Walking the Forest with Chico Mendes: Struggle for Justice in the Amazon

207 Pages·2007·2.31 MB·English

by  Gomercindo Rodrigues

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Walking the Forest with Chico Mendes
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Walking the
Forest
W I T H
C h i c o
Mendes
Struggle for Justice in the Amazon
Gomercindo Rodrigues
Edited and translated by Linda Rabben
Introduction by Biorn Maybury-Lewis
University of Texas Press
Austin
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Previously published in Brazil as Caminhando na Florestaby Gomercindo Rodrigues,2003.
Copyright © 2007by Linda Rabben
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First edition,2007
Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to:
Permissions
University of Texas Press
P.O.Box 7819
Austin,TX 78713-7819
www.utexas.edu/utpress/about/bpermission.html
The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z39.48-
1992(r1997) (Permanence of Paper).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rodrigues,Gomercindo.
[Caminhando na floresta.English]
Walking the forest with Chico Mendes :struggle for justice in the Amazon / Gomercindo
Rodrigues ;edited and translated by Linda Rabben.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-292-71705-3(cloth :alk.paper)—isbn 978-0-292-71706-0(pbk.:alk.paper)
1. Mendes, Chico, d. 1988. 2. Conservationists—Brazil—Biography. 3. Rubber
tappers—Brazil—Biography. 4. Rain forest conservation—Amazon River Region. 5.
Deforestation—Control—Amazon River Region. I.Rabben,Linda,1947– II.Title.
sd411.52.m46r63 2007
333.75'16092—dc22
[b]
2007005148
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To my wife,Sanderléia,
and my sons,Clovis Gabriel and Eduardo Augusto,
with much love and affection
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Contents
Abbreviations ix
Foreword:In the Steps of the Rubber Tapper
by Marina Silva xi
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction to the English Edition
by Biorn Maybury-Lewis 1
Chapter 1. I Was There! 19
Chapter 2. A Very Difficult Beginning 44
Chapter 3. Rubber Tappers:A Century’s Struggle 64
Chapter 4. A Genocidal Occupation 89
Chapter 5. “Our Victory Depends on Our Organization
and Discipline” 101
Chapter 6. A Little About My Friend Chico Mendes 122
Chapter 7. An Interview with Chico Mendes 147
Afterword:Chico’s Dream,by Linda Rabben 154
Author’s and Editor’s Notes 165
Editor’s Bibliography 175
Index 177
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Abbreviations
ALBRAS Brazilian Aluminum,Inc.
ARENA National Renovation Alliance
CEB Grassroots Religious Community
CNS National Rubber Tappers’Council
CONTAG National Agricultural Workers’Confederation
CPT Pastoral Land Commission
CTA Amazon Workers’Center
CUT Central Workers’Federation
CVRD Rio Doce Valley Corporation
DF Federal District (Brasília)
Eletrobrás Brazilian Electricity Authority
IBAMA Brazilian Environmental Institute
IBASE Brazilian Institute for Socioeconomic Analysis
IBDF Brazilian Forest Protection Institute
IDB Inter-American Development Bank
INCRA National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian
Reform
MDB Brazilian Democratic Movement
PFL Liberal Front Party
Planafloro Natural Resource Management Project
PMACI Program for Protection of the Environment and
Indigenous Peoples
Polamazônia Amazon Development Pole
Polonoroeste Northwestern Development Pole
PSDB Brazilian Social Democratic Party
PT Workers’Party
PV Green Party
RJ Rio de Janeiro
SIVAM Amazon Vigilance System
SP São Paulo
STR Rural Workers’Union
SUCAM Superintendency for Public Health Campaigns
SUDAM Superintendency for Amazon Development
SUDECO Central-West Development Institute
SUDHEVEA Superintendency for the Development of Rubber