Peasants, the Truth and the History of Dictatorship in São Paulo

Abstract

While the post-World War II social history of the Brazilian countryside
has yet to be written, rural social and labor movements have taken advantage
of the fiftieth anniversary of the 1964 coup d’etat to push for inclusion of the
peasant experience in reports written by the National Truth Commission, which
was appointed by Brazil’s president to document human rights violations before,
during and after the dictatorship. Involved in various state and national endeavors
to document repression and other human rights violations in the countryside,
historians have contributed to the construction of a framework for understanding
the period 1946 to 1988. This article offers new information about the repression
of the São Paulo state peasantry in the period and a case study the human rights
violations 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 this
case seeks to demonstrate the challenges of producing history in the context of
the short schedules allotted truth commission to generate reports, leading them
to select “emblematic” rather than representative cases.