Paul Freire’s ideas have been influential in areas such as adult education, literacy and education for social transformation. Through his work, Freire challenged conventional notions of education and proposed a new way of teaching and learning that empowers the poor and oppressed. This article will start from Paulo Freire’s life and studies, emphasizing in particular his reading of educational work with communities and how the idea of a “bankable model of education” (Freire, 2013) can be replaced by a dialogical model in which dialectical and reflexive confrontation between discordant positions is allowed. The case of the “Centro popular de cultura e desenvolvimento” (CPCD) will be discussed below through an interview with its founder and still director, Tião Rocha.