This roundtable of early-to-mid career scholars seeks to generate a dialogue about the role of historical memory in forging right-wing, Catholic integralist politics in twentieth-century Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. Each of these papers explores the media and methods through which right-wing actors—and right-wing women, in particular—curated historical memory to bolster collective identity narratives and ensure the survival of their respective movements.

Luah Batina Tomas examines the role of gossip, hearsay, and third-party conversations (the “archives of intrigue”) to uncover the gendered dynamics of memory-making processes among Brazil’s Integralista women. Daniela Moraes Traldi subsequently explores how Integralista women curated archives, wrote and re-published memoirs, and promoted commemorative practices such as street naming and monument building to ensure that Integralismo remained a part of Brazilians’ political imagination despite the movement’s decline.

Turning toward Mexico, Julia Young and Ricardo Álvarez-Pimentel analyze how traditionalist right-wing Catholics leveraged the memory of Agustin de Iturbide’s Fist Mexican Empire (1821-23) to promote an integralist vision for society: one characterized by church-state convergence and a return to monarchy. Whereas Álvarez-Pimentel explores the role of Catholic women’s magazines in furthering these projects, Young underscores transnational connections, examining the work of US Catholics (and US Catholic institutions) in bolstering the legacies of iturbidismo.

Together, these papers seek to better understand the centrality of historical memory—its curation and dissemination—to right-wing political movements. Their emphasis on gender and memory-making processes at the grassroots adds new dimensions of analysis, in addition to furthering our ability to draw contrasts and connections between different national contexts.