Center Blogs

Brazil has had a complicated political past. When you learn about the crimes of the military dictatorship (1964-1986), it’s striking how recently it ended. In my case, five years before I was born. My father was briefly part of a resistance movement when he was in his 20s, and we had relatives in both my mother and my father’s family who were persecuted, arrested, and tortured. When I was in college I actually got to read some of their files from the political police archives. And I always thought to myself: what would I have done if I were in their place?

Brazil has had a complicated political past. When you learn about the crimes of the military dictatorship (1964-1986), it’s striking how recently it ended. In my case, five years before I was born. My father was briefly part of a resistance movement when he was in his 20s, and we had relatives in both my mother and my father’s family who were persecuted, arrested, and tortured. When I was in college I actually got to read some of their files from the political police archives. And I always thought to myself: what would I have done if I were in their place?