Where are they headed
So clearly committed
Yellow with dust
On an open truck (1)
With long-suffering look
And a song of revolt
Like someone who's discovered
Where the road leads,
Men, women and children,
Joined as brothers under one flag?
This is a landless people
They've signed up for war
They'll sow the seeds
Of a new agrarian world.
1 Editor's note: Back of a truck: The term used in Portuguese is
"pau-de-arara", literally a stick for macaws to perch on. The term
metaphorically describes the trucks used for the transportation mostly of the
retirantes/migrants from the North-East. The truck has got rustic and very
uncomfortable wooden seats and a canvas covering. The long and inhumane travels
on the pau-de-arara from the states of Paraíba or Pernambuco to
Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo could last some 20 days. The famous
São Cristóvão fair emerged as a meeting point and
farewell for those using this means of transportation. The term
pau-de-arara is also used in the southern states as a pejorative
reference to those who migrated from the North-East.
http://www.feiradesaocristovao.art.br/historia.htm)
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