Sunday, December 27, 2015

some 2015 political images...

2015 started with the Brazilian Rightwing going out into the streets of the main cities to call for the Impeachment of just-re-elected President Dilma Rousseff. Some accounts say more than a million people took to the streets to try and overthrow the President who had been re-elected on 26 October 2014 with 51.64% of the popular vote. 

2015 turned out to be a very hard year because the Right was certain they had the numbers and the streets. But as the year progressed things turned out differently because the Right put all their bets on the President of the Lower House - Eduardo Cunha, who turned out to have clay feet. Mr. Cunha was denounced as having a rich banking account in Switzerland with a lot of graft-money he collected through his meteorict career as a politician. 


some good-humoured marches eat a few 'coxinhas' before the March in Support of Democracy starts on 16 December 2015 at Avenida Paulista in Sao Paulo. 
March in Defense of Democracy on Avenida Paulista on 16 December 2015.
Lulu Pavone aka Carlus Maximus with Clara Charf who was married with revolutionary Carlos Marighella on the anniversary of his death - 4 November 2015

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Lesbian Pride Day - 19 August 1983

The modern Lesbian Moviment in Brazil started circa 1979 along with the Gay Movement as part of a group called Somos (We Are) that was inspired by a pioneer Argentine gay group that had existed in the 1970s. 

By mid-1980 there was a political split at Somos and its Lesbian-Feminist faction went its own independent way. Somos actually split in three: the male right-wing faction left Somos and started a group they called Chicorias (chicory); the male left-wing faction kept the name Somos and finally the formerly 'section' known as Lesbico-Feminista went their separate way. 

Ferro's Bar had been known as a Lesbian haunt since the late 1950s. Ferro's was actually a restaurant that opened its doors for lunch and kept long hours. Women would arrived early, sit at the many tables and linger on for hours. Some ordered pizzas and full dinners but most only drank their booze and talk with an never-ending procession of characters. 

With the advent of the Gay & Lesbian Liberation Movements circa 1978-1979 it was only natural that politically oriented lesbians would be more assertive and talk politics at Ferro's. By 1983, Lesbico-Feminista had been active for 3 years. 

Brazil had been living under a right-wing military dictatorship since April 1964. The regime did not approve of people talking about 'political' stuff and the commercial elite would follow the line laid down by the generals. So when Ferro's Bar owner saw that Lesbians were talking about sexual politics and handing out their newsletter 'Chana-com-chana' (loosely translated as 'cunt-with-cunt') he decided he did not want those sort of Lesbians in his bar-restaurant.

That's when a few girls decided to go all the way and checkmate Ferro's Bar repressive and anti-democratic stance. They rang members of the local media and told them some Lesbians would 'invade' Ferro's Bar and read a manifesto to its patrons.

Roseli Roth was the one who read the manifesto inside Ferro's Bar in the presence of the media. Ferro's Bar owner changed his stance for a while... at least while journalists and members of the media were there.

This simple event has been looked back as something really important in the Lesbian Movement history in the city of Sao Paulo and 19 August 1983 - the day Ferro's Bar was 'invaded' by a bunch of Lesbian revolutionaries - became Lesbian Pride Day
Rosely Roth talks to Ferro's Bar patrons while journalists (plump Carlos Brickman takes some precious notes)  keep watching the scene... on 19 August 1983.
'O Pasquim' no.854, November 1985. 



Saturday, November 7, 2015

Costa e Silva's mysterious death - December 1969

18 December 1969 - deposed President Costa e Silva dies.
18 December 1969 - conservative daily 'O Estado de S.Paulo' doesn't explain much...
 12 June 1970 - German ambassador in Sao Paulo is kidnapped by left-wing guerrillas fighting the Military Dictatoship.

Sunday, September 6, 2015

1971 look at Sao Paulo - Lamarca's dead!

Sao Paulo in early February 1971... at Anhangabau Valley corner of Avenida Sao Joao...
a shootout erupts at the new mall on Rua Nova Barão... policeman shoots at alleged gangster (bandido) with everyone running for cover... that's on one of the finest places in town... 
'Apresentamos o novo prefeito' (We introduce to you São Paulo's new mayor)... that's the way the Dictatoship did its business... Military Dictator Garrastazu Medici appointed a new mayor for Sao Paulo... with a stroke of the pen... you either put up with it or shut up... for fear of your life. 
Sao Paulo downtown flooded once again... like every February... 26 February 1971. 
 a bomb explode at the Bolivian Consulate - 1st September 1971.
21st September 1971 - Lamarca's dead!




28 September 1971.

30 September 1971.

Saturday, September 5, 2015

1970 Armed struggle seen by conservative media

'Jornal da Tarde' was an evening paper launched by conservative 'O Estado de S.Paulo' that saw the light of day on 4 January 1966. Even though conservative politically 'Jornal da Tarde' had a modern look that Wikipedia says was the influence of the 'new journalism' started by Gay Talese and Truman Capote. 

After the Military Dictatorship showed signs of no compromise whatsoever and decreed its draconic Institutional Act #5 on 3rd December 1968 - there was a surge in the incipient armed struggle against the regime. Left-wing guerrillas would rob banks to finance their struggle. These acts were reported by Jornal da Tarde in a most biased way. The paper always took the side of the Dictatorship portraying the guerrillas as 'Terror' or 'Terrorists'.

When the Dictatorship's prisons were full of political prisoners guerrilla operatives devised a new strategy: to kidnapp foreign personnel working at embassies and consulates to exchange their freedom for the freedom of their mates being tortured and killed by the Dictatorship Establishment. 

Here are some instances I took randomly when I researched 'Jornal da Tarde' for the months of March and April 1970.   

3 March 1970.
12 March 1970.
13 March 1970.
14 March 1970 - among the 5 prisoners by the government and then exchanged for the Japanese consul was Madre Maurina Borges de Oliveira, a R.C. nun. that reactionary playwright Nelson Rodrigues (who actually wrote for the same newspaper) called disparagingly 'freira de passeata' (marching nun). She had been raped by her torturer in prison. 
14 March 1970.

16 March 1970 - the prisoners arrived in Mexico...


Monday, February 9, 2015

Diretas já - 1985

beautiful shot of actor Paulo José and football player Socrates on top of a truck in the corner of Rua Quintino Bocaiuva and Rua Benjamin Constant in 1985.
same place in the 1950s
a photoshopped version of 'Casa das Arcadas'...