Our Brazil Awake!: The Accao Integralista Brasileira and the Failed Quest for a Fascist Order in the 1930s (review)

Acção Integralista Brasileira (AIB) was arguably the most interesting and creative of the fascist movements that arose in Latin America in the 1930s. Not surprisingly, it has attracted considerable scholarly attention. Researchers have examined the AIB's structure, class and gender composition, ideology and practices, and relations with the military, churches, government, German National Socialism, and Italian Fascism. They also have dissected the writings of several male leaders. Other studies have sought to explain how the AIB attracted a popular base and operated in several states. Marcus Klein adds to this literature by tracing the political history of the Integralists and the interaction between the AIB, Germany, and local German communities.

Beginning in 1932, the AIB grew into one of Brazil's first national mass parties. It concentrated initially on São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, as well as the north and northeast, where, as Klein notes, AIB leader Plínio Salgado had ties with kindred activists. From here the AIB spread into other areas, particularly the south, with its large populations of Italian and German descent. It was never a mere copy of European fascist movements. In fact, its suspicion of industrialization and social legislation suggested a lingering allegiance to the liberalism so strong in Brazil. The rise to power of German National Socialism strongly affected the AIB, and Nazi Germany lent prestige to the fascist project adopted and reshaped by Integralists. The AIB won favor among many Teuto-Brazilians, yet German diplomats and community leaders opposed it for advocating assimilation. For this reason, as well as its unwillingness to impair relations with Brazil, Germany did not back the movement financially.

Based on its size, Klein considers the Integralists "the strongest fascist group in Latin America during the decennium" (p. 7). Yet Mexican Sinarquismo rivaled the AIB in terms of numbers, although it reached its high point in the early 1940s and may not have been truly fascist. Even if one puts Sinarquismo aside, one wonders if Klein's claim is accurate. Despite its following, the AIB lacked the support in the military and Catholic Church necessary to seize power, as Klein points out. Furthermore, President Getúlio Vargas experienced relatively little difficulty in suppressing the movement in 1938. Still, even as he emphasizes the AIB's strength, Klein highlights its weaknesses. One was in the area of leadership. Klein regards Salgado as undistinguished and timid, and some of the most interesting passages of the book describe Integralist criticism of his refusal to unleash a revolution. Indeed, Klein asserts that Salgado's disciplining of Gustavo Barroso reflected the Chief's need to stem dissatisfaction within the movement, rather than suppress his colleague's vitriolic anti-Semitism.

The author downplays AIB attempts to garner support among workers and people of color. He concludes that only in Maranhão, as studied by J.R. de Castro Caldeira, did Integralists mobilize many laborers. Scholars have barely examined the other states, however. Klein emphasizes the AIB's paternalistic, pro-whitening views on race. How, then, did it attract the people of color seen in photographs of the movement? What accounts for the fact that Bahía, with its large Afro-Brazilian presence, was the state that had the most Integralists? More local studies are needed to settle the questions of race and labor. The under-representation of women in the leadership and internal plebiscite, as well as the AIB's conservative gender discourse, leads Klein to conclude that they were unimportant. Yet the Green Blouses' involvement in social work, literacy training, and rituals, to which he assigns little weight, added new adherents and voters and reinforced the movement's distinctive style. Nor does Klein mention the women's congresses or spaces in AIB periodicals.

Drawing upon German, Austrian, British, and recently opened Brazilian archives, Klein provides a concise and...