XVII Congress of the Brazilian Studies Association

Sapatonas of the Past: Lesbian Memory Initiatives and the Revival of Lesbian History

• In Event: Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Memory in Brazil

Abstract

A crucial part of memory-making revolves around commemorative dates. Separated in time and context, two key events stand out for lesbian memory in Brazil. On August 19, 1983, Brazil was under a military dictatorship that lasted until 1985. That day, lesbians, supported by feminist and homosexual groups, protested at Ferro's Bar, where they socialized, after the bar’s owner banned the distribution and commercialization of Brazil's first lesbian bulletin, ChanacomChana, at his establishment. On August 29, 1996, other lesbian groups organized the first National Lesbian Seminar (SENALE). These events now mark Lesbian Pride Day (August 19) and Lesbian Visibility Day (August 29) and have increasingly mobilized the lesbian community and highlighted the struggle of the lesbian movement in the past. This presentation focuses on these dates and recent lesbian memory and public history initiatives, placing them as part of a larger process of memory preservation within the LGBTQI+ community. It seeks to answer: Which conditions enabled events like Ferro's Bar Revolution to gain such a central role in the construction of a lesbian collective memory? What identity is being reinforced and how does this reverberate in lesbian historiography, largely marginalized from canonical LGBTQI+ history? I highlight the possibilities of lesbian-focused memory initiatives, like the Arquivo Lésbico Brasileiro (ALB), and the challenges they face, considering the singularity of the stories they seek to make visible, while also arguing for the need to expand beyond these commemorative dates in order to create more diverse and complex lesbian histories.

Author

• Augusta da Silveira de Oliveira, Brown University