Afranio Marciliano de Freitas Azevedo: narrativas de vida, de profissão e de política

Abstract

This thesis presents a research developed around the life history of Afranio Azevedo, highlighting some phases, especially that of him as secretary of education. The subject matter focused on the life of a plastic surgeon renowned for his medical practice, a staunch political activist but unknown in the politics of Uberlândia, MG, his hometown and where he became interested in the department of education, ahead of which he remained for sixteen years. From this argument, questions were derived on social and political circumstances in which Afranio Azevedo became secretary of Education, on public agents, and on influential arrangements in the choice of his name, on interests and motivations, on intellectual and educational attributes sustaininh his performance as secretary. The research aimed to broaden the understanding of relationships between life, family, and politics, especially the logic and political influence of the Freitas Azevedo family, in view of advances and setbacks in the department of Education actions. The research was developed in the research line “history and historiography of education” and combines document souces with empirical ones, new cultural history with oral history. Sources included newspapers, iconography, statutes, and oral accounts, among others. Results confirm the position of Afranio Azevedo held as a physician with a fall for the intellectual work ones presumes in the education area management. Politics and education were present in the daily life of Afranio Azevedo. Such dual interest relates to his family — to his father: a man borne in Minas Gerais state and a communist party politician strong enough to be become congressman in another state; above all, a man selfassured of the school and family role in the education of sons and daughters. After living more than twenty years in Rio de Janeiro, Afranio Azevedo he returned to Uberlândia in 1988. He got involver with local politics, so as to take the poiution do secretary of Education, even though he had no pedagogic and no teaching training as well no necessary political bonds with the newly elected political group. The indication of his name was due to his brother, Chico Humberto, condution as Uberlândia’s vice mayor.