Nilo Peçanha
President of Brazil from 1909 to 1910
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Key Takeaways
- Nilo Procópio Peçanha ( Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈnilu pɾoˈkɔpju peˈsɐɲɐ] ; 2 October 1867 – 31 March 1924) was a Brazilian politician who served as the seventh president of Brazil.
- He assumed the presidency in 1909 following the death of President Afonso Pena and served until 1910.
- Early life Nilo Peçanha was born to Sebastião de Sousa Peçanha, a baker, and Joaquina Anália de Sá Freire, the descendant of a wealthy and noble family from northern Rio de Janeiro Province.
- His family lived in a state of poverty in the remote and poor neighborhood of Morro do Coco, Campos dos Goytacazes, and moved to the downtown area when Peçanha started elementary education.
- During his youth, the local Campos dos Goytacazes social elite alluded to him as the "mestiço do Morro do Coco" (the half-breed from Morro do Coco district).
Nilo Procópio Peçanha (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈnilu pɾoˈkɔpju peˈsɐɲɐ]; 2 October 1867 – 31 March 1924) was a Brazilian politician who served as the seventh president of Brazil. He was governor of Rio de Janeiro (1903–1906), then elected the fifth vice president of Brazil in 1906. He assumed the presidency in 1909 following the death of President Afonso Pena and served until 1910.
Despite controversies involving his racial identity, Peçanha is frequently considered as Brazil's first Afro-Brazilian president.
Early life
Nilo Peçanha was born to Sebastião de Sousa Peçanha, a baker, and Joaquina Anália de Sá Freire, the descendant of a wealthy and noble family from northern Rio de Janeiro Province. He was one of seven siblings (five boys and two girls). His family lived in a state of poverty in the remote and poor neighborhood of Morro do Coco, Campos dos Goytacazes, and moved to the downtown area when Peçanha started elementary education.
He was frequently described as being a mulatto and often ridiculed in the press for his skin color. During his youth, the local Campos dos Goytacazes social elite alluded to him as the "mestiço do Morro do Coco" (the half-breed from Morro do Coco district). In 1921, when he ran for the Presidency of Republic, letters falsely attributed to the other candidate Artur Bernardes were published by the press and caused a political crisis because they insulted both the former president Marshal Hermes da Fonseca and also Peçanha, another former president, claiming he was a mulatto. Gilberto Freyre mentioned his "mulatismo" in Brazilian politics as the same that prevailed in Brazilian soccer. According to some scholars, his presidential photographs were touched up to whiten his dark skin.
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