Documentário "40 Horas na Memória"

UFERSA presents. . .

In 1963, the educator Paulo Freire developed a pioneering literacy project for youth and adults in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. After 50 years, the alumni remembered how everything happened and what this experience represented in their lives. Angicos, August 1st 2013.

40 HOURS IN MEMORY Rescue of the Experience of Paulo Freire's Students in Angicos/RN WHAT WAS ANGICOS LIKE? Once in the town of Angicos In the path of passign people Many were the sort of trouble In that unmerciful moment The drought over the dry land Calamity, only tragedy And the lack of oportunity Made everyone’s heart impatient Here’s my place’s thankless present There was nothing except difficulty Oh… life in Angicos was worst in the past. It was a very hard life… we fought for living.

We had no rights… we could only work. Since I was young, I worked hard, sowing the land with my father… in the countryside, you know? I was a farmer, I was 20 years old, you know?

! I was in my twenties and worked in my father’s farm. It was more than 4 miles to get to work.

It was a hard and poor life. A… hum… very hard life. It was a poor land.

Our place was very poor. In the morning, we used to harvest “pêlo” and then peel it and market it on the streets. We’ve done that for living.

It was very sad… the poverty in Angicos. But there were the poorest people who used three little rocks in the clay pot to cook beans, potato and pumkin which were grown in the farms. Plant beans, corn, watermelon, watermelon seeds and clear the land… That’s our life… working… like this.

We went through many difficult things in life, you know? ! We had one baby per year… and we struggled… For us to go to work, we had to walk for three hours every week [sic] Many things lacked in Angicos that time.

There wasn’t electricity. There wasn’t running water. There wasn’t anything.

They were backward times, madam… and now I think it’s too forward. It was very dificult to go to school. There were a few schools.

THE 40 HOURS Meantime there came a new fact After the wonderful voice Tell we all now have a choice Then a teacher and a friend Educators in the end. Unexpected invitation Long awaited education. Lay in each and every building Likewise the winged education.

For everybody’s formation. Freire’s participation. A Jeep with speakers passed on the streets.

It was a Jeep. I remember it. With big round speakers, you know?

! Then someone spoke live, inviting people to enroll in school. Then I said we wanted to study, me and mom.

Then my father agreed and said: “Oh! I go there too! ” He joined mom and we went to school.

There came some girls for meetings and they said about Paulo Freire, 40 hours … I went to enroll and study at school. I didn’t know anything. The first class had Paulo Someone invited me to study.

I said: “I’ll go! ” Then they said there would be classes and a teacher would help the illiterate. When this stuff of schools came up, they went there at my home… and the people liked as classes started, you know?

! So, every night, they were crazy to go to school. After I got married as I was working on the roads from Angicos to Afonso Bezerra there came a lady called Maria Bezerra… then she called our attention… and, among us, with a book in her hands, she said there were schools here in the city… and we should consider them our schools.

Then we went there at night. We came and enrolled right on the road. I didn’t know anything.

Then I, foolish, as the others from the past times, was afraid of everything I was afraid of going to school. At 7 PM we took the book and the pencil and went to this house whose room served as classroom… we were so pleased to go to school. When my father was very tired, he said: “Go!

I’m not going today. ” As we got to school, the teacher went our home. “Come on, Mr Severiano!

Let’s learn it! If you leave one day back it’s harder to learn the other days…” Then he was convinced. When we were sat in the classroom, she (teacher) looked and said someone was missing.

“I’m gonna take him now! ” She went people’s home and insisted to make them go. “Come on, man!

It’s quick. You can go! ” She came affectionately, like this.

And we went on studying… Everyone in my group remained until the end, and as it ended we celebrated it with a party… The teachers liked us as much as we liked them, you know? ! She was very kind!

She didn’t treat us differently. As she arrived in classroom, she hugged everyone, black, white, poor, rich… she loved us all. That’s why we get emotional.

The classroom was lamp and candle-lighted… there were lamps and a great lantern that we called “lampião”. Each one of us took one chair to the school. At the end, there were many of us outside, you know?

! It looked like a celebration. We went there every night.

There was only one light generator in Angicos, you know? Then they brought some machines they called projector. And they turn them on and a movie passed on the screen, and we kept watching it.

We had books but we couldn’t read yet. We’ve been learning and we had everything for that. All we could take to know the alphabet, to learn it correctly.

At that time, the one who couldn’t read was a fool, you know? ! I learned to read and write my name.

In class, he (teacher) just wrote on the blackboard and told us to write the words, fill in “tile”, “brick”, these things. So he wrote the (first) letter and we filled in. They taught us the writing on the screen, you know?

! The words “brick”, “belota” and many other ones. They taught us letter by letter, and we followed them and learned them.

I knew neither the letter A. So there came this Paulo Freire’s project. Then they passed on the streets to enroll people, you know?

! And everyone did. There were Paulo Freire’s school everywhere in Angicos.

We learned through some objects, words in a little book. It showed the word “brick”, so there was a picture of a brick. “House”, and a picture of a house… and several words.

Classes were… At that time, they started speaking about craftwork, you know, made of clay, brick, how it’s made, how we can make a clay pot. Everything was in the film on the wall. The clay pots.

There was a crazy one who wanted to take the pots as they appeared on the wall. We laughed a lot. There were the words… he wrote on the board.

They were “belota”, “shoes”… and that’s how we learned them. Slowly, little by little. They were politicization classes, in which people knew about their rights.

These 40 hours were great for me, for all of us. I’ve learned to teach my name’s spelling. But these few months represented many, many years for me.

They were two months of classes. And they taught us to write “eye”, “sauce”, “people”. I liked that too much.

I just didn’t like because it lasted only two months. It was in 1963. It shouldn’t have ended because there were many illiterate people.

It encouraged people very much. My teacher’s name was Valquiria. She showed that film and told us to spell those old words: “chiquichique”, “brick” We spelled the words and then we kept saying them.

The classroom had about 20 students. I consider it a full class because… you know it appeared unexpectedly. I’ll never forget she (teacher) applied herself to make us write at least our names.

That’s what she applied her mind to. I liked most the classes on what my father already knew about. For example, the class about brick.

He could make it. He knew how to market it. He knew how much was to make it.

He knew everything about bricks. Then I loved because he could answer everything. Classes at that time had old words.

Words like “brick”, “tile”, “belota”, you know, the old words. Today, no one knows them anymore. “Belota”, he said.

Can you make a “belota”? And we made the “belota”. Do you know what it is?

It’s that stuff of the hammock. It’s suspended both sides of the hammock. I remember many classes because they used films and, as they appeared on the wall, they’re too difficult to forget.

The films passed according to the word studied. For example, the word “brick”. Then the film was on a man in a construction placing a brick on another brick.

They showed the film and then explained it they showed the images right on the board and then explained how it serves for. He said we could write anywhere, even on the ground. The classroom was just like here.

We’re all sitting in pairs two ones ahead and the other two behind. Then the teacher was in front of us writing the numbers on the blackboard and he asked us to say those numbers. And we said them.

If we knew them, we promptly spoke but if we didn’t know, he erased them for us to try them again. Before this school, I couldn’t even write my name because I have never atended any class. The hoe and the sickle had been our school… just farming.

I worked the whole day, I left home before sunrise. And when it arrives, I would go to class. PAULO FREIRE Paulo Freire, decent memory Wisdom and humble combined Must be always laid in mind Through his own belief of literacy Spread and teach the known democracy It shall never be abandoned Once it is all people needed To remember what has happened And the way it has proceeded Our cry, Lord, you can listen I remember well when Paulo Freire came here, you know?

! When he arrived at the town. It was a great joy for the people.

He came so gently. He hugged all students and spoke to them. Then he shook my hand and hugged me… Paulo Freire.

He was very, very polite. So, the politeness he had was taught to the teachers and then to us, you know? !

I remember everything. I remember everything at that time. Because all that’s been taught was something very useful something very… very well planned.

He planned everything very well. I remember his type. He was kind of bearded, you know?

! Sometimes, as a bearded man passes by, I use to say: “Look! He’s Paulo Freire!

” He was a wonderful man. He wouldn’t have died so early. Paulo Freire was a wonderful teacher.

He was thin. I thought he was a down figure but his voice was strong… He told us it is important for us to know our rights… to understand them… I remember my mother wrote a letter saying: “I’m not mass anymore, I’m a person! ” That came from what she learned there, you know?

! He just wished people to know their rights by the time of the military dictatorship. The military didn’t want people to claim their rights.

When Paulo Freire came here it was a time of… when we went to school. We walked holding a book. Our little books hidden under our shirts because they told no one should go to those classes or they would arrest us all once Paulo Freire was communist.

They asked if we liked Paulo Freire’s classes. “We do! We do!

” They said he was communist, but he wasn’t. When he has been exiled they said everyone who met him should also be arrested. Then people burned and buried books, the papers.

Everyone did that because we were all afraid. They burned the papers, everything… but the words remained. The seed had already been planted.

And it grew. I’ve put them on the yard and burned them. No one kept them you know?

! Because people disapproved Paulo Freire, and the school. But people didn’t know the benefits.

The good things, you know? ! He wasn’t communist.

He was a good teacher. I wanted to say to Paulo Freire… I wanted to thank him, to say thank you very much because you took my fear away. You made me confident… I can read thanks to God, first, and to Paulo Freire, second.

I thank them both, God and Paulo Freire. Thank you very much! For this opportunity that helped many ones… There isn’t anything more important than the knowledge.

WHAT MADE Afterall and in the end It was recorded in memory Grand and endless testamentary Of accurately even signing The people’s citizenship feeling Handling the paper and pen And ever defeat a sachem With no study, no instruction Even refuge or protection Of a strong right-hand henchman The most memorable moment, the most important one was the first days of classes. When we started them, you know? !

We’ve learned enough so that we could write and read everything right in the first days. It was much important! We were all hicks!

As the saying goes, we were all hicks but we’ve learned we also could be someone like the other people, right? ! I’ve learned a lot because I can write my name and some other words.

It was a seed that grew and gave me the knowledge I didn’t have before. I’ve learned. It was so remarkable, you know?

! The most important thing I’ve learned was to write my name. When Paulo Freire appeared, he said “Look, girls!

You’re going to write these letters. You’re going to learn reading and writing so that you can write letters to your boyfriends…” Paulo Freire used to say. Like reading and writing my name spelling, knowing the letters.

I didn’t know the letters in my youth. After 11 days I could write my name and I didn’t forget that anymore. He taught us to write mom’s name and others… Sorry!

I learned it and I can write my mother’s name: Maria das Dores de Andrade. He taught us to read, the alphabet… a, e, i, o, u, then the first syllables. He wrote our names and we followed him… it was very hard, but I thank God I learned and today I can write my name.

In the last class, the president, João Goulart, came for the closing then they said I could read, a kid could, and he called me there he took a pen and pointed to the newspaper… As I finished reading he said: What do you want to earn? Then I said: A handbag for me to carry my books to school. I think he was João Goulart… we were all there, and he arrived.

Then we hugged him, and he shaked our hands Pleased and happy. i understood many things, right? Because I couldn’t read anything And this was an advantage for me.

Hail Mary! It was very good! A school like that seems… I’ll tell you what… sent by God.

I required my documents and I could sign them not only stamp my fingerprint. People used to sign their documents with the fingerprint, you know. It helped me a lot… I’m literate.

I’m not that blind. It helped a lot, not only me but everyone studying there. There were many classrooms.

Some people didn’t know an “a” or “b”. My father liked that a lot. He was a quite old man, but he didn’t care about it.

He said “I want to learn how to write my name” and he did. So did Mom. They could vote too.

When there was election, we couldn’t vote. I learned to vote as I learned to write my name. I went to get the title at the registry office.

. . .

Then I started voting I still vote today. That time I didn’t know who the president was or deputy, senator, councilor, whatever. I knew nothing!

I was a complete hick. I knew nothing. But after Paulo Freire gave us those lessons I learned a lot and I knew who they were.

We had to fight for our rights. And that time we had none. And through education we had to meet our needs.

"What does the rich do with the poor? ” So I answered: “Just like a mosquito which sucks one’s blood while he’s sleeping” Paulo Freire insisted on the land hat God never gave it to us. Then the rich fence it, take possession of it and the small farm worker has nowhere to work no beans or corns to eat because the rich fence the land to raise cattle if there is a grassland on it.

Is that fair? ! To grow some mango, banana, but can’t eat them?

They never told me the meaning of “people”. I didn’t know what that was. But I knew that through Paulo Freire’s lessons We are the people.

They want us to learn and be like the others. They wanted the best for us. Brazil took the lead… the world turns on wheels you know?

They taught us that learning may turns us citizens everywhere. She told us to write on the blackboard: “I can read! ” Then I wrote it.

It was great! And we all cheered because each one wrote it. Many people evolved because they couldn’t vote and today they can.

Why? Because they studied in Paulo Freire’s school. I’ll vote until I die because I like it.

I’m too old but it’s not forbidden, is it? Because I like voting. I’m Brazilian!

To open people’s minds there was no experience like that so far. Then there came this chance and we could open our minds a little. After forty hours with Paulo Freire I learned to write required my documents to vote.

I couldn’t write. I’m so grateful because of these lessons Because of his willingness and interest dedicated to us that time when we learned what we didn’t know. If I saw Paulo Freire today I’d thank him so much for what he did.

Today I can read and write a little thanks to God, firstly, and secondly to Paulo Freire. THE LEGACY As the history reechoes It remains both the experience And the cognizance and sense It is really worth education Gift lives with signification Education is the only Having citizens to live freely Our future, solid ground For the learning we have found And, thus, reach the wanted freedom I have good memories about the lessons Sometimes I remember Paulo Freire. As I’m here I use to remember him.

They’re all good memories. I think I was nobody. And I’m someone today.

My name is far away overseas. It was important for me. I guess everyone was important because I learned not to fear things.

Education is the most important thing. Because if we can’t read and write we know nothing We only repeat what others say. And if we learn that, take some paper and read it.

We know even a document is signed. This experience was important Paulo Freire’s ideas opened our eyes. There were some people who didn’t know the vowel “a”.

I already knew “a”, “b”, “c”, “d”, “e”. There’s nothing more important than education. Knowing is the best thing in life… Education?

It’s everything in life Education is above all. God, health and education. If go somewhere and they tell me to write my name I do it.

At a drugstore, I can write everything, search for my medications, at the bank, everything. It’s completely changed. What would I do without those lessons?

Well, the person who can’t read or write is blind, you know? Knowing is good! Because the more we study the more we learn.

Being illiterate is very bad. You can’t even journey. If you go somewhere different and there is a sign you don’t know where you are, what is written on it.

Finishing illiteracy isn’t having another life. Because who knows nothing is like a walking blind who just walks whithout knowing where to go. The thing I admire most is education.

hose who can’t read or write know nothing What does that mean? They are dust! I’m a citizen!

I’m aware of my rights and duties. My classmates used to say “We don’t want to be mass. We want to be people knowing everything, citizens, knowing ourselves and what the others do.

” Because it opened people’s minds. hat time, elections were bustling, eventful. I reared my family and they all can read.

It represents all in my educational life so far. The importance of reading, knowing things I always taught this to my family. Yeah… those 40 hours transformed, or formed I don’t know… a whole family!

I’m glad my children can read. All 3 graduated high school. One of them works for Petrobras I want them to acomplish what I couldn’t do.

As my mother didn’t let us study. She thought her daughters souldn’t study and that was taught by her father. I used to say to myself: “A child of mine shall study no matter what happens.

" All my children studied and so are my grandchildren. I reared a grandson and I thank God I could rear him. Today he is a manager at the Caixa Economica bank in Apodi.

If I still had those lessons, I’d be a doctor. Because the way I was going… wasn’t it? I soon learned many things with him.

And soon I got more confident. I’m so glad with what I learned. And I guess they’re worth it because, besides I’m not a teacher I preach the word of God that is important and I read the Bible and teach it to the others.

If I had continued studying, maybe I’d have graduated at college. If I have continued studying, I could be another Anita, right? !

The little I learned wasn’t enough to make me better to get a better job… but if I have continued studying I’m sure I’d have gotten that. The best lesson I learned was to motivate my children to study. I learned that knowing is above all.

I learned a lot! They’re really worth it. I have a granddaughter who graduated at college.

She got it! A psychologist! I hope my grandchildren graduate and they have everything alright in their lives.

I think the greatest thing in life is to take child to the church to receive a graduation degree, you know? I’m so honored to have been Paulo Freire’s student. I first learned to teach my father and then I wish I was a teacher I wanted to be the teacher Eneide and I got it.

Professor Eneide. Graduated in pedagogy and public servant DATASHEET Passos Jr. Director and screenwriter Renata Jaguaribe.

Reporter and screenwriter Eduardo Mendonça Director of photography Amanda Freitas Producer and arts director Production assistants Higo Lima. Vanessa D'Oliviêr. Cinara Ribeiro.

Valeria Dantas Diego Farias Image editor Hailton Mangabeira. Carlos Zens Cordelist poet Soundtrack Ufersa Angicos Collaboration: Prof. Joselito Medeiros, Prof.

Rita Diana, Prof. Éder Jofre, Prof. Jacimara Villar Drvers: Carlos Antônio (1st and 3rd days), Raimundo Nonato (2nd day), Aldomario Marcos (4th day), Marcos Antônio (Angicos) Thanks: Geraldo Félix de Lima (Man weeding), Alexandre Gomes (Owner of the Mata Branca farm) Interviewed Soundtrack: Flores de Primavera (Carlos Zens), A Primavera, from "As 4 estações" (Vivaldi) with Asa Branca (Luiz Gonzaga e Humberto Teixeira).