Stories of Paraná - The fair human

Stories of Paraná - The fair human

The fair human
Reginaldo de France

Section Paineira city of Assam, 1960.
It could be another year, does not matter. The scenario was repeated, changing only the extras.
Cotton, ready to be harvested, the landscape was a real snow field.
Here and there, shades of green or dark yellow dry leaves.
State in school, the devoted teacher, Mrs. Celia taught subjects from primary school to japonesinhas and japonesinhos.
Also taught religion classes, starting them in Catholicism.
In baptism, the school transformed into a church, Dona Celia would then godmother of the vast majority of new Christians.
But it was on the football field near the school, which presenciávamos scenes that were recorded indelibly in our memory. The truck stick-to-macaw, overcrowded Northeast, there aportava.
It was the end point of a journey started days before, the interior of Pernambuco, Sergipe and Alagoas.
Proof of the heroic resistance of families crossing the country, huddled, sleeping on the body, in subhuman conditions, without bathing, eating bologna sandwiches, scarce, provided by the carrier. The news spreads quickly, as if carried by the wind. There was no telephone, radio or other means of communication.
Even so, quickly reached the landowners.
Japanese, with their tractors, jeeps or trucks, flocked to the "purchase" of human merchandise.
Families with several "arms" were more expensive.
Hundreds of kilos of cotton would be taken without delay, not getting lost in the sun or by the weather. The pawn was young and strong disputed.
Was bargaining on the price for the purchase of a lot bigger.
The last to be "sold" had clearance prices.
After the "fair human" the Northeast led to the websites of buyers, the owner of the truck accounted profits and returning to the origin.
Illegal trafficking of human beings? Maybe.
But it was undoubtedly the only way to remove the interior northeast, punished by drought, hunger and thirst, families desperate, breathless and without option, supplying the Paraná workers fearless, strong, able to draw sustenance from the earth and wealth that built our progress.
Many stayed here forever.
Took root in the land that welcomed them. And still, to this day, in agriculture, in commerce, in politics, to magnify with their labors, the story of struggles and achievements that have marked the development of Paraná.

Reginaldo de France, a lawyer and fiscal agent of the State Revenue in Curitiba


Source: Stories of Paraná, Brasil.