Plínio Salgado (; January 22, 1895 – December 8, 1975) was a Brazilian politician, writer, journalist, and theologian. He founded and led
Brazilian Integralist Action, a political party inspired by the
fascist regime of
Benito Mussolini.
Initially a supporter of the
dictatorship
A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship a ...
led by
Getúlio Vargas
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (; 19 April 1882 – 24 August 1954) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 14th and 17th president of Brazil, from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1954. Due to his long and controversial tenure as Brazi ...
, he was later persecuted and exiled in
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
for promoting uprisings against the government. After his return, he launched the
Party of Popular Representation, and was elected to represent
Paraná in the
Chamber of Deputies in 1958, being re-elected in 1962, this time to represent
São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...
. He was also a candidate in the
1955 presidential election, 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
The National Renewal Alliance (Portuguese: ''Aliança Renovadora Nacional'', ARENA) was a far-right political party that existed in Brazil between 1966 and 1979. It was the official party of the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 196 ...
political party, obtaining two terms in the
Chamber of Deputies. 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 is a Brazilian municipality 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 ...
in the
São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...
state, Plínio Salgado was the son of Colonel Francisco das Chagas Salgado, a local political leader, and Ana Francisca Rennó Cortez, a teacher. A very active child at school, he had special interest for
mathematics and
geometry
Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ...
. After the loss of his father, at the age of 16, which is said to have made him a bitter young man, his interests shifted towards
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...
and
philosophy.
At the age of 20, Salgado founded and directed the weekly newspaper ''Correio de São Bento''.
[Plínio Salgado biography]
at UOL Educação. 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 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, Salgado's wife, Maria Amélia died. Filled with sorrow, Plínio left his original study of
materialist philosophers, and found comfort in the
Roman Catholic theology
Catholic theology is the understanding of Catholic doctrine or teachings, and results from the studies of theologians. It is based on canonical scripture, and sacred tradition, as interpreted authoritatively by the magisterium of the Catholic ...
, and began to study the works of Brazilian Catholic thinkers, such as Raimundo Farias Brito and Jackson Figueiredo.
The death of his wife had a great impact on the course of Salgado's life. He would only marry again 17 years later, to Carmela Patti.
Through his articles in ''Correio de São Bento'', Salgado became known by fellow journalists in
São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...
, and in 1920 was invited to work there in ''Correio Paulistano'', the official newspaper of the
Republican Party of São Paulo
The Paulista Republican Party ( pt, Partido Republicano Paulista, PRP), sometimes translated as the Republican Party of São Paulo, was a Brazilian political party founded on April 18, 1873 during the and sparked the first modern republican movem ...
, where he became a friend of poet
Menotti del Picchia
Paulo Menotti Del Picchia (São Paulo, March 20, 1892 – São Paulo, August 23, 1988) was a Brazilian poet, journalist, and painter. He is associated with the Generation of 1922, the first generation of Brazilian modernism artists.
Del Picc ...
.
He was a prominent participant in the
Modern Art Week
The Modern Art Week ( pt, Semana de Arte Moderna) was an arts festival in São Paulo, Brazil, that ran from February 10 to February 17, 1922. Historically, the Week marked the start of Brazilian Modernism; though a number of individual Brazilian ...
in 1922, leading the "Nationalists", who wanted no foreign influences and sought a "purely Brazilian" form of art, against the "Anthropophagics", who synthesized a new art from foreign influences.
He published his first novel, ''The Stranger'' in 1926.
After that, alongside
Cassiano Ricardo
Cassiano Ricardo (July 26, 1895 – January 14, 1974) 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 ...
, del Picchia and Cândido Mota Filho, he launched the ''Green-Yellow movement'', a
nationalistic
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: T ...
group inside
Modernist movement
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
.
The following year, also alongside del Picchia and Ricardo, Salgado launched the ''
Anta movement'', which exalted the
indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
, particularly the
Tupi, as the true carriers of the Brazilian identity.
That same year, he published his book ''Literature and Politics'', in which he defended nationalistic ideas with a strong anti-
liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
and pro-
latifundia
A ''latifundium'' (Latin: ''latus'', "spacious" and ''fundus'', "farm, estate") is a very extensive parcel of privately owned land. The latifundia of Roman history were great landed estates specializing in agriculture destined for export: grain, o ...
stance, inspired by
Alberto Torres and Oliveira Viana.
His shift to
far right-wing politics led Ricardo to launch the ''Flag movement'', a
social-democratic breakaway from the ''Green-Yellow'' and ''Anta'' movements.
Integralism
In 1930, Salgado supported the presidential candidacy of
Júlio Prestes
Júlio Prestes de Albuquerque (;
15 March 1882 – 9 February 1946) was a Brazilian poet, lawyer and politician. He was the last elected President of Brazil of the period known as the Old Republic, but never took office because the govern ...
against
Getúlio Vargas
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (; 19 April 1882 – 24 August 1954) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 14th and 17th president of Brazil, from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1954. Due to his long and controversial tenure as Brazi ...
.
At that time, during a trip to
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
, he became impressed with
Benito Mussolini's
Fascist movement in
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
.
After his return to Brazil, on October 4, 1930, a day after the beginning of the
1930 Revolution which deposed President
Washington Luís
Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa (; 26 October 1869 – 4 August 1957) was a Brazilian politician who served as the 13th president of Brazil. Elected governor of São Paulo state in 1920 and president of Brazil in 1926, Washington Luís belonge ...
, Salgado wrote two articles in ''Correio Paulistano'' defending Luís's 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 of Brazil.
As such, he drew the ire of anti-dictatorship activists, who burned down the newspaper's office just before the outbreak of the
Constitutionalist Revolution
The Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932 (sometimes also referred to as Paulista War or Brazilian Civil War) is the name given to the uprising of the population of the Brazilian state of São Paulo against the Brazilian Revolution of 1930 whe ...
.
At the height of the Vargas dictatorship, Salgado created the Society for Political Studies, which gathered together intellectuals sympathetic to Fascism.
Months later, he released the ''October Manifesto'', which provided the guidelines of a new political party, the
Brazilian Integralist Action.
Salgado adapted virtually all
Fascist symbols and forms of organization, such as a
paramilitary organization
An organization or organisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is an legal entity, entity—such as ...
with
green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...
-shirted
uniform
A uniform is a variety of clothing worn by members of an organization while participating in that organization's activity. Modern uniforms are most often worn by armed forces and paramilitary organizations such as police, emergency services, ...
ed ranks,
highly regimented street demonstrations, and aggressive
rhetoric, although he publicly rejected
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...
. The movement was directly financed, in part, by the
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
embassy
A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually den ...
. The
Roman salute
The Roman salute, alternatively called the Fascist salute, is a gesture in which the right arm is fully extended, facing forward, with palm down and fingers touching. In some versions, the arm is raised upward at an angle; in others, it is held ...
was accompanied by the screaming of the
Tupi word ''Anauê'', which means "you are my brother," while the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
letter
sigma (Σ) served as the movement's official symbol.
Even though Salgado himself was never an
anti-Semite
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
, many of the party members adopted anti-semitic views.
Integralist Action drew its support from lower
middle class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Com ...
Italian immigrants
, image = Map of the Italian Diaspora in the World.svg
, image_caption = Map of the Italian diaspora in the world
, population = worldwide
, popplace = Brazil, Argentina, United States, France, Colombia, Canada, P ...
, a large part of the
Portuguese community, lower middle class Brazilians, and military
officers
An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," f ...
, especially in the
Navy
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...
. As the party grew, Vargas turned to Integralism as his only mobilized base of support on the
right wing
Right-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that view certain social orders and Social stratification, hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this pos ...
, which was elated by his Fascist-style crackdown against the Brazilian
left. In 1934, Salgado's movement targeted the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
, then under the leadership of
Luiz Carlos Prestes, as an underground party, mobilizing a conservative support base to engage in street brawls and urban
terrorism
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
.
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,
as Vargas had promised him the office of the Minister of Education.
[Plínio Salgado biography]
at Fundação Getúlio Vargas' Centre for Research and Documentation on the Contemporary History of Brazil. The President, however, banned the Integralist party, treating it the same way he had treated other political parties after transforming Brazil into a
one-party state
A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties ...
.
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 and was imprisoned in the 17th-century Santa Cruz Fortress in
Niterói,
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 ...
. About a month later, he was sent to a six-year exile in
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
.
During that period, he persistently sought to rehabilitate himself with the Brazilian regime, praising it in several manifestos, including its decision to declare war against
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and Italy.
Later career
Salgado returned to Brazil in 1945, with the end of the
Estado Novo regime, and then founded the
Party of Popular Representation, reformulating the integralist doctrine.
Still driven by the ambition of becoming president, Salgado ran for presidency under the banner of his new party in 1955 but finished last, obtaining just 8% of the votes (around 714,000 votes).
Then he supported the inauguration of President-elect
Juscelino Kubitschek
Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira (; 12 September 1902 – 22 August 1976), also known by his initials JK, was a prominent Brazilian politician who served as the 21st president of Brazil from 1956 to 1961. His term was marked by economic prosp ...
, challenged by the
National Democratic Union, and was named to head the National Institute for Immigration and Colonization.
Salgado was elected to represent
Paraná in the
Chamber of Deputies in 1958.
He would be re-elected in 1962, this time to represent the
São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...
state.
In 1964, he was one of the speakers at the March of Family with God for Freedom rally in
São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...
against President
João Goulart
João Belchior Marques Goulart (1 March 1919 – 6 December 1976), commonly known as Jango, was a Brazilian politician who served as the 24th president of Brazil until a military coup d'état deposed him on 1 April 1964. He was considered the ...
.
Salgado supported the
1964 ''coup d'état'' which overthrew Goulart and, with the introduction of the
two-party system
A two-party system is a political party system in which two major political parties consistently dominate the political landscape. At any point in time, one of the two parties typically holds a majority in the legislature and is usually refe ...
, he joined the
National Renewal Alliance Party
The National Renewal Alliance ( Portuguese: ''Aliança Renovadora Nacional'', ARENA) was a far-right political party that existed in Brazil between 1966 and 1979. It was the official party of the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 196 ...
, obtaining two terms as a
São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...
deputy.
Salgado died in São Paulo on 9 December 1975, aged 80. He is buried at
Morumbi Cemetery.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salgado, Plinio
1895 births
1975 deaths
People from São Paulo (state)
Brazilian Roman Catholics
Republican Party of São Paulo politicians
Brazilian Integralist Action politicians
Party of Popular Representation politicians
National Renewal Alliance politicians
Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Brazil) from Paraná
Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Brazil) from São Paulo
Political history of Brazil
Brazilian anti-communists
Brazilian nationalists
Brazilian newspaper founders
Brazilian newspaper publishers (people)
Brazilian fascists
Christian fascists
Catholicism and far-right politics
Far-right politics in Brazil
Candidates for President of Brazil