ReportThis region of the Nordeste, twice as large as France, believed for a time to be able to emerge from poverty. But the current crisis, rich in disillusion, is hitting the cradle of former President Lula head-on.
In the Northeast, misery has a color and a texture: those of mud. The walls of Jasinta Helena Gomes da Silva’s mud house, surrounded by rubbish bins and brush, are covered with it. Here, the rain seeps through the roof, snakes sometimes sneak under the unmade beds, resignation sweats along the damp walls, reinforced with wooden branches. “I have lived in it all my life”, sighs the hostess, 73 years old.
Destitution has always been part of everyday life in his community of Quixabeira Helena, founded by descendants of slaves on a hill next to a rubbish dump. The place has about a hundred inhabitants. All of them live below the poverty line, a large majority are illiterate.
But these days the situation just keeps getting worse. “It’s been eight months since I touched my pension, Jasinta continues. My 31 year old daughter still lives with me, with two dependent children. She can’t seem to get the Bolsa Familia [“bourse famille”, une aide d’Etat à destination des plus démunis], new housing construction programs are at a standstill… ” The health crisis has dried up the little available work. We had to cut the meager budget, give up red meat and children’s snacks. “We have to fight again to put food on the table”, deplores Nordestine.
Like Quixabeira Helena, it is all of Sertao, this vast semi-arid area of the Northeast, which suffers and anguish. The region is enduring both the economic crisis, accentuated by the Covid-19, and the policies of President Jair Bolsonaro. For years during the time of the Workers’ Party (PT), it was nevertheless pampered by the power: Sertao is the stronghold and the cradle of the former head of state Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, now more than likely candidate in the 2022 poll after the annulment of all of his court convictions.
Misfortune, the Sertao is certainly used to it. In this “polygon of drought”, twice the size of France – it crosses eight States, from Ceara to Bahia via Pernambuco – the Brazilian coast, fat and humid, seems far away. The tropical forest is followed by caatinga, this rough and ungrateful “white forest”, in the native Tupi-Guarani language, where along the dusty tracks everything burns, everything stings, everything recalls death. The brush is the color of ash, the giant cacti look like gallows.
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