Juscelino Kubitschek and Brazil: from immense Hospital into a symbol of modernity

Juscelino Kubitschek, the physician who provided Brazil with the most democratic regime it had ever experienced and made it one of the world’s greatest emerging powers in the time. He was considered as the father of the modern Brazil and his time as the golden era of the country. Kubitschek was regarded by millions of Brazilians as a national hero, whose last cortège when he died in 1976 said to have consisted of over 300,000 people. But who he really was?

    Juscelino Kubitschek or JK as he was often known was the 21^st President of Brazil. He was born on 12 December 1902 in the small city of Diamantina, in Minas Gerais in the South-East region of Brazil (Região Sudeste). He was raised by his mother Julia, a school teacher from Czech origin. He studied medicine then he left Brazil to live in Europe. After the Vargas Revolution of 1930 (Revolução de 1930), Juscelino returned to Brazil and started to work at the military hospital. He first came to prominence by his role as a field medic during the 1932 armed conflict between Getulio Vargas forces and São Paulo rebels. He  then gained recognition and was named Captain-Physician (Capitão-Médico da Força Pública).

   While he was still practicing medicine, he started his political career and held various positions. In 1934 he was elected for the Federal Chamber of Deputies of Brazil as top candidate from the State of Minas Gerais. In 1940 he became the mayor of Belo Horizonte, and due to the extraordinary development that the city had experienced during his term as a mayor, he became known as the Hurricane Mayor (Prefeito Furacão) and that was the actual beginning of Kubitschek’s reputation as a successful and ambitious administrator.

   Even though Kubitschek was a Vargas supporter, the fall of the Estado Novo in 1945 did not affect his political position. In fact, in the same year he won a seat in the Chamber of Deputies again. In 1950, he ran for the elections of the state of Minas Gerais and beat his nearest opponent, who happened to be his brother-in-law, Julio Soares. The state of Minas Gerais was marked by a great leaps in development in various areas under his administration.

   After Vargas death in August 1954, Brazil faced serious political issues for over a year, during which three different interim presidents took office, João Café Filho, Carlos Luz and Nereu Ramos. When the presidential elections of October 1955 drew closer, Kubitschek’s fame and high competence made him a prime contender, and in January 1956, he was inaugurated as President of Brazil until January 1961. It is interesting to know that Kubitschek’s family name was Oliveira, but he preferred to use his mother’s family name of Czechoslovakian ancestry for fame and publicity purposes, because the name “Kubitschek” h. ad a stronger impact on the media and a special ring to people’s ears, while his real name “Oliveira” was a typical Brazilian name.

   Prior to the presidential elections of 1955 in Brazil, Miguel Pereira, a famous Brazilian physician, had stated that Brazil was an immense hospital “Brasil é um imenso hospital” to reflect the corruption and poverty the country was experiencing in that time. His phrase had become commonly used by Brazilians to describe their country. With the approaching election date, Kubitschek employed this phrase in his campaign discourse to promote his agenda as president. He was notable for his motivational speeches and he promised that if he became president, Brazil would not be that immense hospital anymore.

   Kubitschek’s developmental project was carried out under the motto “Fifty Years in Five”. By which he promised that his administration would achieve fifty years of progress in a period of only five years, which was the period of his presidential term (1956-1961). His first priority as President was industrialization and the development of its infrastructure which was the key to success. Juscelino Kubitschek’s project consisted of two key points, the Plan of Targets “Plano de Metas” and the transfer of Brazil’s capital from Rio de Janeiro on the south-east coast to the newly- founded Brasília in the interior of the country. the Plan of Targets was a broad socio-economic development program that transformed Brazil from agrarian to industrial country. It encompassed 30 different Targets or Goals and focused on the development of 5 main areas (energy, food, industry, education, and transportation) with the aim of modernizing and diversifying the Brazilian economy which was still heavily dependent on coffee production. 

   Another promise Juscelino made to the Brazilian people during his campaign for president was to construct an entirely new capital city from scratch; a pledge to create a modern heart to a prosperous country. He called this huge project as “Target No. 31”, symbolizing the crown on the other 30 Targets. Wide range of reasons behind the constructing of Brasília, but perhaps the most important one was to reduce the economic and social inequality between the South and the North. The new city was designed to be modern and elegant without baroque or any classical architecture, and to be without slums or any other manifestations of poverty. In other words, Brasília was to be the opposite of the old coastal capital Rio de Janeiro.

   In an interview with the BBC in 2000, Oscar Niemeyer the designer and the architect of Brasília said, “Kubitschek wanted to build a new capital. But he didn’t want to build just any old capital. He wanted to build a city that would represent Brazil.” From the air, the city was designed like an airplane, because in that era, air travel represented modernity. The wings were where Brasília’s officials and officers would live, while the fuselage was where they would operate. The main work of the city of Brasília was executed in only four years and no doubt it was Juscelino’s greatest source of pride and his certainty of a secure place in the history of his country.

   The success of Juscelino Kubitschek and his Plan of Targets was because he had a clear vision of what he wanted to accomplish, even though he took office when Brazil was in crisis politically and economically. He made several key strategic decisions concerning how to obtain his objectives. He concentrated his efforts in those areas so as to bring about the most rapid results. Juscelino was known for his great optimism. He was convinced that Brazil was destined to be a great nation and that could be achievable in a relatively short period of time. He was also known for his great ability to transmit that sense of optimism and enthusiasm to his people. In place of that “immense hospital”, Juscelino had succeeded to make vast numbers of Brazilians become aware of what their country was accomplishing and what they were able to do. By showing that great material changes were actually occurring, he succeeded in making Brazilians believe that it was only a matter of time until their nation would become one of the greatest in the world.

Muad Shetwan