The Pride of Miscegenation

Brazil has the world's eighth largest population, the twelfth largest gross national product, and it takes up nearly half of South America; yet Americans as a whole know little of this huge nation's origins and history, its culture and personality. Out of admiration as much as acumen, Publisher Alfred A. Knopf has filled the gap by publishing two volumes of the classic social history of Brazil written by Gilberto Freyre, 63, Brazil's great scholar.

The first volume, written in 1933 and translated into English in 1946, dealt with the Portuguese colonization and the establishment of Negro slavery on the coffee and sugar plantations. Freyre's second volume, written in 1936, has now been translated by Harriet de Onis, mother of the New York Times's Brazil cor respondent. Titled The Mansions and the Shanties (Knopf; $10), the book traces the growth of the cities in the 19th century and the breakdown of slavery (formally abolished in 1888), and cheerfully argues that a major reason for Brazil's immense vitality is miscegenation. "Perhaps in no other country," writes Freyre, "is it possible to rise so quickly from one social class to another, from one race to another, from one region to another."

Freedom from Father. In the Brazil of the early 1800's, the wealthy whites, who lived in mansions with their families and slaves, were completely segregated from the free Negroes, who lived in shanties. The mansions dominated the cities. Owners ventured as little as possible from their homes, which were much like richly furnished prisons. Their wives and daughters lived in secluded rooms without win dows and glimpsed the outside world only through shutters and grilles, "which separated the home from the street as though from an enemy."

But the British, who came to exploit the rich Brazilian market, broke down many of the social barriers. They "unshadowed" Brazil, leaving it open, plain and more English. Shutters were replaced by glass windows; verandas were built so that the mansion women at least could look out on the street. The streets were paved, lighted, and generally "emancipated" from the wealthy.

This new "Europeanization" also liberated Brazil's sons, who in patriarchal Brazil had been completely at the mercy of their tyrannical fathers. Under the influence of European liberalism, they rebelled and deserted family business for the law or the arts. They were even determined to look as little as possible like their hearty fathers. They cultivated ill health and the appearance, writes Freyre, of the "conventional Jesus of the Crucifixion." It became the fashion to die young. "To die old was for the bourgeoisie, for the rich planters, for the obese vicars, for the favorite plantation slaves. 'Geniuses' died young and, if possible, of tuberculosis."

Softening Antagonisms. But if the British and other Europeans helped break down patriarchal society, they also intensified racial conflict. With proper Victorianism, they managed to ban such rowdy Negro amusements as processions, carnivals and nude bathing. The Negroes rebelled; their energies, which once had been released in play, were now diverted to violence. A tropical civilization was drained of too much of its color and spontaneity, concludes Freyre. "Black frock coats, black boots, black top hats, black carriages sombered our existence almost overnight, made of our attire almost heavy mourning."

What saved the nation from racial and class warfare was miscegenation, which, according to Freyre, "softened the antagonisms between opposites." At a time when Brazil lacked a genuine middle class, the mulattoes served as one.

In other countries, the mulatto has usually been classed and treated as a Negro; at best, he might rise to the rank of a minor civil servant. But in Brazil, he was often accepted as white by the Portuguese colonizers who created him. Thus the mulattoes were able to escape the slum shanties and make careers among the whites. They grew in numbers until "today," writes Freyre, "it is almost impossible to find anthropologically pure Africans or Negroes." And they rose in society by making an effort to please, becoming famed for their easy laugh, "a laugh no longer servile like that of the black, but, at most, obsequious and, above all, establishing a climate of intimacy."

Brazil's greatest men have come from the areas of greatest miscegenation. In fact, contends Freyre, the racial dynamism created by miscegenation has contributed to the most exciting civilizations: Egypt, Greece, Rome.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.