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The University Student Tradition in Brazil*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Robert O. Myhr
Robert O. Myhr*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Washington
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Extract

Almost every day our newspapers feature accounts of student ferment on one or another of the university campuses in both the “developed” and “developing” nations around the globe. University students appear to have become extremely active in recent years in attempting to influence policy decisions taken by both administrators of higher education and government officials. In Brazil, however, such student political activism is clearly not just a recent phenomenon. While Brazilian university students have played an increasingly important role in national politics since World War II, most recently in their outspoken opposition to the military-dominated governments of the late Castello Branco and that of President Artur Costa e Silva, they enjoy an important tradition of student political activism that cannot be overlooked. In fact, accepting the suggestions made with real insight by E. Wight Bakke regarding the causes of student activism, we find that an examination of the student tradition in Brazil helps to explain current student agitation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , January 1970 , pp. 126 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1970

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Footnotes

*

This essay presents some of the findings of a larger study on the political role of university students in Brazil. The author gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Fulbright program in Brazil, the Institute of Latin American Studies of Columbia University, and the University of Washington.

References

1 Bakke, E. Wight, “Roots and Soil of Student Activism,” Comparative Education Review 10 (1966): 163–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 For a detailed discussion of student political activity in Brazil from 1945 through 1966, see Myhr, Robert O., “Brazil,” in Emmerson, Donald K., ed., Students and Politics in Developing Nations (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1968).Google Scholar

3 For information on student activity during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, see Bahía, Renato, O estufante na história nacional (Bahia: Livraria Progresso Editora, 1954).Google Scholar

4 Bevilaqua, Clovis, História da Faculdade de Direito do Recife (Rio de Janeiro: Libraria Castro Alves, 1927), 1: 42–90.Google Scholar See also Viana, Helio, “O primeiro jornal de estudantes (1831),” Revista do Instituto Arqueológico Histórico e Geográfico Pemambucano 39 (1944): 255–279.Google Scholar

5 See also Morse, Richard M., From Community to Metropolis, A Biography of São Paulo, Brazil (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1958), pp. 63–66.Google Scholar

6 Nabuco, Joaquim, Um estadista do Imperio, Nabuco de Araujo (São Paulo: Instituto Progresso Editorial, 1949), 1: 19.Google Scholar

7 Morse, , From Community to Metropolis, pp. 92–93.Google Scholar

8 The law school in the Northeast had been moved from the Monastery of Sao Bento in suburban Olinda to Recife in 1854.

9 The nineteenth-century faculties graduated important future leaders for Brazil almost every year; students made important contacts during their stay in the faculty. For example, in the São Paulo law school, the class of 1859 included two future presidents of Brazil, Prudente de Moráis and Campo Sales; Silva Parannos, the Baron of Rio Branco, was in the class of 1862; and at one point the class of 1866 had enrolled Joaquim Nabuco, Rui Barbosa, Castro Alves, and the future president, Rodrigues Alves.

10 Havighurst, Robert J. and Moreira, J. Roberto, Society and Education in Brazil (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1965), p. 76.Google Scholar There were also a few military academies scattered throughout the country. However, less than three percent of the population was attending existing schools at any level.

11 See da Cunha, Euclides, Rebellion in the Backlands, trans. Putnam, Samuel (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944).Google Scholar

12 Eight free law schools were formed during the first twenty years of the republic—two in Rio and one each in Bahia, Minas Gerais, Fortaleza, Pará, Manaus, and Pôrto Alegre. Engineering schools were established in Sao Paulo, Rio, and Porto Alegre. In addition, there were schools of veterinary medicine, chemistry, and agriculture in Rio. See de Azevedo, Fernando, Brazilian Culture: An Introduction to the Study of Culture in Brazil, trans. Crawford, William R. (New York: Macmillan, 1950), p. 421.Google Scholar

13 Americano, Jorge, A Universidade de São Paulo: dados, problemas, e planos (São Paulo: Empresa Gráfica da “Revista dos Tribunais” Ltda., 1947), pp. 90–92.Google Scholar

14 Morse, , From Community to Metropolis, p. 240.Google Scholar

15 de Assis Barbosa, Francisco, Juscelino Kubitschek, urna revisäo na política brasileira (Rio de Janeiro: Libraria José Olympio Editôra, 1960), 1: 335–338.Google Scholar The student campaign against Bernardes was led by Pedro Aleixo, then student of law, together with his friend Milton Campos. In medical school at this time, the future president, Juscelino Kubitschek, was not active in student politics. However, it is interesting to note that among his friends and contemporaries were included José Maria Alkmin (“a good friend”), Odilon Behrens, Antônio Vilas Boas, Abgar Renault, Gustavo Capanema, Mario Casassanta, Gabriel Passos—all studying in Minas.

16 See Gabriel del Mazo, ed., La reforma universitaria, 2nd ed. (La Plata: Centro Estudiantes de Ingeniería, 1941), 2: 203; also Ferreira, Waldemar, “A Faculdade de Direito na arrancada de 9 de julho de 1932,” Revista da Faculdade de Direito (São Paulo, 1960), 55: 416–433.Google Scholar

17 The Campos law was the statute of the Brazilian universities. The first university founded in Brazil was in Rio in 1920, the University of Rio de Janeiro; the second, the University of Minas Gerais, in Belo Horizonte in 1927. These two universities simply united the existing traditional institutions of Law, Medicine, and Engineering. The first university founded under the new law was that of Sao Paulo in 1934, followed shortly thereafter by the University of Porto Alegre. See Azevedo, , Brazilian Culture, p. 514.Google Scholar

18 Brazil, Coleção das Leis (“Atos do Governo Provisório”) 1 (1931): 405-419.

19 Ferreira, , “A Faculdade de Direito …” Revista da Faculdade de Dlreito (São Paulo), 55: 416–433.Google Scholar

20 See de Souza Carneiro, Nelson, XXII de Agosto, o movimento constitutionalista na Bahia (São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1933).Google Scholar

21 See Franca, Antônio, Anos de Resistência (Rio de Janeiro: Editôra da Casa do Estudante do Brasil, 1950).Google Scholar

22 [Antonio] Almeida Junior, “A Resistencia Académica e o Estado Novo,” Estado de Sao Paulo, November 10,1953.

23 For the early history of UNE see: Raimundo Nonato Rodrigues Villela, Fundação da UNE, urna contribuição a historia da União Nacional dos Estudantes (Distrito Federal [Rio]: n.n., 1954); Sônia Seganfreddo, UNE, instrumento de subversáo (Rio de Janeiro: Edicóes GRD, 1963); Joel Silveira, “Praia do Flamengo,” Parts I-IV, Córrelo da Manhñ, August 22,23,25, and 26, 1964.

24 Junior, A. Almeida, Estado de São Paulo, November 10, 1953.Google Scholar Paulista students involved in the resistance to the Estado Nôvo included Germinal Feijó, Ulisses Guimarães, Américo Marco Antônio, Luís Arrobas Martins, and Hélio Mota.