Getúlio Vargas is one of the most important and intriguing figures in the history of republican Brazil. Taking a new perspective, his favorite daughter, called by John Gunther “the pretty apple of his eye,” has written a personal introduction to her father. She successfully presents a more humanized view of President Vargas in which he appears somewhat less a god although still on a pedestal. Indeed, at times the book appears to be a sort of Brazilian Life With Father.
In her book, Senhora do Amaral Peixoto concentrated on the period 1930-1938: the ascendancy of Vargas in 1930, the Paulista revolt in 1932, the Constitution of 1934, the Communist revolt of 1935, the Estado Novo, and the Integralista revolt in 1938. She included some memories prior to 1930 but made only the most veiled allusions to any post-1938 events.
Few new answers are given to Brazilian historical questions. She placed the blame for the Paulista revolt on the ambitions of dissatisfied men and “born reactionaries” and regarded the Constitution of 1934 as retrogressive and an unwarranted restriction of executive power. The reader hopes in vain to receive some inside information concerning the strange circumstances which surrounded the Integralista attack on the palace on May 11, 1938 and the failure of anyone to render aid for six hours to the isolated presidential authoress painted a vivid picture of what happened inside the palace family. In one of the most interesting chapters of the book, the during the siege. However, the multitudinous questions about what occurred outside the palace remain as much a mystery as ever. Indeed, the reader is agitated by curiosity when the authoress suddenly drops the subject with the remark, “Many things still are enveloped in mystery, and I dare not try to unravel them.”
A long chapter was devoted to the Estado Novo. Here, Senhora do Amaral Peixoto wrote down some of her conversations with her father concerning the significance of the Estado Novo. Generally the information is a repetition of the political philosophy expounded by Vargas in A nova politica. She quoted her father as saying, “Only the countries economically strong are really free. And it is that liberty that I would like to give my country. The Constitution of 1937 … is only an attempt, a transitory experience, to weather an approaching storm with the minimum sacrifices possible. Let’s say that it is a means to attain an end and not the end itself.”
One of the most fascinating questions she tried to answer was the failure to conduct the plebiscite on the Constitution of 1937. According to a conversation recorded by his daughter, Vargas considered the Constitution as temporary. He opposed holding the plebiscite in time of national emergency when the people would approve it without thinking. Rather, he preferred to try the Constitution for awhile and then to submit it to a more experienced electorate for their decision. Apparently the propitious moment for submission never arrived.
The prospective reader should not be misled by the title of this book which, in reality, is more the daughter’s autobiography than the father’s biography. This work is not so much a searchlight focused on the life of Vargas as a flashlight shone into an attic of half-forgotten anecdotes and fading memories. However, whatever the angle of vision, this book contributes to a fuller understanding of an extraordinary man, and it merits the consultation of all those interested in modern Brazilian history.
