In Rome, renowned Brazilian diplomat Felix Pacheco expresses his fascination with the founder of Italian fascism Benito Mussolini.
- Handwritten letter from Brazilian diplomat Felix Pacheco to dictator Benito Mussolini.
- Three pages with the paper and letterhead of the Grand Hotel De Russie, in Rome.
- In Portuguese.
- 14.5 cm x 19 cm.
- Rome, Italy, in the 1920s or 1930s.
- Excellent condition of conservation.
- Unique piece.
To His Excellency Mr. President Benito Musolini.
I do not wish to leave Rome without expressing to Your Excellency in a very special way my deep admiration for your admirable work of government. I have travelled throughout Italy from north to south and have noticed everywhere a fever for action for renewal that does honour to the capacity for reconstruction that has always been the prerogative of the Latin spirit and greatly ennobles the regime that has integrated this great land of order, beauty, culture, strength and dreams under new models.
There is much disagreement abroad about Fascism as a doctrine, but what no one can discuss without bad faith is the brilliant series of victories that the party created by the vigorous genius of Your Excellency has been able to obtain in the field of effective achievements. Italy is now growing in threefold unity, under the scepter of the House of Savoy, in reconciliation with the Church and in the general enthusiasm that can be seen for the guidance of the Head of Government.
The portrait that Your Excellency was kind enough to offer me has its place reserved on my desk next to the [of His Highness – erased] photograph of the Crown Prince, whom I had the honor of receiving in the State of Bahia, as Minister of Foreign Affairs of my parents, when His Highness visited Brazil.
I renew to Your Excellency the expression of my best thanks.
Felix Pacheco
Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy
Director of the Jornal do Commercio of Rio de Janeiro, and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Rio de Janeiro
Felix Pacheco (1879 - 1935) was a respected journalist and writer and one of the owners of Jornal do Commercio, one of the oldest Brazilian newspapers still in circulation. Elected several times as a federal deputy and senator, he assumed the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Artur Bernardes government (1922-1926), which led him to a diplomatic career in Italy.
Benito Mussolini (1880 - 1945) became Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 and is known as one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism.
During the 1920s and 1930s, several members of the Brazilian federal government and diplomats working in Italy had sympathies for fascism. This closeness was expressed through the exchange of decorations and favors or, more importantly, through Brazilian support for various decisions of the Italian government: for example, the Abyssinian War or the repression of Italian anti-fascists.
In the wake of the 1929 crisis, Getúlio Vargas took power in Brazil, which had Nazi Germany and the United States as its main trading partners. Strategic for the supply of raw materials and with both countries preparing for war, Brazil accelerated its trade with Adolf Hitler's Germany, but reversed the situation when the Vargas government decided to decisively align Brazil with the United States, after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Felix Pacheco was openly Italianophile and close to fascism, as demonstrated by this letter, which he later regretted. It is not known whether Mussolini actually received and read these lines, but they remain an interesting - and sad - testimony to Brazil's diplomatic and ideological hesitations on the eve of the Second World War.
