Prestes Maia and the paulistana press: survey of journalistic sources to understand the reception of the implementation of the irradiation perimeter in São Paulo (1937 - 1945)

Abstract

This Scientific Initiation project is part of the larger ongoing research, funded by FAPESP (process 2018 / 15939-4), under development by a multidisciplinary team led by Professor Fernando Antique, from History Department of the School of Philosophy, Languages and Human Sciences of UNIFESP. This research, named "Fragmented Pauliceia: an investigation on the process of demolition of spaces in the central area of São Paulo and its media representations", seeks to understand the urban, social and legal operations that were carried out by the municipality of São Paulo aiming the implementation of the Irradiation Perimeter of the Avenues Plan for the City of São Paulo, designed by Ulhôa Cintra and Francisco Prestes Maia. Implemented from the last years of the administration of the mayor Fabio Prado, (1934-1938) through the action of Prestes Maia himself, the Irradiation Perimeter extended as a decisive work for his management as "bionic" mayor (1939- 1945). The public administrator appointed by the intervener Adhemar de Barros during Getúlio Vargas' Estado Novo, Prestes Maia apparently enjoyed of great prestige with the São Paulo press. With the City Council closed due to the Vargas regime, there are few clues for understanding the criticism the mayor received for the "social operations" he practiced. It is important for us to research through this project of Scientific Initiation, how the São Paulo press referred to the mayor during his years of implementation of his urban plan. We are interested in compiling articles that speak so much in a positive way of the "Prestes Maia works", but especially those that bring criticism to what was developed by him. Thus, the result of this research will collaborate with the assembly of content that will crown the investigative efforts that Antique and team have carried out around the demolitions in the central area of São Paulo aiming at the creation of this "ring road", which will be systematized in a public exhibition, in which we intend to be part of as a researcher.