"Araruba, little church is a community of quilombo territory of the Creoles Heath located in northern Minas Gerais. My stay there was not long, but the nights I spent in Araruba were spells fluent transmuted into a set of charcoal drawings to " . Ventura, manuscript, 2008.

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,"As older residents report, since the mid-eighteenth century, blacks fleeing slavery began to settle on the banks of the Peroba Lagoon, which exists on the ebb of the middle Araquém stream. The occupation of this area was made possible by the existence of a swamp on the ebb of the aforementioned ribeirão, conducive to the proliferation of maleita, which made it unsuitable for whites and indigenous peoples.Over time, many other black fugitives headed for the area, increasing the population which, at the end of the 19th century, was 38 family members.

Occupied by several farms, the community of Brejo dos Crioulos is fragmented into nuclei, bringing together family trunks on land acquired during the “time of division”: Araruba, Araquém, Cabaceiros, Conrado, Caxambu, Serra D'água and Furado Seco. Discriminated and pejoratively stereotyped, the residents of Brejo dos Crioulos are part of the most socially and politically excluded portion of the population in the North of Minas.

According to residents, there were years of persecution and terror, when entire families suffered violence and were often forced to hide in the woods surrounding their homes. They fled to other places, not to be killed by those who coveted their lands. Since that time, many relatives have spread across the entire country. They fought in this way, like their quilombola ancestors, to keep themselves alive and free. The community territory, cut up by farmers, is still coveted mainly by real estate speculators, who continue to threaten the residents who remained. But the quilombolas of the middle Arapuim are seeking to retake their ancestral territory by legal means and, since 2003, they have been waiting for the definitive title of their lands from Incra."

Source: https://www.cedefes.org.br/projetos_realizados-127/

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Here in this corner are 9 (nine) of the drawings born in a night in Araruba (2008), a drawing resulting from my meeting with Zé Preto da Araruba in Varzelândia (2007), as well as 3 (three) small studies that inspired painting Caxambu in Montesclarense Night (2008).