God, Fatherland, Family: Integralismo and the Making of the Far-Right in Twentieth Century Brazil

Author

Daniela M. Traldi, The Graduate Center, City University of New YorkFollow

Date of Degree

6-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

History

Advisor

Mary Roldán

Committee Members

Dagmar Herzog

Joel Allen

Barbara Weinstein

Amy Chazkel

Subject Categories

Arts and Humanities | Catholic Studies | Christianity | Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | History | History of Gender | History of Religion | Latin American History | Oral History | Political History | Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies | Religion | Women's History | Women's Studies

Keywords

Brazil, Integralismo, Fascism, Gender, Race, Catholicism

Abstract

This dissertation examines the ways gender and race work in the formulation of far-right rhetoric in twentieth century Brazil. Placing the attention on Integralismo, the Brazilian variant of the transnationally linked fascist movements of the 1920s-1940s, this study shows how the movement consistently embedded itself in and merged with other key far-right political groups nationwide over the succeeding decades. Through a subtle and sophisticated use of gendered and racialized narratives it remained a significant political influence into the 1980s. The Integralistas, who purportedly numbered one million members by 1935, became Brazil’s first-ever mass political organization. They envisioned creating what they called a Christian holistic state (Estado Integral), in which corporatism, nationalism, and faith would sustain the country’s very existence in opposition to communism, materialism, and liberalism.

Largely unexplored iconographic material, long lost private collections, and previously overlooked textual sources, such as correspondence between Integralista leaders, reveal that the group pushed for the normalization of a politicized Catholic femininity and masculinity, and for the consolidation of racialized gender views across a substantial part of the political spectrum. In line with their religious ideals, Integralista rhetoric attempted to create a so-called ‘real’ feminism in opposition to both leftist and liberal versions with the support of Catholic bishops.

Rooted in biological determinism, with men as nation-builders and women as philanthropic activists, this narrative was also intertwined with racialized notions of who was ‘Brazilian.’ Integralistas celebrated blacks and the indigenous population as part of the national ‘raça’ but mostly as infantilized people. The Integralistas’ approach was complex and paradoxical, and the support of glamourized power couples, elite women, and the Catholic Church assured its effective mainstreaming. The group contributed to the rise of a far-right that sought to define and control the nation politically, culturally, and socially and actively shaped the trajectory of twentieth century Brazil.

This dissertation shows the critical, but largely overlooked significance of "soft power" spaces and women Integralistas and sympathizers, who used their participation in religious auxiliary organizations, philanthropies, voluntary associations, and schools, to embed, perpetuate, and mainstream far-right, Christian nationalist ideas and values long assumed to have disappeared from Brazilian discourse and politics.

The implications of this research go far beyond the case of Brazil or Latin America as the contemporary diffusion of far-right, anti-democratic messaging is articulated globally under the flag of Christian, ethical, and moral values. As my dissertation reveals, this is exactly how far-right ideologies and movements remained active and influential in the twentieth century, how they exerted power and acquired popular appeal beyond formal party politics, and how women appeared as key players in this process.

Recommended Citation

Traldi, Daniela M., "God, Fatherland, Family: Integralismo and the Making of the Far-Right in Twentieth Century Brazil" (2024). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/5768