This book reveals a fraud committed by the mixed Brazilian 'nobility' from the sugar plantations from Pernambuco (a old and rich province in the past, today a poor northern state in Brazil), since the 16 century. Cabral de Mello brings the example of the Pais Barreto family to prove the jewish blood of almost of all the powerfull families in the old and bigger Portuguese colony. He shows the presence of anti-antisemitism, racism and Inquisition in Colonial Brazil. And prejudices against anybody with jewish, muslim, indian or african blod in their veins. But, again, many rich families there had hidden connections with women of other ethnic groups. Sex brings down all kinds of prejudice. The genealogists , payed by plantations owners, created a fraudulent way to hide the mixed origins of the greats in Colonial Brasil society.It's a excellent book, but the author seems to believe in Gilberto Freire's mith called "Lusotropicalism", that believes in a relatively 'softer and gentler' character of the portuguese colonization in the Americas, vis-avis the spanish and english colonies in America. Evaldo C. de Mello is one of the best brazilian historian researchers alive today. He was a diplomat, and today he´s a professor in UFRJ - The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), and came from a old and traditional brazilian family. One of the greats to denounce the"racial democracy" in Brasil.