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Setting the boundaries of Modernism

“(...) it is not the reader looking for a newspaper, but the newspaper looking for a reader”. >

"To the hypothetical and uncertain entity, for whom we compose this fortnightly newspaper, like a rustic platter, the varied and succulent meal, suited to a virgin appetite: literary chronicle, artistic chronicle, philosophical chronicle, musical and theatrical chronicle, critical essays, historical essays, creations by poets. Novellas, novels, all the genres, let's hope in God for that “pau” genre (ennuyeux in French) 1, which we will shun like the plague.”

With these messages, published in the opening text “Apresentação”, Terra Roxa e Outras Terras, São Paulo’s second modernist magazine, came out on January 20, 1926, a Wednesday, four years after the revolutionary Klaxon, in 1922. Featuring a newspaper format, with loose sheets, only seven issues came out in 1926, with purportedly, but in actuality fortnightly, periodicity. As announced in the presentation, the offering was varied, reaching beyond a literary focus, with sections dedicated to theatre, painting, music, sports, in addition to loose topics grouped under the headings: comments, notes, interviews, reproductions of excerpts from other newspapers, etc.

The title Terra Roxa e Outras Terras refers to the ambition of adopting an open attitude, according to Cecília de Lara, “at that moment, suggesting the expansion of horizons to extend to the rural zone of the state of São Paulo, precisely the area which is known for its so-called ‘terra roxa’ (‘purple earth/soil’), suitable for growing coffee”2. Curiously, despite its nationalist purpose, the magazine already possessed an Italian undercurrent in the title, since the fertile new “terra roxa”, recently discovered in the state’s interior, was initially called “terra rossa” by Italian farmers, a reference to the soil’s reddish colour.

Terra Roxa was planned in 1925, but its first issue would be released on January 20, 1926, under the general direction of Antonio Carlos Couto de Barros (Campinas, 1896 – Campinas, 1966) and Antonio de Alcântara Machado (São Paulo, 1901 - Rio de Janeiro, 1935), while the role of Secretary-Administrator fell to Sérgio Milliet (São Paulo, 1898 - São Paulo, 1966).

On 31/12/1925, Alcântara Machado wrote to Prudente de Moraes announcing the appearance of Terra Roxa and inviting participation in the newspaper. He asked him to submit a short story and, further, to commit to promoting the periodical in Rio de Janeiro.

It should be noted that the three men responsible for Terra Roxa were early modernists. Couto de Barros had been part of the organizing committee for the Semana of 22, Sérgio Milliet had participated in the activities, and Alcântara Machado, who was very young at the time, was studying at the Faculdade de Direito of São Paulo. He had worked as a journalist since the age of 19, writing prose texts marked by modernist traits, with short and quick sentences.

Except for lawyer Couto de Barros, who came from Campinas, the rest were born in São Paulo, all three from respected families in the paulistana oligarchic tradition, having received university education: Couto de Barros and Alcântara Machado were graduates of the traditional São Paulo Faculdade de Direito and Sérgio Milliet studied economic and social sciences at the universities of Geneva and Bern.

The central figure of Paulo da Silva Prado (1869-1943), a graduate from São Francisco University, should be introduced here, as he was an emblematic figure in the economic, social, and cultural universe of the country and, probably, the central proponent and economic backer of the periodical. On the first page, Paulo Prado calls for the purchase of a letter by Anchieta dated November 15, 1579, advertised in the Maggs Bros Bookstore, in London, for the cost of 200 pounds, the equivalent of 30 sacks of coffee.

Despite the slight age difference between them, it is reasonable to believe they were part of the same age and cultural generation3, sharing common experiences in the city of São Paulo, which in 1926, when Terra Roxa debuted, was experiencing economic and demographic effervescence, with the distinctive attribute that half its 580,000-population consisted of foreign immigrants, mostly Italians.

In this context, it is fair to assume that the search for nationality previously defended during the Semana had expanded and diversified four years later, in 1926, joining and scrutinizing new topics of national representation. More than that, the periodical proposes to implement a “new tradition”, breaking with the exaltation of models from the past and choosing oft-forgotten figures for evoking the country's traditional nationality, particularly the actions of São Paulo natives.

“Paulistanidade” is the publication's centralising topic, a controversial subject matter that permeates Terra Roxa's collaborations at various levels, both in political and artistic discussions, understood as the affirmation of the superiority of the paulista4.

The most prominent issue was the purchase of the handwritten letter from Father Anchieta for the Paulista Museum, acquired through a subscription that was worth as much as 30 sacks of coffee. This request started with the publication’s first instalment and lasted until issue 5, when the deal and subsequent donation to the museum were announced.

It should be noted that Terra Roxa, despite not engaging in controversies and debates, is mostly defined by four relevant aspects:

  1. It sets the boundaries for the fragmentation of the movement and the initial modernist group’s ideology, as its dissemination takes place during the debates between dissenting modernist groups, that is, the “Green and Yellow'' group, guided by Menotti del Picchia and Cassiano Ricardo, and the "Pau Brasil" group, led by Mário de Andrade and Oswald de Andrade.

  2. It materializes the search for the origins of São Paulo, at the initiative of Paulo Prado, who proposed purchasing a letter from the Jesuit José de Anchieta, at auction at Sotheby's in England, a goal that was achieved and documented by the newspaper.

  3. It states the rejection of Marinetti's futurism, through the unsigned article “Gostosura da Terra”, published in issue 6, which stands as a clear anti-Marinetti manifesto. It denies the constant association that critics of Modernism had always established between the modernist movement in Brazil and futurism.

  4. It explains nationality through the lense of paulistanidade, evoking the superiority of the paulista, insisting on the anchietan and bandeirante ancestry, on the economic supremacy of paulista coffee, which was responsible for an elite with the "legitimacy" to be dominant.

The dissidence that surfaced involves Mário de Andrade, who, on the final page of issue 2, questions an article by Menotti del Picchia – by then already in explicit opposition to the initial modernist group – through an article with the general title “Artigo de Menotti del Picchia – Resposta de Mário de Andrade”. The piece is laid out in columns, side by side with “O Losango Cáqui” and “Feitiço contra o feiticeiro”5.

Notwithstanding its scant seven issues, Terra Roxa e outras terras stands out as an important periodical in the process of construction of Modernism, as it reveals aspects that are barely perceptible in other contemporary titles, namely the adoption of paulistanidade as the preferred ideal for defining new cultural directions for Brazil.

The first issue was published on January 20, 1926 and the last on September 17 of the same year, with no explanations for the periodical’s demise. Everything suggests that the group dispersed, due to the fulfilment of the delivery of Anchieta's letter.

Finally, Terra Roxa, despite avoiding polemics, is part of “a stage in which Modernism expands as a concept and spreads geographically, with diversions and divisions. At this point, the focus shifts to discussing another concept – that of Brazilianism – the current form of nationalism that reaches beyond the scope of art, as inferred from reading the periodical”6.

Ana Luiza Martins

  1. Translation of “ennuyeux”: boring, dull, trite, tedious, tiresome.↩︎

  2. Cecilia de Lara, Klaxon & Terra Roxa e outras terras: dois periódicos modernistas de São Paulo, São Paulo, IEB/USP, 1972, pp. 39-40.↩︎

  3. Concept of generation from Jean Pierre Rioux and Jean François Sirinelli, La culture de masse en France: De la Belle Epoque à aujourd'hui, Paris, Fayard, 2002. ↩︎

  4. Fabíola Picoli, Terra Roxa e Outras Terras: Modernismo e Paulistanidade, Campinas, Master’s degree dissertation in Literary Theory at the Instituto da Linguagem, UNICAMP, 1997, pp. 7-8.↩︎

  5. Cecília de Lara, op. cit., p. 153.↩︎

  6. Cecília de Lara, op. cit., p. 143.↩︎