From the margins to the archive: counter-archive and counter-memory in the juridical-military processes of the dictatorship in Juiz de Fora

Abstract

This article investigates the political uses of memory through the analysis of documents produced by political activists in Juiz de Fora during the 1960s and 1970s, under the Brazilian civil-military dictatorship (1964–1985). The documentation of the dictatorship has traditionally been approached as an official source of history, often silencing practices of resistance and dissident voices. The research adopts the theoretical-conceptual frameworks of counter-archive and counter-memory in order to question the institutional modes of producing historical truth and to highlight the discursive practices of resistance rendered invisible by the regime. The analysis is based on Processes 5/69 and 32/70, produced under surveillance, which allow for an understanding of the political uses of memory in repressive contexts. The study examines three documents, the clandestine newspapers O Porrete and Luta, and the manuscript Até Sempre 3, interpreting them as insurgent statements that challenge the regimes of truth established by official archives. With a qualitative and interdisciplinary approach, the analysis reveals that these materials not only resist historical silencing but also operate symbolically in the reconfiguration of collective memory and historical narrative. The results show that these documents act as insurgent enunciations capable of challenging the truth regimes established by official archives and of symbolically reconfiguring the meanings of historical memory. It is concluded that such communicational practices contribute to broadening the understanding of memory conflicts in authoritarian contexts, offering alternative narratives to institutionalized silencing.