Brazilian philosopher and pedagogue Paulo Reglus Neves Freire came of age in the turbulent years of transition from authoritarian conservative government to authoritarian populist government in Latin America. This historical transition was interrupted in the 1970s by a series of dictatorships, resulting in a perverse cycle of authoritarianism and lack of democracy in the region . Freire was born into a middle-class family in Recife, capital of the Brazilian State of Pernambuco, on 19 September 1921. The experiences of his family during the Great Depression, which started in 1929, set the tone for his later concern for the poor, and influenced his perspective on education. Freire enrolled at Law School at the University of Recife in 1943, where he also studied philosophy and the psychology of language. Rather than a career in the law, however, he became a secondary school teacher of Portuguese. In 1944, he married Elza Maia Costa de Oliveira, a fellow teacher, with whom he had five children.In 1946, Freire became Director of the Department of Education and Culture in the Brazilian State of Pernambuco. It was in this role, working primarily with the illiterate poor, that Freire began to develop a non-orthodox philosophy of education and literacy. His original work in the 1950s and early 1960s was deeply connected with the question of education for development, and particularly how to link education and citizenship building. 1 Here his work on literacy training was among his foremost contributions to educational science