The Flip Side of Rio's Modernity: Tenório Cavalcanti, the Baixada Fluminense, and the Thirty-Eighth Parallel

This paper examines the formation of political, social, and racial boundaries between 1945 and 1964 in the Baixada Fluminense, the predominantly working-class region north of Rio de Janeiro.  Focusing on the life and career of Tenório Cavalcanti, the machine-gun toting congressman better known as the “Man in the Black Cape,” I examine the unintended consequences of Rio's modernization and beautification projects in the Baixada, including spiraling urbanization, the radicalization of residents, and environmental degradation. I also analyze the efforts—and ultimate failures—of Rio's affluent classes to isolate and exclude the urban masses by keeping them, literally and figuratively, on the other side of the Thirty-Eighth Parallel, the Korean War-derived nickname for the border between the Baixada and Rio proper. Tenório, through his outrageousness and highly-publicized shootouts with political opponents, drew massive press coverage and, as a result, became the de facto face of the region. Tenório’s cultivated image of masculinity and his Northeastern origin (for which he was seen as something less-than-white) combined to create a figure that, whether reviled or revered, made for hot copy.  In spite of his fame, he still had to contend with the changing needs of his electorate, which slowly moved to the political left. Workers of the region’s various industries began to organize and demand even greater concessions and benefits from their employers and government, causing Tenório to eventually leave his conservative party (the UDN) and shift his political focus to the left.  Hence, I also argue that local-level shifts such as the one experienced in the Baixada Fluminense affected the course of national politics.  In this way, my work challenges the notion that urban populism functioned simply as a top-down phenomenon.