Miguel Couto was a Brazilian educationist, politician and a member of the

Brazilian Academy of Letters The Academia Brasileira de Letras (ABL) ( English: ''Brazilian Academy of Letters'') is a Brazilian literature, literary non-profit society established at the end of the 19th century. The first president, Machado de Assis, declared its found ...

. He was born Miguel de Oliveira Couto in the city of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, on May 1, 1864. He was the son of Francisco de Oliveira Couto and Maria Rosa do Espírito Santo. He was trained in medicine, and went on to teach the subject, gaining a reputation as one of the most noted clinicians in contemporary Brazil. Couto was multilingual and profoundly knowledgeable in the

Portuguese language Portuguese ( or, in full, ) is a western Romance language of the Indo-European language family, originating in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is an official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and ...

. For many years, he was a vocal opponent of Japanese immigration to Brazil. He was a loud proponent of national education. Even before the October 1930 Revolution, he had given a speech at the Brazilian Education Association on July 2, 1927, in which he presented a project on education, which was widely distributed in all normal schools and professional institutes of the then Federal Capital. He recommended the creation of a Ministry of Education in this document, with "two departments: that of education and that of hygiene". Subsequently, in November 1930, a decree by the Head of the Provisional Government of the Republic created a Ministry of Education and Public Health. He was elected federal deputy in the Constituent Assembly that would draft the Constitution of July 16, 1933. He chaired the National Academy of Medicine for 21 consecutive years. He was the third occupant of Chair 40 of the Brazilian Academy, to which he was elected on December 9, 1916. He succeeded

Afonso Arinos Afonso Arinos de Melo Franco (May 1, 1868 – February 19, 1916) was a Brazilian journalist, writer and jurist. In the 19th century, he was recognized as one of the most influential intellectuals of his time. His work is part of Brazil's most p ...

in this chair and received into the Academy by

Mário de Alencar Mário Cochrane de Alencar (30 January 1872 – 8 December 1925) was a Brazilian poet, short story writer, journalist, lawyer and novelist. He was one of the children of famous novelist José de Alencar. He occupied the 21st chair of the Brazil ...

on June 2, 1919. He died in Rio on June 6, 1934.Bio
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References

{{Authority control Brazilian politicians