Death Without Weeping

Chapter 12 discusses one of the few remaining outlets for popular dissent and protest in Northeast Brazil: liberation theology. Liberation theology is a popular movement that blends Christian doctrines and theology with social justice politics. For the residents of the Alto, liberation theology presents not only a means of religious experience and community-building, but one of the few forms of genuine political activity available. The history of the Northeast, as the author describes, contains a history of political repression, in which popular movements―both nonviolent and violent alike―have been either crushed by the authorities or co-opted. On top of this, intense surveillance blunts residents' initiative to organize; in parts of the Northeast, this surveillance has bred a culture of silence. The author tells the story of UPAC, a popular collective-action organization, and its descent into infighting and ineffectuality, to emphasize this point.

Thus, liberation theology exists in part to fill this space of collective action. The significance of the doctrine of liberation theology is potent, as it presents a space for the political imagination to blend with elements of traditional and popular culture. A sermon by the "peasant-worker priest" Padre Andreas, an El Salvadoran liberation theology missionary, illustrates this blending: in the sermon, he describes the Alto do Cruzeiro as Calvary, likening its peoples’ suffering to that of Jesus Christ.