São Paulo Metro changes station name Paulo Freire to Fernão Dias

The São Paulo Metro, managed by the government of the State of São Paulo by Tarcísio de Freitas, changed the name of the Paulo Freire metro station to Fernão Dias. According to information in the column by Mônica Bergamo, from Folha de S. Paulo, the decision was made at the beginning of the year by company directors.

The São Paulo Metrô explained that the change occurred after a opinion poll carried out at the end of last year with residents close to the station, in which 57% voted for Fernão Dias, 29% for Paulo Freire and 14% for Parque Novo Mundo. “The name Paulo Freire was only provisional for the creation of references in the projects, until confirmation by the surveys”, said Metrô in a note.

The station is part of the expansion project for line 2-green of the São Paulo Metro, which connects the Vila Madalena station, in the West Zone of São Paulo, to the Vila Prudente station, in the East Zone. The forecast is that it will be located on Avenida Educador Paulo Freire, close to the Fernão Dias highway.

The change draws attention because the ideas of educator Paulo Freire are questioned by conservative wings that helped elect Governor Tarcísio de Freitas, mainly because Freire made reference to Marxism. Fernão Dias, in turn, was a bandeirante known as the “emerald hunter” and, in addition to traveling to look for mineral wealth and owning many slaves, he sought out indigenous people to work on the sugar cane plantations. Dias was the father-in-law of pioneer Manuel Borba Gato, whose statue in São Paulo was set on fire in 2021.