In the wake of African decolonization, Brazil attempted to forge
connections with newly independent countries. In the early 1960s it
launched an effort to establish diplomatic ties with Africa; in the
1970s it undertook trade campaigns to open African markets to
Brazilian technology. "Hotel Tropico" reveals the perceptions,
particularly regarding race, of the diplomats and intellectuals who
traveled to Africa on Brazil's behalf. Jerry Davila analyzes how
their actions were shaped by ideas of Brazil as an emerging world
power, ready to expand its sphere of influence; of Africa as the
natural place to assert that influence, given its historical
slave-trade ties to Brazil; and of twentieth-century Brazil as a
"racial democracy," a uniquely harmonious mix of races and
cultures. While the experiences of Brazilian policymakers and
diplomats in Africa reflected the logic of racial democracy, they
also exposed ruptures in this interpretation of Brazilian identity.
Did Brazil share a "lusotropical" identity with Portugal and its
African colonies, so that it was bound to support Portuguese
colonialism at the expense of Brazil's ties with African nations?
Or was Brazil a country of "Africans of every color," compelled to
support decolonization in its role as a natural leader in the South
Atlantic? Drawing on interviews with retired Brazilian diplomats
and intellectuals, Davila shows the Brazilian belief in racial
democracy to be about not only race but also Portuguese ethnicity.
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