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Assis Chateaubriand

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For the Brazilian municipality, see Assis Chateaubriand, Paraná.

Assis Chateaubriand
Assis Chateaubriand in 1957
Ambassador of Brazil to the United Kingdom
In office
November 17, 1957 – January 26, 1960
Nominated byJuscelino Kubitschek
Preceded bySamuel Gracie
Succeeded byJosé Cochrane de Alencar
Senator for Maranhão
In office
June 1, 1955 – September 15, 1957
Preceded byAntônio Bayma
Succeeded byPúblio de Melo
Senator for Paraíba
In office
April 24, 1952 – February 3, 1955
Preceded byVergniaud Wanderley
Succeeded byArgemiro de Figueiredo
Personal details
BornOctober 4, 1892
Umbuzeiro, Paraíba, Brazil
DiedApril 4, 1968 (1968-04-05) (aged 75)
São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
SpouseMaria Henriqueta Barroso do Amaral
Domestic partnerCora Celina Acuña (1934–1942)
Children4
Parents
  • Francisco José Bandeira de Melo (father)
  • Maria Carmem Guedes Gondim (mother)
Alma materFaculty of Law of Recife
Occupation
  • businessman
  • journalist
  • lawyer
  • media mogul
  • patron of the arts
  • politician
  • university professor
  • writer

Francisco de Assis Chateaubriand Bandeira de Melo (pronounced [fɾɐ̃ˈsisku dʒi aˈsis ʃɐtobɾiˈɐ̃ bɐ̃ˈdejɾɐ dʒi ˈmɛlu]), also nicknamed Chatô (October 4, 1892 – April 4, 1968), was a Brazilian lawyer, journalist, politician and diplomat. Francisco was the founder and director of Brazil's main media outlet at the time: the Diários Associados, which at its height included 34 newspapers, 36 radio stations, 18 television stations, a news agency, a weekly magazine (O Cruzeiro), a monthly magazine (A Cigarra), along with many magazines for children. He was Senator of the Republic between 1952 and 1957.

He was one of the most influential public figures in Brazil during the 1940s and the 1950s, becoming notable as a journalist, an entrepreneur, a patron of the arts as well as a politician.[1][2] Chateaubriand was appointed Ambassador of Brazil to the United Kingdom, a position he held from 1957 to 1961.[3] He was also a lawyer, professor of law,[4] writer[5] and member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, occupying its 37th chair from 1954 until his death in 1968.[6]

Early life

Chateaubriand was born in Umbuzeiro, a state of Paraíba, in the Northeast of Brazil, on October 4, 1892, as the son of Francisco José Bandeira de Melo and his wife, Maria Carmem Guedes Gondim.

Chateaubriand married only once, to Maria Henriqueta Barroso do Amaral, daughter of an attorney named Judge Zózimo Barroso do Amaral, with whom he had Fernando, their first son.

Career

From a troublesome youth in the northeast of Brazil, Chateaubriand followed the trail of a self-made man into a well-off position in the Brazilian press.

Chateaubriand began as a journalist at the age of 15, working for the newspaper Gazeta do Norte.[7] He also wrote for Jornal Pequeno and Diário de Pernambuco. In 1917, having moved to Rio de Janeiro, he worked for Correio da Manhã. In this newspaper, he would publish his impressions about his trip to Europe in 1920.

In the state of Pernambuco, as a young lawyer, he rapidly grew to fame through a series of verbal clashes, or polemics, with political and literary figures. At this time, still in his twenties, he managed to become a Professor of Roman Law at the Law Faculty of Recife, after a hard-fought examination, being formally appointed for the post only after various clashes with the state's politicos, among them General Dantas Barreto and Dr. Manuel Borba. What finally settled the battle was a telegram from the president of the republic, Venceslau Brás, on December 8, 1915. His victory in attaining the position as professor further became a platform for his next goal which was to own a newspaper of his own by the age of thirty.

In 1924, Chatô became the director of O Jornal. In the following year, a newspaper from São Paulo was added to his press conglomerate: Diário da Noite. In 1929, Chateaubriand added another newspaper to Diários Associados: Estado de Minas.

After moving to Rio de Janeiro, Chateaubriand worked as a journalist and lawyer, and it was in the latter capacity that he made friends with influential people, among them the public utilities trust Light & Co's CEO Alexander McKenzie and the American mining magnate Percival Farquhar.[8]

Chateaubriand was a media mogul in Brazil between the late 1930s and the early 1960s and the owner of Diários Associados, a conglomerate that counted at its peak more than a hundred newspapers, radio and TV stations, magazines and a telegraphic agency. He is also known as the co-creator and founder, in 1947, of the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP),[9] together with Pietro Maria Bardi.

On September 25, 1935, Chateaubriand inaugurated Rádio Tupi (pt) in a ceremony attended by the inventor of radio Guglielmo Marconi, who, ten days earlier, had broadcast the first musical program with a 120-voice orchestra performing the Brazilian National Anthem and was conducted by conductor Villa-Lobos. In its beginning, the station was known as "Cacique do Ar", also being called by its prefix PRG-3 or, simply, G-3.

Chateaubriand also founded the first television network of Latin America and the fifth in the world (Tupi TV).[10] He was Senator of the Republic between 1952 and 1957.[11]

After becoming a press tycoon, his main tool for money making was the most extensive use of libel and blackmail, directed against magnates and authorities.[8] In the promotion of his pet projects, as in his campaign for the building of airports and training of pilots across Brazil, he would resort to any means whatsoever, having even ordered his subordinates to shoot a German businessman who refused to be blackmailed by him.[12] Later in life, he would refurbish his São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) with a whole collection of old European masters' works purchased at bargain prices in an impoverished post-WWII Europe, by using funds extorted through blackmail from various Brazilian businessmen.[12] Chateaubriand never made a great secret about his peculiar business strategies: "excellency in business means buying without money" he once allegedly said.[13]

He died on April 4, 1968, in São Paulo, after fighting the effects of a stroke for a number of years.

Historical influence

An often polemic and controversial figure, hated and feared, Chateaubriand has also been nicknamed "the Brazilian Citizen Kane".[14][15] He was also accused of unethical behavior, for allegedly blackmailing companies[16] that did not place ads in his media vehicles, and for insulting entrepreneurs with lies.[17] His empire would have been built based on political interests and agreements,[18] including tumultuous ties with Brazilian President Getúlio Vargas.[19]

On August 20, 1966, the journalist, already in very poor health due to a thrombosis, landed in the then city of Toledo in the interior of the state of Paraná. The village that until then was known as "Tupãssi" or "Campo dos Baianos" was elevated to the status of municipality, receiving the name of Assis Chateaubriand. A ceremony was held and since he could no longer speak, his speech was read by his friend and employee Lima Duarte who had accompanied him pushing his wheelchair. According to Rudy Alvarez, the first elected mayor of the municipality, future governor of the state of Paraná Ney Braga (then general chief of police of the state) intended to void all land titles in the municipality due to irregularities such as the seizure and resale of land by armed groups linked to the former governor, Moisés Lupion. David Nasser, a regional lobbyist and journalist employed by Assis Chateaubriand, worked to elevate the area to municipality status to ensure that property titles were made official while honoring his boss. In the late 1960s, the city had a population of 130,000 but as of 2019 the city is home to 33,362 people. [20]

Francisco de Assis Chateaubriand Bandeira de Melo's power over the Brazilian media during his height from the 1920s and well into the '60s can be compared to that of William Randolph Hearst in the USA. He was known for having strong ties to the current leaders within both politics and the economy. At the same time, he always lacked a clear ideological agenda – except for being a staunch partisan of the untrammeled Free Market and of consented submission to imperialist interests. At the end of his life – particularly after a stroke in 1960 that left him unable to speak, he used a wheelchair and communicated with others mostly by means of notes typed in a specially adapted typewriter.[21] His media empire quickly declined after his death.[22] In the new ambience of a modernized Brazil, he was quickly dislocated by Rede Globo.[23]

References

  1. ^ (in Portuguese) UOL Education (biographies) – Assis Chateaubriand
  2. ^ (in Portuguese) E-biografias.net – Francisco Chateaubriand
  3. ^ "Former Ambassadors". Archived from the original on November 16, 2011. Retrieved October 28, 2011.
  4. ^ (in Portuguese) Itaú Cultural – Enciclopédia – Assis Chateaubriand
  5. ^ Estante Virtual – list of books written by Chateaubriand
  6. ^ (in Portuguese) ABL – Biography for Assis Chateaubriand
  7. ^ "Assis Chateaubriand". basilio.fundaj.gov.br. Retrieved July 16, 2023.
  8. ^ a b Kucinski, "Chatô", 166
  9. ^ History of MASP (The Arts Museum of São Paulo)
  10. ^ (in Portuguese) Netsaber (biographies) – Assis Chateaubriand
  11. ^ (in Portuguese) Brazilian Senate History – Senator Assis Chateaubriand Archived August 22, 2004, at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ a b Kucinski, "Chatô", 166/167
  13. ^ Cf. Archived October 22, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ "Assis Chateaubriand and Sílvio Santos: legacies of national press" (PDF) (in Portuguese). Archived from the original (PDF) on April 20, 2011.  (438 KB) – LIMA, Ana Paula Pereira. Faculdade de Comunicação (Facom), UFJF (Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora), 2001. (see page 8)
  15. ^ (in Portuguese) Diários Associados (Memory) – Assis Chateaubriand (2008)
  16. ^ (in Portuguese) http://educacao.uol.com.br/biografias/ult1789u774.jhtm UOL Educação (op.cit.)
  17. ^ (in Portuguese) Dinheiro Online magazine – Jagunço da notícia: Assis Chateaubriand Archived October 22, 2007, at the Wayback Machine (The news jagunço: Assis Chateaubriand, Edition 122, December 29, 1999)
  18. ^ (in Portuguese) Universidade Federal de Campina Grande (UFCG) – biographies – Chateaubriand Archived July 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  19. ^ (in Portuguese) http://www.terra.com.br/dinheironaweb/122/assis_chateaubriand.htm Archived October 22, 2007, at the Wayback Machine Dinheiro magazine (op.cit.)
  20. ^ Cortez, Felipe Menezes. "Prefeitura Municipal Assis Chateaubriand". www.assischateaubriand.pr.gov.br (in Portuguese). Retrieved September 22, 2022.
  21. ^ "Revista Dinheiro ONLINE: Especial - da roda ao chip: Assis Chateaubriand". Archived from the original on October 22, 2007. Retrieved 2009-07-08.
  22. ^ Kucinski, "Chatô", 167
  23. ^ Kucinski, "Chatô", 167/168

Books

  • Morais, Fernando (1994). Chatô – O rei do Brasil (1st ed.). São Paulo: Editora Schwarcz LTDA (Cia. das Letras). ISBN 85-7164-396-2.
Preceded by
Brazilian Academy of Letters – Occupant of the 37th chair
1954–1968 		Succeeded by
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