Added oct. 07.2008: Linked with World War 4 Report – see also: Subsequent world wars on wikipedia.
She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.
Elizabeth Teixeira (1925) is a national symbol in the fight for the right to have land. When she was young, she faced prejudice from her father, a small landowner, and she ran away from home to marry a black and poor man. As an adult, mother of 11 children, she took over her husband’s battle when he was murdered by powerful landowners … Elizabeth Teixeira (1925) is a national symbol in the fight for the right to have land. When she was young, she faced prejudice from her father, a small landowner, and she ran away from home to marry a black and poor man. As an adult, mother of 11 children, she took over her husband’s battle when he was murdered by powerful landowners. She says: « To have peace is to be able to see the female rural worker planting and harvesting in her own land, her family healthy and her children at school » … and: “My life is protesting against misery, lack of health and education, and the abandonment of the rural population” … (1000peacewomen 1/2).
3 short Videos en portugese (Adorei as três partes deste vídeo onde esta mulher de muita fibra chamada Elizabeth Teixeira, encanta e emociona a todos):
Depoimento de Elizabeth Teixeira – parte 1: Elizabeth Teixeira é viúva do fundador das Ligas Cam…, 4.19 min;
Depoimento de Elizabeth Teixeira – parte 2: Aos 82 anos de idade, Elizabeth Teixeira fala sobre sua luta …, 9 min;
Depoimento de Elizabeth Teixeira – parte 3: Final, Elizabeth Teixeira no 5° Congresso Nacional do MST em Brasília, 2.40 min.
“Que continuem a luta de João Pedro e a minha”, diz Elizabeth Teixeira, 14/06/2007.
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Elizabeth Teixeira – Brazil
Foto: Maurício R. Martins /Jornal de Limeira /AE: Confronto entre integrantes do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem-terra (MST) e a Tropa de Choque da Polícia Militar no acampamento Elizabeth Teixeira, em Limeira … (full text).
MST Moviment dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement).
Interviste : Notizie dal Brasile: « Che continui la lotta« , 22 Giugno 2007.
No último sábado (8) comemorou-se o Dia Internacional da Mulher, dia que poderia ser todos os dias, pois ser mulher neste país, apesar dos avanços, ainda não é uma coisa muito fácil. Estatísticas sobre o comportamento, a saúde, o poder, o mercado de trabalho, a violência e tantas outras foram recorrentes na mídia brasileira nos últimos dias. Belas ou feias a imagem da mulher foi publicizada de várias maneiras, com o intuito de reconhecê-la enquanto ser humano, coisa que Eva tratou de estragar nos últimos milênios. E já que é para homenagear trago uma história que uma mulher que não viveu no paraíso como Eva, nem teve grana para fazer lipoaspiração, colocar silicone e botox na boca, nem muito menos exerce um cargo de renomada importância intelectual ou jurídica. Essa mulher chama-se Elizabeth Teixeira, uma camponesa que lutou em defesa não apenas da mulher, mas o ser humano que busca incessantemente por justiça e dignidade. Leia a matéria: … (full text).
Two pictures: looking at videos with Elizabeth Teixeira.
(1000peacewomen 2/2): … She started to receive threats. Her ten year old son, Paulo, promised to avenge his father’s death, in the future. He was shot in the head and was left with permanent health problems. Policemen once again surrounded her house, this time searching for Elizabeth. When she returned from prison, she found her oldest daughter, Marluce, who, at the time, was 17 years old, dead. “She drank poison.”
She was not discouraged. The League became the largest in the Northeast. In 1964, with the beginning of the military regime, she returned to prison. Six months later, she was freed, but she had to run away leaving her children with her father and brothers. With her, she took Carlos, who was rejected by her family for being physically similar João Pedro. They traveled to another State, where they lived with fake identifications. After 16 years, she had not received any news regarding her other nine children.
She only saw them again in 1981, with the amnesty. João Eudes founded the João Pedro Teixeira Association in 1987 with his mother’s support. Elizabeth’s oldest son, João Pedro, did not accept a new peasant leader in the family. He killed his brother.
She kept on participating in meetings. Today she is 80 years old and lives on a small retirement pension. “I don’t have any regrets. My fight will not be over until every rural worker has his or her own piece of land.”
The Peasant Leagues were the first organs for the defense of rural workers. Within them began the fight for better conditions of life and the construction of a peasant identity. Years later, these experiences led to various movements related to this category. (1000peacewomen 2/2).
Find her on Google Book-search; and on Google Group-search.
A photo showing her with Ethel Kennedy (scroll down): Elizabeth Teixeira, widow of famed land rights activist Joao Pedro Teixeira, who met RFK in 1965 and was assassinated shortly thereafter. A number of landless communities were visited, permitting the delegation to witness both ends of the land reform spectrum. One, a community by the name of Soledade in the state of Paraiba, is a success story. Soledade is found in the semi-arid region of the Northeast where agricultural cultivation is made extremely difficult by the very low level of annual rainfall, the absolute control huge landowners (many of them absentee), joined into mafias, have historically exerted over ground wells and other water sources, as well as communities; lack of accessibility to inputs, assistance, and a way to market their products outside of their immediate community (i.e. the community is far off in the countryside, requiring long traveling distances to sell the products to an outside market). The result had been, heretofore, a complete dependence on the landowners for the life- and crop-giving water, resulting in extreme poverty and ill health, and a lack of solidarity within the community itself. Recently, however, the community had received some agricultural extension services and inputs from foreign non-governmental organizations and thus been able to build wells to catch and preserve rainwater for irrigation purposes. They are implementing a simple technology wherein they damn underwater rivers where they come to the surface, thereby providing additional arable and irrigated land on which to cultivate their foodstuffs. In a presentation to the delegation, the community leaders proudly listed the many crops they now cultivate, explained the methodologies they employ, and described their newly-found independence from the water mafias. A woman described her pride at being a leader with responsibilities in her community, something she had never previously enjoyed … (full text).
[12/09/07] Police Evict 250 Families in Attack on Elizabeth Teixeira Encampment – On Nov. 29, shock troops from the Military Police of Sao Paulo state in Brazil invaded the Elizabeth Teixeira encampment of the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) in the Tatu Forest Plot in Limeira municipality near Campinas. The police agents destroyed makeshift homes and violently evicted the 250 families living on the encampment, which has been occupied by the MST since April 21, 2007. The police operation left some 30 people injured, some of them hit by police rubber bullets. MST leader Gilmar Mauro and Jose de Arimateia, coordinator of the encampment, were among those injured. The National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) had promised the MST that there would be negotiations to prevent an eviction. The MST blames the state government and the local authorities of Limeira for the police operation. (Adital, Nov. 29 from Prensa MST; Agencia Brasil, Nov. 29). (full text).
Painting: Elizabeth Teixeira II, Oil on Canvas.
Memórias da luta camponesa: Elizabeth Teixeira – Enviado por Paulo Gonçalves, especial para AND – Dirigente camponesa e viúva de João Pedro Teixeira, fundador e líder da Liga Camponesa de Sapé , na Paraíba, Elizabeth Teixeira, 78 anos, narra à AND sua vida e suas lutas junto ao povo nordestino. (full long text).
links:
Signal On + Memorials + Debate #1 + Brazilian Poets in Chicago.