An Introduction to the Fiction of Public Works

Abstract

In Brazil, the twentieth century heralded an upsurge in public works construction. Between 1900 and 1984, the country built nearly all its foundational structures: boulevards, electrical lines, tunnels, bridges, highways, subways, and hydroelectric power plants. All of these projects were necessary in order to lay a public works foundation, it is true. However, at the same time, Brazil was building some of the world’s most massive power plants and bridges, and deliberately using public works to emblemize the country’s industrial and aesthetic commitments. What did the construction of these bold public works mean for Brazil? It represented a marked shift in the country’s cohesiveness and national identity. From its independence to its years as an empire (1822–1889), Brazil had crafted a sense of national identity around the figure of the emperor and the region’s differences from Spanish America (Wolfe 6). The public works initiatives of the twentieth century, however, introduced a new narrative of national identity by physically integrating the many isolated regions of the huge country with roads, telegraphs, and electrical lines. Previously disparate states were integrated by public works that literally facilitated communication among distant regions and symbolically signaled the nation’s resolve to become a cohesive whole.