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Chico Mendes - a man ahead of his time

Posted by esmeralda lewiit on January 28, 2010 at 7:00pm
Silvestre Gorgulho said, and I quote: " A semente para germinar, virar árvore, dar frutos e produzir novas sementes precisa antes morrer. Chico Mendes foi semente que germinou." (in order to germinate, become a tree, produce fruitage and seeds, a seed needs to die. Chico Mendes was a seed that germinated (translated by me))Francisco Alves Mendes Filho Cena aka Chico Mendes (December 15, 1944 – December 22, 1988), was a Brazilian rubber tapper. He became known because of his work in the defense of the Amazonian Forest.He lived in the city of Xapuri, State of Acre, a small part of Brazil, that began to be invaded, literally, by landowners from the southern states due to the expansion of agriculture and catle breeding in Brazil, in the 1970's. I use the term invaded because these, so called, landowners wrongly assumed that the Forest had no owners and they literally expelled any community that lived in the lands they wanted to take over. They did not, I repeat: the landowners did not kill or exterminate any community. They did pay the hungry illiterate community members to do it on their behalf, though.And they were really succeful!!!!!

The communities of rubber tappers were freightened with the menace of the "landowners" taking over the forests and exterminating their homes and way of living. They were scared with the idea of having to leave their homes and working in these " landowners' properties". It was then that Chico Mendes realized two important things: 1. the executioners were local working men just like the rubber tappers; 2. this wasn't a matter of surrending to a landowner or executioner, but a fight against the unreasonable exploitation of natural resources of the Amazonian forest.Chico Mendes started something new in the Brazilian history: he started a peaceful resistance movement. Many of his friends thought he was indeed crazy, they did not want to resist the invasion of the cattle breeding farmers. But Chico did not fear these men, instead he used to line up with his friend making a human barrier. In other cases, he talked to the executioners to make them understand they were not different from each other; the rubber tappers were trying to make a living just like the executioners. Until the day they shot him in the back.Still, he accomplished a lot of good things, such as: the stablishment of the Rubber Tappers National Council (CNS), the Forest People Alliance, the creation of extractive reserves in order to protect the indigenous areas and the forest, and ensure the rubber tappers’ agrarian reform. Under his leadership, the rubber tappers struggle gained national and international exposure.Well, he did lots of things. but to me he was much more than that. Beyond the defense of a new concept in conservation where parts of land are set aside by the state for workers harvesting rubber, fruits, and nuts, he was an honest man that fought for a dignified way of life for his community and society as a hole. A simple man with an idea that changed his life, his community, and MYSELF. He went way further than sustainable development, he thought about dignity, fairness, rightousness, liberty. and he was killed because of it!Chico Mendes was killed in 1988 by landowners. A BRAZILIAN MAN WHO CHANGED MY LIFE.
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