Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
the same water they drink when they are thirsty. It is the water supply that Suely, the
kids' mother, relies on to cook, bathe the little ones, and wash the family's clothes.
Diego sang his first choice “I gave up being a cowboy for her” (
Deixei de ser
cowboy por ela
), using a wooden microphone he himself carved out of “caixeta”
(
Tabebuia cassinoides
) - light white wood used by the adults to carve small animals
to sell to tourists on the beach. He especially liked the song, he explained, because
his father had done the same thing: exchanged his “white life” (
vida de branco
) in the
city for an “Indian life” (
vida de índio
) on the reservation with his Guarani mother.
Meanwhile, Daniela prepared a
feijoada,
a typical Brazilian dish made out of black
beans and pork, mixing leaves, sticks, dirt, and water in a small aluminum pan,
secured on top of three small rocks and a small fire. This is where Suely prepares
the kids' daily meal with the scraps of food she brings in from the city's dumpsite.
It was noon, however, and the children still had not eaten. Diego went on to say that
“singers like good food, especially feijoada.”
Little Angelica, in turn, was neatly arranging bottle caps in a small plastic truck
and driving it around - mimicking the Guarani's main economic activity as tin can
gatherers at the dumpsite. Diego said Angélica “wanted to remain poor” (
quer ser
pobre
), and thus chose to pick cans to sell to the men at the dump: “she likes to go
around naked and live in the garbage.” Her brother, however, purposely went to
school, claiming, “After I learn to read and write, I'll be a singer.”
Suely da Silva, the kids' mother, listened to the conversation, as she hung some
clothes on the barbed wire that separated her yard from the neighbors' pig pen: “Oh
no, you are not,” she exclaimed. “You will be damned just like your father, who
does not even have a place to die” (
vai ser danado que nem o pai, que não tem nem
onde cair morto
). The boy lowered his head, and tried to pretend his mother had not
embarrassed him by slaughtering his fantasy.
Like other Guarani Nhandeva women who live at Itaóca, Suely, who is 36 years
old, is a single mother. She now shares the shack with Aldair, a 27-year-old “white,”
or
branco
, as she refers to him. As an Indigenous woman, the mother of 7, and
illiterate, Suely, who is in fact the head of the household, meets all the criteria to
be considered in a situation of “extreme poverty,” according to the 2010 Brazilian
Census. Under these conditions, Suely and her children are most vulnerable to the
consequences of malnutrition, hunger, and poor health: rising levels of morbidity and
mortality, according to the Pan American and the World Health organizations (Leme
and Biderman 1997). All of the Guarani Nhandeva households on the reservation
are female-headed, giving women the major responsibilities to make ends meet out
of virtually nothing. The family's highest monthly income of 200
reais
(a fourth of
the country's minimum salary) is only achieved in the Summer, especially during
Carnival, “when the tourists drink a lot of beer and make the dump fat,” according to
Suely's companion Aldair, whom the kids now call “father.”
Aldair had never mentioned to me he made a living out of the dump. For a whole
year the man made me believe he ran errands for construction workers in a tourist
neighborhood, buying them cigarettes and
cachaça
(sugar cane alcohol) at nearby
