After a mission
Came a first encounter
When the owner came
Denying permission
For them to gather.
One day a rumour broke
That the owner had sold
That same little farm
To some doctor or other
Without telling the posseiros,
Who had legal preference.
Of this sad event
The crowd was just told
That all their improvements
Were but part of the deal,
That their forty years' sweat
Had been unjustly robbed.
Their preference claim
Then went to court
Soon there was aggression
Organised oppression
Animals poisoned
The water shut off.
Ten months went by
In hope and in torment
With much humiliation
They awaited the judgement
But when justice is corrupt
Suffering doesn't count.
The siege got ever tighter
For the people afflicted
Talk was only of being evicted
And of threats to their lives
Without guarantees
The class was persecuted.
After many a meeting
They came to one conclusion
Thirty families were to go
On the planned occupation
The only way out
To resolve the situation.
The day and time were fixed
All the details agreed
How it would be done
And who would be told
The tasks were allotted
Every plan put in place
But each and every Tuesday
Brought such apprehension
With threats of eviction
Came so much affliction
Yet God protected always
And saved us from humiliation.
For the government to hasten
The disappropriation
We went to camp in INCRA
Where for three days we stayed
We only came back
When certain of their aid.
Disguised as reporters
The UDR came back
To check out the place
And prepare their attack.
Our group, so naïve,
Didn't even spot that.
Close to the camp
A woman they grabbed
Put a pistol to her head
And her mouth they gagged
They threatened to kill her
Tore her clothes and her bag.
We shan't forget
October twenty-four
When Sarney left(2)
And Paes(3) came to power
Disappropriation
He tried within that very hour.
Payment wasn't made
The money disappeared
One more disappointment
For those already drained
Again Sarney departs
And Paes takes the reins.
Now the money would be granted
Of that we were sure
Sarney's absence, for us,
Was good, so good,
The funding really came
To ease so much pain.
The experience was worth it
And many of us knew it
Our little group had given
Our oppressor a lesson
The power of organising
Was grasped by the people.
May our struggle go on
Let our comrades unite
Challenging the UDR
For free land to fight
And so a new History
Very soon will ignite.
1 Editor's note: Narrative poem in the Cordel tradition, popular
narrative verse typical of the Brazilian northeast. Originally, the stories were
often news narrated in verse and disseminated by the singers in local fairs.
This poem tells of the process of expropriation and occupation as a form of
access to the land. The São João dos Carneiros Farm is associated
with a great victory in the land struggle in 1989, which took place in
Quixadá, in the northeastern state of Ceará, a region historically
associated with great agrarian conflicts; it is also a region constantly
devastated by drought.
2 Editor's note: Sarney (José Sarney): President of Brazil
(1985-1990).
3 Editor's note: Paes (Antônio Paes de Almeida): President of
the Chamber of Deputies, who served as acting President of the Republic when the
President was abroad.
4 Editor's note: Irmã Teresa Cristina/Sister Teresa Cristina: a
nun connected to the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), which had an important role
in the genealogy of the MST.
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