The original Panthers are mostly gone. But in every girl who raises her fist—not in anger, but in awareness—the panther lives again.
“My father gave me his name, but I give it new meaning,” says , 41, a photographer documenting the movement. “He believed in armed resistance. I believe in armed existence . Showing up. Being visible. That is the revolution now.”
Across São Paulo, Salvador, and Rio, a quiet but seismic shift is taking place. They call themselves —The Panthers. But unlike the revolutionary men of the 1970s, these Panthers move in the name of two forces: the father who fought , and the daughter who continues . The Father’s Blueprint To understand the daughter, you must first meet the father. as panteras em nome do pai e da filha
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“The fathers taught us to be brave,” Janaína says. “But they didn’t always teach us to be safe. We are teaching our daughters both.” The original Panthers are mostly gone
In the 1970s and 80s, Black Panther–inspired movements emerged across Latin America—not as a copy of Oakland, but as a local cry against police terror, land theft, and state neglect. In Brazil, groups like the Movimento Negro Unificado (MNU) and Pantheras Negras (an unofficial, localized network) were led largely by men. They faced torture, exile, and death.
At a recent protest in São Paulo against police brutality, a line of young women stood in front of the riot police. They wore no masks. They carried no stones. Instead, they held framed photos of their fathers—some alive, some gone. And they sang. “He believed in armed resistance
“My father believed in the revolution tomorrow,” says , 29, a community health worker in the Maré favela, Rio. “I believe in the child’s homework tonight.”
“My father was arrested three times before I turned ten,” says , 34, a public defender in Salvador. “He never told me to hate. He told me to prepare. ‘The system will try to break your body,’ he said. ‘So build a mind it cannot touch.’”