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A Saint’s dream: Brasilia During the presidency of Juscelino Kubitschek96, the capital of Brazil was moved from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia, in the central-western region of the country. Brasilia was the name originally given to the modernist project, also known as the ‘Pilot Plan’, for a limited area in a central location in Brazil’s geography, roughly corresponding to the site indicated by St. John Bosco as the birthplace of a future magnificent city97.
96 Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira (1902 - 1976) was a Brazilian politician and physician, who was mayor of Belo Horizonte in 1940, governor of Minas Gerais State from 1950 to 1955, and president of Brazil from 1956 to 1961. He was later elected Senator for the State of Goiás in 1962. As President, he stimulated industrialisation, especially in the automobile sector, which led to rapid economic growth but also to an increase in public debt, both internal and external. Accused of corruption at the same time as the military dictatorship came to power, he retired from political life in 1964. He died in 1976 in a car accident in Resende, near Rio de Janeiro, in circumstances that are still unclear. 97 In 1883 the Italian priest St. John Bosco (1815 - 1888) had a prophetic dream in which he described a futuristic city that corresponded more or less to the location of Brasilia. Today, there are numerous references in Brasilia to this educator who founded the Salesian Congregation. One of the main cathedrals, Santuário Dom Bosco, bears his name, as does the Ermida Dom Bosco, a vantage point where John Bosco is said to have declared that this city ‘of gigantic fruits’ would be born. On 4 September Don Bosco described his Second Missionary Dream, which he experienced at San Benigno Canavese (TO) on 30 August 1883, to the members of the Third General Chapter. Fr. Lemoyne immediately put the dream into writing and Don Bosco completed and retouched the text. Referring to the future riches of South America he said: “[...] Between grade 15 and 20 there was a very wide and very long bosom (a plateau) which started from a point where a lake was formed. Then a voice said repeatedly: When the mines hidden in the middle of these mountains are dug, the promised land will appear here flowing with milk and honey. There will be an inconceivable wealth [...]”, Semeraro C. 2007, Don Bosco e Brasilia, «Ricerche Storiche Salesiane. Rivista semestrale di storia religiosa e civile», vol. 50, n. unico, pp. 381-384.
