Mattoso Camara in an Episode of Carioca Politics: the “Brazilian Language of the Federal District”

Abstract

In mid-1935, a bill was introduced in the Municipal Chamber of the Federal District to prohibit both the teaching of Portuguese in Rio de Janeiro’s municipal schools and the use of textbooks containing titles or chapters labeled Portuguese when this language was spoken in Brazil. Joaquim Mattoso Camara Jr, then a Portuguese teacher, vehemently opposed the law in the article “Brazilian Language of the Federal District”, published in the Diário de Notícias of Rio de Janeiro. He sent the article to one of the councilors who, like him, was against the law. The councilor read the article from the gallery of the city parliament and was the only one to vote against the passing of the law. Here we present an edition of the text by Camara Jr. based on the transcription of the minutes of the city council meeting published in the Jornal do Brasil, as access to the article is becoming increasingly difficult. The edition is preceded by a small study, because without the bill and without knowledge of the political context in which it was inserted, Camara Jr.’s analysis would lose some of its comprehension in its entirety.