Brazil has been well celebrated as a warm and joyful country: a wonderful nature, beautiful people. It is in fact, to some extent. However, way ahead of Carnival, slums and rainforest people live the way their nineteenth-century relatives lived - with the exception of electricity and all its consequences; the craftsmanship that build their world is rooted in their land. About 20% of Brazil's population live in the rural area - including the whole seaside, and an universe of fishermen, sailors and divers.
Last Brazilian census, in 2000, noticed a significant migrational increase. People are more and more moving to cities, seeking schools and jobs. Rural population decreased from 32% to less than 20%, and as a result traditional culture is slowing unravelling. Jangadeiros (Northeastern fishermen) use now the same words and concepts heard in the 1920s by anthropologist C?mara Cascudo. and still have their sails sewed by their wives. Manioc flour, one essential item on everyday food, can be easily found in supermarkets; but apart the industrial brands, casas de farinha ("flour houses") still work in the countryside, using century-old machinery - and employing people, since there is no water for irrigation on the fields. At least on their fields.
These portraits regard an old and beautiful world, which is dying; and of their sons, who are now living and working, and building a new one.
Photo documentary story / Photojournal by Brazilian photographer Angelo Cuissi (Hits: 374789)
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