June 2025 Unveiling Brazil’s Hidden Histories of Indigenous Child Separation Photograph of page 21 from an 1877 court case document regarding Angela and Benedicta Morais Soares, Ana Luiza. 2024. “Child Separation and the Stolen Generation of Brazil: Indigenous Peoples’ (Un)Freedom in Amazonia.” Latin American Research Review, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1017/lar.2024.56  In 1877, two Indigenous girls, Angela and Benedicta, were kidnapped. Taken from the countryside of Amazonas province, the girls were brought to Manaus, probably to work as domestic servants in slave-like conditions. The girls had living parents who were legally married and, although humble, had the means to raise and educate them. However, this did not protect the kidnap victims from being considered orphans and having their guardianship rights passed to strangers. How did this happen? In “Child Separation and the Stolen Generation of Brazil: Indigenous Peoples’ (Un)Freedom in Amazonia,” Ana Luiza Soares examines the systemic removal of Indigenous children in 19th-century Brazil. This article reveals how legal ambiguities and racialized definitions of orphanhood facilitated the exploitation of Indigenous, Black, and mixed-race children as unpaid domestic laborers, known as criadas de casa.​ Soares delves into the complexities of citizenship and guardianship laws, illustrating how these frameworks were manipulated to legitimize child separation and perpetuate colonial hierarchies. Orphanhood emerges as a key category in these separations—a racialized concept used to justify the kidnapping of children who had living and capable parents. Through a compelling case study of the 1877 abduction of sisters Angela and Benedicta, the article highlights the resilience of Indigenous families who navigated and contested these oppressive … Continue reading Spotlight on Scholarship