A Mother's Cry

by Sattamini, Lina Penna; Green, James N.; Nielson, Rex P.

• ISBN13: 9780822347361
• ISBN10: 0822347369
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-05-19
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Brazil's dictatorship arrested, tortured, and interrogated many people it suspected of subversion; hundreds of those arrested were killed in prison. In May 1970, Marcos P. S. Arruda, a young political activist, was seized in Satilde;o Paulo, imprisoned, and tortured.A Mother's Cryis the harrowing story of Marcos's incarceration and his family's efforts to locate him and obtain his release. Marcos's mother, Lina Penna Sattamini, was living in the United States and working for the U.S. State Department, when her son was captured. After learning of his arrest, she and her family mobilized every resource and contact to discover where he was being held, and then they launched an equally intense effort to have him released. Marcos was freed from prison in 1971. Fearing that he would be arrested and tortured again, he left the country, beginning eight years of exile. Lina Penna Sattamini describes her son's tribulations through letters exchanged among family members, including Marcos, during the year that he was imprisoned. Her narrative is punctuated by Marcos's account of his arrest, imprisonment, and torture. James N. Green's introduction provides an overview of the political situation in Brazil, and Latin America more broadly, during those tumultuous times. In the 1990s, some Brazilians began to suggest that it would be best to forget the trauma of that era and move on. Lina Penna Sattamini wrote her memoir as a protest against historical amnesia. First published in Brazil in 2000,A Mother's Cryis testimonial literature at its best. It conveys the experiences of a family united by love and determination during years of political repression.

Author Biography

Lina Penna Sattamini, a former freelance interpreter with the U.S. State Department, lives in Rio de Janeiro. James N. Green is Professor of Brazilian History and Culture at Brown University. Marcos P. S. Arruda is General Coordinator at the Institute of Alternative Policies for the Southern Cone of Latin America. He lives in Rio de Janeiro.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
A Political Chronology of the Brazilian Military Dictatorship (1964-85)	p. xiii
Introduction: The Personal and the Political under the Brazilian Military Regime	p. 1
We Must Never Forget: A Memoir	p. 19
The Beginning	p. 21
Operation Bandeirantes	p. 23
The Military Hospital	p. 26
Incommunicado	p. 32
Our First Visit	p. 36
Still Imprisoned	p. 40
Transferred To Rio	p. 48
Solitude	p. 62
Support In The United States	p. 68
My Return to Brazil	p. 71
The Saga Continues	p. 77
Anguish	p. 85
Despair	p. 92
Freedom	p. 95
Exile	p. 100
Protest	p. 104
Recovery	p. 108
Continuing The Struggle	p. 112
Another Martyr of the Dictatorship	p. 120
In Search of a Permanent Visa	p. 122
Returning Home	p. 128
Never Forgetting	p. 133
No Path for the Righteous Traveler: Epilogue	p. 137
Editor's Postscript	p. 175
Bibliography	p. 177
Index	p. 181
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