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History of Education, Heroic Period, José de Anchieta, Indigenous people, Letters, Jesuits, Society of Jesus.
The present research lends itself to studying a section of the History of Brazilian Colonial Education from the letters of the Jesuit José de Anchieta. He was Spanish, graduated in Portugal and lived his missionary experience in Brazil during the 16th century. During this period, both Brazil and the Society of Jesus were being conceived, so everything was new and experimental. In order to understand this moment and its events and help in understanding the missionary thought, we tried to highlight some concepts relevant to the theme, supporting ourselves with renowned scholars. We study the ideas of Education, civilization, interculturation, representation, child, culture and so on. We carried out a historical contextualization based on specific references and used the discourse analysis methodology in an attempt to understand what moved the Jesuit to record his daily life and the populations with which he was in contact. His correspondence highlights all the aforementioned concepts and provides us with a photograph of the period, nature, people, culture, territory, physical and philosophical conflicts. We understand that the study of his experience brings a historiographic contribution and collaborates to reduce the gap in studies in this area and period.