Iberism, tradition and miscegenation: the defence of the old Brazilian Northeast in the early Gilberto Freyre (1920s to 1940s)

Abstract

The article discusses Gilberto Freyre’s intellectual production between the 1920s and 1940s. The goal is to understand not only the Freyrean interpretations on the Iberism of Miguel de Unamuno, Ángel Ganivet or Ortega y Gasset, but also investigate and record, on Freyre’s extensive production, a continued defense of the historical legitimacy of the Iberian culture, which he saw threatened by the disaggregative force of the modern, industrial, Protestant and capitalist West.