May-2015
Lira is one of those people that contributes to the beauty of the world. She put two braids in her hair when she was a kid and carries them to this, displaying her roots as a sweet and persistent child. Lira is a potter, a researcher of the culture of the Jequitinhonha Valley, one of […]
May-2015
As soon as the “china” (marbles) game ended, I asked the boys why it is that adults today insist on saying that children don’t know how to play anymore and that games like this no longer exist. “It’s because these adults don’t come here to see,” one of the boys replied. This is true, I […]
May-2015
Conceição greeted us in a printed skirt, her hair wrapped in cloth and the baby Jesus in her arms. We sat at the table and she told us that when she was a child she would watch her father prepare for the Three Kings’ Party, but this tradition disappeared over the years. She was invited […]
May-2015
Abadia is a land of people knowledgeable about prayers, Three Kings’ Day parties, cantigas de roda, and making bread and cookies in a wood-burning oven. Abadia is a land of timeworn houses, of lightning bugs so sociable they land on your fingers and nose. It’s a place where making wooden cars, creatures made of fruit, […]
May-2015
It’s so amazing how Brazil has so many games happening under a mango tree, or other fruit trees, that you could write a treatise on the subject. It was no different in Abadia, this small village near Carbonita in the Jequitinhonha Valley. While the girls swept the dry leaves and rotten mangoes, setting the ground […]
May-2015
Quem foi que disse Who is it that said Que janeiro não saía […]
May-2015
According to its citizens, Abadia is a land of medicine women, midwives and herbs that work better than any pill. A land where pilgrims come from afar to worship the image of Our Lady of Abadia, and where the dolls are baptized like every child. “Everyone deserves to be baptized,” said one of the girls. […]
May-2015
There are boys who, while making their toys, are like a bird learning to fly, they have a deep desire and persistent hands. They won’t stop making until they have arrived at what they wanted. Trial, error, fixing, adjusting, polishing, re-doing, they even make funny faces or stick out their tongues to help get it […]
May-2015
The house was far, hard to get to, with countless gates to open and several splits on the road where we had to guess which way to go. If we hadn’t been there the day before, we would never have found our way. We didn’t tell them we were coming, we arrived by surprise, needing […]
