Nilda's Story...

I met Nilda within the first week of being in Terra Prometida on my third trip to Brazil, which was in October of 2004. She had six children, four who lived at home, and a husband whose music was unbearably loud and whose drinking was outrageous.

My mother had bought a lace shirt from her several months ago and I knew we wanted her on our side. I didn’t think it would be very difficult, but then again, I didn’t really know her.

Two of the leaders of the community, Elení and Eliane, and I had her daughter Erika fetch her. We were all sitting around the kitchen table when she came in. But she would not pass the entranceway to the house. And when I or the other women spoke to her, she kept her head bowed down and mumbled her words. At that point, I couldn’t understand a word she was saying.

That day we asked her if she would like to make her Renda (lace work) to sell in the United States. She was overcome with joy, but would never have let a hint of it show on her face at this time. Instead, she went directly back to her house and started working away…we hadn’t talked about what to make yet, but she went right at it…whatever that was.

A few days after this proposition, Elení, Eliane, and I asked her what she thought about teaching this lace work to a group of four women from the community. With her eyes on her feet, she replied that she could try, but that she didn’t know how she would do. She had never taught anyone besides her daughter before.

The following week Elení, Nilda and I got a ride two hours into the interior to where Nilda grew up. We gathered materials to begin the renda making course, which entailed setting out on foot in the late afternoon and returning with seven sacks chock full of leaves just as the sun hid behind the dry landscape. We also spent the following morning looking for 400 needles from a specific type of cactus that had natural cue-tips at the top. We ate and slept at Nilda’s brother and sister-in-law’s home with their twin boys, who loved hearing my funny accent and giggled while I red them a children’s books. In the morning, we visited her parents who kept telling me to “Come mais! Come mais!” “Eat more! eat more!” Later, we cleansed ourselves in a mucky pond…accompanied by much laughter.

Nilda began saying my name and although I still couldn’t understand her mumbled language, she began speaking to me and catching my eyes as she spoke.

Our Renda course began the following Monday. We were all a bit nervous. Yet, by the second day, we heard reports of Nilda speaking in front of all of them and having more patience than she ever imagined she had. The women were all frustrated, yet I witnessed laughter and singing, and words comforting each other through the learning process.

After one week of the course, the women leaders of the community led a visit to neighboring communities to share their stories, struggles, and achievements. There were about fifteen members of the community who joined and in each place they went, many more were listening. Nilda stood up in front of about fifty people and said:

I’m illiterate and I don’t even know how to write my name, but I know my craft. No one else in Terra Prometida knows what I know and I will teach these women how to do it also. With help, I will be a strong force. With this, we will make our community grow strong.

The morning I left for the States, Nilda came prancing in our house, right to the kitchen. She was wearing the renda shawl she had just made. She stood tall, chest out, butt swaying back and forth, Brazilian style, and gave us a fashion show….so proud of her work and becoming proud of who she was.