For my project, it seems I have a little bit of trouble finding adequate English sources for the Balaiada Revolt. So I’m going to be changing to something around the Vargas Era and discussing with Professor Holt about what exactly that will entail. The Vargas Era is quite interesting and I am certain that there will be plenty of more sources than the previous project idea. There is plenty of interesting events that had occurred in the Vargas era that deserve their own articles. An example of that would possibly the period of friendship between the Integralists and the Communist parties. But overall, I’m still trying to formulate an idea of what I will be doing.

Sorry for posting late, I’m a little bit sick.

Juscelino was the 22nd President of Brazil who’s term was from 1956 to 1961 and made a massive impact on Brazil’s economy, and moved the capital to Rio de Janeiro to the newly constructed Brasilia. The current article is rather short, and lacking detail for a supposedly controversial and impactful figure in Brazilian history, and politics.

While it is certainly difficult to remain unbiased when it comes to political leaders, especially elected ones, remaining as unbiased as possible will require examining multiple sources, from multiple points of view and going from there. Examining Brazil’s political system, and looking more into a famous and impactful leader is important to understand the past and understand his legacy. Understanding his legacy is important for understanding the present political climate and his contributions to it. I will attempt to examine his policies, controversies, and his career before becoming President as well as after.

For my second Wikipedia revision assignment, I plan to examine and make improvements to the article titled “Vaccine Revolt.” As one might assume from the title, this article concerns itself with a brief but violent popular backlash to a public health campaign waged by the government of Rio de Janeiro. Although the uprising itself was named for the in-home smallpox vaccinations mandated by the mayor immediately preceding the outbreak of violence, it is crucial to understand that this particular program followed a longer array of stringent measures aimed at eliminating the litany of diseases that had plagued the city since it had become drastically more populated in the nineteenth century. One especially disruptive policy was the demolition of old and low-income housing complexes, which left thousands of city residents homeless and potentially served to aggravate class tensions.

I discovered this article while searching for material relating to positivism in Brazil, an effort which merely uncovered several sources with which the concept had a degree of overlap. Once I learned of the 1904 Vaccine Revolt through these texts, I became intrigued; for the topic of political street violence in general has long interested me, and this event is one sufficiently obscure for me to assume that we will not be covering it in class. Moreover, the riot and its contributing factors may be emblematic of the issues Rio de Janeiro and other large cities faced in the midst of large-scale population influxes from Europe and the Brazilian interior.

The Wiki article itself, while providing a decent summary of the unrest and the series of events that preceded it, fails to make any citations whatsoever. Needless to say, this is insufficient for the standards outlined for the members of our class as editors. To make matters worse, it puts much of the article at some risk for deletion. I will verify as much of the information on the page as I can, in addition to providing what other knowledge I am able to glean from academic sources. One of these is “‘Civilizing Rio de Janeiro’: The Public Health Campaign in the Riot of 1904,” published in the Journal of Social History. Another is “Positivism and Revolution in Brazil’s First Republic: The 1904 Revolt,” published in The Americas. If these sources and the others that I find ultimately befit the purpose, I will also elaborate upon what divisions the turmoil might have revealed within Brazilian society at the onset of the twentieth century.

For my potential Wikipedia article to improve upon, I propose the page on the Bumba-meu-boi festival. As of now the article only includes a lightly detailed lead. The current lead attempts to summarize the story behind the festival in a sentence or two with a short explanation of the most important characters played. This, in of itself is a gap in the festivals Wiki page. I look to add more details behind the story behind the festival as well as all of its characters and what they symbolize. Other gaps in the article I intend to improve upon are the history of the festival, where it occurs, how long it lasts, and its deep connection to Brazilian culture.

I Think I can do Wikipedia a great service by vastly improving this article because Bumba-meu-boi is one of Brazil’s largest celebrations, yet it isn’t covered nearly as well as Brazil’s main festival, Carnival because it isn’t publicized as much. The festival is also deeply rooted in the nation’s many cultures including that of native tribes. Additionally, the festival is an old tradition that dates back to the late 1800’s, from which it has slowly grown from a single small town to the whole country.

Because the festival is not as well known outside of Brazil there are not large amounts of translated literature on it, like you would find on the Carnival festival. However, there is still an ample abundance of studies on it which will provide me with everything I need. One great source titled The Coexistence of Folk and Popular Culture as Vehicles of Social and Historical Activism: Transformation of the Bumba-meu-boi in Northeast Brazil identifies the complex hybrid cultures within the festival. There are also plenty of books including An Interdisciplinary Study of The Ox and the Slave (Bumba-meu-Boi): A Satirical Music Drama in BrazilI.

A potential article that I will improve on Wikipedia is the Luiz Gama page. When looking at his page, I saw content gaps in his biography. Specifically, there was a large gap between 1847 and the 1860’s, which is when Gama was 18-31 years old. One of my goals is to fill this gap with details of what he did during this period. I would also like to expand on what kind of cases he handled as a lawyer, as sources have indicated that he has helped free slaves using the law. The Works section is also quite small, so I will also look for more of Gama’s literary contributions. Gama was both a journalist and poet, but there is not a lot of information on the type of work he did. Lastly, more details on his contribution to the Republican Party of São Paulo and their success will hopefully be added.

This article is important for Brazilian history because Gama played an important role for the abolition movement in Brazil. In class, we covered the role of the elites and female slaves in the abolition movement. Although we recognized that free blacks played a role in the abolition movement, we did not go into details with a specific case. By updating the Luiz Gama page, I will be able shed light on the role of free black men in abolition. Gama’s case is especially interesting since he used his career as a lawyer to help slaves. This article is also important for Brazilian culture because Gama was also a journalist and poet. By examining his poems closer, one can gain a better sense of the Brazilian culture at the time. Gama’s work as a journalist would also reveal important topics that were occurring in São Paulo.

Reputable sources that exist to back up the new content I plan to add include several encyclopedias with information on Luiz Gama, such as Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience and the Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. There are also several books about abolition that include information about Luiz Gama, such as The Abolition of Slavery in Brazil, Children of God’s Fire: A Documentary History of Black Slavery in Brazil and The Destruction of Brazilian Slavery. There is also a Portuguese nonprofit organization in São Paulo, Brazil called Instituto Luiz Gama that is dedicated to Luiz Gama. The organization seems to be made up of professors and lawyers and their website provides more information about Luiz Gama as well. These sources will help add detail to the Wikipedia page of Luiz Gama. Lastly, I checked the Talk page and there were no comments on the page, so hopefully my additions will help.

For my Wikipedia article, I want to improve on the Education in Brazil article. Currently, the article covers the basic information: a brief history, current school structure, and a few sentences on international education. For such a broad topic, there should be much more information on the article. Education is a very important concept for understanding a nation’s culture. By understanding education, one can understand class and citizenship differences. Education is also important to LGBTQ and women’s issues.

Specifically, I want to expand the history section and add a section discussing prevalent issues in Brazilian education. In the U.S., full citizenship was only given to those who were educated. Adding the history of education will also highlight the history of citizenship. Also, as we discussed in class, Jesuits often used education to covert indigenous peoples to Catholicism. Adding this will highlight corruption in education. It is also important to add issues with education because of what issues in education often highlights: inequality and corruption in government. It also shows what common problems are occurring in greater society today. In the talk page, someone posted a few years ago that Brazil was a “sh*thole country” who had many problems with their “‘public education system’”. It is very important to remove what they said from readers’ minds and input correct information.

I can use the seven constitutions of Brazil to learn a history of voting rights, with emphasis on the latest—1988. I will also use information that we have learned in class to find basic information and find further readings, especially with the Jesuit schools information. The article itself has many references which I can draw more information from, and from the resources that I have obtained from my research project on education, I can learn more about Brazilian educational issues and how leaders have attempted to acknowledge or repair them.