Education, race and work

ideologies in Brazil in the 1930s

Abstract

The “Vargas Era” is constantly remembered as central to the Brazilian process of economic, social, political and cultural modernization, as new labor relations and a new ideal of man were desired by the state and the people. By analyzing the peculiarities of work and race as ideologies of the Vargas State, we hope to highlight their influence on the constitution of both citizenship and national identity in that period, especially through public education. A bibliographical research was carried out with the intention of retaking ties between the end of slavery and the beginning of proletarianization in Brazil, as well as highlighting the links between citizenship and national identity. The results point to the contradiction between the ideology spread by the Vargas State and the racial policies established throughout the Vargas Era; In the same way, the ideal of the formation of a “new man” permeated the conceptions of work and race. In this sense, Education presented itself as the main means of dissemination of state ideologies.

Keywords: Race. Job. Education. Citizenship. National Identity.