41,” Celebrity Studies 1, no. 3 (October 27, 2010), pp. 286–302. 9 modernity and modernization, among other topics, the Brazilian Pavilion has not been a subject of the same amount of studies. Architectural analyses of the process of pre-construction, the construction, and the final layout of the Pavilion are the main type of studies found. The

Pavilion it is also an important part of architectural history and the patrimony of the 1930s Brazilian modernist movement because of its designers, Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer, which incorporates the

Pavilion in a larger discussion about the twentieth century is architectural legacy. The Pavilion was created to bring Brazil to the

United States, through architecture, interior design, music, dance, art, and most importantly trade. Popularity in the fair would be a multiple victory: it would attract trading partners, it would create a demand for

Brazilian products like coffee, and it would create a curiosity for touristic travel to Brazil.6

The collaborative aspect of the relationship that these authors write about is something that gets lost. This was not another example of

U.S. attempts to dominate another country’s sovereignty, in these years, and through the selected materials, Brazilian agency is not missing.

Putting an emphasis in the complexities of this relationship is

6 For more details go to: Cavalcanti, Lauro. When Brazil was Modern: Guide to Architecture, 1928-1960, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2003; Kargon, Robert H, Karen Fiss, Morris Low, and Arthur P Molella. World's Fairs on the Eve of War: Science Technology & Modernity, 1937-1942. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015; Comas, Carlos Eduardo. “A Feira Mundial de Nova York de 1939: O Pavilhão Brasileiro,” ArqTexto, 16, pp. 56 – 97. 10 fundamental, because the interaction between in nations is never completely one-sided; writing about Brazilian agency in the frame of a

U.S. government policy is a necessary exercise.

The primary sources used in this research come from archival research done in the past year. The material analyzed came from the

New York World's Fair 1939-1940 Records held at the New York Public

Library, the Records of the Inter-American Office RG229 at the National

Archives in College Park, the CPDOC at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Rio de Janeiro, the Itamaraty Arquivo Historico of the Brazilian

Foreign Relations Ministry in Rio de Janeiro, and the collections at the

Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and

Sciences in Los Angeles. The material ranges from speeches given at different public events, to photography, illustrated books, press releases, and film. The analysis is supported by these primary sources and in secondary literature when necessary to fully understand the evidence presented.

This research is organized in four chapters. The first chapter presents in detail the historical context of 1930s Brazil and its transformations; it also describes the most important aspects of the

Good Neighbor Policy that affected the production of the material used in the following chapters. As we do this, key people and institutions will be presented and placed in their roles on the promotion of positive

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Brazilian and U.S. relations. Chapter Two is centered on studying the character and development of the relationship between the United

States and Brazil at the turn of the twentieth century. This chapter will use a selection of primary sources that best illustrate how governmental agencies from both nations were involved in the process of creating material to promote Good Neighbor policy understandings. The third chapter will focus on the Brazilian Pavilion for the 1939 New York

World’s Fair. In it we get the opportunity to further analyze how the

Pavilion itself represented Brazilian aspirations through speeches given by the General Commissioner of the Pavilion, the exhibitions at the

Pavilion, and the material created for the attendees to the World’s Fair.

In the fourth, and final chapter, we will focus on a selection of films that stared Brazilian performer Carmen Miranda. The representations of

Brazil in her films, while important do not fully demonstrate the extent of official Brazilian involvement in the production of these films, and other

Hollywood projects.

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Chapter 1. Context, and Key Concepts and Institutions

Before we can begin to understand the primary sources chosen, we have to take a look into the background that allowed for such material to be created. In this first chapter we will describe two types of context, the first one follows Brazilian history in the 1930s and the changes taking place there that are reflected in our primary sources, the second one describes the policy background that allowed for the presence of Brazil and Brazilians in the United States during World War

II. In this description we will be able to touch upon social and cultural transformation, as well as the institutions that supported those changes.

In the same way we will be studying the origins of the Good Neighbor policy and the institutions created to execute its mandates when World

War II was a fact.

During the 1930s Brazil went through a phase of transformations represented in our primary sources, the Brazilian Pavilion in the 1939

New York World’s Fair, and in the films staring Carmen Miranda. This historical context will help us understand the drive behind such transformations. Getúlio Vargas, the head of the Brazilian state all throughout the 1930s until 1945, came to power in October of 1930. His ascension to government is known as the Revolution of 1930. This movement rebelled against the political system that ruled Brazil since its

13 independence in 1891 where a few dominated the many. This system challenged the constitutional principle that all states of the Brazilian nation were equal; in reality the states of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais controlled the government alternating in the presidency of Brazil.

Through “[...] fixed elections, backroom deals, and a delicate balance of repression and co-optation,”7 these industrial and agricultural elites were able to keep an order that Williams calls Pax Republicana.

That power balance was broken in 1929. When it was time for the ruling elites to nominate a presidential candidate, unable to sell their coffee except to the Federal government during the Depression, the elites of Sao Paulo decided to nominate one of their own instead of handing over power to Minas Gerais. In return, the elites of Minas

Gerais broke with Sao Paulo and allied with the landed elites of the state of Rio Grande do Sul and of Paraíba to present a competitive candidate.

This candidate was the governor of Rio Grade do Sul, Getúlio Vargas.

Williams explains that during his candidature Vargas appealed to the population at large with a call for political reform, economic stabilization, and a general renewal of Brazilian society. However the Sao Paulo candidate won the election in early 1930 a result challenged by the new anti-paulista coalition. In that same year, the assassination of politician from Paraíba after the election created such an uproar that an armed rebellion against the government arose with Vargas as one of the main

7 Williams, Daryle. Culture Wars in Brazil: The First Vargas Regime, 1930-1945, Durham: Duke University Press, 2001, p. 3. 14 leaders. The rebellion quickly grew in support and strength. In October of 1930 the rebel movement entered Brazil’s capital, Rio de Janeiro, received by a cheering crowd. A military junta deposed the President, and a provisional government headed by Vargas took power.8

Even though the rebel forces were received by the population of

Rio de Janeiro, this did not mean that the new government was accepted all across the country and its previous rulers. Early on the provisional government faced resistance, to the point that another armed rebellion had taken place in 1933, this time it was the elites of

Sao Paulo rising against the government. Yet the movement was controlled, and by 1934 Brazil had chosen Getúlio Vargas as its president. The Vargas administration was faced with a challenge of how to control opposition.

The Vargas administration made a diagnosis of how to achieve that, it was necessary to create a new sense of national unity in Brazil.

As author Lisa Shaw explains, the Vargas regime had to address concerns over political resistance, and at the same time it had to subvert regional disparities and the social relations created by an ethnically complex citizenry.9 A new sense of nationhood would help the process of reform towards unity, which would make everyone part of a new stage in Brazilian history. However the Vargas regime did not create an original nationalistic theory and symbols that would revolutionize Brazil.

8 Williams. Culture Wars in Brazil, pp. 3-4. 9 Shaw, Lisa. The Social History of the Brazilian Samba, Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, 1999, p. 28. 15

The regime took ongoing discussions and movements on nationalism and employed them as its driving agents of change. As Julia Santiago

Stockler explains, pre 1930 changes were already provoking debates over the nature of what it meant to be Brazilian. And “[...] as Brazil was industrializing unevenly, those who happened to live in its most distant, rural regions, grew increasingly conscious of their provincial cultures and customs and often felt at odds with those of the modernizing federal districts.”10 Discussions of how these differences would affect Brazil’s development made clear which movements would become part of the

Vargas regime in the 1930s.

Modernization of the Brazilian states was set as a fundamental process to national unification. For Micael Hershmann and Messeder

Pereira, the 1930s in Brazil was a time to adjust European modernizing ideas of life, institutions, economy, liberal ideas, etc. to a Brazilian institutional frame.11 One of the movements that is most associated with the Vargas regime’s effort to create a modern nation-state is architectural modernism. This highly intellectual movement spoke and put in action the concept of anthropophagy – a metaphor used by the movement to reflect the spirit of cultural synthesis of the 1920s and 30s, which at the same time reflected the idea of battling colonization in order to open a new path toward cultural resistance – to explain what made

10 Santiago Stockler, Julia. “The Invention of Samba and National Identity in Brazil,” Working Papers in Nationalism Studies, Institute of Governance, University of Edinburgh, nº 2, 2011, n/p, p. 13. 11 Herschmann, Micael and Carlos Alberto M. Pereira. A Invenção do Brasil Moderno: Medicina, Educação e Engenharia Nos Anos 20-30. Rio de Janeiro: Rocco, 1994, p. 12. 16 them different. They were not just repeating European principles of design, but they were creating something completely different; by taking foreign ideas and making them their own, they were creating a purely

Brazilian style. 12 The union between the Brazilian state and the modernists made some enormous differences that distinguish both the state and the intellectual movement, because together they symbolized

“[...] the country’s prosperity, the government’s desire to put a new face on its capital, and [because] a brilliant generation of architects and intellectuals with ties to the cultural apparatus of the state transformed the style into a new language, unmistakably Brazilian and, at the same time, universal.”13

When Lauro Cavalcanti mentions the change in the capital’s face, this points to the participation of modernist architects in the design of state buildings. One of the most important examples of how the Vargas administration was able to express its push towards becoming a modern, unified nation-state both in “body and soul” was in the Ministry of Health and Education. Created during the first three years of Vargas provisional government, it not only represented modernization through a push for reform in national schooling, and by the eradication of highly mortal disease, such as tuberculosis through widespread vaccination, this building was designed and constructed in the modernist style.

12 Herschmann and Messeder Pereira. A Invenção do Brasil Moderno, pp.36-7. 13 Cavalcanti, Lauro. When Brazil was Modern: Guide to Architecture, 1928-1960, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2003. p. 13. 17

Another important incorporation by the Brazilian state of burgeoning cultural movements of the 1920s is the “nationalization” of samba. We put nationalization in quotation marks not because we are trying to imply that this was not a genre of Brazilian origin, but because the government made it a national symbol. It took samba from its inception in Rio de Janeiro and transformed it into a sound familiar to everyone in Brazil, from the Atlantic shore to the Amazonian jungle, from the Brazilian pampa to its Caribbean shore. Samba developed in Rio de

Janeiro prior to the establishment of the Vargas regime in 1930. It was, and is, a form of popular music that evolved from other Afro-Brazilian sounds and its mix with European sounds; it has been debated if it first originated in the Rio shanty town hill, the favela, or from the city on the bottom of those hills. Samba by the 1920s was performed and composed by Afro-Brazilians, mixed-race Brazilians, and what could be considered white-Brazilians (first or second generation of European immigrants). Because it was part of popular culture, samba was intrinsically united with Bohemian life, in which both rich and poor interacted.

As historian Bryan McCann explains the 1930s and Vargas represented a period of consolidation of samba as a successful commercial genre. McCann identifies three key processes that helped samba achieve the latter. First, the rapidly growing radio stations at a

18 national level; second, the intensification of exchange between high and popular culture; and third:

“[...] the rise of the Vargas regime itself, which consciously sought

to mold and direct these cultural transformations. While the

regime’s cultural propaganda often failed, in some cases abjectly,

its centralized energy did serve to encourage and subsidize

sanctioned expressions while marginalized others. Even failed

government initiatives brought composers, performers, and

producers into direct contact with the state. One might evade the

state’s directives without escaping its influences.”14

The Vargas regime became, as it did with modernist architecture, an official supporter for the consolidation of samba. Its popular and national inception made it a perfect vessel for Vargas’ policies.

The state, as McCann describes, supported those composers, performers, and producers that followed strict content guidelines.

Competitions and grants were given to those who better translated those guidelines into music. For the government, samba had to be about a love for Brazil, and everything in it; it was supposed to feature the best characteristics of Brazilian society. It could not speak of repression, of poverty, of crime (which was one of the subgenres within samba, the malandro samba, literally the samba about rascals), and of racism.15 In

14 McCann, Bryan. Hello, Hello Brazil: Popular Music in the Making of Modern Brazil, Durham [N.C.]: Duke University Press, 2004, p. 8. 15 McCann. Hello, Hello Brazil, pp. 43-67. 19 the 1930s samba was being performed and broadcast in every corner of the country, and it crossed social boundaries. As Hermano Vianna points out, samba and Carnival went from the favela, to Rio’s famous casinos, to its elegant Municipal Theater.16

Lastly, state-sponsored samba, as McCann mentioned, by keeping race relations out of its themes, helped the creation of the racial democracy fallacy. Not because samba was of popular and Afro-

Brazilian origin Brazil was no longer a racist society. 17 Intellectual circles, especially the works by the important Brazilian anthropologist,

Gilberto Freyre, also supported this fallacy. According to Barbara

Browning, Freyre’s social theories that defended racial mixing and more scientific approach to social studies only reaffirmed previous racial assumptions. In Browning’ argument Freyre would celebrate racial mixing because he believed that white European “blood” was thinning out African influences, while adding value to Afro-Brazilian culture.18

Modernization does not only mean changes in public institutions, it also includes the development of communication technologies for massive audiences of expanding urban and rural population. The usefulness of mass communications was not lost on Vargas. As Lisa

Shaw points out, another important characteristic of the Vargas years is

16 Vianna, Hermano. The Mystery of Samba: Popular Music & National Identity in Brazil. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999, p. 90. 17 McCann. Ibid. p. 43. 18 Browning, Barbara. Samba: Resistance in Motion, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995, pp. 5-6. 20 the utilization of these new technologies for the spread of his doctrine of fight against regionalisms. As they did with the “nationalization” of samba, a widespread national broadcasting service allowed for samba to reach every corner of Brazil. And while the Rio-based sound became popular in the interior, it inspired performers from the interior to migrate to Rio de Janeiro, bringing with them their sounds to enrich mainstream music.19

Propaganda and censorship institutions accompanied the development of mass communications, like radio broadcasting and film, while controlling the messages that these technologies carried all around Brazil and, eventually, the world. Since 1930 the Vargas regime had had a governmental agency to deal with propaganda and censorship. In 1930 the Departamento Oficial de Propaganda (Official

Department of Propaganda) was founded; in 1934 it was modified into the Departamento de Propaganda e Difusao Cultural (Department of

Propaganda and Cultural Diffusion; and in 1939, now that Brazil was under an authoritarian regime with Vargas still as the head of state, the

Estado Novo, or New State – named after Portugal’s fascists state— the agency was reformed into the Departamento de Impresa e Propaganda

(Department of Press and Propaganda, or DIP). This last agency, under the direct control of Vargas, the most effective on censorship and the elaboration of pro-government propaganda. It not only had as its

19 McCann. Ibid. pp. 5-6. 21 mission the“[...] elucidation of national opinion on the doctrinal directives of the regime, in defense of culture, of spiritual unity and of Brazilian civilization [...],” it also developed a personal public cult around the figure of Vargas.20

These symbols of modernization used by the Vargas administration to make Brazil into a cohesive nation-state, and institutions like the DIP will be essential to the construction of the image represented in the Brazilian Pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair and in the production of films starring Carmen Miranda made in

Hollywood during World War II. However, that translation of Brazilian values into an American context did not occur in a vacuum, it was the continental policy context that allowed for the processes we will be studying to happen: Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy was fundamental for this.

The Good Neighbor Policy

For Pennee Bender the origin of the Good Neighbor Policy came as an answer to the U.S. need to create a more effective relationship with Latin America in the face of unpopular interventions. Franklin D.

Roosevelt started his first administration with the announcement of a

20 Shaw. The Social History of the Brazilian Samba, p. 33. 22 new era of relations between neighbors, one that would break with previous patterns. Such a message, however, did not become official government policy until the mid-1930s. By then, the United States had experienced the power of Latin American nationalistic movements that fought American influence and dominance over the continent, like the

1933 Cuban rebellion against U.S.-backed dictatoriship. The U.S. had also realized how much European fascists parties and ideologies were part of one of its key allies during their interventions: the Latin American military. By the end of the 1930s with Europe at war the United States was concerned about keeping its alliances with Latin America to safeguard national security and private interests.21

The Good Neighbor Policy, in actions and in rhetoric, advocated a new dynamics in the Americas. As Bender points out, under the Good

Neighbor umbrella the United States reached a settlement with Mexico and Bolivia in their processes of oil nationalization. A national policy that would have prompted U.S. intervention, was now ending in a diplomatic way. By the 1940s President Roosevelt was calling for a new approach that would allow for the region’s economic development and resources.

The Good Neighbor Policy called for greater respect, multilateral financial agencies, reciprocal trade agreements, and military assistance

– the latter as a direct strategy to stop German influence in the region.22

21 Bender, Pennee Lenore. "Film as an Instrument of the Good Neighbor Policy, 1930s–1950s." Order No. 3035281, New York University, 2002, pp. 29-31. 22 Bender. "Film as an Instrument of the Good Neighbor Policy, 1930s–1950s," p. 31. 23

This policy was influenced by the work done in the private sector since the early twentieth century. Parallel non-diplomatic relations with

Latin America had supported a greater and more diverse relationship with the United States. Private interest in Latin American culture, to name one, had brought Mexican art to New York’s Museum of Modern

Art to the United States before the Good Neighbor was an official policy.

According to Bender, the Good Neighbor Policy also fed on the ongoing encounter between Latin American, especially Mexican, artists, writers, actors and musicians with their American peers, which coincided with changing notions in academics and political activism on subjects like economic stability, political turmoil, and poverty. The Depression had forced U.S. specialists to think about those issues in different terms.23

This type of cultural relations was made part of government policies in 1938 when the Division of Cultural Relations was created in the State Department. This agency would follow the footsteps of what private initiatives had been doing for a couple of decades. However it was very explicit that the State Department was not going to take the lead on the cultural activities agenda, taking a secondary place to private efforts. It was also crucial to understand this Division not as a propaganda architect. For the U.S. to assume a governmental

23 Bender. Ibid. pp. 35-9. 24 propagandistic role would directly affect their difference, and superiority, to propaganda departments in fascist states in Europe.24

However this would change with the beginning of World War II. In

August 1940, President Roosevelt established, with resistance from the

Department of State, a new agency to coordinate existing continental activities (both economic and cultural) and to create new ones to mobilize the nation for the defense of the Americas. Because it was a wartime agency, it represented an exception to the rules, more specifically to the no-propaganda veto. Gisela Cramer and Ursula

Prutsch discuss the nature of the material created by this agency, the

Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (OCIAA). Can we consider the material pure propaganda? Because of the mounting bad reputation given to the word, the material was not named that, yet

Cramer and Prutsch also point out that propaganda implies a one- direction communication action that was not the case for everything coming out of the OCIAA. Even though the material did have a dissuasive character, the interaction with foreign governments and dignitaries, as we will see in detail in following chapters, put the work of the OCIAA in a different category. For Cramer and Prutsch the material and actions of this governmental agency belong to the realm of cultural diplomacy and public relations and traditional definitions of propaganda

24 Bender. Ibid. pp. 37-8. 25 do not explain how the programs and materials of the OCIAA evolved in the ground.25

The OCIAA implemented an enormous amount of programs and materials for economic and cultural relations. This direct relationship between the OCIAA, or its local branches, and Latin American government officials and dignitaries is the one we will be taking a deeper look at through the analysis of our selected primary sources. However the OCIAA also facilitated private initiatives, as Gisela Cramer and

Ursular Prutsch describe, it provided “[...] informational materials, contacts, guest speakers, small- and large-scale grants, it encouraged hundred of organizations and institutions, from the Boy Scouts to the

American Legion, from women’s clubs to Catholic welfare organizations, from trade unions to business associations, from small-town communities center to metropolitan art museums and from primary schools to universities [...]”26

As we move on to our the next chapter, it is important to emphasize a description made by Darlene Sadlier, the Good Neighbor years were “[...] a period unique to U.S. relations with Latin America and perhaps the only time in U.S. history when the terms ‘Americas’ and

‘Americans’ were regularly employed to convey an image of North-South

25 Cramer, Gisela and Ursula Prutsch. ¡Américas Unidas!: Nelson A. Rockefeller's Office of Inter- American Affairs (1940-46), Madrid: Iberoamericana Vervuert, 2012, pp. 16-9. 26 Cramer and Prutsch. ¡Américas Unidas!, pp. 19-20. 26 family of twenty-one united republics.”27 This will be the spirit behind the presence of Brazil in the 1939 New York World’s Fair, as it will be on the films starred by Carmen Miranda during World War II. In the next chapter we will explore in more detail the international relations between the Brazil we described, and a United States concerned for national security. This will not only be observed in the literature about wartime relations, but it will also be analyzed from a selection of primary sources

I encountered in my archival research. These materials are the physical representation of this particular bilateral relationship.

27 Sadlier, Darlene J. Americans All: Good Neighbor Cultural Diplomacy in World War II, 1st ed. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2012, p.2. 27

Chapter 2. U.S. and Brazilian relations through the sources.

Although I presented the larger historical context there still is a relationship I need to address: the bilateral relation between the United

States and Brazil. I decided to make this history into a separated chapter because of the richness of material found in our archival research. As mentioned before, the range of activities of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (OCIAA) is very impressive.

Not only because of the variety of activities, programs, and agreements, but also because it included most of the population – both in the United

States and in Brazil. The material found tells many different stories upon which we cannot concentrate, but it is necessary to paint a clear picture of the character of the bilateral relationship.

Before World War II, the relationship between the United States and Brazil had been better than U.S. relations with other Latin American countries. Monica Hirst explains that this bilateral relation started before

Brazil’s became a republic.28 In the last years of the nineteenth century this relationship gained consistency as the Brazilian republican that ousted the Monarchy in 1889 movement had taken the United States as an example of governance for Brazil, and in the initial commercial

28 Technically, Brazil had been an independent country since 1824, however that did not mark the end of monarchical rule, as in the other South American countries around those same years. In 1824 Brazil founded its own kingdom, which spawned from the Portuguese Royal Family that scape French invasion. 28 relations as Brazilian coffee started to be exported to the United States.

For Hirst, the bilateral relationship strengthened after the abolition of slavery in 1888 and the declaration of the Federal Republic the following year.29

During the period between the declaration of the Republic and the Revolution of 1930, the period known as the First Republic (1889-

1930), the relationship followed a pattern of “unwritten alliance,” where no formal agreements or treaties were signed between the two nations, which did not mean there was not a diplomatic relationship. As Hirst stresses, a “fraternal dialogue” marked this four-decade relationship where Brazilian diplomacy understood American aspirations as a regional power, especially after witnessing U.S. military interventions in

Central America and the Caribbean. Parallel to these coercive actions,

Brazil was an important ally to have because it allowed the United

States to harmonize positions in order to help its dialogue with the other

South American countries. However, the relative minor economic involvement between these two countries would change after World War

I. From 1914 to 1928 American imports to Brazil grew from 14% to 26%; the main products imported were cars and their accessories, wheat, gas, steam-powered locomotives, cement, machinery and electronic

29 Hirst, Mônica. Brasil-Estados Unidos: Desencontros E Afinidades, Rio de Janeiro, RJ: FGV Editora, 2009, p. 20. 29 devices. Direct investment grew significantly after 1920, especially in transport, mining, and the refrigeration industry.30

As seen in Chapter One, this economic growth came to a drastic halt with the Crash of 1929. As this world crisis affected countries in different ways, it added tension to the political situation in Brazil.

Economically, the country did not have the same buying power so imports decreased, the value of its exports crashed, and because of the devaluation of Brazilian currency its external debt grew. To stop the economic crisis, Getúlio Vargas’ government turned to protectionism to expand internal markets. Additionally, the levels of investment for Brazil did not improve until 1936 through the U.S. presence in the manufacturing sector. During that same year, the Vargas government approved an economic agreement with the United States that lowered export and import tariffs; this, however, was not an easy process.

Ideological affinities were crucial in the delay. In 1936 Brazil had a very convenient economic treaty with Germany, which favored Brazilian exports, coffee and cotton, and the purchase of heavy machinery for

Vargas’ industrialization project. With the revenue from this beneficial tariff agreement, Brazil bought German weaponries for its military. This put Brazil within Germany’s circle of influence; sympathies for German

Nazism in the Brazilian military ran deep, and Vargas himself was vocal about his admiration for other European fascist governments, naming

30 Hirst. Brasil-Estados Unidos, pp. 20-7. 30 his “New State” after Portugal’s fascist state. However, a section of the government supported a closer relationship with the United States.

These differences clashed in 1936 and until the end of Vargas’ government in 1945.31

As the reality of another European war become real, Brazil declared its neutrality. However, as author Neil Lochery indicates,

Brazilian officials knew this position could not last long, so Brazil played off the international situation to its advantage. As Vargas’ cabinet was divided between Allies and Axis influence, and those looking becoming closer to the United States – a movement lead by Brazil’s Minister of

Foreign Relations Oswaldo Aranha – used the relationship with

Germany as leverage in the negotiations to break neutrality. In other words, if the United States was not willing to deliver Brazilian conditions, the South American government had no problems on solidifying its position in favor of Nazi Germany. This tacit threat was especially relevant the first years of the War when the Axis was quickly conquering

Europe.32

The year 1939 marked the beginning of intense years of negotiations between Brazil and the United States. On one side, the

United States wanted a formal declaration of war against the Axis in order to prove Brazil’s commitment to the Allies, as it was expected that

31 Hirst. pp. 27-9. 32 Lochery, Neill. Brazil: The Fortunes of War: World War II and the Making of Modern Brazil, New York: Basic Books, 2014, p. 59. 31

Brazil would allow U.S. Navy forces to repel German U-boats attacks in the Atlantic. On the other, Brazil was looking to improve its situation in world and regional politics. This would be secured by a closer relationship with the United States and its support for the development of Brazilian air power, heavy industry, extractive industries for post-war reconstruction, transport for economic and strategic purposes, and exploration for combustible fuels. 33 Negotiations were ongoing even after Brazil’s declaration of war to Germany and Italy in 1942. The work done by the OCIAA would directly affect the environment in which these negotiations took place. A favorable public opinion in Brazil about coming closer to the United States was crucial for Vargas, as it gave him power over pro-Axis factions in his cabinet and those who criticized the government.34 Both governments were invested in the success of Good

Neighbor Policy initiatives that fostered a harmonious relationship between “sister” nations.

Bilateral relations through archival research

33 Lochery. Brazil: The Fortunes of War, pp. xiv-xv. 34 In May of 1938 there was a failed coup attempt. A group of armed men in green shirts, a sign of fascist affiliation, tried to take down the government. These men opened fire on Guanabara Palace, the official residence of Getúlio Vargas. They also attacked key figures of the government to prevent them from stopping the attack on the Palace. Only general Eurico Dutra was able to escape and gather enough men to rescue the President, his daughter Alzira, and other people trapped in the Palace. Vargas saw this as a vendetta for banning all political parties in 1937, when he announced his authoritarian dictatorship, the Estado Novo (New State). Reference: Lochery, Neill. Brazil: The Fortunes of War: World War II and the Making of Modern Brazil, New York: Basic Books, 2014, pp. 11-20. 32

As mentioned above, different kinds of material came across that might not have directly mentioned the project I was researching, but nonetheless they presented an interesting version of the bilateral relationship. In Chapter One Gisela Cramer and Ursula Prutsch discussed the nature of the material that was created by the OCIAA; one where the material was created and modified on the ground. This will mark the material found, and how we will understand the relationship between Brazil and the United States. It is true that not all material used here was created by the OCIAA, yet, there is a similar spirit of collaboration -- inspired or directed -- by a policy like the Good

Neighbor.

Through the findings in the Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea do Brasil (Center for Research and

Documentation in Recent History of Brazil, or CPDOC) of the Getúlio

Vargas Foundation in Rio de Janerio, we are able to understand in more detail the close relationship between the Brazilian and American government. A letter dated October 17th 1941, from Nelson Rockefeller

– the director of the OCIAA – to Alzira Vargas, the daughter of the

Brazilian president suggest a courteous relationship between

Rockefeller and the Vargas family. Yet, the fact that this letter is directed to the daughter of Vargas is particularly relevant because Alzira was one her father’s closest collaborators. As Neil Lochery describes her as a

33 top-of-her-class law student, with an ability that made her the “perfect political hostess” for official government receptions, and at the same time, Alzira was an observant eye in Vargas meetings, for her to

“become aware of the general trends and direction of the conversation and to gauge its outcome and implications for her papai,” Lochery adds,

“At the end of each meeting she escorted the guest from the room,

‘polishing the rough parts’ of their impression of her father, and returning to him with a detailed report.” For all intents and purposes she was

Vargas’ “right eye.”35

In the letter, Rockefeller thanks Alzira Vargas for the time he stayed in Rio de Janeiro. At this time, Rockefeller takes the opportunity to compliment Getúlio Vargas’ leadership, which inspire “trust and confidence” in the Brazilian people, and his ability to read international affairs with the same talent for government. 36 Cultivating a good relationship with Alzira was probably another gateway into Vargas’ favor. As another set of eyes for the happenings in government it is not a small detail that Alzira visited the United States in 1939, making a stop in the Brazilian Pavilion of the New York Worlds’ Fair. As seen in photographs CPDOC, Alzira visited different pavilions and amusements of the Fair, and at the same time these photographs show distinctive official receptions. Getúlio Vargas could not leave Brazil because of how

35 Lochery. Ibid. p. 11. 36 Letter from Nelson Rockeffeller to Elzira Vargas, October 17th 1941, Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea do Brasil – Getulio Vargas Foundation. 34 much the stability of his government depended on him as a cohesive force, thus his “right eye” had to be one of his best alternatives for official, and unofficial, diplomatic trips.

Another interesting document from the CPDOC at the Getúlio

Vargas Foundation is a letter addressed for Vargas himself. In this document Julio Barata, no other than the director of the Radio Division of the Departamento de Impresa e Propaganda (Department of Press and Propaganda – DIP) is writing to Vargas to ask for his dismissal from his duty. Barata explains that the reason for this request is that he is leaving Brazil to start working for the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-

American Affairs (OCIAA). Barata thanks President Vargas for the opportunity he gave him when he appointed him Director of the Radio

Division, and states that he will continue his efforts to represent Brazil in the best way possible in the American agency’s projects.37

Another interesting source are the records of the Inter-American

Office in Washington, D.C. 38 Of their substantial collection of official

37 Letter from Julio Barata (Dir. Radio Division DIP) to Getulio Vargas, February 11th 1942, Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea do Brasil – Getulio Vargas Foundation. 38 The Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs went through a few modifications and reforms since its inception in 1940: “The Office for Coordination of Commercial and Cultural Relations Between the American Republics (OCCCRBAR) was created by the order of the Council of National Defense on August 16, 1940. The general purpose of the Office was to formulate and execute a program to increase hemispheric solidarity and further the spirit of inter-American cooperation. Executive Order No. 8840, July 30, 1941, terminated the OCCCRBAR and created in its place the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (OCIAA) under the auspices of the Office for Emergency Management in the Executive Office of the President. The basic purpose of the Office did not change, but it was to have greater initiative, especially in the commercial and economic fields. The name of the agency changed to Office of Inter-American Affairs (OIAA) by Executive Order No. 9532, March 23, 1945.” 35 documentation from the different divisions of the agency, I focused on the Records of the Coordination Committee for Brazil. This was one of the multiple regional offices in 59 cities of Latin America that the OCIAA had during the war. Of these committees, which were made up of private U.S. citizens that lived in those cities, the office in Rio was the first in Latin America. From my archival research I know that Brazil also had a second office in Sao Paulo, but based on the amount of documentation from it, it is safe to say that it was not bigger (in operation) than the one in Rio. Berent Friele and Frank Nattier, the

Americans chosen by Nelson Rockefeller to run the Committee, spoke fluent Portuguese, making them perfect for the job. The office started as a semi-classified mission to build as many business and cultural contacts as they could, creating an extensive network; this with the complete knowledge and approval of the Minister of Foreign Affairs

Oswaldo Aranha. As the activities of the office advanced, it lost its semi- classified status and it became an operation with a thousand staff members by the end of 1941.39

This geographic closeness between the OCIAA and Brazil reflects what Gisela Cramer and Ursula Prutsch were saying about the change on the ground of initiatives coming from Washington, or other

American location. In a selection of the documents collected we are able

Source: Anthony, Edwin D. (comp.), Records of the Office of Inter-American Affairs. Inventory of Record Group 229, National Archives ands Records Service, Washington: 1973, p. 1. 39 Lochery. Ibid. pp. 99-100. 36 to see a direct collaboration between Brazilian officials and OCIAA staff, from both the Rio office and from Washington. In September 2nd 1941 there was a meeting at the Regional Committee in Rio between its directors, Friele and Nattier, and Lourival Fontes, the head of the DIP, also present John Hay Whitney, the head of the Motion Picture Division of the OCIAA. The meeting was the place to discuss the plans of the

Motion Picture Division, and its relevance in the process of brining Brazil to the United States and vice versa. The director of the DIP suggested types of films that would be especially helpful in making Brazil better known in the United States, such as films featuring Brazilian historical characters or films to promote tourism. As Brazil made its suggestions, the representative of the Motion Picture Division was keen in asking what was the Brazilian government willing to do in order to awaken the interest of the American Film Industry to collaborate. Lourival Fontes made clear that he, as head of the DIP, had a direct relationship with the president, which would allow him to get special decrees to soften or lift protectionist laws that protected the development of the Brazilian Film

Industry.40

A similar conversation took place a year later between Nelson

Rockefeller and Major Coelho dos Reis (new director of the DIP) in

October of 1942. This time Rockefeller was in Rio de Janeiro to discuss

40 Memorandum from Berent Friele and Frank Nattier to “The Coordinator,” September 2 1941, Rio de Janeiro, Records of the Office of Inter-American Affairs RG229. Regional Division, Coordination Committee for Brazil. 37 with the head of the DIP the continuation of policies for collaboration between the two institutions. In this particular meeting there were understandings on subjects such as prices of newsprint paper, assisting the DIP in increasing publicity of Brazil in the United States, the lending of a cameramen and a photographer to get current images of Brazil for printing or for newsreel production, and on concessions for United Press and Associated Press in the interior of Brazil.

A third document reporting on the visit of John Hay Whitney to

Brazil in 1941, addresses collaboration in another light. In his “Field

Report,” Whitney makes general comments on his impressions after making different stops in Latin America. He understands that not every country sees the activities of the U.S. government in the same way. In the case of the Brazilians, Whitney recognizes that there they, the agency, has more of a chance of “[...] confidently extending our hand and geting it back, empty to be sure, but practically without a tooth mark.” Whitney recognizes that there is a lot of work to be done in order to eliminate tensions and distrust amongst Latin American countries. He mentions that in Brazil there is still work to be done to stop the distribution and exhibition of German films in the interior of Brazil. In this scenario when obvious difficulties arise is when the openness from Latin

America shows. According to Whitney “We don’t need to be timid about our efforts in South America as far as they are concerned. People here believe in the Office and welcome it. They are only surprised that it has

38 not always existed. They want all it can give them, but ‘it better be good!,’ as long as it benefits both, there are no issues with collaboration.

Once again the words of Cramer and Prutsch resonate, this operation was not a unidirectional effort, where the United States sent material and Latin American countries accepted it no matter their disposition, local governments as well as sovereign nations had an important role to play in the construction of this wartime policy.41

This was the general spirit the fed initiatives like the ones we will be exploring in depth in the next two chapters. Recognizing that in continental and bilateral relations there actually are different parties involved, with their own agendas and capabilities to push them through negotiations or agreements is crucial. As we move forward we will focus on representations for American audiences of Brazil. In that process of translating Brazil as a unit we will see the complexities of such exercise, for example, the selection of what to include, what to leave out, how to make this message clear for Americans, but above all, how this was done in a context of wartime Good Neighbor Policy.

41 Field Report by John Hay Whitney, October 10 1941, Records of the Office of Inter-American Affairs RG229. Regional Division, Coordination Committee for Brazil. 39

Chapter 3. Brazilian Pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s

Fair: representations of Brazil for the U.S.

In the following chapter I will examine the Brazilian Pavilion at the

1939 New York World’s Fair; I will take a look at the Pavilion as a whole, not only the connections between governments and the organizations behind the execution of the Fair, but also the building and the exhibitions inside of it. I will also include some interesting activities that took place at the Pavilion and at other spaces of the Fair, and even at other locations throughout New York. Through this examination we hope to answer the questions about what Brazil was represented? Which elements are highlighted and why? How was the audience analyzed in the effort of translating Brazil for an American audience? Was this project solely a Brazilian creation or was there any Good Neighbor-type of collaboration with the United States?

The Crystal Palace Exposition (London) in 1851 was the first world fair. As products of the Industrial Revolution world fairs from that point on would celebrate “[...] national skills by displaying inventiveness, the production and distribution of goods, and advances in communication and transport, and at the same time placing all these innovations within a comprehensible and comforting context of history, tradition, and high art,” Robert Kargon, Karen Fiss, Morris Low, and

40

Arthur Molella continue, “In short, world’s fairs encouraged a culture disposed to accept change itself as a positive good.”42 By framing the rapid transformations brought by the Industrial Revolution as progress, the new society created by it seemed less intimidating.

This positive gaze on rapid change stamped on world fairs changed with the new century. In an era of new colonialism, the fairs were used as a moment to display national power, for example through the exhibit of recently colonized territories’ native people and their folk art and crafts; and also through the exhibit of the material conditions that allowed colonial powers to have new territories: economic policies, military strength, and scientific development. In these fairs the idea that some countries were there to set the trends and others were meant to follow those trends became clear. By the 1930s the concept of modernization and what it meant to be a modern country were established (the necessity of industrialism and of science-based technology, accompanied by a rational, strategic economic and social planning). The differences between each power was revealed in how they made sense of that modernity in relationship with their national character. Ideology here started to play a key role. Fascism and Nazism had their own vision of where that modernity would take humanity, as did Liberalism and Communism.43

42 Kargon, Robert H, Karen Fiss, Morris Low, and Arthur P Molella. World's Fairs on the Eve of War: Science Technology & Modernity, 1937-1942. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015, p. 4. 43 Kargon, et. al. World's Fairs on the Eve of War, pp. 4-6. 41

The 1939 World’s Fair in New York, which opened on April 30, commemorated the 150th anniversary of George Washington’s inauguration in New York City, however the central theme of the fair was

“Building the World of Tomorrow.” With this theme the Fair hoped to showcase the present developments brought to society by innovation and change, but beyond this, the Fair was looking into projecting those features of a modern society into the future. The Fair invited its participants and attendees to marvel at what the future would hold for humanity, if it were to continue on the path it was on.44 It was this theme that the Brazilian Pavilion needed to follow. The country would make sure that its participation would put Brazil in a higher category in the international order of nations; this would be accomplished by the showcase of its growing industrial economy, their rich culture, and its forward looking government.

Brazil officially accepted President Franklin D. Roosevelt’ 1936 invitation to participate in the World’s Fair on the November of 1937. Its participation would be coordinated by the Ministry of Labor, Industry, and Commerce, and soon after this acceptance a competition for the design of the Pavilion was launched. The jury included a technical advisor from the Ministry and three architects representing the Institute of Architects of Brazil. The call for designs requested from participants

44 “Biographical/historical information” in New York World's Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated records (web page), URL: http://archives.nypl.org/mss/2233#access_use , visited on 04/01/2018. 42 to use their designing skill to best represent Brazilian civilization abroad.

However this did not mean that the jury was looking for the best representation of what would be considered traditional or indigenous. As author Carlos Eduardo Comas further explains, this meant that the jury was hoping to find a design that would be able to translate Brazil’s current environment, one that would represent Brazil as it was at that point, a country that like the theme of the Fair, was looking to “build the world of tomorrow.” An important demonstration of presidential support of the competition for the Pavilion’s design was the presence of Getúlio

Vargas, accompanied by the Minister of Labor Valdemar Falcao, at the announcement of the results.45

At the end of the competition the jury decided that, even though they had a clear first and second place, they would ask for both projects to become one pavilion. Lucio Costa’s project was considered the best representation of Brazilianess, and Oscar Niemeyer’s was chosen because of its use of space, functionality, and economy.46 After both

45 Comas, Carlos Eduardo. “A Feira Mundial de Nova York de 1939: O Pavilhão Brasileiro,” ArqTexto, 16, pp. 56 – 97, p. 60. 46 “Lucio Costa was born in Toulon, France, on February 27, 1902, and was registered as a citizen with the Brazilian embassy. After attending schools in England and Switzerland he moved permanently to Brazil in 1917, when he was fifteen. In 1922 he graduated from the National School of Fine Arts (ENBA) in Rio de Janeiro. [...] his early works were in neocolonial style; he converted to modernism in the late 1920s, after reading Le Corbusier’s complete works and becoming familiar with the architecture of Gropius and Mies van dar Rohe. The first fruit of this conversion was his book Razoes da nova arquitetura (Reasons for the new architecture) of 1930. At that time he became the principal ideologue of the modernist movement in Brazilian architecture. His appointment as director of the ENBA in 1931 set off a revolution in the teaching of architecture throughout the country. To encourage that revolution, he invited the Russian architect Gregori Warchavchik – considered the founder of [architectural] modernism in Brazil – to teach at the school. 43 architects created what became the final design of the Pavilion, the construction process started in late September of 1938. Armando Vidal, a former president of the Departamento Nacional do Cafe (National

Department of Coffee) was named the General Commissioner of the

Brazilian Pavilion for the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Vidal commissioned American architect Paul Lester Wiener to design the interiors of the Pavilion, Hegemann-Harris was in charge of the contracting, and architect Thomas Price designed the garden of the

Pavilion.47 The Pavilion was inaugurated on May 7th, 1939.

The Brazilian Pavilion through written word

The first materials we will be looking at are a selection of speeches given around the time of the inauguration of the Pavilion.

Costa’s term as director of the ENBA was destined to be brief. Under pressure from professors who opposed his reforms, Costa was fired before completing even a year of service. His firing however, provoked a strike by student against the conservatives, which helped consolidate Costa’s influence. [...]Between 1936 and 1939, he led the team charged with developing the new Ministry of Education and Health – a landmark in modern Brazilian architecture. In 1938, after winning a competition for the Brazilian Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair, he invited the second place winner, Oscar Niemeyer to work with him on the final project. The work, finished in 1939, was considered one of the finest modernist buildings to that date.” Reference: Cavalcanti, Lauro. When Brazil was Modern: Guide to Architecture, 1928-1960, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2003, pp. 120-1. “Oscar Niemeyer Soares Filho, the greatest name in Brazilian architecture, was born in Rio de Janeiro on December 15, 1907. He graduated from the National School of Fine Arts in 1934 and began his career in Lucio Costa’s office. From 1937 to 1943, he was part of the team that designed the Office of the Ministry of Education and Health, the foundational work of modern Brazilian architecture. His design for the Cradle Work in Rio (1937) inaugurated the use of the movable brise-soleil system in Brazil. From 1938 to 1939, again working with Costa, he designed the Brazilian Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair.” Reference: Cavalcanti, Lauro. When Brazil was Modern: Guide to Architecture, 1928-1960, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2003, pp. 186-7. 47 Comas. “A Feira Mundial de Nova York de 1939,” p. 71. 44

These speeches presented in general terms what the audience was going to see in the showcases, walls, and other spaces in the Pavilion.

And, also, they reinforced the messages that the Pavilion tried to bring to the United States about Brazil.

The speech “A Imagem do Brasil” (An Image of Brazil) given by the General Commissioner of the Pavilion, Armando Vidal, with date

May 18th 1939, has its most interesting passages when describing the national character represented through the Pavilion:

“[...] is less of a shape than a rhythm, a structure rather than a

role. It is a cadenced shape by the rhythm of the Brazilian soul. It

is a synthesis of a sublimated structure, summary and symbol of

a land and of a nation, with its history, its art, its progress, wealth

and landscapes, spirit and hope. Everything in it is an integral

part, from the littlest diamonds to the most daring architraves, the

most humble products and the noblest panels, the ivy and the

most prideful blossoms. It is a unity where architecture, displays,

colors, light and volume harmonize, in a psychological, spiritual

and national way: extract the soul of a nation, the spirit of its

government, the atmosphere of its arts and life.”48

In this structuring of national character, as Vidal’s speech points out, the physicality of the Pavilion was profoundly connected to higher ideals behind Brazilian society. Even when discussing the style in which the

48 “A Imagem do Brasil,” May 18 1939, Itamaraty Arquivo Histórico, Rio de Janeiro, p. 2. My translation. 45

Pavilion was designed, it not only represented a trend in architecture at that time, but it had further meaning. Because of “[...] the nature of Le

Corbusier’s modern architecture, of how it gets involved with the progress of the society becoming a social architecture, the Pavilion represents an idea of a Brazil, not just what is typical or historical, but of an idea.”49

In the effort of bringing the national spirit of Brazil, Vidal was also keen in pointing out that this translation went beyond the walls of the

Pavilion. A series of parallel activities took place in New York City while the World’s Fair was open. Vidal lists the participation of Brazilians like

“[...] Bidú Sayao in the Metropolitan House, in the concerts of Burle Marx in the Hall of Music of the World’s Fair, in the paintings of Oswaldo

Teixeira, Leopoldo Gottuzo, Eugenio Sigaud, Vicente, Leite, Paula

Fonseca, Manoel Constantino, and others at the Museum of Riverside

Drive.”50 The concerts of Burle Marx were part of a longer program of international musicians, performers, composers, and conductors at the

Hall of Music of the World’s Fair. However if we look at the program,

Brazil was the only country with two presentations in 1939, both conducted by Burle Marx.51 In these presentations the attendees were able to hear both European classical compositions and Brazilian

49 “A Imagem do Brasil,” May 18 1939, Itamaraty Arquivo Histórico, Rio de Janeiro, p. 3. My translation. 50 “A Imagem do Brasil,” May 18 1939, Itamaraty Arquivo Histórico, Rio de Janeiro, pp. 5-6. My translation. 51 Program “Music Festival,” 1939, New York World's Fair 1939-1940 records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. 46 compositions by Heitor Villa-Lobos –a name we will see again when referring to Hollywood’s participation in the war effort. Carol Hess in her book Representing the Good Neighbor: Music, Difference, and the Pan

American Dream, studies the relevance of the interpretation of music by a figure like Heitor Villa-Lobos in the events during the Brazilian participation in the World’s Fair. According to Hess, this, and the general opening towards Latin American art music during the Good Neighbor years and the revival of Pan-Americanism, was fundamental in the process of American music culture becoming aquatinted with Latin

American production.52

52 Hess, Carol A. Representing the Good Neighbor: Music, Difference, and the Pan American Dream. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013, pp. 3-11. 47

A second speech given by Armando Vidal on January 10th of

1939 meant to preview what the Pavilion would hold inside highlights more specific elements of its exhibits and general design. Titled “Brazil,”

Vidal thanks the invitation of the United States, as he lists some of the economic motivations behind Brazil’s participation at the New York

World’s Fair. Vidal describes Brazil as a big territory with “untold possibilities” for agriculture, mining, and “stock raising on her almost endless pasture grounds.” Vidal announced that Brazil would feature its traditional export goods like coffee, cocoa, mate, and oils, and at the

48 same time it would present new products for the American audience, such as the Brazilian growing textile industry of cotton, wool, and silk.53

This Brazilian export potential was supported by other important social developments; this would be featured in the Pavilion as well. In the speech, Vidal underlines the protection that workers enjoyed in

Brazil, thanks to its labor legislation and state assistance. Brazilian authorities had been working on these developments since 1930, and according to Vidal this was legislation “which may almost be considered as matchless in the world.” Another source of support for the potential of

Brazil were the achievements in public works and private activities in industry and rural construction, such as the rapid evolving civil aviation, and the construction of driveways. The showcase of these developments, according to Vidal’s speech would make any question about the material progress of Brazil fade away.54

The Pavilion not only showed Brazil’s material progress as an argument for the indubitable overall national progress of the country.

Intellectual developments in all areas of knowledge and artistic production would be presented with the same aim. Vidal says: “Progress in Medical science as well as in engineering will be fully evidenced through photographs, maquettes [sic.], books, etc., to be shown to the millions of visitors. [...] The Brazilian art display will be, surely, most

53 “Brazil,” January 10 1939, New York World's Fair 1939-1940 records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, p. 1. 54 “Brazil,” January 10 1939, New York World's Fair 1939-1940 records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, p. 1-2. 49 significant. Paintings, sculpture, old furniture and modern furniture, ceramics and bronzes will form this display.” And at the same time, other formats will be used to show other aspects of Brazilian society:

“Brazilian music, in all its rhythmical combinations, also will have its sought for and exceptional opportunity. Brazilian dances too will win a definitive crowd among North American people. The typical Brazilian

Orchestra seating at the Pavilion Restaurant will perform the real rhythm of our dances.” By the end of his speech Vidal goes back to his initial point, that the Pavilion will be a great opportunity for Brazil as “What

Brazil desires to show is her achievements and her most exceptionally inviting field for the investment of capital from all the world.”55

In a third speech given by Armando Vidal on May 7th of 1939, at one of the ceremonies celebrating the inauguration of the Brazilian

Pavilion at the World’s Fair, there is another aspect of the Pavilion that is featured. This is the international relations of Brazil, giving special emphasis to the relationship between Brazil and the United States. In this speech the General Commissioner starts by thanking the United

States for its invitation to be part of the 1939 World’s Fair. Vidal makes a point of speaking of the place in which the ceremony was taking place, the “Good Neighbor Hall.” The Good Neighbor Policy, as Vidal tells it, has a particular meaning for the relationship between the United States and Brazil, because the spirit that inspired President Franklin Delano

55 “Brazil,” January 10 1939, New York World's Fair 1939-1940 records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, p. 2-3. 50

Roosevelt to create such a policy is the same that has inspired Brazil’s international policy since the eighteenth century, even before Brazil’s independence.56

Another key moment of the speech is the recognition that after

Brazil’s independence, which was first recognized by President Monroe, the Brazilians that founded Brazil’s Federalist Republic in 1889 took inspiration from the “Federalist” by Madison, Hamilton, and Jay. In other to do these key Brazilian figures had to learn all about United States history, its legislation, and constitutional law. From this process was born “deep admiration and friendship” in Brazil for the United States.

Vidal’s speech goes even further in concluding that: “The similarity in our political organizations, and our international feelings, has created this ideal atmosphere between the United States and Brazil, this spirit of mutual faith and confidence which we are celebrating on this day.”57

As for Brazil’s other international relations, Vidal’s speech frames them as the inspirations behind Brazil’s “high cultural standards.” Before taking the Federal form of government, Brazil had been a parliamentary government, which was based on the British parliamentary culture.

France was Brazil’s strongest cultural inspiration; beyond French language being a compulsory requirement in secondary and higher education, French science, literature and music were set “paramount

56 “Inauguration Speech,” May 7 1939, New York World's Fair 1939-1940 records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, p. 1. 57 “Inauguration Speech,” Ibid. 51 influences” in Brazil. The speech also highlights the inheritance of Latin ancestry, which would explain the many years of past influence of Italian music on Brazilian composers. The combination of the Latin traditions, both in Greek and Latin, brought by Portugal, France, and Italy, and by the political traditions of British and Americans, is the root of what Brazil has become: a “[...] people who founded a Western civilization in the tropics; we conquered the wilderness of the land; melted races, and are sure of the future which awaits us [...],” as strong and forward looking country.58

The Brazilian Pavilion Exhibits

These speeches articulate what was meant to be shown in the

Brazilian Pavilion. This next section of the chapter will focus on the actual materials from the Pavilion. Based on the themes brought up by the speeches I have organized the material in the following categories: first, the materials that were meant to show Brazilian modernization; second, the materials that supported the trading aspirations of Brazil; and third, the material created to showcase the bilateral relationship between the United States and Brazil.

For the Brazilian government it was fundamental to represent the country as modern. In order to do this in the Pavilion, the organization had both exhibits and material for distribution. Since policy was one of

58 “Inauguration Speech,” May 7 1939, New York World's Fair 1939-1940 records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, p. 2-3. 52 the important features mentioned in Vidal’s speech, material for distribution was created for the visitors to become familiar with some developments in that area. The booklet “Brazil, Social Policy and Labor

Protection,” presents all the labor regulations that had been created in

Brazil since the beginning of Getúlio Vargas’ government in 1930.

According to the booklet the legislation had been further supported by the Estado Novo’s authoritarian Constitution of 1937. Some of the reforms introduced are maximum working hours, minimum age to start working, minimum work conditions for teens and women, paid vacations, protection from unjustified dismissal, among others. The booklet also presents current developments on social insurance (pensions, disability, death benefits). It is also interesting that this booklet makes a point of mentioning that these benefits are available for every worker in Brazil, no matter their nationality or race. And at the center of all of these developments for workers is Getúlio Vargas, literally put at the center of the information in the booklet. With the inscription “Brazilian workmen signify their applause of president Getulio Vargas and his social policy,” above images of different public demonstrations of people and next to an image of the head of the Brazilian president, the booklet suggests that these are working men and women coming together to celebrate

Vargas’ labor and social legislation.59

59 “Brazil, Social Policy and Labor Protection,” New York World's Fair 1939-1940 records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. 53

On the same topic the book “Social Welfare Services for

Employees of the Rio de Janeiro Tramway, Light and Power Company, limited and Associated Companies” presents the working environment and social welfare programs for workers and their families of these companies. This short illustrated book tries to paint a full picture of how 54 important labor legislation is in Brazil, the point being that even though these are private enterprises the “[...] interest of Labor ha[s] not been left exclusively to legislative origin.” The list of benefits ranges from physical protection through proper work clothing, or the use of labor saving appliances, to medical care and disease prevention though prophylaxis, good air ventilation, providing of alimentation, drinking water, and actual medical services, to education in training centers, vocational school, by also having educational leave of absence, to recreation and culture through musical and dramatic organizations, lectures, cinema, even Boy

Scouts patrols for the employees’ family, to economic assistance through pensions, borrowing and lending money, payment plans for the purchase of automobiles, and even through the economic assistance for long service employees’ funerals.60

60 “Social Welfare Services for Employees of the Rio de Janeiro Tramway, Light and Power Company, limited and Associated Companies,” December 1938, New York World's Fair 1939- 1940 records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. 55

The advances of infrastructure were also part of the exhibitions and materials to support the claims that Brazil had the means to become a reliable trading partner. One of these was the exhibition of several models of Brazilian dams – Cubatao, Lima Campos, and Oros Dam – and ports of Rio de Janeiro, Manaos, Bahia, and Recife in the main floor of the Brazilian Pavilion. These were accompanied by a wall-sized map 56 with more dams and roads of Brazil. Another proof of this was the short book by the Ministry of Transport and Public Works on the Service of

Drought Control in the Brazilian Northeast. The book clearly states its purpose: “The purpose of this work is to acquaint the countless visitors to the New York World’s Fair 1939, with the work that is being executed by The Federal Department of Drought Control in the Brazilian

Northeast in order to improve the economic conditions of that region.”61

Featuring infrastructure development was to show how the country was utilizing its natural resources for its industrialization and urbanization processes. It is not completely explicit if these materials were meant to invite foreign investment on Brazilian industries, or if it was to yet again support the claim that Brazil was able to supply the world with its national production. Regardless of the motive, the visitors of the Pavilion were able to take home a booklet on Brazil’s waterpower.

This booklet presented Brazil’s current use of hydraulic power in creating electric energy for industry, and its potential for further developments on the multiple river systems in Brazil.

61 “Service of Drought Control in the Brazilian Northeast,” 1939, New York World's Fair 1939- 1940 records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. 57

A third infrastructure development featured was the growth of civil aviation. Another short book was available for the public on this subject.

Titled “Civil Aviation in Brazil. Its beginning, growth, present state” by the

Ministry of Transport and Public Works, the book showed the buildings that existed at the time that offered civil traveling services inside Brazil.

The book also presented a map with all the airlines working and their 58 national and international routes up until December of 1937. This map was accompanied by a table with statistics on commercial air traffic in

Brazil from 1928 to 1937. In this table we can see the systematic growth of the services measured by the amount of companies working, the length of operations which these companies covered, the professionals for the commercial air activities, the amount of passengers, and the amount of weight carried by these companies (both because of luggage, mail, and other types of cargo). 62 Showing these statistics to an audience like the American was fundamental for the next category of material and exhibitions that were part of the Pavilion.

Tourism for an audience like the Americans was of big importance. Even though this was not an activity available to all the attendees of the 1939 World’s Fair, the citizens of the United States most certainly had more chances to leave their country for the purpose of leisure traveling than Brazilians. Developments in civil aviation make traveling to Rio de Janeiro much shorter and easier; at this time,

Americans could take a plane from Miami, FL or Mexico City to Rio de

Janeiro – which is how American officials and dignitaries got to the capital of Brazil during the war years. However the Brazilian Pavilion presented more than better travel accommodations to attendees as a reason to visit Brazil.

62 “Civil Aviation in Brazil. Its beginning, growth, present state,” New York World's Fair 1939- 1940 records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. 59

In a series of booklets and a beautiful coffee table book, the organization of the Brazilian Pavilion was determined of showing all the reasons Americans had to visit Brazil. The New York Public Library, in its records of the 1939 World’s Fair, held a series of at least nine travel brochures. These are full colored illustrated pieces of information on what to see in Brazil, how long it could take to get to these places from

Rio de Janeiro, and how much would that cost. The destinations are varied, from natural wonders like the Iguassú Falls, the Sete Quedas

Falls, and the Paulo Alfonso Falls, to the state of Paraná, Rio de

Janeiro, Matto Grosso, and Minas Gerais, or to specific cities like

Salvador de Bahia. In these brochures the developments on travel within Brazil are what makes it possible for tourists to have more than one option of how to get to these places, and what to do on the way there. The places featured are described as impressive, because of its untouched nature like the state of Matto Grosso, or because they represent the past and the present of Brazil like the city of Salvador in the state of Bahia, referred to as the capital of colonial Brazil while at the same time being a “[...] fine, modern city, and an active intellectual and literary patron.”63

63 “Bahia, Salvador, City of churches,” New York World's Fair 1939-1940 records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. 60

Within the same collection of travel information we find a travelogue written by American author William H. Ukers titled “A trip to

Brazil.” In this publication the author will describe “[...] the delight of rolling down to Rio on a glamorous twelve-day sea adventure, with high- lights of visits to Sao Paulo and Santos, and to the coffee-growing

61 districts of Marilia, Sao Sebasteao do Paraiso and Ribeirao Preto.”64

The travelogue is accompanied by beautiful images of Rio de Janeiro,

Sao Paulo, and the agricultural sectors that were part of the author’s route. A coffee advertising on its back cover finishes the publication, which is no coincidence given the identity of the author. William H.

Ukers became known for his publications on coffee and tea, with his

1922 book All About Coffee and his The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, he had become a specialist, a well-versed traveler and researcher on these subjects.65 The fact that Brazil was publishing one of his travel experiences, probably, gave some validation to the images created by government officials about Brazil.

Finally, the crowning piece of publication of this effort to promote tourism to Brazil: the coffee-table book “Travel in Brazil.” With 198 pages, this book went through all of Brazil in black-and-white images of its fast growing modern cities, its travel infrastructure, and its varied types of landscape. This book suggests, as the brochures did, different travel routes throughout Brazil: where to start and where to go, this time without cost information. Each route starts with a map that outlines the journey, to then be followed by pictures of highlights of those routes. In this book Brazil is more than a stereotypical image of a tropical

64 Ukers, William H. “A Trip to Brazil,” 1939, New York World's Fair 1939-1940 records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. 65 “150 Years in the Stacks: Year 75 – 1935: All About Tea by William H. Ukers,” website, URL: https://libraries.mit.edu/150books/2011/03/22/1935/ , visited on 04/03/2018. 62 landscape is being argued; the country is a fascinating combination of impressive nature, and burgeoning modern cities.66

66 “Travel in Brazil,” 1939, New York World's Fair 1939-1940 records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. 63

Throughout the Brazilian Pavilion there were exhibits dedicated to

Brazilian developments in knowledge and creative production. Brazilian science, whether it was geology or medicine, was featured along with its most important figures, and the actual books that compiled their research results. The Pavilion also had an important place saved for the artistic production of painters like Candido Portinari, who in 1940 would have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City during the 1940’s version of the New York World’s Fair, or sculptors like

Celso Antonio. The murals painted by Portinari were featured in the main floor of the Pavilion inside the Good Neighbor Hall, and Antonio’s sculpture could be found at the entrance of the Pavilion.

64

The second category in which I have organized the themes behind the exhibition and materials created is the representation of

Brazil as a prosperous trade partner. The visitor to the Pavilion who wished to learn about the natural resources that Brazil offered might

65 want to take home some of the booklets on that theme. A total of 34 booklets comprise the series on diverse natural resources: mineral –

“Sundry Minerals,” “Precious Stones,” “Radioactive Minerals,” “Nickel,”

“Marble and Other Freestones,” “Manganese, Block of Pyrolusite,”

“Lead,” “Irion Ore,” “Gold,” “Copper,” “Coal,” “Chrome,”

“Aluminium[sic.],” and “Bituminous Schists” –, vegetal –“Timbó,”

“Vegetable Oils,” “Rubber,” “Oiticica,” “Medicinal Plants and Herbs,”

“Manioc,” “Lumber,” “Fibers,” “Herva[sic.] Matte (Brazilian Tea),”

“Cotton,” “Cocoa,” “Babassu,” “Carnaúba Wax,” “Brazil-Nuts,” “Caroá

Fiber,” and “Castor Beans”—, and animal – “Goats and Milkers,” “Fowls,

Birds and Feathers,” “Cattle: Hereford, Charollais,” “Cattle: Brahma

Crosses, Polled Angus.” In general terms these booklets present a historical background of the product in question, explaining for how long that product has been part of Brazilian extractive industries, where it can usually be found, and some general characteristics of the product (color, original shape, most common uses, etc.). Once the visitor opens the booklet, he or she would find a chart with different shape and figures that represented the levels of export statistics for that product from 1929 to 1938. The visitor could also find a list of the companies that are doing the extracting, processing, or exporting of the product in question. This information is accompanied by some black-and-white pictures of the production processes, and a map in the back cover of the booklet that geographically places the products.

66

A product will receive a special treatment. It will have multiple informational material published and it will even have special activities during the duration of the 1939 World’s Fair; this product is coffee. The published materials are: 1. A triptych titled “Brazil introduces to you its

Coffee” with images from the production process of coffee, which are 67 meant to show people how coffee is grown and brought to them. 2. A booklet titled “This is Brazilian Coffee,” with a full-color cover and an photo-essay on the production of coffee. This booklet has a higher production level than the triptych given that the images used in this booklet are of artistic quality. This photo-essay on production finishes with a note on the science of coffee, and how it cannot harm the consumer’s health and that in fact some studies had shown the benefits of coffee intake. 3. A short book titled “Brazilian Coffee in Word and

Picture” offers further information on the production and trading of coffee. It starts with a history about Brazilian coffee, to present the places where coffee is grown, to discuss the marketing of Brazilian coffee, to present the Departamento Nacional do Cafe (National Coffee

Department, or DNC). This institution is the responsible for the publishing of these informational materials on coffee, which is one of the duties of this Department, besides helping with the “stabilization of the industry,” which had seen its demand and prices fall.67

On August 31st of 1939 the World’s Fair held the special event

“Coffee Day.” Even though this was a special event that was organized by the Associated Coffee Industries of America, in the last day of their annual convention, a particular space was given to other coffee producing nations. In communications between the people in charge of

Special Events at the Fair and the representatives of American Coffee, it

67 “Brazil Coffee in Word in Picture,” New York World's Fair 1939-1940 records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. 68 was said that “Almost equally important in the national coffee picture, is the Pan American Coffee Bureau, an organization representing the coffee growing industries of Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador,

Nicaragua and Venezuela. In several of these countries the coffee institutes or Associations have a semi-official status. A representative of the Bureau will be one of the speakers [for “Coffee Day”]. 68 For the Fair to feature coffee in this manner was particularly important, not only for what it could do for U.S. consumption, but because, like Brazil, guest countries where coffee was being grown and processed were going to feature their products as well.

In this effort to call people’s attention to the activities of “Coffee

Day,” a coffee making competition had taken place on the same day, in which women were given coffee and coffee making equipment. What is even more interesting is that the winner of the competition had Carmen

Miranda, Brazilian actress and singer and the subject of our following chapter try her triumphant cup of coffee. Carmen Miranda was there as a guest of the Special Events Department of the World’s Fair.69

68 Letter from L. S. Rounds to Guy Robinson, Special Events Department, August 21 1939, New York World's Fair 1939-1940 records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. 69 Memorandum from Guy Robinson, Special Events to A. H. Uhl, Press, August 24 1939, New York World's Fair 1939-1940 records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. 69

The General Commissioner of the Brazilian Pavilion also decided to showcase other Brazilian products that reflected the diversification within national production, i.e. Brazil not only produced raw materials for export. It also produced luxury goods like silk, and other consumer goods like shoes, handbags, lingerie, medicinal plants, insecticides, chemical products, pharmaceutical products, wine, and liquors, among others.70 Finally the attendees to the Brazilian Pavilion would have the option of watching films about Brazil and its products when visiting the

Pavilion’s theater.71

70 Vidal, Armando. Pavilhao do Brasil. Feira Mundial de Nova York de 1939, New York: Brazil’s Representation to the New York World’s Fair 1939, 1939, pp. 64-6. 71 Vidal, Armando. O Brasil na Feira mundial de Nova York de 1939. Relatorio General, Rio de Janeiro: Impresa General, 1941, pp. 97-9. 70

A mentioned above, another important element to be presented in the Brazilian Pavilion was the relationship between the South

American country and the United States. On top of having a Good

Neighbor Hall, mentioned before, the Brazilian Pavilion had other ways to represent this bilateral relationship. There was an inscription on a wall of the Pavilion titled “Men and Facts that Contributed to the

Development of the Relations Between Brazil and the United States of

North America.” In it there are two columns of names and date, one for the United States and the other one for Brazil. There are direct parallels between political leaders of both countries, and between leaders and key events that fostered better bilateral relations. Inside of the Pavilion people could find two interesting maps on this relationship. The first one is a comparative map of Brazil and the United States for people to get an idea of how big Brazil was. And the second one is a map that had marked in it the cities of New York and Rio de Janeiro.

At the end of the day the attendee to the Brazilian Pavilion, hopefully, had a renewed impression about Brazil, a country that was a friend to the United States, a country that had a dynamic national industry and big potential for exports, and a country that much like the

United States was up-to-date with international trends on consumption, legislation, culture, etc. It is important to note that these material representations of what Brazil was, and could be, were created for an

American audience. The Commissioner General made this clear when

71 going through the effort of creating the Pavilion: it was important for the citizens of the United States to better understand Brazil. For Vidal it was clear that Americans had an impression that Brazil was a tropical country, and he took this into consideration when designing interior decorations and purposefully not presenting that image so Americans could see beyond that image: “Decor was conservative in order to separate Brazil from the image of a Caribbean country: with a population made from Indigenous and Black people, excessively tropical, and of an easy and lazy life. Brazil is a civil place, reflecting its Western origins.”72

Finally, it is hard to place exact moments of a direct connection between the Brazilian and U.S. government through the Pavilion because it was a project, almost between private institutions. Despite the fact the Armando Vidal represented Brazil’s Ministry of Labor,

Industry and Commerce in the organization of the Pavilion, Vidal himself explains that he was given practically complete freedom of action in this matter. And the U.S. corporation that organized the 1939 World’s Fair was made up of private individuals, that had government support, but did not necessarily followed the instructions of the U.S. State

Department. What is clear from my archival research is that the type of relationship that was promoted by the Good Neighbor Policy most definitely encouraged this type of exchange between the United States and Brazil, and Latin America in general. It was in the interest of the

72 Vidal, Armando. O Brasil na Feira mundial de Nova York de 1939, pp. 26-7. 72

Good Neighbor policymakers that Brazil had a pavilion that presented easy-to-remember factual information about Brazil.

In the next chapter I will have the opportunity to contrast representations of Brazil. The Pavilion was a creation mostly controlled by Brazilian nationals, what happened when an American industry created such images? What happened when that industry is Hollywood?

73

Chapter 4. Carmen Miranda: Entertainment promotes international relations

This chapter focuses on Brazilian singer and actress Carmen

Miranda. We will learn about her career in Brazil and how she transitioned into Broadway and Hollywood. Within a wartime Good

Neighbor Policy frame Miranda achieved great popularity in the United

States. She was a very talented comedic actress and a charismatic singer, and her talents made it possible for her to be noticed in Brazil.

Because her transition occurred during the war-years the association with politics is undeniable. We will not try to argue that she was an agent of the Brazilian government, yet she was part of bigger continental negotiations between Brazil and the United States. Miranda’s career is a very interesting example of how far the Good Neighbor Policy went, and at the same time, of how much agency Latin American countries had in the production of material completely created in the United States.

Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha was born in northern Portugal on February 9th, 1909, to immigrate to Brazil with her family in the following years. Carmen Miranda, as she became known in the Brazil of the 1930s, lived most of her life in downtown Rio de Janeiro. This put her in direct contact with the development and popularization of samba in the 1920s. During that decade Carmen Miranda pursued a career as

74 singer, which became a reality in the early 1930s. As Lisa Shaw points out, she quickly rose to fame in Brazil; by 1932 Miranda had her own weekly fifteen-minute slot on one of the most influential national radio stations. Shaw explains that Carmen Miranda became popular when the

Getúlio Vargas regime heavily supported Brazilian popular music. As mentioned before, this direct governmental support directly connected to the effort to re-construct a national consciousness entrenched in popular culture, especially music. In the second half of the 1930s Miranda became an actress, with appearances in Alo, Alo Brasil (1935) and

Banana da Terra (1939). In both films Miranda can be seen performing different musical numbers. In Banana da Terra Carmen Miranda uses for the first time her signature combination of the two-piece dress and the headpiece inspired by the ceremonial clothing of the baiana, Afro-

Brazilian women from the northeast state of Bahia.73

In 1939, during one of Carmen Miranda’s performances at the

Casino Urca in Rio de Janeiro, Broadway producer Lee Shubert decided she was going to be part of his new variety show. Carmen Miranda, and her band Bando da Lua, were hired and arrived in New York City that same year. The show was a hit, which prompted a U.S. tour during

1940; in this tour, Miranda performed on official reception in the

Brazilian Embassy in Washington, D.C. That same year, Miranda started her Hollywood film career at Twentieth Century-Fox, with a

73 Shaw, Lisa. Carmen Miranda, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, pp. 11-36. 75 musical appearance as herself in Down Argentine Way (1940), and a lead role in That Night in Rio (released in 1941).74 Her success was such that on March 24th, 1941, Carmen Miranda was signing her foot and handprints for her star in the Walk of Fame outside Los Angeles’

Chinese Theater, becoming the first Latin American to receive that recognition.75 Throughout World War II, Carmen Miranda’s fame kept growing to the point that in 1946 she was the highest paid actress in

Hollywood.76

Parallel to the rise of Carmen Miranda in the entertainment industry, the Good Neighbor Policy entered the war. The Office of the

Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (OCIAA) had within its Department of Information a Motion Picture Division. This Division was under the direction of John Hay Whitney, Vice President of the Museum of Modern

Art of New York City, President of its Film Library, and trustee of MoMA, along with Nelson Rockefeller. Whitney had also been part of the production company that financed the Technicolor Company and Gone

With the Wind. The Division dealt with both non-theatrical films and commercial ones. The non-theatrical films were a combination of newsreels, subject films, educational films on varied topics, from health to agriculture. An important allied to the work done by the Motion Picture

Division was Walt Disney. Him and Disney’s Studio were recruited by

74 Gil-Montero, Martha. Brazilian Bombshell: The Biography of Carmen Miranda. New York: D.I. Fine, 1989, pp. 83-96. 75 Gil-Montero. Brazilian Bombshell, p. 134. 76 Shaw. Carmen Miranda, pp. 76-7. 76 the OCIAA to help in the production of visual material. Nonetheless the cooperation did not stop there; Walt Disney, after a goodwill tour through

Latin America created two very successful animated commercial films:

Saludos Amigos (1942) and The Three Caballeros (1944).

For the commercial films, the OCIAA collaborated with California- based Motion Picture Society for the Americas (MPSA). With the help of

John Hay Whitney and partially funded by the OCIAA, this non-profit organization came to life on March 24th, 1941. According to a version of the document “The Story of the Motion Picture Society for the Americas” dated December 22, 1944, the non-profit corporation was an organization no different from other cultural organizations, however at the same time the difference was that its “[...] purpose, concept and operation was to bring a new idea to the relationship between government, (through the Co-ordinator[sic.] of the Inter-American

Affairs), industry, and the people from other nations.” The relevance of this particular corporation depended on how it approached the mission it was taking. The text continues to explain that the MPSA “[...] approached the industry in a cooperative effort – mutually advantageous

– rather than as an official representative of government with set formulas, directives and ‘orders from Washington.’ [...] The Society recognized that if the motion picture was most effectively to serve Inter-

American relations, it must preserve the free creative spirit of

77 entertainment which had made the motion picture the greatest force ever known in shaping world public opinion.”77

As we examine the production efforts behind the films in which

Carmen Miranda stared during World War II, we will see this pattern.

The MPSA was the institution in the middle of a juncture between

OCIAA’s wartime policies, Hollywood studios, and the governments of

Latin America. In this dynamic, as the document explains, there was a cooperative attitude between all these actors allowing the Brazilian government the space to manage the representations of Brazil.

The films: on and behind the screen

a. On Brazil

The following section took a selection of films in which Carmen

Miranda starred and official documents to analyze how Brazil was represented for an American audience; this time, the main creators of these images were American institutions, governmental and non- governmental.

The Twentieth Century-Fox film That Night in Rio (1941) directed by Irving Cummings, with Don Ameche and Alice Faye, along with

Carmen Miranda, in the leading roles, is a remake of a 1930s film Follies

Bergere. In it Don Ameche plays two characters the Baron Duarte (a

77 “The Story of the Motion Picture Society for the Americas,” December 22 1944, Special Collections, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences, p. 1. 78

Brazilian upper-class businessman) and Larry Martin (an American performer working in Rio de Janeiro). Alice Faye plays the Baroness

Cecilia Duarte, the Baron’s American wife, and Carmen Miranda plays

Carmen, a performer at the same casino as Larry Martin.

The film opens with a night scene of Rio de Janeiro in the middle of fireworks; this painted background is part of the stage that is used in the first scene with Carmen Miranda and Don Ameche. This is the only direct reference to images from Rio de Janeiro or Brazil, most of the scenes of the film occur in an indoor setting. The most direct references to Brazil are within the dialogues of the characters. In the opening musical number, after the audience is received by Carmen Miranda’s interpretation of the “Chica Chica Boom Chic,” Don Ameche’s Larry

Martin enters the scene in a military vehicle dressed in a white military suit, as he gets off the vehicle, he sings:

“My friends I extend felicitations to our South American relations.

May we never leave behind us all the common ties that bind us.

130 million people send regards to you, and before I return

there’s one thing you can do, come on and sing the Chica-Chica-

boom-chic […]”

Even though the reference is to a wider Good Neighbor Policy relationship, Larry Martin references how good those relations are at the end of the same musical number: “Senhoras e Senhores, for an

Americano to be received like this here in Rio is most gratifying, I thank

79 you [...].” 78 These are the most direct references to Brazil or Latin

America for the entirety of the film, the configuration of Rio de Janeiro as a vibrant city comes from the spaces where the plot develops, and from the occupation of the characters.

The indirect references that paint Rio as a modern city are the lavish level of production on the musical numbers that take place in the casino where Miranda and Ameche work. The proportions of this particular casino are impressive: a big center stage surrounded by tables, the Baron and Baroness visits the casino which implies is an exclusive establishment, and it has a separated fancy bar area. Another element that shows Rio as an important city is the presence of an active stock market place, and that indeed the Baron Duarte is a successful businessman that promotes Brazilian modernization through one of his ventures, a commercial airline. The Baron and Baroness’ home and clothing are another proof of the levels of luxury that could be found in

Rio de Janeiro; a very spacious and abundant mansion accompanies the beautiful clothing of these members of the Brazilian aristocracy.

The music used in the film, and in the numbers performed by

Carmen Miranda is true to Brazilian music. They all are inspired by samba, and even when an orchestra is part of the scene, the music still sounds Brazilian. Miranda performs her songs in both Portuguese and

English; in the same way her character interchanges the languages in

78 Cummings, Irving (dir.), That Night in Rio, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1941. 80 her dialogues. It is necessary to make notice of the different uses of the languages, which represent different moods of Miranda’s character.

Whenever Carmen was upset she would speak, or scream, in

Portuguese, which Ameche’s Larry Martin fully understood. On an interesting note about the nature of the two languages used by Carmen,

Larry Martin makes a difference, if Carmen used Portuguese when she was overwhelmed by feelings, in contrast, English was not a language for that: “Listen, listen, listen! I’ve been tryin’ to teach you English for six months. You’ll never learn unless you speak it. And you can’t speak it when you get excited. English isn’t that kind of a language. So don’t get excited!” 79 Could the non-American audience consider this as a reference to preconceived notions of people from the United States?

Could the audiences find this an interesting parallel between the more emotionally expressive Brazilian and the more contained American? All of these implicit messages about the nature of Brazil and intercontinental relations on the film were accompanied by the effort behind the scenes.

In 1944 the MPSA had no problems recognizing the initial difficulties that Hollywood studios had to faithfully represent Latin

America: “With respect to picture content, it became apparent early that more accurate interpretations and characterizations were needed due to the lack of hemispheric information.” In order to face this issue the

79 Cummings, Irving (dir.), That Night in Rio. 81

MPSA pushed for the integration of Latin American experts in to the

Code Authority 80 to censor any content that could be considered offensive by the countries to the south of the Rio Grande. After this, the studios took a similar action; they decided to hire their own “foreign manager committees,” essentially censoring experts, to avoid controversies. These studio employees worked closely with the MPSA, under Addison Durland’s coordination, to “[...] eliminate in pictures anything that might be offensive to the people of Latin America.”81

Many actions were taken by Twentieth Century-Fox to do the latter. Miranda’s first film at the company, Down Argentine Way (1940), had created a series of problems for them. As author Martha Gil-

Montero explains, even though the movie did well in the United States, in Argentina it provoked all sorts of criticisms based on how ignorant

Hollywood was of true Argentinian culture. In the film none of the characters sings, or dances, to what could be considered music from the

South American country: Carmen Miranda sang in Portuguese about rhumbas under the pampa moon, Don Ameche sang a rhumba about orchids (a tropical flower), and there was a fiesta where the cast used the word “Olé” an expression only sang by Spaniards in Spanish music. 82 So, for Miranda and Twentieth Century-Fox’s second film

80 EXPLAIN WHAT THIS IS HAYS CODE AUTHORITY 81 “The Story of the Motion Picture Society for the Americas,” December 22 1944, Special Collections, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences, pp. 6-7. 82 Gil-Montero. Brazilian Bombshell, p. 97-8. 82 about a Latin American country, That Night in Rio, there were important changes to the production of the film.

In general terms the MPSA assisted studios with “[...] research, background footage, visiting talent and consultation on script general authenticity.” 83 In particular for That Night in Rio, the effort to keep

“script authenticity” involved Twentieth Century-Fox, the MPSA, and the

Brazilian government. In an official document from the Brazilian Foreign

Relation Ministry to the Department of Press and Propaganda (DIP) on

December 4 of 1940, the Brazilian Embassy in Washington was notified that Twentieth Century-Fox was soon releasing The Road to Rio (the alternative project name of what became That Night in Rio). In this same document, a previous Office was referenced. In this fundamental document for the argument of Brazilian agency in American-made material, a letter sent to Oswaldo Aranha, Minister of Foreign Relations back in Rio de Janeiro on November 8th 1940, in it the Brazilian

Embassy was recognizing their direct involvement in the process of editing the script for That Night in Rio. The letter to Aranha explains that the Embassy “suggested different necessary modifications for a better acceptance of the film.” Among those changes there was a clear intention of how the Brazilian did not want their country to be represented, “They substituted a scene with black people dancing in it and different passages with Spanish music; in the same way they

83 “The Story of the Motion Picture Society for the Americas,” December 22 1944, Special Collections, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences, pp. 38. 83 changed various characters’ names. [...] With the modifications given, the film will contribute to Brazilian propaganda and especially for Rio de

Janeiro’s tourism.”84 The document “Vital Statistics” for That Night in Rio also details that the Brazilian Embassy completely approved the music to be used in the film, yet not without change suggestions. 85 In a

Memorandum from the production files of That Night in Rio, the Brazilian authorities pointed to problems with the language used in one of the songs of the film: “From among the songs presented for approval to

Brazilian authorities as part of the film, was one called ‘Buenas Noches.’

‘But that’s Spanish,’ was the complaint, ‘and in Brazil we speak

Portuguese – the song will have to be rewritten.”86 And it was.

In the same Memorandum there is mention of the efforts made by

Twentieth Century-Fox in hiring their own foreign managers to avoid issues with representation. For That Night in Rio, Gilbert Souto,

Brazilian newspaperman who worked as the technical advisor in the film, translated the song “Buenas Noches” to “Boa Noite.” 87 Souto worked with Dante Orgalini and Zacharias Yaconelli; Yaconelli was

Twentieth Century-Fox linguistic expert, born in Sao Paulo, he had “[...] worked in the film industry preparing foreign versions of Hollywood’s

84 Letter to Oswaldo Aranha from the Brazilian Embassy in Washington, D.C., November 8 1940, Itamaraty Arquivo Historico. 85 “Vital Statistics,” February 6 1941, That Night in Rio, Core Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences, p. 2. 86 Memorandum by Dannenbaum, 1940/1941 (no specific date on document), Core Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences. 87 Memorandum by Dannenbaum, 1940/1941 (no specific date on document), Core Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences. 84 cinematic efforts,” 88 and for the last year he had become Carmen

Miranda’s English coach.

The Brazilian government was an active presence in wartime

Hollywood. In these documents about the production of That Night in

Rio, it is revealed that the Brazilian Consul in Los Angeles was constantly inviting Carmen Miranda, and other Brazilian, to a variety of social engagements. Therefore, even if Miranda was not an official government agent actively working to promote Brazilian propaganda in

Hollywood’s film industry, there were other people behind the scenes employed for that purpose. Carmen Miranda was an unexpected and unofficial goodwill ambassadress for Brazil; her characters might not have been breaking old stereotypes about Latin Americans, yet with her success as a performer she was showing that Latin Americans were as talented and worthy co-stars to the people of the United States.

88 “Vital Statistics,” February 6 1941, That Night in Rio, Core Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences, p. 4. 85

b. Beyond Carmen Miranda

Twentieth Century-Fox was not the only Hollywood studio making films with Brazilian references in them. The records of the MPSA show similar activities and efforts by other studios to ensure authenticity about

Brazil in their film projects. For example, in 1944 Addison Durland from the MPSA wrote to Robert North from Republic Productions, Inc., that casting a Mexican actor to play a young Brazilians would not be an issue. Durland trusted the actor in question could do his interpretation in a respectful way, however he recommended make explicit the “mixed- race” background of the character: if he was of Brazilian father and

Mexican mother, then, any commentary on the physical appearance of the actor could not be dimmed as inauthentic.89

Another action highlighted by “The Story of the Motion Picture

Society for the Americas” is how their efforts connected them to those key Brazilian citizens that actively shaped Brazilian national sentiments.

“Several leading composers of Latin America were brought to Hollywood through the efforts of the Society. From Brazil, for example, came Ary

Barrosa[sic.], creator of Brazil’s greatest popular music, and Heitor Villa-

Lobos, one of the hemisphere’s leading composers and conductors. The

Society is making complete records of his concerts, which comprise

Villa-Lobos’ own compositions, available to each studio, thus satisfying

89 Letter to Robert North (Republic Productions Inc.) from Addison Durland (MPSA), April 20 1944, Special Collections, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences. 86 a known demand for more orientation on the distinctive melodies and rhythms of the other American republics.” 90 Ari Barroso, one of the favorite composers of the Vargas regime because of his song about the beauty and better aspects of Brazilian society, participated in multiple film projects associated with Carmen Miranda. Barroso was the composer of the songs in Portuguese performed by Miranda in

Greenwich Village (1942), The Gang’s All Here (1943) and Something for the Boys (1944). In The Gang’s All Here, Carmen Miranda performs

Barroso’s most famous song “Brazil (Aquarela do Brasil),” a song that from its release in the1930s Brazil was considered to be Brazil’s unofficial national anthem.

The MPSA not only created a music library with true Brazilian music for consultation, the non-profit had in its records multiple editions of booklets about Brazil. These books came from two different organizations, the Pan American Union, and the Brazilian Government

Trade Bureau (an international agency of the Brazilian Ministry of Labor,

Industry and Commerce in New York City, with the mission of giving information about Brazil to businessmen and travelers)91. The booklets published by the Pan American Union were part of larger series on the following topics: Countries, Cities, Commodities, Commercial Pan

America (“A monthly mimeographed review dealing with economic and

90 “The Story of the Motion Picture Society for the Americas,” December 22 1944, Special Collections, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences, pp. 20. 91 “Brazil Today,” Brazilian Government Trade Bureau, 1941/1942, Special Collections, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences. 87 financial subjects”), Foreign trade series (“Latest foreign trade statistics of the Latin American Republics, compiled from official sources”),

Panorama (“A mimeographed review devoted to matters of interest in inter-American intellectual cooperation”), and Bibliographic series

(“Bibliographies on Pan American topics, including the life of Simón

Bolivar, Inter-American Relations, History and Description, Maps, and

Library Science.”)92 The booklets on Brazil held by the MPSA records were “Sao Paulo” (1934), “Brazil” (1939), and “Rio de Janeiro” (1940).

The “Brazilian Bulletin” published by the Brazilian Government Trade

Bureau is more focused on mostly economic topics, such as trade, investment, and economic growth information. Another booklet by the same Bureau titled “Brazil Today” not only gives economic information to its readers, it also added information on infrastructure, political figures, Brazil abroad news, Brazil on the press, and facts about Brazil

(total amount of people, size of country, other data, etc.)93

The OCIAA and the MPSA, as mentioned before, worked with

Latin American government officials to avoid any problems. This relationship extended beyond local consulates, or the Brazilian

Embassy. In the records of the OCIAA there are a few references of encounters with directors of the DIP. These encounters happened when the directors where visiting the United States during the War. In the

92 “Rio de Janeiro,” Pan American Union, 1940, Special Collections, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences. 93 “Brazil Today,” Brazilian Government Trade Bureau, 1941/1942, Special Collections, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences. 88 document “Project Authorization: Trip of Dr. Israel Souto to the United

States” from 1943, mentions the reasons why the Motion Picture

Division of the OCIAA should pay for the trip of Israel Souto, the director of the DIP at that point. One of those reasons was that Souto could give his impressions to the Hollywood producers on the films made in the

United States that are exhibited in Brazil to improve their market in

Brazil. An additional demonstration of how the Brazilian government still had an important say on how its country was represented, giving way to a collaborative relationship between the American Republics instead of a one-way imposed propaganda material.

c. On Latin America: a comparison

Carmen Miranda was part of the main cast in a third movie set in

Latin America, Week-End in Havana (1942) 94 . This film, like the previous two, went through a similar process of review to avoid problems with the other Americans. In the same way that the Brazilian government was included in the process of review, Cuban dignitaries were also part of the production of Week-End in Havana. The Cuban

Consul in Los Angeles, Oscar Presmanes, not only approved the script of the film he also made multiple visits to the movie-set during the filming. On his first visit after the approval of the script, it is said that the

94 Directed by Walter Lang. The main cast is: Alice Faye as Nan Spencer, John Payne as Jay Williams, Carmen Miranda as Rosita Rivas, and Cesar Romero as Monte Blanca. 89

Cuban Consul referred to Week-End in Havana as “[...] the first picture that has been made about my country that does justice to its beauty and charm.” 95 And in a second visit, the Consul paid the highest compliments to the sets of the film: “I wish we had something like this in

Cuba.”96

Week-End in Havana had more direct references to Havana than

That Night in Rio had of Rio de Janeiro. The theme song of the film, performed in English by Carmen Miranda describes Havana as a place perfect for a vacation (which is the reason why Alice Faye’s character is going there)

How would you like to spend the weekend in Havana?

How would you like to see the Caribbean shore?

Come on and run away over on Sunday where the view and the

music is tropical

You hurry back to your office on Monday but you won’t be the

same anymore

How would you like to go where nights are so romantic?

Where stars are dancing rhumbas in the sky

If you do like to spend the weekend in Havana, you better pack

up all of your summer clothes

I see you down at Sloppy Joe’s

95 “Vital Statistics,” April 21 1942, Week-End in Havana, Core Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences. 96 Press Release, 1942 (no specific date on document), Week-End in Havana, Core Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences. 90

So long boy, and ship ahoy! Havana!97

As the plot of the film transitioned into Havana, the audience is presented with a series of images from Havana, its shore, signature buildings, and other urban spaces. And throughout the action of the film exterior images of Havana are used to represent the sugar fields, and the suburban areas around Havana. In the same way that That Night in

Rio represented the nightlife of the city, Week-End in Havana had very luxurious casinos and hotels as background for the plot of the film.

97 Lang, Walter. Week-End in Havana, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1942. 91

Regardless of the active governmental participation and of a technical advisor, as with Down Argentine Way, there were many criticisms about the selection of the music used in the film, the main issue was the fact that a Brazilian actress was singing about Havana in

Portuguese to music that did not even appear inspired by Afro-Cuban sounds.98 The effort of showing Cuba as a vibrant city fell short when it came to represent its culture authentically. The officials of the MPSA found no issues with the script of the film, however there was no comment on the music of the film, which, was done for That Night in Rio.

Why was not done for Week-End in Havana? There seems to be no clear answer, not from the documents found in the archival research, nor from other authors writing on similar topics.

As this chapter on Carmen Miranda and Hollywood representations of Brazil, and Latin America, closes it is necessary to go

98 Gil-Montero. Brazilian Bombshell, p. 122-5. 92 back to our starting point. Miranda was not an official agent of the

Brazilian government sent to the United States to promote national interest, she was an unintended Brazilian ambassadress. Her career in the U.S. during World War II is a very interesting way to read Good

Neighbor sentiments, not only through the actual messages of the films, but also through their production process. The fact that the Brazilian government had different ways to become part of the production of films like That Night in Rio show that even when a product was completely created within the United States, the Latin American country had some power over how it was going to be perceived by American audiences

(and the world). A positive reaction was crucial for the international aspirations of the Vargas regime, whether that was being recognized as a modern country by foreign audiences, or the development of the national touristic industry (and all the industries and services that surround it). As for the United States, if Brazilian officials felt that

Hollywood did justice to their country by presenting a positive image of it, this most certainly would make easier the shift toward the Allied forces, and consequently, away from the Axis threat.

93

Conclusion

By the end of World War II the United States had managed to secure strategic and commercial treaties with Brazil. The South

American country left neutrality, declared war on Germany and Italy, and sent troops across the Atlantic to fight alongside allied forces. Because of this, Brazil was able to keep its national economy growing during and after the War, and most importantly for the national future it had secured the construction of the steel mill that would kick start Brazilian industrialization to new levels. Again, the Good Neighbor years fostered a unique period of relations between the United States and Latin

America. For around a decade between the 1930s and 1940s, we were

ALL Americans.

As we saw in Chapter One, when Brazil and the United States started their wartime negotiations, they were both countries going through transformations. Brazil had started its changes withing a new regime in 1930. This regime would re-construct a national feeling based on a variety of reforms, and the utilization of popular culture. Central to this development was the control taken by the government itself in order to make sure that no unwanted resistance to this transformation reached a big audience. The United States was going through its own transformations in its Depression-era society. Most importantly for our

94 work is the change in foreign policy. The announcement and development of the Good Neighbor Policy cemented these changes, which only became more important with the beginning of war in Europe and the necessity to create a continental alliance.

In Chapter Two we established that the United States and Brazil had had a mostly cordial international relationship before World War II.

The relationship between these two countries only gets tense when either is not getting the desired response, especially during the negotiations for Brazil to break its neutrality. However, as we saw in that chapter, the relationships that carried many of the changes that promoted a coming together of these countries were not necessarily of diplomatic origin. There were multiple people and agencies promoting the cultivation of this relationship in the periphery of governmental action. And even more interestingly, this happened both in the United

States and in Brazil, giving space for changes in policy and procedures on site.

In Chapter Three, after analyzing to the material created on and for the Brazilian Pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, it became clear that its main purpose was to create an image that would better represent Brazil at that point in history: a strong national state that was constantly moving towards modernization. This motion forward was accompanied by the growth of its national industry and commerce capabilities, which seemed limitless. The material at the Pavilion was to

95 show these possibilities in theory (in speeches) and in practice (the actual facts that came from Brazil). And on top of this, the non-litigious character of the relationship between Brazil and the United States would help to keep up this image of an ever-growing Brazil as not a new continental partner, but as a valuable asset for the future.

Chapter 4 most relevant contributions to this discussion on Good

Neighbor Policy relations was to show the real penetration and willingness of everyone involved in the war effort to promote a

“unification” of the continent against aggression. The ability of the

Brazilian government to advance its agenda, and the eagerness of

American institutions to do as much as they could, was an interesting find for the evidence of this chapter.

Finally, as projections of this research, it is my appreciation that there still is much to be known about Brazilian agency in this period.

Because of what has been said before, the actions of the United States, no matter the difference of military or economic might, still had to respect the sovereignty of the other country, especially one with Brazil’s size and with a leader like Getúlio Vargas. It is necessary to further study local actions and reaction to changes in continental dynamics, and how Latin American countries have been able to play those changes in favor of national governments or private groups. And it would be very interesting to have comparative studies on how the United States took

96 different approaches to each Latin American country. As we briefly saw, there were differences in policy consistency between countries, it would be interesting to understand why. Why was the same non-profit organization more cautious about changing projects to please other governments? Or was this authentic representation more important to

Brazil than it was for Cuba at that moment of history?

97

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Archives Core Collection, Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences. CPDOC, Getulio Vargas Foundation, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. New York World's Fair 1939-1940 records, New York Public Library. Records of the Inter-American Office RG229, National Archives in College Park, MD. Special Collections Department, Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences. tamaraty Arquivo Historico, Brazilian Foreign Relations Ministry in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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Solomon, Charles. "The Disney Studio at War." In Animation: Art and Industry, edited by Furniss Maureen, 145-50. Indiana University Press, 2012. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.tufts.edu/stable/j.ctt16gz6nm.17. Macedo, Oigres and Eduardo Verri Lopes. “Pavilhão de Brasil na Feira Mundial de 1939-40, Passeio virtual por novas imagens,” II Encontro Nacional de Estudos da Imagen, Maio 2009, Londrina-PR.

Books Browning, Barbara. Samba: Resistance in Motion, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995. Cavalcanti, Lauro. When Brazil was Modern: Guide to Architecture, 1928-1960, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2003. Cramer, Gisela and Ursula Prutsch. ¡Américas Unidas!: Nelson A. Rockefeller's Office of Inter-American Affairs (1940-46), Madrid: Iberoamericana Vervuert, 2012. Gil-Montero, Martha. Brazilian Bombshell: The Biography of Carmen Miranda. New York: D.I. Fine, 1989. Herschmann, Micael and Carlos Alberto M. Pereira. A Invenção do Brasil Moderno: Medicina, Educação e Engenharia Nos Anos 20-30. Rio de Janeiro: Rocco, 1994. Hess, Carol A. Representing the Good Neighbor: Music, Difference, and the Pan American Dream. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. Hirst, Mônica. Brasil-Estados Unidos : Desencontros E Afinidades, Rio De Janeiro, RJ: FGV Editora, 2009. Kargon, Robert H, Karen Fiss, Morris Low, and Arthur P Molella. World's Fairs on the Eve of War : Science Technology & Modernity, 1937-1942. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015. Levine, Robert M. and Genevieve Naylor. The Brazilian Photographs of Genevieve Naylor, 1940-1942, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998. Lochery, Neill. Brazil: The Fortunes of War: World War II and the Making of Modern Brazil, New York: Basic Books, 2014. McCann, Bryan. Hello, Hello Brazil: Popular Music in the Making of Modern Brazil, Durham [N.C.]: Duke University Press, 2004. Mendonça, Ana Rita. Carmen Miranda Foi a Washington. Rio De Janeiro: Editora Record, 1999. Sadlier, Darlene J. Americans all: Good Neighbor Cultural Diplomacy in World War II, 1st ed. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2012.

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Sadlier, Darlene J. Brazil Imagined: 1500 to the Present. 1st ed. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2008. Shaw, Lisa and British Film Institute. Carmen Miranda, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Shaw, Lisa. The Social History of the Brazilian Samba, Aldershot, Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, 1999. Vianna, Hermano. The Mystery of Samba: Popular Music & National Identity in Brazil. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999. Williams, Daryle. Culture Wars in Brazil: The First Vargas Regime, 1930-1945, Durham: Duke University Press, 2001.

Dissertations Macedo, Oigres Leici Cordeiro de. “Construção diplomática, missão arquitectônica: os pavilhões do Brasil nas feiras internacionais de Saint Louis (1904) e Nova York (1939), Tese (Doutorado – Área de Concentração: História e Fundamentos da Arquitectura e do Urbanismo), FAUUSP, 2012. Santiago Stockler, Julia. “The Invention of Samba and National Identity in Brazil,” Working Papers in Nationalism Studies, Institute of Governance, University of Edinburgh, nº 2, 2011, n/p.

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