Elisa Branco: A life in red

In Elisa Branco: a life in red, historian Jorge Ferreira narrates the life of the communist who was monitored by the DOPS for almost four decades, rescuing the legacy of one of the greatest Brazilian symbols of the fight for peace.

For the first time, the life of Elisa Branco—a seamstress from Barretos, São Paulo, who became a PCB member and peace activist—is being told to the general public. An admirer of Luiz Carlos Prestes, she was arrested for unfurling a banner against the sending of Brazilian soldiers to the Korean War on September 7, 1950, during a military parade in São Paulo. The campaign for her release spread worldwide, making Elisa Branco a symbol of resistance against political oppression. In 1952, she received the International Stalin Peace Prize in the Soviet Union, the highest honor a communist could achieve.

Elisa, however, was forgotten. She disappeared from the books written by communist activists and historians. Elisa Branco: Uma Vida em Vermelho breaks this oblivion and restores Elisa to the history of the PCB and Brazilian society itself.

To write the book, historian Jorge Ferreira accessed reports from the DOPS (National Police Department of Social Security)—which monitored Elisa Branco for nearly four decades—memoirs written by her, the communist press, and interviews with friends and family. From birth to death, we learn not only about her PCB activism but also about her private life, including her life with her husband, Norberto, and her daughters. Elisa Branco: A Life in Red is a contribution to what became known as the History of Women and an opportunity for readers to learn about the history of the PCB and Brazilian politics.