Igreja Católica e educação popular através do movimento de educação de base (MEB) no Município de Parintins nas décadas de 1970 A 1990

Abstract

This paper approaches the actions carried out by the Catholic Church in popular education and culture, especially the work conducted by the Movimento Educação de Base – MEB (Basic Education Movement) in the municipality of Parintins between the 1970s and1990s. The movement focused on popular education and was founded by the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) in political articulation with the federal government in 1961. In Parintins, the MEB was implemented by Dom Arcângelo Cerqua, bishop of the diocese, after knowing about the project which was already being developed in the Northeast Region of Brazil. In the North, besides the municipality of Parintins, other popular education centers were inaugurated in the cities of Coari, Tefé and San-tarém. The purpose of these centers was to evangelize the rural populations in the Amazon region, teach literacy and to assist social, political and economic organization. MEB developed its activities through radio schools by using radio stations that belonged to the Catholic Church. Bibliographic research and Oral History were used in this study, with special emphasis given to interviews undertaken with two people who worked as coordinators and monitors for the MEB in the referred period. Keywords: Basic Education; Literacy; Rural worker; Parintins.