Compulsive memory: The endurance of 1969 in Brazil

Political events turned 1969 into a year that has been periodically revisited in Brazilian culture. Living under a full-fledged military dictatorship implanted in December 1968 that made it impossible for Brazilians to organize peaceful demonstrations, small armed groups took central stage with the kidnapping of the US ambassador while the president general Costa e Silva suffered a stroke. The stunning success of that operation contrasted with the gruesome murder of the guerrilla leader Carlos Marighella shortly afterwards. This article focuses on memoirs from survivors of those events (Fernando Gabeira and Frei Betto) and on film adaptations of those books by directors Bruno Barreto and Helvécio Ratton. Investigating how history is represented in these cultural products and what they try to suppress or highlight, I wish to reflect on the compulsion memory both as revelation and as mystification of the past.