Gustavo Adolfo Luiz Dodt da Cunha Barroso (December 29, 1888 – December 3, 1959) was a Brazilian lawyer, writer and politician associated with

Brazilian Integralism Brazilian Integralism ( pt, integralismo) was a political movement in Brazil, created in October 1932. Founded and led by Plínio Salgado, a literary figure who was somewhat famous for his participation in the 1922 Modern Art Week. The movement ...

and

antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

. He was also known by the pseudonym João do Norte. Being considered a master of Brazilian folklore, he was the first director of the National Historical Museum and one of the leaders of the

Brazilian Integralist Action Brazilian Integralist Action (Portuguese: ''Ação Integralista Brasileira'', AIB) was an integralist/fascist political party in Brazil. It was based upon the ideology of Brazilian Integralism as developed by its leader Plínio Salgado. Brazilian ...

, being one of its most prominent ideologists. He is considered the most anti-Semitic Brazilian intellectual, whose ideas were close to those of Nazi theorists. Barroso wrote that he did not agree with Hitler's anti-Semitism and justified his attacks on Jews with an alleged fight against racism. As he himself put it:

Biography

Early life

Barroso was born in Fortaleza, son of Antônio Filinto Barroso and Ana Dodt Barroso, he studied at day schools São José, Partenon Cearense and Liceu do Ceará. He studied at the Faculty of Law of Ceará linked to the Federal University of Ceará (UFC), graduating in 1911 from the Faculty of Law of Rio de Janeiro, currently the National Faculty of Law of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). He was half German by birth, his mother coming from

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Württ ...

Later years and antisemitism

Barroso made his name as a journalist and was for a time involved with the

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

Clube Maximo Gorki. However his politics became more conservative after he secured his law degree in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

in 1910. He soon became an important figure in Ceará state, serving variously as Secretary of the Interior and Justice, and being elected a Representative in the National Congress. He even formed part of the Brazilian delegation to the

Paris Peace Conference of 1919 Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. He would later rise to hold such positions as president of the Academia Brasileira de Letras (Brazilian Academy of Letters) and secretary-general of the International Committee of Legal Advisers. In 1933, Barroso joined the Brazilian Integralist Action, which had fascist characteristics. He soon became the head of the extreme anti-Jewish faction within the Brazilian Integralist Action. Noted for his hard-line

, he took charge of the group's militia from 1934 to 1936 before being appointed to the party's Supreme Council. An extensive writer, his polemical works at this time included many anti-semitic books and newspaper articles in ''Fon-Fon'' and ''Século XX'' magazines. Political differences caused Barroso to be regarded as dangerous by the more constitutionally minded '' Integralista'' party's leader,

Plínio Salgado Plínio Salgado (; January 22, 1895 – December 8, 1975) was a Brazilian politician, writer, journalist, and theologian. He founded and led Brazilian Integralist Action, a political party inspired by the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini. I ...

, who suspended him from collaborating for six months with the party's newspaper, ''A Ofensiva''. However Barroso continued to pursue his antisemitic ideals, translating ''

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' () or ''The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. The hoax was plagiarized from several ...

'' into

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

and even suggesting setting up

concentration camps Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

. Following the formation of the Estado Novo dictatorship of

Getúlio Vargas Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (; 19 April 1882 – 24 August 1954) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 14th and 17th president of Brazil, from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1954. Due to his long and controversial tenure as Brazi ...

(1938–1945), Barroso was arrested in 1938 after the

attempted a violent ''coup d´etat''. However Barroso was never tried due to a lack of evidence of his involvement in the attempted ''coup''. He subsequently left political activism and became largely accepting of

later constitutional government (1951–1954), serving as a special ambassador to

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

(1952) and

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

(1954). He died in

, aged 70. He was mentioned as a relevant intellectual in a publication that lists extreme-right activists from the whole world. A museum in Fortaleza, his home town, the ''Museu Gustavo Barroso'', bears his name.

Works

A keen Folklorist, Barroso built up a collection of exhibits relating to Brazil's past at the National Historical Museum (Portuguese: ''Museu Histórico Nacional'') in Rio de Janeiro and produced around 50 non-political books including historical and regional novels, folklore studies and biographies of Brazilian national military heroes such as General Osório and Admiral Tamandaré. As a novelist, he produced the work "''Terra do Sol''" (1912), which demonstrated his admiration for the people of northeastern Brazil's rural areas. Barroso was often linked with the neorealist school of

Brazilian literature Brazilian literature is the literature written in the Portuguese language by Brazilians or in Brazil, including works written prior to the country's independence in 1822. Throughout its early years, literature from Brazil followed the literary t ...

, although he differed from the neorealism typified by the likes of

Erico Verissimo Érico Lopes Verissimo (December 17, 1905 – November 28, 1975) was an important Brazilian writer, born in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. Biography Érico Verissimo was the son of Sebastião Verissimo da Fonseca and Abegahy Lopes Verissimo. H ...

, Amando Fontes and Telmo Vergara by his emphasis on rural rather than urban settings. Barroso belonged to the regionalist documentary strand of Brazilian neorealism, although, along with Mário Sete, he rejected the inherent

modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

in the works of contemporaries in the genre such as Jorge Luis de Rêgo and

Jorge Amado Jorge Leal Amado de Faria (10 August 1912 – 6 August 2001) was a Brazilian writer of the modernist school. He remains the best known of modern Brazilian writers, with his work having been translated into some 49 languages and popularized in ...

. He also published a few works on

Lampião "Captain" Virgulino Ferreira da Silva (), better known as Lampião (older spelling: ''Lampeão'', , meaning "lantern" or "oil lamp"), was probably the twentieth century's most successful traditional bandit leader. The banditry endemic to the Brazi ...

, besides the aforementioned "''Terra do Sol''", also "''Herois e Bandidos''" (1917) and "''Alma de Lama e de Aço''"(1928). As a political writer, his polemical works when joined to the Brazilian Integralist Action included "''O Liceu do Ceará''", "''Brasil: Colônia de Banqueiros''" and "''História Secreta do Brasil''". He also translated ''

'' into

. As Brazil had relatively few

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

by then, Barroso's anti-semitic writings tended to focus on the international conspiracy theory of Jewish world control, as espoused notably in his book "''The Paulista Synagogue''".LEVINE, R.M.; CROCITTI, J.J. ''The Brazil Reader: History, Culture, Politics'', p. 182

References

Bibliography

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barroso, Gustavo 1888 births 1957 deaths Far-right politics in Brazil Brazilian diplomats Brazilian essayists Ambassadors of Brazil to Uruguay Ambassadors of Brazil to Peru Brazilian Integralist Action politicians Brazilian fascists Brazilian journalists Brazilian monarchists Male journalists 20th-century Brazilian lawyers Brazilian ethnographers Brazilian male novelists People from Fortaleza Antisemitism in Brazil Protocols of the Elders of Zion Brazilian people of German descent Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Brazil) from Ceará 20th-century Brazilian novelists 20th-century Brazilian male writers 20th-century journalists