Christians, Homemakers, and Transgressors: Extreme Right-Wing Women in Twentieth-Century Brazil (original) (raw)

2004, Journal of Women's History

M any photographs in a recently published collection of images of Ação Integralista Brasileira (Brazilian Integralist Action, AIB), the Brazilian fascist movement of the 1930s, depict women. 1 We see them in their green blouses holding meetings, giving speeches, voting, celebrating their children's baptisms, distributing food to the poor, and raising arms in the fascist salute. The snapshots capture the proud look on women's faces as they go through initiation rites. In one photograph, a newly married Integralist couple walks down the aisle of the church between lines of saluting comrades. In other pictures, some of the women appear to be of lower-class origins; even more intriguing is the presence of women of color. These photographs suggest a wealth of themes for historians to explore. Why did women of varying ethnic and class backgrounds become fascists, particularly when such movements are usually racist? How did women reproduce and strengthen the AIB? Considering that fascists have usually opposed feminism, which in Brazil at this time was linked to suffrage, how does one account for Integralist women casting votes? Relatively few scholars have addressed these kinds of tantalizing questions for Integralism or other extreme rightist movements in Brazil. Thus, the following historiographical review is as much a study of gaps as of work completed. Preparing this survey reminds me of the potential of women's history to transform narratives, as well as the insights missed when historians ignore women. That women had participated in Latin American rightist movements yet were absent from the histories of them became clear to me when I began my dissertation research in 1977. I was surprised to find that Argentine group I was studying contained women, for nothing in my readings had prepared me for their presence. These rightist women tried to woo workers from leftist parties and unions through charitable and educational projects, activities previously unknown. These insights led me to search for women in kindred groups in other countries, including Brazil. This essay will concentrate on two principal moments of women's activity in extreme rightist groups in Brazil. The first was the 1930s, when Integralism and other fascist groups flourished. The second consisted of women's mobilization in the early 1960s against President João Goulart. 2 Sociologist Hélgio Trindade wrote the classic study of Integralism, and