The article studies the political use, during the 1920', of the "bandeirante" past focusing on the work of Oliveira Vianna, an anti-liberal intellectual, and of Alfredo Ellis Jr., a member of the Republican Party of São Paulo. To do so, it follows Michel de Certeau's remarks on the three dimensions of historiographical procedure: the social place of its production, the method employed and the final text. It shows the different political meanings given to the "bandeirante" by historiography, and its relation to the double process of building a regional identity to São Paulo, as well as an americanist identity which would legitimate the "paulista" republicanism.
historiography; "bandeirante"; regional identity; "paulista" republicanism