Description
Book SynopsisA history of the U.S. grassroots campaign against torture in Brazil, and the ways those efforts helped to create a new discourse about human-rights violations in Latin America.
Trade Review“For American audiences who ask why Brazil matters, Brown University history professor James N. Green answers with an extensive study of a country ruled by law absent of habeas corpus and filled with unspeakable torture. Green highlights both the U.S. government’s complicity in the 1964 coup that overthrew a reform-minded president and the decades long efforts of American activists and Brazilian exiles to unmask the horror.” - John Pantalone,
Providence Journal“
We Cannot Remain Silent is an important contribution to Brazilian scholarship. . . . Yet its value goes well beyond the field of Brazilian history. Green’s study reminds Latin Americanists of the importance of looking beyond the geographical boundaries of authoritarian nation-states when analyzing opposition movements. For U.S. scholars, his work provides insight into an oft-overlooked aspect of American responses to military regimes in Latin America. . . . Green’s balanced integration of scholarship and resources from both Brazil and the United States provides a useful model for transnational history. . . . [V]arious contributions make Green’s work an important and enjoyable study for scholars throughout the Americas.” - Colin Michael Snider, H-LatAm,
H-Net Reviews“
We Cannot Remain Silent makes a substantial contribution, both methodologically and theoretically, to understanding the role of aesthetics and emotions in framing and resource mobilization processes. It is also an important example of the use of oral histories in studying the construction of activist identities. In addition, the book provides methodological elements in the analysis of affinity networks and frame convergence that can be used in other social movement case studies.” - Ana Margarida Esteves,
Mobilization“James N. Green provides a volume that in itself is an exemplar of
historical presentation in that he provides multiple perspectives. He also
created innovative narrative strategies that carry the reader along with
pleasure through a long and richly detailed history.” - Edward L. Cleary,
A Contracorriente“
We Cannot Remain Silent is an important book that deserves to be read by a wide audience. Human rights activists, Latin American specialists, and students of U.S. foreign relations can learn much from Green’s analysis of the campaign to end human rights abuses in Brazil. This book makes a strong case that global social activism can make a difference in ways that are sometimes unpredictable and hard to fathom except in retrospect.”
- Stephen M. Streeter,
Journal of American History“
We Cannot Remain Silent is an exemplary piece of historical research that simultaneously performs an act of recuperation and interpretation. James N. Green’s gripping study not only discloses an aspect of (U.S.-based) opposition to the Brazilian military regime that had previously gone largely unacknowledged, but also demonstrates how a transnational approach to this history can reveal and reconstitute a series of narratives that are crucial for understanding the politics of this era.”—
Barbara Weinstein, author of
For Social Peace in Brazil: Industrialists and the Remaking of the Working Class in São Paulo, 1920–1964“
We Cannot Remain Silent is the most complete and comprehensive analysis ever made of the multiple paths and confluences among the political and cultural resistance in Brazil and the United States after the military coup d’état in Brazil in 1964. Based on new sources and a broad range of interviews, James N. Green reveals unexpected coalitions, introduces new actors, and tells fascinating human stories. His book is obligatory reading and a tool for reaching the truth about the background of torture and political killings carried out during twenty-one years of military dictatorship. It is essential for understanding the struggle for human rights in Brazil then and now.”—
Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, Commissioner, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Organization of American States
“
We Cannot Remain Silent provides a new understanding of the development of human rights discourses in Brazil and the Americas. Working with a range of sources, both oral and written, James N. Green shows how a small group of activists in the educational and religious spheres successfully created a transnational space for changing U.S. policy toward Brazil’s military dictatorship and, with it, the systematic torture of political activists. This book challenges the traditional understanding of political opposition in Latin America during the sixties and seventies. In doing so,
We Cannot Remain Silent opens up new methodological vistas toward all post–World War II dictatorships.”—
Jeffrey Lesser, author of
A Discontented Diaspora: Japanese Brazilians and the Meanings of Ethnic Militancy, 1960–1980“
We Cannot Remain Silent makes a substantial contribution, both methodologically and theoretically, to understanding the role of aesthetics and emotions in framing and resource mobilization processes. It is also an important example of the use of oral histories in studying the construction of activist identities. In addition, the book provides methodological elements in the analysis of affinity networks and frame convergence that can be used in other social movement case studies.” -- Ana Margarida Esteves * Mobilization *
“
We Cannot Remain Silent is an important book that deserves to be read by a wide audience. Human rights activists, Latin American specialists, and students of U.S. foreign relations can learn much from Green’s analysis of the campaign to end human rights abuses in Brazil. This book makes a strong case that global social activism can make a difference in ways that are sometimes unpredictable and hard to fathom except in retrospect.”
-- Stephen M. Streeter * Journal of American History *
“
We Cannot Remain Silent is an important contribution to Brazilian scholarship. . . . Yet its value goes well beyond the field of Brazilian history. Green’s study reminds Latin Americanists of the importance of looking beyond the geographical boundaries of authoritarian nation-states when analyzing opposition movements. For U.S. scholars, his work provides insight into an oft-overlooked aspect of American responses to military regimes in Latin America. . . . Green’s balanced integration of scholarship and resources from both Brazil and the United States provides a useful model for transnational history. . . . Various contributions make Green’s work an important and enjoyable study for scholars throughout the Americas.” -- Colin Michael Snider * H-LatAm, H-Net Reviews *
“For American audiences who ask why Brazil matters, Brown University history professor James N. Green answers with an extensive study of a country ruled by law absent of habeas corpus and filled with unspeakable torture. Green highlights both the U.S. government’s complicity in the 1964 coup that overthrew a reform-minded president and the decades long efforts of American activists and Brazilian exiles to unmask the horror.” -- John Pantalone * Providence Journal *
“James N. Green provides a volume that in itself is an exemplar of historical presentation in that he provides multiple perspectives. He also created innovative narrative strategies that carry the reader along with pleasure through a long and richly detailed history.” -- Edward L. Cleary * A Contracorriente *
Table of ContentsAbout the Series ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: Tropical Delights and Torture Chambers, or Imagining Brazil in the United States
Prólogo "Era um país subdesenvolvido" 13
1. Revolution and Counterrevolution in Brazil 19
Capítulo I "A gente quer ter voz ativa" 49
2. The Birth of a Movement 55
Capítulo II "Caminhando e cantando e seguindo a canção" 77
3. The World Turned Upside Down 85
Capítulo III "Agora falando sério" 107
4. Defending Artistic and Academic Freedom 115
Capítulo IV "Acorda amor" 137
5. The Campaign against Torture 143
Capítulo V "Vai meu irmão" 167
6. Latin Americanists Take a Stand 177
Capítulo VI "Pode me prender, pode me bater" 197
7. Human Rights and the Organization of American States 201
Capítulo VII "Fado tropical" 225
8. Congressional Questioning 233
Capítulo VIII "While my eyes go looking for flying saucers in the sky" 255
9. Denouncing the Dictatorship 259
Capítulo IX "Navegar é preciso" 291
10. Performing Opposition 293
Capítulo X "Quem é essa mulhar" 315
11. The Slow-Motion Return to Democracy 321
Capítulo XI "Amanhã há de ser outro dia" 355
Conclusions: Making a Difference 359
Notes 367
Bibliography 411
Index 431
