President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva participated this Tuesday (23) in the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Lagoa do Sino Campus of the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), in the city of Buri, in the interior of São Paulo. The teaching unit is focused on regional development and the valorization of family farming, and was founded from the donation of a farm by the writer Raduan Nassar.
At the ceremony, investments of R$79.3 million from the New Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) at the university were announced.
Lula told the story of the donation of the land at the end of his second term, which was coordinated by the then Minister of Education Fernando Haddad, now Minister of Finance. He recalled that in the United States, for example, it is common for private assets to be donated to universities and foundations, since inheritance tax in that country is 40%.
“Here in Brazil, there is no one who makes donations, because the inheritance tax is nothing, it is only 4%. So, the person has no interest in returning his assets,” said Lula.
“When a man appears who, at 75 years of age, at that time, assumes the desire and responsibility to get rid of his heritage, like this one here, so that we can educate thousands and thousands of girls and boys in this country, to help the country become a great country, an important country, a competitive country, we can only say thank God, Raduan, God put you in this world and you are putting this gift that God gave you towards the future of this country,” said the president.
Raduan Nassar, now 88 years old, lives in Buri, and was present at Tuesday’s celebration.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva with writer Raduan Nassar during a ceremony celebrating the 10th anniversary of UFSCar’s Lagoa do Sino Campus – Photo: Ricardo Stuckert/PR
Located in the Ribeira Valley, 266 kilometers from the state capital, Lagoa do Sino is a farm-school and one of the four UFSCar campuses. The property was donated by the writer in 2011, based on his desire to transform the farm into a public university and develop the region socioeconomically. In 2014, courses were created in accordance with the demands of the local population.
Regional development
The Lagoa do Sino Campus is built around three thematic axes: territorial development; food sovereignty and security; and family farming. There is also a direct relationship between the university and local indigenous and quilombola communities.
Lagoa do Sino’s first three undergraduate courses were agronomic, environmental and food engineering. In 2016, courses in administration and biological sciences were added. The campus currently offers postgraduate programs in wildlife conservation and conservation and sustainability.
UFSCar’s rector, Ana Beatriz de Oliveira, highlighted that 604 students graduated from the Lagoa do Sino Campus, 90% of whom are working or studying and 77% are working in their field of study. “The dream come true can be seen in the transformations we have already identified in each student who passes through here, graduates, has their life transformed, changes the course of their family’s history, and continues to change the world,” she said.
“The knowledge produced here has generated important transformations in local agricultural production. Strategic projects are developed with local family farmers, feeding back into the inseparable system of teaching, research and extension. There is no doubt that the experience of the Lagoa do Sino Campus has also transformed UFSCar, provoking us to think and rethink the university, the role of this institution in facing the challenges we face, and the understanding of the forces needed to transform Brazil into a more just and less unequal country, of equity and social transformation”, added the rector.
Born in Pindorama, in the interior of São Paulo, Raduan Nassar debuted in literature in 1975, with the novel Archaic Farming. Even with only three books published, his work is recognized by the public and critics and, in 2016, the writer received the Camões Prize, the most important literary award in the Portuguese language.
The celebration organized by UFSCar includes cultural presentations, with the participation of the community of the Lagoa do Sino Campus, as well as the exhibition of audiovisual productions, which partially tell the history of the campus, celebrate the results achieved based on reports from former students and bring testimonies from people who participated in the process of donating the farm to the university. programming extends until January 2025with academic and sports activities, as well as cultural and historical moments.
Nazism
UFSCar agricultural engineering student Murilo Piccoli recalled that farms in the region once belonged to businessmen linked to integralism and Nazism, and that, between 1932 and 1941, on one of the farms, 50 black boys, orphans from Rio de Janeiro, were kept in a regime analogous to slavery.
“I am proud to say that a place that was once a slave quarters is now a public university. Affirmative action policies have made the university a people’s university, allowing us to engage in dialogue and learn from black, indigenous, LGBTQIA+, disabled, quilombola, foreign and public elementary school students,” he said.
Integralism was a fascist-inspired movement that emerged in Brazil in the early 1930s and was based on religious principles and focused on “social harmonization”. The history of enslaved boys was the subject of research by historian Sidney Aguilar Filho, who graduated from USP and holds a PhD in Education from Unicamp, and gave rise to the book Between Integralists and Nazis: Racism, Education and Authoritarianism in the Backlands of São Pauloand the documentary Boy 23 – Lost childhoods in Brazilby director Belisário Franca.
Today, Sidney Aguilar Filho presented Lula with his book. The families of two of the boys who lived on the farm were also present at the ceremony, whose grandchildren study at UFSCar’s Lagoa do Sino Campus.
Improvements
During the event, the R$79.3 million in federal government investments in UFSCar campuses were also presented, which are part of the New Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) and are part of the package for improving infrastructure and university expansionintended for the resumption of halted works and also new projects.
The amount includes the Lagoa do Sino Campus, with electrical infrastructure works, library, auditorium and urbanization; the São Carlos campus for the construction of a research center, university buildings, renovation and expansion of the University Hospital, and other constructions and expansions; and the Sorocaba Campus, with works for the construction of a research center, university buildings, renovation and expansion of the University Hospital, and other constructions and expansions.
