Special Collections for Latin America, the Caribbean, Lusophone Africa, Spain and Portugal

Brasiliana at Brown University Library, is a portal to unique materials that promote and provide access to the diversity of voices that represent Brazil today and throughout its long history. Brasiliana is composed of a mosaic of polyphonic and interdisciplinary collections and archives targeting history, political ideology and activism, society, folklore, literary arts, and modern culture and media in Brazil.

A growing collection of over 170 cardboard press publications from Brazil. Libros cartoneros are books made from salvaged cardboard with a hand-painted or collage cover. Produced in limited editions and sold for a fraction of the cost of a professionally produced book, cartonera have become popular across Latin America. Here is a selective list of Brazilian independent publishers and artist collectives from whom we have acquired these publications. Read more about these publications in O que são esses livros com capas de papelão? (in Portuguese).

Literatura de cordel is a genre of popular literature characteristic of northeastern Brazil. These inexpensive chapbooks have circulated in Brazil for centuries, and are now considered an important part of Brazilian folk and popular culture.

Jarid Arraes is a Brazilian poet, writer and cordelista. Her cordel chapbooks cover the themes of activism against systemic racism in Brazil, girlhood, feminism, female empowerment, body diversity, labor rights, anticolonialism, and LGBTIA+ rights.

An actively growing collection including various types of ephemera formats from Brazil coving the subjects of racial justice, feminism, social justice, indigenous rights, LGBTQIA+ activism, marginalized groups, land rights (Movimento Sem Terra, Terra Livre), environmental justice (deforestation, oil drilling, monoculture farming, water rights), radical and progressive political activism (including anti-carcelary, pro-choice, anti-capitalist, and anti-imperialist materials), and Afro-Brazilian artist books. Please be aware that some materials are still being processed and are not yet available for consultation.

This collection documents the career of Thomas E. Skidmore who was a professor in the Latin American Studies department at the University of Wisconsin (1967-1987) and then at Brown University (1988-1999). His area of focus was Brazil and he was the pre-eminent expert in the United States on the topic of its history and politics. The collection relates primarily to his professional life as a student, professor and scholar. Materials related to his personal life are interspersed throughout with the highest concentration in Series 5. Correspondence.

Prof. Emeritus James N. Green held the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Chair for Latin American History at Brown University, He is the author or co-editor of eleven books on Brazil and Latin America. He is currently the Director of the Opening the Archives Project, the National Co-Coordinator of the US Network for Democracy in Brazil, and the President of the Board of Directors of the Washington Brazil Office.

BRASA, founded in 1992, is an international, interdisciplinary group of scholars who support and promote Brazilian studies in all fields, especially in the humanities and social sciences. BRASA is dedicated to the promotion of Brazilian studies around the world in general, and in the United States in particular. This collection contains the records of the organization.

An alternative newspaper featuring political caricatures published during the military dictatorship period. At a time of political repression, O Pasquim was known for its critical position vis-à-vis the regime. It was founded in 1969 by cartoonist Jaguar and journalists Tarso de Castro and Sérgio Cabral. It became a substitute for the tabloid A Carapuça. Brown holds numerous issues between 1 and 889 (1969-1986) in hardcopy and microfilm. More on O Pasquim.

One of the first publications dedicated to the homosexual community in Brazil, published during the repressive military regime. Brown owns a near complete set (0-37), only issues 30 and 36 are missing. You may access this journal in digital format through CEDOC. More on O Lampião da Esquina.

Launched in São Paulo by Raimundo Pereira and Fernando Gasparian in 1972, Opinião was one of the most influential alternative weekly newspapers during the military dictatorship in Brazil. It was strongly undercut by censorship, and ceased circulation in 1977. It included the Brazilian version of French Le Monde and was secretly funded by the central committee of the Ação Popular (AP) and the Brazilian Communist Party (PC do B). Although translated essays written by foreign authors predominated, Opinião played an important role as a vehicle of communication between persecuted journalists and intellectuals and their audience. The newspaper pioneered the defense of environmental causes, and projected nationally writers such as Aguinaldo Silva and Tárik de Souza. Opinião sold an average of 29 thousand copies weekly. Numerous issues were suppressed by the regime. Brown lacks 22 issues of the 231 published.

An alternative weekly newspaper published during the military dictatorship period. O Movimento was founded in 1975 as the product of internal disputes in the newspaper Opinião. Following his dismissal from O Opinião due to a profound distrust of President Ernesto Geisel’s administration, Raimundo Rodrigues Pereira brought together a group of journalists and deputies from the so-called “Grupo Autêntico” of the PMDB (Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro) to produce a new newspaper. O Movimento opted for a popular tone aimed at attracting the Brazilian working class to a wide-ranging front against the dictatorship in Brazil. Representing the nationalist and democratic wing of the Brazilian press, the weekly newspaper was funded by donations and had 334 editions, which circulated nationally until 1981, often through the hands of the Brazilian militant youth. O Movimento was owned collectively by its journalists. Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Chico Buarque de Hollanda, Perseu Abramo, and Fernando Peixoto figured among O Movimento’s main contributors. Brown holds numerous issues published in 1975-1980.

Issues 1-80, June 1999-February 2001. Bound. Complete set. Founded by Ziraldo Alves Pinto a founding member and contributor of Pasquim (1969-1991). A satirical magazine focusing on politics during the Fernando Collor de Mello, Itamar Franco and Fernando Henrique Cardoso years. It criticizes the government and upper classes. “Quem mostrou a bunda em Caras, jamais mostrará a cara em Bundas.” (Ziraldo)