Adriano Cordoso: COPAVI PROJECT!

This post is about Adriano Cardoso!

View from the community center, eucalyptus trees provide much needed shade. 

Trees and sky

He is almost 21 years old, and lives in COPAVI with his mother and 5 other siblings.  He currently works in the sugarcane agroindustry, and knows the process thoroughly (all aspects except cachaça distilling), he has worked there since he turned 14. Adriano is interested in studying law, and thinks this would be an important way to contribute to COPAVI, as well as the MST.  He has grown up in the MST, it is the source of his "formação," organization, it is his social movement.  Regarding his community, Adriano likes it--it is a good place to live and there is plenty of work.  Unlike in individually organized settlements, in COPAVI young people can stay in the community if they like--they aren't going to work in the ethanol factories.  Adriano is also encouraged by a new emphasis on leisure (soccer games, theatre groups, etc) within the community--this is important to him.

The music Adriano wanted to share with his slide show is a song by Capital Inicial, "Ao Lado o Escuro da Lua," (On the Dark Side of the Moon). In English the lyrics are:

There is always something wrong
Sometimes what is left is what we lack
Something we do not see, do not feel
Everything that we don't have, but we pretend
I almost did what I wanted
I almost had something I could
Again this almost always this , that nothing
With me on this long and winding road

Running like crazy, Always miss very little
To lose the reason, Eyes closed
In the middle of your street, daydreaming
On the dark side of the moon
Eyes closed, In the middle of your street
daydreaming, On the dark side of the moon

Glass half full, glass half empty
The body heats up only when the air is cold
Do not want to remember it does not make sense

Carol, Adriano's sister, volunteering to help with the reforestry project. 

Not regret not having lived
Life is long, life is short
When everyone talks, no one listens to me
The  blind do not know where to go
Here's another one in this crowd

I was thirsty, give me gasoline
I ask nothing, give me even less
I do not get it right
The perfection of the imperfect
I complain, I regret
I rebel, I surrender

Wondering what could have been
If I was made of steel, not glass.

Running like crazy
Always miss very little
To lose the reason
Eyes closed

In the middle of your street
daydreaming
On the dark side of the moon
Eyes closed
In the middle of your street
daydreaming
On the dark side of the moon
Eyes closed
In the middle of your street
daydreaming
On the dark side of the moon

Place of work. 

Such a lovely neighborhood, great neighbors. 

Niece on a hot day. 

Daniela Calza: COPAVI PROJECT

Meet Daniela Calza!

Dani is 28 years old, the mother of Pietra (monstrinha!), and companheira to Alan in COPAVI.  She grew up here, her family was one of the first to join the community. Dani graduated from the Latin American School of Agroecology, a university that is the product of a partnership with the Federal Institute of PR, and La Via Campesina.  Currently, she is part of an effort to develop organic dairy production in the community--which is not an easy task at all.  To qualify as "organic" the cows cannot consume GMOs.  Finding supplies of non-genetically modified soy and corn, to supplement their free-range pasture diets is not an easy task.  Thus, we have a problem--diversified smallholders don't have enough land to produce sufficient pastures, yet. This is Dani's mission, she wants to make this happen in three years.  If so, prices for their milk will be much higher.

Yet, the stringent standards lead me to ask... Why is it that production under relatively exploitation-free (i.e., cooperative) conditions, and happy cows is not "enough" to demand higher prices?  As a consumer, I think it is totally acceptable to consume milk from cows that took mastitis medications, for example, if the cows have good lives, if their hooves touch grass.

Anyways, Dani took photos of her little one, Pietra, the community, and shared some images from her personal photo album.  She also took the time to write responses to some of the questions guiding the project.

1) What is the significance of love for you?
For me, love is to want good things.  I love my family, nature, my community, humanity, agriculture, and my land/planet/earth.  This is reflected in our history of struggle for land, for agroecology, a struggle to be better, a struggle for love.

2) What is the significance of friendship for you?
My family, my friends at COPAVI, my girlfriends in Paranacity, and many other places in Brazil and in the world--Argentina!  There are some that I won't ever see again, others that I meet from time to time, but we are always united in our work.

3) Where do you work in COPAVI?
I am part of the sector of family subsistence and the dairy.  I like this work because we take care of our families needs, and create clean, healthy, and agroecological foods [without pesticides].

4) What do you like about living in the assentamento?
I love living in COPAVI, my community is UNIQUE, IT IS SPECIAL. We have struggled, we have conquered, and it is collectively organized and beautiful!

5) What is the importance of living in the roça?
The roça is my life.  I am 28 years old, and I've been in the roça since I was born.  I like my house, my garden, my office...

6) What do you think about the city, what do when you go to town?
I think cities are unsustainable--they distort the relation between humans and nature.  I only go to town when I have to buy something, sometimes to go out to eat (pizza or a snack), or to see friends and my mother-in-law.  Sometimes I go to the fair...

7) What is the significance of the MST and the struggle for land, for you personally?
I am very connected to the land, and I was born in the MST in the struggle as well.  This is a struggle for justice, and the most organized social movement that exists.

8) What are your dreams for the future?
At this time, I don't have a lot of certainty, but I do want to have more conquests (individual and collective) together with my family, I want to continue to study, work as an agroeco expert, and stay in the roça, especially at COPAVI.

LUCILA: COPAVI PROJECT

Lucila is 23 years old and lives with her daughter Nicole on the near the end of the lane in COPAVI.  She has a big family, and 5/13 siblings live here in COPAVI. She took photographs of her daughter, family members, her home (decorated with an MST flag), and workplace.  She is working in the agroindustry, processing brown sugar.   While she didn't always like living here, since she had Nicole, Lucila likes it more and more--as she told me, it is a good environment to raise children. Neighbors, family, and friends are nearby to watch out for her little one. Lucila would like to do theatre, and loves to dance, she participates in the youth group at COPAVI.

Lucila's Casinha

Look at that face!  

Where Lucila works each day, in the morning it is sparkling clean.

Lucila processes and packages sugar

Friends and family gathered for Dia dos Mortes at COPAVI

Nephew scared by a doll! 

Rafa and Neighbor

Lucila! Que linda!

Friends and Family at COPAVI. 

The exterior: a bit more about Paranacity....

I've decided to change it up a bit.  Now, that we've seen what the youth of COPAVI have been taking photos of, I'm going to show a little bit of Paranacity on the outside.  A town without trees, where literally all of what was part of the arcuaria was destroyed.  What do we have now? Full of bars and churches, running fueled on ethanol, its rhythms determined by the factory's metronome.  Rates of death from diabetes and homicide are equal. The last natural place of leisure, a spring, recently died--due to erosion.  Many youth's idea of a good time?  Heading to Maringá, a nearby city, to go to McDonalds.  In this context, in the middle of an industrialized landscape--the folks of COPAVI and the MST, are trying to diversify production, and grow trees.  They are providing an alternative for family survival in an inhospitable place. It is a pleasure to work, live, and get to know them. 

Preserve Nature, Ironic given the complete deforestation of the region.

Empty stores

Infant Mortality in the Cemetery

Apologize for the Crime! Graffitti

Desertification.  This ain't terra roxa anymore.

In 1980, Paranacity was sold off, or issued a directive from the military dictator-developers: GROW SUGARCANE.

CAROL: COPAVI

This is Carol. She is 17 and lives and works in COPAVI.  She is a daughter in a very large family, with 13 siblings, five of them live here in her community, others are in the region. She moved to COPAVI in 2005 with her parents, and had been living in another agrarian reform settlement near Arapongas.  She has made close friendships here. Carol works in the bakery and in the office at times. She was the coordinator of the Youth Group.  This sem terra youth plans to finish high school this year. She would like to go to college and study nutrition, and help people (particularly women), how they can get skinny, "because women always want to know that."

I've uploaded some of the photos she shot, and a video slideshow with the rest.  Carol loves Legião Urbana, and chose to include the song, Tempo Perdido, in her post.  The refrain rings, we are so young, we are so young. 

Some concerns that surfaced in our conversation, and that have come up in others, are about the debilitating effects of shyness. It is hard being young and learning to express yourself. 

Some of the youth of COPAVI, with the MST flag

Walking to the community center

Photo of MST rally at home

A wedding photo, with Carol's large family.