Francisco Julião

Francisco Julião Arruda de Paula was a Brazilian lawyer, politician and writer. He was born in Recife to a family of landowners. After studying law at university, he dedicated himself to defending peasants who had been expelled from their lands. He helped to found the farmers' cooperative Peasant leagues in 1956, which worked on multiple fronts to advance peasants' rights in Pernambuco. Juliao gained renown as one of the most committed defenders of agrarian reform in mid-century Brazil.