Physical Education and sports in Ação Integralista Brasileira: Hollanda Loyola and body education

Abstract

TIt investigates how Ação Integralista Brasileira, a social movement that emerged in Republican Brazil, educated physically, through of Physical Education and sports, members enrolled in its ranks. It examines articles published in A Offensiva, prescriptive and doctrinaire newspaper of the movement, published from 17/05/1934 to 19/03/1938, with emphasis on Francisco de Assis Hollanda Loyola's articles. Loyola was Master of the Militia Field and director of the integralist Physical Education School of Instructors, and his writings are highlighted because they have established an innovative way to conceive the sports and physical training at AIB. Loyola won space in the newspaper and traced "General Plan" of Physical Education focused on Brazilian people's needs and characteristics, an aspect emphasized by the author. The study concluded that adding Loyola's requirements to ritualistic and symbolic practices, the 'integralismo' imposed on the body a way of being integralist, way of being an "integral soldier".