Mário de Andrade reviews Amérique Latine, the book by the French sociologist André Siegfried, criticizing the author’s method which, in de Andrade’s view, takes a far too general approach that fails to grasp the complexities of this particular subject, with predictably simplistic results. De Andrade dismisses “Latin America” as an inadequate umbrella term to express the alleged identity of the entire subcontinent. He stresses the region’s Iberian rather than Latin origins, as well as the development of a local indigenous blend of white and black populations. He explains that the concept of “Americanism” is misleading due to the connotations involving the United States. De Andrade delves into other possible meanings of the term, and finds them to be further from the utilitarian spirit of North America and much closer to the “optimism” of Asia or North Africa. As opposed to the optimism that Siegfried sees in Latin American economic customs, de Andrade draws attention to Latin American “fatalism” and its “mystical” and “sensuous” irresponsibility. De Andrade also disagrees with the French writer’s political characterization, which appears to ignore Christian morality, and encourages Siegfried to consider a stricter interpretation of terms such as “slovenliness,” “irresponsibility,” “exaggerated heroism,” and “disloyalty.” He also notes that the “baseness” and “lack of freedom” which the writer attributes to the current period are not in fact local qualities but general ones that are actually applicable to the social conditions of the 1930s. He concludes that Siegfried’s simplistic dogmatism is the “French sign” of a civilization in decline and on its way to extinction.    

This is a review of Amérique Latine (Paris: Librairie Armand Colin, 1934) the book by André Siegfried that was published in the Boletim de Ariel (the monthly publication of the Ariel Publishing House), one of the vehicles for reports on Brazilian modernism in the 1930s [which is equivalent to the Latin American avant-garde], published by Gastão Cruls and Agripino Grieco.

André Siegfried (1875–1959), the French sociologist and geographer, was a pioneer in the field of sociological studies of voting. One of his major works was an analysis of the profile of the French electorate, which linked voters’ political leanings to geography and lifestyle. His book on Latin America, the result of his research in the countries of the region, suggests a series of comparisons between North and South America. Though he refers to cultural and religious differences between the two areas, Siegfried attempts to show their similarities based on geographical characteristics. At the time this review was written, Siegfried was already a renowned intellectual in France and a member of the prestigious Collège de France.

For his part, Mário de Andrade (1893–1945) had been an influential member of the Brazilian cultural elite since the 1920s, and was even more well-established in the 1940s, and is severely critical of what he considers to be Siegfried’s unsatisfactory and biased analysis of South American “primitivism.” In de Andrade’s opinion, the supposedly simple, “savage” quality identified by Siegfried in Latin American culture is actually an enigma to be unraveled, and a sign of the culture’s intrinsic vitality. Toward the end of his review, de Andrade refers indirectly to the rise of authoritarian forces both in the Americas and in Europe, which he associates less with “primitivism” and “savageness” than with the split personality of contemporary “civilization.” 

For further information on the subjects covered in this article please see “The Invention of an Operative Concept,” in Chapter I.2 of Volume One of the book “Critical Documents of the 20th-Century Latin American and Latino Art” (MFAH/ICAA, 2012), introduced by Héctor Olea. This chapter contains important essays concerning this debate, including the one to which Mário de Andrade responds, “To What Extent Is There a Latin America?” by André Siegfried (1934), available in ICAA’s digital archive in French, “Dans quelle mesure il existe une Amérique Latine” [doc. no. 838505]; “Does Latin America Exist?” by Luis Alberto Sánchez (1945), in Spanish, “¿Existe América Latina? [doc. no. 843743]; “Luis Alberto Sánchez’s Book: Is There Just One Latin America?” by Fernand Braudel (1948), in French, “Le livre de Luis Alberto Sánchez: y-a-t-il une Amérique latine? [doc. no. 838616]; “Latin American Unity” by Jean Casimir (1969), in Spanish, “La unidad latinoamericana” [doc. no. 840539]; “Does Latin America Exist? by Darcy Ribeiro (1976), in Portuguese, “A América Latina existe?” [doc. no. 807738]; and, finally, “The Invention of An Operative Concept: The Latin-ness of America” by Guy Martinière (1978), in French, “L'invention d'un concept opératoire: la latinité de l'Amérique” [doc. no. 838531]. All these documents have been published in English in the aforementioned Volume One.