Description
Book SynopsisA memoir recounting a familys efforts to locate and free a young Brazilian activist arrested, imprisoned, and tortured by the military dictatorship.
Trade Review“
A Mother’s Cry is the story of a Brazilian mother who, while living in the United States in the 1960s, learns by mail of her son’s kidnapping by agents of Brazil’s military regime. Without immediate means to locate her son, there is ‘only’ his grandmother in Brazil to initially confront the dictatorship’s atrocity establishment. The stuff of a great film,
A Mother’s Cry juxtaposes their efforts to secure the young man’s release with his strategies for surviving brutalizing physical and potentially spirit-breaking torture. This great book joins the yet unconnected literatures on human agency, big and small, that run from the Holocaust, to Argentina’s mothers and grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, to Cambodian survivors of S-21 prison, to recent accounts of CIA rendition victims. This impressive book is must reading.”—
Martha K. Huggins, Tulane University
“A family’s chance descent into the indignities of Brazil’s military dictatorship is uncompromisingly recorded in nearly a decade of letters penned across continents; so too is the inextinguishable hope to set free a son, grandson, and brother. Arbitrarily imprisoned, brutally tortured, and subsequently whisked abroad to safety, Marcos P. S. Arruda would then face years of difficult rehabilitation. His is the tale of many a political prisoner; but, fortunate to escape with his life, he has ever since borne witness against the oppression, corruption, and brutality of authoritarian regimes, their supporters, and their protectors the world over.”—
Ralph Della Cava, Columbia University
“... this tale of mother and son brings to light a never to be forgotten break in Brazil’s long-standing history of democracy.” -- Linda S. Maier * Bulletin of Latin American Research *
“
A Mother’s Cry should rank among the foremost publications of the testimonial genre and is suitable for a broad, interdisciplinary audience interested in human rights, resistance, and social justice.” -- Cathy Marie Ouellette * History *
“This work provides ample detail of the tortures inflicted by the OBAN secret police…This book is a memorable and highly readable human story and source that has gained a new relevancy since its publication.” -- Philip Evanson * The Americas *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
A Political Chronology of the Brazilian Military Dictatorship (1964–85) xiii
Introduction: The Personal and the Political under the Brazilian Military Regime / James N. Green 1
We Must Never Forget: A Memoir / Lina Penna Sattamini 19
1. The Beginning 21
2. Operation Bandeirante 23
3. The Military Hospital 26
4. Incommunicado 32
5. Our First Visit 36
6.. Still Imprisoned 40
7. Transferred to Rio 48
8. Solitude 62
9. Support in the United States 68
10. My Return to Brazil 71
11. The Saga Continues 77
12. Anguish 85
13. Despair 92
14. Freedom 95
15. Exile 100
16. Protest 104
17. Recovery 108
18. Continuing the Struggle 112
19. Another Martyr of the Dictatorship 120
20. In Search of a Permanent Visa 122
21. Returning Home 128
22. Never Forgetting 133
Epilogue: No Path for the Righteous Traveler / Marcos P. S. Arruda 137
Editor's Postscript / James N. Green 175
Bibliography 177
Index 181
