Construindo narrativas pelos caminhos da salvaguarda: Gustavo Barroso no entorno do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (1930-1945)

Abstract

The subject of study of this dissertation is the process of construction of the personal memory of Gustavo Barroso (1888-1959), a Brazilian intellectual whose name was strongly marked by his long performance as director of the National Historical Museum (MHN), a position he held for more than three decades, and by his insertion in the context of the creation of the policy for the preservation of the national historical and artistic heritage, developed during the so-called First Vargas Government (1930-1945). This multifaceted intellectual managed his various areas of professional activity in order to insert himself in the specific political context of the First Vargas Administration, at times approaching the typical disputes of the political game undertaken by Getulio Vargas, other times distancing himself from situations that were undesirable to him. In this research, through the investigation of various journalistic sources - news from newspapers, magazines and periodicals - we seek to understand how, in the public sphere, Barroso -making use of his work as a public servant, writer, journalist and editorsought to build three distinct, however interrelated public images: the writer linked to the Brazilian Academy of Letters (ABL), the man from the museum and national heritage who emerged from his role in the direction of the MHN, and the politician; the latter mainly marked by the adhesion to the Brazilian Integralist Action (AIB) in 1933. In the final years of the First Vargas Government, Gustavo Barroso would manage his public images, electing the “man of the museum and heritage” as the main point of his trajectory, the guiding principle of an autobiographical narrative that aimed to ensure the dissemination of an official version that was guided by personal and political interests. Considering the fact that the arguments that around the issue of the museum and heritage that were elaborated by Barroso appear as representations of his own political and social positions at the time of his writing, we analyze the reasons that influenced his narrative options, investigating how they articulate and antagonize the different faces of his vast performance in a complex dynamic of memorial construction and reconstruction. By researching the existing interchange between intellectual and political performance and the space that was occupied by this character at the end of the Vargas government, it became possible to analyze the performance of Gustavo Barroso in the process of elaborating a narrative – replete with autobiographical traits – which sought to frame the official memory through the reinterpretation of the past, placing it at the center of the process of construction of the preservationist policy undertaken by Getúlio Vargas, while placing it aside from the characteristic 1930s political conflicts. Finally, Barroso's initiative faced resistance from other political actors operating in the area of heritage, such as Rodrigo de Andrade, who, as director of the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Service (SPHAN), would build his own narrative explaining the history of preservation in Brazil, in which Barroso was passed deferred.