The residents of Quilombo da Fazenda, in Ubatuba, on the north coast of São Paulo, fondly remember the time when they planted cassava and produced flour to be exchanged in the city. Despite living in isolation until the early 1970s, they had their livelihood guaranteed.
The same did not happen from the 1980s, when the area was annexed to the State Park of Serra do Mar and fishing and agriculture were prohibited for environmental reasons, leading Afro-descendants to the utmost poverty.
"What was supposed to improve, got worse in our lives," says Laura de Jesus Braga, 68, the current leader of the quilombolas. She says that despite being able to remain on the property, they encountered all sorts of restrictions on the quilombola way of life they had practiced until then.
The situation was only resolved at the end of last year when a historic agreement was signed with the State Attorney General's Office, guaranteeing them definitive possession of the land and ending a dispute that lasted a total of 139 years.