Legislative positions
Member of the Federal Senate
In office 3 May 1921 – 31 March 1924
Constituency	Rio de Janeiro
In office 3 May 1912 – 31 December 1914
Constituency	Rio de Janeiro
In office 3 May 1903 – 31 December 1903
Constituency	Rio de Janeiro
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office 3 May 1890 – 31 December 1902
Constituency	Rio de Janeiro

Personal details

Born

2 October 1867
Campos, Rio de Janeiro, Empire of Brazil

Died

31 March 1924 (aged 56)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Nationality

Brazilian

Political party

Rio Republican Party

Spouse(s)

Anita de Castro Belisário de Sousa

Nilo Procópio Peçanha (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈnilu proˈkɔpju peˈsãɲɐ]; 2 October 1867 – 31 March 1924) was a Brazilian politician who served as 7th President of Brazil. He was Governor of Rio de Janeiro State (1903–1906), then elected Vice-President of Brazil in 1906. He assumed the presidency in 1909 following the death of President Afonso Pena and served until 1910.

Nilo Peçanha was born to Sebastião de Sousa Peçanha, a baker, and Joaquina Anália de Sá Freire, the descendent of a wealthy and noble family from northern Rio de Janeiro Province. He was one of seven siblings (five boys and two girls). His family lived in a state of poverty in the remote and poor neighborhood of Morro do Coco, Campos dos Goytacazes, and moved to the downtown area when Peçanha started elementary education.

He was frequently described as being a mulatto (a name for people of white and black ancestry) and often ridiculed in the press for his skin color. During his youth, the local Campos dos Goytacazes social elite alluded to him as the "mestiço do Morro do Coco" (the half-breed from Morro do Coco district). In 1921, when he ran for the Presidency of Republic, letters falsely attributed to the other candidate Artur Bernardes were published by the press and caused a political crisis because they insulted both the former president Marshal Hermes da Fonseca and also Peçanha, another former president, claiming he was a mulatto. Gilberto Freyre mentioned his "mulatismo" in Brazilian politics as the same that prevailed in Brazilian soccer. According to some scholars, his presidential photographs were touched up to whiten his dark skin.

Some scholars assert that, despite his tez escura (dark skin color), Nilo Peçanha always hid his black origins, and to this day his descendants and family have denied that he was a mulatto. The official biography written by a relative Celso Peçanha does not mention his racial origins, but another later biography does so, thus some scholars express doubts. In any case, his origins were very humble: he used to claim that he had been raised on day-old bread and paçoca (cassava flour grounded with dried beef).

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Wikipedia