400 Vasconcelos, José Vargas was born in 1883 in rural Rio Grande Sul to a wealthy cattle ranching family As a young man he served briefly in the army before entering law school, where he distinguished himself as a student politician He entered politics in 1909 and was elected to the state legislature By 1922 he was a state representative in the Brazilian congress in Rio de Janeiro By 1926 he found himself appointed finance minister of Brazil, and just two years later he became state governor of Rio Grande Sul Vargas became president of Brazil in 1930 as a result of a revolution that ousted President Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa in hopes of a new government devoted to national progress and social reform Vargas took office just one month after the revolution began He set about a program of national reconstruction based upon a centralized government He dissolved the national congress and state and city legislatures and suspended the federalist constitution of 1891 He replaced state governors with his own officials, called interventores, who reported directly to him The centralized power of the Vargas government did not go unchallenged In 1932 a constitutionalist revolt erupted in the coffee growing state of São Paulo The rebellion ended after three months as São Paulo found itself isolated in its attempts to overthrow Vargas Despite a new constitution, the Vargas administration steadily moved toward authoritarianism As the presidential elections of 1938 grew closer, Vargas was not ready to give up power He consequently overthrew his own government on November 10, 1937, initiating the Estado Novo, or New State, dictatorship This new period of Vargas’s tenure as leader of Brazil did not translate into radical change, but rather denoted a culmination of the centralizing tendencies Vargas had demonstrated since 1930 The Estado Novo was a repressive dictatorship, and politicians, intellectuals, and leftists who challenged Vargas’s power were harassed, detained, tortured, and exiled Vargas centralized not only the government but also education, labor, and the Brazilian economy He felt that national progress could only be accomplished through the industrial modernization of Brazil To achieve this goal, his administration implemented new education programs aimed at reforming secondary education and establishing vocational schools to train an industrial workforce Vargas launched new labor policies that consolidated unions under state control, allowing only one union per category of workers Vargas instituted minimum wage laws, pension plans, safety regulations, maternity leave, childcare, paid vacations, training programs, and job security Vargas’s labor ini- tiatives resulted in enormous popular support for his presidency During World War II Vargas linked his country to the Allies, allowing Brazil to profit from exports to the United States Vargas also suspended the country’s payments on foreign debts in order to carry out public investments With the defeat of authoritarian governments in Europe after World War II, growing pressure against the Vargas dictatorship emerged among citizens ranging from high-ranking army generals to student protesters Vargas eventually bent to this pressure, and elections were held on May 6, 1946 He did not run as a candidate But Vargas would once again be president of Brazil, elected democratically in 1950 due to his broad base of popular support However, inflation, labor strikes, dissent in the military, and other problems made it difficult for Vargas to fulfill his campaign promises, especially in regard to labor programs As political opposition grew and the threat of a military overthrow loomed, Vargas committed suicide in the presidential palace on August 24, 1954, by shooting himself in the heart In a suicide letter left to the Brazilian people, he identified himself as a servant of the masses and lashed out at those who drove him to despair See also Latin Americam populism Further reading: Fausto, Boris A Concise History of Brazil Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999; Levine, Robert M., and John J Crocitti, eds The Brazil Reader: History, Culture, Politics Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999; Schneider, Ronald M Order and Progress: A Political History of Brazil Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1991 Kathleen Legg Vasconcelos, José (1882–1959) Mexican politician and writer José Vasconcelos was born on February 28, 1882, in Oaxaca, in the south of Mexico His family later moved to the far north of Mexico For his education Vasconcelos attended primary school at Eagle Pass, Texas, crossing the U.S.-Mexican border each day After the U.S invasion of Cuba in 1906–09, the Vasconcelos family feared a similar invasion of Mexico, and they moved to Campeche in eastern Mexico Vasconcelos became worried about the seeming permanence of the Porfirio Díaz presidency He ended up studying law, graduating in 1907, and in 1909 going to work for the Anti-Reelectionist Movement Vasconcelos became the