Raquel Moreira

Brazilian Black councilwoman Marielle Franco was assassinated in March 2018 by Rio de Janeiro’s right-wing militia. Born and raised in Rio’s Favela da Maré, Franco ran for city council in 2016 on an explicitly queer Black feminist platform that centered on working-class concerns, especially of Black women. Her supporters spanned from working-class favela voters to college students and progressives of various ages from different parts of the city. Once elected, Franco became a vocal critic of state-sponsored violence in Rio’s favelas, shedding light especially on the extrajudicial killings performed by Rio’s military police and associated militias. She was fatally shot on her way home from a Black feminist circle event, and just a few days after denouncing the slaughter of Black youth by the police in Rio’s neighborhood of Acari. Two former police officers connected with Rio’s militias were arrested the following year for the shootings; years later, two politicians from Rio, along with then head of Rio's Civil Police, were arrested for ordering her killing. Crucially, the years following Franco’s death, which went unsolved for over five years, became a defining moment in Brazil, when the country was called on to reckon with the pervasiveness of racist gendered violence in Brazil’s political life.

This essay bridges three moments of Brazilian history and politics: first, we connect the Brazilian historical and cultural context to Franco’s ascension and subsequent murder; second, we examine how Franco’s death worked as a reminder of the country’s violent colonial past amid contemporary right-wing violence. Third, we discuss how Franco’s memorialization has served as a catalyst for organized Black feminist praxis in Brazil. Despite continuous brutal backlash endured by Black women in the Brazilian public sphere, Franco’s legacy prevails. This essay furthers critical perspectives of intercultural communication arguing that gendered violence is a continuation of colonial practices. At the same time, we also highlight that the relentless feminist work by Black women from Latin America is a site of decolonial knowledge that deserves scholarly attention.

The work of Brazilian Black feminist Lélia Gonzalez challenges ideas of Latin America that privilege Europeanness by reimagining it as Améfrica Ladina. In this brief essay, I delve into Gonzalez’s interconnected concepts of amerifricanidade (Amefricanity) and Améfrica Ladina. Both notions defy Latinidad’s epistemological hegemony in rhetoric and communication studies at large by centering the colonial struggles and resulting knowledge of Indigenous people and Amefricans in the region. Lélia Gonzalez’s legacy could transform scholarship that invokes Latinidad, encouraging scholars to embrace instead our ladinidad as a vital step toward decolonizing the discipline.