Originally published as:
McCarthy, Cavan Michael. Writing from the front line: an overview of Brazilian political publications, pamphlets and ephemera from the period of the abertura, 1978-89. In: Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials, 35, Rio de Janeiro, June 3-8, 1990. Papers... Continuity and change in Brazil and the Southern Cone: research trends and library collections for the year 2000. Albuquerque, New Mexico, SALALM Secretariat, c1992. p. 60-80.

Introduction

    Rapid change, at least on a formal or governmental level, is characteristic of Latin American countries, and the recent history of Brazil offers a fascinating example of this process. Over a period of a decade a tightly controlled military government gave place to an extremely open style of government, where all currents of thought and opinion were tolerated. From a government of generals, chosen by senior officers in a closed process, Brazil evolved into a pluralist democracy which almost elected a working class candidate to the
presidency. (1)

    This transformation is generally referred to as the abertura, short for abertura politica or political opening. The period covered is roughly from late 1978, when the draconian emergency legislation (Ato institucional Numero 5) was revoked and General Joao Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo chosen as president. He granted amnesty to political exiles and liberalized the country. Tancredo Neves was elected indirectly in 1985 as civilian president but fell ill, and his deputy, Jose Sarney, was sworn in. In the five years to 1989 the remaining emergency legislation was swept away and a wide range of candidates stood for fairly contested presidential elections at the end of 1989. In the run-off Fernando Collor, from a traditional political family, won by a small margin against a former factory worker, Lula (Luis Inacio Lula da Silva). (2). It would be incorrect to treat the abertura as a purely political phenomenon, fought out in legislative chambers over the heads of the people. It affected all sectors of Brazilian society and was a result of the activities of innumerable organizations and groups. Some were large, others small, some were limited to one neighborhood, others covered the entire country. Some organizations had purely political aims whereas others were dedicated to one social problem, such as land reform or housing, or specific groups, for instance blacks or women.

    Whatever their type, these organizations produced a fascinating kaleidoscope of publications, ranging from newspapers and magazines, through political pamphlets, to purely ephemeral materials such handouts and posters. The majority of their production was of printed materials, but significant quantities of audiovisual media were produced, as were visible signs of democratic electoral process, such as buttons, flags, and T-shirts.

    This paper offers a brief overview of these materials, characterizing them first by physical type, for example, newspapers, pamphlets, films, and so on. The organizations . responsible for their production are discussed and finally libraries and other institutions that have preserved significant collections are cited. As a professor of library science, I am interested in nonstandard or noncommercial publications such as literatura de cordel, regional imprints, or small press poetry. Resident in Brazil throughout this period, I examined numerous publications and retained samples of many. The abertura Impacted upon a wide range of other activities that could not be covered in this brief paper; for instance, books by commercial publishers and popular music are
discussed here only when they are of relevance to ephemeral publications.
 

Publications by Physical Type

Newspapers and Magazines

    Newspaper format offers a familiar, popular means to communicate effectively and regularly with a wide audience; it was therefore frequently used for opposition publications of the period. The most famous newspaper publication was the long-lived Pasquim, which spanned and transcended this period, opposing and provoking the military in the blackest period of repression while managing to survive beyond the abertura. (3) It owed much of its flexibility to the fact that it published humor and comment instead of following a specific political line. The strident Hora do Povo, issued by the noisy MR8 splinter group, was probably the first hard-left publication to have national impact, coming out weekly from 1979 to 1980. (4) A more stable weekly newspaper was the Brazilian Communist Party's Voz da Unidade, legal from 1980 and still appearing regularly. (5) The appearance of a left-wing press met with a violent reaction from the still active Brazilian right in 1980; numerous threats were made and several newsstands were actually firebombed for selling political publications. (6) Newspaper format was also adopted when publishers wanted to get a message out to a wider audience; Lampiao, Brazil's first homosexual publication, offered a clear example of this tendency. (7) Beijo da Rua (Kiss of the Street), a publication for prostitutes in Rio de Janeiro, owed much of its impact to a lively tabloid format with numerous photographs. (8) Because of its familiarity newspaper format was frequently adopted even by relatively small organizations, for example, for Tempos Novos, the monthly newspaper for basic ecclesiastical communities of Maranhao. (9)

    The newspapers discussed in this paper appeared weekly or monthly rather than daily; such frequencies were more suitable to the finances and organizational level of the institutions involved. For this reason the distinction between newspapers and magazines is not clearcut; a notable example here was offered by the major journal of the early part of the abertura, Opiniao, a weekly magazine printed on newsprint from 1972 through 1979. (10) It frequently attracted the wrath of the authorities in those difficult times, often having half its articles censored. It was unable to survive to reap the benefits of the free press for which it had fought, although it can be considered the predecessor of glossier, middle-class-oriented weeklies such as Isto E and Afinal.

    The traditional periodical format, with publication quarterly, semiannually, or irregularly, was frequently adopted by socially oriented groups and institutions of all types. These periodicals tended to be text oriented, printing articles of interest to people who already supported their policies. Of special Interest were Cadernos do CEAS, issued every two months by the Centro do Estudos e Acao Social in Salvador. (11)  More than 124 Issues of this Jesuit-supported periodical have come out; it is an important information source for the study of ephemeral materials because its last few pages list publications of other organizations. Among periodicals of value for a study of this period can be noted Lua Nova (12), Novos Rumos (13), Reforma Agraria (14), Teoria e Politica (15), Novos Estudos CEBRAP (16), Ensaio (17) and numerous others. Editorial standards are generally high in Brazil and political periodicals were usually well presented. Mimeographed periodicals had little impact at the time; one lively example, despite its simple production methods, was Mulher-Libertacao, a periodical for prostitutes produced in Sao Paulo (18). But the cruder productions methods were more
frequently used for pamphlets than for periodicals.

    On the one hand, the periodicals of the period of the abertura were generally of low circulation, not systematically found in bookshops, had erratic subscription arrangements, and were little known except to militants of their organizations. On the other hand, the increased financial resources available on the left in recent years permitted the existence of a few socially oriented magazines which have been able to reach a relatively high level of presentation, giving them a general appearance not far from that of the typical newsstand mass-production magazine. Here we can cite Teoria e Debate (19) of the Partido dos Trabalhadores and Tempo e Presenca of CEDI (Centro Ecumenico de Documentacao e Informacao) (20). Some of the better-organized periodicals, such as Cadernos do CEAS and Presenca da MuIher (21) even quoted a subscription price in dollars.

    Labor union newspapers have recently become a major publishing area in Brazil. Union membership was compulsory for private-sector workers and unions received a regular, inflation-proof income, deducted
from pay slips, equivalent to one day's pay each year, for every worker. Numerous committed young journalists streamed annually from Brazil's fertile journalism faculties, so most labor unions were able to publish a newspaper or bulletin. This phenomenon was scarcely noted by the general public or by libraries, and the only systematic information I know of came from an article in the Jornal do Brasil (22). It reported a total printing of 12 million copies per month and stated that four unions issued daily newspapers. The metalworkers in the industrial cities near Sao Paulo, where Lula first rose to prominence, were in the forefront of this process, printing 35,000 copies of a daily newspaper written by a team of twelve journalists.

    The same article mentioned that the Sao Paulo bank workers newspaper, now printed daily in two colors, began by reprinting extracts from other newspapers. Clippings files constituted a major source of
information in Brazil, in many organizations they were the only source of accurate recent information. This fact was reflected by the appearance of numerous bulletins which consisted basically of summaries, or
even reprints, of news items taken from the daily press. The selection reflected committed points of view, and the editorial team wrote relevant supporting commentaries. Such publications were quite popular in Brazil, a geographically huge country without national newspapers. Here we can cite Quinzena (23), Boletin do AGEN (24), and Aconteceu (25), all appearing regularly, at the moment of writing. These publications were valuable on a day-to-day basis in Brazil but they constituted secondary, rather than primary, information sources; for this
reason they may not be rated a high priority by research libraries overseas. A related publication, very useful at the grass-roots level in Brazil, but considered a secondary information source overseas, is the dossie, a monographic collection of press clippings on a specific subject, reproduced by photocopy or by electronic stencil and mimeograph.

    The use of press clippings as a source was taken a stage further by the Instituto Brasileiro de Analises Sociais e Economicas (IBASE), a Rio de Janeiro organization that fed summaries of press reports into microcomputers and distributed the information nationally as a database for members of socially committed organizations. It was possible to subscribe to all information, or just to segments, such as popular movements, labor unions, or agrarian questions (26). This was also the first socially committed organization in Brazil to use electronic mail.
 

Pamphlets

    Pamphlets probably constituted the most fascinating ephemeral publications of the period. They were generally produced to communicate simplified messages to a wide audience of persons of relatively low educational level. For this reason they frequently had punchy titles, and the wrappers, within the limitations of their unsophisticated production methods, attempted to attract the attention of potential readers. The internal text frequently incorporated line drawings and was often spaced out and printed in large letters to facilitate reading by persons with little schooling. The vocabulary and constructions were also simplified. Most pamphlets were offset in black ink on cheap paper, although mimeographed and even photocopying were also used. A common size was 22 X 16 centimeters, roughly equivalent to an American legal-sized sheet, folded once; colored paper or card was frequently used for the wrapper. They were sold at low. prices, made possible because they were frequently produced by religious or trade union organizations. It is notable that the basic objective of these groups was to modify social structures; the publication of pamphlets was seen as just one of many means of achieving that end.

    It is difficult to communicate the flavor of the pamphlets in cold print, but it is worth trying to describe some typical examples. Peasant Farmers: Production and Exploitation was a 31-page pamphlet issued by Caritas from the Archbishop's Office in Sao Luis, Maranhao (27). The tone was set on the front wrapper, a crude line drawing of a poorly dressed peasant, carrying a hoe, captioned "I work hard and have nothing. . ." A comic strip occupied the first four pages, showing how landowners and wholesalers kept the riches produced by those who worked the land, "creating this situation so as to be able to dominate" the peasants. The text on the remaining pages was mostly in capital letters, double-spaced, broken into small paragraphs; it encouraged peasant communities to set up community warehouses to keep their produce for sale at a better price. This 22 X 16 centimeter pamphlet was cheaply offset on poor quality paper; most pages had simple line drawings.

    From the industrial suburbs of Sao Paulo came Constituent Assembly and Constitution: What the Shanty Towns Think. This was a 24-page pamphlet from the Movement in Defense of the Rights of Shanty Towns, with an address in the offices of the Roman Catholic parish of Sao Bernardo do Campo (28). It suggested that meetings should be organized in shanty towns to inform the poor of the upcoming Constitutional Assembly and to collect proposals from the community. The document outlined agendas for a series of four meetings, covering subjects such as hunger, unemployment, minimum salary, medical care, sanitation, and urban services. The text was clear and simple, subdivided into small paragraphs with frequent use of capital letters. The numerous illustrations included both photographs and line drawings, showing roughly built shacks, poor people holding banners, and policemen throwing a man into jail.

    As another typical example we can examine Strike in Paradise, a pamphlet describing a 1983 dispute involving forestry workers in Minas Gerais state (29). This was published by the Commission for Rural Pastoral Activities of Minas Gerais State and was number two in the series The Story of the Struggle of the Rural Workers of Minas Gerais. The wrapper set the tone with a simple line drawing showing workers carrying placards saying "We want our rights!" and "Down with exploitation!" This pamphlet was also designed to be used at a series of nine meetings at which two person alternated the reading of brief paragraphs. Again, there were illustrations on most pages, for example, a determined-looking man with clenched fist saying "Our strength is in unity." Strike songs were included ("Bye, bye, boss, until we get our rights, we ain't gonna work no more"), and the owners of the pamphlets were encouraged to write down their own thoughts on the final page.

    In general these pamphlets were difficult to obtain; they were normally produced in low print runs by small organizations, often in remote cities. The Centro de Pastoral Vergueiro (CPV) of Sao Paulo, was the major source for publications of this type, issuing catalogs and mailing materials on a COD basis (30). A few items got into local bookshops, but it was difficult to find a bookstore with a wide range, and the pamphlets rarely appeared on the secondhand market. The organizations responsible normally had a small stock of recent examples, but no mechanism to send them out on a regular basis; the publication of pamphlets was not their major activity. Personal visits were difficult because offices were often located in far-flung suburbs. Living in Brazil, I wrote letters asking for them and enclosing a few stamps; most organizations sent something back. But both visits and individual letters were labor-intensive methods of obtaining materials.

    At least one series of pamphlets was produced well enough to be taken up by Vozes, a major publisher; they were the catechism documents from the jungle diocese of Sao Felix do Araguaia, whose bishop Pedro Casaldaliga, an accomplished poet, was famous for defending the poor in the land wars that raged over that region. The series of booklets published by Vozes, based on documents of his diocese, were notable for the quality of their illustrations and for their combination of religious and political elements. For example, one pamphlet included line drawings of a priest baptizing chained slaves and of a policeman shooting a priest (31). Catechism documents would rarely or never be acquired by research libraries, and their titles do not necessarily indicate the interest of their contents; the example described in the last sentence was from a pamphlet called "What Is the Church?"

    Literatura de cordel is a specifically Brazilian phenomenon: small-format pamphlets of popular verse, sold to the masses in marketplaces, especially in the Northeast or in cities with a large number of people from that region. The abertura was fully commented on by popular poets in this format. Since I wrote a comprehensive paper on this subject for the 1989 SALALM conference (32), I do not cover the subject in detail here. Political cordel shared many of the characteristics of pamphlets in general: snappy titles, simple cover illustrations, and popular language. Copies were available locally or via a few enthusiasts, but there was no systematic distribution postally or via bookshops. Cordel was, however, included among the numerous pamphlets and other materials distributed by the Centro de Pastoral Vergueiro. The CPV was responsible for printing one of the most interesting cordel items from this period, a collection of texts, by the self-styled "factory gate poet," Crispiano Neto (33). He versified everyday problems of the working class and proposed socialist solutions. .

    Comic books were extremely popular reading in Brazil, and it was natural to find socially oriented pamphlets that used that presentation. A humorous example was issued in 1986 by the Chemical Industry Workers' Union from the industrial suburbs of Sao Paulo (34). This eight-page strip told the story of Skullman who did not join the union and did everything the boss asked, including cleaning a vat of corrosive liquid without protective clothing. He fell in, but his ghost came back to advise workers to unionize. "The Situation of the Working Class Minor" was a more complex thirteen-page strip, telling the story of Cesar, a seventeen-year-old construction worker earning half the minimum salary (35). When he finished his apprenticeship he was sacked because there were no vacancies for adult workers. Unable to get a job because he had not done his military service, he began to hang out with a group that minded parked cars and smoked marijuana. This comic strip depicted poor people in typical environments and the last page listed nine things that minors needed, such as fair wages, free education, and medical care.

    The Brazilian press has a strong tradition of political cartoons which are generally beyond the scope of this paper (36). No discussion of the abertura would be complete, however, without a mention of Henfil, a brilliant cartoonist who could be said to incorporate the spirit of the abertura and who published frequently in Pasquim. His stumpy, outlined figures with complex text influenced many other cartoonists, but unfortunately he did not live to the end of this period; he was a hemophiliac who got AIDS from a blood transfusion (37).

    Some posters were produced during the abertura but in general they had a relatively peripheral impact. The more interesting of the items I saw were printed for the land reform campaign. The cult items of the abertura were T-shirts and buttons.
 

Nonprint Materials and Ephemera

    At the beginning of our period audiotapes, slides, tape-slide sets, or short films were frequently produced by committed groups. Slide sets were perhaps the most common; the "13 May-Nucleus for Popular Education" in Sao Paulo produced several, including one of no fewer than 314 items which told the history of the labor movement in Brazil (38).

    The period of the abertura coincided with major technological changes, especially in the field of audiovisual materials. By the end of the eighties the varied formats previously used were beginning to be replaced by the far simpler videotape. A CPV catalog of publications relevant to women published in 1988 gave as much space to videos as to tape-slide sets (39). Videotapes listed in that guide included interviews with child prostitutes from the streets of Recife and discussions of contraception. As had happened with newspapers, committed groups adopted a familiar, popular medium to be able to communicate with the masses and it became possible to find organizations where the only audiovisual materials handled were in videotape. Although equipment was relatively expensive in Brazil as a whole, the existence of a free port in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, meant that inexpensive video cameras were readily available near the regions where land disputes were common. Activist-sponsored videos frequently showed mass meetings, people marching with banners, religious services, and so on. A Sao Paulo newspaper organized a festival of "militant video" in 1984 (40). One of the participants, a professor of journalism from Para state, had produced 120 hours of tape documenting change and conflict in the Amazon region. He was careful always to return to the places that he had filmed to show the participants the tapes he had made. Television broadcasting, a monopoly of big companies in Brazil, is beyond the scope of this paper, but electoral law at the end of the abertura made lengthy TV slots available free of charge for all candidates and parties. It would not be possible to comprehend fully recent voting patterns without examining sample videotapes of programs and debates.

    No activity of Brazil can take place without music, and the abertura was no exception: music was liberalized and released from censorship alongside newspapers and magazines. Paradoxically, singers who had been at the forefront of the struggle against the military regime, such as Chico Buarque and Caetano Veloso, tended to lose the attention of the public as the country became more relaxed. Activist groups rarely had the resources to make and distribute phonograph records, an area that continued to be dominated by major companies.
A few activist records were sold via the highly efficient Paulinas chain of religious bookshops; a typical example was "The Path of the Martyrs," available as both an LP record and a cassette, launched by Bishop Pedro Casaldaliga for a national conference of basic ecclesiastical communities (41). This included songs about a murdered street child, a black leader, a worker, Archbishop Romero, and others. Widely distributed and of great interest were songbooks with titles like Let's Sing; Comrades!, Struggling and Singing, or Songs of the Peasant Struggle. The contents were as revolutionary as the titles: "Wake up peasants / Come on, let's wake up / See that the land is ours / And we're going to fight to get it / There is so much land in the world / With nobody to plant it / Men are thrown off the land / So that cattle can graze / Peasants go into shanty towns / And have to five on nothing," and "Some people rolling in money / Others dying of hunger / Some have pleasure without love / Others disgust and pain / But this is not what God wants / No, this is not what God wants," and "The poor are exhausted / Badly fed / No way forward / Low salaries / All they get / is exploitation (42).

    Political ephemera literally inundated the streets of Brazil during the extremely free elections at the end of the period of the abertura. Tons of paper were thrown from trucks or handed out at traffic signals; there was also some use of direct mail. The simpler election flyers just had a picture of the candidate with name and electoral number; these were known as santinhas because of their similarity with the pictures of saints carried by Catholics. The initials of the political party and simple slogans also commonly appeared on political handouts. More solid information, such as party platforms or the candidates' promises, was available from their brightly painted offices. These tended to be run with more enthusiasm than organization, and it was often necessary o make a couple of visits, or to buy a T-shirt and buttons, in order to obtain a significant document. T-shirts, entirely adequate for the Brazilian, became the uniform of the abertura; many millions were sold to support direct elections for the presidency, or on behalf of the candidacies of Tancredo Neves or Lula. Political buttons, car stickers, and mass-produced banners were also common in the later years of the abertura. One Brazilian company got so skilled In this area that it began to print propaganda for New York election campaigns. Because of difficulties in handling and storage, together with their often limited informational content, nonprint and ephemeral materials will rarely attract the attention of librarians or archivists, which is a pity because much of this material is visually exciting.
 

Organizations by Type .
 

     It was quite difficult to find right-wing political literature at the time of the abertura; the extreme right organization Tradicao, Familia e Patria was more or less dormant, and, in fact, the. subject of a book debunking its activities (43). The landowners' political party Uniao Democratica Ruralista published almost nothing; its stands at agricuItural shows, for instance, did not sell pamphlets. It was, however, one of Brazil's very successful pressure groups and was able to block land reform in the Constituent Assembly despite the fact that the innumerable publications on the subject during this period were almost uniformly in favor of land reform. The right then went on to win the presidential elections, despite left- wing publishing and pamphleteering in the period of the abertura. Printed documents were only one factor influencing voting patterns; it is also necessary to consider such factors as ingrained attitudes built up over decades, the impact of television, and the orientation of political bones and opinion-leaders. The wide editorial freedom established in Brazil during the abertura in this period had one unexpected result in that it permitted the emergence of a neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic publisher at the end of the eighties. This launched a widely sold defense of Nazi Germany and reprinted the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (44). This type of activity would not have been imaginable a few years earlier.

    The rapid rise of the left during this period of Brazilian history was fully reflected in political ephemera, which ranged from socially committed to hard left. To some extent this can be seen as a natural reaction against the twenty-one years of military rule when all left-wing writing was rigidly suppressed. In preparing a survey of popular poetry pamphlets from this period, I was unable to find a single right-wing example (45). Political organizations flourished during the period; from two parties, closely controlled by the state, Brazil reached a near anarchic state in which dozens of mini-parties competed for the electors' attention. Some were created simply so that they could claim free television time or be used by potential candidates who did not have a party. Most political parties left few publications, apart from handouts cleared from the streets after elections. Elected politicians, .especially left-wing mayors from major cities, published newspapers and pamphlets to maintain contact with their electors, but these materials were normally unobtainable outside the city. Beyond the scope of this paper is the publishing done by federal deputies and senators, usually reprints of speeches for distribution in their home states. Elected representatives had a right to print their speeches in this way, and numerous volumes, often quite substantial, were published. The impact of this material on the political process was minimal; it is common to find copies in mint condition on secondhand bookstalls.

    The political parties that had significant publishing programs were all on the left: The Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), the Soviet influenced Partido Comunista Brasileiro (PCB), and the small but noisy
Albanian-line Partido Comunista do Brasil (PC do B). The PT was the most interesting of these parties because it grew out of the workers movement and the strikes in the industrial suburbs of Sao Paulo in the
late 1970s, had a well-known leader, Lula, a former toolmaker, and was from the beginning strongly supported by intellectuals and writers. Their publications were among the best produced of the period; the
PT quarterly magazine Teoria e Debate printed 20,000 copies of each issue, a significant number in Brazil. There was also a monthly newspaper (46) and its electoral propaganda was well written and intelligently argued (47). The numerous books published by or about the PT tended to come from commercial publishers (48). The PCB had its own publishing house, Novos Rumos, a widely available weekly newspaper, and a periodical; its books and pamphlets were frequently sold alongside imported Soviet publications (49) The PC do B, like many
splinter groups, made a noise disproportional to its size, publishing both a magazine and a newspaper (30). Its publications were sold alongside translations of Enver Hoxha's works and were sometimes decorated
with portraits of the original gang of four, Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin.

    The PT grew out of the labor movement, and unions were prolific publishers of pamphlets during this period. Perhaps the most important single source was the CUT (Central Unica dos Trabalhadores, usually referred to only by its acronym). It published numerous individual pamphlets and series such as Boletim Nacional, Caderno de Formacao, and Debate Sindical (51). Publications of individual unions are normally brief pamphlets on workers' rights or specific strikes and are generally difficult to obtain.

    The major best-seller in Brazil at this time was the in-depth examination of torture during the military government, Brasil nunca mais (52). It was translated into English, ran to twenty-three editions, and stayed on the best-seller list for more than two years. It was conceived, organized, and published entirely by the Diocese of Sao Paulo. Religious organizations in Brazil at this time were important in the publishing context and worked hard to improve the conditions of the poor and the oppressed. The nature of their ephemeral publications frequently overlapped that of political parties and labor unions. A key term here is "Pastoral work" or activities carried out with the masses to improve the situation of the disadvantaged (53). The meaning in English is close to "committed" or "activist"; publications produced to support their activities are known as pastoral documents.

    Perhaps the most important single organization for the distribution and preservation of activist publications was the Sao Paulo-based Centro de Pastoral Vergueiro; its activities were roughly similar to those of a documentation center, combining library, archive, and document distribution, both wholesale and via COD. In rural Brazil a key organization was the Comissao Pastoral da Terra (CPT, translated here as Commission for Rural Pastoral Activities). A national network linked to dioceses coordinated work in rural areas, forming an important source of publications on land reform, migration, migrant workers, and landless peasants. Human rights groups also frequently worked in conjunction with religious organizations, offering legal support to the oppressed  They sometimes published pamphlets for local distribution and had a national newspaper (55).

    Key organizations in the religious field were the Comunidades Eclesiais de Base, or CEBs (the acronym is almost always used); these basic ecclesiastical communities were the grass-roots religious organizations among the population (56). They did not actually publish (they were de-bureaucratized and did not even keep minutes of their meetings), but numerous publications were produced at the diocesan or national level for use by CEBs (57). In Recife, for instance, it was at one stage possible to purchase thirty or forty mimeographed publications with titles like The Struggle of Working Class Youth, Asking and Replying, Organizing, Youth Prayers, New Paths, and so on (58). When the much-loved liberal Archbishop Dom Helder Camara was replaced by a conservative successor in 1985 this type of publication abruptly ceased and the information center for pastoral work was closed. It was possible to find institutions which had religious names or support but which were responsible for publishing program that went far beyond traditional church activities. Perhaps the prime example was the Rio de Janeiro-based Instituto de Estudos da Religiao-ISER (Institute for Religious Studies), which published a catalog of black organizations (59), a newspaper for prostitutes (60), and a general political newspaper called Vermelho e Branco (61). A recent issue of the last was devoted entirely to the Romanian revolution.

    Documents on land reform, migration, migrant farm workers, and rural unions were a common feature of this period and were produced in all parts of Brazil. A catalog of documents on rural workers listed publications from cities such as Erexim, Propria, Teresina, Sao Luis, and Goiania (62). A newspaper called 0 Migrante appeared regularly from the remote agricultural frontier city of Ji-Parana, Rondonia (63). Some national-level organizations were also important in this context, notably the Centro de Estudos Migratorios and the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, both located in Sao Paulo (64). The latter organization was responsible for well-produced and widely distributed pamphlets, with titles like The Struggle Continues, How to Organize, or Our Strength Depends on Our Dedication (65).

    Brazil had a significant population of African descent, but a cohesive black movement never got off the ground, and the relevant publishing was often historical in nature, focusing on the abolition of slavery or communities of escaped slaves (66). Other pamphlets tried to raise the consciousness of the black population; one example had a crude drawing of a policeman arresting a black worker, while a white thief walked away with the loot from a mugging (67). Relevant publications tended to come from cities where a significant proportion of the population was of African descent, such as Salvador, where a thin newspaper was published irregularly (68).

    Indians did not, of course, publish pamphlets, but numerous relevant items were issued by groups that defended their rights. Here the key organization was the Centro Indigeno Missionario (CIMI), based in Brasilia but with branches in many cities, often sharing the same building as the CPT (69). The most important national publication was the newspaper Porantim; most other publications dealt with individual tribes or the Indians of specific regions (70). One very elaborate example dealt with Indians in Minas Gerais state; it began with a general history of the colonization of the state, listing its tribes, then focused on a single community, examining the murder of Indian by a Iandowner's thugs (71). The book included text, tables, photographs, reproductions of press clippings and Indian drawings; the murder of the Indian was detailed in an eleven-page comic strip.

    Feminists became relatively well organized in Brazil at this time. The government even sponsored a National Council for Women's Rights, which published pamphlets such as Women and the Constituent Assembly (72). Numerous other publications encouraged women to fight for their rights; an especially interesting example was the comic strip Women and Domestic Violence, published in one of the poorer suburbs of Rio de Janeiro (72). It described disputes in an extended working class family; as each situation of conflict or violence was depicted, the booklet cited relevant legislation in an understandable form. Many other documents issued by feminist organizations dealt in simple terms with contraception and female physiology. Women's studies even had their own information center, Centro Informacao Mulher, in Sao Paulo; it did significant bibliographical work but was inactive by the end of our period (74). The same fate overtook the nationally distributed feminist newspaper Mulherio (75).

    Homosexuals also had a widely circulated newspaper, Lampiao (76), at the beginning of this period, but, like Mulherio, it did not last long. It was extremely difficult to maintain a nationally published newspaper for a special interest group; a few left-wing political parties succeeded, but they sold basically to a cohesive membership. Apart from Lampiao, some gay poetry and occasional items dealing with AIDS, I noted few homosexual publications. A further indication that little came out was the fact that homosexual publications did not gain separate treatment in either the Library of Congress microfilm project or the CPV catalogs; the only special group categories used were those for blacks, Indians, and women (77). Other groups that published widely overseas, but had not yet had significant impact within Brazil, were the green or ecologically oriented parties. Their ideas only began to enter Brazil at the end of our period; another factor was that in the Northern Hemisphere the Greens often attracted people who were reacting against traditional political parties, whereas in Brazil during this period such persons gravitated toward the Partido dos Trabalhadores.
 

Principal Collections

    Librarians generally consider ephemeral items difficult to preserve or not worth handling; programs to acquire and process the publications also face special problems. It was therefore natural to find few institutions interested in ephemeral political publications from Brazil. It was difficult to obtain these materials on a systematic basis; a significant number could be obtained via the Centro de Pastoral Vergueiro, but the remainder had to be requested, purchased, or subscribed to individually from a wide variety of organizations and locations. Documentation centers attached to organizations working in this field could organize exchange programs with other activist groups; this practice is somewhat similar to the exchange arrangements of publishers of poetry magazines and small presses in the Northern Hemisphere, but can rarely be used by libraries outside the field. Processing of materials received is also made more complex by failure to print place and date of publication in pamphlets, incorrect numbering of periodical parts, lack of standardization of series
titles, and so on. Newspapers and periodicals may arrive irregularly and it is difficult to claim missing issues. Many organizations print on poor paper, making early microfilming essential. Publications come in a variety of sizes and formats, including Audiovisual materials. Collections that aimed to be truly complete would have to include buttons and T-shirts, considered realia by libraries and archives.

    Within Brazil the principal general collection of ephemeral material of this period was located at the Centro de Pastoral Verguelro in Sao Paulo (78). This was a documentation and distribution center for the publications of activist groups of all types. A well-organized library preserved copies of all relevant materials and offered a photocopy service. The CPV also distributed publications, by COD within Brazil, and produced numerous catalogs, many of them computer produced. Many catalogs included both recent publications and items held only in the library, so that the user could either buy an original or order a photocopy. The CPV also published books, not necessarily in a very obvious manner: I came across one item where the only link to the CPV was the post office box number on the verso of the title page (79).

    A recent paper, one of the rare Brazilian discussions of preservation measures in this field, spoke of the "fragmentation" of documents among numerous institutions. This view coincided with the impression that I had of the field: numerous small, limited collections of relevant documents can be found in CPTs, political party offices, human rights centers, feminist and similar groups all over Brazil. At the same time there is little or no coordination of this work nor are resources available to form larger, systematically preserved and organized collections. The documentalists working in the area have taken preliminary steps, organizing regular meetings with the representatives of up to twenty documentation centers (80).

    The authors of that paper worked for the CEDI (Centro Ecumenico de Documentacao e Informacao) with offices in both Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo (81). Among other relevant institutions was IBASE, the computerized information service for pastoral agents located in Rio de Janeiro (82). Also in Rio was the multifaceted Institute for Religious Studies (83). The National Council for Woman's Rights recently established a documentation center, CEDIM (Centro de Estudos, Documentacao e Informacao sobre a Mulher) (84). They have begun to issue Acervo Mulher, printed from a database of documents of feminist interest, using the Micro Isis software which is being promoted in Brazil at the moment (85). The Centro de Estudos e Acao Social in Salvador is an important source for the publications of Northeast Brazil (86). An active documentation center in Minas Gerais state, named after the murdered president of a rural workers' syndicate, printed an appeal for further information (87). The center intended to document CEBs, land disputes, and unions in the state and asked participants to tell their stories to the Center so that the memory of their struggles might be preserved.

    I have listed names and addresses of organizations, but it is necessary to point out that publishing or selling copies of documents to foreign libraries is not their chief objective. Many will be happy to have contact with foreign institutions; IBASE produces publicity materials in English, and several of the better-organized magazines quote a subscription price in dollars. Other organizations may be more reticent, reserving sensitive documents for internal use or even being unwilling to sell large quantities of documents to institutions overseas. Such attitudes will seem alien to persons brought up on the concept of freedom of information within the North American and British library tradition. But such ideals are little known in Brazil, where many of the people working in this area have suffered severe repression in the past for their beliefs and activities.

    The Library of Congress has maintained a dynamic field office in Rio de Janeiro for many years; they noted the growing importance of ephemeral materials in 1984 and set up a major collection and preservation program, extending back to 1966 imprints. Materials were collected by the Library of Congress office in Rio, cataloged and prepared for microfilming. The first collection of these materials covered 803 pamphlets, 200 serial titles, and 143 posters published 1966 to 1986, preserved on 28 rolls of microfilm. The collection was divided into categories; religion and theology was the largest, followed by agrarian reform (88). A second collection of ephemeral materials was being organized to cover the years 1987-1989.

    I know only one other foreign institution with a significant collection in this area: Princeton University. This university had previously microfilmed ephemeral material from Chile and extended the scope of its program to cover other Latin American countries.
 

Conclusions

    Brazilian history is notable for rapid cyclic movements and little stability. At certain periods vigorous mass movements arose, only to be heavily repressed a short time later. There were periods in which the entire country discussed Its future, printing and publishing at an almost frenetic rate, alternating with decades when the authorities decided what was to be said and done, while intellectual life retreated into silence and censorship.

    Libraries must continue to acquire materials at all times and should clearly give priority to more formal books and periodicals. But at times of intellectual ferment, such as the abertura politica in Brazil, there will be changes in publishing patterns and a significant quantity of ephemeral materials will be produced. Librarians must be aware of this process and be ready to set up collection and preservation programs for ephemeral materials. The acquisition and organization of. such items requires an understanding of the currents of thought within society, contact with a wide variety of organizations, and the handling of materials that are more complex and varied than those normally collected by libraries. The task is daunting but the rewards are great, because libraries and archives will be preserving the working material used by society to think through and discuss its process of change and development.
 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
 

    General Note: I have personally examined all pamphlet and book materials and at least one issue of every periodical cited in these notes. In certain cases I had to infer the date of the first issue of a periodical from its volume number. The subtitles of Brazilian periodicals tend to vary; political newspapers frequently cease publication temporarily, to be relaunched later in a new series.

1. Thomas Skidmore, Brasil: de Castello a Tancredo, 1964-1985 (Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1988), 608 pp., a translation of his The Politics of Military Rule in Brazil, 1964-1985.

2. The publications of Editora Abril are essential reference sources for this period; the most established Brazilian weekly, Veja, was a major source of information and above all was comprehensively indexed from 1972. Brazil's major almanac, Almanaque Abril, Abril, describes events of the previous year. In turn the events in the almanac were summarized in Brasil dia a dia (Sao Paulo, Abril, 1988), 258 pp.

3. Pasquim (Rio de Janeiro, 1968-).

4. Hora do Povo (Rio de Janeiro, 1979-1980).

5. Voz da Unidade (Sao Paulo, 1980-), Newspaper of the Partido Comunista Brasileiro.

6. Paolo Marconi. A censura politica na imprensa brasileira, 1968-1978. 2d ed., rev., Passado e presente, 44 (Sao Paulo: Global, 1980), 312 pp.

7. Lampiao da Esquina: Jornal Gay. (Rio do Janeiro, 1978-).

8. Beijo da Rua (Rio de Janeiro, 1989-).

9. Tempos Novos (Sao Luis, 1982-).

10. Opiniao (Rio do Janeiro, 1972-1979).

11. Caderno do CEAS (Salvador: Centro do Estudos e Acao Social, 1977-).

12  Lua Nova (Sao Paulo: Centro de Estudos da Cultura Contemporanea, 1984-).

13. Novos Rumos (Sao Paulo: Editora Novos Rumos, 1985-). Editora Novos Rumos is the publishing house of the Partido Comunista Brasileiro.

14. Reforma Agraria (Brasilia, 1972-).

15. Teoria e Politica, Brasil Debates, no. 12 (Sao Paulo, 1989).

16. Novos Estudos CEBRAP (Sao Paulo: Centro Brasileiro de Analise e Planejamento, 1981-).

17. Ensaio (Sao Paulo), no. 13 (1984).

18. Mulher-Libertacao (Sao Paulo, 1985-).

19. Teoria e Debate: revista mensal do Partido dos Trabalhadores (Sao Paulo, 1988-).

20. Tempo e Presenca (Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo: CEDI [Centro Ecumenico de Documentacao e Informacao], 1978-).

21 . Presenca da Mulher (Sao Paulo, Editora Liberdade Mulher, 1986-).

22. Luiz M. Carvalho, "Imprensa sindical tem tiragem de 12 milhoes por mes," Jornal do Brasil (20 November 1988),19.

23. Quinzena (Sao Paulo: Centro de PastoraI Vergueiro, 1988-).

24. Boletim do AGEN (Sao Paulo: Agencia Ecumenica de Noticias, 1986-). Some issues are titled simply AGEN.

25. Aconteceu (Sao Paulo: CEDI (Centro Ecumenico do Documentacao e Informacao, 1985-).

26. IBASE, Rua Vicente de Souza, 29, Botafogo, CEP 22251, Rio de Janeiro, RJ.

27. O lavrador: producao e exploracao (Sao Luis: Caritas Brasileira, Escritorio Regional de Sao Luis, 1986), 31 pp.

28. Constituinte e Constituicao: o que pensa o favelado (Sao Bernardo do Campo: Movimento de Defesa dos Direitos dos Favelados, [1985?]), 22 pp.

29. Greve no Paraiso, Historia das lutas dos trabalhadores rurais de Minas Gerais, 2 (Contagem, MG: Comissao Pastoral da Terra de Mina Gerais, 1984). 34 pp.

30. Centro de Pastoral Vergueiro, Caixa Postal, 42.761, CEP 04229, Sao Paulo, SP.

31. lgreja, o que e?, 9th ed., Colecao da base para a base, 7 (Petropolis: Vozes, 1988), 46 pp. At head of title page: "Prelazia de Sao Felix do Araguaia." Preface signed by Pedro Casaldaliga.

32. Cavan McCarthy, "Recent Political Events in Brazil as Reflected in Popular Poetry Pamphlets (Literatura de cordel)." Paper presented to the Thirty Fourth Seminar on Latin American Library Materials, Charlottesville, Virginia, May 27-June 1, 1989), 25 pp.

33. Crispian Neto, Cordel nas portas das fabricas (Sao Paulo: Centro de Pastoral Vergueiro, 1984), 52 pp.

34. Campanha de sindicalizacao, Cadernos do trabalhador, edicao extra (Santo Andre, SP: Sindicato dos Quimicos do ABC, 1986), 8 pp.

35. A situacao do menor no meio popular. Cadernos do CEAC, 10 (Nova lguacu RJ:Centro de Estudos e Acao Comunitaria, [1983?]), 13 pp.

36. See Millor [Millor Fernandes], Diario da Nova Republica, 3 vols. (Porto Alegre: L&PM, 1987-1989). Political cartoons and cornment. See also Ique, Brasileiras e brasileiros (Rio de Janeiro. Lumiar, [1989]). Political cartoons about the Sarney government, 1986-1989.

37. "Dor no adeus do riso," Isto E 577 (13 June 1988), 50-54. The career and death of the cartoonist Henfil.

38. Material didatico para cursos de formacao (Sao Paulo: 13 do Maio-Nucleo de Educacao Popular, [1989]), 6 pp.

39. Mulher: catalogo de publicacoes (Sao Paulo: Centro de Pastoral Vergueiro, 1988). 34 pp.

40. "Folha mostrara o video militante," Folha de Sao Paulo (23 May 1984), 26.

41. Caminhada dos martires (Sao Paulo: Verbo Filmes / Paulinas, 1986). (VE-07/86). Phonograph record; also available on cassette.

42. Vamos cantar, companheiros! (S. l., s.d.), 40 pp. Lutando e cantando (Fortaleza: CNBB, Secretariado Regional Nordeste 1, 1987), 114 pp. Cancoes da luta camponesa (Recife: Centru, s.d.), 24 pp.

43. Giulio Folena, Escravos do profeta (Sao Paulo: EMW. 1987),193 pp. Discusses the right-wing organization, Tradicao, Familia e Patria.

44. S. E. Castan, Holocausto judeu ou alemao? Nos bastidores da mentira do seculo, 27th ed. (Porto Alegre: Revisao, 1988), 328 pp. Gustavo Barosso, ed. Os protocolos dos sabios de Siao, texto completo e apostilalado por Gustavo Barroso. 3d d. (Porto Alegre: Revisao, 1989), 172 p.

45. McCarthy, "Recent Political Events In Brasil".

46. PT Boletim Nacional (Sao Paulo: Partido dos Trabalhadores, 1985-).

47. Brasil urgente, Lula presidente (Sao Paulo: [Partido dos Trabalhadores], 1989). Set of five pamphlets: Economia, Democracia, Questao agraria, Questao urbana, Sociedade.

48. Adhemar Gianini et al. PT: um projeto para o Brasil: economia, organizacao Francisco C Weffort (Sao Paulo: Brasiliense, 1989). 251 pp. Apolonio de Carvalho et al., PT: um projeto para o Brasil: politica, organizacao Francisco C Weffort (Sao Paulo: Brasiliense, 1989). 193 pp.

49. See no. 5 and 13 above

50. Principios: revista teorica, politica e de informacao (Sao Paulo: Editora Anita Garibaldi, No. 15, May 1988). Published by the Partido Comunista do Brasil. A Classe Operaria (Sao Paulo: Partido Cornunista do Brasil, [1980-]).

51. Debate sindical (Sao Paulo: Central Unica dos Trabalhadores [CUT], 1987- ).

52. Brasil: nunca mais: um relato para a historia, prefacio de Paulo Evaristo Arns, 23d ed. (Petropolis: Vozes, 1989), 312 pp. First published 1985; copyright by the Archdiocese of Sao Paulo.

53. Clodovis Boff, Agente de pastoral e povo. Teologia organica, 1 (Petropolis: Vozes, 1984), 29 pp.

54. See n. 30, above.

55. Jornal dos Direitos Humanos (Sao Paulo, Movimento Nacional da Defesa dos Direitos Hurnanos, 1988-).

56. Alvaro Barreiro, Comunidades Eclesiais de Base e evangelizacao dos povos. 2d ed., Colecao teologia e evangelizacao, 1 (Sao Paulo: Loyola, 1981). Translated into English and Spanish. Faustino Luiz Couto Teixeira. Comunidades Eclesiais de Base: bases teologicas (Petropolis: Vozes, 1988). 222 pp.

57. See n. 31, above.

58. Luta dos jovens do meio popular (Recife, CNBB: Pastoral da Juventude, 1981). 23 pp.

59. Caetana Damasceno et al., Catalogo de entidades do movimento negro no Brasil, Comunicacoes do ISER, 29 (Rio de Janeiro: Instituto de Estudos da Religiao, 1988), 89 pp.

60. See n. 8, above.

61. Vermelho e Branco: transformacao no socialismo (Rio de Janeiro: lnstituto de Estudos da Religiao, 1990-).

62. Trabalhador rural: informe bibliografico (Sao Paulo: Centro de Pastoral Verguelro: 1988), 20 pp.

63. O Migrante (Ji-Parana RO, Centro de Estudos e Pastoral dos Migrantes, 1981-).

64. Centro de Estudos Migratorios, Caixa Postal 42.756, CEP 04299, Sao Paulo, SP. Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, Rua Ministro de Godoi, 1.484, CEP 15015, Sao Paulo, SP

65. A Iuta continua: como se organiza os assentados, Cadernos de Formacao, 10 (Sao Paulo: Secretaria Nacional do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais sem Terra, 1986), 34 pp. Como se organiza, Cadernos de Formacao, 5 (Sao Paulo: Secretaria Nacional do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, 1986). Nossa forca depende da nosso dedicacao, Cadernos de Formacao, 13 (Sao Paulo: Secretaria Nacional do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, 1987),12 pp.

66. Palmares  de liberdade e engenhos de escravidao, Caminhos de Libertacao, 1 (Sao Paulo: Paulinas, 1985). 44 pp.

67. Negro tem valor, 2d ed. (Sao Paulo, Paulinas, 1987), 30 pp. "... elaborado pelo Grupo Contra a Discriminacao Racial, Comissao Justica e Paz, Salvador..."

68. Nego: jornal nacional do Movimento Negro Unificado (Salvador, 1988-).

69. Conselho Indigenista Missionaria (CIMI), Caixa Postal 11-1159, 70.084, Brasilia, DF.

70. Porantim: em Defesa da Causa Indigena (Brasilia: Conselho Indigenista Missionario [CIMI], (1972-]).

71. A luta dos indios pela terra: contribuicao a historia indigena de Minas Gerais, (Contagem, MG: Centro de Documentacao Eloy Ferreira da Silva, 1987).120 pp.

72. Mulher e Constituinte. (Brasilia: Conselho National dos Direitos da Mulher, 1985),16 pp.

73. A mulher e a violencia domestica, Cadernos do CEAC, 11 (Nova lguacu, RJ: Centro de Estudos e Acao Comunitaria, s.d.).

74. Catalogo, 2 vols. (Sao Paulo: Centro Informacao Mulher, 1985). 251 pp. Citations to books and articles on ferninism. Boletim (Sao Paulo: Centro Informacao Mulher), no. 6 (dez. 1985).

75. Mulherio (Sao Paulo, 1981-1988).

76. See n. 7, above.

77. Brazil's Popular Groups 1966-1986: A Collection of Materials Issued by Socio-Political, Religious, Labor and Minority Grass-roots organizations in Brazil between 1966 and 1986 (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1988). 28 reels of microfilm. (Micofilm 88/5259). Listagem de precos de publicacoes (Sao Paulo: Centro de Pastoral Vergueiro, 1988). 46 pp.

78. See n. 30, above.

79. Antonio Ozai da Silva, Historia das tendencias no Brasil: origens, cisoes e propostas, 2d ed. rev. and enl. (Sao Paulo, 1987), 293 pp.

80. Nelson de Oliveira and Marita Regina de Carvalho, "Memoria: do silencio ao banco de dados."  Tempo e Presenca 11, 247 (November 1989), 11-12.

81. Centro Ecumenico de Documentacao e Informacao (CEDI). Rua Cosme Velho, 98, fundos, CEP 22.241, Rio de Janeiro, RJ. Av. Higienopolis, 983, CEP1.238, Sao Paulo SP.

82. See no. 26, above.

83. lnstituto de Estudos da Religiao, (ISER) Ladeira da Gloria, 98. Gloria, CEP 22.211, Rio de Janeiro, RJ.

84. Centro de Estudos, Documentacao e Informacao sobre a Mulher (CEDIM), Conselho Nacional dos Direitos da Mulher, Edificio-Sede do Ministerio da Justica, 4. andar, sala 409, 70.064 Brasilia, DF.

85. Acervo Mulher (Brasilia: Centro de Estudos, Documementacao e Informacao sobre a Mulher [CEDIM], 1989-).

86. Centro de Estudos e Acao Social, Rua Aristides Novis, 1-1, Federacao, 40.210 Salvador, BA.

87. Centro de Documentacao Eloy Ferreira da Silva (CEDEFES), Rua Tiradentes, 2564, sala 04, primeiro andar, Bairro Industrial, 32.230 Contagam, MG. The appeal for documents was published in A luta dos indios pela terra (See n. 71, above).

88. See n. 77, above.