Region Out of Place: The Brazilian Northeast and the World, 1924–1968 by Courtney J. Campbell (review)

Reviewed by: Region Out of Place: The Brazilian Northeast and the World, 1924–1968 by Courtney J. Campbell Andrew J. Kirkendall Region Out of Place: The Brazilian Northeast and the World, 1924–1968. By Courtney J. Campbell. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2022, p. 301. 60. 00. In 2019, the Brazilian movie Bacurau depicted human predators from abroad hunting Brazilian northeasterners. Perhaps most upsetting to many Brazilians was that Brazilians from the south were also engaged in the sport. The southern Brazilian characters, for their part, were appalled to discover that the foreigners did not see them as different from their compatriots. The relationship between region and nation has been undergoing a renaissance in Brazilian studies, with the work of South and North American scholars like Durval Muniz de Albuquerque Júnior, Barbara Weinstein, Stanley Blake, and others. Based on her 2014 Vanderbilt University doctoral dissertation, Courtney J. Campbell's new book is a refreshing and decidedly unprovincial monograph that takes us in surprising directions, based on a close and creative reading of a wide variety of primary sources. As is frequently the case with works focusing on the northeast, the region itself is as much of an actor as the people. What sets the book apart is a transnational approach that examines the interactions between northeasterners, their region, the nation, and the world. The internal and external dynamics are not necessarily as fraught as those see in Bacurau; nevertheless, we learn much about how people in and outside of the region are seen and want to be seen. Campbell begins with the now-familiar story of how the northeast began to be perceived as a problem with the drought of 1877. She then turns to an examination of cordel literature, a kind of folk poetry that she frequently employs. Their authors depict not only sufferings of the people at home, but also provide warnings regarding the perils incumbent on the migratory exodus in search of economic opportunities. Campbell provides an illuminating examination of the work of Gilberto Freyre, a life-long cultural mediator between his northeast and the world. The author is not prone to dismiss Freyre as recent Brazilianists have, perhaps because she had the advantage of receiving some of her education at the Federal University of Pernambuco. Freyre's own educational opportunities in Waco, Texas and New York, New York (not least of all his studies with German Jewish immigrant anthropologist Franz Boas at Columbia University), and his interactions with scholars from the United States, Europe, and elsewhere gave him a perspective that emphasized the national and international importance of the land of his sugar planter forebears. Unlike many intellectuals from the Deep South, he sought not separation but inclusion and recognition that his region's history was Brazilian history, as well as the preservation of a distinctive culture. End Page 314 Northeasterners not only went global, but the world came to the northeast. Fishermen during the Getúlio Vargas years who voyaged south to demand the benefits of national labor laws caught the attention of US film director Orson Welles, a maverick emissary of the Good Neighbor Policy. His attempt to recreate their heroic voyage ended in tragedy with the death of one of them at sea. A more extensive arrival of the outside world came following US concerns regarding the vulnerability of the northeast coast during World War II. The Franklin Roosevelt administration found instead a strategic opportunity with air and naval bases in Natal and elsewhere. Campbell focuses on the experience of the women known as "Coca- Colas, " consumed and thrown away by US servicemen and disdained by their male compatriots. One wonders, however, about the author's use of the word abandonment in terms of international relations since she makes clear that nationalists after the war wanted the United States to go. A rather brief analysis of a soccer match in Recife during the 1950 World Cup makes clear that soccer was not necessarily a unifying force, but also that the competition provided opportunities to express fears of inadequacy in light of the international gaze. A more extended treatment of beauty contests enables Campbell to address attempts to adapt or not to North. . .