2025/02/08 by Luis Eduardo Quintão Guerra · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Brazilian cultural history and politics #French Historical and Cultural Studies #Sociology and Education in Brazil
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/01426397.2025.2461567
openalex publication_date 2025/02/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/17
For the past nine years, the name of Bridge Honestino Guimarães, located in Brasília, has been disputed by politicians and local citizens. The disputes surround the names of two male figures connected to the country’s military dictatorship (1964-1985): Honestino Guimarães, a student murdered by the military in 1973, and Costa e Silva, a military figure known for initiating the most violent period of the regime. Between 2015 and 2024, the bridge’s name was officially changed three times. However, on March 14, 2019, the collective Movimento de Mulheres Olga Benario unofficially renamed the signposts from Costa e Silva to Marielle Franco—a Black woman, human rights activist and Rio de Janeiro city councillor murdered in 2018 by local militia groups. This paper analyses the toponymic disputes surrounding Bridge Honestino Guimarães and explores their potential as memorial arenas to both limit and expand understandings of past and present political violence.