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He is, in fact, as many-faceted as a diamond from Diamantina, the drowsy back-land town where he was born and raised. On the polished surface, no trace remains to recall the shy, shabby small-towner who at 18 took a third-class coach to the state capital to make his way in the world. Smooth, brisk and notably well-groomed, he suggests just what he used to be—a high-fee society doctor. Young for a Brazilian President, he looks even younger, with catlike grace and glowing vigor. His smile rivals French Actor Fernandel's in expanse. He loves society parties, especially if there is dancing. Tangos and slow foxtrots are his favorites, but he can samba with the lightest-footed—showing a distinct preference for pretty partners. At a ball a few years ago, the late President Getulio Vargas jokingly asked Kubitschek why he didn't ask some homely women to dance. "I do, Mr. President," he quipped, "but only during an election campaign."
Unglamorous Slogan. Quick-minded rather than reflective, Kubitschek seldom does any off-the-job reading heavier than historical novels. On the job, he prefers oral briefings to written reports. His favorite sedentary diversion is poker; a bold, unfathomable bluffer, he usually wins. He has no hobbies, no interest in sports. "When I was young, I was too poor," he explains. "Later I was too busy."
Perhaps his greatest gift is his awesome energy. No matter how late he stays up at night, he gets to his office at 7 a.m. As mayor of Belo Horizonte and later as governor of his home state of Minas Gerais, he undertook extensive public-works programs—and carried them out. "What I start, I finish," he says.
Kubitschek has no rigid political ideology. He can adapt his viewpoint to an audience or a situation as effortlessly as water conforms to the shape of a pitcher. He has been called, among other things, "leftist" and "conservative." Neither tag really fits, but conservative is probably the less inaccurate of the two. His presidential campaign slogan was unemotional and unglamorous; he promised, not a political reformation or social transformation, but "Power, Transportation and Food."
"My Mother's Son." In his exterior, Juscelino Kubitschek resembles his handsome father, João Oliveira, a gay, clever but improvident amateur poet, who died when Juscelino was two. Inside, he is far more like his prim, pious mother Júlia. Stern Widow Júlia reared the boy and his older sister Maria on a schoolteacher's salary. Harried and embittered by poverty, Júlia drilled into her son a fierce will to succeed. Now a hale-looking 83, she still calls him by his boyhood nickname, Nonô.
"In reality I am more my mother's son than my father's," Juscelino Kubitschek said recently. Blue-eyed Júlia, granddaughter of a German-speaking immigrant from what is now Czechoslovakia, continued to go by her maiden name after her marriage, and Juscelino grew up as Kubitschek rather than Oliveira. Now that he is famous, his countrymen rarely pronounce the name Kubitschek; he is simply "Juscelino," just as Vargas was always "Getulio."