The One-Hundred Greatest Brazilians

[Ombak]

A discussion on rec.sport.soccer has led some to ask if any Brazilian media outlet has produced a list of the 100 Greatest Brazilians - many other countries have had recent TV or other media rankings of their 100 Greatest. I couldn't find one for Brazil.

So, of course, the next question is... who would yours be? Top 10 at least - most important, influential Brazilian figures in the history of our nation.

I came up with this quick list:

Pelé
D. Pedro II
Machado de Assis
Getúlio Vargas
Carlos Drummond de Andrade
Oscar Niemeyer
Barbosa Lima Sobrinho (who I had the honor of meeting persoally - his son was a neighbor of ours and I stayed in his home only 6 months before he passed away)
Caetano Veloso
Villa-Lobos
Nelson Rodrigues

[ThrashBoy]

Oscar Niemeyer

Good call.

When I went to Santos in 2003, I was taken to the monument in Sao Vicente that Niemeyer designed to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Brasil.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v259/ThrashBoy/8716.jpg

For those who don't know about this, it points directly to Brasilia (the capital).

[girco]

May I add Ayrton Senna and Tom Jobim?

[Ombak]

May I add Ayrton Senna and Tom Jobim?To the top 10? Who would you replace?

Top 100 I definitely agree.

[El Guero Naco]

If not the top 10, definitely in the top 100:

Carmen Miranda

[neovox]

Great idea! Well, I will add just a few names. Maybe we should explain why these men and women were so important in our History.

Alberto Santos Dumont - Aleijadinho - Anita Garibaldi

Anita Malfatti - Assis Chateaubriand -

Barão de Mauá - Barão do Rio Branco

Carlos Chagas - Carlos Gomes

Dom Pedro I (without him it would be impossible to elaborate a list)

Guimarães Rosa - Joaquim Nabuco - Juscelino Kubitschek

Monteiro Lobato - Osvaldo Cruz

Princesa Isabel - Tiradentes - Vital Brazil

................

On a side note, a few days ago I was thinking about a list of the 100 Greatest Brazilian Football Players.

[Ombak]

Great idea! Well, I will add just a few names. Maybe we should explain why these men and women were so important in our History.

Alberto Santos Dumont - Aleijadinho - Anita Garibaldi

Anita Malfatti - Assis Chateaubriand - Ayrton Senna

Barão de Mauá - Barão do Rio Branco

Carlos Chagas - Carlos Gomes

Dom Pedro I (without him it would be impossible to elaborate a list)

Dom Pedro II

Getúlio Vargas - Guimarães Rosa - Joaquim Nabuco

Machado de Assis - Monteiro Lobato - Osvaldo Cruz

Pelé - Princesa Isabel - Tiradentes - Villa-Lobos - Vital Brazil

................

On a side note, a few days ago I was thinking about a list of the 100 Greatest Brazilian Football Players.On the other list (rec.sport.soccer) we also mentioned:

Rui Barbosa
Roberto Marinho
Chico Anysio
Grande Otelo
Fernanda Montenegro
Graciliano Ramos
Chico Buarque

Others that would have to be considered (who we hadn't discussed yet):

Candido Mendes,
Ulysses Guimaraes
Vinicius de Moraes
Cartola

People who could possibly make the list:

Betinho
FHC
Other Presidents - Washington Luis?
Paulo Coelho (not my list - but others might put him top 100)

Can we make Charles Miller an honorary Brazilian for purposes of this list? I mean, he was influential!!!

[neovox]

On the other list (rec.sport.soccer) we also mentioned:

Rui Barbosa
Roberto Marinho
Chico Anysio
Grande Otelo
Fernanda Montenegro
Graciliano Ramos

Great! A lot of names will pop up. We should add the fathers of the Republic, Marechal Deodoro da Fonseca and Marechal Floriano Peixoto. And also one of the fathers of samba, Noel Rosa.

[Ombak]

Great! A lot of names will pop up. We should add the fathers of the Republic, Marechal Deodoro da Fonseca and Marechal Floriano Peixoto.I was just reviewing and was going to add their names, but all my lists keep getting filled with artists first... and then I forget some of the big political names I was considering; shows a little bit of my bias on my part. PS _ I edited that post above to add even more names I was thinking of.

[neovox]

I was just reviewing and was going to add their names, but all my lists keep getting filled with artists first... and then I forget some of the big political names I was considering; shows a little bit of my bias on my part. PS _ I edited that post above to add even more names I was thinking of.

Artists are a problem for me too. ;) But I definetelly like big political names. Washington Luís was the last president of the Old Republic, the coffee & milk agreement, so he deserves recognition. But we must remember that he also had a few issues with his Treasure Secretary, Getúlio Vargas, who succeeded him in a coup d'etat after fraud elections conducted by Washington Luís himself.

I have restrictions to Paulo Coelho's work, but he's also there - as well as Ulysses Guimarães and, if I may add, Tancredo Neves.

[Ombak]

Artists are a problem for me too. ;) But I definetelly like big political names. Washington Luís was the last president of the Old Republic, the coffee & milk agreement, so he deserves recognition. But we must remember that he also had a few issues with his Treasure Secretary, Getúlio Vargas, who succeeded him in a coup d'etat after fraud elections conducted by Washington Luís himself.

I have restrictions to Paulo Coelho's work, but he's also there - as well as Ulysses Guimarães and, if I may add, Tancredo Neves.Like I said, I wouldn't consider Paulo Coelho in my top 100. But don't forget he also wrote music with Raul Seixas, so it's not just his novels he has a part in.

As for Washington Luis, as you said, last President of the Old Republic (where's MIGKiller to make a Star Wars reference?), he also started significant roads projects (Rio-Petropolis, Rio-Sao Paulo), unfortunately for him the great depression hit in 1929 and the Brazilian economy suffered a lot.

Tancredo Neves definitely gets consideration from me.

How about some other names in the "should they make a top 100?" category. Not definites, but to be considered?

Carlos Lacerda
Joao Saldanha
any of the Presidents from 1964-1985?
a columnist like Armando Nogueira?
a unionist-cum President like Lula?

Maybe we should come up with a short-list of 300 or more and then work on shortening it here?

[ThrashBoy]

How popular is Oscar Schmidt?

Sorry, but I'm not too knowledgable on Brazilian history, so I'll probably stay out of this thread.

[vbspurs]

I came up with this quick list:

Pelé
D. Pedro II
Machado de Assis
Getúlio Vargas
Carlos Drummond de Andrade
Oscar Niemeyer
Barbosa Lima Sobrinho (who I had the honor of meeting persoally - his son was a neighbor of ours and I stayed in his home only 6 months before he passed away)
Caetano Veloso
Villa-Lobos
Nelson Rodrigues
Oi, tudo bom, Ombak? ;)

I'm here, as promised, to place my personal Top All-Time Brazilians in list form below.

I've made two minor alterations to my original rec.sport.soccer list, and in fact, expanded the Top 10 to the Top 15.

I noticed that after the first 15, the waters became muddier with "povão" choices -- as sadly, I would have to consider Caetano, Senna, et. al.

In fact, I was so inspired by this anal-retentive list thingie, that I went ahead and made it my BLOG topic of the day.

http://futuremd.blogspot.com/2005/07/top-15-brazilians-of-all-time.html

(I give my reasons just below my choices, here reproduced for your reading and sniggering pleasure)

TOP 15 BRAZILIANS OF ALL TIME

1- Edson Arantes do Nascimento dit Pelé
2- Dom Pedro II
3- Getúlio Vargas
4- Carlos Drummond de Andrade
5- Machado de Assis
6- Rui Barbosa
7- Heitor Villa-Lobos
8- Oscar Niemeyer
9- Carmen Miranda
10- Dr. Carlos Chagas
11- Visconde de Mauá
12- Juscelino Kubitschek
13- Antonio Carlos Jobim dit Tom Jobim
14- Alberto Santos-Dumont
15- Candido Portinari

This list is meant primarily for native Brazilians, or for Brazilianists with more than a cursory knowledge of Brazilian history.

Ooh, aah, get her.

Cheers,
Victoria

[trmbrasil]

Great thread and I would say that Jorge Amado (much more than Paulo Coelho) is easily worthy of top 100 consideration, if not in the upper echelon of the group. Then again, I am biased toward things from Bahia.

tm

[MIGkiller]

What's up trmbrasil, long time eh?

Are you on the US now? I bet you miss the time when you rioted with other Bahia fans against Vitória supporters.

On topic, I think Marechal Cândido Rondon should be on the list. With deep native roots, he's one of the first Brazilians to explore the wilderness of the Brazilian Amazon.

[trmbrasil]

Hey Mig -

I am back in graduate school in the US, so have had less time to hang out on BS, but have been keeping up with noticias do Brasil when I can. As for missing Ba-Vi games....it is probably better that I don't have to witness the complete unravelling of my club up close. Though I'm far away, I have sent some money and ideas to people who are trying to change the administrative structure of the EC Bahia....
http://www.bahialivre.com.br/bahialivre/asp/default.asp
...but that is another thread


Gilberto Gil for top 100, or too much in Caetano's shadow (i.e. not as political as Caetano) in the tropicalia movement?

[Cool Rob]

Not to get too political, but I think the Councellor, Antonio Conselhiro should be in the top 10.

The whole Canudos situation in 1893-97 exemplifies the most important issues in Brazil- from the soldiers returning home from Monte Favella to the landless movement.

[DutchCane]

I apologize in advance for the threadjack, but I will be traveling to Brasil in January either to Rio or Sao Paolo to work in the fashion week. Which city would you recommend, and how much will NOT speaking Portugese hamper my stay?

Thanks in advance.

[Ombak]

I apologize in advance for the threadjack, but I will be traveling to Brasil in January either to Rio or Sao Paolo to work in the fashion week. Which city would you recommend, and how much will NOT speaking Portugese hamper my stay?

Thanks in advance.Just start a new thread or find one with some similar questions.

MODS, please split this thread!

As for your question: it's no contest. Rio over S~ao Paulo. Anyone who tells you otherwise is mental. Now, if you need to do some work during fashion week and have to attend events in Sao Paulo, I'm sure it will be plenty of fun.

Not speaking Portuguese should not hamper your stay much if at all, but learn some phrases, it will make it more fun and make people warm up to you quicker.

Seriously man, without any context beyond "which one, Rio or Sao Paulo" you should get 100% of the answers as: Rio de Janeiro.

[joga10]

Ronaldinho