Brazilian officials claim strong ties to Princeton community

Scanning the resumes of election candidates and current political leaders in Brazil, one would find that several of them have something in common: They have studied in Princeton.

In the 1970s, Brazil's current President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and the Social Democratic Party's recent presidential candidate Jose Serra were members of the Institute for Advanced Study by invitation from Albert Hirschman, professor emeritus of the school of social sciences.

Hirschman, a grandfatherly man with willowy, white hair, now keeps a paint-splattered easel on his windowsill and a collection of his own works, ranging from abstract color squares to copies of Picasso, in his office at the Institute.

One would not guess from appearances that this is the office of the man who drew together some of Brazil's highest government officials.

President Cardoso joined the IAS board of trustees in March.

Upon accepting his nomination to the board, Cardoso said he looked forward to renewing his association with the institute and his former professor and friend, Hirschman, IAS officials said.

Other local ties to Brazil include Graduate School alumni such as Brazil's Central Bank governor, Arminio Fraga GS '85, the Brazilian equivalent of Alan Greenspan.

TIME magazine identified Fraga as an "economic superman" in its article titled, "Look! It's Superbanker!," crediting Fraga with Brazil's economic success over the last few years.

Fraga's daughter, Mariana Fraga '05, was born in Princeton when Fraga was a graduate student, and she is now a sophomore in Mathey College.

Brazilian students at the University say the Princeton-Brazil connection is not surprising.

"It's so rare for people [from Latin America] to get training at the best places, they end up going back and getting into the positions of power," said Fernando Delgado '04, a Wilson School major studying development economics.

"It just happened to be that lately Princeton has offered up a lot of leaders [in Brazil]," he said.

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Hirschman said he met Cardoso while Cardoso was in exile in Chile and invited him to the institute in 1975 when Cardoso came to the United States.

Cardoso was an IAS member for three semesters during 1975-78.

Soon after leaving the institute, he returned to Brazil, founding the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning in 1981.

Cardoso was central in creating a successful democracy in Brazil, and helped author the new constitution in 1988.

He served as a senator from 1983 to 1992, and has been president since 1995.

Serra came to the institute when Hirschman asked him to work as his assistant in 1976.

"He seemed to know very well questions of development in countries like Brazil," Hirschman said.

Serra stayed at the institute until he was allowed to return to Brazil in 1978.

Serra worked in politics after his return, serving as Minister of Public Health under Cardoso and winning much respect for curbing the spread of AIDS in Brazil.

Serra lost the presidential elections on Oct. 27 in a close runoff with Lula da Silva, the Workers' Party candidate.

Hirschman said he was disappointed with the result but is still confident in Serra.

"He did very well," Hirschman said. "I just wrote him a letter saying,'You did very well taking everything into consideration. I'm sure you'll continue to do well and be an important person in Brazil.' "