Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
can step on our farm. It is not your land,” the
waradzu
said, “it is ours.” First they hurt
him, poked him in the back with a knife. The blood was dripping, they humiliated
him. “We take your land, we take your blood,” this is what they said. The blood was
dripping on the land, on the fruits and flowers that we are drawing now. The yellow
flowers are turning red, the green grass is turning red,
ipré uptabi
(really red), like
we paint ourselves with bö.
The old man wanted to wrap around Luis Carlos like an anaconda, but the peons
stabbed him in the back again, humiliating him again because how can you stab
a good hunter, a strong anaconda, a dangerous jaguar? (…) The old man is hurt,
his blood is covering his body, he will die in red, like bö. He is almost dead. The
waradzu
don't like the Xavante, the land, the flowers, the fruits that we are painting
now, for the women's project. They step on flowers, they dig the earth, they don't
like you, Mariana, either, because you like us, you like the land, you like the women
and the children, you like the fruits and the flowers.
Luis Carlos shot Joaquim in the forehead. There is a hole in Joaquim's head, the
blood is squirting out, it is pouring out like a waterfall. He is dead. The
waradzu
are
alive. But the
waradzu
know their laws, they know they need to hide the body. They
want to cut it up, they want to kill the Indian for good (
matar índio de verdade
), so
that he will not go to the land of the dead (
terra dos mortos
). They think they can do
that so they cut the arm off, the leg off, the head off, the other arm, the other leg, the
other foot, the hands, chop up the stomach, even cut off his penis. They don't know
that he is already gone to the other world, like they call an angel. He is already on the
other side, flying, his body is covered in hawk dawn, he is like a spirit.
Figure 6.13. Joaquim's body is chopped into pieces and placed in a bag. By Tseredzaró Ruri'õ.
