Unusual suspects: Expelled officers and soldiers under military rule in Brazil, 1964–1985

Abstract

Between 1964 and 1985 the Brazilian dictatorship expelled from the military ranks thousands of officers and soldiers who were seen as subversives. Through an examination of state archival sources and interviews, Unusual Suspects examines how these servicemen remembered expulsion and how their experiences shaped them socially and culturally. When joining the military many officers and soldiers conflated notions of masculinity with military honor. This dissertation argues that as they were expelled these men were denied access to their military identities, which led them to experience a disconnection with their ideas of manhood. Expulsion from the military, imprisonment, torture, and marginalization from Brazilian society inflicted upon these servicemen what I call a gendered trauma. This project draws from written and oral sources collected throughout Brazil—Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Porto Alegre, Curitiba and Salvador—College Park, MD, and Mexico City. This dissertation shows how expelled servicemen reacted to the violence they endured, often engaging in actions that helped them to reclaim their manhood. While some were more successful in overcoming this trauma, others endured it for a longer period of time. Ultimately, this dissertation concludes that the dictatorship had overarching effects in servicemen’s lives that transcended the era of the dictatorship itself.