Seirdh carries out extensive programming to mark 60 years of the 1964 Civil-Military Coup

Secretariat for Racial Equality and Human Rights (Seirdh) promotes exhibition and seminar for moments of reflection on the recent past

To mark the 60th anniversary of the civil-military coup in Brazil, the State Secretariat for Racial Equality and Human Rights (Seirdh) will hold, starting next Thursday, the 28th, an intense program, with the exhibition “Memories of the Dictatorship ”, the seminar “60 years of the 1964 Civil-Military Coup” and, also, a musical show by the Amazônia Jazz Band. The initiative is a partnership with the State Secretariat of Culture (Secult), the Institute of Social Security Management and Social Protection of the State of Pará (IGEPPS) and the Postgraduate Program in History at the Federal University of Pará (PPHist/UFPA) .

The program will begin on Thursday, with the opening of the exhibition “Memórias da Ditadura”, at Casa das Onze Janelas, starting at 9am. The exhibition features historical documents, which refer to processes initiated during the dictatorship in Pará. They are works of art; photographs; newspaper articles from the period, which deal with the topic; academic texts, among other pieces.

According to the director of Secult’s Integrated System of Museums and Memorials (SIM), Armando Sobral, the exhibition will present “historical elements and also the reflection on contemporary artistic production and from the time of the coup”.

According to Sobral, the exhibition connects the field of historiography and culture. “They are interconnected in critical thinking, about what the coup was and the symptoms of the coup, which return in the present with far-right movements, like what happened on January 8, 2023. So, it is a look at history, but it is also a look at the present”, he defined.

From April 1st, the “Seminar on the 60th anniversary of the 1964 Civil-Military Coup” will begin, which will bring big names linked to the coup theme to Belém for debates and lectures, such as the journalist, former federal deputy and member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Paulo Vannuchi, in addition to the current advisor to the Ministry of Human Rights, Nilmário Miranda, who was also a political prisoner by the military dictatorship, former state and federal deputy, journalist and writer.

During the Seminar, subjects will be debated such as “The Marks of Dictatorship in the History of the Present Time in Pará (names of municipalities, streets, cities, squares and schools that pay homage to Brazilian dictators)”, “Military dictatorships in Argentina, Brazil and Chile” ; “The reparation policies of the Brazilian State”, among others. There will also be the launch of two books: “Constituinte – Avanços, Heranças e Crises Institucionais”, by Genoíno Netto; and “The Amazon and 60 years of military dictatorship in Brazil”, by the deputy secretary of Seirdh, Edilza Fontes, in partnership with professor Dr. Thiago Broni.

The entire program is free and, on the 5th, the end of the event, there will be a show with the Amazônia Jazz Band, starting at 8 pm, at Casa das Onze Janelas, with a repertoire focused on resistance music.

“We have 60 years of memory of the military dictatorship in Brazil and the recent events in the country, specifically the 8th of January as the main one, show that what we are doing is very important, because, without the memory of what happened in the past, We cannot maintain the democratic rule of law and our civil liberties. It is important to be aware that, for these freedoms, Brazilians were killed, disappeared, tortured, illegally imprisoned, persecuted and exiled. So, what we are doing is remembering this past, thinking about building non-repetition mechanisms and efficient public policies, which raise awareness of the importance of us all coming together around the democratic rule of law”, highlighted the Secretary of State for Racial Equality and Human Rights, Jarbas Vasconcelos.

All events have free entry. Check out the complete schedule.

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