EU MARCHAREI na tua luta!:a vida de Elizabeth Teixeira

Abstract

Elizabete tells us that, while her husband, João Pedro, was alive, she did not enjoy the militant life he led. She was not against it, but she did not easily accept giving up the small pleasures she desired and that were stolen from her by the struggle. Elizabete could not accept seeing João Pedro taking long walks on Sundays, after lunch, to meet with peasants from other farms, sometimes very far away. She would have liked to see him resting in a hammock after lunch, taking advantage of Sunday afternoons to rest from the week's work, or simply to watch time pass. But João Pedro did not listen to her, he put on his sandals and went to meet his destiny as a peasant leader. Many times, she recalls, João Pedro asked her if she would continue her struggle, because he felt that the latifundio was tightening its siege around him. But she always kept quiet. The week he was murdered, he asked her again: "Elizabete, if I die, do you promise to continue this journey?" Once again, she did not answer him. On the day he was murdered, upon seeing his lifeless body on the cold stone, his face still dirty from the dirt from the road mixed with his martyr's blood, Elizabete looked straight at her husband and said: "João Pedro, from today on, I will march in your fight!" Even today, at over seventy years of age, Elizabete remains faithful to her oath to fight for agrarian reform to happen in this country.