Abguar Bastos offers his interpretation of Brazilian modernism as a “yearning for the liberation of national thought.” The writer understands modern art as a “process” that takes on various forms throughout its course. In Brazil, for example, it manifests as an aesthetic renewal of local expression that exalts nationalism through “exaggerated symbolism” (perfectly illustrated by the “verde-amarelismo” trend practiced by the Grupo da Anta) and, in contrast, a brasilidad [Brazilian-ness] that, in his judgment, would propose a “less genuine” national synthesis that was ready to “resolve the problems of the earth”; this brasilidad is exemplified by the Pau-Brasil movement.

This essay by Abguar Bastos, a writer from the state of Pará, brings to light the debate and obvious ideological polarization that was unleashed in Brazil in the 1920s due to the “modernist” movement. The contenders were a reactionary nationalism and a “cannibalistic” philosophy, led by Oswald de Andrade through his manifesto (1928) and the magazine Revista de Antropofagia (in its two editions), which defended the concept that “Brazilian man should be integrated into the concept of universal man.” The author, who was a supporter of the second group, was one of the proponents of Oswaldian anthropophagy within the equatorial zone of Brazil (Belém do Pará); in this essay for the book Testamento de uma geração, Bastos transcribes a letter sent from Berlin by the poet Raul Bopp (although without mentioning a date). In it, the author of Cobra Norato (1929?31), one of the most impactful “anthrophagic” works, defines natives as the “cement” of the Brazilian nation, advocating for the “return of the natural man, without verbosity and artifice.” The letter, written as a manifesto, proposes that “legitimate” Brazilian art should come from the Amazonian region, “steeped in the humus and replete with the sounds of the rainforest.” On Bopp’s terms, it would suffice to “experience and collect” the richest elements of the national vocabulary, which represent “the simple and genuine manner in which the people speak.”

[For a complementary reading, see another text by the author on this topic in the ICAA digital archive: “Manifesto Flami-n’-assu” (doc. no. 1111436)].