“We have to Talk about it”

Abstract

When a society fails to confront the dark episodes of its history, it leaves its past vulnerable to distortion and exploitation, argues journalist Fernanda Canofre. Brazil has never properly investigated the crimes of its military dictatorship period (1964-1985), and far-right politicians have been manipulating the country's collective memory of this era for their own gain. For the survivors of the regime's torture apparatus, the new nostalgia for repression can be traumatizing.