"The suitcase was a sack, and the padlock was a knot." Northeast Brazil, raw and unfiltered.

I begin by making a correction. The year of the UBES reconstruction meeting was 1983, in the month of April. Relying too much on my memory and not doing any research led me to make this mistake. Having been alerted by a reader, the correction has been made.

But the memories of those days are still vivid in my mind. Being from the Northeast and coming from a time when the region was looked down upon by most people from the Southeast and South, that man with a briefcase inside a bag tied at the "mouth" with a rope, was the very image of my people, and this doesn't embarrass me, it makes me proud to be from the Sertão, where Raso da Catarina is not just a piece of arid land, but a place where people I know live, from whom I still learn today, the strength of being a Sertanejo (inhabitant of the Sertão).

Shortly after leaving the snack bar, we headed straight to the boarding area, where the Cometa bus would take us to the city of Campinas. You see, even the bodywork of that vehicle was something new to me. It seemed to be made of aluminum. That's because the company didn't paint the entire body, and that's why it gave that impression. At least to me.

I was truly stunned to see perfect roads, vegetation I'd never seen before, lining the road from São Paulo to our destination. I felt a mixture of joy and anger. I wondered why they had paved roads everywhere, while ours had barely received improvements in years and were dirt roads, with stones everywhere.

When we arrived in Campinas, we were taken to a school building. I don't remember the name or the street where it was located, much less if it still exists. I searched for images online, but I didn't find anything similar. But some things are still in my memory. It was painted blue. To enter, there were some steps; it was quite large. The bathroom became communal after the first day. Whoever arrived first went in, regardless of gender. There were so many of us, from all over Brazil, that it became inevitable that waiting lists formed. And that's how I discovered what cold is. Campinas was freezing for the people from the Northeast, while the group from the South walked around in t-shirts.

We found a room with mattresses and immediately barged in, putting up a sign saying that the Bahia delegation was there. And there were only four of us! Then other delegations started arriving. It was interesting and made us laugh. When people looked at us from the Northeast, nobody stayed. And we enjoyed it at first. Then it got annoying. It was really discrimination. So, when others tried to enter, we would immediately shout, "It's occupied. There are no more vacancies." Until a delegation from Caxias do Sul, hearing this, asked to stay with us because there were no more vacancies at the school.

There were three girls and about five boys. I think we accepted because the girls were very beautiful. And during those days I became friends with one of them. As the days went by we became inseparable, even at night. No, nothing happened, just the friendship of those days. We became confidants about the rejections we saw against each group. She, being "square," just like me and my friends, we were like aliens in that environment.

The meeting took place in a sports gymnasium in the city. I found photos from those days online. And in one of them, they announced the presence of the leader of the PLO - Palestine Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat. My expectations were very high. I was going to see a figure from the left with global influence. And that afternoon, on a day I don't even remember which one of the weeks it was, I saw that person enter the stage. He sat in an armchair wearing his black and white keffiyeh (turban) that had become his trademark. The interesting thing is that every time I saw him on TV, I remembered that day.

The political struggle for space showed me, even back then, that these struggles are resolved before we even get there. It was a lesson for this country bumpkin. What shocked me then now fuels my life experience.

At times, I was so tired during the day that I felt drunk. But that was just from being awake for so long.

In the end, we discovered that the tickets that were supposed to be given to us by the PCB – Brazilian Communist Party – group, hadn't arrived. Despair set in for some. I decided to call those who wanted them, and I went to a street corner with a traffic light and started asking for help. Actually, begging for money. We managed to collect enough for snacks, but not for anything else. We pressured one of the people from São Paulo responsible for the delegations to resolve this problem, one of many others in the same situation. We went to the city hall. The mayor at the time was José Roberto Magalhães Teixeira. We went there for two days. And the guy wouldn't see us. We decided to camp out at the entrance of the City Hall. That's when the guy decided to talk to us. He spoke, he promised, but nothing was resolved.

It was already a weekday and we were still at school with nowhere to go. There were several delegations still there, trying to find a way out. One morning, after returning from breakfast at a nearby bakery, as I climbed the stairs I learned that a Globo Campinas crew was there. Even back then they were giving us trouble. We moved away so no one would be filmed. Minutes later, panic gripped several people. Some crazy person, one of those irresponsible types you find on the left and the right, had decided to relieve themselves in a room. Someone said, “We’re screwed. They’re filming and it’s going to be on the midday news.”

At that moment, in an instant when one doesn't think about the act, I went to the room where a reporter, a cameraman, and another person were with them. The guys were about to start recording, and I asked them not to. The journalist said he was doing his job and arrogantly smiled and told them to start recording. I then stood in front of the camera. He started recording. I saw no other alternative to the situation. I lowered my pants and showed them my backside. And there I stood, saying that if they continued recording, they would have to show this image. The students who were at the door mustered up courage and started shouting at them. "You didn't report on the meeting, now you want to come here to destroy us?", "Get out, get out..." That's what was heard.

We kicked the team out of the school. And even today, I'm angry at the person who messed up and we had to clean it up.

Have you read "Towards the UBES Reconstruction Meeting in Campinas"? If not, take this opportunity to do so, because next week the third article will be published, recounting the Matutos delegation's visit to the UBES Reconstruction Meeting in Campinas, São Paulo.

Sera o, “Things went wrong at the end of the UBES reconstruction meeting”.