Mongrel complex
"Mongrel complex" is an expression used to refer to a collective inferiority complex reportedly felt by many Brazilians when comparing Brazil and its culture to other parts of the world, primarily the developed world, as the reference to a "mongrel" carries negative connotations attributed to the perception of most Brazilians being racially mixed as well as lacking in desirable cultural refinement.Background
It was originally coined by novelist and writer Nelson Rodrigues, in which originally he referred to the trauma suffered by Brazilians in 1950 when the national football team was defeated by Uruguay's national team in the last match of the 1950 World Cup, which was held at the Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro. The estimated 200,000 spectators at the stadium that day were stunned into an eerie silence after the match was concluded, some so apparently distraught they committed suicide by jumping out of the stands. Brazil would recover in 1958 when it won the World Cup for the first of five times, but the idea persisted afterwards, cropping up again the next time Brazil hosted the World Cup in 2014 when it was defeated in the semifinal match against Germany by a score of 7–1.
For Rodrigues, the phenomenon was not exclusively related to sport. According to him:
The expression "mongrel complex" was rediscovered in 2004 by American journalist Larry Rohter. In an article for The New York Times about the Brazilian nuclear program, he wrote:
