Wednesday, June 13, 2007

ants in the sugar sample

These are images from this morning. Perhaps i am looking for emotion in the cana itself....
A migrant worker wrote a book, actually a dailing journal to send to his family. i visited baracks. six men in a small room. who cooks? i asked. they laughed. no one has chairs, they sit on water bottles that they take with them to the fields. they offered me a water bottle and covered it with a towel. one worker remained standing as we talked. it was really dark and i was scared even though i knew i was safe with elias, my friend a big strong man and my teammate in this expedition. i didnt know it but yesterady was valintines day here. the recordings of the migrant workers express their love for those quem ficou lá.
yesterday I visited a sugar-alcohol plant called São Marino. They had ants in the sugar samples that they offered us. They wouldnt let me take photographs. The woman who i am staying with calls me irma because she thinks i am a nun. a nun with a lot of interesting digital equipment...a nun who left her rosary beads at home...i met one of those men in those white trucks today who said, do you have permission to be taking those photographs. permission from who?
my vision from the motor cycle helmet was poor. scratches on the plexi glass. a blur of sugar green, stench of manure and the rising sun.



my face is covered with a thin layer of dirt.

Archives of the Pastoral dos Migrantes

These are images from the archives of the Pastoral dos Migrantes in Guariva, São Paulo. 1980-1995.



Sunday, June 10, 2007

pastoral dos migrantes


This was a meeting of migrant workers who live in Guarriba, a city that sits in the middle of a sea of sugar cane. These cortadores da cana come from the north of the country and rent houses in the city. Others live in lodgings provided by the usinas, the plantations. In the next three days I am going to visit about 14 workers to make audio/visual letters to send to their children.


sou eu.