Brazilian · 1902–1982
Sérgio Buarque de Holanda was a Brazilian historian, sociologist and literary critic, born in São Paulo in 1902. He worked as a journalist and critic in the 1920s and took part in the Modernist movement. In 1936 he published Raízes do Brasil, his best-known book, which introduced the idea of the cordial man and became a basic text of Brazilian social thought. He taught at the University of São Paulo and directed the Museu Paulista, and he also lived and lectured abroad, including in Rome and the United States. His later books include Monções, Caminhos e Fronteiras and Visão do Paraíso, which examine colonial Brazil through travel, frontier life and the myths Europeans carried to the New World. He helped build modern Brazilian historiography by bringing together archival work and cultural analysis. In 1969 he left the university in protest at the military regime's forced retirement of colleagues. He was a founder of the Workers' Party. He died in São Paulo in 1982. His children include the musicians Chico Buarque, Miúcha and Cristina Buarque.