Strategies for the approval of the monument to Carlos Marighella on Alameda Casa Branca in São Paulo

Abstract

Installed in 1999, the monument to Carlos Marighella is located on Alameda Casa Branca in São Paulo, the street where the guerrilla was assassinated in 1969. The result of a civil society initiative, the work was approved by São Paulo City Hall and is now part of the municipal heritage. This article looks at the strategies adopted to get the approval of the city council, at the time led by Celso Pitta, for a monument that pays homage to one of the country's main left-wing leaders. The narratives surrounding Marighella that were mobilized in the process of approving the monument are analyzed, identifying the actors and strategies involved in legitimizing the work. Using press sources, documents and interviews with those involved in the project, as well as bibliographical references, the article discusses how the memory of Marighella, and of the experience of the armed struggle itself, is a source of dispute in society. It also shows how the tensions between remembering and forgetting are used and shaped according to the needs and strategies of political movements.