Hello friends, I left Cordisburgo in the State of Minas Gerais two days ago and headed for the west to reach the Andes and follow the Inca Routes, completing the first stage of ‘Round the World on a Bike’

My friend, the seaman Amyr Klink, said something I love quoting: “The worst shipwreck is not setting off”. Fortunately, I have passed that stage.

I chose to leave from Cordisburgo because it is the land of my ancestors, the land of the greatest Brazilian writer Guimarães Rosa, the site where the Maquiné Caves are, besides being the land of the pumpkin. And nobody would better describe this small town encrusted in the inland area of Minas Gerais than Guimarães himself:

I believe my life is not properly eventful. [I lead] a completely normal life.

I was born in Cordisburgo, a not very attractive village, but for me, of great importance. My town is typically Minas, Brazil from the inside, the rocky hill, the coconut water! Cordisburgo is just a small inland town, behind the mountains in the middle of Minas Gerais. No more than just a place, but all of a sudden so beautiful: there the Maquiné Cave is revealed, the wonder of the fairies.
The place used to be called Vista Alegre, before father João de Santo Antônio erected a temple for the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in that geographic mystery the hamlet was formed and was baptised “Burgo do Coração”(borough of the heart) . Nothing but Heart. I had never seen heavier or more beautiful rainfalls. And those born there will have to carry all along their lives the magical conception of the Universe. Besides, in Minas Gerais, I am Mineiro. And this is what matters, because when I write I always feel I am being transported to this world, Cordisburgo. And this small inland world, this original world full of contrasts is a symbol for me, I would go so far as to say that it is a model for my Universe. Therefore, the Germanic Cordisburgo, founded by Germans is the heart of my Latin-German empire.

I don’t like to talk about my childhood. Those were pleasant days but crowded with adults disturbing us, butting in, making remarks, asking questions, ordering and commanding, spoilsports. Looking back to my childhood days, I see an excessive number of adults, all of whom even the beloved ones, behaving like an invading army. I think that there are too many adults in the life of a child. I was spiteful and a permanent revolutionary then. I was already short-sighted and neither me nor anyone else had noticed it. I liked isolation, studying alone and playing Geography: entrapping ants in islands, which were rocks placed in a shallow pool of water with sticks for bridges where the ants would cross, putting snares to catch birds and then letting them fly away: wonderful. I would pull corn cobs pretending they were oxen pulling a cart. It is a pity I had no paint to pull a green ox. The stream of water flowing from the well used by the washerwomen was transformed into the Danube or the São Frnacisco depending on their route, which I changed twice a day, with all their curves and the towns marked by pieces of wood I collected at Nhô Augusto Matragas backyard. One day I will write a short treaty on toys for quiet boys. If there is imagination, it can well be a good school.

My father was a shopkeeper, a very severe person. When I was a boy he used to take me with him to his hunts. I saw the game and shouted to him. He came running and the animal escaped. One day he discovered that I shouted on purpose to give the animals time to escape, and he never took me with him again.

When I was a little boy I thought I was rich. In Cordisburgo I was. But when I needed to be rich…where was it? Good days, in fact , only started when some isolation was conquered, with the safety of locking myself in a room. I lay on the floor and imagined stories, poems, novels, with everyone I knew plying roles.”

Organised by Neuma Cavalcanti – do IEB (USP)

Kindly offered by Calina Guimarães (Museu de Guimarães Rosa

To know more about Guimarães Rosa:

www.cursointegral.com.br/
www.tvcultura.com.br/resguia/literatu/guirosa.htm
www.cce.ufsc.br/~neitzel/literatura/
www.medicina.ufmg.br/cememor/rosa.htm
www.guimaraesrosa.pucminas.br
cespuc@pucminas.br

I left Cordisburgo blessed by the summer rain. I chose to ride along narrow roads, preferably unpaved, and I arrived in Pontinha. In some stretches the roads were flooded. Only a few inches of the wheels of the bike were out of the water. During the day there was rain and sunshine. The landscape becomes even more beautiful with the sun shining on the raindrops on the vegetation.

Pontinha is a village formed by the heirs of the legendary slave Chico Rei, and still preserves the same traditions as in Africa. Nothing bad for someone looking for history…

Antonio Joaquim Barbosa Mascarenhas wrote in 1975 a short passage about Pontinha. Through Mr. Carlos and Mrs. Eurisa, community leaders, I had access to the text and a variety of stories.

Researcher Agripa de Vasconcelos tells us about how the Congo family was captured:

While they were enjoying a party to celebrate their victory in a battle, the kingdom of Galanga, was surrounded by Portuguese slave hunters, who captured four hundred people, among men, women, children and soldiers, including King Galanga and his son Muzinga.
They were brought to Brazil on board of the Madalena. Following the rules imposed by the Vatican, the Portuguese could not transport pagans in their ships. So, hurriedly, they sent for the priest André Paiva, who baptised every man giving them the name of Francisco and every woman, Maria. During the trip, due to navigation problems, around two hundred and fifty of these people were thrown to the sea.
Fifty of these slaves were taken to Ouro Preto by Major Augusto de Andrade Góis and his son Eleutério. Before long, realising the great power Galanga had over his people, Góis decided to rename him Chico Rei.
These slaves were kept together and after the abolition of slavery, some fifteen of them left Ouro Preto in the direction of Diamantina, attracted by the diamond mines, and ended up in Pompéu around 1780. Because they were Catholics, their chief looked for the local priest, Father Moreira, for advice. He told them to buy six hundred ‘alqueires’ (1 alqueire = approximately 272 acres) of land in the region. The land would belong to the family, but they could never sell it

Today the village has around 900 inhabitants – all of them descendants of the slaves that came from Congo. The small village is proud of their women, who never married a man outside the community, which is quite peculiar in ethnic terms. The deeds of the land got lost and today their ownership relies on another occupation law.

Unhappily, very few of these people still cultivate the memory of their ancestors. They have economic problems and live in poor housing. There are very few jobs available: they collect worms to sell to the fishermen, wok in the Eucalyptus plantations, in crystal mines, slate quarries, in the farms or have their own crops and cattle.

The place is famous for the Congado, a ritual and dance they have inherited from their father land. According to Mr. Carlos, there are no set days for the festivities, but they are more frequent in July and October.
From Pontinha I came to Papagaio (the biggest producer of slate stone in Brazil, only second to France). The journey was on unpaved roads in the hot sun. In the morning I reached Lagoa Dourada and then rode past a huge eucalyptus plantation, where all the roads looked exactly the same, demanding the use of the compass. There, I suffered my first fall and hurt my leg. It was then that I realised I had left my first-aid kit behind. I wrapped the wound , and to my surprise, after a few miles, I saw a notice at the entrance of a farm that read: “Fazenda Dr. João”. Dr. João, a doctor from Belo Horizonte, who had arrived there just a few minutes before, was heaven sent. He cleaned and bandaged the wound, gave me some ice-cold water and some mangoes.

From this point, I will go to Serra da Canastra, to the place where the São

Francisco River first springs from the soil.
A big hug and see you in my next adventure!