Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The body parts the
waradzu
put in a bag, but they have to hide it. They have to hide
the body or they go to jail. They have to clean up the blood, but the blood is already
inside the land, it already is in the root of the trees, all over the flowers, the fruits,
the grains, everywhere. They cannot hide anymore. But they come with their tractor
and they clean up, stir the land so nobody will see the blood. The blood goes in even
deeper. But the waradzu hide the body in a
manilha
(large sewage pipe) and cover
the bag up with rocks and sand.
One, two, three, four, five days the Xavante are looking for the old man, his wife
is crying everyday, day and night, “Where is my husband, where is my husband?”
She knows he is dead, but she wants the body, to bury it in our cemetery. The body
needs to go to the cemetery, so we can protect it from sorcerers who use bodies to
produce a powder used to bewitch people. We want his body, his bones, his ashes.
So the Xavante are coming from other territories, there are 50 men altogether.
They are all
sahiti
(
mad
) and go to the
Fazenda Rica
(on April 7) to look for Joaquim.
The Xavante are getting really mad, they are walking around the farm. Cassiano
(Xavante) is looking, too, he goes near the river and one of the peons is fishing. The
peon wants to help him, pointing to the sewage pipe where the body is. Cassiano
finds the bag, pulls out an arm, than a foot. He wants to call the other Xavante but he
cannot, there is a pick up truck coming in his direction.
He has to work fast, they are going to see him digging for the body. Cassiano pulls
out a T-shirt form the bag, covered in blood. He puts it in his pocket. The smell is
so strong. The pick-up truck comes up to him and the men ask him: “What are you
doing here?”
(After a long ride and barely escaping from getting killed) Cassiano is crying,
he walks on the road to his father's house. He shows them the T-shirt. Everybody
is crying because Joaquim is their relation. We are all crying, all his blood is gone.
They decide to drive the truck, from the
Rio das Mortes
back to
Fazenda Rica
. When
they get there the body is no longer there, the
waradzu
dug it up. But the smell is
there, oh it smells so strong! The blood is in the land, in the roots of the trees, the
trees are growing in Joaquim's blood already. The trees on that farm have his body
in them, his blood is growing in the trees.
The Xavante men are so mad that they go to the main farmhouse. The owner of
the farm (Ernesto Ruaru) is there, they tie him up. First they take off his clothes: “We
will kill you like you killed Joaquim.” Then they take his wife's clothes off - even
the underwear! - and tie his wife up, too. The farmer faints, he is having a heart
attack. The Xavante decide not to kill him, but to take everything from the farm, the
truck, big ones, small ones, the tractors.
The Xavante take everything, the refrigerators, TVs, the furniture, all the food,
the clothes, the pans and everything they find. They load up all the trucks and leave.
“You killed our relation and do not give us the body back, we will take all your stuff
until you give the body back. How can you kill him and keep the body? Give us
the body back, the bones or the ashes,” this is what they told Ruaru. They drive the
trucks away to the reservation but the tractors and the rice and soy harvesters are
