This manifesto is a call for (cultural) independence and was written from “a high Amazonian plateau,” in the state of Pará (where the author hailed from). The proclamation uses typical expressions and references the myths, customs, and landscapes of the northern region of Brazil. Writer Abguar Bastos proposes a line of thought that can be placed “face to face” against the famous “Manifesto Pau-Brasil” published by Oswald de Andrade in São Paulo (1924) three years earlier. According to Bastos, when compared with the “Brazilwood manifesto,” the Flami-n’-assu expresses “greater sincerity” because it excluded influences from overseas and instead focused on a “nationalism” that would exalt the flora, fauna, customs, and characters of the Brazilian people and “spirit”. In other words: “Conservative, patriotic, and as nationalistic as yellow-green,” the objective of the Flami-n’-assu was to relay the history and natural grandeur of Brazil, as well as to amplify “the powerful voice” of the northern region of the country to the greatest extent possible.

Originally known as the “Manifesto aos intelectuais paraenses,” it later came to be known as the “Manifesto Flami-n’-assu” (“the great flare,” in the Tupí language), and was published in the magazine Belém Nova (Belém, state of Pará, September 1927). The text, written by Abguar Bastos, was meant to be a response (formulated within the harsh conditions of northern Brazil) to the “modernist movement” that was launched in São Paulo through the Semana in 1922, as well as to the “Manifesto Pau-Brasil” (1924) written by Oswald de Andrade [see in the ICAA digital archive (doc. no. 781051)]. The recognition of the literary freedom of Flami-n’-assu—which ran counter to the purists and was ostensibly patriotic and “conservative”—sought to integrate the Amazonian zone to the cultural map of the nation through art that could transform the natural and social characteristics of the Amazonian region in order to define features of Brazilian nationality. Bastos’ research came to be reflected in the novel Terra de Icamiaba, which was published in 1931.

According to Mário de Andrade in chapter IX of his great work from 1928, Macunaíma: o herói sem nenhum caráter, the native term (and not the Greek one) for the “Amazon” [without breast] is the Tupí word “icamiabas.” There is a Spanish version of the book, Macunaíma (Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1977; Octaedro, 2005), which was trans/created by Héctor Olea.

[For another text by Bastos, see “Formação do espírito moderno” (doc. no. 1091410)].