Now the workers’ union’s official car has already jolted 40 km over the sand tracks. Enoque wants to meet Zé da Barra. He is one of the leaders at the agricultural workers’ union; he lives with his family in Barra, a settlement with no church or school, and the soccer field is also the village square. Zé is sitting on the foundation of his daughter Cleide’s (35) house, leaning back against the pink wall. The evening sun is setting over the soccer field as Hailton brings out a plate of fejoada for everyone. Cleide and Zé admire Enoque. Without him, they would not be farming their own land. Sitting up straight with her head held high, she recounts how, as a small child, she went with the men to the demonstrations, held banners and stood in the way of gunmen. Hundreds of women, children, and men broke through the illegal barbed wire fences using rusty pliers, shovels and stakes, stood in front of town halls and churches in order to assert their land rights. Unfortunately, that former enthusiasm and the solidarity among the farmworkers have decreased, says Cleide; however there are still communities that would actively become deeply involved.
There is a large meeting place for the worker’s union in Barra. The big green building with the wooden roof is somewhat hidden behind the banana trees on the fringe of the village. There are courses there every week for the villagers. Cleide and her friends from the elementary school in “Praça” organize these voluntary studies since many of the elders are illiterate. At 7 pm, about 50 people from the communities of Santana, Poço do Boi and Barra crowd into the 70 square meter room. They sit on the wooden benches which are spread out against the walls, and they squeeze into the small school desks.
Today the lesson is history – their history. Each village community is to reconstruct their origin. Only Barra has a founding date: a fazenda belonging to Felix Lopes Guimarães was built there in 1875. His son Durval (da Barra) Guimarães Ribeiro is the grandfather of Zé da Barra and what seems like 80% of the inhabitants. The name Barra comes from the curve of a dried-out river bed where the settlement is situated, according to the inhabitants. Poço do Boi (oxen well) started out as a small hut near a ford that the vaqueiros (cowboys) used as a watering hole for their cattle. The fight against illegal land acquisition is what unites these communities. The history of the older generation is touched upon briefly –their discussion centers much more around the fight for their rights as agricultural workers, the drought and the lack of state support.
Cleide lives with her husband Hailton Ribeiro (37) and their son Kleylton Guimarães Ribeiro (15) within eyeshot of her father’s house. Hailton takes care of the few animals, the garden and the household. Cleide works the whole day at the elementary school; she studied the humanities, her income is the only steady source of revenue for the family. Their son Kleylton goes to high school, some 40 kilometers away. They only spend time together as a family on the weekends.
