How the memory of military dictatorship shapes Brazil's political divides and the far-right's rise.

Brazil’s military dictatorship ended in 1985, but its history still looms large over the country. Since the restoration of democracy, national politics have been shaped by heated contestation over the dictatorship’s legacy. Cristina Buarque de Hollanda and José Szwako examine how the state, the military, and civil society have variously mourned, celebrated, and suppressed memories of Brazil’s violent past—and to what ends.

As the dictatorship faltered under pressure from the opposition in the streets and in Congress, popular opinion favored democracy, which often meant forgetting. Today, the Brazilian left contends that the past has been silenced, paving the way for Jair Bolsonaro and the far right. Yet the past has been intensely contested: media outlets, social movements, and official commissions have long documented the dictatorship and spurred reparations. Disputed Pasts argues that the conservative ascendency is a reaction to these efforts of remembrance. The right seeks to rehabilitate the violent past by discrediting victims and elevating the dictatorship’s anti-communist ideology. Far from forgetting the past, Bolsonaro and Bolsonarismo actively remember and celebrate it.

Cristina Buarque de Hollanda is an adjunct associate professor of political science at New York University Abu Dhabi and a collaborating associate professor of political science at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. She is the author of Teoria das elites and Modos da representação política: O experimento da Primeira República brasileira.

José Szwako is a professor of sociology at the Institute of Social and Political Studies of the State University of Rio de Janeiro. He is the coauthor of Dicionário dos negacionismos no Brasil and Movimentos sociais e institucionalização: Políticas sociais, raça e gênero no Brasil pós-transição.

• Introduction
• Part I: Forgetting
  • 1. Scenes, Alliances, and Actors at the Roots of the Transition
  • 2. The “Mean-Spirited” Amnesty and Platforms of Forgetting
  • 3. From Forgetfulness to Publicity: Fear, Hope, and Punishment in the 1980s
• Part II: Remembering
  • 4. Toward the Special Commission on Political Dead and Disappeared: Steps and Countersteps in Remembering the Past
  • 5. The Political Roots of the Memory Turn: The Amnesty Commission and the Enduring Barriers to Remembering
• Part III: Celebrating
  • 6. Politics and Policies of Remembering: The National Truth Commission and Commissionism
  • 7. Human Rights in Dispute: Celebrating the Violent Past
• Conclusions
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations and Acronyms
• Timeline
• Cast of Characters
• Notes
• Index