Brazilian literature - Cristo Raul

12 BRAZILIAN LITERATURE
the Negro, his history in Brazil is much the same as that
of the blacli slave in the United States, except that,
owing to the proportions of interbreeding, ihe "color
line" is less tightly drawn in the southern republic.
Two chief ethnic periods of formation have been dis-
tinguished in Brazil's development, the first from the
XVIth century to the end of the XVIIIth; the second,
from the opening of the XlXth century to the present
day. In the first period there was, chiefly, a crossing of
the Portuguese with the Indian (mameluco) ,
of the Por-
tuguese with the Negro (miilato) and of the Indian
with the Negro (cafuso). Later interbreeding becomes
more complex, owing to the influx of new immigrants
from Europe (Italians and Germans in particular,
and Slavs in the south), and to the abolition of black
slavery. So that the question has arisen whether the fu-
ture of the land will be in the hands of the Luso-Brazilian
or the Teuto-Italo-Brazilian. Brazilians naturally favour
the former eventuality and in order to insure dominance
by the Portuguese-Brazilian element propose new
systems of colonization as well as immigration zones.
Romero reached the conclusion that the Brazilian people
did not constitute a race, but rather a fusion. As to
whether this was a good or an evil he answered, in
his "sclentlficlst" way, that it was a fact, and that
this should be sufiicient Since the Indian is fast disap-
pearing and as traffic in blacks was abolished in 185 1,
and slavery in 1888, white predominance seems assured.
"Every Brazilian," said Romero, "is a mestee, if not
in blood, in ideas." So that white supremacy, never
an unmixed blessing, does not, and cannot under the cir-
cumstances, imply an unmixed mentality.