The 1942 Anti-Axis Demonstrations: Taking to the Streets

From February 1942 on, street demonstrations gradually multiplied in Brazilian cities despite the restrictions imposed by the dictatorship. Month after month, the number of participants and the diversity of the people and groups organizing the protests grew. The process culminated in mid-August after a German submarine sank six ships in the space of only a few days, leaving more than 600 dead, with bodies scattered along the beaches of the Brazilian Northeast. In a wave of protests of unprecedented scale and intensity, streets in dozens of Brazilian cities were taken over by demonstrators demanding that war be declared on Germany and Italy. Only a few days later, their demand was granted. Retaliation against “Axis subjects” and the defense of Pan-Americanism and the Allies redefined the meanings of patriotism and the contours of the Brazilian “imaginary community.” In a country with a limited experience of war, taking a position in a global conflict made tangible an “other” to demonize in the affirmation of national identity. Nationalism thus became an effective vehicle for the expression of demands and resentments and offered an opportunity to question both class and ethnic-racial hierarchies.