The first work of naturalism in Brazil is usually said to be O Mulato, by Aluísio Azevedo, published in 1881.
Aluísio had returned to São Luís do Maranhão in 1878, on his father's death, and there he first published a novel of a romantic bent, Uma lágrima de mulher (1879). Two years later came O Mulato, which exposed the prejudice and hypocrisy of the society of Maranhão and caused a scandal in the city. In the same year the author returned to Rio to live by his writing.
The critic Otto Maria Carpeaux, in treating naturalism, gives Aluísio the primacy, in date and in value, across Latin America as a whole: "The priority of Latin American naturalism, in chronology and with respect to value, belongs to the Brazilian Aluísio Azevedo".
On Clavis: The Slum.