'Representing the Good Neighbor: Material for U.S. and Brazilian Relations during World War II

The thesis focuses on U.S. and Brazilian relations during World War II. In an effort against the spread of European fascisms in Latin America, the United States started a mission to secure Brazilian loyalty. For Brazil, to break relations with the Axis, was a difficult choice. Given that it had a well-established trade relation with Germany and a numerous German, Italian, and Japanese immigrant populations. Brazil saw U.S. interest as an opportunity to gain much needed profitable economic agreements that would advance the development of the country into a regional and international power. In this mutually beneficial agreement propaganda played an important role; it crystalized the partnership. Two examples have been chosen to analyze how the campaign reflected wartime representations of Brazil for a U.S. audience: the Brazilian Pavilion for the 1939 New York World's Fair, and the wartime films of Carmen Miranda.