Gilberto Freyre, Mário Ferreira dos Santos, and Otto Maria Carpeaux: three authors who, on their own, could transform Brazil into a new civilization. Add to that, just to stick with them, the dozens of excellent poets the country has already produced, and we would have a broad and fertile literary landscape, sufficient to lay the foundations for a solid intellectual education. All of this already exists and is available to anyone interested. One need only get to know them to see how foolish the claim that “Brazilian literature is worthless” really is. The new civilization, however, may never come; but the offshoots of the one that once existed have already proven themselves worthy of a place in the pantheon of universal culture.