XVII Congress of the Brazilian Studies Association

“Orientação Pan-Americana”: Brazil, the United States, and the Pan-American Highway, c. 1920-1939

• In Event: Circulation of Ideas Between Brazil and the United States I

Abstract

In the 1920s and 1930s, Brazil, like other countries across the Americas, saw an increase in automobiles and the rise of a full-fledged car culture. At that time, road building played an important role in state-led projects of national integration. Also, initiatives toward the construction of infrastructure for leisure driving and travel flourished, especially in the southeastern states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Road building in Brazil in the interwar period also had an international dimension that found its most visible expression in an iconic road project, the Estrada Rio-São Paulo, which became part of the Pan-American Highway system.

Juxtaposing Brazilian history, the history of Pan-Americanism, and Mobility Studies, this presentation examines the role that road building played in Brazil-United States relations. Focusing on interactions between auto aficionados, touring clubs, automotive businesses, state actors, and tourism associations from Brazil and the United States, I will explore how these groups cooperated with each other to build the highway between Rio and São Paulo, encourage Brazilians and North American tourists to travel Brazil by the road, and promote Pan-American brotherhood. Based on the analysis of government documents, automobile magazines, tourism brochures, the proceedings of the Pan-American Highway congresses, travel reports, and personal correspondence, I will discuss how local, national, and international ambitions intersected in the early history of Brazilian road building. In a broader perspective, I aspire to contribute to emerging understandings of how we can retell the history of Brazil-United States relations by focusing on mobility and its infrastructure.

Author

• Mario Peters, German Historical Institute Washington