José Honório Rodrigues (1913-1987)
An excitable history professor whom I knew well. He was an incurable devotee of the city of Rio—otherwise known as a “Carioca.” He was equally devoted to that city’s favorite soccer club, Flamengo.
José Honório was one of the two or three most distinguished historians in the Brazil of my time. He had been Director of the National Library, where he oversaw the publication of many important works, including the volumes of one of Brazil’s earliest and most influential historians. He went on to teach at several Rio universities and others in Brazil.
His own work was eclectic. He was a pioneer in the study of Brazilian historiography. He also wrote a pioneering volume on Brazil’s historical link to Africa. José Honório was a formidable polemicist. He carried on an unrelenting battle with the cultural establishment, firing from the left. He was a frequent newspaper contributor, especially to the hometown Jornal do Brasil.
I got to know him because he liked to entertain foreign researchers, especially Americans. He and his wife, Leda, held frequent Sunday lunches and soirees at his ample Ipanema flat.
His wife was also a published author, with several volumes on the U.S. Supreme Court. José Honório was quite irascible, unlike most of my Brazilian friends. He used to complain that the covers of his wife’s books (they had the same publisher) were more colorful than his.
One of my last public acts in Brazil was a lecture I gave at the Instituto Histórico and Geográphico do Brasil. I was trying to smooth over an altercation between Chico and José Honório. Not easygoing. (Certainly not sempre calma no Brasil!).
José Honório was a tremendous help to us neophyte Brazilianistas. He had done archival research in the United Kingdom and in the United States. He was conversant with historical trends in both places.
He was a powerful revisionist voice in Brazilian historical writing. He inveighed against the predominant myths of nonviolence and racial tolerance found in many of the texts of Brazilian history.
Once, at one of his lunch parties, he took me by the arm. I had just published my first book, which made quite a stir in Brazil.
He looked me straight in the eyes and said “Você é muito jovem para escrever sínteses históricas.” [You’re very young to be writing historical syntheses].
I looked him gravely in the eye and replied, “Muito obrigado, Professor.” Sempre calma no Brasil.
José Honório, for all his faults, was a highly creative and productive historian. Brazil would have been far less rewarding and interesting with him.
GO FLAMENGO!!
Further Readings
Rodrigues, José, and Joaquim Ribeiro. Civilização holandesa no Brasil. São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1940.
Rodrigues, José. Teoria da história do Brasil: introdução metodológica. 2.nd ed. São Paulo: Companhia Editôra Nacional, 1957.
Rodrigues, José. O conselho de estado: o quinto poder? Brasília: Centro Gráfico do Senado Federal, 1978.
José Honório Rodrigues was born in the city of Rio de Janeiro. A renowned historian, Rodrigues co-authored Civilização holandesa no Brasil with Joaquim Ribeiro in 1940 and received the Scholarship Award from the Brazilian Academy of Letters. From 1946 to 1958, he served as Director of Publications and Rare Books at the National Library in Rio de Janeiro. He was also Director of Research at the Rio Branco Institute from 1948 to 1951.