Rio Maria

song of the earth

Plot

Far north of glittering Rio de Janeiro, the Rio Maria region of the Brazilian Amazon is a land of incredible natural beauty and unbelievable violence. In this book, Fr. Ricardo Rezende, a parish priest and worker for human and environmental rights, gives an eyewitness account of the struggles in the Brazilian rainforest that have made world headlines.Rio Maria is filled with memorable vignettes of a world and people that poignantly reveal a life lived amid the ever-present threat of death. Even as the rainforests are slashed and burned with impunity by wealthy miners and ranchers, so its human inhabitants - the poor farmers and indigenous peoples - are cut down if they stand in the way. One of the most compelling figures is a devout Catholic unionist and poet, Expedito Ribeiro de Souza, well-known to international human rights groups and a special friend to Rezende. Ultimately, it is Expedito's murder that spurs the people of Rio Maria to join together, at great personal risk, to put an end to the violence.