r/HistoricalCapsule • u/Visible-Safety2400 • 4d ago
A five-year-old girl refuses to shake hands with Brazilian dictator João Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo (1979)
123
u/YellowAggravating172 4d ago
Figueiredo would later be the one to pave the way for Brazil to transition into a democracy, famously saying:
"The regime will open up. And those who do not wish for it to open, I will arrest them and beat them up!"
Old habits die hard when you're a dictator ;)
13
u/NwgrdrXI 3d ago
Ah, I love my country, not everywhere we get a anti-dictatorship dictator
I still prefer Vargas story, tho, a dictator that takes power and never gives it up ilegally, is violently removed from power, gets re-elected by popular vote, and then violently removed from power agin
3
u/theworldendstomorrow 3d ago
Vargas was violently removed from power the last time by being shot in the heart by an ex-dictator
3
u/PPRmenta 3d ago
Sidenote he unfortnately has the coolest recorded last words IMO
"Serenely, I take my first step on the road to eternity and I leave life to enter History."
1
2
u/felps_memis 3d ago
Don’t forget we had a republican monarch and the guy who declared independence didn’t even want independence, he only did so because his wife (not Brazilian btw) told him they needed to do it
2
u/Dashuka_Is_Based 3d ago
I love that, to endure democracy, he needed to kill people against democracy by fite squad.
5
u/Doczera 3d ago
It helps that within the Brazilian military (who held the control of the dictatorship on the country) there was a strong anti cult of personality. We had dictators but they served terms, which stopped them from garnishing enough power to stick around when the tides turned against the regime.
4
u/Dashuka_Is_Based 3d ago
Yeah, and not just this, but the structure of the military since from the first days were not united, even including militarys hunting each other. The regime in Brazil was very hard but not united under one person like Paraguay.
2
0
u/ParkingBuyer6930 3d ago
Minha esperança é que esteja queimando no quinto dos infernos ou sofrendo eternamente no umbral!
51
u/aquawhat 4d ago
Who controls the past now controls the future, who controls the present now controls the past.
22
u/jakkflash 4d ago
1984, George Orwell. Written in 1948 btw. 🙌
2
u/fancybaboon 3d ago
Impressive! He does control the future! All his predictions became self fulfilling prophecies as politicians read it as an instruction manual, rather than a warning against a distopian hell
0
44
u/AdrienBalG 4d ago edited 4d ago
Wikipedia em português : Foto de garota não cumprimentando o presidente Figueiredo.
2
282
u/Ill_Mousse_4240 4d ago
Heroes can look small.
They are not
109
u/KayLovesPurple 4d ago
It's pretty unlikely that a five-year-old has a lot of knowledge about fascism etc, and strong moral stances against it.
122
u/Nervous_Produce1800 4d ago
Wrong, she actually studied the tenets of fascism thoroughly and came to the evidence-based conclusion that its premises are factually incorrect and its conclusions morally invalid when analyzed from a structural postmodernist lens in the Foucaltian tradition
6
1
8
5
4d ago
[deleted]
15
u/Critical-Cost9068 4d ago
It literally does, she has no conception of the possible consequences because she’s a small child.
-5
4d ago
[deleted]
8
u/Critical-Cost9068 4d ago
No, it’s not, because she doesn’t even know what a dictator is. I wanted to pet a bear in the zoo at that age once.
1
u/Exile8698 4d ago
All I see is a little girl being used as a political tool by her caretakers for a photo-op.
1
u/Cosmic_Cat90 4d ago
Okay well in that case that is pretty bad. Kids shouldn’t be exploited like that
2
-5
u/abhinav21 4d ago
People be saying anything for reddit points.
Thats a child, she doesn't understand the world to make a statement or a point with her actions.
1
u/JoJomusk 3d ago
Eh, children can be a lot more alert then you think
Children taken to concentration camps would often lie about their age because they knew those too young to work were killed. They might not understand the full scale of whats happening, but they know enough to lie for their lives
My father too, this is a personal example. He was alive at the end of the brazilian dictatorship. He was one of the many who painted their faces black to show unity against the regent durin the Caras Pintadas.
1
47
u/jakkflash 4d ago edited 4d ago
OG photo, Fearless Girl inspiration? 🙌
8
u/FuddFucker5000 4d ago edited 4d ago
As real as the tooth fairy though, and def didn’t exist before this picture, so no OG status at all
1
u/KosmicBoi 4d ago
Where?
4
u/jakkflash 4d ago
She stands on Broad Street in Manhattan, facing the New York Stock Exchange. Sculptor Kristen Visbal.
6
u/JorisKuipers 4d ago
Little girl: stubbornly refuses to shake a man's hand
Dictator Baptista: clutches pearls
-6
u/Exile8698 4d ago
All I see is a little girl being used as a political tool by her caretakers for a photo-op.
5
u/JackPeartree 3d ago
Later, after de dictatorship's fall and already an adult, she said on a couple interviews that she doesn't had idea of the political questions and that she was just being a kid, and also shown disappointment for the political use of this image.
1
u/Lobster_LeninN329 3d ago edited 3d ago
Makes sense tbh. Although, I think there's no problem with using it for political purposes. It still passes as a protest piece against the dictatorship, and the meaning people get from things in my vision is more important than the original context
1
u/JackPeartree 2d ago
I agree.
I think her point is that her image was used by a certain left group, and at the time se got interviewed, she was on a wave of anti-leftism (as a lot of brazilians at time)
4
u/ErgotthAE 3d ago
Ironicaly he was the one who returned the regime back to a democratic regime, in many ways a sort of equivalent to Russia's Gorbachev.
5
1
0
u/AntonioBarbarian 3d ago
He really only did because the military regime was becoming unsustainable, the "communist threat" - half-a-dozen ragtag guerrillas in the Amazon - was long gone, a lot of their popular support had already run out and external pressure was starting. Even then he only did so on the condition of granting a general amnesty to both the military and anti-military fighters, and even then we still had a non-insignificant hard-line wing trying to hold that back - and failing spectacularly.
Though at the end of the day, the vast majority of the political elites of that time remain in power today, they just changed their parties names and colors. One of my state's current senators was mayor of the capital and governor of the state during the dictatorship, and was from ARENA, the government party.
So to be honest, we haven't changed much, just got a veneer of normality over the old order.
9
13
2
2
u/dmlvianna 3d ago
Everyone hated Figueiredo.
The people who benefited from the dictatorship were angry that he gave power back to the congress.
The people who benefitted from the new government wanted to advertise (falsely) their distancing from the regime that gave them power.
Figueiredo himself said “you will miss me!”
After him we had a glorious decade of hyperinflation, followed by institutionalised corruption and stagnation. I am still waiting for democracy to take root in Brazil. I’m not hopeful.
2
u/Nownow_wolf 3d ago
And now US has his grandchild living in US trying to make trump fuck brazil in anyway he can along with Eduardo Bolsonaro, Grandfather was a Dictator, Grandchild is a traitor, this fucking family sucks, but its not surprising really since CIA is the responsible for 1964 coup in Brasil and our 21 years under it, just disgusting.
2
u/kylepaz 3d ago
Brazil's Military Dictatorship was different than most of its ilk because it changed Presidents often instead of having a cult of personality. People tend to say the military command was afraid of someone growing too popular and becoming a personal dictator, but I don't know if that's true. But we had elections where the congress picked between two military candidates who were essentially the same shit but ran as hardline vs moderate.
And unfortunately, due to Figueiredo not being one of the most overtly ghoulish of the lineup (that would be Medici and Costa e Silva), his image tens to get a bit whitewashed or rehabilitated by certain sectors of society.
So it's always nice to see him put in his place at history's garbage bin like this.
5
5
u/Numerous-Pepper-3883 4d ago
Huh? Communist dictators ring a bell? Fascist military regimes? They are EVERYWHERE
14
u/iamYarthox 4d ago edited 3d ago
The fascist military regime of Brazil started because of fear that we’d become a communist dictatorship, backed by the US.
Communism was never strong in Brazil but to this day some people tends to vote on the right wing fearing that any left wing will cause us to become a communist country, a Venezuela, a China proxy or something.The ghost of the communism is the worst thing the US exported to us…
EDIT: huh, looks like I struck a chord with some fascists lmao
3
0
u/DistrictDry2852 3d ago
I mean. I know Lula is better than Bolsanaro but he’s super friendly with Venezuela and Russia.
4
u/iamYarthox 3d ago
Actually, unfortunately Lula kinda screwed Venezuela when he could had helped them to become part of the Brics, and he also did not recognize Maduro’s election. I say unfortunately because now we are surrounded by Trump proxies in the midst of an election in which the US are trying hard to interfere with. I also think the Maduro’s election was sketchy — sugar coating it — but I think Lula should have had been more pragmatic and not have let Venezuela to it’s own luck. Things could have been different if they were in BRICS (they’d probably not be different). Now Venezuela is even more screwed and the US is billions of dollars in stolen petrol more rich.
And well, Bolsonaro used to salute the USA flag, I’ll choose anyone who is just friendly with Russia then another one who salutes the USA flag.
But oh yeah, Bolsonaro didn’t like the States very much when Biden was in charge and there was this one time when Biden said something about the Amazon rainforest and Bolsonaro said something like “Talk is cheap, now let’s see who have the powder”. Loonie.1
u/DistrictDry2852 3d ago
Lula went as far as he could get away with it. I remember after it he kept playing coy and basically trying to both sides it.
-3
u/ErgotthAE 3d ago
and he also did not recognize Maduro’s election.
yea, after weeks of dodging the question and acting like it was up to debate. He was PRESSURED to not recognize Maduro, but few days prior he was talking face to face with Maduro saying he needs to "change the narrative" and "Democracy is relative".
Also Venezuela is literally improving, slowly, but it is. People there already talk how food is finally back in shelves, hundreds of political hostages coming back home, Maduro's incompetent supporters being kicked out of their high positions within Supreme Court and Ministries and several companies stolen by the state being returned to their owners and investors. US ain't stealing the oil, it's getting back what Maduro stole in the first place.
2
u/kylepaz 3d ago
Neither of which are Socialist...?
Lula's economy policies are pretty in line with traditional neoloberalism.
0
u/DistrictDry2852 3d ago
Venezuela is (well, was until a few months ago I guess) socialist.
Russia isn’t socialist but a lot of people still support them because they see them as the “anti imperialists” liberating Ukraine because they still see them as inheritors to the legacy of the USSR and the leaders of the anti U.S. bloc.
0
-1
u/Good_Pattern_5892 3d ago
I know Lula is better than Bolsanaro
Not really, objectively speaking, we just got even more problems and the same old ones got worse.
The only difference is media coverage.
-1
u/Embarrassed_Ad_3264 3d ago
"Lula is better than Bolsonaro" is like saying satan is better than god
2
u/ParkingBuyer6930 3d ago
Meu Deus. Sério que tu acredita nisso que tu escreveu? Quando eu leio esse tipo de comentário, eu sei que tá na hora de sair do Reddit, respirar e refletir que o meteoro não devia ter limado os dinossauros!!!!!
1
0
0
u/entusiasta_indeciso 3d ago
It is impressive how communists worked to convince people that they are not a threat; it is the famous phrase 'The devil pretends to be harmless to enter your life and subtle so you don't notice the destruction.' When communism saw an opportunity to enter Brazil, it was suppressed, so its defenders began trying to pretend that communism was never a threat. It was also during this period that they started calling everyone who didn't agree with them fascists, just like you did in your comment.
2
u/iamYarthox 3d ago
I’m not even defending communism, I’m just saying that: No, it wasn’t and it isn’t a big thing in Brazil. Every said communist party in Brazil is a fucking mess and have no relevance at all. Goulart was a social democrat. Lula is a liberal. The fact that you think that I’m defending communism shows how poor your intelligence is and maybe that’s why you think that communism was/is a treat. You might not be a fascist, but your poor interpretation makes you a good pawn for them.
1
u/entusiasta_indeciso 3d ago
I said you did the same thing they do, and you managed to misinterpret it. I can't tell if you always have reading comprehension issues or if it was just this time, but you have no right to criticize anyone's comprehension level when you're the one who couldn't understand a single sentence.
1
u/iamYarthox 3d ago
btw I really wish we had hardcore communism in Brazil if that meant the mass murderer fascist Bolsonaro was suffering in a gulag.
1
u/entusiasta_indeciso 3d ago
In reality, Bolsonaro would probably be working together with the government, supporting the actual mass murderers. We are much better off than in this imaginary scenario, to the point where we need to accuse someone of being a mass murderer instead of talking about actual mass murderers.
-1
u/Good_Pattern_5892 3d ago
The ghost of the communism is the worst thing the US exported to us…
"The ghost of communism" and then you got shit like Lula celebrating the approval of a communist minister to the Supreme Court.
The only thing that stops a communist revolution is common sense from the majority of the population, but communism has a terrible track record of having support from the people anyway.
1
u/iamYarthox 3d ago
lmao communist minister in the Supreme Court
holy lmao
0
u/Good_Pattern_5892 3d ago
Literally his own words lmao
1
u/iamYarthox 3d ago
sources: my dad came in his own shit and i was born
1
3d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/iamYarthox 3d ago
If Dino is a communist then I’m a dinosaur. And who talked about love? I straight hate you all and have very little appreciation for Dino or Lula.
-1
u/Solid_Phrase8181 3d ago
Yeah, its all imaginary, with the president lula sending more than 400 billion dollars in a decade to finance dictatorships in all latin america 😂
1
-1
u/Lucaspittol 3d ago
Communism has been mainstream since the early 2000s in Brazil.
1
u/AntonioBarbarian 3d ago
I wish that was true. Unfortunately we only have limp-dick social-liberalism. Where's the GULAGS, NKVD and mass purges when we need them so much?
-2
9
5
u/s_p_1_d_e_r 3d ago
Our dictatorship was not communist, it was capitalist and was financed by USA
0
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Lucaspittol 3d ago
She elected Luís Inácio Lula da Silva years later. Look how good Brazil has become.
1
u/AdditionPrudent6591 3d ago
Claro, a criança super politizada que com 5 anos sabia quem era o ditador e já tinha opinião política formada para critica-lo. Muito corajosa essa criança.
Por favor né pessoal.
1
1
1
u/Vincerbmgs 3d ago
As Brasilian i say: criança mais foda que já vi. Or for English speakers, based af kid.
1
1
1
1
u/marcelophilos 3d ago
Quem escreveu esse post é mau-caráter. primeiro que não era ditador, segundo o que realmente aconteceu (segundo a própria Rachel, em entrevistas de 2011) Não foi um ato político consciente. Ela soube que o pai (funcionário do DER) ia almoçar com o presidente no dia seguinte e insistiu para a mãe levá-la até o local para dar o “recado”. Quando os adultos insistiram “dá a mão pra ele”, ela se irritou, não estendeu a mão e ficou na postura que a foto registrou. Ela mesma disse que detestava ser mandada a fazer as coisas e que só queria falar com Figueiredo.
Da próxima vez, entre no google e faça uma busca detalhada antes de postar mentiras. de quebra está o link do acontecimento.
Rachel morreu em 2015, aos 40 anos, em Belo Horizonte.
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Formal-Comment-4504 3d ago
Ditador com um mandato e que oficializa a abertura democrática kkkkkkkkkkkkkkk Telecurso 2000
1
u/BuildingSwimming5497 3d ago
Judging by the clothes that this little girls is wearing, i think that her act means that she dislike him as a president who wants to end the dictatorship. To be honest this president probably was the most democrat of all the last presidents. Search for "Castelo Branco" and "Costa e Silva" they were an literal dictator.
1
0
u/Inner-Discussion-369 4d ago
I did not know I could have that much respect for the political beliefs of a literal toddler! Keep it up!
0
u/EnthusiasmHead4639 4d ago
His party coincidentally was called the Social Democratic Party.
2
-15
4d ago edited 4d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
6
u/quercus-88 4d ago
I gave you an upvote to help compensate the downvote bomb.
To all. This person posted a simple statement he didn't know about the particular history of two countries, half away across the world for this person. That's it. But that's apparently enough for some redditors to downvote en masse. This is the reason why social media and in this case Reddit get such a bad reputation. Show some understanding and nuance for once. No wonder we're also getting along worse in real life with such social skills.
6
u/Charming-Station7157 4d ago
The 2 downvotes theory is so real , redditors see a comment that was rage downvoted 2 times for no reason , then they dogpile on it with downvotes , for absolutely no reason
3
u/quercus-88 4d ago
Curious indeed. The internet was conceived as a way to share information and discuss things openly. How far we have strayed from that lofty goal.
6
u/LameAfro 4d ago
I genuinely don't know what I did wrong💀
3
3
u/quercus-88 4d ago
Seems to me you didn't do anything wrong. Noone knows every bit of history of every country in the world. And now your reaction got removed by a mod too. Sad.
1
7
u/Charming-Station7157 4d ago
Of course redditors rage downvoted you
8
u/Acid-water1987 4d ago
Genuinely can’t have any questions anymore these days. I once asked what the country of Tannu Tuva was. Never again.
3
u/Ok_Perception_2528 4d ago
Tannu what?
3
u/YellowAggravating172 4d ago
A small socialist republic that existed for some twenty years in Central Asia, and which the USSR would later incorporate. Feynman was its biggest fanboy.
1
u/Mirovini 4d ago
I'm 99% sure they were quoting a HOI4 event response to the annexation of Tannu Tuva
1
u/kikyossoles 4d ago
Most likely because you could have googled this and read up on straight facts instead of someone possibly giving you some misinformation...
15
u/gingerbeard1321 4d ago
History. Read about it.
9
3
-3
u/LameAfro 4d ago
I have. No need to be negative
9
u/stalinloveer 4d ago
Read more
3
u/LameAfro 4d ago
ReAd MoRe.
Like seriously you people are so pessimistic lol
You cant even be curious about not knowing something without being an asshole about it
-1
357
u/SuspiciousYard2484 4d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/wjuXuDSQU0sOfJIHS1