Cristiano: COPAVI

This post is about Cristiano!  

Each day, Cris works here--in front of this computer screen.  He studied administration through La Via Campesina's 1st term, and graduated from college in 2010.  He is 26 years old, and was born in an MST land occupation, where he lived until he was 5 years old.  He remembers little about those early years.

When Cris came to COPAVI, it was only sugarcane.  The family constructed a black plastic tent, where the lived for a year.  By the second year, they built houses, close together in the agrovila. In the mornings he went to school, and in the evenings he played with the other children. He often helped out in the horta, and the various productive sectors in the community.

Cris learned about and developed a consciousness of the MST when he was young, by attending the aulinha's about the MST, given by Alex.  This teacher took the kids of COPAVI to the first encontro of the sem terrinha in Curitiba, and they did activities together each week.  They learned about the history of the MST.

As he grew up, he continued to participate in the MST, just as his parents, long-term miliantes have.  He got to travel to a meeting for MST-Youth in 2005, and started building his own group of sem terra friends, throughout the state.

When Cris turned 18, he was invited to take a course through the MST at the national school.  At age 21 he was invited to come and stay for two years, and contribute.  He was excited.

After finishing his course in administration, which was a major struggle (the term closed for 2 years due to a lack of resources), he decided to come back to COPAVI to help.  At the graduation ceremony, his entire family and members of the community came, and everyone cried.  It was a big conquest--for everyone.

Cris' role in the cooperative is important--administration and managing the excel spreadsheets is time consuming work.

 But, he was recently liberated and participated in MST-PR's School of Youth--where he is part of the coordination, as I understand.  These schools, he says, are critical for political development.

This is a photo of Cris and his godson.  He invited Dominic's mom and dad to live in the community three years ago.  They came for a visit, and have been there ever since.

 Cris is a reference person in terms of COPAVI's youth group.  He thinks that in settlements without MST-schools, such groups are important, but they are rare.  There are only two references in the region.

When asked about why youth are leaving the countryside, Cris has some definite opinions.  He said,

 The issue is that there is a poor vision of the rural, as a backwards place, behind the cities.  The cities are viewed as a place of opportunity, and the country is left behind.  Also, in the settlements, there is no leisure, no diversion, and this leads to a lack of excitement with the rural.  I think the principal question is a matter of income, because youth have necessities to consume, and so, in individually organized settlements, youth work with their families on their accounts, and don’t make any money.  They don’t have any autonomy, and so they leave.  This is why cooperative organization makes a difference, and why we need to organize agroindustries to create another space for them to work, where the old and the young and the women and the men can work together, each with their own income.  

In short, Cris thinks that cooperatives can mitigate some of the unfavorable, difficult circumstances that youth confront in the countryside. 

Magila!

The horta

Eder, COPAVI PROJECT: School and the Value of Hard Work

This is Eder!

He is 17 years old, and lives with his family in COPAVI.  He grew up there, and works in the agropecuaria, feeding the cows.  Unlike the other participants, Eder took his camera with him to school.  In our interview, he explicitly drew a distinction between his experiences at school, and in the settlement.  In COPAVI, he experiences a degree of "liberty," and can work (something prohibited on the outside).  For Eder, work is important, and is something that sets COPAVI kids apart form their counterparts in Paranacity, who are more accustomed to playing football, watching tv, messing around on the computer.  He sees a value in labor.

Eder plans to finish high school, and go to college. He would like to study and return to work in the settlement in some capacity, perhaps as a mechanic.

Eder is proud of his family's history and his own involvement in the MST, and hasn't felt a sense of shame or discrimination growing up.  He, and the other youth in COPAVI were lucky to have an instructor when they were small.  They had classes that helped them to understand their own histories, the importance of the struggle for land and so forth.  Beyond this, he has many family members who are MST settlers, or have supported the movement in some capacity or another.

These are some photos that he took over the past weeks. 

At school!

pedro no meio de caminho

collegial estadual

friends at copavi. 

lizard at COPAVI, natureza salvegem... 

One facet of liberty: riding a motorcycle! 

Trekking through Northwest Paraná: Environmental Degradation and Spontaneous Reforestation...

“What you are seeing is an environmental tragedy,” John Flavio remarked as we drove our way out of Paranacity, toward Jardim Olinda.  As we wove through the hilly terrain, there were endless fields of sugarcane, populated by enormous tractors and machines.  Sights of workers were rare. The sugarcane trucks transporting wealth from the already exhausting soil whipped up massive clouds of rust colored sand. 

The erosion problem is a direct consequence from monocultural production, as well as the methods of harvest.  Although the producers in this region increasingly employ mechanical methods (further cutting their labor requirements), they continue to burn the cane before harvest (I don’t know why, considering the practice is usually done to make it easier for human hands to cut the cane).  Burning the fields destroys life in the earth.  It kills animals who take refuge there.  The desert landscapes of my youth seem terribly close here, dangerously and anthropomorphically possible to produce. 

…

Jardim Olinda (the smallest town in Paraná state), is nicknamed “Capital ode Simpatia.” It is surrounded on all sides by massive estates, the largest in NW Paraná, 7,000 hc of mainly eucalyptus.  In the past, the roads leading to Jardim Olinda were full of the MST’s black tarps tents.  Unfortunately, these encampments were violently evicted.  My friends remember these occupations, and the evictions—one went to prison in the aftermath, and was accused of being armed; one family is now in COPAVI. 

There is a settlement in the region, Mãe de Deus.  It is a 12 kilometer strip from the highway to the Paraná River.  The settlers produce mainly dairy and mandioca.  We walked their property lines, up to the artificial and decidedly eerie eucalyptus plantation, since there is currently a proposed project, via Terra Forte, to promote an agroindustry here.  The project aims to retain people in the countryside—and help them to achieve economies of scale through cooperative production.  This is important considering that here, as in many of the settlements in Paraná, some families have left, given up on their dreams of land and family farmer lifestyles.

Near the end of the property, the lot borders the river.  It is technically private property here, but we walked anyways, in the name of an important discovery—spontaneous and deliberate reforestation along the river, up into the lot a son of settlers who lives here with his family.  Serge has made the agroecological transition with his dairy operation, and is looking to incorporate a reforestry project.  Here, native Brazilian saplings will be introduced, to provide much needed shade, birds, and life—necessary elements in any agroeco project (these companion species prevent swarms of unhelpful pests and parasites). 

My friends are encouraged, absolutely enthused about the spontaneous colonization of the area by native trees.