BRAZIL: We Want Gefulio

As Brazil's longtime, stern-fatherly dictator, little, pear-shaped Getulio Vargas sponsored social legislation for Brazil's workers. It was a good pitch, and it built up a large following who ecstatically called themselves "queremistas" (literally, "wanters"—a telescoped version of the slogan: "We want Getulio!"). The queremistas felt a personal relationship with their "papa of the poor."

In 1945 a military coup ended Vargas' 15-year regime, and the old man withdrew in good order to his ranch near the Uruguayan frontier at Itu. There he got into cowboy breeches and boots, and ostensibly retired from politics. Even after São Paulo's bumptious Governor Adhemar de Barros named him for a presidential comeback (TIME, June 26), Getulio sat on quietly at Itu. As election day (Oct. 3) got closer, the hottest Brazilian political question was whether Getulio still had his old magic, and whether he cared to practice it. Last week Brazilians found out.

Hundreds of queremistas were waiting for Vargas at the São Paulo airport when he flew in from Itu, with Adhemar at his side. "He's our little father," cackled a toothless old woman. It took 20 minutes for the police to get Getulio to a car and on his way to the chartreuse-and-blue Palacio dos Campos Eliseos, where São Paulo's great and near-great waited. (Amid the music and toasts, Adhemar had a happy thought for the future: "He'll stay [in the presidency] five years, and then it will be my turn.")

That night 80,000 queremistas jammed the Vale of Anhangabaú, a grassy park amid São Paulo's skyscrapers. "Workers of Brazil!" boomed Getulio. There was a sigh from the crowd, and then a roar: "Getulio! Getulio!" He spoke for an hour, recited his "conquests" for Brazilian workers. If elected, said Getulio, he would back more social legislation. He would provide free land for the poor. He bore malice toward none.

Getulio was striding down the comeback trail.