“Memoirs of a Soldier from Pará”: history, memory and performance of Military Police Officer Arthur Corrêa da Silva (1942 - 1990).

Abstract

This paper aims to present initial aspects of the performance of a “Soldier” of the Military Police of Pará, named Colonel Arthur Corrêa da Silva in the political, social and cultural fields through the memories described in his unpublished 1991 book, as well as part of the interview given by Colonel PM Dilson Junior, his grandson, in 2022, both related to the documentary sources that encompass the period from 1942 to 1990. From the highlighted sources, it is possible to perceive the performance of the social subject as a Military Policeman and in the political sphere between the capital and the interior of the state in the context of post-World War II democracy. In this sense, his proximity to the “populist” politics of the time presents evidence of a common political thought from the 1950s onwards in Brazil, which allows us to understand the process of change that the Institution began at the time. Thus, issues such as family history, recruitment and career construction present a form of historical narrative that relates macro and micro-history, the importance of the subjects' experiences and their personal vision, which aligns with the construction of oral history sources, as their account is rich in details and visions about important events in Pará during the national-statist republic, the military regime and the democracy of the 1980s.