Opening the fourth part of the book, devoted to the political dimensions of social change, this chapter revisits the collapse of Brazil's First Republic and the rise of Getúlio Vargas to power (November 1930) at the intersection of three dynamics: the tenente movement, conflicts between the oligarchies of Minas Gerais and São Paulo, and the internal rivalries among São Paulo's political elites that led to the split within the Paulista Republican Party (Partido Republicano Paulista), against a backdrop of intense social mobilization. An examination of political activism in Madureira shows how these broader processes found strong local expression. Political initiatives flourished around social rights, popular education, and religious freedom, while becoming embedded in networks extending across the city and the country. As Brazil's political capital, Rio de Janeiro attracted activists and organizations from across the nation and became a center for national trade union negotiations. Feminist, secularist, educational, socialist, and labor movements converged there, passing through Madureira, which became a key site in the political realignment of the forces that emerged from the coup during 1932. Together, these progressive movements increasingly confronted the growing influence of the Catholic Church within the political process—a configuration that made the participation of Rio's residents in the forthcoming elections especially significant.