abstract The objective is to analyze the works "Selva Trágica" of Hernâni Donato (1959), and "De Galpão em Galpão" of Helio Serejo (1962), and understand the discursive construction within the works that contribute to the perception of the formation of regional identity in the southern portion of Mato Grosso in the first decades of the twentieth century, considering the cycle of herbal workers, understanding how groups that consider themselves similar, and different from other, join together, and form a culture. The speeches don't necessarily go beyond as a objective of Donato and Serejo for the construction of identity, we conducted a comparative analysis of the two authors to display the representations of life in the herbal, present in the speeches of both.