Mission Yearbook: Daughter honors father’s defiance of Brazil’s dictatorship

From 1964 to 1985, Brazil was ruled by a military dictatorship, sometimes referred to as the Fifth Brazilian Republic. Estimates suggest at least 434 political dissidents were murdered or “disappeared” during the dictatorship, and at least 20,000 others were tortured. Despite these human rights atrocities, the regime enjoyed the support of the United States government. But others worked tirelessly to oppose the government’s horrific actions, including a Presbyterian mission worker from the United States, the Rev. James Nelson Wright.

Anita Wright Torres was a teenager in 1975, when her father stood alongside a rabbi and the Archbishop of São Paulo in front of a crowd of more than 8,000 at the city’s central cathedral. The gathering was an interreligious and ecumenical cry for justice, speaking out against the murder of Jewish journalist Vladimir Herzog at the hands of the Brazilian government. Brazilian military forces surrounded the gathering from all sides in a flagrant display of power and intimidation.

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Anita Wright Torres speaks in her father's honor at an event in São Paulo on Oct. 25. (Photos by Instituto Vladimir Herzog)

Fifty years later, on Oct. 25, 2025, Wright Torres — now a ruling elder in the United Presbyterian Church in Brazil — stood in the same place, in front of another crowd, to represent her father and honor the courageous actions he and his clergy colleagues took decades ago.

Wright Torres describes herself as a third-generation Presbyterian missionary, though she and her four siblings were born and raised in Brazil. Her grandparents came to Brazil in the 1920s as Presbyterian missionaries from the United States. Her father attended high school in Brazil but returned to the United States for college — which Wright Torres says was the custom for children of missionaries back then.

After attending what is now University of the Ozarks in Arkansas, Wright went on to Princeton Theological Seminary, where he met his wife, who was pursuing a degree in Christian education. Together they returned to Brazil to live out their careers as mission workers themselves.

Wright served in prominent leadership roles in the church, including as general secretary for the United Presbyterian Church of Brazil from 1968 to 1986. At the same time, he was also collaborating with the archbishop and other religious leaders to oppose and undermine Brazil’s military dictatorship, both publicly and in secret. He took a position working in the archbishop’s human rights office.

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A crowd gathers at the central cathedral in São Paulo on October 25th to remember the murder of journalist Vladimir Herzog by Brazil's military dictatorship in 1975.

He was known for his role in helping the archdiocese of São Paulo organize and publish “Brasil Nunca Mais,” a book that used verbatim transcripts of the government’s own records to divulge its use of torture and murder against dissidents. Wright Torres said they were ultimately able to copy all 7,000 records of prisoners.

The book was written entirely in secret over a period of five years, and Wright Torres said her father was responsible for smuggling out evidence and smuggling in funding for the effort, disguised by his travels to meet international church partners in Geneva. The book was published and distributed by the Catholic Church, and by the time the government became aware of its existence, it was already selling. 

Wright’s participation in the denunciation of the government’s murder of journalist and Communist Party member Vladimir Herzog was arguably his most public show of resistance. At the time, the government listed Herzog’s death as a suicide; it would be 37 years before his death certificate was revised to reflect the truth.

Wright Torres said her father didn’t hide the truth of his activities or the government’s oppressive regime from his children, though he did couple these hard truths with reassurance that their own family would be OK.

For Wright, the call to oppose the government’s violence and unjust actions was a matter of faith, but it was also personal. Wright’s younger brother, Paul, was one of those “disappeared” by the regime. 

Wright Torres carries the same understanding that the commitment to justice and human rights is a matter of Christian faith and honoring her family.

“I had him as an example of a man of faith, a man of courage, and that would do what he did … in the search for justice,” Wright Torres said. 

Layton Williams Berkes, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Life & Witness (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Rebecca Kueber, Operations & Production Associate, Publishing & Editorial, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Amy Kim Kyremes-Parks, Growing Faith Resources & Church Relations, Growing Faith Resources, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation

Let us pray:

Holy God, whose Spirit brings unity of purpose to people of faith from widely different backgrounds, bless the work of congregations in equipping us for Christian witness and service. In Christ’s name. Amen.