Vozes sem Terra (Landless Voices: The Sight and Sounds of Dispossession) is an online archive that documents the works of the landless movement of rural workers in Brazil. Known as the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra or MST, these fifteen million workers have been formally organized since 1984. The web site, available in Portuguese or English, contains three major sections: the first contains expressions of the landless themselves (art, music, photography, sculpture, and children's art); the second is an archive of media about the MST including over 100 resources and tools for research: photographs, films (streamed video), statements by intellectuals and artists, academic papers, lectures, a bibliography, maps, glossary and tables; and the third part is entitled Research Tools and divides the themes related to the landless movement into 25 cultural categories. Some of these categories include culture, history, the struggle for land, encampments and resistance, and settlements. Dr. Else R P Vieira is the Project Director & Academic Editor of The Sights and Images of Dispossession: The Fight for the Land and the Emerging Culture of the MST. Her present post is in the area of Latin American Studies (with special reference to Brazil), at Queen Mary, University of London.
Type of Material:
Media archive
Recommended Uses:
This site may be used for research, independent study, or as part of a Latin American Studies curriculum
Identify Major Learning Goals:
Learners will develop knowledge of the landless movement in Brazil as well as insights on Brazilian culture and language.
Target Student Population:
Students of Latin American Studies with special emphasis on Brazil and students of Brazilian Portuguese.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
The site is bilingual thus accessible to all who speak Portuguese and English.
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
Vozes sem terra is one of a kind in its attempt to document the struggles and the realities of the landless worker in Brazil. Multiple points of view are taken into account, allowing the learner to hear the "voices" of the workers themselves, to read scholarly works written about them, and to examine bibliographies, texts, video and audio documents about their conditions. This site can serve as a springboard for a thorough study of the question of landlessness. It is comprehensive and unique.
The section entitled Emerging Culture of the MST is subdivided into Sight and Sound. On the "Sights" side, there are three films which include English translations. These short films give a thorough introduction to the impact that landlessness has on the workers who struggle for a better life. They are accompanied by a collection of murals that depict the iconography and symbols of the landless movement, 165 photographs and a moving collection of childrens' posters. On the "Sounds" side, there is a collection of children's compositions entitled "The Brazil We Want", whole music CDs, poems, essays and song lyrics. In the section entitled Studies, Statements and References, there is a collection of photographs documenting the landless workers by world-renowned Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado.
This site makes superb use of media to reach a wide variety of learning styles and audiences. It cross references its resources on the various pages so as to give the user a more complete portrait of the worker's reality. One can take a cultural, historical, political and/or scholarly approach to the topic, simply by focusing on particular resources and the various cultural themes,
organized by Dra. Else R P Vieira.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
While this site should become an essential resource for advanced Brazilian Portuguese studies programs, it can be as useful for scholarly work in Latin American Studies, Latin American History, and the study of landless movements worldwide. The graphic images alone will stimulate classroom discussions and debate. The music and art produced on the movement can be studied as their own genres. The archive can be used to enhance the appreciation and understanding of classic Brazilian literature, art and cinema. Students could construct entire research projects simply using the vast number of resources on this site.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
This site is very easy to use. A great deal of thought has been given to the organization and categorization of artifacts in the collection. Each item has a resource identification number and there are cross-references when a given item appears in various parts of the collection. Artifacts are classified by media type. All file sizes are noted. The plug-ins needed are clearly marked. Copyright information is explicit and all authors are duly identified and acknowledged.
The translation of the site into English is effective. It increases the accessibility of the site enormously.
Creative Commons:
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