Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira (1902-1976)
Brazilian President—of Czech descent—educated as a medical doctor. Native of Minas Gerais where he pursued an eventual political career—as Mayor of Belo Horizonte, Governor of Minas Gerais and then President of Brazil. A later victim of military persecution, he was forced into exile in Portugal and the United States. During the latter he went on a speaking tour around the country. As a junior Latinamericanist at Harvard I was invited to interview him on local T.V. It was conducted in English (his was largely unintelligible but his ebullient personality came through).
The next time I was with him was in Rio. He was convalescing from a back operation in his gorgeous apartment in Ipanema.
Chico Barbosa brought me to the spot. Chico had been a member of JK’s* presidential staff.
He later wrote a formal campaign biography (JK: Uma Reunião na Polítical Brasileira). Chico took me to see JK. He knew the latter would be pleased to receive me because in my recent book (Politics in Brazil) I had treated his presidency favorably (My chapter was entitled “The Years of Confidence.”)
JK gratefully accepted my autographed copy and gave it a desultory glance. Although he was bedridden, he was, as always, extraordinarily warm. Chico beamed: mission accomplished.
The last time I saw JK was in Brasília (he was the founder). It was a quiet Sunday and I was in the city visiting friends at the University of Brasília. At my hotel I received a call saying President JK would be sending a car to take me to lunch at his xácara on the edge of Brasília. When I got there his whole family was assembled—he was very much a family man. We sat down to a big feijoada spread (typical Brazil meal) and talked lots of politics. At one point JK launched into a denunciation of the Communists, which I had never heard from his lips when he was president.
I had no more news of him until he died in a sensational auto accident on the São Paulo-Rio road where he was returning from a rendezvous with his mistress.
His car was hit head-on by a massive truck, which obliterated him, his driver (a long time factotum) and his late-model car.
The public was soon alive with rumors that it had been the work of a conspiracy of his many enemies. I never accepted this theory. Based on my experience of driving in Brazil, I knew nothing was impossible when Brasileiros are at the wheel. After all, the greatest sports heroes in Brazil (after the footballers) are the racing car pilots.
JK: um brasileiro cordial,
a NOTABLE president
Requiescat in pace.
*Juscelino Kubitschek was known by his initials JK because his last name was too difficult for Brazilians to pronounce.
Further Readings
Alexander, Robert J. Juscelino Kubitschek and the Development of Brazil. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Center for International Studies, 1991.
Ioris, Rafael R. Transforming Brazil: A History of National Development in the Postwar Era. New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2014.
Skidmore, Thomas E. Politics in Brazil, 1930-1964: An Experiment in Democracy. Updated ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Juscelino Kubitschek was born in Diamantina, Minas Gerais. He pursued a political career, first as a member of Congress, then as the appointed mayor of Belo Horizonte under Getúlio Vargas’s Estado Novo. Elected once again to Congress in 1946 and as Governor of the state of Minas Gerais in 1950, he assumed the presidency in 1955. Kubitschek ran on a slogan of “fifty years of progress in five” and launched the construction of Brasília, Brazil’s modern-day capital.