The article makes a reformulation of the concepts of modernity and modern in relation to Brazilian art movements 1920s. The works of the leading exponents of Brazilian modernism, Oswald de Andrade and Mario de Andrade are put into dialogue with the theory of deconstruction to show how these two writers at the time foreshadowed what was said later by theorists of this line. In addition to showing the many faces of the modern in Brazil through the architectural change in Belo Horizonte, outlines the prospects for national modernization occurring in the work of authors from that region. Finally, put on reading lights pioneer Silviano Santiago in the revision of the borders that frame the terms modern, modernist, especially in the revaluation of the canonical figure of Mário de Andrade.