The theology of the hoe in the hinterland of Alagoas: peasants, pastoralists and grassroots communities in the context of the transition to the New Republic, 1982 to 1990

Abstract

This article analyzes the experiences of critical and reflective education developed by the Catholic Church's popular pastoral work with peasants and social movements in the countryside in the context of the transition to the New Republic, between 1982 and 1990. Pedagogical activities led by rural workers, missionaries, friars and nuns, whose trajectories reveal a history of religious, popular and political resistance, based on constitutional and humanistic principles. The time frame began in 1982 with the participation of landless rural workers from the region in the Rural Seminar of Paraíba, a pedagogical, methodological and evangelizing practice fostered by the Theology of the Hoe which, in turn, was associated with the theological, political and social foundations of Liberation Theology. This was extended to 1990, when representatives of rural communities began to occupy rural workers' social organizations, such as the Rural Union of Inhapi, in the hinterland of Alagoas, in northeastern Brazil. The pastoral work led to the formation of religious and lay leaders who began to question the social and political reality, as well as to create social organizations and strategies for access to fundamental rights that had not yet been achieved in the region, such as access to land.