Abstract
This chapter interweaves examples of culture and commemoration from the 1940s through the early 1990s, showing how invocations of the column became a way for people across Brazil and abroad to express their hopes and grievances. By examining cultural production (namely, poems and novels) along with three emblematic moments of commemoration (most often disseminated through print media), this chapter traces the continuities and ruptures in the interior history of the column. Beginning in the 1940s, when a global solidarity campaign sought to win Luís Carlos Prestes's release from jail and continuing through his death in 1990, representations of the column reflected the overlapping visions projected onto the interior by a wide range of artists and commentators.