The article will discuss the relevance of Paulo Freire's thought and action as well as the criticism of his thinking over the last fifty years. In addition, it is proposed to demonstrate the relevance and legacy of Freire for education in the world, especially for Latin America. To continue in the ways we propose, we will first reflect on the context of Freire's writing - Education and brazilian reality - against the political blows in Brazil (old and current). Then bring to memory the legacy of Paulo Freire as a Latin American classic, followed by the contexts in which his thought and work were conceived, expressing his uniqueness and perhaps his universality. Finally, an analysis will be made of the theses that disagree with the aforementioned universality of Freire's thinking, starting from some concepts / categories of his work. It ends with the challenge of Freire's re-reading in the construction of a pedagogical thought of the South nourished by the debate of the epistemologies of the south.