Francisco Alves Mendes Filho, known as Chico Mendes, came from a humble family from Northern Brazil and was a leader of rubber tappers and a born ecologist. He was born on December 15, 1944, in the Porto Rico rubber plantation in the municipality of Xapuri, Acre. This region, which belonged to Bolivians and Peruvians in the past, was the scene of great historical struggles between Brazilians and Bolivians and become part of Brazil after the defeat of the foreigners.
Chico Mendes had a poor childhood, similar to thousands of excluded native residents of Northern Brazil. He had always lived in a wooden house with an earthen floor. As a child, he became a rubber tapper. He learned to read and write at the age of 24 and wore his first suit at the age of 40.
Over the years, his ideal of loving and preserving the environment matured due to the experience and innate wisdom of a man of the forest. He felt obliged to embrace the cause and fight for the preservation of the Amazon, especially given the neglect of the great businessmen and farmers who, protected by government forces and guided by opulence and ambition, sent their employees armed with chainsaws, axes, machetes, and tractors to cut down trees and cause fires, without even becoming aware of the scale of their destruction not only upon the fauna and flora, but the world’s ecosystem.
Thus, Chico Mendes decided to fight for the preservation of forests. He became a union leader in 1975 and promoted awareness to the excluded and semi-enslaved population of the rubber plantations in the region. That same year, with the foundation of the Union of Rural Workers of Brasiléia, he was chosen as secretary of the union.
In 1976, he actively participated in the fight against deforestation by the empates, peaceful movements in which rubber tappers, rural workers, Indigenous peoples, and unarmed fishermen, with their wives and children, held hands in the middle of the forest or on the river banks to prevent the employees of farmers and rubber workers, who were armed with scythes, axes, chainsaws, and machines, to cut down trees. By these movements, rubber tappers and fishermen tried to neutralize destructors and raise awareness of the consequences of environmental destruction and devastation and the brutal actions of great businessmen. For many times, they succeeded in delaying the projects of farmers, giving union leaders time to develop political coalitions in favor of preserving forests, lands, and extractive reserves.
In 1977, Chico Mendes participated in the foundation of the Union of Rural Workers of Xapuri and was elected as councilor by the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB) party.
In 1979, in the City Council of Xapuri, Chico Mendes led a large discussion forum among union, popular, and religious leaders. This event caused him to be accused of subversion, tortured, and threatened with death.
In 1980, along with Luís Inácio Lula da Silva, Chico Mendes founded the Workers’ Party (PT). He held political rallies and popular uprisings, aiming to raise the workers’ awareness of the defense of their rights.
At the 1st National Meeting of Rubber Tappers, in 1985, Chico Mendes proposed the União dos Povos da Floresta (Union of the Forest Peoples), a document aimed at the union of forces among Indigenous peoples, rural workers, and rubber tappers to defend and preserve the Amazon Forest and extractive reserves in Indigenous lands. The claims and complaints about the devastation of the forest and the massacre of Indigenous peoples included in that document had great national and international repercussion.
Two years after this event, in 1987, representatives of the United Nations (UN) and from all around the world came to Brazil to verify the veracity of the complaints. Months later, Chico Mendes won the Global 500 Award.
The struggle for ecological preservation was constant in the life of the man of the forest who peacefully mobilized and raised awareness among both the rural society and national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
On the other hand, his perseverance in protecting the environment and the native species of the region aroused the hatred of farmers and companies that insisted on exploiting and devastating the forest.
During 1988, Chico Mendes was threatened with death and persecuted by people linked to political parties and clandestine organizations aimed at the uncontrolled exploitation of the region.
On December 22, 1988, after many conflicts, union leader and ecologist Chico Mendes was killed by criminals and became the 97th rural worker murdered for fighting for their rights and the environmental preservation of the Amazon region.
Chico, of all people!
He, who was one of the most passionate defenders of life,
A man as pure and as clean as the water of the
rain of the forest, which was his inseparable companion...
Lula da Silva
Recife, July 22, 2003.
sources consulted
CHICO Mendes. Fotos nesse texto. Disponível em: <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Chico_Mendes?uselang=pt>. Acesso em: 22 jul. 2009.
MARTINS, Edilson. Chico Mendes: um povo da floresta. Rio de Janeiro: Garamond, 1998. 108 p.
REVKIN, Andrew. Tempo de queimada: tempo de morte: o assassinato de Chico Mendes e a luta pela Floresta Amazônica. Rio de Janeiro: Francisco Alves, 1990. 348 p.
how to quote this text
MACHADO, Regina Coeli Vieira. Chico Mendes In: Pesquisa Escolar. Recife: Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, 2003. Available at: https://pesquisaescolar.fundaj.gov.br/en/artigo/chico-mendes/. Access on: month day year. (Ex.: Aug. 6, 2020.)