Tupã-Y Guaraní (Marçal de Souza), 1980
Photograph by Maria Thereza Alves, 1980, Aldeia Campestre, Mato Grosso do Sul.
The indigenous leader Tupã-Y Guaraní, also known as Marçal de Souza, stands on the boundary of his people's lands, pointing at the mountain to which their territory once extended. In 1983, his brutal murder was orchestrated by a Euro-Brazilian landowner who coveted those lands.
In 1978, when Alves was 17, she joined the International Indian Treaty Council in New York City, in order to learn how to make a national indigenous organization in Brazil, which did not exist at the time. In 1980, Alves traveled to the Campestre Reservation in Mato Grosso do Sul to meet and talk with Tupã-Y, a Guarani land rights activist, whom Alves considers her mentor. During their talk, he explained that UNI, União das Nacões Indígenas, of which he was the vice-president, had just been organized and said that Alves should work in the international field for indigenous rights.
For listening the original conversation between Tupã-Y and Maria Thereza Alves click the link below "Watch Video".
The English transcription was made by Tatiane Schilaro Santa Rosa of the conversation between Alves and Tupã-Y.