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The Brazilian Far West

A Journey through the TransAmazonian by Sebastian Liste / Subscribe

For a piece of land                        “In the absence of any State presence, weapons are used to conquer a piece of land”                                 Henri des Roziers, Pastoral Land Commission In Brazil, the abolition of slavery was a slow and gradual process that resulted in a huge class of free workers. However, they did not have access to the means of production, in particular the land. Faced with the possibility that the abolition of slavery might result in the collapse of major rural producers, which depended on this workforce, the Brazilian Government ensured that the access to the means of production continued to be limited to a small number of individuals. Nowadays, the 4% of landowners in Brazil control the 80% of the arable land, and 5 million families remain landless. While some see the land as a business, others see it as a means of survival. During the last decades, this gap in the use of land and its uneven distribution has led to a violent outburst, chaos and conflicts over the land, what has resulted in a massive rural depopulation, in which those millions of dispossessed have created hundreds of favelas surrounding the cities.  I have dedicated the last 3 years working on documenting the hope, despair and struggles in these favelas, living with the marginal communities with no rights, formed by those landless families or their descendant, who had been running away from the poverty, oppression and violence of the interior of the country.  For the last four months I turned my camera and my life to the Brazilian countryside, to understand  the roots of one of the most unequal societies in the world. Documenting the current situation of thousands of peasants who are living by opposing to emigrate to the cities and who keep fighting for a piece of land.

For a piece of land

                       “In the absence of any State presence, weapons are used to conquer a piece of land”                                 Henri des Roziers, Pastoral Land Commission

In Brazil, the abolition of slavery was a slow and gradual process that resulted in a huge class of free workers. However, they did not have access to the means of production, in particular the land. Faced with the possibility that the abolition of slavery might result in the collapse of major rural producers, which depended on this workforce, the Brazilian Government ensured that the access to the means of production continued to be limited to a small number of individuals.

Nowadays, the 4% of landowners in Brazil control the 80% of the arable land, and 5 million families remain landless. While some see the land as a business, others see it as a means of survival. During the last decades, this gap in the use of land and its uneven distribution has led to a violent outburst, chaos and conflicts over the land, what has resulted in a massive rural depopulation, in which those millions of dispossessed have created hundreds of favelas surrounding the cities. 

I have dedicated the last 3 years working on documenting the hope, despair and struggles in these favelas, living with the marginal communities with no rights, formed by those landless families or their descendant, who had been running away from the poverty, oppression and violence of the interior of the country. 

For the last four months I turned my camera and my life to the Brazilian countryside, to understand  the roots of one of the most unequal societies in the world. Documenting the current situation of thousands of peasants who are living by opposing to emigrate to the cities and who keep fighting for a piece of land.

1 year ago 8 notes
Quilombo - A culture of resistance In Brazil, during the four centuries of tension and confrontation of classes in the slavery system, thousands of slaves escaped from the europeans plantations and created the quilombos. Originally “quilombo” means “place where one is with God” in Banto language. The quilombo rebuilt in Brazil as a territorial organization of African origin and it worked as an outlet against the violence of slavery. Wherever slavery flourished, so did resistance. Even under the threat of the whip, slaves tried to carve spaces of autonomy through rebellions. And then they created a new social organization of runaway slave communities represented resistance against European acculturation. During the slavery times in Brazil and almost hidden from civilization, the free slaves recreated their African origins. They have never abandoned their culture, keeping the secrets of ancient customs. This alternative communities sought to reproduce Africa in the Americas, and in which all members were free and equal, just as they had been in their homeland. In the Amazon, hundreds of families lived and produced hidden in the bush, running away from slavery for an unknown time length.During my course over the TransAmazonian I have met some of these maroon communities. There, inhabitants still retaining the memory of the time of slavery while they managed for generations to pass on the secrets of the rivers and jungle to survive.

Quilombo - A culture of resistance

In Brazil, during the four centuries of tension and confrontation of classes in the slavery system, thousands of slaves escaped from the europeans plantations and created the quilombos.

Originally “quilombo” means “place where one is with God” in Banto language. The quilombo rebuilt in Brazil as a territorial organization of African origin and it worked as an outlet against the violence of slavery. Wherever slavery flourished, so did resistance. Even under the threat of the whip, slaves tried to carve spaces of autonomy through rebellions. And then they created a new social organization of runaway slave communities represented resistance against European acculturation.

During the slavery times in Brazil and almost hidden from civilization, the free slaves recreated their African origins. They have never abandoned their culture, keeping the secrets of ancient customs. This alternative communities sought to reproduce Africa in the Americas, and in which all members were free and equal, just as they had been in their homeland.

In the Amazon, hundreds of families lived and produced hidden in the bush, running away from slavery for an unknown time length.During my course over the TransAmazonian I have met some of these maroon communities. There, inhabitants still retaining the memory of the time of slavery while they managed for generations to pass on the secrets of the rivers and jungle to survive.

1 year ago 15 notes
A vernal equinox During the 70’s, while the TransAmazonian Highway was being built, the Gaviao Indians suffered a traumatic phase of “pacification” in wich more than 70% of the population was lost. Since then the survivors are trying to rebuild their ancestral way of life, however, their lands are being violently looted over and over again, surrounded by large development projects in the region to export minerals. In recent years, the Indian Reserve has been crossed by one of the largest railway in the world, measuring more than half a kilometer and exports most of the world mineral reserves in the Para Sate to Sao Luiz de Maranhao, in the Ocean Atlantic, and from there to the rest of the world. The continued repression of their traditional lifestyles have led to fragmentation of the community ties. Today, all that remains of their union and community sympathy are a couple of festivities per year. Today this town is no longer producing anything. The compensation of the companies that have devastated their environment have served to have some new houses and to buy bread, fish and rice from a peddler who once in a while passes with his truck across the Indian Reserve.

A vernal equinox

During the 70’s, while the TransAmazonian Highway was being built, the Gaviao Indians suffered a traumatic phase of “pacification” in wich more than 70% of the population was lost. Since then the survivors are trying to rebuild their ancestral way of life, however, their lands are being violently looted over and over again, surrounded by large development projects in the region to export minerals. In recent years, the Indian Reserve has been crossed by one of the largest railway in the world, measuring more than half a kilometer and exports most of the world mineral reserves in the Para Sate to Sao Luiz de Maranhao, in the Ocean Atlantic, and from there to the rest of the world. The continued repression of their traditional lifestyles have led to fragmentation of the community ties. Today, all that remains of their union and community sympathy are a couple of festivities per year. Today this town is no longer producing anything. The compensation of the companies that have devastated their environment have served to have some new houses and to buy bread, fish and rice from a peddler who once in a while passes with his truck across the Indian Reserve.

1 year ago 6 notes
A man passes… While I go through the long and almost endless TransAmazonian Highway I cross with dozens of men walking on the side of the road. Without direction or destination. They are carrying the weight of their lives in their backs, a strong and deep weight wich swamp infinite in their eyes. While I´m seeing them always comes to my mind a poem by Cesar Vallejo that begins saying “A man passes by with a loaf of bread on his shoulder…” Then I stop and I start to talk to them. They tell me wild stories of how and why they arrive to the TransAmazonian. Finally resigned they confess me that they don´t know if some day, they will find the way to get out of this immense forest that oppress them.

A man passes…

While I go through the long and almost endless TransAmazonian Highway I cross with dozens of men walking on the side of the road. Without direction or destination. They are carrying the weight of their lives in their backs, a strong and deep weight wich swamp infinite in their eyes. While I´m seeing them always comes to my mind a poem by Cesar Vallejo that begins saying “A man passes by with a loaf of bread on his shoulder…” Then I stop and I start to talk to them. They tell me wild stories of how and why they arrive to the TransAmazonian. Finally resigned they confess me that they don´t know if some day, they will find the way to get out of this immense forest that oppress them.

1 year ago 4 notes
The man who changed my path He was born in the state of Maranhao, the poorest Brazilian State, so has spent his 60 years of life travelling the Trans-Amazonian Highway over and over again looking seeking out his fortune. He witnessed the construction of the Trans-Amazonian Highway and all its devastating consequences in the past few decades. He has spent all his life along this road, where he has worked as “garimpeiro” (illegal miner), woodcutter and cowboy, among other jobs. Over the course of his life he has also been enslaved in remote farms located deep in the forest, until he managed to escape. With all his experiences, I tried to understand what leads a man to leave his home, his family, and to venture into no man’s land with the uncertainty of not knowing if he will return someday. The hopelessness and the misery of the Brazilian Northeast is so devastating that, as he said it to me, a man is capable of doing anything to get out of this hell. By the time I had finished speaking with him, I had already decided. My path had changed. I was going to journey within Maranhao State to see what was happening there, what was pushing thousands of men to leave everything and migrate through the Trans-Amazon Highway.
The man who changed my path

He was born in the state of Maranhao, the poorest Brazilian State, so has spent his 60 years of life travelling the Trans-Amazonian Highway over and over again looking seeking out his fortune. He witnessed the construction of the Trans-Amazonian Highway and all its devastating consequences in the past few decades. He has spent all his life along this road, where he has worked as “garimpeiro” (illegal miner), woodcutter and cowboy, among other jobs. Over the course of his life he has also been enslaved in remote farms located deep in the forest, until he managed to escape.

With all his experiences, I tried to understand what leads a man to leave his home, his family, and to venture into no man’s land with the uncertainty of not knowing if he will return someday. The hopelessness and the misery of the Brazilian Northeast is so devastating that, as he said it to me, a man is capable of doing anything to get out of this hell.

By the time I had finished speaking with him, I had already decided. My path had changed. I was going to journey within Maranhao State to see what was happening there, what was pushing thousands of men to leave everything and migrate through the Trans-Amazon Highway.

1 year ago 9 notes
Brief History of the Amazon colonization In the beginning the people opened the forest in two to make way for the giant road. Then, humbly, the settlers, wich came from far away, began to cultivate the land in the middle of the jungle, where they gradually cut down the trees around their homes to make way for their subsistence crops. Rich farmers soon also began to arrive and became “owners” of the land expelling the former colonists, leaving them landless. This land belongs to no one. There are no rules, no laws, just the pecking order. Then the forest is cut down to make way for cattle pastures. The remaining fields are used for large and destructive monocultures, such as soybean or eucalyptus, which will be used to feed livestock or for the production of coal for large steel companies, which have a major impact on the environment. Finally, when the land has no more resources and becomes barren, and the air becomes so polluted that it becomes impossible to live in this region, the people are forced to migrate again. The Amazon is huge, nothing belongs to anyone, so perhaps because of this, nobody cares of their backyard.

Brief History of the Amazon colonization

In the beginning the people opened the forest in two to make way for the giant road. Then, humbly, the settlers, wich came from far away, began to cultivate the land in the middle of the jungle, where they gradually cut down the trees around their homes to make way for their subsistence crops.

Rich farmers soon also began to arrive and became “owners” of the land expelling the former colonists, leaving them landless. This land belongs to no one. There are no rules, no laws, just the pecking order.

Then the forest is cut down to make way for cattle pastures. The remaining fields are used for large and destructive monocultures, such as soybean or eucalyptus, which will be used to feed livestock or for the production of coal for large steel companies, which have a major impact on the environment. Finally, when the land has no more resources and becomes barren, and the air becomes so polluted that it becomes impossible to live in this region, the people are forced to migrate again.

The Amazon is huge, nothing belongs to anyone, so perhaps because of this, nobody cares of their backyard.

1 year ago 18 notes
The Brazilian Far West I have spent the last two months travelling along the Amazon River basin, researching and photographing, and finally now I have reached The Trans-Amazonian Highway, which divides the Amazon forest in two. This road has historically been the gateway to the Amazon rainforest, allowing its colonization and its destruction. Now I will follow the settlers’ paths across the Trans-Amazonian Highway from East to West, from the impoverished and dry Brazilian Northeast up to the Brazilian Far West, into the depths of the Amazon.  This road trip will allow me to witness the displacement of settlers and indigenous communities, the illegal privatization of public lands, the suffering of thousands of enslaved workers in the region, and the destruction of the rainforest with the most biodiversity on the planet.

The Brazilian Far West

I have spent the last two months travelling along the Amazon River basin, researching and photographing, and finally now I have reached The Trans-Amazonian Highway, which divides the Amazon forest in two.

This road has historically been the gateway to the Amazon rainforest, allowing its colonization and its destruction. Now I will follow the settlers’ paths across the Trans-Amazonian Highway from East to West, from the impoverished and dry Brazilian Northeast up to the Brazilian Far West, into the depths of the Amazon. 

This road trip will allow me to witness the displacement of settlers and indigenous communities, the illegal privatization of public lands, the suffering of thousands of enslaved workers in the region, and the destruction of the rainforest with the most biodiversity on the planet.

1 year ago 3 notes