What was the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932?

Why São Paulo rose

São Paulo, Brazil’s richest state, had shared control of the country with Minas Gerais for decades. The Revolution of 1930 ended that (What was the Brazilian Revolution of 1930?). Vargas closed Congress, governed by decree and sent interventores, federal appointees, to run the states. São Paulo got a lieutenant from Pernambuco, in the Northeast. Its leaders saw a dictatorship with no end date. The government’s answer was that it was already keeping its word: by 1932 Vargas had appointed a paulista to run the state, signed a new Electoral Code and set elections. São Paulo did not believe him.

Four names, one acronym

On the night of May 23, 1932, a crowd marching against the government tried to storm the headquarters of a pro-Vargas party near the Praça da República in the city of São Paulo. Shots came from inside the building. Four young men died; the youngest was 14. The next day their surnames, Martins, Miragaia, Dráusio and Camargo, gave their initials to the secret society that prepared the revolt: MMDC.

A state against the country

On July 9, São Paulo rose. Recruiting posters went up across the state and tens of thousands volunteered, among them students, factory workers and coffee planters. The plan counted on the political leaders of Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul, who had promised support. Both states sided with the government, and, as the historian Hernâni Donato shows, São Paulo found itself alone against far larger federal forces.

So the state improvised. Its factories turned out helmets, ammunition and armored trains. A campaign called Gold for the Good of São Paulo collected jewelry and wedding rings from families. A doctor, Carlota Pereira de Queirós, organized some 700 women to nurse the wounded. On Radio Record, the announcer César Ladeira read the war bulletins to the whole state. At the front, short of bullets, soldiers cranked wooden rattles that mimicked the sound of machine guns.

Who won?

The fighting lasted less than three months. Surrounded, São Paulo surrendered on October 2, 1932. Hundreds of fighters died on each side, and the rebel leaders were exiled to Portugal. On the battlefield, Vargas won. In politics the result was less one-sided: on May 3, 1933, Brazil elected a Constituent Assembly by secret ballot, with women voting nationwide for the first time, and a new constitution followed on July 16, 1934. It would not last four years, as What was the Estado Novo in Brazil? tells.

Where you still meet it

July 9 is São Paulo’s state holiday, its data magna, under a state law of 1997, and one of the city’s great avenues is called Avenida Nove de Julho. If you have ever wondered why São Paulo stops in the middle of July while the rest of Brazil works, this is the reason.