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An Eater of Cangulo. By an odd quirk of politics, the man who succeeded Vargas had spent most of his political life opposing him. Getulio Dornelles Vargas was the son of a cattle-rich general from Rio Grande do Sul. Joao Fernandes de Campos Cafe Filho was the son of a low-rung civil servant in the state of Rio Grande de Norte's finance department. In those days an imaginary social-economic boundary divided the state capital of Natal (turn-of-the-century pop. 16,000) into two distinct dietary sections. On the lower ground, near the sea, lived the cangulei-ros, the poorer people who ate a cheap fish called the cangulo; on the higher ground lived the more prosperous xarias', who could afford to eat a more succulent fish called the xareu. The part-Indian Cafes were canguleiros.
Early in life, Joao Café Filho was exposed to influences that were to set him apart from most of his countrymen. Brazil is a Roman Catholic nation, but Joao's parents were devout members of the flock of the Rev. William Porter, a Presbyterian missionary from the U.S. Cafe Filho was baptized in a Presbyterian chapel,* learned to read and write in the free elementary school maintained by Porter and his wife. Joao's first teachers were Henrietta and Evangeline Green, daughters of the U.S. vice consul in Natal.
At the Porter school, Joao shared a bench with three other Natal boys. One of them is now a federal Senator, another the president of an insurance company, the third, Manuel Leopoldino, is a streetcar motorman in Rio. A fortnight ago, Leopoldino, wearing his navy blue motor-man's uniform, went to visit the President at Catete Palace. Cafe Filho recognized him at once, embraced him warmly. "Can I help you in any way, Manuel?" he asked. "No thanks, Joao," said the motorman. "I just wanted to see you. I like my job. It's steady work. Another five years and I'll retire with a pension." Mused Cafe Filho after Leopoldino departed: "Of the four of us boys, Manuel is the happiest. He has a steady job and no worries. I do not have a steady job, and I have plenty of worries. Maybe after my term is up, I'll apply for a job as a streetcar motorman. After steering the car of state, I should find it easy to drive a streetcar."
Go North, Young Man. At 13, Joao finished up at the Porter school, went on to Natal's public high school. Recalls one of his old teachers: "He was a restless, unruly, rebellious boy with a strong dislike for study. I never dreamed he would amount to anything." Restless Joao never finished high school.
While still in his teens, Café Filho began contributing angry, something-must-be-done articles on the plight of the poor to local newspapers. At 22 he started a shoestring paper of his own, O Jornál do Norte. Other papers in northeast Brazil were soon reprinting his fire-eating denunciations of corruption. One day a Natal politician whom he had brickbatted came in and laid a large banknote on his desk; Cafe Filho scornfully touched a match to the bill, used it to light a cigarette. At 27 Café Filho ran for the federal Chamber of Deputies. He got a majority, but his opponent contested the election, and the Chamber cynically threw out Café Filho's claim. Advised an elderly Deputy: "Go back home, young man; Rio is no place for you."