Teotônio Vilela

Teotônio Brandão Vilela was born in Viçosa, Alagoas. Congressman (1954-1958), vice-governor (1961-1966) and senator (1967-1982) for Alagoas, Vilela's career was a brilliant one, becoming one of the staunch supporters of Brazil's return to democracy during the military regime (1964-1985) while being part of the MDB party - the only political party opposed to the regime, later turned into the current PMDB, of which he was one of its founders in 1980. But for a long period Vilela was part of the Arena, the military regime party, even though he was very vocal about his opposition to some of the party ideals and just in 1979 he switched sides and became an important figure in demanding new elections and a new form of government. Sadly, he didn't live up to see his dream come true, dying of cancer in 1983, the previous year when citizens went to the streets to demand the Diretas Já, new elections for the following year (1985), which would only took place with full effect in 1989 - by then Brazil already had its first civilian president in more than 20 years, elected by an electoral college in 1985. His son Teotônio Vilela Filho later became governor of Alagoas.