The gala presentations of the Brazilian team, which won the tri, in Mexico, enchanted even the most politicized
The dictatorship established in Brazil in April 1964 appealed to marketing phrases, such as: “Brazil, love it or leave it” e “Nobody holds this country”. A song from the time was I love you, my Brazilby the duo Dom & Ravel: “I love you, my Brazil, I love you/My heart is green, yellow, white, indigo/I love you, my Brazil, I love you/ Nobody holds back Brazil’s youth”.The music Forward Brazil, by Miguel Gustavo, became the national team’s anthem: “Ninety million in action/Forward Brazil, from my heart/All together we go, forward Brazil/Save the team!!!
The president in 1970, General Emílio Garrastazu Médici, is associated with the most fierce period of the dictatorship. AI-5, which had been in force since December 13, 1968, restricted freedoms, authorized the government to revoke mandates, ended the you have a body and gagged the newspapers with censorship. These were the “years of lead”, a period in which torture was most practiced against opponents of the regime.
This context caused fans more linked to politics to adopt a stance against the team that would compete in the World Cup in Mexico. The dictatorship would take advantage of winning the third championship to promote itself and the population would be used as a maneuvering force, which in fact happened.
Em The Quibbleran alternative weekly contesting the regime, cartoonist Henfil analyzed: “The ultimate in critical radicalism was to support the team, as a way of protesting against the repressive scheme that the government had implemented. (…) In general, the scruples of critical consciousness were short-lived. Upon the Canarian team’s first successful attack, everyone became fanatical fans.This is what we saw: during the World Cup, with the exceptional football presented by the team, many who had decided to support against it, changed their stance and became convinced that football was one thing and the dictatorship was quite another.
At the time, the government tried to associate President Médici’s image with football. It was common for photos of him to be published in stadium stands with a radio device glued to his ear. During the World Cup, official propaganda distributed to the press images of the president of the head of state watching the team’s games on TV wrapped in the national flag.
A “blank plate” report from the magazine Headlinepublished in the commemorative edition of the third championship, had the following title: “General Staff”. It was an allusion to the military personnel who were part of the team’s technical committee: “The tri wasn’t just won on the field. In Mexico, Brazil had another team, which played behind the scenes. In this sense, the team’s management was perfect. The commander was a brigadier, Jerônimo Bastos. A stocky man from Ceará, military bearing, very sharp eyes and a man of fine manners. He did not call himself Brigadier of Victory, as he could have, after the triumph. In fact, he made his mission as impersonal as possible. He fulfilled it as a Brazilian, a person of trust for the President of the Republic.”
They said that the military had three projects: the Transamazônica, the Rio-Niterói Bridge and the third world football championship. After the victory, the champions were received in Brasília by President Médici. In São Paulo, Mayor Paulo Maluf gave a Beetle car to each athlete.
Two films portray well the period of the dictatorship and the conquest of the third world football championship: Forward, Brazilfrom 1982, directed by Roberto Farias, and The year my parents went on vacationfrom 2006, directed by Cao Hamburger.
*This text does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Jovem Pan.
