Fear of mass literacy for the voter rolls helped trigger Brazil’s 1964 coup

Evidence

First, President Goulart was not only supportive of left-leaning groups, but it was under his presidency that an exponential growth of radical and revolutionary groups emerged unlike the country of Brazil had ever witnessed (Elias, 1994). Second, along with the emergence of Marxist thought, Catholic progressives, agrarian reform groups, worker movements, and others became more intensely influential in mobilizing masses of people. Third, conservatives were rather nervous with the possibilities of those who would become literate as a result of Freire’s literacy program …. It is worth reiterating that at the time of the coup, northeast Brazil had a population of some 25 to 30 million with approximately 15 million being illiterate. And, if Freire’s literacy program had gone through on a national scale, the potential of new voters (more likely to support the populist regime) in the state of Sergipe would have numbered approximately 80,000, and in Pernambuco the number of new voters would have numbered approximately 500,000 (Torres, 1998). — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 105

Categorization

• SEED: A whole essay angle: literacy as a genuinely revolutionary act — the rulers who feared teaching adults to read because 15M new literate voters would shift the political order. Plenty of modern parallels in voter suppression and censorship.
• QUESTION: How precisely would new literate voters translate into pro-Goulart votes? Were literacy requirements tied to voting eligibility at the time, making the arithmetic literal?
• DEEPTHINKING: The elite fear of literacy-as-power is a motif that deserves deeper unpacking — the conservative logic of preventing mass reading as a political control mechanism has powerful applications today.
• XREF: connects to: Brazil’s literacy plan ended when the 1964 coup overthrew Goulart — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 101; Brazil’s 1964 coup jailed Freire for his literacy work — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 106; A military coup halted Brazil’s national literacy plan and exiled Freire — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 587 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• A military coup halted Brazil’s national literacy plan and exiled Freire #expands (0.90) — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 587
• Brazil’s literacy plan ended when the 1964 coup overthrew Goulart #expands (0.85) — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 101
• Brazil’s 1964 coup jailed Freire for his literacy work #expands (0.80) — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 106
• Politicians suppress minority turnout and invent threats to mask authoritarianism #responds-to (0.75) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 1373