The crisis of Confederate memory in the interior of São Paulo, Brazil

The crisis over Confederate memory in the United States has dominated international headlines since the tragic events of racist violence associated with the 2017 Charlottesville tragedy. Yet the scale of debate and attention paid to this crisis has been mostly limited to the United States, despite t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMemory studies Vol. 14; no. 6; pp. 1314 - 1332
Main Author Brasher, Jordan P
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.12.2021
Subjects
Brazil
slavery
transcultural memory
settler colonialism
Confederacy
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Summary:The crisis over Confederate memory in the United States has dominated international headlines since the tragic events of racist violence associated with the 2017 Charlottesville tragedy. Yet the scale of debate and attention paid to this crisis has been mostly limited to the United States, despite the globalized nature of Confederate memory politics. Little known is the fact that after the US Civil War, several thousand ex-Confederates migrated to Brazil where descendants still celebrate their heritage with a festival that draws thousands to a rural area of São Paulo state. A descendant-curated museum also narrates the Confederate migration. Drawing on work in critical settler colonial and comparative racial and ethnic studies, the “transcultural turn” in memory studies, and a year of fieldwork, this article traces the crisis of Confederate memory to the interior of São Paulo, Brazil, and explores the global impact the 2017 Charlottesville tragedy has had on Confederate commemoration.
ISSN:1750-6980
1750-6999
DOI:10.1177/17506980211054336