In the opinion of the author, the visual artist and architect of São Paulo Flávio de Carvalho (1899–1973) was a radical innovator in Brazilian culture for his daring experiments that earned him the nickname “loco” [crazy].
The Brazilian sociologist and congressman Gilberto Freyre (1900−87) was one of the intellectuals who exerted the greatest influence in his country during the first half of the twentieth century, especially regarding racial issues. Around 1933, Freyre received international recognition for his major work Casa-Grande e Senzala, published in English as The Masters and the Slaves, the first of a series of three works that included Sobrados e mucambos (The Mansions and the Shanties), 1936, and finally, Ordem e Progresso, 1957 [see in the ICAA digital archive the following texts on the subject, respectively: “Interamericanismo” (doc. no. 807911) and “A propósito da política cultural do Brasil na América” (doc. no. 807856)].
It was Freyre who led a group of writers who aligned themselves with his “Manifesto Regionalista” [see in the archive “Manifesto Regionalista de 1926” (doc. no. 1074787), his twenty-five year retrospective in “Manifesto Regionalista de 1926: vinte e cinco anos depois” (doc. no. 1110808), and fifty years later in “Regionalismo brasileiro” (doc. no. 1110810)].