The Estado Novo and the quest for the “Brazilian ethnic type”

This chapter examines the persistence of the influence of eugenicist doctrines and the ideology of whitening in Vargas’s Estado Novo and the slippery nature of the term “race” in this context, focusing on the origins and development of the official celebration of “Race and Youth Day.” The character assumed by the commemoration in the Brazilian Estado Novo was influenced by previous initiatives that connected the celebration of Ibero-American historical and cultural achievements with the dissemination of public policies to ensure the health and physical development of future citizens. Thousands of students marched through the streets of the country in a demonstration of the effect of eugenicist policies not only on the strengthening of the bodies of the nation’s future leaders but also on the “ethnic purification” produced by the continuous inflow of the blood of European immigrants. Instead of celebrating mestizaje, the Day of the Race was the window in which the results of the physical and cultural whitening of the citizenry were on display.