Page 470 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo I

470 XXXIX Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

Paths and memories of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force
(FEB) in Italy

Marcelo DE MELLO RIBEIRO
Edgley PEREIRA DE PAULA

1. Introduction
1
n fact, we live in “interesting times” , if on one hand the globalization process,
I points to a world without borders, massified and somewhat superficial, we check in
response to this “state of matters” the emergence of cultural resistance, either through
organized social groups or even government al institutions, sometimes showing the past
and tradition of the nation state that insists on not disappearing, sometimes defending
the memory of people who realize in their common past a value, a cultural asset that
distinguishes and identifies them.
It is inserted in this paradox and historical context the revisiting to a recent past, in
this case, the Brazilian participation in World War 2. As the great background this re-
visiting it is the disappearance of the last generations that actually lived in the time of
2
war both on the Brazilian side, immortalized in the figure of the “pracinhas” , as on the
3
Italian side in the figure of almost mythological partigiani .
In Italy and Brazil, it increases considerably the number of people and institutions
dedicated to research about the topic. In addition to the worship of these soldiers deeds
that had always occurred among the military group, lately reaching even the national
film industry, as the symbolic case of the film “Heroes” which tells the unusual case of
three Brazilian soldiers killed in combat and subsequently buried by the Germans under
the words “DREI BRASILIANISCHEN HELDEN” which translated would be “Three
Brazilian Heroes.” On the other hand, in Italy, the city halls (known as communes) in the
Tuscany region, including Montese, Gaggio Montano, Fornovo di Taro and Collecchio
are organizing themselves as in an interesting cultural heritage project called “ Gothic
Line Project.”. This coast defense line was formed by dams between the cities of La
Spezia and Massa, towards the Apuan Alps, the Garfagnana, the Modena Apennines, in
the Bolognese Apennines, also supported in the upper valley of the Arno River area, on
the Tiber valley up to the heights of Via Emilia, to close on the coast of the Adriatic Sea
with other field fortifications between Pesaro and Rimini.

1 HOBSBAWM, Eric J. Tempos Interessantes. Uma virada no século XX. Companhia das Letras, 2007.
2 Name as it became popularly known members of FEB, it appears as a peculiar way to call military lowest
ranks in the military hierarchy, eg. Soldiers, Corporals and Sergeants.
3 Name given to the participants of the Italian resistance to the nazifascist domain. It is based on an
adaptation of Partisans or members of the Party, in the original case the Communist Party (PC)idea.