Guide to the Ruth Cardoso Archive
The Ruth Cardoso Collection, which is held by Fundação FHC, contains documents produced and collected by her regarding her life in family, academic, and political spheres, encompassing the period in which she was first lady of Brazil.
The chronological markers coincide with the dates that delimit the owner’s existence, between 1930 and 2008. The presence of documents that go beyond these dates, which is common in personal archives, is due to the existence of items from ancestors and generational links. There are also those gathered after the owner’s death, especially biographies and tributes, which complete and clarify the archive she had accumulated.
The collection totals almost 3,000 textual, iconographic, and audiovisual items, as well as some objects. Of this universe, the vast majority can be freely examined, with a 15% portion, made up mainly of personal correspondence, still under reserve.
Family and social life
The archive holds family documents as part of Ruth Villaça Corrêa Leite’s (her maiden name) memorial interest. Photos and civil identity documents coexist with less conventional pieces, such as his mother’s writings or those reflecting friendships.
Among the family and social documents, some belong to the couple and it is impossible to attribute them exclusively to one of them. These are letters from friends, photos and an audiovisual recording of an interview they did together. Of this group, 90 documents are available online.
Academic life
Teaching, guidance and research
Ruth Cardoso’s works are the main testimony to her career as an intellectual. There are 90 documents available for consultation on the web, including theses, books, communications, interviews, lectures and articles in collections and scientific journals.
Many documents depict her academic career both at the Universidade de São Paulo and at other institutions – ABA, Cebrap, Flacso, University of California Berkeley, Columbia University and Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme. They include communications, abstracts, course notebooks, lesson plans, congress programs, research questionnaires, invitations, certificates and letters. At Cebrap, from 1984 onwards, Ruth Cardoso coordinated various research projects, as can be seen in her projects, reports and interviews.
Political life
Towards new public policies
Based on her experience as a researcher, Ruth Cardoso designed one of the most comprehensive programmes to combat poverty and social exclusion in Brazil, ‘Comunidade Solidária’, an organization linked to the Office of the President’s Chief of Staff, but not part of the government. The documents related to the activities of the Program Council over which she presided are the densest and most voluminous in the archive, with a total of about 500 units: projects, activity and evaluation reports, balance sheets, prospectuses, scripts, agendas, invitations. Of particular note are the minutes and reports of the Rounds of Political Interlocution, and the debates held between 1995 and 2002 with members of different levels of government and people linked to the third sector, gathered to study the implementation of public policies.
Around 20 documents testify to part of Ruth Cardoso’s work in the non-governmental organization Comunitas, where she consolidated her presence in the field of interrelations between companies, civil society, and public institutions.
Additional documentation
After Ruth Cardoso’s death, several documents bore witness to her presence, through biographical essays and collections of works published in specialized periodicals. The archive incorporated these publications and the news about the different tributes paid to her, associating her name with schools, auditoriums, public places and even a new species of orchid.