Mario Maestri (Porto Alegre, 1948) is a Brazilian historian specialized in history of slavery in Brazil. With a Doctorate in History from the Catholic University of Louvain, he was a Professor in History at Post-Graduate level at Passo Fundo University (UPF), in Rio Grande do Sul. He is also the founder of the Center for Marxist Studies of Rio Grande do Sul and the magazine História e Luta de Classes [History and Class Struggle]. He was jailed by the dictatorship in 1968 and lived in exile, in Chile and Belgium, from 1971 to 1977.
Author of the following titles amongst many others:
Uma Historia do Brasil: Colônia
Uma História do Brasil: Império
Cisnes Negros: uma História da Revolta da Chibata
O escravismo no Brasil
O sobrado e o cativo
O Escravo no Rio Grande do Sul
Antonio Gramsci - Vida e Obra de Um Comunista Revolucionário (with Luigi Candreva)