Paul Silberstein first went to Brazil in 1966 as a Peace Corps volunteer, where he lived in Rio, and then across the bay, working in a favela in Niteroi. After his time as a volunteer had finished, he enrolled in a master’s program in anthropology in Rio, but was called back to the United States by the draft board in 1969. Seeking deferment of the draft, he enrolled in a history and anthropology graduate program at Berkeley, where he was introduced to a group of Brazilian exiles working on a new publication: the Brazilian Information Bulletin. The BiB, which was printed from February of 1971 to 1976, was an English-language newsletter compiled of exposé articles and news clippings on the political and social repression in force in Brazil. The newsletter was circulated by a group called the American Friends of Brazil, who sold about 1,000 copies per issue to individual subscribers or libraries, as well as disseminated the publication at political events relating to Brazil. The goal was to inform U.S. citizens about the repressive political situation in Brazil, and expose the U.S. government’s support in propping up the dictatorial regime. They ran articles detailing the torture suffered by political prisoners, the dictatorship’s environmentally destructive policies, and the training of Brazilian police at a U.S. academy in Washington, D.C., among many other topics. The Bulletin was a consistent voice of opposition to the military regime and its relationship to the United States.

After his involvement with U.S. activism against the Brazilian dictatorship, Paul got involved in teaching special education classes, where he has been working for the past 42 years.