In order to celebrate the 50 year anniversary of Brasília, on April 21, IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) releases the book " Veredas de Brasília: as expedições geográficas em busca de um sonho” (“Brasília Swampy Plains: geographic expeditions in search of a dream”), in which the institution revisits its participation in the construction of the new capital of Brazil. The institute took part in the geographic expeditions conducted to choose the area where the city would be created and in the elaboration of the first official map of Brasília.  

Being organized by Professor Nelson Senra and published by IBGE’s Center for Information Documentation and Dissemination (CDDI), the publication is divided into two sections: 1) the location of the capital, with texts about the three commissions which, little by little, got to select the best place for the construction of Brasília; 2) the beginning of the capital, which approaches the activities developed by IBGE at the time.

Besides, the publication brings an annex with four other texts, two of which were written by the founder of IBGE, Mario Augusto Teixeira de Freitas, at the occasion of the new capital’s birth.

The book will be released today, April 19, at 1:30 PM, at the auditorium of CDDI (706, General Canabarro St, 706, Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro/ RJ). There will be round table conferences with the authors and the organizer of the publication. The event is open to the public and to the press.

After its release, “Veredas de Brasília: as expedições geográficas em busca de um sonho” will be available for sale at IBGE’s branches all over the country (http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/disseminacao/locaisdeatendimento/default.shtm) and at the institution’s virtual shop  (https://www.ibge.gov.br/lojavirtual/).

The idea of changing Brazil’s capital from Rio de Janeiro to the central are of the country appeared long before Brasília’s inauguration, dating back to the colonial period. Several proposals defended the creation of the city even before the Independence of Brazil and throughout the Empire Period. The new capital would fulfill strategic and demographic needs (being safe against invasions and contributing to the settlement of the country). The first concrete action aimed at the desired change took place in the beginning of the Republican Period, but little had been effectively done before 1946.

Since 1936, IBGE had defended the transferring of the capital, and as soon as the democratic Constitution of 1946 reassumed change as its main objective, the Institute got directly involved in the process. In 1947, it promoted two geographic expeditions (through the National Council of Geography), which was then one of its major organizations, providing scientific knowledge to the commission directed by General Polli Coelho. They were responsible for finding a location for the new capital. Between 1955 and 1956, IBGE participated in the commission directed by José Pessoa Cavalcanti de Albuquerque.

Once location was defined (the main purpose of missions), and after the construction of Brasília, IBGE conducted a Census in the future capital, in 1959, through which it revealed the population and types of housing existing at that time. The Institute was also responsible for the elaboration, in 1958, of the first map of the new capital, with the overall area and Plano Piloto (Pilot Plan), which was under the responsibility of the cartographer Clóvis de Magalhães. Besides, on the area of land close to the capital it received afterwards, the Institute created, in 1961, a center for environmental studies about the biogeography of the savannah.

So, there were favorable conditions for the construction of the new capital when President Juscelino Kubitschek decided to see to the change. More than location itself, there were other essential data available. Telling this story is the main purpose of the authors of “Veredas de Brasília: as expedições geográficas em busca de um sonho”.

In the opening text, “Brasília: a capital no sertão” (“Brasília: a capital in semi-arid hinterland” ), which presents the topic of change, Nísia Trindade Lima searches for the origin of the need for change, and presents the main conclusions of commissions which repeatedly worked on the capital’s location. The following article, “A Comissão Cruls e o projeto de mudança da Capital Federal na Primeira República”, Moema de Rezende Vergara analyzes the working processes and the main results of the commission ruled by Luiz (Louis) Cruls, in the beginning of the Republican period. In its two expeditions (between 1892 and 1895), the commission chose and ideal spot which, throughout the years, became known as “Quadrilátero Cruls” (“Cruls Four-Sided Polygon’) and had some effect on the work of following commissions.

In the text “Na boca do sertão ou integrada ao ecúmeno? Militares, estatísticos, geógrafos, militares e a localização da nova capital” (“In the mouth of semi-arid hinterland or integrated to inhabited land? Military corps, statisticians, geographers and the new location of the capital”), Sergio Nunes Pereira analyzes the following commission, directed by General Djalma Polli Coelho (1946 to 1948). The author evaluates geographic expeditions conducted through the National Council of Geography (CNG, which was then part of IBGE), reporting the Institute’s activities performed by statisticians, geographers, and in conversation with military corps. In the end of this section, “Brasília, codinome Vera Cruz: a comissão engenheira que fundou as bases da construção da nova capital” (“Brasília, code name Vera Cruz: the engineer commission which created the basis for the construction of the new capital”), Luiz Henrique G. Castiglione analyzes the last finding commission, first ruled by Aguinaldo Caiado de Castro and, from a certain moment until the end, by José Pessoa Cavalcanti de Albuquerque.

In the second part of the book, two instances of activities performed by IBGE are highlighted. In the text “Em 1959, o censo experimental na alvorada de Brasília” (“In  1959, the experimental census in the awakening of Brasília”, Luiz Antônio Pinto de Oliveira presents population and housing statistics at the end of construction. The text presents a portrait of the working population who built the capital and tries to show the effects of Brasília in the regional dynamics of Goiás, as well as its influence on the growth inland and towards the West and the North of the country. Cenuses showed a fast evolution in the Federal District, more than that expected for 2000; the estimate was 600 thousand inhabitants. However, the total figure reached 2.7 million, which had only been expected for 2010.

In “Geografia de esperança: a Reserva Ecológica do IBGE e a nova capital” (“The geography of hope: IBGE Ecological Reserve and the new capital”, Mauro Lambert Ribeiro deals with the ceasing to IBGE, in 1961, of the Roncador glebe, an area which became the institute’s ecological reserve and where studies of the savannah, its fauna and flora are conducted.

Besides the aforementioned texts, the publication has three reports: “Uma candanga antes dos candangos: vivências de uma expedição geográfica”(“A candanga¹ before candangos: experiences of a geographic expedition”), by Cybelle de Ipanema, who was in the geographic expedition of 1947, ruled by Francis Ruellan; “As expedições geográficas do IBGE” (IBGE’s geographic expeditions”), by Pedro P. Geiger, an experienced expedition participant, who presents the topic theoretically; and “Um candango ibgeano” (“A candango from IBGE”), by Walker Roberto Moura, IBGE technician who, in 1958, at 11 years of age, migrated from Minas Gerais to the capital, because his father had been sent to work in the construction of Brasília.

Finally, there are seven profiles of prominent persons selected from the commissions, written by Marco Aurélio Martins Santos: Luiz (Louis) Cruls, General Djalma Polli Coelho, Francis Ruellan, Fábio de Macedo Soares Guimarães, Leo Heinrich Waibel, Marshall Aguinaldo Caiado de Castro and Marshall José Pessoa Cavalcanti de Albuquerque. 

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¹ Candango, candanga – nickname given to the workpeople who built the city of Brasília