On September 7, the Memorial da Resistência de São Paulo opens two free exhibitions to the public. Aimed at exploring, educating and preserving memory, the exhibitions on dictatorships in Brazil and Argentina feature historical clippings on the periods in two parts of the Latin American continent.
Thus, you will be able to see the process of struggle and resistance in both countries, while immersing yourself in documentary records that portray the absurdities of the time. The exhibitions highlight the importance of defending human rights and how their absence for one impacts on the collective.
‘A Visionary Vertigo – Brazil: Never Again’
More than 1 million pages of 707 cases from the Superior Military Court (STM), dating back to the Brazilian Military Dictatorship, explore the repression and violence of the state against its people, especially minorities and vulnerable populations.
The content features testimonies from lawyers, journalists and human rights defenders. Furthermore, by delving into the court cases presented, it is possible to check out the victims’ accounts of torture.
A curiosity is that the Memorial da Resistência de São Paulo is located in the same building where the State Department of Political and Social Order (Deops/SP) operated, known for being a center of repression and torture during the dictatorial period. Today, the space has been given a new meaning and preserves the memory of those dark times.
Exposures to dictatorships in Brazil and Argentina can be difficult to digest, but recovering this memory is essential if it is to not be repeated.
‘Argentine memory for the world: the ESMA Clandestine Center’
If in Brazil we had the Deops/SP and other institutions that tortured political prisoners during the dictatorship, in Argentina, the model of repression was no different. This exhibition portrays the horrors that took place at the Escola Superior de Mecanica de la Armada (ESMA). Between 1976 and 1983, the space operated as Argentina’s largest clandestine detention, torture and extermination center.
Here you can see the history of the building, documentary photographs, videos and testimonies. There is also a section on women political prisoners of the time, revealing gender violence within human rights violence. Themes such as solidarity among detainees and pregnancy in ESMA are portrayed in the exhibition.
