Description
In the wake of African decolonization, Brazil attempted to forge connections with newly independent countries. In the early 1960s it launched an effort to establish diplomatic ties with Africa; in the 1970s it undertook trade campaigns to open African markets to Brazilian technology. Hotel Tropico reveals the perceptions, particularly regarding race, of the diplomats and intellectuals who traveled to Africa on Brazil's behalf. Jerry Davila analyzes how their actions were shaped by ideas of Brazil as an emerging world power, ready to expand its sphere of influence; of Africa as the natural place to assert that influence, given its historical slave-trade ties to Brazil; and of twentieth-century Brazil as a "racial democracy," a uniquely harmonious mix of races and cultures. While the experiences of Brazilian policymakers and diplomats in Africa reflected the logic of racial democracy, they also exposed ruptures in this interpretation of Brazilian identity. Did Brazil share a "lusotropical" identity with Portugal and its African colonies, so that it was bound to support Portuguese colonialism at the expense of Brazil's ties with African nations? Or was Brazil a country of "Africans of every color," compelled to support decolonization in its role as a natural leader in the South Atlantic? Drawing on interviews with retired Brazilian diplomats and intellectuals, Davila shows the Brazilian belief in racial democracy to be about not only race but also Portuguese ethnicity.
The attempts by Brazilian diplomats and intellectuals to establish ties with Africa during and after decolonization reveal the contradictions in Brazil's idea of itself as a "racial democracy"
About the Author
Reviews
"This book is no standard diplomatic history. It falls within the genre of work-mostly related to the study of US foreign relations-that seeks to show how domestic race relations have left a profound mark on the conduct of foreign policy. . . . [A] well-written and insightful book. . . ." - Philip Chrimes, International Affairs
"[T]his is a solidly researched and colourfully written study, and its broad geographical and thematic scope should appeal to a wide readership both within and beyond the confines of Afro- and Luso-Brazilian studies." - Ori Preuss, Journal of Latin American Studies
"Jerry Davila's insightful and very well-written book has arrived at an opportune moment. . . . The considerable strengths of Hotel Tropico rest on Davila's solid prior scholarship on Brazil's race relations, unprecedented access to comparatively recent Brazilian diplomatic and Portuguese governmental archives, extended interviews with key players over five years, and broad institutional and collegial ties in several countries. The research is meticulous and copiously documented, the argumentation is skillful and clear, and the style is lively, detailed and almost novelistic in its narrative." - Wayne A. Selcher, The Americas
"At a time when Brazil is garnering widespread attention as a global economic and geopolitical power, this book provides an indispensable historical framework to understand the conditions that have led to this status. Africa in fact served as a platform for Brazil to assert itself as an emerging world power in the 1960s. Davila offers one of the most sophisticated and in-depth analyses of Brazil-Africa relations to date. One of the highlights of his book are the interviews, which capture quite vividly the complicated nexus among affect, culture, race, myth, desire, memory, and foreign policy." - Fernando Arenas, American Historical Review
"Jerry Davila has transformed the history of Brazil's diplomatic initiatives in Africa during the era of decolonization, not only adding depth and fascinating detail to this story but also showing how the pursuit of a special Brazil-Africa relationship both drew upon Brazil's claims to be a 'racially democratic' nation and laid bare the contradictions in those claims."-Barbara Weinstein, author of For Social Peace in Brazil: Industrialists and the Remaking of the Working Class in Sao Paulo, 1920-1964
"Hotel Tropico is a superb book. It takes on broad themes such as race and imperialism, modifies much of the current knowledge about Brazil's dictatorship, and suggests a reevaluation of that form of government in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. Hotel Tropico will be read not only by scholars of Brazil and Latin America but also by those studying Africa, empire, and postcolonialism."-Jeffrey Lesser, author of A Discontented Diaspora: Japanese Brazilians and the Meanings of Ethnic Militancy, 1960-1980
"[T]his is a solidly researched and colourfully written study, and its broad geographical and thematic scope should appeal to a wide readership both within and beyond the confines of Afro- and Luso-Brazilian studies." -- Ori Preuss * Journal of Latin American Studies *
"At a time when Brazil is garnering widespread attention as a global economic and geopolitical power, this book provides an indispensable historical framework to understand the conditions that have led to this status. Africa in fact served as a platform for Brazil to assert itself as an emerging world power in the 1960s. Davila offers one of the most sophisticated and in-depth analyses of Brazil-Africa relations to date. One of the highlights of his book are the interviews, which capture quite vividly the complicated nexus among affect, culture, race, myth, desire, memory, and foreign policy." -- Fernando Arenas * American Historical Review *
"Jerry Davila's insightful and very well-written book has arrived at an opportune moment. . . . The considerable strengths of Hotel Tropico rest on Davila's solid prior scholarship on Brazil's race relations, unprecedented access to comparatively recent Brazilian diplomatic and Portuguese governmental archives, extended interviews with key players over five years, and broad institutional and collegial ties in several countries. The research is meticulous and copiously documented, the argumentation is skillful and clear, and the style is lively, detailed and almost novelistic in its narrative." -- Wayne A. Selcher * The Americas *
"This book is no standard diplomatic history. It falls within the genre of work-mostly related to the study of US foreign relations-that seeks to show how domestic race relations have left a profound mark on the conduct of foreign policy. . . . [A] well-written and insightful book. . . ." -- Philip Chrimes * International Affairs *
Book Information
ISBN 9780822348559
Author Jerry Davila
Format Paperback
Page Count 328
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 454g
The attempts by Brazilian diplomats and intellectuals to establish ties with Africa during and after decolonization reveal the contradictions in Brazil's idea of itself as a "racial democracy"
About the Author
Jerry Davila is Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He is the author of Diploma of Whiteness: Race and Social Policy in Brazil, 1917-1945, also published by Duke University Press.
Reviews
"This book is no standard diplomatic history. It falls within the genre of work-mostly related to the study of US foreign relations-that seeks to show how domestic race relations have left a profound mark on the conduct of foreign policy. . . . [A] well-written and insightful book. . . ." - Philip Chrimes, International Affairs
"[T]his is a solidly researched and colourfully written study, and its broad geographical and thematic scope should appeal to a wide readership both within and beyond the confines of Afro- and Luso-Brazilian studies." - Ori Preuss, Journal of Latin American Studies
"Jerry Davila's insightful and very well-written book has arrived at an opportune moment. . . . The considerable strengths of Hotel Tropico rest on Davila's solid prior scholarship on Brazil's race relations, unprecedented access to comparatively recent Brazilian diplomatic and Portuguese governmental archives, extended interviews with key players over five years, and broad institutional and collegial ties in several countries. The research is meticulous and copiously documented, the argumentation is skillful and clear, and the style is lively, detailed and almost novelistic in its narrative." - Wayne A. Selcher, The Americas
"At a time when Brazil is garnering widespread attention as a global economic and geopolitical power, this book provides an indispensable historical framework to understand the conditions that have led to this status. Africa in fact served as a platform for Brazil to assert itself as an emerging world power in the 1960s. Davila offers one of the most sophisticated and in-depth analyses of Brazil-Africa relations to date. One of the highlights of his book are the interviews, which capture quite vividly the complicated nexus among affect, culture, race, myth, desire, memory, and foreign policy." - Fernando Arenas, American Historical Review
"Jerry Davila has transformed the history of Brazil's diplomatic initiatives in Africa during the era of decolonization, not only adding depth and fascinating detail to this story but also showing how the pursuit of a special Brazil-Africa relationship both drew upon Brazil's claims to be a 'racially democratic' nation and laid bare the contradictions in those claims."-Barbara Weinstein, author of For Social Peace in Brazil: Industrialists and the Remaking of the Working Class in Sao Paulo, 1920-1964
"Hotel Tropico is a superb book. It takes on broad themes such as race and imperialism, modifies much of the current knowledge about Brazil's dictatorship, and suggests a reevaluation of that form of government in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. Hotel Tropico will be read not only by scholars of Brazil and Latin America but also by those studying Africa, empire, and postcolonialism."-Jeffrey Lesser, author of A Discontented Diaspora: Japanese Brazilians and the Meanings of Ethnic Militancy, 1960-1980
"[T]his is a solidly researched and colourfully written study, and its broad geographical and thematic scope should appeal to a wide readership both within and beyond the confines of Afro- and Luso-Brazilian studies." -- Ori Preuss * Journal of Latin American Studies *
"At a time when Brazil is garnering widespread attention as a global economic and geopolitical power, this book provides an indispensable historical framework to understand the conditions that have led to this status. Africa in fact served as a platform for Brazil to assert itself as an emerging world power in the 1960s. Davila offers one of the most sophisticated and in-depth analyses of Brazil-Africa relations to date. One of the highlights of his book are the interviews, which capture quite vividly the complicated nexus among affect, culture, race, myth, desire, memory, and foreign policy." -- Fernando Arenas * American Historical Review *
"Jerry Davila's insightful and very well-written book has arrived at an opportune moment. . . . The considerable strengths of Hotel Tropico rest on Davila's solid prior scholarship on Brazil's race relations, unprecedented access to comparatively recent Brazilian diplomatic and Portuguese governmental archives, extended interviews with key players over five years, and broad institutional and collegial ties in several countries. The research is meticulous and copiously documented, the argumentation is skillful and clear, and the style is lively, detailed and almost novelistic in its narrative." -- Wayne A. Selcher * The Americas *
"This book is no standard diplomatic history. It falls within the genre of work-mostly related to the study of US foreign relations-that seeks to show how domestic race relations have left a profound mark on the conduct of foreign policy. . . . [A] well-written and insightful book. . . ." -- Philip Chrimes * International Affairs *
Book Information
ISBN 9780822348559
Author Jerry Davila
Format Paperback
Page Count 328
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 454g
