Barbed wire
'Formed by two interlaced wires, where barbs of the same type of metal are fixed at regular intervals, making passage difficult or preventing animals from escaping the fenced-in area. In the land struggle, barbed wired represents the fence of the landed-estate, which means expropriation, violence, poverty, and hunger. For this reason, every time the Sem Terra occupy a landed-estate, they cut the barbed-wire, symbolizing the break from a situation of exclusion to one of resocialization and citizenship (Fernandes, Bernardo Mançano. Pequeno Vocabulário da Luta pela Terra. Unpublished). 

Caldeirão
‘A struggle of peasant resistance against landowners, which took place in Ceará in the 1930s, when more than 400 people were killed. The name Caldeirão (lit. cauldron) refers to a depression on the land surface, where pure water was found all year round. The area belonged to Father Cícero - a famous priest and politician of the period - who handed it over to the messianic leader Zé Lourenço and his followers to work the land. The great concentration of peasants in the area, however, caught the attention of the landowners, who, fearing the growth of the workers’ organization and a possible occupation of their lands, started a war against the peasants to destroy Caldeirão. This struggle continues in the memory of the landless people of Ceará and is diffused by the MST and the Pastoral Land Commission'(Fernandes, Bernardo Mançano. Pequeno Vocabulário da Luta pela Terra. Unpublished). 

Candelária
'An important Catholic church in the city of Rio de Janeiro. In July 1993, there was a massacre outside the church, when eight street children were murdered. This fact stirs the indignation of popular movements until today, for which reason Candelária was transformed into a representation of the struggle against violence in the city and the country' (Fernandes, Bernardo Mançano. Pequeno Vocabulário da Luta pela Terra. Unpublished). 

Canudos
(1) ‘Peasant resistance that took place in the Bahian backlands, led by Antônio Conselheiro, from 1893 to 1897. The village of Canudos managed to organise 25 thousand people. Surrounded by the Army, it resisted a number of military attacks for five years. As Euclides da Cunha says, in his Os Sertões [Rebellion in the Backlands], the classic work that describes the resistance, ‘Canudos did not surrender’'(Fernandes, Bernardo Mançano e Stedile, João Pedro. Brava gente: a trajetória do MST e a luta pela terra no Brasil. São Paulo: Editora Fundação Perseu Abramo, 1999, p. 63, n. 32).(2)

(2) ‘The Canudos episode represents one of the high points of the poor peasants’ struggle against repression, poverty, and hunger. Its leader, the mystic Antônio Conselheiro, traveled over the backlands of the northeast from 1870 … in the village of Canudos he founded the city of Belo Monte, which assembled 30 thousand of the landless poor, becoming the second largest city in Bahia … Food was shared equally. The ownership of the land was collective … In 1897, the National Army undertook three expeditions, moblizing 12 thousand men with modern weapons … On October 5, 1897, Canudos was destroyed and 5 thousand soldiers died in the battle … The history of Canudos occurred during the messianic phase of the struggle for land’(Calendário Histórico dos Trabalhadores. São Paulo: MST, Setor de Educação. 3a. edição, 1999, p.71). 

Carandiru, Massacre of
‘On October 2, 1992, in São Paulo … the brutal murder of 111 convicts of Pavilion 9, in the Carandiru Penitentiary, occurred … The criminals responsible for the massacre received as punishment demotion in rank or removal from positions’ (Calendário Histórico dos Trabalhadores. São Paulo: MST, Setor de Educação. 3a. edição, 1999, p.70). 

Contestado
‘Peasant resistance movement that took place from 1912 to 1916 along the Peixe River, in the states of Santa Catarina and Paraná. The owners resisted the donation of lands by the government to an English company in payment for the building of a railroad. The army and federal troops attacked the owners to guarantee the interests of the English company’ (Fernandes, Bernardo Mançano e Stedile, João Pedro. Brava gente: a trajetória do MST e a luta pela terra no Brasil. São Paulo: Editora Fundação Perseu Abramo, 1999, p. 63, n. 34). 

Corumbiara, Massacre of
'In the early morning of August 9, 1995, a contingent of 300 policemen from the Special Operations Command (COE) of Rondonia, attacked 500 Sem Terra families who had occupied the Fazenda Santa Elina, in Corumbiaria. This massacre, which shocked the nation, resulted in nine Sem Terra people dying, including a seven year old girl and two policemen, as well as nineteen wounded and several missing’(Calendário Histórico dos Trabalhadores. São Paulo: MST, Setor de Educação. 3a. edição, 1999, p. 59-60).