About March 31st, 1964
Hello, my lovesomes!
As some of you know, Mara from my newest book, "Some Thing Called Myself," not only discovered she's becoming a zombie, but she's falling in love with two monster hunters that hate her kind—and she's doing that while dealing with the scars left behind from her experience during the Brazilian Military Dictatorship, which happened from 1964 to 1985. My book begins in 1990, but Mara (28) saw everything happening firsthand during the student riots of the 80s, and that's part of why I'm here today.
Today, March 31st, 2023, marks 59 years since the coup that put the Brazilian Military Force in Brazil's seat of power. The Military Dictatorship lasted for more than two decades, exiled, violated, tortured, and killed a number of people that is unknown UP TO THIS DAY, and the actors behind it, the jailers, the torturers, the killers, the generals, degenerated, are still free today, with only a tiny, minimal number of them facing justice for their acts.
After the regime ended in 1985, the Brazilian Government refused to confirm any deaths. In 95, ten years after the end of the Dictatorship, the Government admitted only 434 deaths and disappearances, and solely of people who were part of political movements (theoretically not including people without political association). In 2002, though, the amnesty commission compensated people directly affected by the Brazilian Military Dictatorship…. Today, the number of people who received compensation has already surpassed 30 THOUSAND people, which is a much more realistic number of how much violence and suffering the regime caused.
We're not in the 20th century anymore, but there is still much impunity, violence, and power abuse from the Entities who should protect us, and it's up to us, as a collective of people, to put things right. Without delving too much into modern Brazilian politics (I already did that a lot in the past four years, mainly to comment on the violence against the Brazilian Indigenous people, the racism, misogyny, and homophobia under the Bolsonaro Government), I'll leave you all saying that we need to look into the history of our countries and to find parallels with what's happening today. Much of what happened during the BR Dictatorship also happened in the past decades, and we all (I definitely include myself in this) must start looking at the past with a critical eye to understand how we arrived at what the world is today.
To me—queer, woman, Brazilian, born and raised and hurt in the lower class of big São Paulo, but lucky enough to have gone to high school and college with a scholarship—March 31st is a day to remember and ponder.
And I invite you all to do the same about your country. If you feel like it, send me a DM or leave a reply with a period of your country's history that also makes you thoughtful like that! :3
I also invite you all to read my new book! If you want to experience Mara's story, please check "Some Thing Called Myself" on Wattpad and YONDER, the next-generation reading app from the creators of WEBTOON and Wattpad.
If you're excited about the book and would like to support my writing career, Wattpad is having a Spring Sale right now, so make sure to check it out before it ends on April 3rd, so you can read my whole collection! 8D haha
Um beijão, Ligia
