Sociologist Mara Kotscho, co-founder of Datafolha, dies – 03/11/2023 – Politics

Sociologist Mara Kotscho, one of the founders of Datafolha, in 1983, died this Saturday (11), at the age of 70, as a result of a brain tumor discovered last year.

Among Mara’s successors at the institute, she is described as a pioneer and competent, whose work in the early days was fundamental for Datafolha to become a reference for rigor and credibility. For the family, Mara was a warm and caring woman.

Married to journalist Ricardo Kotscho since 1972, Mara is survived by two daughters, fellow journalist Mariana and filmmaker Carolina, and five grandchildren.

“Mara was a person who took care of everything, the family, the children. There wasn’t a bad time for her, she solved everything. She even fixed the roof. Now she’s going to fix things in heaven. I could only be a journalist and a reporter thanks to her,” says Kotscho, who as a reporter for Sheet in the 1980s he shared the newsroom with his wife for a few years.

A sociologist trained at the University of São Paulo, Mara was chosen to put into practice an idea by Octavio Frias de Oliveira, then publisher of Sheet –create a research institute in the newspaper.

According to Kotscho, Mara was proud of her work at Datafolha and followed the institute’s achievements throughout her life.

As Frederico Vasconcelos tells in a 2008 report, “the future institute was just a table, in the middle of the newsroom, where the sociologist Mara Kotscho, with her calculating machine, guided the interviewers, students from PUC (Pontifical Catholic University)”.

“Mara made a very important contribution. Datafolha’s credibility, which is the characteristic that best defines the institute, comes from that beginning”, says Datafolha’s director, Luciana Chong.

Under Mara’s command, Datafolha was initially dedicated to behavioral research, mainly with the aim of revealing the profile of the reader of the Sheet. The sociologist applied the methodology developed by Reginaldo Prandi, a professor at USP.

In 1985, she left the institute, but continued working in research with her own consultancy, including providing services to Datafolha.

“She was a great researcher of human behavior, consumer behavior. She had a keen sensitivity for analyzing qualitative research”, says Mauro Paulino, who was director of Datafolha.

“Mara took care of implementing Datafolha according to Octavio Frias de Oliveira’s guidelines, adapting the scientific method used at the university as an instrument for journalistic verification. It was necessary to have agility, precision and scientific rigor”, completes Paulino.

Antonio Manuel Teixeira Mendes, first director of Datafolha and former superintendent of Grupo Folha, says that Mara has the merit of the institute’s first surveys, which “became a brand synonymous with research, democratized opinion polling information and created a standard Of Quality”.

Mara was 15 when she met Kotscho, then 20, during a vacation in Caraguatatuba. “She always accompanied me in everything, and the girls too”, says the journalist.

He remembers that, during the period in which he was a correspondent for Jornal do Brasil in Europe, the family was ready to return to the country when Pope John Paul 1st died, in 1978. “So we went with our bags to the Vatican, I was the only reporter with the whole family there,” he says.

“She was the one who supported the family, she was always very supportive. She was a sweet person. Thin, short, apparently physically fragile, but with a monstrous strength, affectionate and very friendly. She never denied anyone her shoulder,” says the journalist. Marcelo Auler.

Albino Castro, a reporter who shared coverage with Kotscho in Europe, says that Mara was a woman of fiber. “She was always with her two little daughters in tow”, he wrote in a message to colleagues.

“Me and my sister always joke that we have a little big mom. Because she’s 5’10” but has that big heart. […] The friend who always listened, paid attention, dedicated. The one who always remembers birthdays and sends affectionate messages”, wrote Mariana Kotscho in a text in tribute to her mother, published on UOL last November.

Journalists and family members also remember Mara and Kotscho’s good relationship with President Lula (PT) and his then-wife, Marisa Letícia. Friends, the families have already gathered at the Kotscho farm in Porangaba (SP), where Mara’s ashes will be taken.

It was Mara and Kotscho who sheltered Lula’s daughter, Lurian, for a few months in their home, when in 1989 her mother, Miriam Cordeiro, appeared in Fernando Collor’s campaign making accusations against the PT. “Mara was the mother everyone wanted to have,” Lurian wrote on his social media.