Em oposição ao Governo Vargas: rede de exilados, articulações, ações e lutas

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the constitution, actions, and developments of the network of Brazilian political exiles organized abroad in opposition to Getúlio Vargas’s government during the Estado Novo (1937–1945). It is grounded on the premise that exile did not represent a rupture in the political engagement of these opponents, but rather engendered a process of resistance articulated through a transnational network formed in different spaces of exile, such as Paris, New York, Lisbon, Montevideo, and Buenos Aires. The study seeks to contribute to the historiography by problematizing exile as a political, collective, and subjective experience, while also highlighting the transnational character of the opposition to the Estado Novo. The research is based on a broad and diverse documentary corpus, including correspondence, press articles, and documents produced in exile, as well as biographies, personal writings, and newspapers. Initially, the dissertation reconstructs key aspects of the political context of the 1920s and 1930s, emphasizing the crisis of São Paulo’s political hegemony, the 1932 movement, and the establishment of the Estado Novo, paying attention to conflicts between regional oligarchies, emerging political leaders, and competing authoritarian projects. Subsequently, through prosopographical strategies, the trajectories of the members of the network of exiles are identified, highlighting political ties, sociabilities, shared experiences, and symbolic capital, without attributing a leadership role to any single protagonist. This approach makes it possible to examine the forms of organization, communication, and political action developed by the network abroad, revealing oppositional strategies such as denunciations in the international press and diplomatic articulations aimed at confronting the mechanisms of surveillance and control exercised by the Vargas government. The study also sheds light on the participation of women, often rendered invisible but essential to the maintenance of the political, material, and affective networks of exile. Finally, the dissertation analyzes the consequences of exile experiences, focusing on the return to Brazil, the difficulties of political and social reintegration, and the feelings of frustration, resentment, and estrangement in the face of transformations in the country, configuring what some protagonists described as a “second exile”