Whiteness on Display: The Contested Meanings of Dia da Raça in the Vargas Era

This article delves into the Dia da raça, a largely overlooked holiday instituted during the Vargas era in Brazil. Although traditionally grouped alongside other commemorative dates of the Estado Novo regime, Dia da raça has received scant attention in historical analyses, despite its significant racial implications in a period characterized by evolving concepts of race. Contrary to historical narratives that suggest a governmental shift away from pseudoscientific “whitening” ideologies towards a multiracial embrace from the 1930s onwards, this article posits that the racial ideologies of the Vargas era were multifaceted and occasionally contradictory. Specifically, it scrutinizes the holiday Dia da raça as a lens through which to examine the nuanced, often conflicting agendas regarding race during this period. While previous scholarship has primarily emphasized the Estado Novo’s valorization of racial mixing under the ideology of racial democracy, this study highlights the centrality of whiteness within these celebrations. By tracking various iterations of Dia da raça, I argue that the holiday exemplifies how the Vargas regime propagated a racial inclusiveness narrative while subtly reinforcing white supremacy. This article thus contributes to understanding the layered and complex nature of racial constructions during the Vargas era by emphasizing the often-unspoken normative status of whiteness in the national discourse.