Brazilian Expeditionary Force: from military memory to the political uses of the past

Abstract

The academic analysis available on Brazil's involvement in World War II has continued to increase in the country, however there are still almost no concerns that concern the political involvement of the veteran military in the country's political issues after the end of the War. This article seeks to contribute to filling this gap, observing the construction of a memory about the participation of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (FEB) in the Second World War (1939-1945) and the approximation of associations with the Military Institutions in the city of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais. In this sense, obeying the limits of this analysis, I intend to address the role of managing a memory discourse that the AECB-JF played during its existence and how the progressive construction of a common identity between these war veterans and the Armed Forces occurred, as well as the political uses of that memory.