O nome e o sangue
Subtitle: uma fraude genealógica no Pernambuco colonial
By: Evaldo Cabral de Mello.
Publisher: Companhia das Letras
Published: 1989
Place of publication: São Paulo, SP
Language: por
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 363
Subjects: Pernambuco (Brazil) -- Genealogy.; Pernambuco (Brazil) -- History.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 319-344) and index.
Table of contents: title: This book reveals a fraud committed by the mixed Brazilian 'nobility' from the sugar plantations from Pernambuco (a old and rich province in the past, today a poor northern state in Brazil), since the 16 century. Cabral de Mello brings the example of the Pais Barreto family to prove the jewish blood of almost of all the powerfull families in the old  portuguese colony. He shows the presence of anti-antisemitism, racism and Inquisition in Colonial Brazil. And prejudices against anybody with jewish, muslim, indian or african blod in their veins. But, again, many rich families there had hidden connections with women of other ethnic groups. Sex brings down all kinds of prejudice. The genealogists , payed by plantations owners, created a fraudulent way to hide the mixed origins of the autocratic powerfull families in Colonial Brasil society.It's a excellent book, but the author seems to believe in Gilberto Freire's mith called "Lusotropicalism", that accept the idea of a relatively 'softer and gentler' character of the portuguese colonization in the Americas, vis-avis what happened in spanish and english colonies in this continent. Evaldo Cabral de Mello is one of the best brazilian history researchers alive today. Today retired at 81 years old, he was a diplomat, a professor, essayist and he also came from a old and traditional brazilian family. One great brazilian intellectual to denounce the "racial democracy" in Brazil.