Banca de DEFESA: ELLEN JOSHUA ALVES DA SILVA

A PEASANT LEAGUE “COMPOSTA DE CABOCLOS DA SERRA”: THE XUKURU DO ORORUBÁ AND THE PEASANT LEAGUE CLEMENTINO DA HORA (PESQUEIRA-PE, 1948-1969)

Xukuru; Civil-Military Dictatorship; Peasant Leagues; Pesqueira 

In the initial context of the Civil-Military Dictatorship in Brazil, inquiries were instituted to investigate acts considered subversive or contrary to the so-called “democratic regime”. In this scenario, at the beginning of May 1964, Summary Investigation Process No. 85 was opened, with the aim of analyzing the “invasion” that occurred in the previous year at the Pedra d'Água site, an area belonging to the former village of Cimbres, ceded by the Pesqueira-PE City Hall to the Federal Government. The central issue of this dissertation resides in the association of Xukuru do Ororubá indigenous people to the Peasant League in the act investigated by the Process. This analysis started from a perspective of the supposed “invasion” not as a subversion, but as a resumption, that is, a way used by the indigenous people to guarantee the rights over that territory. The study of this movement becomes more important from the understanding that the League was baptized with the name of a Xukuru volunteer in the Paraguayan War — Clementino da Hora —, and the area retaken by the organization is an important territory for the performance of religious rituals by these indigenous people. Despite this, the news and official documents on the subject rarely mention the Xukuru in this movement. Furthermore, this intersection between the Leagues and the Xukuru is quite significant for the practical understanding of the concept of territorialization and for an analysis of the forms of resistance and claims adopted by these indigenous people in their relationship with the State.