“A warning to christians”: the Rural Catholic Action and the construction of a political formation in the countryside (1970-1982)

Abstract

This article analyzes the performance of the Rural Catholic Action (ACR) in the Brazilian Northeast between 1970 and 1982, taking its periodical, Grito no Nordeste, as its central object. The study argues that the newspaper functioned as a news agency and an alternative political analysis center, filtering complex national and international events through a theological-political lens. The analysis, methodologically supported by press studies and Michel de Certeau's concept of "tactics," traces the trajectory of the periodical through five sections. The text demonstrates its evolution from education for conscious voting and structural criticism of the latifundio, through the formation of a political consciousness based on faith, to the peak of its analytical maturity, when it deciphered the democratic transition and linked the local struggle to international conflicts. The conclusion indicates that O Grito was a fundamental tool of Public History in action, actively engaged in building a resistant political culture in the countryside. By providing rural workers with the keys to a critical reading of the world, the movement forged a liberating collective identity.