Although this 1895 painting is by a Brazilian artist, it illustrates quite effectively the Latin American elites ideas about race and national identity. At the time, both in the Anglo north, and Latin south, Social Darwinism was accepted science and the assumption was that the more European the population (and, in the United States and Canada, the more north European at that), the better off the nation as a whole…
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To me this photo shows a happy, non-racist family, not a plan to whitify the population … 😉
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That would be difficult to convey in one definitive image, and I’m sure there were people with the same views of “miscegenation” as myself (there’s no such thing). but the author was making a wider observation as to the historical nature of (pictured) Brazilian and (experienced) Mexican society. In my (limited) experience of Brazilian society there is a marked ‘tintocracy’ which I found ironic since nearly everyone’s ancestry seemed to be the result of many encounters, both local and international!
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And there was I, thinking that Brazil was a real melting pot.
I know from African friends, that lighter skin is valued higher in their countries. I always wondered why. I thought they wanted to sever the ties … they couldn’t explain it.
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