Today, my heart is broken for the events occurring here in our country.
I was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1953. Here’s a brief time line of Brazil’s history: 2000 tribes and nations in habited Brazil prior to 1500. Brazil was the discovered and colonized by Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvarez Cabral in 1500 and claimed the country to be part of the Empire of Portugal on April 22, 1500. During the so-called Sugar Age of Brazil, Poprtugal began importing slaves and using Indigenous peoples as slaves in order to increase wealth for both the colonies and the colonizers. It was also during those years that miscegenation took place and a new “race” the “mulatto”. Became an integral part of Brazil’s population. Mulatto women have long since been considered some of the most beautiful women in there world. On September 7, 1822 Brazil declared it’s independence to become the Empire of Brazil. Following a Military coup in 1889, Brazil next became a dictatorship in 1934 and then in 1964 it became a Military Dictatorship from 1964-1985
Though I was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, I was a dual American-Brazilian citizen due to the fact that my father, though also born in Brazil had given up his Brazilian citizenship to become an American Military intelligence officer when he moved to the United States in 1935 and there married my mother a Native American citizen born in New York State in 1919. I considered myself Brazilian from as long as I can remember and was completely bilingual in English and Portuguese since a was a toddler. I never understood how important my American citizenship would be to me until 27 years later.
In the interim between my birth and age 23 when I married the grandson of a New York Senator, Henry Manning Sage, I lived a life of privilege. However I was taught from a very early age, the the benefits and wealth of my family were never to be shown off and that absolutely nothing made me better than any other human on earth. Though a large majority of Brazilians were of African American descent, I was taught to respect all people as they respected me. I do not recall one incident of racism during my life in Brazil and even though it is true that many were sons and daughters of slaves and served the homes of the wealthy, we were, in my view equals. And from 1930 until 1938 when slavery in Brazil was outlawed, and it’s oligarchic system was overthrown by the public. Then Brazil began it’s Integralism phase in the hope of unifying and developing the vast natural resources of the country. It was then that the United States intervened. Brazil became and ally of the United States. This included my father being sent overseas as a Military Intelligence officer in in 1944-45. The United States “loaned” [sic] “bought Brazil for 100 million dollars. From 1945 until 1964 a democratic regime. Prevailed in Brazil. And in 1963 the United States CIA and my father planned and executed the ousting of then President Janio Quadros.
In 1963 it was clear that Brazil was in turmoil and so with the “assistance” of the United States and my family and I fled Brazil overnight to live in NYC. Being 10 years old at the time I had no idea of what had prompted our exodus, even though I do vividly recall incidents of seeing Military Police in full battle gear brandishing weapons in public and being under curfew. We also experienced days of power outages along with crime and unrest for the most part I was very sheltered and these events were kept far from me. We experienced censorship. Parts of American movies were simply blacked out (if they were deemed unsuitable), protests ended in disappearances, and petty criminals were summarily executed on city streets by police. But if you could pay a “bribe” for any perceived infraction, you were given a pass. Thus my father taught me to always carry the equivalent of $20 dollars (a large sum in those days) in a separate plastic sleeve along with my drivers license. This was that in the event that I was ever stopped and or questioned, I would most likely make it home. In hindsight, it was a terrifying way to live.
And though my father was “unemployed” at the time, at first causing us to bunk-in with my mother’s family, we soon moved to the Plaza Hotel, then the Gramercy Park Hotel and finally a posh brownstone and I attended an exclusive Catholic private school. It was not until many years (40 in fact) that I began to wonder where the money. For that life style came from.
In 1966 we returned to Brazil and began to experience “subtle” changes in our lives. My father attended multitudes of late night meetings. My one and older brother was sent to an exclusive boarding school in Connecicut, and I was returned to my private American Catholic school. We had private security patrolling the perimeter of our home 24/7, my father had a weapon with him at all times, along with what he proudly displayed as a heavy lead pipe encased in rubber with an wrist handle. My father was accosted several times and intimidated by police who demanded bribes. And these bribes were always paid. We constantly felt haunted and uneasy.
Still I was naive and completely unaware of other “bad actors” surrounding our family. I lived a wonderful life at private riding clubs, had ballet lessons, etiquette lessons and my father began speaking of ending me to a Swiss Finishing School, informing me all the while that I needed to be perfect in border to attract a suitable husband. When I expressed my desire to do something different, to study at university abroad, my father informed me that I was only suitable to be a wife and mother if I was lucky.
On my 23rd birthday, January 4, 1976 having found a suitable suitor and pending my father’s approval I wed Henry Manning Sage, Jr. grandson of New York State Senator Henry Manning Sage. My wedding was an ostentatious affair, surrounded by armed guards in full parade uniform, swords extended overhead as my newlywed husband and I arrived at our lavish reception.
Just 4 months later we were woken at 3:00AM by men with guns who had commandeered the staff at our home and executed our two highly trained German Shepherd Patrol dogs. Naked and humiliated we were forced from our bed, allowed to quickly dress and taken to an undisclosed location, which we discovered was a police station. There we were questioned extensively for hours, tormented and threatened with all manner of harm for several hours, before being photographed and fingerprinted and led to a dungeon jail. There we languished for 45 day. Diroing those days we were systematically starved, beaten, tortured and raped. We were not allowed to bathe or use bathroom facilities. Our water and toilet were a wall spigot that dripped fifty water, with a hole beneath the dripping water for our elimination use. Finally after 45 days that I will never “unlive” and after my family paid an enormous bribe we were released and I was thoroughly discouraged from ever discussing anything I’d experienced.
My marriage failed, I had no familial support In Brazil at that time divorce was illegal. Men killed their wives with impunity over something as simple as an unappealing meal or a fantasized external romance. Legal separation was available to me, but in the patriarchal society of Brazil, I would forever be banned a pariah and never remarry and feel free. So my only choice was to flee. My fear was so great that would I would be be recaptured and never see the light of day again, that I took several circuitous flights hoping never to be traced and found when I finally began a new life as a maid and food sever in San Diego, CA where I never spoke of my past to anyone.
Fast forward to 2010 when my subconscious began again to terrorize me with night sweats, nightmares and a sense of dis-ease. I decided it was time to tell my story. In 2013 I was invited to give my testimony to the Brazilian National Truth Commission at the UN in NY as Brazil under the administration of then President Dilma Rousseff was conducting an investigation into past and present Human Rights abuses crimes. Two years following the investigation and some 2000 interviews with previous victims, the NTC declared its intent to prosecute those responsible for the abuses and to overturn a law, still in place tot his day which provides amnesty from prosecution to officials who torture. Brazil’s first female President, Dilma Roussef, who had as a college student been arrested and imprisoned and tortured for a period of 3 years for her part in the kidnapping of US Ambassador Charles Elbrick in 1970 in order toga attention of world media, by kidnapping an American diplomat had wanted nothing more that Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press for all Brazilians. I believed justice would finally come to those who had abused me, destroyed my marriage and life and forced me to flee my home, alone with no friends or family for support and aid. But, it was not to be. Dilma Rousseff was nothing more than a figure-head, her strings being pulled by many of the same political strings we see pulled today in the USA and just a few years later, she was impeached.
Today in the United States, I seee the media being manipulated and “managed”. New stories are told from one and only one perspective.
After the Constitutional Convention of 1787 Benjamin Franklin was walking out of Independence Hall when someone shouted this question, “Doctor, what have we got? A republic or a monarchy?” Franklin replied. “A republic, if you can keep it.” I think we’re looking at losing it now.
I’ve become very protective of the United States, like a friend of mine who valiantly served his country to save all of our freedoms. I’ll end this with his words:
“…..protective of our God given rights as guaranteed by our Constitution and by the sacrifice of patriots throughout our history. I see many not only turn a blind eye but support what is going on right now. As they live their privileged lives of abundance in a self absorbed sleep of plenty and normalcy bias, they are convinced that our freedoms and liberties are safe and secure, while they sanction their destruction on a daily basis.”
What is hapopening today in the United States is a travesty. Our president has been silenced by the media and it’s cohorts and the 1% who wish to take over the world with their ID implants, their monitoring systems and by withdrawing our freedoms. The very freedoms we and our forefathers fought wars to uphold. And which to me is the terrifying face of DejaVu.
Karen Keilt
Carefree
