"O latifúndio é o diabo" : resistências camponesas em Minas Gerais (1964-1988)

Abstract

This dissertation seeks to analyze peasant resistance in land conflict situations that took place in Minas Gerais between 1964, the beginning of the Brazilian military dictatorship, and 1988, the year of the promulgation of the new Brazilian Constitution. In order to do so, it uses a wide range of sources, including documents produced and confiscated by the Minas Gerais Political Police, oral interviews, Pastoral Land Commission collections, both at regional and national levels, as well as documentation produced by rural unions and others social movements. By crossing these sources, it was possible to notice the diversity of resistance in the countryside during a period of intense repression and attempts to control peasant mobilization. Despite the repression, peasant resistance did not disappear during the military regime and was essential for future land conquests in the state. In the struggle to remain in the lands where they lived and from which they were being expelled, the peasants had the support of some groups of mediators, who played a fundamental role in these resistances, which are also the object of analysis in this work. In the period analyzed in this study, the peasants attempted to resist the Latifundium, which was the main agent responsible of threats and attempts to evict them from the land. This dissertation focuses on these resistances to large estates in the state of Minas Gerais, seeking to reflect both on its generalities and on the specifics of some cases that are considered emblematic.