Abstract

This paper analyzes the place of Brazil in José Enrique Rodó's vision of Latin America as a magna patria, a supranational unity defined by commonality of language, colonial history, and culture. I pay close attention to Rodó's tendency in his essayistic texts to generalize terms such as América Latina and nuestra América in rhetorically extending the boundaries of Spanish America so as to encompass the whole of Latin America—including Brazil. In looking to texts in which Rodó addresses Brazil directly, such as "Iberoamérica" (1910), I demonstrate how the imperative to rhetorically incorporate Brazil into the magna patria challenges Rodó's preferred terminology and arguments, forcing him into logical contradictions and textual misinterpretations that include a telling misreading of Portuguese writer Almeida Garrett. I also explore Rodó's view of Portuguese and Spanish as "two tones of the same language," and his relative influence in Spanish America versus Brazil.

pdf

Share