EAlthough he is often associated with the figure of a smiling, modern man, the public image of former president Juscelino Kubitschek goes far beyond this image. “Juscelino’s image is multifaceted and was built at the same time he governed. It was not ready before his inauguration and was not completed with his departure from power”, maintains historian Maria Leandra Bizello, who has just defended her doctoral thesis on the subject at the Department of Multimedia at the Institute of Arts (IA) at Unicamp. . Guided by Professor Marcius Freire, the researcher analyzed around 400 photographs and 20 advertising films produced between 1956 and 1961, the period in which JK held the Presidency of the Republic.

Image was built to throughout the government, completes thesis

The sources consulted by Leandra were the illustrated magazines Manchete and O Cruzeiro, as well as newsreels produced by the Companhia Administradora de Brasília (Novacap) and institutional films made by the production company Jean Manzon Films. The challenge that the researcher set herself was to understand how JK's public image was constructed. To do this, she worked on some themes, starting with the crisis. The historian states that although official historiography records that JK's government was marked by stability, this information is not the most accurate. “Juscelino’s own arrival to power was accompanied by an institutional and military crisis. At the time, some sectors even discussed whether or not he should take office, which was only possible thanks to the guarantees given by General Lot [Henrique Teixeira, then Minister of War]”, she recalls.

Thus, the first year of JK's government was permeated by negotiations, agreements and compromises. This aspect, according to the author of the thesis, clearly appears in the photographs published in weekly magazines. In them, the then president is shown in meetings with both his supporters and opposition representatives. One of the main topics of the conversations was the National Development Plan, also called the Target Plan. “In these photographs, the smiling man gives way to the pragmatic man”, highlights Leandra. JK, continues the researcher, regularly frequented the political sections and photo reports of both publications. It is from there that his figure gains national prominence.

A second aspect studied by Leandra in relation to the construction of Juscelino's image was the construction of Brasília. In the photos and films analyzed by her, the president appears as a visionary, accomplished and modern man. These attributes are reinforced by snapshots that show Juscelino visiting construction sites, disembarking from planes and helicopters and talking on the phone. “As the construction of Brasília was not the subject of consensus and the government structure no longer had the DIP [Department of Press and Propaganda], the president used Novacap's newsreels to try to convince the population of the viability and importance of the new project. Capital”, explains the historian. In this aspect, considers the author of the thesis, JK's image is confused with that of the hero who calls on the population to live an adventure with him.

On his constant visits to Brasília, the president made a point of taking with him prominent figures from various sectors, notably politics. Among them were North American President Dwight Eisenhower and the then Cuban president Fidel Castro. Regarding the latter, JK said that he was the leader who knew how to defend Latin America. At the same time as they served to show the figure of a modern and accomplished public man, the images of the time were also intended to divert the focus from the crisis generated by the construction of the new Capital. “As the illustrated magazines were clearly in favor of the project, this aspect was heavily explored on their covers, but always gained a positive tone”, reports Leandra.

In the process of building JK's image, continues the author of the thesis, a clear separation was established between the president's public and private lives. However, the second was often used to reinforce the first. Thus, on some occasions Juscelino appeared alongside his wife and daughters. “This helped to humanize the figure of the statesman”, says Leandra. The image that was being tried to spread was that of a serious and morally adequate man to the standards of the time. “Although many people commented that JK had affairs outside of marriage, this subject was never covered by the press. On the contrary, the magazines made a point of covering social events such as baptisms and weddings, which I call power rituals, in which Juscelino appeared with his family. In these articles, he was revealed as the ideal husband and father.”

Regarding this type of press coverage, Leandra remembers that although the images published by the magazines were not official, they were permitted. Several times, JK himself negotiates agendas and photos with the media. “He even had a group of intellectuals who wrote his speeches, but he didn’t exactly have a press office. The government’s relationship with the media was not mediated by censorship, which had been abolished, but by a subtle process of persuasion,” she states. Still on the relationship with the press, Leandra highlights the reports that showed Juscelino's daily life outside the Presidency. In 1956, for example, O Cruzeiro published an article classifying him as the “bull-footed president”.

For a week, reporters followed Juscelino's routine outside the Catete Palace. In the article, the politician was shown shaving, putting on socks, checking in with assistants and visiting the tailor. In one of the photographs, JK allowed himself to be “caught” sitting on the bed, taking a moment to rest. At no time during his term, however, did the magazines analyzed touch on more thorny or controversial issues, such as the beginning of a heart attack that affected the president or even the accusations of corruption that weighed against his government.

Another interesting conclusion offered by the historian's thesis concerns the relationship that the president maintained with the people. In the researcher's words, he was a popular politician, but not a populist. “JK wasn’t very fond of the crowd, as they say nowadays. In the images I analyzed, it does not appear in the middle of the mass, but alongside or close to it. There is only a hint of this supposed intimacy.” At the end of his term, Juscelino's image is more associated with that of a tired man. After the 1964 coup, the now former president went into exile in Europe. Upon returning to Brazil, in the midst of the military regime, he appears sad and dejected. One of his main regrets is that he was prevented from visiting Brasília, his main work. JK died on August 22, 1976, victim of a car accident on Via Dutra, near Resende (RJ).

For Leandra, the figure of the smiling and accomplished JK who survived time is, in reality, a recovered image, which has even served as inspiration for several politicians who followed him. “But it doesn’t exist alone during that period,” she warns. However, adds the researcher, the spectacle of politics requires, in cases of this type, a positive image. “In this aspect, JK can be considered a genius negotiator, since he managed to work very well on his image as a public man even without having a large advertising and press structure behind him”, she analyzes.