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But “la selva” — as many migrants call that particularly deadly stretch of their journey from South America to the United States — struck again two weeks ago.

Most of the online chatter referred to the planned gathering at Brasilia’s Three Powers Plaza as “Selma’s party” — a play on the Portuguese word for “selva,” a battle cry used by Brazil’s military.

The organizers appeared to turn the word “selva,” or jungle, into “Selma” by replacing the letter V with the letter M. The word selva is directly linked to the armed forces and its veterans.

Doshi frequently employs Dante's trope of selva oscura, the dark wood, to represent the love relationship, so there is a metaphorical parallel to these paired ideas.

The selvas are for the most part vast unbroken forests, in which giant trees, thick undergrowth, and entwining creepers combine to form a nearly impenetrable region.