- José Roberto Magalhães Teixeira
José Roberto Magalhães Teixeira was a
Brazil ianpolitician , twicemayor of the municipality ofCampinas , in the state of São Paulo.Born in
Andradas , state ofMinas Gerais , on18 June 1937 , he moved to Campinas in 1957, in order to studydentistry at the Pontifical Catholic University. He became widely known by his nickname, "Grama", because he had formerly lived in the city ofSão Sebastião da Grama .Simultaneously with his work as a dentist, Grama began his political career as candidate to councilman in 1968, running under the Movimento Democrático Brasileiro (MDB) opposition party. He was not elected, but he persisted and in 1976 he was elected a vice-mayor of Campinas. In 1982 he was elected mayor with 44,65% of valid votes. In 1988, he was considered the best mayor of Brazil by a poll carried out by the prestigious newspaper
Folha de São Paulo . Among his many endeavours, he was the first mayor to institute in Brazil a Guaranteed Minimum Income Grant program, in order to reduce social inequalities. In the same year, Grama helped to found thePSDB (Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira).After finishing his mandate as mayor, Dr. Magalhães Teixeira ran for a federal representative of the state of São Paulo in 1990 and was elected with the largest ballot of the history of Campinas, with 136.522 votes. His mandate was marked by his active participation in the process which culminated in the
impeachment of PresidentFernando Collor de Mello in 1992. In the same year, Magalhães Teixeira was elected again for mayor of Campinas, with a vote of 224.365 votes. In 1994, he was nominated as campaign coordinator in São Paulo which successfully elected PresidentFernando Henrique Cardoso .Affected by a hepatic
cancer , unfortunately he was unable to finish his second mandate, deceasing onFebruary 29 ,1996 . He was homaged by a massive popular manifestation in his interment and remains to this day one of the great political icons of Campinas. A cultural center in Campinas, an industrial technical school (SESI) inTaboão da Serra , and the Campinas Beltway (Anel Viário) are named after him.Bibliography
* Fabrini, G. and Lourenço, J.M. - "Grama - a Biografia de Magalhães Teixeira", July 2003.
* [http://www.unicamp.br/cmu/iconografia/_menu/_colecoes/mt.htm Video Iconography of José Roberto Magalhães Teixeira] . Centro de Memória,UNICAMP .External links
* [http://www.psdb-sp.org.br/historia/magalhaes.php Biography] . PSDB São Paulo (In Portuguese)
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