Regionalist Movement: program, achievements and legacy to Recife

Abstract

This article addresses the Regionalist Movement, which took place in Recife in the 1920s as a segment of a broad cultural movement – which spread simultaneously in other states – of renovation of artistic, literary and architectural production, anchored in the innovation of language and in themes and motifs inspired by Brazil’s culture and nature. Thus, the present paper introduces this movement through the Centro Regionalista do Nordeste (Northeast Regionalist Center), governmental actions and individual initiatives of journalists, writers, researchers and collectors. It points out, then, that the Movement was not limited to the activities of the Centro Regionalista do Nordeste; that this Center meant much more than an expression of the intellectual activity of Gilberto Freyre; and that the Movement left deep marks in the landscape of Recife, through buildings of neocolonial architecture and public gardens with tropical plants.