José Américo de Almeida

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José Américo at the time as Brazilian Minister of Transport, around 1930

José Américo de Almeida (born January 10, 1887 in Areia , Paraíba state , † March 10, 1980 in João Pessoa , Paraíba state) was a Brazilian lawyer, politician and writer.

Life

Almeida came from a very wealthy family of large landowners, his father was Inácio Augusto de Almeida, his mother Josefa Leopoldina Leal de Almeida. He completed his school years with the help of private tutors and with their help he began to study law in Recife in 1903 at the Faculdade de Direito do Recife , today part of the Universidad Federal de Pernambuco , which was founded by his initiative in 1955 . In 1908 he was able to successfully finish his studies and got a job at the court in the same year.

His career took him through the post of public prosecutor to the general public prosecutor and reached a preliminary climax in 1928 in the office of State Secretary. In 1930 the grand coalition of the dissatisfied led to a revolution and Getúlio Vargas became aware of Almeida. When Vargas took power in October of the same year, he brought Almeida into his government as one of the first.

At the end of 1930 Almeida took over the Ministry of Transport and Public Works (Ministério da Viação e Obras Públicas) and from 1934 he headed the State Audit Office, the Tribunal de Contas da União (TCU). On the occasion of the election for president scheduled for January 1938, Almeida ran for this office. Since Getúlio Vargas could no longer stand for election under the constitution and he saw his idea of ​​an Estado Novo in jeopardy, he faked an impending communist overthrow on the basis of falsified documents, the Cohen Plan , and declared a state of war in October 1937. After the dissolution of Congress on November 10, 1937 by the military police and the "Cohen Plan" became known, Almeida gave up his candidacy and withdrew from politics.

Only after the end of the Second World War did Almeida show an interest in political tasks again. He was elected to the Senate and remained a senator until 1951 when he was elected governor of his native Paraíba. 1954 President Vargas brought him back into his cabinet. In the same year, Vargas lost the support of the military and shot himself on August 24, 1954. Almeida took this act as an opportunity to say goodbye to politics for good.

José Américo de Almeida devoted the rest of his life almost exclusively to writing. At the age of 93, he died on March 10, 1980 in João Pessoa, where he also found his final resting place.

Honors

In 1965 he founded chair 35 (Cadeira de Raul Machado) of the Academia Paraibana de Letras . The Academia Brasileira de Letras elected him a member in 1966, and in 1967 the inaugural speech was given for the vacated Cadeira 38 .

In 1976 he received the Prêmio Juca Pato and was voted “O Intelectual do Ano” for his work Antes que me esqueça .

The Fundação Casa de José Américo (FCJA) was founded posthumously on December 10, 1980 , and the Writer's Museum was opened in his honor in João Pessoa on January 11, 1982.

reception

Almeida's novel "A Bagaceira" (The Sugar Mill) was published in 1928 and became an important work in the regionalist literature of Brazil, the Regionalismo brasileiro of the northeast. Against the background of a drought disaster, he contrasts the starving rural population with the almost absolute ruling upper class. Many colleagues took this novel - such as B. José Lins do Rego (1901–1957) in his novel cycle about the sugar cane industry - as a model.

Works (selection)

memoirs
  • O Ano do Négro . 1968.
  • Memoiras. Antes que me Esqueça . 1976.
Novels
  • Reflexões de um Cabra . 1922.
  • A bagaceira . 1928.
  • O Boqueirão . 1935.
  • Coiteiros . 1935.
Non-fiction
  • A palavra eo tempo . 1965.
  • Eu e Eles . 1970.
  • Discursos Academicos . 1968.
  • A Paraíba e seus problemas . 1930.

literature

Essays
  • Francisco de Assis Dantas: A linguagem regional glossário do romance "Coiteiros" de José Américo de Almeida .
  • Elizabeth Marinheiro: José Américo de Almeida ea negatividade . In: Colóquio. Letras , 98: 52-60 (1987).
  • Josué Montello: "A Bagaceira" de José Améico de Almeida . In: Manchete , Vol. 21 (1978), Issue 1182, pp. 101-105.
  • Dieter Reichardt: Latin American authors. Literary dictionary . Erdmann, Tübingen 1972, p. 162, ISBN 3-7711-0152-2 .
Monographs
  • Anonymous: José Américo de Almeida. Exposição comemorativea ao centenário de seu nascimento, 1887–1987 . Fundação Casa de José Américo de Almeida, João Pessoa 1987.
  • Maria do Socorro Silva de Aragão (Ed.): Cartilha literária. José Américo de Almeida . Fundação Casa de José Américo de Almeida, João Pessoa 1987.
  • Aspásia Camargo: O Nordeste ea política. Diálogo com José Américo de Almeida . Nova Fronteira, Rio de Janeiro 1984.
  • Joacil de Britto Pereira: José Américo de Almeida. O historiador . IHGP, João Pessoa 2001.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ursula Prutsch: From the First Republic to the end of the military dictatorship. ( Memento from May 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Institute for History of the University of Vienna. Retrieved April 28, 2020.


personal data
SURNAME Almeida, José Américo de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Américo, José
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Brazilian lawyer, politician and writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Areia , Paraíba State
DATE OF DEATH March 10, 1980
Place of death João Pessoa , Paraíba State