Pinheirinho One Year Later

There was a house here. That one was a house, that rubble was a house. There were houses everywhere. When we had the first threat, when we started to assemble, we stayed here, we camped here, we pitched a tent here, around this fence. Some people would stay here. From there we could see over there. Someone would stand up there. There was a brick house there. We'd stay on the top of the house, and you could see over there and you could over there. Whatever happened, I would call from there. "There's a car coming, a car I don't know." I believe that up there on the top there should be... something. Like a sentry box. A sentry box up there. All you see here was Pinheirinho. All you see was Pinheirinho. What's up there? Please, get out of here. No, now! It's no use to film! Turn off this *** or I will break it. PINHEIRINHO ONE YEAR LATER I don't remember well. I remember the date we went to live there, but how long we had been there building... I don't remember well. I know we went to live there on September 6th, 2010. It was a complicated period as we'd pay for the house rent and we had to build at the same time because we didn't have... We didn't have anyone to help, it was just us. We couldn't afford a bricklayer or a helper... It was just us. It was me, him and the kids, who would do the hard work. To lift brick, water, sand... It was just us. The construction time was very short. We had little time to leave where we were because it was complicated. I lost my job... It was complicated to pay the rent. We had to run to be able to move as fast as possible, so much so we managed to finish a room. We covered a room where we moved into. We lived in that room. Whose idea was to go to Pinheirinho? It was his idea. There are some people... who already lived in Pinheirinho. They would say... "Instead of paying for the rent, go to Pinheirinho." I didn't even know about Pinheirinho. I had no clue what Pinheirinho was. I saw them talking... "There's an invasion in São José, at the beginning of the city." He gave a tip... "Look for this person..." He gave me a tip about the coordinator... "Look for him and see if you can get on lot there." The story of the Pinheirinho residents starts on December 31st, 2003. People occupy houses that were from the CDHU which stood on the side of Campo dos Alemães. Those people occupy. And there's an injunction to remove those people. They get an injunction to remove the families that lived there. That's when we get into this. We talked to the families, there should be nearly 100 families but it didn't get to 100 families. As the police surrounded, with horses, dogs, and all their apparatus, we had a discussion with the families that we should leave as there was no escaping, we had lost the injunction, but already planning on occupying again. Then we left... amidst all that turmoil with the police, all that confusion... We left and went to occupy a square named Campão. Campão of Campo dos Alemães, which was actually... It's ground with which the mayor had never done anything. that was used a soccer field for the kids to play soccer. We went to this square. Why is there a first confrontation? Because the City Guard, the chief of the City Guard, asks for repression, to remove the people from there. And the Military Police refuse. They say... "We had to comply with the first injunction." "We've complied with it. This has nothing to do with us." Nothing to do with the Military Police. Then the City Guard goes in to remove the people. But the people had won this battle. They go up against the guard, the police don't go in, and the City Guard has to retreat. They retreat. Then we stayed there for a period. There's a new injunction... Then we requested the judge a judicial hearing to call for a negotiated solution. We negotiated in court that we would be leaving within three months. From that moment on we started to get ready, and we already had this idea, that's why we negotiated, in order to occupy just after. We had a three-month agreement. When the Carnival arrived we decided to clear out, that was our idea, to leave in the Carnival and occupy other ground that was lost in a long time. There was this lot, which was a vacant lot, that was only used as a corpse disposal dump. There was absolutely nothing on that parcel of land. I arrived two days after the occupation. It started on Campão. Then it was all over TV. I watched the local news... The invasion was on a Wednesday, I headed there on Friday. It barely had space. What year? Eight years ago? 2004. The invasion took place on an Ash Wednesday, but I arrived on Friday. Back when people came from Campão to here, I lived near here. I lived in Jardim Rosário. I've always lived in the south. Vale do Sol, Morumbi... And I needed it. I was employed back then. I went on a wing and a prayer, and the canvas. Canvas, girl. Canvas. People say canvas, but it's not canvas, that black plastic bag you buy by meter. And four rafters. We started to build our sheds, including mine... I lived in one of them for three months. Both the wall and rooftop were made of black canvas that you find on building sites. As time passed I improved. I started with wood and then finally roof tile. Why do we first occupy and then ask for regulation or to legalize the parcel of land? Because if we don't do it there's no legalization. If you don't do it there's no land. We defend it's fair that the people can fight and claim for what they think is best. A home is something very important to a family. Many problems are solved by having a house. The health perspective, the education perspective... Your self-esteem will grow by having a house. That's why they need to occupy, because if they don't, the government won't solve. I did grow up there. I had a business there. I had set up a bar after months living there. I was the first woman to set up a bar there. It was my bread and butter and also my daughter's. This one was about to be delivered. And now, what do we have? Nothing! In eight years, the first Christmas and New Year I didn't spend there. Sad. I can't find a job... I was self-employed for eight years there. I could get my food there. It was our place. Our home, our land... Because after all, he claimed to be the owner but he actually was not. If he really were, there would be no one there, no one would have entered. If I own a piece of land I'll preserve and care, I'll build something on my ground. I will not leave my plot of land free for other people to come in and do whatever they want. But if it's not mine I can't fight for it. He didn't even do anything. He simply said: "Go there and remove them." "I want it. Period." You don't see an effort from him. As soon as the people occupy those lots, there's an injunction from a gentleman from São José dos campos named Benedito Bento. Comendador Bento. He's the first to request the injunction for eviction. We went to the City Hall to check the documents and the owner wasn't him, it was Selecta's. A company named Selecta. A company that belongs to Naji Nahas. A bankrupt company of the famous Naji Nahas. In fact, formally, only formally, there is still a bankruptcy process. It was only formally already then. Why do I say formally? A bankruptcy process consists in winding-up proceedings. When a company goes bankrupt, the creditors get into the process to receive their credits. The bankruptcy assets are auctioned, they turn it into money, and the creditors prorate. That's a normal bankruptcy situation. If it were this normal bankruptcy situation, if it were the same in the Selecta case, there would be some possibility to understand the logic of what happened. There are creditors willing to receive their money, there are employer's creditors, hypothetically, who also need to receive their money. So we could understand, more or less, the logic. Not to justify, because it's unjustifiable, at any rate, what happened. But to understand... When we went after the bankruptcy process, to see what actually had happened, we found out there are no more creditors. Why aren't there? Because Naji Nahas bought all the credits. So, in fact, he is his own creditor. That is to say, there are no more creditors. There's no reason for creditors' pressure for that to have happened. It was solely and exclusively an interest of Naji Nahas. What besides unjustifiable, puts an ingredient of absolute incomprehension in the process. Because at this point you have Naji Nahas, an extremely complicated person, with legal problems, problems with the police, a notorious speculator, a rackteer, who crashed the Rio de Janeiro Stock Exchange years ago. You have Naji Nahas on one side. You have Naji Nahas compelling the president of the Court of Justice, the governor of the State of São Paulo. Then 6,000 people massacred. This is a plot of horror. A crazy plot. Can you see it? Record it, record it! Lower and record it. Record it! For you to see what they are doing. They're shooting! Bombs, pepper spray from the helicopters... They were throwing them everywhere. They weren't respecting the kids, they weren't respecting anyone. So... They were running after families... They yelled at me... They yelled at my daughter, saying that she had to turn off her phone or they would enter with horse and everything to shred everything before the tractor arrived. I came to live here... So... I live here since the eviction. I had to buy a wardrobe because mine was left there. It's messy here, okay? Here's the bedroom. I was given a wardrobe because mine was left there, an armoire because mine was left there, too. My TV broke so I had to buy a second-hand one. And that's it, here's our little room. This is my sister-in-law's house. We pay the rent to her. She let us stay here. So many things... With my sister, they swore at her... For example... Since it was an eviction, they wouldn't even let us get a piece of wire that was on the ground. Because that piece of wire didn't belong to us anymore. We were there but it didn't belong to us. We couldn't even get a piece of wire on the ground. That didn't belong to us anymore. If we grabbed it we would be arrested. They were arresting people for petty reasons. People had to enter at the time they wanted to, and had to do what they wanted the way they wanted. Some cops, not every cop. Here is the bathroom. This bathroom isn't very appropriate. And here... Look... On that day, let's say like this, there were cops and cops. There were cops who were, at that moment, representing their uniform, what they were supposed to do, and other cops who were, like... "I'm doing this because it's my obligation." "I have to do it." "I'm being sent to do it." Because there were cops who were, let's say like this, feeling sorry for the situation, for what was happening. And there were cops willing to hurt, to mistreat people. We saw all kinds of people there. Here's the corridor. They are buiding one more room and bathroom here at the back. Here's a plot of land... It's not even close to what was my piece of land there. You mentioned there was an undercover cop. - He talked to you... - Yes. He didn't exactly talk to me. According to him, it had been two weeks or more since the police had sent undercover policemen to observe the movement of the residents, to observe what happened to the residents so they would know on the day of the invasion what could be done. He said: "What do you think?" "How do you think we managed to find out?" "Because there were policemen among the residents," "and nobody knew it." "That's why we knew that on that Sunday," "there wouldn't be anyone" "because no one would be expecting the eviction." There is a lot of residents who came to live here. How far are we from Pinherinho? From Pinheirinho, by bus, two hours. He was a cop from São Paulo, he wasn't from here... How did he get to talk to you? He asked me what was my occupation. I told him I was a security guard, that I worked as guard. He told me that at the beginning... Told me that I looked like a policewoman... He asked me why I didn't want to be a cop. I told him it was because of my age... Then he said: "You can be a federal cop." I said: "I know I can be a federal cop," "but I'd have to apply for exams..." Then he started to say that if it were for him none of that would happen, that he was feeling sorry, that he saw things that wasn't his attitude, He said like this... "If this had happened a week ago," "how it was expected, many people would have died," "because I didn't even recognize my coworkers." "They came willing to kill." "They were trained." "I would look at them and not believe" "they were my coworkers." And on that day... "If it had happened a week before," "many things would have happened, worse than on the 22nd." His words. I think that going there... Every time we go there we relive the past. You will only find destroyed things, destroyed houses, rubbles... You will remember how we lived the last... The good times will live on in our memories because you can only see destruction. It will live on in our memories. That's it. The rest is only memories now. There's only rubble left. Not even watching all the news, not even watching everything that came out, what the media hid, not even talking to someone who had been there, they can't have any idea of what they caused to the lives of thousands of people. The constitution has principles that the laws have to consider in a moment like this. There are two values in conflict. The constitutional principle of human dignity, and the right to property. In a modern context, both are important in a social structure like the one we live in. The society is based on private the property, but there are moments where these values should be pondered, and, without a doubt, considering the principle of the human dignity, that is to say, the welfare, to not use violence, to not let 6,000 people in the middle of the street at a moment's notice. Certainly, in that moment, this should have prevailed over the right to private property. In the present case, this gets even more outrageous because it was a totally abandoned private property. For many years. Abandoned in all ways. Physically, juridically, tributarily... The legislation, it's a matter of defense, it declares, it establishes an absolute presumption. Absolute presumption is the one that doesn't admit proof to the contrary. There's an absolute presumption of abandonment when you stop paying taxes for five years. The owner had never paid any tax. The plot of land that was from the bankruptcy estate of Naji Nahas, had the right to property completely respected. The right to property of needy families was entirely smashed. The constitution says that if there's an area, after five years, there's an area used for the purpose of housing, without any contestation, it can be an object of usucaption. It's possible that this isn't the case. We had the situation there of countless families that for not having adequate housing, decided to gather to try to get their own living condition, and for about eight years, they had been occupying that enormous area... For many people it was an achievement because having where to live at the end of the day is an achievement. Friends with them is something I am not... Even if it was a shed, even if it was a badly done house with two rooms... But it was ours. Do you get it? I could say... "I don't have to pay the rent." "I can use the money I'd be paying the rent to remodel the floor." "I can buy a sink, I can buy a wardrobe." "I can buy a cabinet." It was an achievement. Do you get it? An achievement. They destroyed it all. I have no doubt at all that the way the repossession was carried out violated the human right to adequate housing as it's defined in treaties and in the international legislation that governs the matter of the human rights, which Brazil is signatory and ratified, and so they are fully applicable. It was characterized, in my understanding, a crime against humanity. What's a crime against humanity? It has several requirements to be qualified as one. First, it's a state action. If us both here, if we do something terrible, as for example, to throw a bomb over the Roosevelt Square and we kill 10,000 people, this is not a crime against humanity because we're not the state. The state is the active agent in a crime against humanity. Second, what the state does for it to be characterized a crime against humanity. A systematic or massive violation of the human rights. These two basic requirements were present. There's a lot of procedures that have to be respected in a situation of repossession. The first and most important procedure is that before any eviction you need to exhaust all the possibilities that avoid or minimize the number of evicted people. Along with that, I don't even need to mention, that the violence, the use of violence, is never acceptable, particularly violence directed against the vulnerable people. Kids, elders, invalid people, whellchair users... We've watched many scenes where violations were present. When you know the police is coming to your house, when they come to your house to remove you, to do something, even if you don't want, there's a pressure over you. Now imagine us in a very cold and rainy dawn being surrounded by the police. Police ended up having a strategy that... Some people knew it was a police strategy. They said they entered to arrest robbers, to find drugs in Pinheirinho, but I think they entered to see the movement, to see what was going on. It's like saying... "We came to search for a fugitive." They actually wanted to see what was going on throughout the day. What was the residents' attitude. Because in the last week we were locked in there. It was cruel to us. When they really entered.. They came to evict at 10:30 a.m. but they were afraid. but they were afraid. More than 2,000 people at the frontline. 2,000 men and women, we were at the front. People counted over 90 motorcyles, I don't know how many patrol cars. 10:30 a.m. But they were afraid to face. They could have shot but many would have died. We were all armed with sticks, stones, so many things. I was afraid on that day. But I had to face it, too. I'm a wuss. I don't have the courage to cause harm to anyone, but as I was with my people, I had too face it, too. So many things go through your head that you don't even know what to think of. You don't know whether you face them... If you face it, you don't know what to expect. You can't flee because you can't leave your friends behind. A little more about the training before we continue. It was painful! In the mud because it was during the rainy season. Like the current weather that didn't show up today. We used to train from 4 p.m. until 5:30, 6 p.m., on Campão. As there's always someone from nearby neighbors passing by, we started to train before the dawn. And I was there. I was there with my shield... We gathered in the big shed. We'd run through the mud until arriving on Campão. We'd train on how to hold the frontline tight, how to hold the frontline... These were my gloves. Those from the frontline would wear shields. The first and second platoon. It was for... It's not that we would set upon them... What about the bombs they would throw out? We had more harmful stuff in the rear. I don't know if I can tell you. We were meant to hold the bombs. - We'd wear a shin-guard... - You were at the frontline. At the frontline. Some guys said: "You are crazy." "I am crazy if I don't participate in this." My husband said I was going to die. "I am not going to die." I would be happy if I died for my people. If I had to do it again, I'd do it again. I was born in the wrong time period. I should've been born in Che Guevera's times, during the revolution... I like this kind of movie... It had to be. There are lots of courageous women but there used to be many more. My shield was different from everybody else's. My neice and I made it. My daughter said: "This won't hold anything." I used to say: "It does hold." Mine was made of fiber, a little bit of aluminium... People used to think it was made of plywood. I'd say like: "What, kid? It has fiber in it." Here's my glove. I'd wear a helmet. My kerchief is kept somewhere inside. Red. No one knew. I wouldn't wear earrings or loose hair. Few people knew I was a woman. Only the close ones... Can I see the back of the shield? - You made it with your... - My niece and I made it. We made the holes with screwdriver... She used to say: "This won't hold anything." People have been saved by a pen in their pocket. I used to say: "It does hold!" This one was only to hold the bombs. Those who don't have the courage to defend their house don't deserve the house they have. People really had to do it... Why do people always lose? Why does the other side always win? Why do people have to be silent, without even complaining? We think it's wrong. Whether it's a student, popular or a syndical movement... It's necessary to resist. They prepare a resistance with their own resources. They don't have many resources. Because on the other side everyone is armed. They wanted to resist, also to draw attention. We knew that beating the Military Police would be very hard. But we wanted to draw attention. These were my glasses, this was my glove. Two gloves. I used to beat it with a Y-shaped stick. The noise that'd come out of it scared people. "Where'd you get it from?" I was ready to fight for my people. These were what we had. These were our weapons. Manual weapons, we made them ourselves. We had faith that we would stay. A kitchen, a bedroom, where five people sleep. Me, my daughter and my three grandkids. Everyone sleeps here. Three here and two in the bed. What did I bring from Pinheirinho? Only the children. And the bike! And my Corinthians picture. I support Timão! I brought it from there. It was made there, it came from there. Wherever I go it goes with me. I hope I will go back. I didn't lose hope. But I think the fine is very petty. We talk to Toninho but he changes the subject... He says he is over. But I don't believe he's over. We knew there were politics behind it as well. I've seen this in my homeland, in Piauí, years ago. When a PT mayor won the elections he gave ground to people. 13 years later. I have orchids... This orchid used to be pretty back in Pinheirinho. I have a very beautiful picture with it. But when I moved, I left it in a friend's house. She would leave it around the laundry tub. I think people threw soap on it. But it's being reborn, it's getting beautiful again. As always. Would these stay at the back of your house? No, this one was tied in a pole in my bar. It was beautiful. Didn't you get to see in one of those pictures? I had many plants. Many plants... There was a section in the bar, on the other side where there were only plants. I love plants. I was raised in a small farm. I come from the countryside. People still say I am not from here. How come? I arrived here in the 80s. 15 years old... Got married, had children here, grandchildren, how am I not from here? If I'm not from here I'm adopted. If they didn't adopted me, I adopted them. What about the rest? I don't even care. Isn't it, Gabi? This little one is from Pinheirinho. The Military Police get ready for the eviction. They got ready for the eviciton, and before the dawn of the January 17th, we won the injunction. The judge... We made a request, we had entered one, the judge hadn't decided, and we entered a request for this to be immediately decided because it was in the imminence of the occurrence. Then an on duty judge will concede us an injunction stating that the police had... The Military Police, the City Guard, the Civil Police of São Paulo, had to refrain from any eviction in Pinheirinho. This was the injunction of the federal court. The police already were on their way. People were there. It was a very tense dawn. It was a tense night, a tense dawn. When the news arrives at 4:20 a.m... We hear that we had lost the injunction. I followed the process before, during and after the occupation. We tried to negotiate several times with the judge Márcia Loureiro, a judge from São José dos Campos. We tried to contact the City Hall many times, but the mayor wouldn't answer us, Cury, the PSDB mayor, and we negotiated at the Court of Justice, in São Paulo, with the court president. Ivan Sartori, an associate judge, and we managed, apparently, to postpone the repo for a few moments because he oriented us to look for the judge who was responsible for the bankruptcy process. We contacted him on the same day... I had requested a meeting with Ivan Sartori. I invited the congressman Ivan Valente, the state representative Adriano Diogo, senator Suplicy, we went to see the judge on the same day. We made an agreement, bankruptcy representatives participated, and we made an agreement to suspend it for a while so the negotiations could get deeper, even including the intervention of the federal government. The federal government was also interested in it. We won in court some time. We were then surprised, two or three days later, with the eviction. There was a disruption of the agreement, with the judge and also with Sartori himself, who had oriented us to search for this solution. On Sunday, January 22nd, around 6:30 a.m., I was woken up by the PT councilman Tonhão Dutra, from São José dos Campos, who told me... "Senator, the repossession process has begun." "There are countless police patrol cars," "police helicopters, police dogs..." "The Metropolitan Guard has armored vehicles," "there's also elite squad cars..." And so forth... "They are simply kicking people out" "and giving them very few minutes for that." During that day... Then I called up the Bandeirantes Palace. As I couldn't get any response, I went there myself. Around 7 a.m. I was at the front gate, I told them I was there and they led me to a room where at 8:30 a.m. the governor Geraldo Alckmin... It was a Sunday morning. It's not usual that I go there on a Sunday morning at that time, to wake him up. He even offered breakfast and we talked. I said what was going on. He said... "There was a revocation of the 15-day decision..." "I can't understand until now why they did it." The process was carried out with several irregularities and it was conducted in a strange way. Three days before the repossession there was a meeting with the bankruptcy judge, whom was in charge of the Selecta process, to determine that the repossession would be suspended for 15 days. There was a phone call, it's all documented in the record. There was a phone call from the bankruptcy judge to the judge from São José dos Campos, saying the repossession had been suspended for 15 days. This assembly in the bankruptcy court was held with the representative of the bankruptcy estate, the syndic of the bankruptcy, congressmen such as Suplicy, Giannazi... Surprisingly, from Friday on, 12 hours after the deal, they had already begun to prepare the operation. The advisor of the president of the Court of Justice, Capez, recognized that he had called the bankruptcy judge after the deal, and said something like... "What will those 15 days resolve?" "If it hasn't been resolved yet, 15 extra days won't help." And he pushed him to invalidate the deal. The rest of the story we know. On that Sunday at 5:30 a.m. a carnage took place. As the process that resurrected the repossession order was full of nebulous points, this raises strong suspicions that it really happened, that there was some interest behind it inasmuch as the governor personally mobilized to make the judiciary mobilize as well to make the massacre happen. For example... The order for the repossession was called by a judge from São José dos Campos without any requests. Without even the bankruptcy having to request. The state's attorney's advisor himself was personally there on the eviction day and he helped keep the press away. There are reports, I wasn't there. He was personally involved... It was very strange because the bankruptcy wasn't asking for all that much... There was a strong mobilization of the state and judiciary. This leads to believe that there's a strong interest behind it and an undercover articulation between them. The operation was prepared on the Friday in the governor Alckmin's room. Friday was the day after the deal with the bankruptcy. They would make a deal on one side and the governor's staff prepare the operation on the other side. An operation with 4,000 military policemen isn't held without a senator or a governor. I used to be a state's attorney. I know how this works. Let us people ask, for God's sake, to make sure this doesn't happen to a kid... There are elders here, ***! Who would we ask for help? There was no one to ask for help. If you said on the streets you are from Pinheirinho, the police would beat you up, do you get it? Then you think... "Whom am I asking for help?" There's no one to ask for help. How would you talk to the mayor or governor? How would reach the councilman? They should have passed a bill for housing... How would you call for help? There was no way to call for help. Not only me but everyone who was there felt unfairly treated because there was no place to run to. We started to depend on them. To live how they wanted, the way they wanted. "I'm going to give you this and you will eat this." "If you don't want it, die of hunger." I think it was a social blow. I'd say it was the War of Canudos of the 21st Century. A sort of War of Canudos of the 21st Century because it was a blow against citizenship. against the human rights, against the dignity of the human being. I've seen shocking scenes, for example, of animals, cats and dogs, in front of their destroyed houses waiting for their owners to arrive but they wouldn't ever arrive because there was a dispersion in that region, there was a disruption of people there. Some people headed back to their original towns, other people stayed at relatives houses, some stayed in lodgings... The most terrible thing I've ever seen. They were subhuman lodgings, no infrastructure, that looked like Nazi lodgings, Nazi-fascist. I've seen horrible things throughout the several lodgings that the City Hall set up to receive the residents who had lost their houses. I don't even consider that a lodging. It had no infrastructure at all. People suffering from hunger, being in need, without any kind of social counselling... Anyway... I am going to tell you a bit of what I saw there. That Campo dos Alemães square served as the police headquarters. So... There was a barrier with the shock troops, armed with rubber bullets... So many cops, many, many cops. Here was the square, here the barrier, here was where the residents would stand. The City Hall assistance, the assistance to the residents was in the gymnasium. - On that big square... - In front of Pinheirinho? Yes, in front of Pinheirinho, two parallel blocks away from this square where the confrontation took place between the police and the residents. The residents were conducted to that assistance centre. Many tents were pitched. Each one had a name plate... Lodging, Registration... But when you arrived there you'd realize it was very unorganized. There weren't enough people to assist the residents. The residents were lost, split up and scary... What would happen? That place was meant to assist the residents, the families that were being evicted at that moment. Amidst all this, a war was happening. What happened there was a war. I saw people being spanked by the Civil Guard... Where it was supposed to be an assistance place, there were people being spanked, bombs being thrown, pepper spray, all of that was used all the time throughout the Sunday. This would make it even more nonviable because there were few people to assist the residents, the residents were scary, and yet, a confrontation was set up there. Look at him. This is Gabriele. Pinheirinho... She's my granddaughter. The oldest granddaughter. Joice, look at him. You'll be in the photo. How long did it take for you to find them? I only heard about them because people used to tell me at the church. The day after was a total rout, people willing to know... I wore the same short and shirt for two or three days. I couldn't even eat. I was desperate. I found them two weeks later. Two weeks later? Because I knew they were at a gynasium... At first I knew they were at a friend's house. I heard they were at a gymnasium I didn't know which one. I tried the one down the street but I didn't find them. Then I found them in Morumbi. I took pity on them, my friend. When I got there I cried. It was really hot! These girls slept in a thin mattress... Did you get to go there to see all of that? It was even more painful because they went right to there. It was where my son was murdered seven years ago. Now another bale pops to your mind. My grandkids at the same place my son was murdered, serving as a shelter. In any repo, whether it's a house, 10 houses, 20 houses... You need to demand from the author of the action resources for the eviction. What is that? He needs to provide transportation, he needs to arrange lodging for the people and for the furniture of those who don't have where to go. The Military Police had listed all the things they'd need as is customary. The Military Police have operational rules to follow. These rules demanded 140 trucks, I don't know how many workers, 200 workers... That was not provided. At the beginning of the repo, from Sunday through Monday, they had four trucks. Four trucks are insufficient to relocate over 1,700 houses. Another unusual thing that happened... In situations like that the judiciary stops the repo and determines that the author provides the resources. I have participated in countless repos. Every time the resources are not provided, the justice officer consults the responsible judge and request... "There isn't any truck." "There isn't transportation." "There isn't anyone to pack." "Stop the repo." "We cannot continue until they are there." Another unusual and problematic thing happened in this repo. The justice determined that the municipality provided the resources. The City hall used public money to hire trucks for the eviction. I had the impression that everything was held there. This is a house. Every mattress is a house. The families have no privacy. Everything is open, the light works 24/7... It was impossible to keep a kid there. The food supply and hygiene were precarious. It was impossible to keep a baby, for example. The bathroom was shared with many people. The lack of hygiene was the biggest since there was only one bathroom for hundreds of people. This when we wouldn't run out of water... Hundreds of people. There were entire families, with the baby, father, mother, son... It was rather complicated. One bathroom. Okay. Is there anyone living in the bathroom? There is. My mother, my father and my sisters. Living in the gymnasium bathroom? When it came to feeding... We had to waste a lot of food. We got sick because of the food. Very bad food. Rotten food... The kids... The way people would feed the kids was sad because you couldn't give them a plastic plate full of hot food. You are going to shed the mush... The ones who had the means to rent a house, did so. Those who could go to a relative's house and stay there, did so. Everything is cooped up here... Can you see it? Like this... This is our little vending cart. We'd fill it with bread. It is dumped here... Here in the back... It's good that you show so people can see how is our situation. In which situation we are. Everything here is... Should we... There's no more room. We should have a room, a living room, a kitchen... We have none of that, right? The kitchen is that section you saw earlier. I threw many things away... I threw away a bread stand similar to that. A two-meter cabinet that wouldn't fit here. To free more room, right? I threw some things away. I donated to someone as it wouldn't fit here. Then I donated to someone on the streets, right? You lay down the mattress here, lay down another one over there... It's how we sleep... But it isn't comfortable. There is no... I donated this thing to someone. Three or four white cabinets like those... I donated them... On the last day, on the eviction day, my son asked me: "Mom, what about now?" "Where are we going to buy bread? The police is everywhere." I told him: "The bakery is probably closed." Then my sister said... "No, it's not closed, I went there to buy bread." "The baker is making bread as usual." The workers are used to the bakery. I get here at 6 a.m. As soon as I get here I make some dough. And hot dog bread to sell at the trailers. After I make the hot dog bread, I make some sweet bread. When it's 11 a.m. I lie down a little while. I sleep until 2 p.m., then I get up to bake the bread. I start baking at 2 p.m. and finish at 4 p.m. Then I pack the bread. Until more or less 8 p.m... When it's 8 p.m. I rest until 11 p.m. I work again at 11 p.m. From 11 p.m. until 5 a.m. I leave there at 5 a.m. and get here at 6 a.m. Then I will sleep only after 10 a.m. That's always like this. I work at night, at day, and that's how I roll. Whenever God wills. This cylinder here... It will grow even more. It's bigger here, isn't it? Can you see this? The same size as that... It was delicious. I lived there for six, nearly seven years. I had friends there. We used to talk, chit chat, I used to attend to the meeting that had 1,000 people... Every weekend. Saturdays and Wednesdays. A Pinheirinho reunion with all the friends. That was a party! We chatted, set off fireworks, ate popcorn... The kids used to dance in the big shed. They would dance and wiggle just to cheer them up. It got crowded with people dancing. Isabel used to dance, Junior as well... He would dance funk... Pinheirinho to me? It was a good place to live. The world ended when I left there. Do you know why? Because I lost my job... I lost my bakery that I had difficulty achieving. I worked a lot over these six years. It was like the end of the world to me. So much that I wouldn't even eat for many days. I wasn't depressed because of the bakery. Because my conditions were better... I was very upset because we were kicked out like dogs, with a backpack, with police kicking us out... It was hard. But... So much that I don't even like to look at a police car. This way is better. Sour cream bread, I also make coconut bread... 30 breads of each kind. Buttery bread as well. Bread rolls are barely sold. I sell around 60 bread rolls at the school in the afternoon. Is it the same quantity that you used to make back in Pinheirinho? - Or you make less? - Way less. I used to make 2,000 bread rolls a day in Pinheirinho. 2,000. I would fill four big cabinets like that one. Many people would line up around the corner. I miss my friends a lot. I was with Isabela in front of Pinheirinho... She started to cry... I didn't cry but... I didn't feel well. Because I missed many people from there. People there are great. There was order there. Everybody was a friend. Everybody used to help. Sometimes when someone couldn't buy the basics we'd chip in to buy for them. We would gather every Saturday. "Someone is in need of food assistance." Someone would donate a pack of rice, two packs of beans, an oil can, we'd buy the basic foods. "You can get the food tomorrow at someone's house." Then they could get the food. When another person needed the basics we'd also chip in. Sometimes with medicines... People collaborated, right? That's why I say I liked it there so much. I miss it there. It was very good. I'd have money there to solve my problems, here I don't. I'd be more valued there by people, here in the outside no one cares about me. Many people told me... "Where I work..." This woman told him: "That guy is from Pinheirinho." I was working there as a baker and I would deliver bread to him. He said: "Those people are worthless." I stood silent, but I didn't like what he said. No one is better than another. Your financial situation may be better, you may be famous, you may have a lot of money, but money isn't everything in life. I think respect is more valuable. I am poor and I come from a very poor family, not even the studies I had, but I respect everyone. I don't disrespect or humilitiate anyone. I think this way. I don't humiliate anyone. If I can't help I won't hurt. The adaptation to the people in a general way... I don't know how it is today since we don't talk much about it, but before, in the bus, when we talked about Pinheirinho, people would stare at you. They'd look at you as if you were from another world. They'd look at us in a weird way if we talked something about Pinheirinho... It's a matter of entering society again. Because... We were like the dirt they swept. So we ended up... "How are we getting back?" "How's it supposed to be from now on?" "How to restart your life?" "Where to begin?" No one knew I was a Pinheirinho resident. When the repossession took place was when they found out as I couldn't leave my house because they were blocking us. That was day they found out I lived in Pinheirinho. On the day after, everybody asked what was going on, why I had missed work... I had to tell them I was a resident. I had to confirm. Then people started talking about it, whispering about it, for the fact that I was a resident... Then I ended up being fired in April. Why didn't anyone know you were from Pinheirinho? What was the problem? I wouldn't work if they knew. Simple as that. At all the jobs I managed to find, when they found out I was a resident, I'd be fired right away. Or during the interview, when I said I lived in Pinheirinho, the interview was instantly cancelled. We couldn't continue the interview because I resided in Pinheirinho. Just because you resided there? Yes, we couldn't... It was enough. Just by saying you resided in Pinheirinho. We couldn't. I couldn't even comment I was a resident. I would use a friend's addess of a nearby neighborhood. If you live in Pinherinho... When I gave a quotation, if I said I was from Pinheirinho, the was no problem, I would get the job. As is customary. I worked for many people who knew I was from Pinheirinho. But after that happened, there was a prejudice against us. They would know about Pinheirinho, but they didn't know how it was like, how it was like there. Do you understand? Because of that, the media started to bad-mouth us, saying that Pinheirinho was this or that. If it hadn't happened, there was no problem saying you were from there. Because no one imagined how it was like. An usual invasion... You wouldn't dare to tell your employer something like... "There are only thieves and potheads there." You wouldn't say such thing. I think that the Pinheirinho case summed up a conjuctural problem in Brazil, which is the oligopoly of the media companies. Think about it, only a few companies own the media, they are very powerful and are linked to other powers. In this Pinheirinho case, for example. A good bit of the media continued their campaign to criminalize the social movements in order to generate a certain support from the public opinion to actions of this sort, like forced eviction, which are criminal state actions in evicting people who have right to housing. They have a constitutional right to housing. It's important for us to understand that there's no impartial journalism. Every press has a side. This isn't even a problem. It's not illegal. It's good that people take their sides, that they manifest them. What bothers me is that in Brazil the biggest media owners have only one side. None of the large journals, radios and magazines, or TV networks, will have a sympathetic position towards the Pinheirinho residents. Or towards so many other questions... Landless workers' movement, taxation of large fortunes, democratization of the media, anyway... Political reform... We can make a list from here to the corner. The media covered what was interesting for them because what was really happening to the residents little did they cover. But... "They set fire to the press vehicle." "The residents did." "The residents destroyed the COMAS." "The residents destroyed the FUNDHAS. In fact it was... How can I tell you this? The residents weren't doing that, it was the residents of nearby neighborhoods who were being repressed and they would't accept... Some of them wouldn't accept the eviction in Pinheirinho because many people wouldn't have where to go to and there would be homeless people everywhere... We were frowned upon just for residing in Pinheirinho. They started to break everything to draw attention from the mayor, from the state staff, something like that... The media criminalizes someone who occupies an empty building. That belongs to someone who is been owing for 20 years, who owes three times as much as the building... "But the families invaded it." With their children etc. Are they going against the right to property? Are they committing anything against the law? Formally, they are. But come on, people! We are in 2013, right? The world is in such situation... If we treat things this way, all of us will give up, lie down and wait for death. It's not possible to have such interpretation. And to blame a legalistic view... Legalistic view by legalistic view, the women wouldn't be voting by now, the black would be a second-class citizen... If we stick to these literal things, at the highest level, society won't progress. There's a little of a continuous process to criminalize the social movement, or to reinforce real estate interests that sometimes the locals, sometimes even the neighbors, prefer to see a luxurious condo to a settlement of residents. I think maybe... For the performance of the local media, and so on, which was rather biased, this may be badly received. Society demanded an improvement for that scenario. The society frowned upon the violent eviction, mostly after they were able to see how all the removal of the families took place. Much is said about São José as being a conservative society. I think there was a wish from society that those families... Either you regulate that situation, implement public apparatus, solve that scenario, or you remove those people, who are in a private plot of land, and conduct those people to dignified places. There was an interest in finding the solution for the problem. I just happen to think that the society itself was shocked by how it was all carried out. I don't think people realize that the social differences, that increase with this kind of action. The structural problems of Brazil increase with it, they increase and perpetuate. and create insecurity. That forces people to live in gated communities with cameras and all of that... They end up thinking that the problem is on the other side. So they have prejudice against the victims of the process. Has the eviction solved their social problems? I don't think so. Some will say yes but I don't think so because the drug issue is still there, it's even more evident. So far, nothing has been done in the sense of relocating those families. We know that the government provided social workers to relocate those people... But there was no progress. It was considered a favela. It was considered... To other states, to other countries, it was considered the world's largest occupation. To São Paulo, to the local media, the world's largest favela. There's a big difference, right? The media coverage doesn't surprise. They follow the same logic as other similar cases, or in cases where there's a confrontation between the established order or the right to property or the maintenance of certain people's power, of their economic power and so forth. On the other side, truly social questions, human questions etc. The media covarage, invariably, and I mean the conventional media, sticks on the side of who is been sitting pretty since 1500. I would divide the media acting into two economic interests. First, interests linked to other interests. The defense of the real estate market, of this forced eviction policy that we've been seeing in Brazil, the attempt to try to make it natural, and to make the residents look like intruders that needed to be removed from there, and that they created the problem... It isn't that. It was exactly the opposite. They were the victims, the main victims. On the other side, there's the search for audience among the media companies that sometimes end up having sensacionalistic coverages. They shove the microphone in front of people and ask how they are feeling. They had just had their houses destroyed, disrespected, their lives, their dignity, their future had been affected... They are obviously not feeling good. We had a princess in Pinheirinho. The photographer found out this girl on a highway. He made her a queen for a week. She was pretty. She was breastfeeding when the reporter found her. They gave her a makeover. She was very beautiful. What did I read? I read many people criticizing, calling the residents abusers, intruders, criminals... I have really read this. Many people saying such things. I think we shouldn't take it seriously because those who saw it closely know it was families. What happened is that... As the syndical and partisan movements helped the residents get together... those who are outside ended up projecting an image of abusive syndicalists taking advantage of the residents to do politics... As the City Hall, back then, was delegated to the PSDB, then we'd see... "Leftists vs. rightists." This wasn't what happened. There were negotiations between Marrom and our... Knucklehead... I was called by him at the opening of a health center... I will never forget it. Two things. What he called me, and his help on removing us from there. This man? Cury? I don't like to say his name. At the inauguration of a health center... We had been here for a year... Emanuel was the previous mayor. Cury took office later on. He was elected then reelected. On his first period of office he inaugurated a health center. Three of us went there. They were looking for something. I swear to God, I came to him and said... "Mayor, what about us from Pinheirinho?" He said... "Go *** Marrom off, you slumdog." I will never forget this. He called me a slumdog. Then I told him, 15 days later... At one of those places you get your documents for free, in Morumbi... "Do you remember the slumdog?" He instantly left the reporters behind. I will never forget he called me a slumdog. Talita, what was that story you told... That happened at school, a girl said things about Pinheirinho. How was it? We were all happy... Then this snobbish girl came in and said... "This classroom is as dirty as Pinheirinho." Everybody was quiet. The teacher stood up and went like... "Girl, where are you manners?" She stayed quiet on her own. Everyone stayed silent. Everybody was sad there. My friend was crying. I said... "Why are you crying, Regina?" She said: "Emily keeps bringing up this subject." It seems she wasn't putting herself in our shoes. She could put herself in our shoes so she would know how it feels. We went to advice Emily, for her to stop saying that. Then she said... "You are a horde of beggars." "They don't even have what to do..." She started arguing, my mom went there, to know what she was saying... She said she would beat me. I said... "If you stand a finger against my friends, you will see." She wanted to beat all the time. She stopped talking to me for two weeks. We wouldn't even look at each other's eye. The next year she apologized to everyone. Then we made peace. What do you do on vacations? How is it, do you wake up early, or stay longer in bed? - We wake up at 11 a.m. - 11 a.m. Sometimes at noon, 11 a.m... Today we woke up at noon. I cleaned the house, I wiped the floor, I washed the bowls, I washed my pants, I scoured the stove and then I made food. When I made food, I lied down to watch TV... Pedro Henrique was outside... Pedro Henrique came to me and said... "There's a guy filming me." He came here crying... He got under the bed. I said: "Who is he, Pedro?" "There's a man filming with that thing." When I left I realized it was you who had arrived. He was under the bed. Then he left... - How old are you, Talita? - I am 12. I am going to be 13. - What about you, Felipe? - I am 11. And what about your day, how'd it go? I fly kites, right? Sometimes I recover kites, too. When you arrived, unless you... I was trying to recover a kite that had fallen over a woman's house. How were your vacations in Pinheirinho? Seven days ago... My friends and I were talking about Pinheirinho. We used to have more liberty there, we could play a lot more. Our moms would let us go wherever we wanted, to play... Here our moms don't let us go out because there's much drug traffic. Many evil things. My mom doesn't let me go out. I only stay at home. My friends' moms don't let them step foot out of home. There was a big park there. We could ride the bike, but now they prohibited it. I'd fly the kite there, I'd play soccer... Who prohibited it? Now they don't allow us to ride the bike there. I see, they surrounded it. Talita said that you can't go out because of the drug traffic. Is that it? There wasn't drug traffic in Pinheirinho, then? No. Actually there was, but... - They wouldn't do it near kids. - They respected us. They really respected the kids. They would do their stuff in the lower part. So... Everything was getting better... Then they suddenly remove everyone from there. We only saw people crying. No one wanted to believe it. No one believed it. That judge is nuts. Do you think she is to blame for this? I think she is. Many tried to remove us but nobody managed. She mentioned she would rip her diploma if she didn't remove us from there. She seems to be meaningless. What she did to us is meaningless. If I were her... She has to see it... What she has, we have. We also have emotion. She thinks she's the only one who has it, but we do as well. What emotion did you feel most? Sadness? I felt... I felt like crying, felt like running away... I felt like doing everything. I even felt like killing that judge. The cruelty of the judge Márcia Loureiro by determining that repossession under those conditions... It's impossible that it isn't a functional failure. She has even made statements that the operation was prepared in four months. Aren't four months enough time to find a solution? Couldn't they call the administrative authorities, the responsible for habitation? So many things could have been done. However, they preferred the violent path. The path of brutalization of the people. What about you? You were there until the day... How was that day? My brothers left it running. My mom, Pedro and I stayed there. We left it running, too. After that, a kid died... Many things happened. We only saw them entering. They started to enter, everybody started to run. They threw bombs, threw many things... Spray... No one could see anything. Even on the other side, even at my aunt's place we could feel the smell of the pepper spray. My uncle, a mom's friend, went running to take us away from there. He helped a lot of kids who there afraid of that. Then we left. We didn't even go there to see if our furniture is still there. My mom... She went to see if someone had taken her furniture. Nobody did. We were left without furniture. My mom managed to buy these furnishings here. A few ones. Didn't you get anything from there? Only the TV is from there. - It was from the bar. - What about your stuff? Is there anything you remember? A bike... Two bikes were left behind, a red shelf, my bed, Felipe's bed, Maicon's bed... A lot of things. My new clothes that my mom had bought... I hadn't even worn them. Everything was left there. What do you miss most? What do I miss? A room only for me. When the boys upset me I'd go to my room. I'd stay there on my own, playing. Now I can't even hide. Only two rooms... Have you been there after that? After they destroyed the houses? I went there. Did you, Felipe? You did because you'd go there all the time, you idiot. I did, now that it became a jungle. It's even possible to find snake there. They abandoned it so the vegetation grew. They removed us from there for nothing... They kicked us out for nothing. - I think they were envious. - Just to grow bush... It seems like envy to me. In comparison with Campo dos Alemães, Pinheirinho was already outpacing them because it was more fun in Pinheirinho. Pinheirinho was the place with the most theaters. Theaters, parties, these things... That's because I miss Pinheirinho. Back there when people threw a party, they would make a raffle, give us popcorn, there'd be a trampoline, a lot of things. We would stage a play in the big shed... - People were very close. - We would dance funk... My mom used to rehearse us. She rehearsed us very nicely. Whose is Pinheirinho? Pinheirinho is ours! March! Whose is Pinheirinho? Pinheirinho is ours! What we see is that, one year later, the government is limited to paying a rental assistance... The rest of the state system, including the Union, doesn't show up or take any attitude. It would have been possible for the Union and the republic's president to discuss that what happened was cruelness. It was a few days after the events in Rio Grande do Sul. That was a barbarity but nothing happened. The Union, the State, and City, after one year... Couldn't they have given a definitive solution? Coulnd't they have built anything? Couldn't they have expropriated that area? Pinheirinho is more than a piece of land. It was a piece of land but more than that. For its own structure, for the solidary of the families, for their great acquaintanceship... It's more than a plot of land. It's a people. And as people they have their own characteristics, they have different thoughts, different formations, and as people they carry on... It's very common during repossessions, especially when it involves violence, that it ends up having a great repercussion. A media repercussion, a sort of commotion, and that's what happened with the Pinheirinho case. However, after the calamity, people don't talk about it anymore. But those people who experienced that continue in an absolutely precarious situation. and vulnerable. It's been one year since we left Pinheirinho! Since we've been evicted by the judge. We're inviting you to participate in this act. The real estate interest is very strong in Brazil. There's a tendency to forced eviction, there's a tendecy to enrich certain areas, and if the state is lined up with the real estate interests, it will be the arm that will carry out this inhuman eviction. I was born quarrelsome. I have an ideal. I fight for what's right. I'm a fighter, I'm a warrior. Being quarrelsome to fight for your rights... That would be me. Don't take away anyone's right, just mine. And my people's. - Your people? - Everybody in Pinheirinho. This rental assistance is almost worthless due to how we are unvalued out of there. And I don't believe we will be given a house. If it happens it will be something very badly done. They are not spending money to deliver us something well done. But I think we will have it, even if it's a poor house. What matters is to have a place to stay without paying the rent. If we get it, it's going to be good. Even if we don't get it I will be all right. I won't complain because I can't go against another person's will. My daughter spent months in Jacareí. My son? My son is gone... He will be turning 16 next week. He's been living on the streets since then. You know... He lost his house, he lost his stuff... He found himself in a situation... I can tell you, he can tell you... But I don't know how he would tell it. He found himself in a day he didn't have anything. He simply left with his backpack. What about his bed, his clothes, his stuff? Young people like this stuff. What about his stuff? What about his kite, his slingshot? It was hard when I had to come to him and tell... "Your house, your bed, your stuff..." He did like to count. "Your plants... There's nothing more." "Forget it, it's over. There's nothing more." Who's bringing him back home? Who's bringing him back the way he was? Who's bringing him back? My family was shattered, the family was disbanded. I dream of getting my family together. My children were all dispersed... I stopped on that day... Then I realized I was in a hole. I was in a dead end. I felt down on that day. I felt really down. I knew there were people... I knew there were people fighting, but at the same time I couldn't do anything. I had to wait. We had to wait for what was going to happen. My mother, my children, they are all dispersed. It was a hard moment. It wasn't a hard moment but that part was sad. So much that she doesn't even know it. I'm talking about it now but she didn't know.