3514121

Lessons in Patriotism and Good Citizenship: National Identity and Nationalism in Public
Schools during the Vargas Administration, 1937-1945

Author(s): Carmen Nava
Source: Luso-Brazilian Review, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Summer, 1998), pp. 39-63
Published by: University of Wisconsin Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3514121
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Lessons in Patriotism and Good Citizenship: National
Identity and Nationalism in Public Schools During the
Vargas Administration, 1937-1945
Carmen Nava
A educagao pfblica brasileira 6 o enfoque de uma interpreta9ao hist6rica da initiativa

nacionalista langado pelo Estado Novo de Getulio Vargas (1937-1945). Especificamente, a
pesquisa analisa a versao de identidade nacional manifestado nas politicas educacionais do
Estado Novo e o conte6do de livros didaticos. As representaoqes graficas tanto como os
textos destes livros didaticos sao analisados para mensagens explicitas e implicitas sobre
unidade nacional, raga, g6nero, e practicas patri6ticas. A pesquisa revela que a mensagem de
identidade nacional brasileira foi novamente unificado e articulado a consequencia de politicas
federais, e que essa versao unificada de identidade nacional brasileira foi promovido pelo
curriculo das escolas p6blicas nacionais com a intengao de fonnar Novos cidadoes patri6ticas
e leais.
We assert that the nation should not be understood

as an entity of unsure and imprecise substance. The
nation has a specific content. It is a moral, political,
and economic reality.
Gustavo Capanema
The Estado Novo, declared in 1937 by Getulio Vargas, was explicitly centralizi
and authoritarian. Vargas and his supporters cast their own version of the Brazilian n
and the Brazilian citizen, and employed this nationalism as part of their campaig
simultaneously advance their economic and political agenda and to consolidate pop
support of Brazilians. Children in public schools were important targets in this camp
the regime attempted to imprint appropriate patriotic values in the hearts and minds of
impressionable youth. As Minister of Education Gustavo Capanema argued,
. .When we assert that education will function at the service of the

state, we mean that [education], far from being neutral, should take part,
or better, should adopt a philosophy and follow a list of values, should
strictly follow the system of moral, political, and economic directives
which constitute the ideological base of the nation, and ... be under the
supervision, the control, and the defense of the state.
Public education, and particularly public school curriculum and text book content, were
incorporated into the centralized government campaign led by Vargas to legitimize his New
State. In the official jargon of the era, Vargas and his supporters were trying to "remove the
obstacles which impeded the action of government."2 The stated goal was national
rejuvenation and economic progress. Vargas and his supporters declared the politics and
Luso-Brazilian Review, XXXV I 0024-7413/98/001 $1.50

? 1998 by the Board of Regents of the
University of Wisconsin System
40 Luso-Brazilian Review, 35/1
economics of the First Republic (1889-1930) bankrupt, and progress was said to require
major social innovation. Vargas argued that a newly centralized state would best accomplish
the task. The Constitution of 1937, which was immediately issued, gave the president
dictatorial powers, so that Vargas became
the supreme authority of the state, who coordinates the higher

representative organs, conducts domestic and foreign policy, promotes
or guides national legislative policy, and superintends the
administration of the country.3
Article 180 invested the President with the power to issue decrees on "all matters of
legislation for the Union" until such time as the National Parliament met. With this power,
Vargas advanced policies which enlarged the state and brought active government
intervention into many areas of civil society. The regime consolidated decision-making
power at the federal level which had previously been shared with states, and concentrated
power in the executive branch which had previously been divided with the legislature. The
major ideological proposition of the Estado Novo was that only a strong national
government would make possible the realization of a "true democracy."4
Vargas created a variety of federal agencies to carry out his centralizing and
authoritarian agenda: the Ministry of Labor, Industry and Commerce5; the Administrative
Department of Public Service (DASP)6; the Department of Press and Propaganda (DIP)7;
and a series of specialized federal agencies coordinated major economic sectors.8 The most
important agency for this study of nationalism, however, was the Ministry of Education and
Public Health (MESP, established in 1930). It is significant because for the first time the
priority was given by a head of state for a federal ministry created to implement changes in
education throughout the national territory.9
The Vargas government sponsored a systematic, multifaceted ideological
discussion of the role of the Estado Novo which was aimed at the national audience. This
discourse was publicized on a number of levels. At the popular level, comic books, and
posters communicated important ideas and slogans, and radio communicated daily
"national" news to the far reaches of the territory. In terms of formal culture, indirect
sponsorship of intellectuals and direct production of professional-style journals generated
a voluminous corpus of articles. The DIP even published two journals of its own, Cultura
Politica and Ciencia Politica. The discourse developed in the higher levels eventually
permeated all expressions, including the curriculum used to train teachers, and the
curriculum for primary and middle education.
The nationalist rhetoric Vargas transmitted through speeches, official propaganda
and school text books, was not arbitrary-it drew upon familiar themes and established
intellectuals. Vargas enlisted prominent intellectuals and politicians to give the Estado
Novo its formal ideology.'0 Many of these intellectuals, at moments, joined the state
apparatus, and influenced as well as wrote legislation." These intellectuals held in common
a stated desire to identify Brazilian "reality."'2 They defended the state's policy to centralize
political power while criticizing the liberal republican model based on the Constitution of
1891. Many also defended the predominant role to be played by the elite within the Estado
Novo.'3 The ideology of the Estado Novo had its roots in the intellectual movements of the
1920s, especially Modernism,14 but the common element in these writings was compliance
with the canon of unifying morals and policies established by the Vargas government. In
other words, the social evaluation which took place under the rubric of a state-sponsored
Nava 41
"discussion" of the new state and the new society was restricted to the parameters set by the
official policy.'5
Fundamental in this reconceptualization of Brazil was the criticism of the First
Republic and its liberal ideology. In journals and in public speeches, the intellectuals argued
that the importation of liberal principles had resulted in a loss of identity with Brazil's
"national soul," giving rise to a dichotomy between "legal Brazil" and the "real Brazil." The
discourse alludes to the existence of a latent "national soul," which could not be realized
until the current liberal-political climate was displaced.'6 The Estado Novo was promoted
as the unique political and cultural movement capable of resolving this dichotomy between
the artificial and the authentic. In the name of "realism," "objectivity," and "good sense,"
the Estado Novo discourse proposed a "new" nationalism to counteract the nationalism of
the liberals.17 This new organic nationalism would reinterpret the past, and create a new
version of Brazilian national identity.
The discourse carefully described what it called an "authentic" national character,
yet concern for authenticity vis-a-vis foreign versions did not bring a new sense of social
equality. For example, two character-types from Brazil's past were promoted as
representative of the (new) national personality: the bandeirante, the bold explorer who
symbolized expansion and dominion; and the Jesuit, who imposed morality and moral
superiority in the name of the faith. The singling out of these characteristics exemplifies the
inherently selective process of rebuilding a version of national identity. Both types emerge
from a past distant from the present of the 1940s. Both types are male and represent kinds
of power-physical and moral-which were traditionally ascribed to males in Brazilian
society. Women are absent from this scenario (proper roles for women are treated explicitly
in other official documents and school texts to be considered later). The discourse clearly
established the role of different social groups and the proper training for those roles. The
literature asserted that the "elite" needed a predominantly political education, understood
as developing the "public spirit." The "masses," on the other hand, needed what was called
civic and military education.'8 The cultural revolution required a cadre of well-trained
leaders and a mass constituency of supportive followers, and mass public education was
designated as a key strategy.
The political and economic project of the Estado Novo required a redimensioned
version of national identity. In exchange for social benefits, the Vargas administration called
upon the different social sectors to do their "political duty" and support his policies. The
new order, however, was not installed as a result of consensus in society. The emphasis on
legitimacy and participation did not necessarily preclude coercion or marginalization.19 The
new order did explicitly include an educational project: Brazil must construct new
Brazilians.
FEDERAL PUBLIC EDUCATION POLICY UNDER VARGAS
"Never [before] in Brazil has national education been faced, systemi

constructed, as it should be, as a legitimate case of public salvation." Thus in a spe
the National Congress, Vargas lamented the dismal state of Brazilian education, wh
1,000 children of school age, only 30 completed the elementary course. In Varga
the "reorganization" of the country's political life (i.e. the 1937 coup) provi
"opportunity" to also reorganize public instruction. The educational reform init
Vargas went beyond repressing any political dissension to create a new and
"consciousness of being, and pride in being, Brazilian."20
Vargas argued that public education needed to be developed "to the furthest limits
of our possibilities." Professional and technical instruction was placed as a higher priority
than traditional academic programs because, in Vargas' estimation, "progress" was
"impossible" without it. Vargas himself defined professional education as preparing citizens
for work in the various industries.2 This emphasis on training workers is certainly consistent
with the pragmatic requirements for an industrializing economy; however, Vargas'
administration was neglecting the debate on how to improve and modernize the outdated
academic system, which included all elementary schools and many middle schools. During
the Republic, federalism gave ample autonomy to the states, and accentuated regional
disparities on educational as well as economic levels.22 However, after 1930 and especially
after 1937, this archaic, fragmented, profoundly selective system of instruction became an
obstacle to the new economic agenda,23 and specifically the new ethos of citizenship being
crafted under Getfilio Vargas.
In the newly formed corps of Brazilian workers marching into a mechanized,
industrial future, Brazilians from all areas of the national territory were to be included. For
example, in numerous speeches, Vargas asserted that "[We must]... give the sertanejo
[backlander], who is almost completely abandoned, a conscience of his rights and duties;
strengthen his soul, convince him that human solidarity exists...." Echoing Vargas' call,
Minister of Education Gustavo Capanema argued in a public speech that
it is necessary to take the school to all the points of the national

territory, and at the same time, organize and protect the infants and
youths in the state of abandonment or moral or material destitution so
that a complete education is not the privilege of a fortunate minority,
but necessarily becomes the condition of every Brazilian.24
Capanema also argued that it was not enough to just build new school campuses.
It is necessary that each [school], from the most modest to the most
complex, be organized so that it functions not as an apparatus of mere
repetition, and not only as an organ of socialization of the child and
adolescent, but more precisely functions as a center of integrated
preparation of each individual for service to the nation.25
The federal government now designated service to the nation a goal for all Brazilians. In
terms that were populist and nationalist, the Vargas government announced that the new
public education should focus on education for "all the social classes, preparing man for
work, modeling his character, giving him a moral conscience and making him useful and
capable to act as an efficient factor for the advancement of the nationality."26
Education will act, then, not in the sense of preparing man for just any
action in the society, but precisely in the sense of preparing him for
necessary and defined action, so that he comes to constitute a moral,
political, and economic unit, which helps advance the nation. The
individual, thus prepared, will... pursue a certain course. He will work
to construct the nation, in its material and spiritual elements,
conforming to the lines of a precise and steady ideology....27
Nava 43
The new role of public education was to produce a generation of Brazilians who saw
themselves as "moral, political, and economic units" who worked toward national goals as
delineated by Vargas. Getilio Vargas viewed public education as an "instrument of the
state."28
The 1937 Constitution addressed issues of public education and established
parameters for basic school policy. The same constitution which established censorship of
the press, cinema, and radio set ambitious goals for a "national education system" that the
regime advertised as "reformed," but which more importantly reflected the Estado Novo
agenda for control over content.29 The constitution incorporated concepts from the "New
School" movement of the 1920s when it ordered that the public school should be obligatory
and free of cost, and that it should act as an instrument to bolster and preserve the nation.30
The federal government assumed the responsibility to replace the existing system of
exclusive and elitist education with a "democratic" public school, based on a scientific
approach that would stress civic training, moral discipline, and physical fitness in addition
to the standard academic skills.3'
Even though the constitution conferred on the federal government new power and
responsibility for public education, it carefully placed the family at the center of the
educational process. Article 125 stated that "the education of the offspring is the first duty
and the natural right of the parents." The family was highlighted as the moral foundation
for education. The government considered primary instruction "above all as a true
instrument of molding the human being." Specifically,
primary instruction must awaken and accentuate in the child the

qualities and aptitudes of physical, intellectual, and moral order, which
enrich the personality, and at the same time emphasize discipline and
efficiency, these two elements being essential in the citizen and
worker.32
The state would use primary education to accomplish clear, pragmatic goals which, it
argued, actually reinforced the social role of the family.
The government admitted that primary instruction suffered in the past because it
had been left to states and municipalities. While the federal government under Vargas did
not assume the responsibility to establish and maintain primary schools, "its role will be to
cooperate in a systematic manner with local public powers so that primary education in the
entire country is given a new accelerated and decisive impulse."33 Primary education was
not included in legislation, although elementary schools continued to be described as an
important institution in the formation of the national character. The administration's
"organic legislation" covered higher education, and academic, commercial and industrial
middle education (in that order). A program of professional, industrial, agricultural,
commercial, and domestic education was urgently needed because Brazil was
a country of rural civilization, caught by surprise by unexpected

transformations in the world.... Brazil urgently needs to adapt itself to
the new conditions, forming numerous teams of professionals, trained
to serve the mechanical forces, which dominate the forms of activity of
moder man.34
Academic instruction at the middle level had long been considered preparatory for
university. While academic programs would continue, they also came to be newly "defined
in terms of service to the nation, for the physical, moral, intellectual, and especially cultural
training of adolescents."35 But the most emphatic theme of Vargas' basic education strategy
was the importance of vocational education, to train patriotic and productive workers for the
nation. Specifically, new "Industrial Instruction" in middle schools was designed to produce
professionals in industry, artisanry, transportation, communication, and fishing.
The collectivity will soon see the benefits [this new] system will bring
to the country, creating a new mentality among the working classes, to
better carry out their activities without resentment and disharmony ...
for the larger stability and greatness of national life.36
The new, practical instruction was offered as a direct benefit to workers.

Gender roles were an important component of official policy for public school
instruction. Whether primary or middle level, academic or vocational, instruction was
organized with clear distinction of the "needs" of boys and girls, due to "the different
destinies that Providence gave them." Capanema declared that
the public powers, having in view as the goal of education the

preparation of the individual for the moral, social, and political life of
the nation, should, in the organization of the establishments of
instruction, consider men and women differently.37
The new legislation for middle instruction also instituted military instruction for boys. Boys
under the age of 16 received "pre-military instruction," and those over 16 received "military
instruction." Girls were to receive separate training in home economics.38 So, if boys
should be prepared for business and military service, girls should have other goals:
preparation for life in the home. "The woman founds and preserves the family, and also by
her hands the family is destroyed."39 This terminology is significant because while the lack
of practical, technically-oriented education (for males) was frequently decried, the males
who did not receive this training are not explicitly blamed for any technical backwardness
for Brazil. However, women are implicitly blamed for any failures a family might suffer.
In the larger educational process, teachers were of course essential. Official
policy held elementary and middle school teachers "responsible for the spiritual health" of
Brazilian youth. Teachers' behavior in the classroom was scrutinized. "The word of the
teacher does not only transmit knowledge and notions of the exterior world." Teachers also
influence their charges through "emotional suggestions, inspired by the highest sentiments
of the human heart... [awakening] heroic impulse and creative enthusiasm in the souls of
the young." As Vargas said,
I thus charge you [teachers] to use [your words] in the pure and
exemplary sense of a civic apostle-instilling love of the land, respect
for the traditions and the unshakable belief in the great destiny of
Brazil.40
But Vargas himself warned an audience of teachers at the Colegio Pedro II in Rio de Janeiro
that "it is from the bad teacher that bad instruction comes." Vargas seemed to blame teachers
for a failing instructional system. Despite such rhetoric, he promised to build more normal
Nava 45
schools for primary teachers, and especially to train secondary teachers in methods for
professional instruction.41
National values were purposefully emotionalized and then institutionalized in a
variety of public education programs under the Estado Novo. The execution of this strategy
fell to the Ministry of War, the DIP, and especially the Ministry of Education.42 All of these
agencies worked together under the Estado Novo to determine, for example, the graphic
portrayal, the use and "cult" of the national symbols.43 National holidays featured the "Day
of the Revolution," Vargas' birthday, and "Dia da Patria" (Fatherland Day).44 Leading up
to the Dia da Pdtria, the "Semana da Patria" included parades, public instructional
conferences, and competitions. For this week, the federal government ordered that other
school subjects be set aside, and all attention be given to patriotic material. The federal
government also transmitted special radio broadcasts-heard in the interior as well as along
the more populated coast-with the message of patriotism and national unity and frequent
repetitions of the national anthem.45
Beyond national standards for the anthem, the Vargas government made
music-particularly civic music-an important element of their national education policy.
The goal was to "implant and cultivate a musical conscience for the formation of a national
sentiment."46 The MESP created an administrative organ, a new plan for teacher training,
and a corps of inspectors under the National Department of Music. A plan organized by
Heitor Villa Lobos regulated the practice of civic music in municipal schools throughout the
country.
Villa Lobos was asked by Vargas, Minister of Education Capanema, and Federal
District Education Secretary Anisio Teixeira to supervise this government initiative.47 While
busy with his own professional interests, Villa Lobos devoted a significant portion of his
time during the Estado Novo to this civic music project. Villa Lobos believed that the
"salvation" of Brazilian music depended on the basic musical training of the youth and that
collective singing was the best means of social education.4 With his unique position and
reputation, Villa Lobos lent his skills to the Vargas government, emphasizing what he saw
as music's role as a "universal language" for propaganda both inside Brazil and abroad.49
Under the Villa Lobos plan, and with the full support of the Vargas government, music
became an educational instrument with nationalistic purpose.
"Canto orfe6nico" refers to the methods and practices of choral singing
particularly designed for public school children by Villa Lobos. School children sang
patriotic songs in two, three, and four voices, and the songs were written to be easy to
memorize. The lessons were meant to instill discipline and cooperation as well as
appreciation for Brazilian music and Brasilidade. This choral singing had been made
mandatory in primary, middle academic, and vocational schools in 1932, but only after 1937
did the program gain momentum, with specific curriculum (original musical arrangements
and lyrics), teacher training, and public recitals, all conceived and designed by Villa Lobos.
Choral singing was made part of everyday school practices, lending to the school
environment "a civic sentiment, solidarity, and discipline."50
Scholastic choirs were formed in individual schools and teacher training courses
even produced Teacher's Choirs. Villa Lobos organized these choirs into mass-scale
patriotic recitals or "concentrations," as they were called, which were meant to inspire the
singers as well as the audience to a heightened sense of national identity and patriotism. For
several years during the Estado Novo, Villa Lobos organized and conducted massive recitals
with singers numbering from 12,000 to 40,000 to celebrate national holidays like
Independence Day. Most were staged in huge soccer stadiums, and many were broadcast
over radio.5 Canto orfe6nico was a major educational campaign during the Estado Novo,
uniquely based on the skill of Heitor Villa Lobos and his enthusiasm for the Estado Novo,
and was an official embrace of mass civic spectacles by the national government as a way
to demonstrate and promote nationalism.
There was also during the Estado Novo an effort to establish a new kind of
national identity among the youth. The attempts to militarize the Brazilian youth through
a "National Youth Organization" (ONJ) was based on contemporary fascist youth programs
in Germany and Italy. The first proposal for a National Youth Organization was an attempt
to institutionalize at the national level a fascist paramilitary organization. The original
document (March 1938) was signed by then Minister of Justice, Francisco Campos, and did
not mention any cooperation with the MESP, the federal agency with most jurisdiction over
governmental youth activities. Under the Campos proposal, the president, and the ministers
of War, Justice and the Navy, would have controlled the organization. Youths were to serve
in teams for yearly stints of work in the countryside, and all existing civic youth
organizations were to come under the supervision of the new entity. However, the Minister
of War, Eurico Gaspar Dutra, opposed the plan, criticizing the foreign influence in the
proposal, and opposing the militarization of the youth into "uniformed columns and
legions." Alzira Vargas, the president's daughter, who also opposed the idea because of its
foreign-derived and militarized scheme, argued, "We don't want to train soldiers but to train
citizens."52
The minister of MESP, Gustavo Capanema, led a new initiative in 1940 which
marked a definite break with the original initiative. Capanema proposed an organization that
would come under the direct supervision of the president. This new "national institution"
would operate both within and outside of schools, to instruct "every Brazilian" in the moral,
physical, and civic skills to "carry out their duties to the Patria."53 The idea of an official
militarized youth organization, however, was rejected definitively after Brazil declared war
on the Axis in 1942. Instead, the Vargas administration elaborated an official program of
"Moral and Civic Education."54
While it is true that emphasis on moral and civic education carried over directly
from the various initiatives for a fascist-style national youth organization, civic education
had a much longer pedigree. Civic education had been included in elementary schools, and
academic, normal, and technical middle schools during the First Republic, when foreign
schools located in immigrant communities became an area of concern for the federal
government. Primary school curriculum emphasized the Lingua Patria (Portuguese) and
Brazilian geography and history. "Moral and Civic Instruction" was first officially
established in 1925 as part of the final exam of the first year of secondary.5
Civic education, sometimes also called "moral and political instruction," was made
mandatory by the Constitution of 1937 (Article 131). According to the constitution, primary
instruction was to "provide the essential elements of patriotic training" with patriotism
meaning a "vigorous sentiment" of"high fervor," "love," "devotion," and "fondness" for
the nation. Middle academic instruction was explicitly designed to prepare the nation's
"leaders" to "accentuate and elevate a patriotic and humanistic conscience."56 Religion,
although considered an integral part of the education of children and adolescents, was not
part of the government program proposed for civic education. "Moral education" was
designed to form healthy personalities in children and youths, with "self-confidence,
discipline, appreciation for personal initiative, perseverance in work, and the highest dignity
in all actions and circumstances."57 Mandatory instruction in civics was not designated as
Nava 47
a specific discipline, but rather was to be an "educational practice" that was to permeate all
scholastic activities in all types of schools. There were no professors of civic education, for
all teachers were equally responsible for the transmission of these precepts and values.
The moral and civic education promoted by the Vargas administration reveals a
consistent set of gender roles. The government decreed that
it is also the role of civic education to instill in children and youths of

the male sex a love for military duty, a consciousness of the
responsibilities of the soldier and a basic understanding of military
matters, and it should also give to women instruction in subjects like
nursing, and the ability to cooperate, when necessary, in the national
defense.58
Children of both sexes needed the moral component of Moral and Civic Education to "make
them capable of the mission of being fathers and mothers." All Brazilian children were
supposed to develop a "patriotic conscience" which guided the children to take on their
share of the "responsibility for the security and for the advancement of the country" with
"serious effort and dedication."59
PUBLIC SCHOOL TEXTS FROM 1937-1945
Text books written for and used in public elementary and middle school
classrooms reveal the criteria established by newly vigorous and ambitious federal policy
acting as vessels for the most basic and fundamental values the government sought t
promote. In these books, the textual material and occasional illustrations express implicit
and explicit messages of nationalism and national identity.
Until the Estado Novo, school text books were almost entirely unregulated. Some
states had previously produced lists of approved books, but most states and the feder
government did not. This lack of regulation meant that school text books often varie
greatly in composition and distribution. During the Estado Novo, the federal governmen
began to produce lists of approved books in an attempt to standardize national instruction
The National Commission for Text Books (CNLD) ordered that after January 1, 1940,
text books would be subject to approval by MESP before they could be used in a publ
school.60 Inadmissible text book content included criticism of the regime in power,
disrespect of national tradition, incitement of class struggle, destruction of religiou
sentiment, and "pessimism or doubt as to the future power of the Brazilian race."6' Aft
Brazil declared war on the Axis powers on August 13, 1942, criteria for evaluation of tex
books shifted to reflect new political contingencies-text books which advocated fascis
in general or Hitler or Mussolini in particular were thereafter banned.62
In this period, among the text books which reveal nationalistic content, two
general categories emerge. The first kind of text book was organized in the style of
novella, yet operates as an "encyclopedia" of information.63 The second kind of text boo
was organized as a "reader," with each chapter focusing on different topics which we
related thematically. The encyclopedic text books often exemplified an antiquate
scholastic style, with densely worded essays and scarce illustrations. Readers, on the othe
hand, tended to contain shorter, more concise lessons, and featured more numerous
illustrations and devices like comprehension questions.
Olavo Bilac is probably the most cited "patriot" in civics and social studies text
books: he authored many patriotic poems, including the "Hymn to the Flag," and the "Prayer
to the Flag." But beyond his well-known journalism, poetry, and prose, Bilac also wrote
text books for children.4 One of Bilac's text books, Atraves do Brasil, serves as an example
of the encyclopedic text book.65 Originally published in 1910, the thirty-second edition was
published in 1939. In this romantic adventure, two brothers, faced with the news of their
father's grave illness, embark on a journey to find him in the backlands of the Northeast.
The text book narrated the great diversity of Brazil's people and land with rich,
localized vocabulary. Rural life was presented through the lens of what is useful for the
urban Brazilian school child to know. Local identities were described in detail, but the
children were clearly white, and people they met, like the "poor, dark, African woman,"
were described to the extent that they assisted or caused problems for the boys. That the
boys encountered and coexisted with washerwomen, cowherds and ironworkers was due
only to their supposed orphaning-normal circumstances would prevent such relations.66
Roads, railroads, and boat routes linked the small and large cities in the story together,
emphasizing a message of unity and patriotism. Read today, the regional and social disparity
revealed in the text book stands out beyond the patriotic rhetoric of unity which attempts to
disguise it.67 Designed for the middle part of elementary school, the text is actually quite
advanced considering the intended audience of 10-12 year-olds. Bilac and his co-author
stated in the preface that the book was designed to serve as the core of the curriculum, from
which teachers could extract lessons on history, geography, science, and economics as well
as morals and national identity. The book refrained from any political analysis, and
functioned as if it were apolitical literature.
The other main style of school text book, the reader, was a collection of essays
that follow a theme. Many readers featured essays which tended to include emphatic
vocabulary and punctuation. Frequently, lessons exhorted students to be patriotic.
Young Brazilians! ...

Let's consider well...
What language in the world would sound more beautiful to our ears
than our very own?...
Which stars could shine more intensely or more impressively than
the stars in our own blue skies?68
This sort of lesson must have been designed for memorization and recitation. The read
format of a series of shorter lessons organized around a central theme lent itself well
emphasizing important themes.
Whether in encyclopedic or reader text books, certain themes appear over and over
again, revealing patterns of official state ideology and policy. These Estado Novo t
books reveal, for example a uniformity of message in the definition of the state. In on
primary school text, a son asks his father,
"What is government, Dad?" The father replies, "[Government] is an

organization that directs and orients the destiny of the country,
attending to its needs and its progress. Everybody needs a guide, a
governador, a diretor who determines a smooth running of things."69
An authoritarian and paternalistic version of government and society emerges from this te
In the hierarchy conveyed to the school children, the nation-state was to be honored ab
Nava 49
all else. Students were taught that they needed a strong, presumably male, leader to
maintain social equilibrium and guarantee progress.
School text books made the Estado Novo synonymous with the Patria. In the most
common theme, the president himself, Getilio Vargas, was presented as an inspired, heroic
figure for the school children to venerate. In one lesson, students were taught that Getulio
Vargas united the "Great Brazilian Nation," and restored Brazil's "direction in the pursuit
of glory and national unity." Immediately following the chapter, "I Believe in the Creator!"
is a chapter entitled, "I Believe in the Unifier of Brasil!"
Getfilio Vargas united Brazil, he unified the Nation and gave the great
Brazilian mosaic an orientation of healthy continuity. . . under a
perspective of order and progress, on the road to success for the Glory
of the most beautiful hopes, the most beautiful dreams, the purest
aspiration of National Unity.
Oh, Brasil has become Brasil!

...and because of this: I believe in Getulio Vargas-Unifier of Brazil!70
Employing the technique of repetition, this lesson hammers on the theme: united, unified,
unity, unifier.
GETfTLIO VARGAS
Figure I: Morel Marcondes Reis, Contos Brasileiros. Livro de Leituras Civicas para Clases Adiantadas de Cursos
Primarios (Rio de Janeiro: Livraria Francisco Alves, 1943), p. 13.
In these texts, students are implicitly presented a social hierarchy where Vargas,
as head of state, came directly after God: reverence even more than respect was called for.
Another text, which won official recommendation in Sao Paulo state, emphasized Vargas'
activities regarding the decision to declare war against the Axis powers. "President Getuilio
Vargas, superior as always, followed the people and declared war."7' Although Vargas is
"superior" (vis-at-vis other national leaders), he was presented as if he acted as any good
democratic leader must by following the wishes of his constituency. Later, Vargas was
described as a "serene but decisive commander. He is a man of personal courage and a
patriotic Brazilian. A friend of his people... impartial, just and good."72 Despite the fact
that this text had been praised for "avoiding ornate patriotic language,"73 it actually is
consistent with the treatment most texts accorded Vargas. The state's corporatist structure
was portrayed as an extension of family structure, with Vargas acting as the "father."74 The
image of Vargas as the national father figure had wide implications. Implicitly, and at times
explicitly, this ideology depicted workers as children who not only required protection by
the state, but also needed the personal intervention of the national father.75
Although the Estado Novo encouraged changes in the industrial relations system,
it sought to reinforce "traditional" roles for men and women in this period. This set of
traditional gender roles comprised a nostalgic view of the bourgeois family in which men
worked at industrial labor or the professions and women served as mothers and homemakers
outside the wage-labor system. Few of Brazil's working people had experienced such a
division of labor, but that did not stop state makers from calling for the return to an idealized
past.76 The same ideology hearkened to a nostalgic view of the national experience. Few
Brazilians had experienced this particular version of patriotism, but that did not stop
statemakers from promoting it as the norm.
As voca qes
Figure II: Erasmo Braga, Leitura I. Para o 2? Ano Escolar (Sao Paulo: Edi?6es Melhoramentos, 1942), p. 42.
In the text books, women are practically absent as role models in lessons on
Brazil's history, traditions, or patriotism.77 Women's fundamental social responsibility-and
patriotic responsibility-was consistently portrayed as educating their children in the home.
One text was explicit, saying that "only in this way will the woman have cooperated for the
great national victory-the education of the man of tomorrow."78 Women's ideal traits were
uniformly described as virtues like generosity and love, and the best role for women is that
Nava 51
of homemaker. In the text books, the confusing nature of a common phrase like "Mae-
Pdtria" (Mother-Fatherland) goes unacknowledged. The purpose in such terminology does
not seem to be to construct a bi-gendered metaphor for the nation but rather an attempt to
encourage identity with the nation by emphasizing the theme of home.
In one lesson, the notion of Patria was equated with "Mother" and "Love" on one
hand, and "Unity" on the other.
United, we will learn to love you as our beloved Mother!

United, we will learn to defend you as our just Mother!
United, we will learn to exalt you as Mother pure and good!
United, we will fight to raise you even higher and make you happier!79
Using the metaphor of Mother, the text presented the nation as something to be loved and
defended. Children in the nation/family were taught that good citizenship started at the
home. One lesson read, "Bad son, bad citizen! Good son, good citizen!"80 This family
metaphor portrayed industrial work and participation in unions as distinctly male activities.
Factory work was depicted as an essentially male activity not only by the regime's
propagandists, but also by the government's unionists.81
These text books also presented geographic unity as essential to the Patria. This
message was urgent in a country as large as Brazil, especially considering regional
differences and regional identities which flourished under the Republic and which posed a
threat during World War II. In one chapter, the narrator informed the student that:
[The United States] got to where it is today-a powerful, rich, and

respected nation-thanks to the efforts, the study and the work of its
children. We [Brazilians] will also be able to reach a splendor equal to
the North Americans. But for this it is necessary that the new
generations study with tenacity and that they are trained within the
principles of peace and work.... Remember, always, my children, that
all our land is united and that we should love it in its entirety with the
same force and the same faith, without forgetting distant areas. The
North and the South, the Coast and the Center, all of it is Brazil, the
land of hope.82
In this text, Patria was the ultimate embodiment of social good, and was at once the means
and the end. Unity was necessary if Brazil was to emerge from the war and be able to
continue its modernization. Another lesson called "All the States and Only One Brazil,"
emphasized the same theme.
All the States united under the light of the same sun and made
brothers by the consecrating brilliance of the same flag... pulsing to
the same rhythm of a great heart and only one spirit, for the better
greatness of the Patria!83
The message was that patriotism empowered Brazilians to surmount the problems created
by the country's extensive and diverse geographic regions. Unity in spite of geography
becomes an essential element of national identity.
A play called the "Sacred Union" serves to celebrate the national flag. In this
play, individual students portrayed states of the Union, each in turn reciting a short verse
about the majesty and richness of the particular state. Then, in a dramatic gesture, an older
student entered, dressed in a long white tunic with full sleeves, and at center stage, flung
open her arms to show the Brazilian flag emblazoned on her tunic. "The Brazilian Flag" then
recited a call to unity, asking the students (the states) to join hands in a circle as she said,
You speak the same beloved and eloquent language

And only one credo do you recite, with ardent faith...
And, uniting us all, in a loving union,
Only one symbol, one unique flag ...
Firmly united, holding each other's hands ...
How indestructible we make our Brazil!84
Figure III: Joao Barbosa de Moraes, DramatizaVaes Civicas (Rio de Janeiro: Livraria Editora, [194?]), p. 18.
Nava 53
In this exercise, students themselves became active nationalist agents by rehearsing for real
life unity through a classroom play. Students were instructed that through ardent devotion
to the flag and the Lingua Pdtria, Brazil would become an indestructible union. We might
note here that in this particular textbook, illustrations of the flag appear several times. When
the flag was used as a symbol of reverence and love, it is portrayed as female. When the
flag embodies the accomplishment of Brazilians (conquest, settlement, labor), it was
portrayed as male.
Figure IV: Joao Barbosa de Moraes, DramatizaVces Civicas (Rio de Janeiro: Livraria Editora, [194?]), p. 36.
One geography text for middle academic school included a lesson on Brazil's
human geography, or as the author entitled the chapter, "Ethnic Types." Sections are
signaled by short headings in boldface type:
The majority of Brazilians descend from Europeans.

Mestizos comprise an important part of the population.
The black element in Brazil's population.
The Asian element is little represented.85
The lesson defined ethnic terminology like caboclo, mameluco, gaucho, and cafuso. The
author placed these "types" in their "geographical domain" when possible. It is perhaps
insignificant that the heading which referred to the "black element" was a phrase, while the
headings referring to Europeans, mestizos, and Asians were complete, declarative sentences.
The lessons described African Brazilians as "generally strong," "superstitious," and
interested in "fetishist rites."86 Mestizos and whites were portrayed differently.
The mestizo, which is an authentic Brazilian historical creation, stands

alone before the almost-pure white, for whom the mestizo, sooner or
later, will be mistaken.87
The lesson made being "white" the goal, even for mixed race people.
How were school children to practice patriotism? Children studied "civic
commandments" which they were to obey: "Honor God, loving your Patria above all
things," "Honor the Past of your Country, and the graves of the heroes," and "Listen and
obey your superiors, because without discipline there can be no equilibrium."88
Figure V: Erasmo Braga, Leitura II. Para o 3" Ano Escolar (Sao Paulo: Edi96es Melhoramentos, 1942), p. 206.
We have already seen an example of a classroom activity where children performed a play
on a civic theme. Another text provides another glimpse of classroom activities. A reader
entitled I Believe in Brazil contained chapters with text that was punctuated with short
phrasing and multiple exclamation marks. Children must have been led to chant out loud:
We, your children, guards of this temple,

workers for your grandeur and humble followers
of those who knew how to love you and made you grand
Nava 55
and who loved you so much!

You, our Patria and our Mother!
Fountain of love! sea of love! sun of hope!
United, cohesive and indivisible-one!
Patria-unity!89
These lessons emphasized that patriotism was a common experience and value that all good
school children share.
In a lesson on the citizen and government, another text promoted the idea that the
type of work or profession was a free choice for Brazilian citizens, and that the federal
government protected the family, work, and education. But to enjoy these rights, the
Brazilian citizen must meet certain obligations:
All should work, since work is a social duty.

All should contribute military service, since to guard national security
and to be prepared for it is a patriotic duty.
All should respect the authorities, because in this respect is the
guarantee of order and progress.90
Intended for school children of the third grade, this lesson communicated implicit messages
about gender as well as explicit ones about patriotic duty. Patriotic duty through military
service is of course only prescribed for males. Thus, free choice of profession or work was
actually limited according to certain roles for either gender, and only the male roles are
treated. The male role was thus legitimated and the female role was marginalized. Other
texts utilized the more inclusive phrase "people" to call young Brazilians to serve their
country.
The land is great and rich; the people are strong and capable of great
deeds. But the country, still new, cannot demonstrate all the
development it will have one day. For this it will need the new
generations, the children and youth of today. Understand your duty. Be
worthy of your Patria and your people. Devote yourself to study and
work!9'
Figure VI: Erasmo Braga, Leitura II. Paro o 3? Ano Escolar (SAo Paulo: EdigSes Melhoramentos, 1942), p. 204.
Common national experience and national unity were the themes, as children used classroom
texts to memorize civic commandments, recite patriotic verse, and act out classroom plays.
Prescribed gender roles were not challenged in Estado Novo school texts. Gender was not
an issue, but in the face of economic crisis and world war, national integrity was an issue of
major ideological significance.
CONCLUSION
"Today one does not educate the individual, but the masses."92 In this sta
Getulio Vargas revealed that he had changed the rules of the game. His econ
political agenda demanded a new and consistent strategy for public education-
the way education was discussed. With the declaration of the Estado Novo, th
government had taken on the political responsibility of educating all the nation's pe
the political task of exposing them all to the same unified nationalist rhetoric. This
documented policies whereby the Vargas administration attempted to create and
appropriate sense of national identity among the nation's youth. National identit
message. The public school was the medium.
Vargas created a coherent national public education policy which emp
revised version of national identity unprecedented in terms of uniformity of co
magnitude of scale. The new and decisive intervention of the federal government
public education as an "instrument of the state." The themes of race and gender in t
and visual content of public school curriculum, particularly primary and mid
textbooks, reveal that this unified version of national identity was based on presc
and levels of power for the different sexes and racial/ethnic groups in Brazilian
Differences among the sexes and races, though built into the social structure env
Vargas and his supporters, were minimized in the rhetoric: in fact, one of the strong
of Vargas' nationalism was unity in spite of diversity.
A country is not just the conglomeration of individuals in a territory, it

is, principally, a unity of race, a unity of language, a unity of national
thinking. To achieve this supreme ideal, it is necessary therefore, that
all must march together. . . to prosperity and for the greatness of
Brazil.93
NOTES
Gustavo Capanema, "Discurso lido na solenidade comemorativa do primei

centenario da Funda9ao do Col6gio Pedro II no dia 2 de dezembro de 1937," in Mini
da Educacao e Saide, Panorama de Educacao Nacional: Discursos do Presidente G
Vargas e do Ministro Gustavo Capanema, Rio de Janeiro, 1937, p. 16.
The "state" Capanema was referring to was the Estado Novo, declared
November 10, 1937 and lasting until October 29, 1945.
2 Vanderlei Ramos de Moraes, "A Era de Vargas: Uma Decada de Educac
1930-1940. Contribuigoes para o Estudo da Historia da Educacao no Brasil" (M.A. th
Universidade Federal, Rio de Janeiro, 1978), p. 43.
3 Article 73 of the 1937 Constitution.
Nava 57
4 Lucia Lippi Oliveira, M6nica Pimenta Velloso, and Angela Maria Castro
Gomes, Estado Novo: Ideologia e Poder (Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 1982), p. 10.
"Estado Novo" was an expression first used by Oliveira Salazar in Portugal in the
early 1930s to justify his regime. Its use in Brazil has been cited as evidence of the
ideological subordination of Getulio Vargas to European fascism. See Diciondrio Historico-
Biogrdfico Brasileira, 1930-1983, (Rio de Janeiro: Forense-Universitaria, Fundagao Getulio
Vargas/Centro de Pesquisa e Documentacao, Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos-FINEP,
1984), pp. 1195-2001.
5 The first director was Lidolfo Collor. Under his stewardship, legislation was
passed that established minimum wages, required worker identification and employment
passbooks, and controlled unionization. See Jose Maria Bello, A History of Modern Brazil,
1889-1964 (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1966), p. 285.
6 Article 67 of the 1937 Constitution established DASP. Decreto Lei no. 579 of
July 30, 1938, established further guidelines. See Diciondrio, p. 1074.
Luiz Simoes Lopes, who first directed DASP, had visited Berlin in late 1934, and
was impressed by the Nazi bureaucracy, especially the Ministry of Propaganda. He wrote in
a private letter to Vargas, "The organization of the Ministry of Propaganda is so fascinating
that I permit myself to suggest the creation of a miniature one in Brazil." See Luis Simoes
Lopes to Getilio Vargas, London, September 22, 1934.
7 The first director was Lourival Fontes, who answered directly to the president.
Affiliated state organs were called Departamentos Estaduais de Imprensa e Propaganda
(DEIPS).
Also see Silvana Goulart, Sob a Verdade Oficial: Ideologia, Propaganda e
Censura no Estado Novo (Sao Paulo: Editora Marco Zero, 1990).
8 Some of these agencies include: Minist6rio do Trabalho, Industria e Comercio
(founded in 1931), Conselho Federal do Comercio Exterior (1934), Conselho T6cnico de
Economia e Financas (1937), Comisoes de Defesa da EconomiaNacional (1940), Conselho
Nacional do Cafe (1933), Conselho Nacional de Petroleo (1938), Instituto do Cacau da
Bahia (1932), Instituto Nacional do Sal (1940), Fabrica Nacional de Motores (1940),
Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (1941), C6digo de Minas (1934), C6digo de Aguas (1934),
Plano de Viacao Nacional (1934). Moraes, "A Era de Vargas," p. 32.
9 Ibid., p. 104. The Ministry of Education and Public Health was established by
Decreto No. 19.444 of December 1, 1930. The law was signed by Vargas, Oswaldo Aranha,
J.F. Assis Brasil, and Francisco Campos. As cited in "Mensagem apresentada a Assembleia
Constituinte pelo Chefe do Governo Provis6rio, no ato de sua instalacao," 1933, in MEC.
Instituto Nacional de Estudos Pedag6gicos (INEP), A Educacao nas Mensagens
Presidenciais, vol. I (Brasilia: INEP, 1987), pp. 545-548.
The Ministry of Instruction, Mail and Telegraphs had been founded in 1890, but
it only operated for 3 years.
Francisco Campos was the first Minister of Education, starting his term on
November 12, 1930. Alzira Vargas, Getulio's daughter, observed that Campos was highly
distracted from his educational duties by "political matters," and he requested his resignation
be accepted in 1932. On Campos, see Jarbas Medeiros, Ideologia Autoritaria no Brasil,
1930-1945 (Rio de Janeiro: Editora da Fundagao Getulio Vargas, 1978), pp. 9-51.
Washington Pires, served as Minister from 1932 through the end of the constitutional period.
Gustavo Capanema served from 1934 without interuption until 1945. See Alzira Vargas do
Amaral Peixoto, Getulio Vargas, meu Pai (Rio de Janeiro: Globo, 1960), pp. 394-395.
See also Ludwig Lauerhass, Jr. "Getulio Vargas and the Triumph of Brazilian
Nationalism: A Study on the Rise of the Nationalist Generation of 1930" (Ph.D. diss.,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1972), p. 245, and Joel Wolfe, "'Father of the Poor'
or 'Mother of the Rich?': Getilio Vargas, Industrial Workers, and Constructions of Class,
Gender, and Populism in Sao Paulo, 1930-1954," Radical History Review 58: 1-3 (Winter
1994), p. 85.
10 Raymundo Faoro, in Jarbas Medeiros, Ideologia Autoritdria no Brasil, 1930-
1945 (Rio de Janeiro: Editora da Fundaico Getilio Vargas, 1978), p. xii.
" These intellectuals included Almir de Andrade, Antonio Jose Azevedo do
Amaral, Alceu Amoroso Lima, Francisco Jose Oliveira Vianna, and Francisco Campos.
Many intellectuals who first participated actively in modernist groups and later joined the
Estado Novo project in some form. See Lfcia L. Oliveira, et al., Estado Novo, p. 10.
Modernism was a cultural movement which initially developed around the event
of Modem Art Week in Sao Paulo, in 1922. Some of the participants included Heitor Villa
Lobos (music); Anita Mafaldi and Portinari (painting); and, Carlos Drummond de Andrade,
Mario de Andrade, Manuel Bandeira, Oswald de Andrade and Jose Lins do Rego (literature).
It was a conscious attempt to valorize the Brazilian experience. It generated an
ample cultural movement of "Brazilian studies," including history, sociology, education,
ethnography, economic, and political, which went far to rethink all intellectual, scientific,
and artistic activity done in Brazil. This movement reached maturity in the early 1930s, with
works like: Caio Prado Junior, Evolucao Politica do Brazil (1933); Gilberto Freyre, Casa
Grande e Senzala (1933); and, Sergio Buarque de Holanda, Raizes do Brasil (1936).
12 Luicia L. Oliveria, et al., Estado Novo, pp. 32-33.
13 Ibid., p. 88.
14 Medeiros, Ideologia Autoritdria, p. x.
15 Lfcia L. Oliveira, et al., Estado Novo, p. 88.
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid., p. 89.
18 Ibid., p. 71.
19 Loewenstein used that particular phraseology and it is useful. He does not cite
it in quotes, so it does not seem to be taken directly from Estado Novo discourse. See Karl
Loewenstein, Brazil Under Vargas (New York: Macmillan Company, 1942), p. 285.
20 "Mensagem apresentada," A Educafao nas Mensagens, pp. 121-131.
Also see Getfilio Vargas, Atualidade Brasileira. Seus Problemas e Solucoes.
Discurso do Presidente Getulio Vargas no 2? Aniversdrio do Estado N6vo. (Departamento
Nacional de Propaganda, 1939), p. 52.
21 See Art. 35. Otaiza de Oliveira Romanelli, Historia da Educacao no Brasil,
1930-1970 (Petropolis: Brazil, 1991), p. 41.
22 Moraes, "A Era de Vargas," p. 70.
23 Capanema, "Discurso lido na solenidade," p. 25.
24 Ibid.
25 "Declaracao do Presidente Getilio Domelles Vargas sobre o Ano Nacional da
Educacao, em 1936," p. 143.
26 Capanema, "Discurso lido na solenidade," pp. 21-22.
27 MESP. "Plano Nacional de Educa9ao. Questionario para um Inquerito. 1936,"
pp. 1-2. Minister Capanema organized a questionnaire, in conjunction with other prominent
figures in education: Lourenco Filho, Paulo de Assis Ribeiro, Jose Eduardo da Fonseca,
Julio de Mesquita Filho, Almeida Junior, Paul Arbousse Bastide, Helene Antipoff, Benedicta
Vallardes, Alda Lodi and Noemi Silveira.
28 Articles 128-133.
29 See Art. 130. A movement of professional educators arose in critique of the
Republican system. These educators functioned within the realm of the educational
Nava 59
profession, formally distinct from government, although several carried out "reforms" of
individual municipal school systems. The Escola Nova, or New School, movement
expressed its call for educational reform in the Manifesto dos Pioneros de Educacao
Nacional (1932) written by Ferando de Azevedo and signed by 26 fellow educators from
the entire country. This Manifesto called for: (1) democratization of instruction-so that
all citizens could enjoy equal opportunity; (2) obligatory and free instruction-education
must be seen as a right; (3) moder didactic techniques-interest in participatory (instead
of passive) learning and a break in the authoritarian distance between teacher and student;
(4) lay instruction-education should distance itself from sectarianism and disputes in belief;
(5) co-ed instruction; (6) practical professional (vocational) instruction. The Pioneers, as
they came to be called, portrayed education as a social problem. They argued that scientific
method, applied to the study of educational problems, would generate a new concept of
education that put the student-his interests and aptitudes-at the center of pedagogy. The
Vargas Constitution of 1934 adopted the majority of these reforms, with the exception of
protecting the right to conduct religious instruction in public schools.
In her study, A Educadao Brasileira no Estado-Novo, Marinete dos Santos Silva
placed three members of the professional "education elite" as to their support for the Estado
Novo and its ideology: Lourenco Filho, Ferando de Azevedo, and Anisio Teixeira.
Lourenco Filho became the director of the National Institute of Pedagogic Studies (Instituto
Nacional de Estudos Pedag6gicos, INEP) and was basically supportive of Vargas agenda.
Ferando de Azevedo was professor of sociology at the University of Sao Paulo during the
Estado Novo. Although one of the most active educational "reformers," Azevedo did not
voice criticism of the way that Vargas adapted Brazilian education to suit his purposes
during the Estado Novo. Silva found it difficult to establish Anisio Teixeira's position. It
would seem that he did disagree with the Estado Novo ideology because although he was
a very prolific writer, he published nothing between 1937-1945. Marinete dos Santos Silva,
A Educacao Brasileira no Estado Novo. (Niteroi; Butanta, Sao Paulo: Livraria Panorama,
Editorial Livramento, 1980), pp. 36-41.
30 Lauerhass, "Getfilio Vargas," p. 225.
31 Capanema, "Discurso lido na solenidade," pp. 26-27.
32 Ibid.
33 Ibid., pp. 28-31.
34 Ibid., pp. 31-33.
35 Ibid.
36 Marinete dos Santos Silva, A Educacao Brasileira, pp. 31-2, 34. The National
Service for Industrial Training (Servi9o Nacional de Aprendizagem do Industriarios, SENAI)
was also created under the Capanema Reform in order to organize and administer new
industrial schools. Industry was required to contribute a percentage of total wages paid to
support the schools.
37 See the "Lei Organica do Ensino Secundario, Anais do MES. Rio de Janeiro
(1942)", cited in Silva, A Educacao Brasileira, p. 40.
38 The secondary school remained divided into two cycles. The first cycle (four
years) was called gindsio and emphasized humanities. The second cycle (three years) was
either classics or sciences, both oriented to prepare for the university. Ibid., pp. 30-32.
39 Getulio Vargas, "Discurso lido na solenidade comemorativa do primeiro
centenario da Fundamao do Colegio Pedro II no dia 2 de dezembro de 1937," in Ministerio
da Educa9ao e Safide, Panorama de Educacao Nacional: Discursos do Presidente Getulio
Vargas e do Ministro Gustavo Capanema, (Rio, 1937), pp. 11-12.
40 Ibid., pp. 41-42.
41 Ibid., p. 39. During the Empire, "moral education" had been part of religious
instruction in the elementary level, and part of philosophy at the secondary level. It was part
of the doctrine of the Catholic Church-the official religion of the state. "Civic education"
was not discussed.
42 See Orico to Capanema, November 1937.
43 Loewenstein, Brazil Under Vargas, p. 307.
44 Boaventura Ribeiro da Cunha, Surto Moral e Civico Nacional, (n.p.: [194-?],
p. 37. "Patria" had long been a central concept in both the official state discourse and in
school texts. Often the word appears italicized for additional emphasis. I use the word in
the original Portuguese, minus the italics, to remind the reader of the emphasis given the
term in the documents.
45 Decreto Lei 259 of October 1, 1936. (Diario Oficial, October 14, 1936).
The debate was long and complicated, and was only resolved by Decreto Lei no.
5545 of July 31, 1942, which made Villa Lobos preferences official. On the rights, see
Decreto 4.559, August 21, 1922. On the official (long) version, see Decreto 15.761
September 6, 1922. Also see Villa Lobos to Capanema, November 30, 1936.
46 Anisio Teixeira personally asked Villa Lobos to assume direction of SEMA in
1932. SEMA was founded by Decreto Lei 18.890 of April 18, 1932.
47 Enciclopddia da Mtisica Brasileira: Erudita, Folcl6rica e Popular (Sao Paulo:
Art Editora, 1977), p. 795.
48 Villa Lobos to Getilio Vargas, February, 1932. See Francisco Peira da Silva,
Villa Lobos (Sao Paulo: Editora Tres, 1974), pp. 109-111.
49 Francisco Peira da Silva, Villa Lobos, p. 115.
50 Decreto Lei 4.993 of November 26, 1942. In 1967, the CNCO became the
Instituto Villa Lobos, by Decreto Lei 61.400 of October 1, 1967. See Francisco Peira da
Silva, Villa Lobos, pp. 9-12.
"Concentraqoes orfe6nicos" took place in: 1932 at Campo Fluminense with
18,000 school children; in 1935 at the National Congress of Education, with 30,000 voices
and a one thousand member band, and again in 1937; in 1940 and 1941 at the Clube Vasco
da Gama stadium with 40,000; and in 1943 with 15,000 on the radio show "Hora de
Independencia," for which Villa Lobos composed "Invocacao em defesa da patria," a piece
for an a capella choir.
51 Simon Wright, Villa Lobos (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), pp. 107-
108. See Heitor Villa Lobos, Programa do Ensino de Mzisica (Departamento de Educaiao
do Distrito Federal, SEMA, Rio de Janeiro, 1937), 80p.; A Mzsica Nacionalista do Governo
Getulio Vargas (Rio de Janeiro: Grafica Olimpica, 1937), 69p.; O Ensino Popular da
Musica do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro: Departamento de Educacao do Distrito Federal,
Superintendencia Oficina Grafica da Secretaria Geral de Educaiao e Cultura do Rio de
Janeiro, 1937), 68p. For a more complete list of Villa Lobos' teacher materials, see Eurico
Nogueira Fran9a, Heitor Villa Lobos: Sintese Critica e Biogrdfica (MEC/DAC: Museu
Villa-Lobos, 1970), pp. 92-94.
52 The first Capanema proposal was made into Decreto Lei no. 2072, of March 2,
1940. Decreto Lei no. 2072, March 8, 1940. The decree-law was signed by Gustavo
Capanema, Eurico Dutra, Henrique A. Guilhem, Francisco Campos, A. de Souza Costa, Joao
de Mendon9a Lima, Oswaldo Aranha, Fernando Costa, and Waldemar Falaio. The law
contained sections on moral, civic, and physical education, the Juventude Brasileira, and
"Centros Civicos." See Brasil. Servico de Estatistica da Previdencia e Trabalho. Ministerio
do Trabalho, Ind6stria e Comercio, Boletim do Ministerio do Trabalho, Indutstria e
Comercio. no. 68, year VI (April 1940). See also Rio de Janeiro: Servi9o de Estatistica da
Nava 61
Previdencia e Trabalho. Ministerio do Trabalho, Industria e Comercio (Membro do Instituto

Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica), pp. 60-65. The law was published in the Didrio Oficial
on March 11, 1940.
Eventually, Capanema proposed the dissolution of the administration of the youth
organization into the Divisao de Educaicao Fisica, which was done through Decreto-Lei
17.889 August 26, 1945. Also see Diciondrio, 1669-1670. See also Machado Leao, "A
'Juventude Brasileira' e o Escotismo," Cultura Politica 1:10 (December 1941), pp. 58-67.
The law included physical education in the required curriculum. See Guiomar
Meirelles Becker, Educacao Fisica Infantil (Belo Horizonte: Imprensa Oficial de Minas
Gerais, 1942). The book won first place in a contest held by the Ministry of Education, and
followed the official program of the governor of Minas Gerais.
53 Brasil. Servico de Estatistica da Previdencia e Trabalho. Minist6rio do
Trabalho, Indfistria e Comercio, Boletim do Ministerio do Trabalho, Industria e Comercio,
no. 68. See Art. 5, 6 and 7.
54 See Maria Oliveira, "Politica e Educacao no Brasil: A Implantacqao da
Obrigatoriedade da Educacao Moral e Civica no Ensino Brasileira em 1969" (M.A. thesis,
Universidade de Sao Paulo, 1982).
55 The Day of the Revolution was November 10, and Vargas birthday was April
10. See Brasil, Decreto 16.782-A, of January 1925. Also see Maury Rodrigues Cruz,
Antecedentes e Perspectivas da Educacao Moral e Civica no Brasil (Curitiba: Editora da
Universidade Federal do Parana, 1982), p. 96.
56 Maria Oliveira, Politica e Educacao, p. 41.
57 Boletim MTIC no. 68, p. 60.
58 Ibid., p. 61.
59 Ibid, p. 60.
60 The director of the research institute of the Ministry of Education under Vargas,
Lourenco Filho, acknowledged that the lack of regulation of school text books meant that
many texts currently in use were actually "defective." See Louren9o Filho to W.W. Charters.
June 22, 1942.
The Direitoria Nacional de Educacao prepared in January 1936 a list of text books
for the purposes of the Brazilian exhibition at the Pedagogic Convention and International
Exposition of School Text Books in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in spring 1937. The bureaucrat
who collected the titles apologized to Minister Capanema for the partial nature of the list,
for he had included only current catalog listings of the three principal publishing houses in
Rio. The 227 titles were divided by publishing house (Francisco Alves, Melhoramentos, and
J. R. de Oliveira), by school level (primary, normal, and secondary), and by subject
(Portuguese language, history, Brazilian history, geography, foreign languages, philosophy,
math, etc.). See Brasil. MESP. Direitoria Nacional de Educacao. 3a Seccao Tecnica, Relacdo
de Livros Usados nos Establecimientos de Ensino do Brasil (Escola Primaria, Normal, e
Secunddria) e que Podem Figurar na Exposiqao Pedag6gica de Praga, January 1935.
61 Decreto Lei 1.006 of December 30, 1938. See Brasil. MESP, "Ministerio de
Educacao e Cultura: Trinta Anos de Organizacao e Situaaio Atual," Documento de Trabalho
no. 6, vol. 3 (1968).
Also see Loewenstein, Brazil Under Vargas, p. 292.
62 Marinete dos Santos Silva, A Educacao Brasileira, p. 42. Silva cites the
example of Father Max Scheller, whose Epitome da Historia da Civilizadao was rejected as
a school text book by the Secondary Education Division (Divisao de Ensino Secundirio) of
the MESP.
63 Marisa Lajolo, Usos e Abusos da Literatura na Escola (Rio de Janeiro: Globo,
1982), p. 54.
64 I have limited my sample here with few exceptions to text books first published
after 1937 so as to capture a sample which reveals the initiatives of the period. The most
important of the exceptions is that of Olavo Bilac.
Bilac, among others, founded the "Liga de Defesa Nacional" in Rio in 1917 to
"defend" against immigrants who didn't speak Portuguese, to encourage youth to enlist and
serve in the military, and to promote a "popular education" which would encourage political
participation. See Lajolo, Usos e Abusos, p. 25. See also Cruz, Antecedentes e Perspectivas.
Bilac's production of text books includes seven books and spans some twelve
years: Livro de Composiqao (in collaboration with Manuel Bomfim), 1899; Livro de Leitura,
1901; Contos Pdtrios (in collaboration with Coelho Netto), 1904; Poesia Infantis, 1904;
Teatro Infantil (co-authored with Coelho Neto), 1905; Atraves do Brasil (co-authored with
Manuel Bonfim), 1910; and Patria Brasileira, 1911. Lajolo, Usos e Abusos, p. 53. See also
Bilac, Olavo Bilac (Sao Paulo: Abril Educa9ao, 1980). Lajolo categorizes these seven
works: Contos Pdtrios corresponds to the literary genre of the story; Poesia Infantis
corresponds to poetry; Teatro Infantil corresponds to theater; and Atraves do Brasil
corresponds to the romance. Livro de Composiqdo, Livro de Leitura, and Pdtria Brasileira
are compilations of selections from other authors. See Lajolo, Usos e Abusos, p. 54. As
Lajolo observes, "[Bilac] was a synthesis of his class (bourgeoisie), his city (Rio de Janeiro),
his group, of the first two decades of the First Republic...," Ibid., p. 43. Other contemporary
intellectuals also authored school text books include Joao Ribeiro, and Alberto de Oliveira.
65 Bilac et al., Atraves do Brasil.
66 Lajolo, Usos e Abusos, p. 98.
67 Ibid., p. 56.
68 Joao Lemos, O Evangelho da Juventude Brasileira. Educacao Pessoal, Moral
e Civica (Author's edition, 1945), p. 71.
69 Luiz Amaral Wagner, Nosso Brasil. Para o v grau primdrio (Sao Paulo:
Nacional, 1938), pp. 138-172.
70 J. Antunes Mattos, Creio no Brasil (Porto Alegre, Brazil: Sul Editora, 1942),
p. 166.
71 Morel Marcondes Reis, Contos Brasileiros. Livro de Leituras Civicas para
Classes Adiantadas de Cursos Primarios (Rio de Janeiro: Francisco Alves, 1943), p. 12.
72 Reis, Contos Brasileiros, p. 14.
73 Ibid., p. 4.
74 The Estado Novo propounded a series of regulations to bolster "traditional"
families. In 1939, Vargas proposed funding special programs for the "health of mothers and
children" by placing a tax on single adults and married couples without children. Wolfe,
Working Women, pp. 72-73.
75 Wolfe, "Father of the Poor," p. 87
76 Ibid., pp. 85-86.
77 A rare lesson on a heroine appears in Erasmo Braga, Leitura III Para o 4? Ano
Escolar (Sao Paulo: Melhoramentos, 1942). Here a naval battle between a Portuguese
vessel and a pirate ship in 1714 provides a lesson on one woman's heroism. Still the
comprehension question at the end of the lesson asked about naval terminology and nothing
about the woman's accomplishments or women's accomplishments in general. See pp. 142-
147.
78 See Sylvio B. Coelho, Educacao Moral e Civica (Rio de Janeiro: Zelio
Valverde, 1940).
79 Mattos, Creio no Brasil, p. 25.
Nava 63
80 Lemos, O Evangelho, p. 67. The Portuguese reads, "Mau filho, mau cidadao!
Bor filho, bom cidadao!" I translatedfilho as 'son' and not 'child.'
81 Wolfe, "Father of the Poor," p. 86.
83 Ibid., p. 142.
84 Joao Barbosa de Moraes, Dramatizacoes Civicas (Rio de Janeiro: Livraria
Jacinto, 194?), pp. 13-20.
85 Aroldo de Azevedo, Geografia do Brasil. A Terra, 0 Homen, A Economia.
Geografia do Brasil. Tomo Primeiro. (Sao Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1948), pp.
101-111. Even though this book was published in 1948, I include it among my samples for
several reasons. First, Aroldo de Azevedo, a professor of Geography at the Universidade de
Sao Paulo, published numerous other geography text books in the 1930s, and most of them
during the Estado Novo. Secondly, this book was in all likelihood published during the
Estado Novo or soon before, although I cannot be sure since this 16th edition (dated 1948)
does not bear the first date of publication. The third reason to include it is that several of the
illustrations bear the initials of the author, "A. de A." This is very rare-to have the
illustration not only signed but signed by the author. It is thus an excellent example which
visually illustrates both explicit and implicit content in the lesson.
86 Ibid., p. 107.
87 Ibid., pp. 113-114.
88 Wagner, Nosso Brasil, pp. 172-177.
90 Braga, Leitura III, p. 178.
91 Braga, Leitura III, p. 252.
92 Deodato de Morais, "Educacao e Estado Novo," Cultura Politica 1:9
(November 10, 1941), p. 29.
93 Wolfe, "Father of the Poor," p. 84. From a speech made on May 1, 1938.

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Lessons in Patriotism and Good Citizenship: National Identity and Nationalism in Public

Schools during the Vargas Administration, 1937-1945

A educagao pfblica brasileira 6 o enfoque de uma interpreta9ao hist6rica da initiativa

We assert that the nation should not be understood

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the supreme authority of the state, who coordinates the higher

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primary instruction must awaken and accentuate in the child the

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PUBLIC SCHOOL TEXTS FROM 1937-1945

Young Brazilians! ...

"What is government, Dad?" The father replies, "[Government] is an

Oh, Brasil has become Brasil!

United, we will learn to love you as our beloved Mother!

[The United States] got to where it is today-a powerful, rich, and

You speak the same beloved and eloquent language

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We, your children, guards of this temple,

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All should work, since work is a social duty.

A country is not just the conglomeration of individuals in a territory, it

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Previdencia e Trabalho. Ministerio do Trabalho, Industria e Comercio (Membro do Instituto

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