Abstract
Supported by documents produced by repressive agents, the article demonstrates the presence of the “threat/defense of the family” discourse during the military dictatorship in Brazil (1964-1985). For the intelligence and security communities, communist subversion was aimed at destroying the family. The theme was inscribed in sources of a repressive nature in different phases of the dictatorship. The politicization of morals was connected to an anticommunist and conservative tradition updated by changes and new dangers perceived in that context. The text offers elements to understand the assumptions that guided repressive writing, as well as problematizes the family model that was the target of anticommunist concerns. It suggests the hypothesis of racialization as a necessary interpretive key to critically analyze these discourses.
Keywords
military dictatorship; family; anti-communism; racialization; racism