MMDC

The initials represent the names of the São Paulo demonstrators Martins, Miragaia, Dráusio and Camargo, killed by federal troops linked to the Partido Popular Paulista (PPP), a political-military group supporting the Getúlio Vargas regime, in a demonstration that took place on the night of 23 May 1932, an event that preceded and was one of the reasons for the great conflict that year.

The acronym also represented the clandestine organization that conspired for the uprising and later coordinated the war efforts, in recruitment, fundraising and resources, as well as the distribution of these to the soldiers of the Constitutionalist Army.

In reaction, the Paulistas began to move against the Vargas dictatorship, and students prepared a series of demonstrations, which broke out across the capital in a climate of growing revolt on 23 May of that year.

A fifth student, Orlando Alvarenga de Oliveira, was injured during the fight did not have his name immediately associated with the movement since he died three months later on 12 August, 1932.

The initials of Martins, Miragaia, Camargo and Dráusio, M.M.D.C, were used to represent a secret civil organisation which, among other activities, offered military training to the Paulista guerrillas.