Blog Post 1: Representations of Dictatorship in Contemporary Chilean Children’s Literature

For my first blog post, I would like to discuss the topic of dictatorship in children’s literature. I believe it’s essential to educate children on the consequences of a military regime, so they know when to identify history repeating itself. This topic is specially important to me because Brazil just elected a new president who publicly cheered dictatorship, made discriminatory comments on women, black people, gay people, foreigners and indigenous communities. He promoted hate speech and threatens democracy; and yet, he will be Brazil’s president starting on January 1st, 2019. According to Tom Phillips from The Guardian, “Since the Pinochet-praising former paratrooper entered politics three decades ago, he has repeatedly called for a return to the kind of military rule Brazil endured until 1985. ‘I am in favor of a dictatorship,’ he boasted during the first of seven terms as a congressman. ” (Phillips, 2018) Ultimately, I think this could have been prevented if Brazil’s educational system introduced children’s books emphasizing the devastating impacts of a military tyranny.

Since politics and dictatorship have inspired me to write this blog post, I will specifically discuss the article Representations of Dictatorship in Contemporary Chilean Children’s Literature by Bernardita Muñoz-Chereau. Her article explores four chilean children’s books (two from the perspetive of an exile, and two from the perspective of someone that grew up under Pinochet’s dictatorship). The books she chose to analyze depict children “who are politically aware, but do not make the adult’s fight their own.” (Muñoz, 2017). 

I will discuss the first two because it represented the perspective of a child living in dictatorship. The first book was Sofía caza palabras by Manuela Moulian. The main character is an 8 year old girl who grew up under the dictatorship and attempts to comprehend what is happening around her. Sofia indirectly experiences violence, disappearance, exile, and tries to understand the meaning of difficult political words like “proletariat.” The second book Muñoz mentioned was La bicicleta mágica de Sergio Krumm by Marcelo Guajardo. This book is about four friends who were intrigued by the disappearance of Sergio Krumm, twelve years before. The author encourages young readers to ask questions about social and political aspects of their society, and that is something I believe children should learn from a young age.

Works cited:

Muñoz-Chereau, B. (2017). Representations of Dictatorship in Contemporary Chilean Children’s Literature. Childrens Literature in Education, 49(3), 233-245. doi:10.1007/s10583-016-9297-z

Phillips, T. (2018, April 19). Trump of the tropics: The ‘dangerous’ candidate leading Brazil’s presidential race. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/19/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-presidential-candidate-trump-parallels