Camponeses, a Verdade e a História da Ditadura em São Paulo

Abstract

While the post-World War II social history of the Brazilian countrysidehas yet to be written, rural social and labor movements have taken advantageof the fiftieth anniversary of the 1964 coup d’etat to push for inclusion of thepeasant experience in reports written by the National Truth Commission, whichwas appointed by Brazil’s president to document human rights violations before,during and after the dictatorship. Involved in various state and national endeavorsto document repression and other human rights violations in the countryside,historians have contributed to the construction of a framework for understandingthe period 1946 to 1988. This article offers new information about the repressionof the São Paulo state peasantry in the period and a case study the human rightsviolations that occurred as the coup unfolded in the rural areas of Ribeirão Preto,São Paulo. Utilizing a diverse array of historical tools, the analytical narrative of thiscase seeks to demonstrate the challenges of producing history in the context ofthe short schedules allotted truth commission to generate reports, leading themto select “emblematic” rather than representative cases.