Dr. Pinheiro, a permanent member of the movement “Los Sin Tierra”, of Brazil as well as the Union Internacional de Trabajadores de la Alimentación (UITA). He is a founder and member of the foundation JUQUIRA CANDIRA and various other NGOs. He visited the community of Santa María Yaviche as part of his 2019 tour “Biopoder Campesino y el Consumidor Agroecológico” where he spoke with small subsistance farmers and students of the Bachillerato Integral Comunitario(BIC) and Centro de Estudios Universitarios Xhidza(CEUXhidza), while doing agro-ecological demonstrations.
The objective of Pinheiros visit, according to Leticia Galván a member of SURCO AC, is to desiminate an agro-ecological form of production, and revalue the role and importance of campesinos; small farmers who practice agriculture mostly for subsistence. Pinheiro put much emphasis on the fact that Mexico is the only country in Latin America where the lands are still in the hands of campesinos; whereas in other countries it is held by large landowners and companies. Pinheiro enjoys visiting Mexico because he can talk to the campesinos that work the land, and can impact the way that they do their work to make it more sustainable. In this way it does not damage peoples land and health, and does not continue to increase the wealth of transnational companies through the purchase of agrochemicals.
Pinhiero came to share his agro-ecological techniques, and to help people understand that it is cheap, easy, and that it can be done with the materials on hand. In Santa Maria Yaviche he gave a training and a talked to the students from the BIC and CEUXhidza. Afterwards he held a conversation with campesinos through a dialogue open to the entire community, with the presence of community and municipal authorities.
During the demonstrations the participantes worked with different techniques and the floor was always open for people to express questions and work directly with the problems that people faced in their plots of land.
Friday the 5th and Saturday the 6th of July there will be an agro-ecology workshop in the city of Oaxaca. For this workshop organizations that work in agro-ecology and campesinos were invited. This space is also to provide continuity to the workshops that have happened on earlier tours through Mexico, with the idea that the people can express what went well for them, what failed, or what was missing.
El Consejo Agroecológico de Oaxaca, which is made up of 10 organizations and collectives from Oaxaca points out that it is an enormous commitment to invite Dr. Pinheiro, beacause it implies that they must apply what they have learned and show the results during the next visit.