"Acontecimentos de crônica urbana": Antônio Alcântara Machado, Fanfulla and the rise oof an Italian ethnicity in São Paulo

Abstract

This article examines the development of an Italian-Brazilian identity in the city of São Paulo. Through the distribution of important information, journalism was an important vehicle in describing a new urban reality as well as organising immigrant communities and thus creating a new ethnic conscience. Subsequently we see how Antônio Alcântara Machado, a vanguard writer of the 1920s, uses this urban writing stile in his short stories. It is argued that this imitation of popular immigrant speech is not merely an aesthetic decision, but that it indicates a new notion of what it means to be Brazilian.

Keywords

• Cultural history of São Paulo
• Italian immigrants
• Fanfulla
• Antônio Alcântara Machado