Abstract
The Academic Center for Law Studies (Centro Acadêmico de Estudos Jurídicos - CAJU), formed by students from the National Faculty of Law (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), was a major Catholic and fascist-oriented group that emerged and operated in Rio de Janeiro during the Revolution of 1930, before the creation of the Brazilian Integralist Action. Among its members are important intellectuals and politicians of the 20th century, such as Octávio de Faria, San Tiago Dantas, Hélio Vianna, Américo Jacobina Lacombe, Almir de Andrade, and Vinícius de Moraes. To understand the process of ideological differentiation between authoritarian intellectuals and actors and, especially, the role that fascist ideology played in the political struggle of the period, this article reconstructs the trajectory of CAJU and its members, characterizing their political thought and action amidst the collapse of the First Republic’s oligarchic order.
Keywords:
Revolution of 1930; Legiões Revolucionárias; Catholicism; Fascism; Integralism