GUERREIRAS EMPODERADAS CULTIVANDO E APRENDENDO Terra e resiliência

This booklet presents the trajectory of the group Guerreiras Empoderadas Cultivando e Aprendendo (GECA), formed by quilombola women from Nhunguara in the Vale do Ribeira, who strengthened their community’s food sovereignty and resilience during the Covid‑19 pandemic by reviving traditional cassava cultivation and flour production practices. It situates GECA’s experience within the broader history of quilombos in the Vale do Ribeira, highlighting how ancestral agricultural knowledge, collective organization, and the struggle for land rights underpin the preservation of the Atlantic Forest and the maintenance of quilombola ways of life. Combining narrative, popular education language, and visual storytelling, the publication describes how GECA women creatively articulate ancestral expertise with new technologies, adapting traditional techniques such as the coivara system and cassava flour ovens to contemporary equipment and conditions. It argues that this process of dialoguing between academic and traditional knowledge not only secures access to healthy food and income, but also reinforces cultural memory, intergenerational learning, and political agency, making GECA a powerful example of community resilience in a post‑pandemic world.