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This book traces the rise and (relative) decline of Gilberto Freyre's vision of mestiçagem (miscegenation or mixing) as the overwhelmingly dominant narrative of national identity in twentieth-century Brazil. Freyre's prolific writings enshrine mestiçagem at the core of Brazilian culture and identity. I show how this optimistic vision of a provincial intellectual moves from a conversation among a small group of intellectuals in the 1930s to the dominant myth in national culture by the 1970s. Radio broadcasting and film after the 1920s, and television beginning in the 1960s, facilitated the emergence of a mass, popular culture dominated by the symbols and rituals of mestiçagem: samba as the national music, carnaval as the emblematic national ritual, and futebol as the nation's sport.