Brazil Racial Heterogeneity

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Regarding the future of the nation, people of power expressed their concern regarding the Brazilian racial heterogeneity. Praising the United States on their racial control and international portrayal as a “Nordic society,” (Levine 21) in 1935 Ambassador Oswaldo Aranha wrote that “‘a Brazil of white men…nothing of other races’” (Levine 21) was needed in order to strengthen the Brazilian character abroad. Aranha often also urged Getulio Vargas to consider racial factors before selecting diplomats and other governmental personnel. Additionally, to export this idea of Brazilian whiteness rather than a mulato or mestizo stereotype abroad, Brazilian “contestants chosen for international beauty contests were invariably Caucasian” (Levine 20).

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