Científicos, industriales y católicos: las lecturas del fascismo de Mihail Manoilesco en el Brasil de Getúlio Vargas (1930-45)

Scientists, Industrialists and Catholics: the lectures of Mihail Manoilesco's Fascism in Brazil of Getulio Vargas (1930-45)

Abstract

This paper analyses the reception of the texts by the Romanian intellectual Mihail Manoilesco - renowned for his theories of the state - in Brazil in the 1930s-45s. We structure the three kinds of reception in three groups of authors, on the basis of their interpretative affinities, namely: the scientists who worked for or actively defended the Varga’s regime under scientific and sociological justifications, such as Oliveira Vianna and Azevedo Amaral; the industrialists, who supported state protectionism, led by Roberto Simonsen; and the Catholic supporters of state projects based on the Social Doctrine of the Church: Amoroso Lima, Cotrim Neto and José de Pinto Antunes. Contrary to Brazilian historiography, we will argue that Manoilesco was read outside the bureaucratic circles of the Varga’s regime. We will also argue that Manoilesco built an image of Italian fascism that served as an argument for those Brazilian actors who sought to distance themselves from Mussolini's regime.