If you were planning to give up drinking, this is a good time. The purple bottle to the left is taquira, a strong liquor made from manioc or cassava. Known locally as mandioca, manioc is a staple food of he interior and with indigenous people. In town it can become macaxeira which is fried like french fries, or it can be ground into farofa, a dense flour that is spread on food. The one on the right says something about butter, but I’m not drinking that one either.
The nutritional benefits of the purple liquor are unproven, and generally not to be recommended. On the other hand, manioc itself is a regular feature of the Brazilian diet, and in the interior it is a basic food item (like potatoes and grain at the same time.
Another thing not to drink. It is popular to place fruits and sea creatures in bottles of alcohol. They seem to be made by cutting the bottle and resealing it with a woven cover over the cut. Perhaps, though, this is just my pragmatic notion. The crabs may have gotten into the bottle of booze some other clever way.
In an earlier post I described a visit to the artisan mask-maker Abel Texeira, A mask (here known as a careta) takes thousands of beads, sequins, tiny glass tubes and other decorations. Here is one of the shops where most of the supplies are sold.
There are higher quality decorative materials available in Sao Paulo, and at least one embroider (see post on Dona Tania Soares) gets materials there whenever possible. They are said to be expensive Japanese embroidery decoration, not found in Sao Luis.
The historic center has a thriving market for tourist trinkets and craft work. Some seem to have a “traditional” or even esoteric origin (Afro-Brazilian or indigenous spiritual entities), but many have a kitschy tourist quality full of with stereotypes of women and rural Brazilians.
This is another side of the tiny reggae plaza, with the slogan “Arroz, feijao, and ganja.”
This translates to the basic Maranhao reggae diet of “Rice, beans, and ganja (marijuana, maconha).”
Most nights there is an intense atmosphere of loud music and various herbal fragrances. The hotel where we normally stayed is nearby, so we could enjoy the reggae until 2:00 or 3:00 am.
Joelma travels to indigenous territories in Maranhao to bring back artisanal work to sell in this shop in the historic center. She is a constant source of information about the status of indigenous people in the interior, who are threatened by hunters, miners, the lumber industry, road construction, and land conflicts of all sorts. In the complex racial and ethnic culture of Maranhao, the indigenous peoples are both protected and threatened. Many live on what are referred to as the “remnants” or remains of quilombos. For centuries freed and escaped slaves escaped to remote regions, often in the deep forests, to communities whose remoteness gave them some protection the plantation owners and slavers. Many intermarried with the indigenous peoples who often supported and protected them. Today the quilombos and other small settlements often show this centuries-old ethnic mixture.
Unlike the United States where there were limited wild spaces for slaves to escape, the first Brazilian quilombos were often deep in the interior where the white authority could not easily reach them. Many were founded by escapees and free blacks at least as early as the 17th century. The largest of them, Palmares (in the current state of Alagoas) was said to have had a population of some 20,000. It lasted from 1605 until 1694 when, after several unsuccessful expeditions against them, they were wiped out by an army of mercenaries.
Some of the basket work from the indigenous settlements that Joelma represents. They are all woven from different varieties of palm, whose endless variety here provides natural materials that fill a myriad of uses for construction and practical items like baskets.