BARBOSA, J. C.; http://lattes.cnpq.br/2368150617722699; BARBOSA, Jivago Correia.
Resumo:
The present thesis – “The integration of 'Brazils': José Américo de Almeida and the Ministry
of Traffic and Public Works during the Provisional Government (1930-1934)” – aimed to
investigate how José Américo reflected on his performance during the period where he was
in charge of the Ministry of Traffic and Public Works (1930-1934) and, at the same time,
understand, from this reflection, the relation of his performance as minister and the nationaldevelopment
project proposed by Getúlio Vargas and his ministers, after the 1930 Revolution,
with the establishment of the Provisional Government. Information about this topic is
relatively scarce and this work is part of the perspective of contributing to revisit the theme.
The construction of a large national-autonomous development project needed to be
consolidated and it would be up to José Américo de Almeida to conduct most of the
infrastructure works by taking over this portfolio during this time frame. In order to obtain
more concise information on the subject, we read and record the two reports that José
Américo himself wrote about his period of performance, a source of great relevance for the
comprehension of that historical moment: “Provisional Government”(1933) and“ The
Revolutionary Cycle of the Ministry of Traffic”(1934). Based on these readings, it was
evidenced a narrative that seeks to demonstrate that the referred ministry had an effective
importance for the consolidation of economic and social development policies, with the
expansion of *the* Brazilian domestic market and the integration of the various regions of the
country, in a search overcoming the effects of the 1929 crisis. Thus, it is shown that the
Ministry of Traffic and Public Works had a much broader scope and was not restricted to
drought control only, as infrastructure works said ministry covered several states of the
country. However, all the logic of national developmentalism ends up preserving the agrarian
structure in the Northeast and, on the other hand, develops industry in the Center-South region
of the country, so Brazilian capitalism ends up structuring and articulating itself from regional
development uneven. The narrative, present in the reports, also shows that José Américo had
an effective concern with his image as a manager, that is, a minister who was very jealous
about how his management would be perceived and evaluated in the not too distant future and
that he felt the need to leave a legacy for writing. For the development of this research, the
quantitative and qualitative method was used and as a methodological procedure, the data
collection was delimited starting with the bibliographic (secondary sources) and documentary
(primary sources) research, analyzing and recording some of the main news concerning
the José Américo and the Provisional Government, found in the A União newspaper, as well
as other national newspapers, such as Correio da Manhã. We also searched the State Public
archive in the Cultural Space, the Casa José Américo de Almeida Foundation and the private
library of Mr. Maurílio de Almeida.