Under the Spell of Populism: Popular Culture and Intellectuals in Brazil Cacilda Rego Utah State University Abstract In the 1960s, Brazil experienced profound changes, due mainly to the emer- gence of the urban masses. At that time, political and cultural projects of a populist and nationalist nature appeared, supported by the idea of a national popular culture through which the masses would be led to a tomnda de consciencia (critical consciousness) of the country’s social problems. It fell to the intellectuals to lead the way, to create a distinctive national popular cul- ture that, contrary to foreign imports, would reflect the true experience of the popular classes, among whom they proudly counted themselves. In this context, popular culture became associated with products made and dis- tributed by the Centros Populares de Cultura (Popular Culture Centers— CPC). This essay aims at analyzing the role of the intellectuals affiliated with the CPC in realizing these objectives. Those who, by what is essentially an abuse of power, feel they have the right or make it their duty to speak for the people, that is, in its favor, but also in its place . . ., are still speaking for themselves; or, at least, they are still speaking about themselves, in that they are thus trying, in the best cases . . . to allay the suffering caused by social separation by becoming members of the people in their imaginations. —Pierre Bourdieu, In Other Words, 146 P ierre Bourdieu’s statement rests on the premise that, for the possess- ors of cultural authority, speaking about the “popular” usually involves an illusion of otherness and a politically dubious will to speak on behalf of “the people” who, from their viewpoint, lack intelligence, aesthetic sensibil- ity, and erudition. Such an exercise of authority is immensely complicated when intellectuals, whether or not they are formally engaged in politics, be- come interested in popular culture. This is so, at least in part, because, while permitting themselves to leap imaginatively into the shoes of the so-called ordinary people, more often than not intellectuals evince a condescending attitude toward popular culture, either tacitly or overtly. Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, Vol. 33, 2015 © 2015 by the University of Texas Press DOI: 10.7560/SLAPC3311