José Enrique Rodó: "Iberoamérica," the Magna Patria, and the Question of Brazil

TLDR: The authors analyzes the place of Brazil in Jose Enrique Rodo's vision of Latin America as a magna patria, a supranational unity defined by commonality of language, colonial history and culture.

Abstract: This paper analyzes the place of Brazil in Jose Enrique Rodo's vision of Latin America as a magna patria, a supranational unity defined by commonality of language, colonial history, and culture. I pay close attention to Rodo's tendency in his essayistic texts to generalize terms such as America Latina and nuestra America in rhetorically extending the boundaries of Spanish America so as to encompass the whole of Latin America—including Brazil. In looking to texts in which Rodo addresses Brazil directly, such as "Iberoamerica" (1910), I demonstrate how the imperative to rhetorically incorporate Brazil into the magna patria challenges Rodo's preferred terminology and arguments, forcing him into logical con- tradictions and textual misinterpretations that include a telling misreading of Portuguese writer Almeida Garrett. I also explore Rodo's view of Portuguese and Spanish as "two tones of the same language," and his relative influence in Spanish America versus Brazil.