Jeffrey Lesser's invaluable book tells the poignant and puzzling story of how earlier this century, in spite of the power of anti-Semitic politicians and intellectuals, Jews made their exodus to Brazil, "the land of the future." What motivated the Brazilian government, he asks, to create a secret ban on Jewish entry in 1937 just as Jews desperately sought refuge from Nazism? And why, just one year later, did more Jews enter Brazil legally than ever before? The answers lie in the Brazilian elite's radically contradictory images of Jews and the profound effect of these images on Brazilian...

TheirThis collection of essays addresses various aspects of Arab and Jewish immigration and acculturation in Latin America. The volume examines how the Latin American elites who were keen to change their countries' ethnic mix felt threatened by the arrival of Arabs and Jews. ar rival was largely unexpected, and in some cases frankly undesired and practically banned.

TheirThis collection of essays addresses various aspects of Arab and Jewish immigration and acculturation in Latin America. The volume examines how the Latin American elites who were keen to change their countries' ethnic mix felt threatened by the arrival of Arabs and Jews. ar rival was largely unexpected, and in some cases frankly undesired and practically banned.

Despite great ethnic and racial diversity, ethnicity in Brazil is often portrayed as a matter of black or white, a distinction reinforced by the ruling elite s efforts to craft the nation s identity in its own image white, Christian, and European. In "Negotiating National Identity" Jeffrey Lesser explores the crucial role ethnic minorities from China, Japan, North Africa, and the Middle East have played in constructing Brazil s national identity, thereby challenging dominant notions of nationality and citizenship.
Employing a cross-cultural approach, Lesser examines a variety of...

During the first half of the twentieth century, Japanese immigrants entered Brazil by the tens of thousands. In more recent decades that flow has been reversed: more than 200,000 Japanese-Brazilians and their families have relocated to Japan. Examining these significant but rarely studied transnational movements and the experiences of Japanese-Brazilians, the essays in" Searching for Home Abroad" rethink complex issues of ethnicity and national identity. The contributors who represent a number of nationalities and disciplines themselves analyze how the original Japanese immigrants, their...

During the first half of the twentieth century, Japanese immigrants entered Brazil by the tens of thousands. In more recent decades that flow has been reversed: more than 200,000 Japanese-Brazilians and their families have relocated to Japan. Examining these significant but rarely studied transnational movements and the experiences of Japanese-Brazilians, the essays in" Searching for Home Abroad" rethink complex issues of ethnicity and national identity. The contributors who represent a number of nationalities and disciplines themselves analyze how the original Japanese immigrants, their...

In A Discontented Diaspora, Jeffrey Lesser investigates broad questions of ethnicity, the nature of diasporic identity, and Brazilian culture. He does so by exploring particular experiences of young Japanese Brazilians who came of age in Sao Paulo during the 1960s and 1970s, an intensely authoritarian period of military rule. The most populous city in Brazil, Sao Paulo was also the world s largest Japanese city outside of Japan by 1960. Believing that their own regional identity should be the national one, residents of Sao Paulo constantly discussed the relationship between...

In A Discontented Diaspora, Jeffrey Lesser investigates broad questions of ethnicity, the nature of diasporic identity, and Brazilian culture. He does so by exploring particular experiences of young Japanese Brazilians who came of age in Sao Paulo during the 1960s and 1970s, an intensely authoritarian period of military rule. The most populous city in Brazil, Sao Paulo was also the world s largest Japanese city outside of Japan by 1960. Believing that their own regional identity should be the national one, residents of Sao Paulo constantly discussed the relationship between...

Immigration, Ethnicity, and National Identity in Brazil, 1808 to the Present examines the immigration to Brazil of millions of Europeans, Asians, and Middle Easterners beginning in the nineteenth century. Jeffrey Lesser analyzes how these newcomers and their descendents adapted to their new country and how national identity was formed as they became Brazilians along with their children and grandchildren. Lesser argues that immigration cannot be divorced from broader patterns of Brazilian race relations, as most immigrants settled in the decades surrounding the final abolition of slavery in...

Latin America is home to emerging global powers such as Brazil and Mexico and has important links to other titans including China, India, and Africa. Global Latin America examines a range of historical events and cultural forms in Latin America that continue to influence peoples' lives far outside the region. Its innovative essays, interviews, and stories focus on insights from public intellectuals, political leaders, artists, academics, and activists from the region, allowing students to gain an appreciation of the global relevance of Latin America in the twenty-first century.