In this text we review Mattoso Câmara's different areas of interest - phonology, morphology, stylistics - emphasizing his efforts toward the institutionalization of linguistic studies in Brazil: the creation of the discipline of General Linguistics in the 1930s; the establishment of a Linguistic Sector at the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro, in 1958; the foundation of the Brazilian Linguistics Association, ABRALIN, in 1969. Mattoso's legacy is revisited here from the point of view of someone who was his student and witnessed the path followed by a whole generation of pioneer linguists, inspired by the master. Among others: Carlos Eduardo Falcão Uchôa, Miriam Lemle, Leda Bisol, Jean Pierre Angenot, Paulino Vandresen, Eunice Pontes, Brian Head, Cléa Rameh, Eurico Back and Yonne Leite herself.
Mattoso Câmara; General Linguistics; Museu Nacional; ABRALIN