Every day I go out with my brothers, behind my father, hoe on shoulder, on the
way to the fields, before the sun comes up very early in the morning. I have done
this since I was little. My father cuts the weeds with a machete, one brother
breaks the ground with a hoe, the other a little way behind buries the seed. And
I scare the hungry birds that want to eat the seeds. I do this all morning until
the sun is very hot.
With time comes the rain and like a miracle the crops grow. My father also
reaps corn, makes flour, eats green-corn paste, sucks on sugar-cane, makes raw
brown sugar…
What joy! It is a time of plenty! I now go to the school to learn to read and
write.
I am going to be somebody in life, my father says, takes up his sandal and
goes.
But my father told me a secret that I’ll only tell you; Gleison will
grow up, learn to read and write, understand farming more and more. He said
he is not leaving that land. He will go on sowing and reaping, just like his
father, and the father of the father of the father of his father. And I will
join in taking care of the crops.
We give thanks to the MST, for hand-in-hand we fight for Agrarian Reform. So
that everyone may have their piece of land.
Congratulations MST!
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