Paulo Freire, who lived between 1921 and 1997, is perhaps the best-known Brazilian intellectual worldwide. His works and educational methodology are taught not only throughout Brazil but also in many of the top universities in the US and Europe.

In 2016, the Open Syllabus Project catalogued the 100 most requested titles on its service by English-speaking universities: the only Brazilian on its list was Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. When Elliott Green, associate professor at the London School of Economics, analysed the most cited works available on Google Scholar, he found that Pedagogy of the Oppressed was the third most cited in the human sciences and was even ahead of works by Michel Foucault or Karl Marx.

However, despite his international success, Freire is a great enemy of the Brazilian right. Today, his name is regularly invoked in the culture wars that have engulfed Brazil. And now that President Jair Bolsonaro, his Social Liberal Party and his family are running the country, the crusade against Freire’s work and influence has intensified.