Noiva do Cordeiro became a myth and everyone talked about us, without having seen us.
Everyone said we were whores.
That's why we decided to show our face, because we lived completely isolated.
In the hills of Brazil, a one and a half hour drive from the city of Belo Horizonte, you'll find Noiva do Cordeiro.
A large part of the week mainly women work here,
the men only come home for the weekend.
The women grow vegetables, potatoes and beans for their own consumption...
...and red peppers for sale.
They run the village and do everything together.
Many jobs that are important in the outside world, are done by women here.
For example, president of the association, or secretary.
This is very different from the politics in this country, which is mainly dominated by men.
In Noiva do Cordeiro the men are considered to be stupid, because they are guided by women.
I don't believe that, we are no different from others.
I think we are even more progressive then men elsewhere.
I think women are very free here.
The women are free and not owned by anyone.
They decide for themselves.
The story of Noiva do Cordeiro begins in 1890.
The young Catholic Maria Senhorina is married off to a man she despises by her parents,
and she decides to go away with her lover: Chico Fernandes.
At the time, this was a big scandal.
She was rejected by her own family and Chico's family.
She was excommunicated by the Catholic Church, to the fourth generation.
She came here, to the end of the world, and founded her family, totally isolated.
It was often intense, but they say she was very happy.
It did not matter to her, she just wanted love.
But in 1950 Noiva gets a visit from Anisio Pereira.
The then 42-year-old pastor lays his eyes on the 16-year-old Delina,
one of Senhorina's grandchildren.
They get married, Delina gives birth to a child every year, and Pereira founded a church.
He was a Baptist and he founded his own church, called Noiva do Cordeiro.
The church of Priest Anisio was very strict for the people, for believers and especially for women.
He was extremely masochistic.
The church and religion are always machistic and his religion was extremely masochistic.
The man is superior to the woman.
We were not allowed to use contraception.
We had to fast and weren't allowed to eat for two days a week.
You had to go to church every day, even when you were pregnant or you were breastfeeding.
It was difficult.
You could not cut your hair, you couldn't use any make-up, your had to cover your legs...
... and still we had a lot of trouble.
We had to pray all day.
Really.
We started at nine o' clock and we were done at four o' clock in the afternoon, so it was the whole day.
We had to pray four times a day and therefore it was difficult for people to...
...find work outside the community.
The unhappiness and poverty grew
The residents rebelled.
We became more critical, especially my mother.
It wasn't a shock, it didn't go fast.
It went gradually, we slowly discovered more and more.
Why do only we go to paradise?
There are so many people in the world, why are we the only ones going, how is that possible?
That's how we thought about it back then.
That was a crazy idea.
That is why we left the church.
After we left the church there were so many possibilities.
People started drinking, they started listening to music,
they did everything the church had forbidden them before.
Many got lost a bit lost in the world.
That is the moment Delina made a proposition
She brought the people together and said:
let's do it together, let's plant together.
You can invest money if you're able to.
Those who aren't able to invest money can invest labour time.
And that's what we did.
There was no hunger anymore.
Delina is the matriarch of the community, she is the heart of the community.
She is the source of inspiration for how we live here.
Eventually the church got broken down and that was the end of religion.
The priest had no say anymore.
This doesn't only affect life within the community,
but it also effects life outside of it.
First Noiva do Cordeiro was excluded because we were evangelical,
this region is mainly Catholic.
At that time evangelism was seen as something bad.
After the end of the church were the prejudices only got worse,
because we didn't have a religion.
Being evangelical was bad, not adhering to any religion was even worse.
That's why our community became even more excluded.
The prejudices were absurd.
We were afraid to go to town alone.
I never went to town alone.
The people there treated you as an infected person.
It felt like I had a scary illness.
We had many problems at school.
Often the lesson was stopped so they could talk about my family, about our mother.
They asked: does your mother have multiple partners?
Do they have sex with all men?
They said those kind of things, it was very insulting.
Very insulting.
I think that's why we are so connected, we had to be strong.
We had to love each other and that's what happened.
The community thinks it's important to take care of each other, to do that together,
both mentally and financially.
A good example is the story of Erick, who found out that he was attracted to men,
which often causes problems in Brazil.
When I discovered that I was homosexual I felt a lot of pressure.
We didn't know anything about it, I didn't even know that this existed...
...and I didn't know any other homosexuals in the community.
The possibility of being rejected by the community was frightening.
When I saw his grief -
He had lost the will to live even though he was surrounded by the happiest people on earth.
He felt isolated, lonely, depressed.
- I was angry with myself.
I felt insensitive, why didn't I see this before?
I discovered what preconceptions are and what they can do to someone.
We wrote a theatre play, that seemed like a good idea.
We wrote a theater piece to reflect on ourselves...
...and to analyze ourselves.
That worked very well.
From then on, there were no prejudices about this anymore in the community.
I think that's Delina.
It doesn't matter to her, she changes the whole community for the happiness of a single person.
That is Noiva do Cordeiro.
People from outside often think that we are feminists and that we rule over the men.
We do not see it like that.
Sometimes I speak with people from other communities and I notice they don't see women as human beings.
They objectify them.
I feel a deterioration in the human.
I think that's what it is: men are not more than women and women no more than men.
But that is not the case.
Here they are equal.
The men respect the women and vice versa.
We really see it as gender equality.
I think people from outside have this image of us because they are not used to this.
We complement each other and we are different.
That doesn't make us better or worse, we are the same as any other human.
What I think is most important about this community, is that we are united.
We love each other.
We love, whatever happens.
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