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Laisa Santos Sampaio: Olha, eu estou aqui no assentamento, na roça, e eu fico de fora das informações. Mas a minha irmã comprou o jornal e lá tava escrito que e a presidenta falou que é para mandar a Força Nacional vir dar um reforço, atuar de uma forma mais consistente. Não como foi antes, que vinha a Força Nacional aqui e não ficava. A situação está complicada. As ameaças tem sido constantes. Se isso da segurança for efetivado, já é uma força que a gente ganha.Um ano depois do crime, qual a sua reflexão?
É tão difícil definir. Depois de um ano sem eles… A trajetória que a gente fez, por onde a gente passou nesse tempo. Tivemos uma coisa, que é reflexo do que aprendemos com Maria e Zé Cláudio, é que hoje estamos ressurgindo das cinzas. Morando, voltando a morar nesse local, um ano depois, como se fosse ontem que tudo ocorreu. O sentimento ainda continua muito forte, devido a nossa situação, que estamos vivendo. Quando falo "situação", é a falta de segurança.
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Laisa Santos Sampaio: Look, I’m here in the allotment, here in the woods, and I don’t get a lot of information. However, my sister bought the paper and in it was written that the president told the National Guard to come and help us out in a more consistent manner. It wasn’t like before, where the National Guard would come in but wouldn’t stay. The situation is complicated. The threats are constant. If we do get some security, it’ll give us great strength.
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That’s so hard to define. After a year withouth them… The trajectory that we made, the things we went through during this time. Something happened, a reaction to what we learned from Maria and Zé Claudio, and that is that today we rise from the ashes. Living, or at least coming back to live in this place, it’s as if it all happened yesterday. The feelings continue to be very strong, especially given the situation in which we are living. When I say “situation,” I mean lack of security.Today, I can say what I think, that I have hopes of continuing the work. Not in the same manner, but with the same courage. But the best thing we can do is make sure that this story doesn’t die. So that we can prove to all these people that they might have silenced them, but the echo is strong. Our voices are humble and simple but we’ll be able to take this back.I don’t even have the words to define this. What can I say? It’s not a very positive point to make. What I want to say is that we’re impacted by strong memories and stronger examples. A year later, that’s how I see things.[Laisa chokes up. Stops breathing for a second. Gets her breath back and continues.]It’s really hard for us. Today I continue to write, but I’m not capable of defining my feelings, it’s like something is, as we say here, stuck or chocked up. We’re able to see that those two were a neverending fountain of wisdom and they passed that on to us.Yesterday I was reading a passage from Shakespeare where he says, “heroes are those who did what they had to do, without fear of consequence.” It was something like that. Then I remembered the ONU prize where we were both present. Since I personally felt they had paid tribute in the right way, to the right people, reading Shakespeare—I feel like they deserved to be named “heroes of the forest.” Fighting with their own lives, a life full of struggle, that led them to where it led them. That’s something that resonates with us.I say this, not with the same courage, nor wanting to compare myself to them, but so their ideals don’t die. While we still have strength, let’s not let their cries die. Maria always said that she wanted to write history. To leave it written for the next ones and that when she passed, someone would continue to fight for their ideals. Today, I feel the same way.I don’t confront these threats simply for the story, but because of values that were instilled in me. The values I got through living with Maria. The values that come from the forest —human rights, respect for those on the margins, those who don’t get a chance. It’s not that I just want to pass on the history but also the values that were built here. What’s important for us, even without them, is that they live inside of each and every one of us in everything we do.For example, today I peeled a bunch of chestnuts to make a dish. In each thing I do, Maria is there, she’s there with her tiny hands saying: “See how important it is to know how to deal with the forest?” She taught us to respect the forest’s dynamic, in each part of the month and of the year, the forest offers fruit. These are signs that one year or ten won’t erase. They’re markers. Her wisdom, for example, while commenting on the local school Escola Costa e Silva —Maria would say: let’s change that name to Chico Mendes.And our friend Zé Claudio would say: “for us to do what we do, and what others do, in respect to the forest, well, you need to be a thinking person.” Someone would ask “my friend, explain this,” and Zé would say “with this word, I already said everything.”Zé Claudio had a great philosophy. They are markers for us to write down in history—they’re Eternal.Traslated by Jonny SantosClick here to watch Toxic: Amazonhttp://www.amajestade.com.br/