Memories about Colégio São Vicente de Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1970s-1980s

Project Overview This data project is part of a history dissertation which examines social movements in 1970s and 1980s Brazil. It investigates the experiences of people who attended or worked at Colégio São Vicente de Paulo (CSVP) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in the period. CSVP, a Vincentian/Lazarist school, was locally known for its openness to political discussions despite the restrictions imposed by the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964-1985). Government documentation produced by the Brazilian regime corroborate the school’s progressive nature, which can also be inferred from newspaper sources and other primary documents. The project analyzes oral testimonies alongside such documentary sources, to provide a more detailed understanding of this case. It contributes to scholarly discussions on Brazilian society’s experiences under the dictatorship and a community’s engagement with its past. Focusing on the 1970s and 1980s allows for a detailed examination of a period of intense transformation in Brazil, marked by economic challenges, social movements, and a growing push for re-democratization, which encompassed several steps in the 1980s. The research methodology involved conducting online interviews with former students, staff, and teachers of CSVP. Participants reviewed and revised their transcribed testimonials, as part of a horizontal, collaborative, research process. This project contributes to a larger body of literature on Brazil’s dictatorship and on Latin American twentieth-century dictatorial regimes. It underscores the experiences and aspirations of a community and the pedagogical methods employed in this educational institution.
Data and Data Collection Overview While CSVP was founded in 1959, the project does not include the 1960s for practical and historical reasons, focusing instead on the 1970s and 1980s. From a historical perspective, events reshaped the dictatorship in the 1970s. Brazil’s regime faced challenges following the 1973 Oil Crisis, following a period of prosperity and increase in consumption. In parallel to this, military officials contradicted themselves by remaining in power and not holding elections after the 1964 coup d’etat. The expansion of social organizing by the mid-1970s, partially tied to economic issues but also surging as a response to the regime’s duration and human rights violations – and to its general lack of credibility – provided grounds for greater anti-dictatorship sentiment in the 1970s. Greater civil opposition opened space for re-democratization in the 1980s; a process that encompassed several measures. These included the re-establishment of political parties in 1980, to the first gubernatorial elections in 1982, and mass demonstrations demanding direct presidential elections in 1984. A transitional civilian government took office in 1985, a new constitution came about in 1988, and Brazil held democratic elections for president in 1989. By focusing on a specific school during these two decades of intense transformation, this research aims at understanding the experiences and aspirations of a community, as well as the pedagogical methods of an educational institution locally known as an “oasis” of progressive discussions. Historical interviews involve a consent process in which participants are clearly informed about the nature of the research and use of full names, since the fact that participants are considered historical witnesses and actors. Given the specific nature of the research, which considers a school as a site of resistance and contestation during a Latin American dictatorship, the first step for recruitment was to locate online fora where alumni, former teachers, and former staff members congregated. After focusing on the two online groups with active discussions, I publicly invited members to voluntarily participate in the research, stating my affiliation with Georgetown University, and the financial support from the Georgetown Americas Institute (GAI). Some participants referred me to their contacts who were not necessarily part of the two online groups, in a snowballing process. The goal was to interview between 20 and 30 participants in open-ended interviews with a duration of 25 to 30 minutes, via Zoom. The option for an online platform for video conferencing had two goals: (1) allow for greater flexibility for both interviewer and interviewee; (2) allow for the provisional recording of the interview, with participants’ consent. Regarding the second goal, my intent was to produce a literal transcription of the interview, for which a recording is necessary. As agreed between parties, after producing each transcription, I deleted their corresponding audio file and submitted the transcribed text for the participant’s review. The justification for this practice was twofold: (1) to allow participants to review their testimonials and make exclusions, if necessary, given the fact that some participants may share personal data or...

项目概述 本数据项目为巴西历史学论文的一部分，旨在探究1970年代和1980年代巴西的社会运动。项目聚焦于参与或曾在巴西里约热内卢的圣维森特·德·保禄学院（Colégio São Vicente de Paulo，简称CSVP）学习或工作的人们在这一时期的经历。CSVP作为一所文森特派/拉扎利斯特学校，在当地以对政治讨论的开放态度而闻名，尽管在1964年至1985年的巴西军事独裁统治期间受到限制。巴西政府产生的文件证实了该学校的进步性质，这一性质也可从报纸来源和其他原始文件中推断出来。项目通过对口头证词和此类文档资料的联合分析，旨在提供对该案例的更深入理解。该项目有助于关于巴西社会在独裁统治下的经历以及社区与其历史互动的学术讨论。聚焦于1970年代和1980年代，使得对巴西这一时期经济挑战、社会运动以及日益增长的重新民主化推动力的深入考察成为可能，这一过程涵盖了1980年代的多项措施。这些措施包括1980年政治党的重建、1982年的首次州长选举以及1984年大规模示威要求直接总统选举。1985年，过渡性民选政府上台，1988年颁布了新宪法，巴西于1989年举行了总统民主选举。通过专注于这两个十年间特定学校的历史性转变，本研究旨在理解一个社区的经历与愿望，以及这所当地被誉为“进步讨论绿洲”的教育机构的教学法。历史访谈涉及知情同意过程，参与者被明确告知研究性质及使用全名，鉴于参与者被视为历史见证者和行动者。鉴于研究的特定性质，即考虑学校在拉丁美洲独裁统治期间作为抵抗和挑战场所，招募的第一步是定位校友、前教师和前员工在线聚集的论坛。在专注于两个具有活跃讨论的在线小组后，我公开邀请成员自愿参与研究，并声明我的乔治城大学身份以及乔治城美洲研究所（GAI）的资助。一些参与者将我引荐给了不属于两个在线小组的联系人，从而形成了一种滚雪球式的过程。目标是进行20至30次开放式访谈，每次访谈持续25至30分钟，通过Zoom进行。使用在线视频会议平台有两个目标：（1）为访谈者和受访者提供更大的灵活性；（2）在受访者同意的情况下，临时记录访谈。关于第二个目标，我的意图是制作访谈的逐字记录，这需要录音。根据双方同意，在制作每份转录文本后，我删除了相应的音频文件，并将转录文本提交给受访者审阅。这一做法的合理性有二：（1）允许参与者审查他们的证词，并在必要时进行排除，考虑到一些参与者可能分享个人信息；（2）确保参与者对他们的证词有充分的控制权，并能够对其内容进行修改。