Not even the midday sun intimidated Denise Alves do Santos. She put on her UV shirt, a hat and picked up a hoe to work the land in the sweltering heat. With stamina, she planted cassava, cut down banana trees and expanded the pineapple plantation.
Faced with the effort made in the presence of the Brasil de Fato reporter, she stopped and leaned on her hoe, took a deep breath and smiled: "I love agriculture. I can't see myself in an office.”
Denise is one of around thirty female landless workers of "Roçado das Marias (“Marys’ Garden”, in a rough translation), an initiative of the gender sector of the Landless Workers' Movement (MST, in Portuguese), in the Zona da Mata region in Pernambuco state. She lives in the São Francisco de Assis encampment, in the city of Vitória de Santo Antão, a territory marked by land conflicts and workers' resistance for three decades.
"This is an encampment with a 30-year history of fighting for land, and we didn't have a project aimed at us, women. That's when I heard about the idea of setting up a garden just for women," she explained.
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The experience also changed the life of Paula Miguel, a farmer who arrived at the encampment in 2018. She used to live in João Pessoa, Paraíba’s capital city. She was unemployed and traveled to the encampment in Pernambuco to find a new perspective on her life, alongside family members who were already in the region.
"Until then, I didn't have a profession or anything to survive on. Through Roçado das Marias, I make a living for my family, in addition to doing what I like most," she celebrates.
The garden is carried out on plots in collective areas of MST encampments or settlements. It's coordinated exclusively by women, with the aim of strengthening autonomy and income generation for female farmers living in agrarian reform territories. It was designed to overcome the structural logic that places males at the center of rural activities.
"We know that gardens are usually established by men’s initiative. With that in mind, we thought: 'Why not have the Roçado das Marias, right? The Roçado das Marias is also a mechanism for us to demand our rights, not only as women but also as campers," explained Hanyelle Ohane, the head of the gender sector at the Galileia regional office in Vitória de Santo Antão.
The initiative involves four other encampments in towns in southern Pernambuco state, in the Galileia area. The territory is very close to the mill where the Peasant Leagues were founded in the state.
With the garden, the female workers are trying to diversify a landscape historically marked by sugarcane monoculture. In addition to planting, they also take part in training courses on agroecology and agroforestry systems.
They met in monthly assemblies, always held on the eighth day of each month. Collectively, they decide on a work schedule for the plot so that the activity doesn't overload any worker involved. They also share personal experiences and debate women's rights in society.
Worker shows products she harvested in "Roçado das Marias" / Afonso Bezerra
The income they get working in the garden is applied to self-care or activities of their own choosing to supplement their household income.
"We work with our partners and have a nice little income. But we need to support ourselves, right? We need to feel like fulfilled women," said Denise.
"With this extra money, we can buy better clothes, a gift for our kids, have a birthday for them or go out for a walk in the city because life isn't just in the countryside either, right? We can also go for a walk to distract our minds from the routine we have," she concluded.
For now, the project's goal is to expand the training process for female workers, and strengthen the marketing of their products at the main farmer's fairs in the region.
"We're thinking about the long term. We're thinking of starting a cooperative in the future so that we can self-organize and take our GMO-free products to fairs," concluded Hanyelle Ohane.
Edited by: Thalita Pires
