Malcolm Boorer
When São Paulo became a battlefield
The now-forgotten Tenentes rebellion in São Paulo in 1924 caused widespread destruction, killed many people, and paved the way for Getulio Vargas' reforms in the 1930s and, later, for the dictatorship.
Chile: what happened to the pobladores?
During the 1960-73 period, squatter movements for better housing were active and effective. Brutally suppressed during the dictatorship, they have never regained their importance. Malcolm Boorer went to one, Herminda de la Victoria, to find out why.
Brazil: the Prestes Column in Bahia
The 'Prestes Column' uprising against Brazil's oligarchy in the early 20th Century included an astonishing long march around Brazil, eventually reaching Bahia. Their legacy survives today.
Brazil: the influence of the ’18 of the Fort’
How a short-lived rebellion in 1922 by a tiny group of army officers inspired the 'tenentes' movement, influenced the 1964 military coup, and is still remembered today in street names, monuments and, perhaps, by a military debating its position in the 2022 elections.
The shrinking land of the people of lightning
The collaborative work of 10 indigenous filmmakers, this short film offers an insight into the lives of the Avá group of Guarani-Kaiowá people in Brazil, whose land is shrinking and whose lives are increasingly threatened by outside influences.
Quesera – El Salvador’s forgotten massacre
El Salvador's civil war featured a number of brutal massacres by the army, especially the one at El Mozote in Morazán. Much less well-known is the butchery of peasants and children at Quesera in Usulután, on the River Lempa, carried out by the Army's US-trained Atlacatl Batallion.
El Salvador: the Water Defenders
In The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved A Country from Corporate Greed, Robin Broad and John Cavanagh tell the harrowing, inspiring saga of Salvadorans' fight — and historic victory — to save their water, and their communities, from Big Gold.
La Población: an album for a shanty town
Victor Jara's 1982 album told the story of the población Herminda de la Victoria. It will be celebrated at this year's El Sueño Existe festival (on Zoom from Machynlleth, Wales). Malcolm Boorer tells the story behind the album.
Dekasegi: migrants return from Brazil to Japan
Brazil's sizeable Japanese community was created by migration. Since the turn of the 21st century substantial numbers have been returning to Japan. Malcolm Boorer explains why.
Brazil’s Empire Windrush
The remarkable story of when and why Japanese people migrated in large numbers to Brazil, starting in 1908, and what has become of their communities since