Before hosting the most important buildings of Brasilia, the Esplanade of Ministries housed an open field where descendants of slaves brought oxen to pasture.
Workers in the Free City (now Núcleo Bandeirante)), a workers district that erected Brasília in 1959
They were residents of the Mesquita Quilombo, settled in the area since the 18th century and played an important role – and little known – in the founding of the city.
After 272 years since its inception, the same quilombo is today threatened by the expansion of the capital and by the accelerated appreciation of the lands of the region – the target of a real estate interest that is partnered with former president José Sarney. Wanted by BBC News Brazil, the former president refused to talk.
"Quilombolas participated directly in the construction of Brasilia, but, unfortunately, they rarely appear in history as main characters," says researcher Manoel Barbosa Neres, author of the book in Quilombo Mesquita – History , Culture and Resistance and resident of the community, on the border of the Federal District with Goiás.
He says that the quilombo members helped to erect canteens, dwellings and dining rooms that have received the first wave of candangos, as the migrant workers who took Brasilia from the paper were known.
Every day, they packed carts and ox carts with fruits, vegetables, meat, milk and candies produced in the community to transport them to the construction sites when food production in Brasilia was zero.
Catetinho
Older residents report that, even before the arrival of the candangos, eight residents of the mosque helped build the Catetinho, a house designed by Oscar Niemeyer for President Juscelino Kubitschek to follow the work of the capital in 1956 And the women of the community worked at the residence as cooks.
According to the Technical Report on the Identification and Demarcation of Quilombo, published in 2011 by the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra), the inhabitants of Mesquita also participated in the construction from the factory of Saia Velha. capital.
Construction of Brasília caused Quilombolas to leave the land in the Federal District, according to Incra
One of the quilombolas working in Catetinho was the carpenter Sinfonio Lisboa da Costa, who died in 2015, at the age of 90 years.
Photo: Federal District Archives / BBC News Brazil
Costa used to say that he had hosted JK at home several times and helped him identify strategic points for the construction of the capital.
Honored by the Federal District Government in 2012, the carpenter lamented in the ceremony that the other quilombolas to accompany him in the works were dead. "They also had to be recognized, but they could not wait," he said.
Cycle of the gold
The origins of the Quilombo Mesquita date back to the gold cycle in the 18th century: the metal race led to the creation of several villages in the interior of Goiás – Santa Luzia, founded in 1746 by the Antônio Bueno de Azevedo. Enslaved blacks made up the majority of the region's population.
It is said in the quilombo that, with the decline of the mines, the Portuguese captain Paulo Mesquita decided to leave Santa Luzia and left a farm for three freed slaves.
Manoel Neres says that over time, others joined the community led by women – many of whom sought refuge and who, to go there, used Livestock routes linking Goiás to Salvador and Rio de Janeiro.
Marriages between pioneer residents and those who arrived were at the origin of four family trees. These four trunks cover almost all of the 1,200 families currently living in the quilombo, according to Neres.
– like the folias of Kings and the Holy Spirit – are the main events of the calendar of the mosque
Photo: Agência Brazil / BBC News Brazil
Construction of Brasília
Until the construction of Brasília, the community lived relatively isolated from the outside world. Most families were engaged in farming, raising and producing marmalade, marketed in Luziânia, a town created in Santa Luzia.
The main events of the village calendar were religious festivals, such as the revelations of the Kings and the Divine of the Holy Spirit.
With the inauguration of the capital in 1960, community routine began to change.
Manoel Neres says that, on the one hand, residents "have begun to have more access to elements of modern life, such as energy and the phone". The transfer of the capital facilitated the sale of food grown in the community and generated jobs for several quilombolas.
On the other hand, the village began to face previously non-existent problems, such as gun violence and drug trafficking. And the community started losing land.
A resident interviewed during the development of the INCRA report says that the quilombolas have abandoned areas in the Santa Maria area, in the current federal district, with "fear of the city that was arriving there."
"Our house was near the Navy, but there was land owned by the government, is not it?" Said another resident.
According to Manoel Neres, the movement of airplanes and soldiers on the eve of construction revived the trauma of the community during the Second World War (1939-1945), when residents were recruited by force in combat.
"Many ended up leaving places closer to the capital and taking refuge in the heart of the mosque," says the researcher.
Others were evicted for not being able to prove possession of land intended for the construction of satellite towns. "The territory of the quilombolas has not been taken into account in the demarcation process of the DFs," says the INCRA report.
After the construction of the capital, community lands were also coveted by foreigners.
Eight quilombolas helped erect Catetinho, the residence of JK at the beginning of the construction of Brasilia
Photo: IBGE / BBC News Brasil
"There was a lot of harbadment for the sale of properties, out of necessity, many residents ended up throwing them at ridiculous prices.
Often the lands acquired from the quilombolas were soon resold. One of these transactions brought to the territory the politician of Maranhão José Sarney.
According to INCRA's report, Sarney purchased two lands in the 1980s that had been expropriated from the community in the past. One of the lands gave rise to Fazenda Pericumã, which Sarney visited during the weekends while he was president.
In 2004, he sold the properties to Divitex Pericumã Empreendimentos Imobiliários, of which he became a partner. Another partner of the company is Antônio Carlos de Almeida Castro's lawyer, Kakay, who has as clients several illustrious politicians in Brasília.
Outskirts reach the mosque
In 1990, the urbanization of the region had an impetus with the creation of the city of Western City, subdivision of Luziânia that received a core housing.
Production of marmalade was one of the main sources of income of Quilombo Mesquita
With the expansion of the urban network, a low income condominium – Jardim Edite – was built in the area originally claimed by the quilombo.
Photo by Ana Carolina Fernandes / BBC News Brazil
In 2011, Incra excluded the housing complex from the demarcated territory.
There are also several sites and farms in the territory claimed by the community. According to Incra, a hundred non-Quilombola families lived in the area in 2011. Residents say that today the number is much higher.
Delimitation
After the 1988 Constitution determined the demarcation of the quilombos, many communities mobilized to obtain land titles.
In Mesquita, the first stage took place in 2006, when the Palmares Cultural Foundation (subordinate to the Ministry of Culture) recognized it as a remaining quilombo community.
Five years later, INCRA published the community's technical identification and demarcation report, defining its extension over 4,300 hectares – the equivalent of 4,000 football fields. According to Incra, the claimed area represents "only a part of the ancestral lands" of the community and has been delimited to guarantee the physical, social and cultural reproduction of the group.
The stage – not yet overtaken – began where non-Quilombola residents and others interested in the territory may challenge the report.
For the demarcation to be completed, it is necessary for the Presidency of the Republic to expropriate real estate in the territory and compensate the owners. It is only then that Indra can grant the community the collective and imprescriptible title of the land.
Photo: Agencia Brasil / BBC News Brazil
Of the approximately 3,200 quilombos already recognized in Brazil, just over 200 were titled. As in the case of the Mesquita, many processes are blocked by dead ends regarding the expropriation and compensation of non-quilombolas.
Reduction of the quilombo
The delimitation of the quilombo took place at the end of May, when the Board of Directors of INCRA issued a resolution authorizing the president to reduce the area of the territory to 971 hectares, ie 22% the area originally planned.
The announcement was heavily criticized by quilombolas badociations. According to the National Coordination of Quilombola Communities of Brazil (Conaq), the maneuver set a precedent for the reduction of other quilombos.
The resolution was also condemned by the federal public prosecutor's office (MPF), which recommended its repeal. According to the agency, the decision "completely ignored" the studies conducted by Incra himself during the identification of the quilombo.
The oldest house of Quilombo Mesquita; with the foundation of Brasilia, lands in the region
Last week, INCRA announced that it would abide by the MPF's suggestion and revoke the resolution as it would re-examine the case.
In a note to BBC News Brazil, INCRA said the reduction had been proposed by the Quilombo Mesquita Renovation Association, a quilombolas community organization.
The President of the Association, Valcinei Batista Silva, states that the reduction would unlock and support the demarcation of quilombo by the majority of residents.
According to him, the original intention of Incra to reserve 4.3 thousand hectares to the community has proved impractical, since the government does not have the resources to expropriate all the non-quilombolas living in the area.
In 2015, Sinfonio Lisboa da Costa (right) was honored for his participation in the construction of Brasilia
Silva states that, if the proposed reduction were applied, the quilombolas would maintain all the territories they occupy today. "It's a proposal that allows Incra to work, send resources for expropriation and no one will need to leave the land that belongs to him."
The former president of the badociation, Sandra Pereira Braga, claims that the current management proposal is not supported by the community and that it has been articulated "in collusion with businesses, farmers and speculators "interested in the territory.
"I do not doubt that there are powerful interests behind," he says. "The vast majority of the community is totally against the downsizing – that's what Incra would discover if she had consulted us before making a decision."
Braga quotes among those who would benefit from the reduction, Divitex Pericumã – a company that Sarney and Kakay as partners and would be, according to her, interested in the construction of luxury condominiums on the territory.
With the growth of Brasilia, many areas around the capital have been housed in high quality residential complexes. At 40 km from the center of Brasília and near a highway that gives access to the city, the Quilombo region would have great potential for such businesses, according to Braga.
An badistant from Sarney said that the former president would not talk about the case. Kakay stated that he had never been to the area and was not following the administration of the company, in which he said that he only acts as an "investor" partner".
In a note to BBC News Brazil, Divitex Pericumã's lawyer Empreendimentos Imobiliários, Orlando Diniz Pinheiro, said that the company had bought land in the area two years before the start of quilombo regularization and that she was "not aware". relative to the territory) ".
Objects in the historical collection of Quilombo Mesquita; president of the badociation says that the reduction of the territory would allow the demarcation
Photo: Agencia Brasil / BBC News Brazil
According to Pinheiro, the quilombolas have never inhabited areas belonging to Divitex Pericumã. He says that the company is questioning the inclusion of land in the area defined by Incra as ancestral territory of the community.
According to the lawyer, the land being demarcated "far exceeds the actual area of ownership of the mosque community". He says however that the company has never exerted any pressure on the public agencies for the quilombo to be reduced.
Pinheiro says that the land owned by the company is rented for grain planting, but that nothing prevents it from harboring real estate projects in the future – activity mentioned in the social purpose of the company.
"The families claiming the demarcation were all buyers of land in the area, not owners of quilombolas," says the lawyer.
The quilombola Sandra Pereira Braga disputes the claim and says that her ancestors have lived in the area for nearly 300 years.
Rank of candangos, the migrant workers who erected Brasilia; the city was built in less than four years
She says that the quilombo celebrated the announcement that INCRA would repeal the proposal to reduce the territory while the case was rediscussed, but that the community will continue to mobilize until 39. on the reverse side is final.
Braga says that, 58 years after the foundation of Brasília, the quilombo is still fighting for its role in the construction of the city to be recognized – and, more than that, for it to simply continue to exist in the outskirts of the capital.
"If it was not for the Mesquita, Brasilia would not exist," he says.
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 a été honorée pour sa participation à la construction de Brasília )
