Busts

Chiquinha Gonzaga (1847-1935), a composer and conductor, stands out in Brazilian culture and history for the courage with which she faced the patriarchal society, thus creating a new occupation for women. As a pianist, she played choro, a popular instrumental music genre originated in Rio in the 19th century. Later, she composed the first "marchinha" (street carnival song), named "O Abre Alas" (1899), sung and recognized to this day. She was also the first woman to conduct an orchestra in Brazil.

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) was one of the greatest Brazilian conductors of all time and became the best-known and most significant Latin American composer to date. He used to say "I don't use folklore, I am the folklore" showing that he was quite aware of his unique position among classical composers as he was influenced by both European classical tradition and Brazilian folk and indigenous elements. One of his most famous works is entitled "Trenzinho Caipira".

Juscelino Kubitschek was one of the most emblematic Presidents of Brazil with the slogan "to grow by 50 years in 5". Governing between 1951-1961, he accelerated the economy growing industries and transforming the Brazilian society from rural into more urban. During his government, he moved the capital from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia, a newly-planned city in the mid-West of Brazil, built in the record time of 41 days. 

Francisco Franco Pereira Passos was a Brazilian engineer and politician (1836-1913), mayor of the city of Rio de Janeiro between 1902 and 1906, known for the most important urban renewal in the city. Thanks to that transformation, Rio became known worldwide as the Marvelous City. 

President of Brazil, first as dictator, from 1930 to 1945, and in a democratically elected term from 1951 until his suicide in 1954. His politics included, for the first time in Brazil, a social investment at labor rights (paid vacation, minimum wage, and maternity leave), which is why he is known till today as the Father of the Poor. The monument shows his full suicide letter.

One of the most iconic poets of the Brazilian Romanticism of the 19th century, Castro Alves (1847-1871) was born in Bahia. He was inspired by social questions as black slavery and oppression. His great work, "Navio Negreiro" ("The Slaveship"), is an epic-dramatic poem that denounces the slavery of African people and their transport to Brazil.

Antonio Gonçalves Dias was a 19th-century Brazilian lawyer, journalist and poet. One of the great names of the Brazilian Romanticism, his most remarkable work is the "Canção do Exílio" ("Exile Song"), where he expresses aversion to the Portuguese values ​​and highlights the natural values ​​of Brazil due to the colonial Brazil's recent breakup with Portugal.

Olavo Bilac (1865 - 1918) was a famous Brazilian writer and journalist. A Parnassist poet, he founded the Brazilian Academy of Letters, along with Machado de Assis and other great thinkers of his time. A very active republican and nationalist, Bilac led ​​civic campaigns in favor of literacy and was the author of the "Hymn to the Flag" from 1889.

Mestre Valentim was one of the main artists of the colonial period in Brazil. Considered a complete artist for his sculptural, architectural and city-planning output, his expression took the forms of the Baroque, Rococo and Classical styles. Influenced by the French Mission, a movement which brought artists and urbanists supported by King John VI of Portugal to produce art in Rio de Janeiro, he created, designed and implemented important urban social spaces such as the Fountain of the Pyramid, located at Praça XV, and the Passeio Publico (Public Promenade), the first garden open to the population of the city.

Born in Mexico, Rodolpho Bernardelli was a naturalized Brazilian sculptor and professor. In Brazil, he became one of the greatest artists in his craft, having executed the statues which adorn the building of the Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro. He also led the National School of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro for 25 years.