Writing Indigenous Activism in Brazil: Belo Monte and the Acampamento Indígena Revolucionário

Authors

  • Tracy Devine Guzmán University of Miami

Keywords:

indigenous writing, Belo Monte, Brazilian Indigenous Movement, Acampamento Indígena Revolucionário, indigenous activism

Abstract

Claiming the authority to adopt the pen (and the laptop) on behalf of their communities and in the interest of “all humanity,” Native Brazilian writers call into question the nationalist rhetoric, colonialist rationale, and neoliberal math that have been used by the state and propped up by its dominant majority to justify recent anti-indigenous public policies in the name of Brazilian sovereignty and development.  Key among these is the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, revived from military rule by the administration of President Luís Inácio Lula da Silva, and currently a lynchpin of the Rousseff administration’s Accelerated Growth Program (PAC). In seeking to halt the dam project through national and global alliances in support of non-economic interests, they speak and write from beyond the circumscribed realm of “authenticity,” with a strategic embrace of Portuguese as an indigenous language; with careful study of the Brazilian Constitution and international law; and with a post-national appeal to the value of peace, justice, reciprocity, and sustainability that they share with Native and non-Native peoples from across the Americas and around the world.

Author Biography

Tracy Devine Guzmán, University of Miami

Tracy Devine Guzmán es profesora asociada de estudios latinoamericanos, portugués y español en la Universidad de Miami. Su libro, Native and National: Representing Indigeneity in Post-Independence Brazil, será publicado por la editorial de la Universidad de Carolina del Norte en 2013.

 

Published

2012-10-15

How to Cite

Devine Guzmán, T. (2012). Writing Indigenous Activism in Brazil: Belo Monte and the Acampamento Indígena Revolucionário. A Contracorriente: Una Revista De Estudios Latinoamericanos, 10(1), 280–309. Retrieved from https://acontracorriente.chass.ncsu.edu/index.php/acontracorriente/article/view/99

Issue

Section

Articles / Artículos