“Brazil and ‘Latin America’”

Revisited: Turning the Question on its Head

Abstract

This article revisits the influential narrative of Leslie Bethell concerning Brazil’s non-belonging in Latin America during the first century after independence. Deploying a methodology informed by connected histories and the spatial turn, it highlights the importance of transnational practices within the region, above all the print press and travel. The resulting argument is radical: Brazil was no less a part of Latin America—understood here as a concrete space of interaction and identity—than any Spanish American country. Furthermore, Brazil played a pivotal role in its making as a region.