Plínio Salgado
Encyclopedia
Plínio Salgado (ˈplĩniu sawˈɡadu; January 22, 1895 – December 8, 1975) was a Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

ian politician, writer, journalist, and theologian. He founded and led the Brazilian Integralist Action
Brazilian Integralism
Brazilian Integralism was a fascist political movement in Brazil, created on October 1932. Founded and led by Plínio Salgado, a literary figure who was somewhat famous for his participation in the 1922 Modern Art Week, the movement had adopted some characteristics of European mass movements of...

, a far-right political party inspired on the Italian Fascist
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...

 movement.

Initially a supporter of the dictatorship led by Getúlio Vargas
Getúlio Vargas
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas served as President of Brazil, first as dictator, from 1930 to 1945, and in a democratically elected term from 1951 until his suicide in 1954. Vargas led Brazil for 18 years, the most for any President, and second in Brazilian history to Emperor Pedro II...

, he was later persecuted and exiled in Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 for promoting uprisings against the government. After his return, he launched the Party of Popular Representation
Party of Popular Representation
The Party of Popular Representation was a political party in Brazil. The PRP was founded by Plínio Salgado on September 26 1945. He reassembled the former members of the Brazilian Integralism, and was ideologically aligned with the nationalist right. It always obtained representation in the...

, and was elected to represent Paraná
Paraná (state)
Paraná is one of the states of Brazil, located in the South of the country, bordered on the north by São Paulo state, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Santa Catarina state and the Misiones Province of Argentina, and on the west by Mato Grosso do Sul and the republic of Paraguay,...

 in the Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of Deputies of Brazil
The Chamber of Deputies of Brazil is a federal legislative body and the lower house of the National Congress of Brazil. As of 2006, the chamber comprises 513 deputies, who are elected by proportional representation to serve four-year terms...

 in 1958, being re-elected in 1962, this time to represent São Paulo
São Paulo (state)
São Paulo is a state in Brazil. It is the major industrial and economic powerhouse of the Brazilian economy. Named after Saint Paul, São Paulo has the largest population, industrial complex, and economic production in the country. It is the richest state in Brazil...

. He was also a candidate in the 1955 presidential election
Brazilian presidential election, 1955
-Historical context:After the suicide of Getúlio Vargas, his Vice President João Café Filho took office. Prior to Vargas' death, Brazil was living a time of intense political division, with the right-wing opposition National Democratic Union , high-level military officers and the mass media openly...

, securing 8.28% of the votes. After the 1964 coup d'état, which led to the extinction of political parties, he joined the National Renewal Alliance Party
National Renewal Alliance Party
The National Renewal Alliance Party or Aliança Renovadora Nacional was a conservative political party that existed in Brazil between 1966 and 1985...

, obtaining two terms in the Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of Deputies of Brazil
The Chamber of Deputies of Brazil is a federal legislative body and the lower house of the National Congress of Brazil. As of 2006, the chamber comprises 513 deputies, who are elected by proportional representation to serve four-year terms...

. He retired from politics in 1974, just a year before his death.

Early life

Born in the small conservative town of São Bento do Sapucaí
São Bento do Sapucaí
São Bento do Sapucaí is a Brazilian town in São Paulo state.Once known as a religious and traditional town, the municipality of São Bento do Sapucaí, now with its population reaching 10,000 inhabitants, is known for its mild weather, beautiful landscapes, and great conditions for the practice of...

 in the São Paulo
São Paulo (state)
São Paulo is a state in Brazil. It is the major industrial and economic powerhouse of the Brazilian economy. Named after Saint Paul, São Paulo has the largest population, industrial complex, and economic production in the country. It is the richest state in Brazil...

 state, Plínio Salgado was the son of Colonel Francisco das Chagas, a local political leader, and Ana Francisca Rennó Cortez, a teacher. A very active child at school, he had special interest for mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 and geometry
Geometry
Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....

. After the loss of his father, at the age of 16 – a fact that is said to have made him a bitter young man –, his interests shifted towards psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

 and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

.

At the age of 20, Salgado founded and directed the weekly newspaper Correio de São Bento. In 1918, he began his political life by taking part in the foundation of a party called Partido Municipalista. This party congregated town leaders from municipalities in the Paraíba Valley
Paraíba Valley
The Paraíba Valley is located in the eastern part of the state of São Paulo along the rodovia Presidente Dutra , between Rio De Janeiro and São Paulo....

 region, and advocated municipal autonomy.

Also in that year, Salgado married Maria Amélia Pereira, and on July 6, 1919, his only daughter Maria Amélia Salgado was born. Fifteen days after giving birth to the couple's daughter, Maria Amélia died. Filled with sorrow, Plínio turned down the study of materialist
Materialism
In philosophy, the theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance...

 philosophers, and found comfort in the Roman Catholic theology
Roman Catholic theology
Roman Catholic theology comprises the "Roman Catholic teachings" of the Catholic Church which bases its conclusions on Scripture and Sacred Tradition, as interpreted by the Magisterium. The Church teaches that salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ, keeping of the Ten commandments and...

, and began to study the works of Brazilian Catholic thinkers, such as Raimundo Farias Brito and Jackson Figueiredo. Again, the death of a loved one had a great impact on the course of Salgado's life. He would only marry again 17 years later, with Carmela Patti.

Through his articles in Correio de São Bento, Salgado became known by fellow journalists in São Paulo, and in 1920 was invited to work there in Correio Paulistano, the official newspaper of the Republican Party of São Paulo
Republican Party of São Paulo
The Republican Party of São Paulo a.k.a Partido Republicano Paulista or PRP was a Brazilian political party founded on April 18, 1873 during the Itu Convention and sparked the first modern republican movement in Brazil....

, where he became a friend of poet Menotti del Picchia
Menotti Del Picchia
Paulo Menotti Del Picchia was a Brazilian poet, journalist, and painter. He is associated with the Generation of 1922, the first generation of Brazilian modernists....

. He was a discrete member of the Modern Art Week in 1922. He published his first novel, The Stranger in 1926. After that, alongside Cassiano Ricardo
Cassiano Ricardo
Cassiano Ricardo was a Brazilian journalist, literary critic, and poet.An exponent of the nationalistic tendencies of Brazilian modernism, he was associated with the Green-Yellow and Anta groups of the movement before launching the Flag group, a social-democratic reaction to these groups...

, del Picchia and Cândido Mota Filho, he launched the Green-Yellow movement, a nationalistic
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

 group inside Modernist movement
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...

. The following year, also alongside del Picchia and Ricardo, Salgado launched the Anta
Tapir
A Tapir is a large browsing mammal, similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile snout. Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South America, Central America, and Southeast Asia. There are four species of Tapirs: the Brazilian Tapir, the Malayan Tapir, Baird's Tapir and the Mountain...

 movement
, which exalted the indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples in Brazil
The Indigenous peoples in Brazil comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups who inhabited the country prior to the European invasion around 1500...

, particularly the Tupi, as the true carriers of the Brazilian identity.

That same year, he published his book Literature and Politics, in which he defends nationalistic ideas with a strong anti-liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

 and pro-latifundia stance, inspired by Alberto Torres
Alberto Torres
Alberto Torres was a politician and a Brazilian social thinker who was concerned about national unity and the organization of the Brazilian society....

 and Oliveira Viana. His shift to far right-wing politics, made Ricardo launch the Flag movement, a social-democratic dissidence of the Green-Yellow and Anta movements.

Integralism

In 1930, Salgado supports the presidential candidacy of Júlio Prestes
Júlio Prestes
Júlio Prestes de Albuquerque was a Brazilian politician. Governor of São Paulo state in 1926, he was elected president of Brazil on March 1, 1930, but never took office because the government was overthrown in the Revolution of 1930 that brought Getulio Vargas to power, three weeks before Prestes'...

 against Getúlio Vargas
Getúlio Vargas
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas served as President of Brazil, first as dictator, from 1930 to 1945, and in a democratically elected term from 1951 until his suicide in 1954. Vargas led Brazil for 18 years, the most for any President, and second in Brazilian history to Emperor Pedro II...

. At that time, during a trip to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, he became impressed with Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....

's Fascist movement
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...

 in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. After his return to Brazil, on October 4, 1930, a day after the beginning of the 1930 Revolution
Brazilian Revolution of 1930
The Revolution of 1930 was a movement that overthrew President Washington Luís and installed Getúlio Vargas as Provisional President.-See also:*Revolutions of Brazil*History of Brazil...

 which deposed President Washington Luís, Salgado wrote two articles in Correio Paulistano defending his administration. Nevertheless, with the victory of the revolutionaries, he began to support the Vargas regime.

In the newspaper A Razão, founded by Alfredo Egidio de Souza Aranha, Salgado developed an intense campaign against the constitutionalization
Democratization
Democratization is the transition to a more democratic political regime. It may be the transition from an authoritarian regime to a full democracy, a transition from an authoritarian political system to a semi-democracy or transition from a semi-authoritarian political system to a democratic...

 of Brazil. As such, he drew the ire of anti-dictatorship activists, which burned down the newspaper's office just before the outbreak of the Constitutionalist Revolution
Constitutionalist Revolution
The Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932 is the name given to the uprising of the population of the Brazilian state of São Paulo against the 1930 coup d'état whereby Getúlio Vargas assumed the nation's Presidency; Vargas was supported by the military and the political elites of Minas Gerais, Rio...

.

At the height of the Vargas dictatorship, Salgado created the Society for Political Studies, which congregated intellectuals sympathetic to Fascism. Months later, he launched the October Manifesto, which provided the guidelines of a new political party, the Brazilian Integralist Action
Brazilian Integralism
Brazilian Integralism was a fascist political movement in Brazil, created on October 1932. Founded and led by Plínio Salgado, a literary figure who was somewhat famous for his participation in the 1922 Modern Art Week, the movement had adopted some characteristics of European mass movements of...

.

Salgado adapted virtually all Fascist symbolism
Fascist symbolism
As there were many different manifestations of fascism, especially during the interwar years, there were also many different symbols of Fascist movements...

 – although publicly rejecting racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

 – such as a paramilitary
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....

 organization
Organization
An organization is a social group which distributes tasks for a collective goal. The word itself is derived from the Greek word organon, itself derived from the better-known word ergon - as we know `organ` - and it means a compartment for a particular job.There are a variety of legal types of...

 with green
Green
Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometres. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered...

-shirted uniform
Uniform
A uniform is a set of standard clothing worn by members of an organization while participating in that organization's activity. Modern uniforms are worn by armed forces and paramilitary organizations such as police, emergency services, security guards, in some workplaces and schools and by inmates...

ed ranks, highly regimented street demonstrations, and aggressive rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...

. The movement was directly financed, in part, by the Italian
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...

 embassy. The Roman salute
Roman salute
The Roman salute is a gesture in which the arm is held out forward straight, with palm down, and fingers touching. In some versions, the arm is raised upward at an angle; in others, it is held out parallel to the ground. The former is a well known symbol of fascism that is commonly perceived to be...

 was accompanied by the screaming of the Tupi
Tupian languages
The Tupi or Tupian language family comprises some 70 languages spoken in South America, of which the best known are Tupi proper and Guarani.-History, members and classification:...

 word Anauê, which means "you are my brother", while the Greek
Greek alphabet
The Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since at least 730 BC . The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega...

 letter sigma
Sigma
Sigma is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet, and carries the 'S' sound. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 200. When used at the end of a word, and the word is not all upper case, the final form is used, e.g...

 (Σ) served as the movement's official symbol. It should be noted that even though Salgado himself was never an anti-semite, many of the party members adopted anti-semitic views.

The Integralist Action drew its support from lower middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....

 Italian immigrants
Italian Brazilian
-Italian immigration to Brazil:The Italian government claims there are 25 million Brazilians of Italian descent, which would be the largest population of Italian background outside of Italy itself. There are no actual surveys, or even verifiable calculations supporting such claims. According to...

, a large part of the Portuguese community, lower middle class Brazilians, and military officers, especially in the Navy
Brazilian Navy
The Brazilian Navy is a branch of the Brazilian Armed Forces responsible for conducting naval operations. It is the largest navy in Latin America...

. As the party grew, Vargas turned to Integralism as his only mobilized base of support on the right-wing
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...

, which was elated by his Fascist-style crackdown against the Brazilian left
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...

. In 1934, Salgado's movement targeted the Communist Party
Communist Party of Brazil
The Communist Party of Brazil is a political party in Brazil. It has national reach and deep penetration in the trade union and students movements. PCdoB dispute with the Brazilian Communist Party the title of "oldest political party in Brazil"...

 – then under the leadership of Luiz Carlos Prestes, as an underground party – mobilizing a conservative support base mass to engage in street brawls and urban terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...

.
On 1937, Salgado launched his presidential candidacy for the general elections scheduled to take place in January 1938. Aware of Vargas' intention to cancel the election and remain in power, he supported his Estado Novo coup, hoping to make Integralism the doctrinal basis of the new regime, once Vargas had promised him to take office as the Minister of Education. The President, however, banned the Integralist party, treating it the same way he had treated other political parties after transforming Brazil into a single-party state
Single-party state
A single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a type of party system government in which a single political party forms the government and no other parties are permitted to run candidates for election...

.

On 1939, Integralist militants tried twice, in the months of March and May, to promote uprisings against Vargas. Despite denying involvement in the events, Salgado was arrested after the May uprising – being imprisoned in the 17th century Santa Cruz Fortress in Niterói
Niterói
Niterói is a municipality in the state of Rio de Janeiro, southeast region of Brazil. It has an estimated population of 487,327 inhabitants and an area of ², being the sixth most populous city in the state and the highest Human Development Index. Integrates the Metropolitan Region of Rio de...

, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro (state)
Rio de Janeiro is one of the 27 states of Brazil.Rio de Janeiro has the second largest economy of Brazil behind only São Paulo state.The state of Rio de Janeiro is located within the Brazilian geopolitical region classified as the Southeast...

 –, and about a month later sent to a six-year exile in Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

. During that period, he persistently sought to rehabilitate himself with the regime, praising it in several manifestos, including its decision to declare war against Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 and Italy.

Late career

Salgado returned to Brazil in 1945, with the end of the Estado Novo
Estado Novo (Brazil)
Vargas Era is the period in the history of Brazil that lasted from 1930 to 1945, when the country was under the leadership of Getúlio Dornelles Vargas....

 regime, and then founded the Party of Popular Representation
Party of Popular Representation
The Party of Popular Representation was a political party in Brazil. The PRP was founded by Plínio Salgado on September 26 1945. He reassembled the former members of the Brazilian Integralism, and was ideologically aligned with the nationalist right. It always obtained representation in the...

, reformulating the integralist doctrine. Still driven by the ambition of becoming president, Salgado ran for presidency under hos new party in 1955, but finished last, obtaining just 8% of the votes (around 714,000 votes). Following that, he supported the inauguration of President-elect Juscelino Kubitschek, contested by the National Democratic Union, and was named to the head of the National Institute for Immigration and Colonization.

Salgado was elected to represent Paraná
Paraná (state)
Paraná is one of the states of Brazil, located in the South of the country, bordered on the north by São Paulo state, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Santa Catarina state and the Misiones Province of Argentina, and on the west by Mato Grosso do Sul and the republic of Paraguay,...

 in the Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of Deputies of Brazil
The Chamber of Deputies of Brazil is a federal legislative body and the lower house of the National Congress of Brazil. As of 2006, the chamber comprises 513 deputies, who are elected by proportional representation to serve four-year terms...

 in 1958. He would be re-elected in 1962, this time to represent the São Paulo
São Paulo (state)
São Paulo is a state in Brazil. It is the major industrial and economic powerhouse of the Brazilian economy. Named after Saint Paul, São Paulo has the largest population, industrial complex, and economic production in the country. It is the richest state in Brazil...

 state.

In 1964, he was one of the speakers at the March of Family with God for Freedom rally in São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...

 against President João Goulart
João Goulart
João Belchior Marques Goulart was a Brazilian politician and the 24th President of Brazil until a military coup d'état deposed him on April 1, 1964. He is considered to have been the last left-wing President of the country until Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in 2003.-Name:João Goulart is...

. Salgado supported the 1964 coup d'état which overthrew Goulart, and with the introduction of the two-party system
Two-party system
A two-party system is a system where two major political parties dominate voting in nearly all elections at every level of government and, as a result, all or nearly all elected offices are members of one of the two major parties...

, he joined the National Renewal Alliance Party
National Renewal Alliance Party
The National Renewal Alliance Party or Aliança Renovadora Nacional was a conservative political party that existed in Brazil between 1966 and 1985...

, obtaining two terms as a member of the Chamber, in 1966 and 1970. In 1974, he retired from political life.

Plínio Salgado died in the following year, at the age of 80, in São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...

, where he was buried at the Morumbi Cemetery.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK