O DISCURSO SOBRE O TURISMO NO BRASIL DE ÁLVARO DE LAS CASAS
Álvaro de Las Casas’ Discourse on Tourism in Brazil

Author(s): Antón Corbacho Quintela
Subject(s): Cultural history, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Other Language Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Álvaro de Las Casas; exile; tourism; acculturation; Brazil
Summary/Abstract: Álvaro de Las Casas (1901-1950) spent three years of his thirteen-year-long exile in the Southern Cone in Brazil, where he presented himself as an intellectual and worked professionally as a journalist, lecturer and essayist, specialising in promoting Spanish culture and sharing his impressions of the Brazilian social sphere. In Rio de Janeiro, he published the books 'Espanha' ("Gênese da Revolução") ([April] 1937a), 'Oraciones y consejos de amor' ([June and 2nd ed. in October] 1937b e 1937c), 'O sentimento nacional em Cristo' ([July] 1937d), 'Angústia das nossas horas: A pátria. A democracia. Os ditadores. A guerra' ([December] 1937e), 'Sonetos Brasileños' ([April] Academia... 1938), 'Os dois' ([May] 1938) and 'Na labareda dos trópicos: Viagem ao Norte do Brasil' ([December] 1939). In this article, we first evaluate the strategies that Las Casas successfully employed to gain recognition from the Brazilian intellectual circles, both as a credible interlocutor on the history of Spain and as a critical observer of Brazilian reality. Second, we show how in the twelve reports that make up his travel book entitled 'Na labareda dos trópicos', he favourably assessed the conditions of the northern and northeastern regions of Brazil as having potential to become new tourist destinations in the country. Finally, we analyse whether Las Casas’ vision of tourism was in line with Brazilian state policy.

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