The visit of four Brazilian writers to the United States in times of war (1941-1946)

Abstract:

This article aims to analyze Erico Verissimo, Orígenes Lessa, Sérgio Milliet and Vianna Moog’s commitment to disseminate the Brazilian and North American cultures in the cultural exchange programs carried out by the Office of the Coordinator of Interamerican Affairs (1941-1946), which caused excitement among academics, artists, and writers in Latin America and in the United States and fostered the objective of mutual understanding to reach hemispheric solidarity during the Second World War (1939-1945). They were invited by the State Department as part of the reciprocity of the program to better understand aspects of North American culture. At the same time, they were to disseminate Brazilian culture in the cities they visited. I will demonstrate that these participations were crisscrossed by individual, professional, and political motivations in a context in which writers and journalists claimed for freedom of expression and freedom of the press under the authoritarian government of Getúlio Vargas.

Keywords:
Cultural relations between Brazil and the United States; Office of the Coordinator of Interamerican Affairs; Brazilian writers