The Other Roots: Sérgio Buarque de Holanda and the Portuguese

In this article I deal with Sérgio Buarque de Holanda’s Raízes do Brasil, and the way the Portuguese is portrayed in the book, first through an assumed “Iberian” identity, and second by a supposed Lusitanian specificity. The paradoxical result is that, in pointing to this unique Other, Sérgio Buarque’s rooty metaphors end up making the Other present, thus going against Brazilian Modernists’ deep desire to leave the Portuguese vanish over the horizon. Eventually, the article is an attempt at bringing some light to the debates on language and otherness.