Born Subversive

Born Subversive is the memoir of Nadejda Marques, a woman born in the midst of social upheaval, violence and transformation in Brazil. In 1973, when she is just nine months old, her father is kidnapped, tortured and murdered by the military regime that seized power in Brazil in 1964. Her mother then flees to Chile alone. A friend takes the infant Nadejda separately to Santiago, Chile where the three meet just days before the military coup d'état there led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet in September 1973. Nadejda and her mother now must flee Pinochet's henchmen. They become refugees setting off on a journey that takes them to Sweden, Russia, Cuba, Panama and, finally, back to Brazil. Later, Nadejda continues her own journey, marrying an American human rights activist in Brazil, working in Angola and settling eventually, in Massachusetts. Born Subversive follows the life of Nadejda Marques through three decades of profound change. In so doing, the book takes the reader on a journey that is extremely personal, moving and political. The storyline weaves through a Latin America of unbounded democratic promise and equally profound disappointment. In seeking to help her daughter, Mara, to understand her identity and history, Nadejda comes to appreciate fully her own. That identity is one marked by the violence and unrest of Latin America over the past several decades, but also by strength, perseverance, motherhood and love.