"I HAVE NOT YET ARRIVED WHERE I WANT TO GO":

RURAL WOMEN AND THE REINVENTION OF STORIES THROUGH PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Abstract

Women's perspectives of struggle in the countryside have not always been visible, something that has been progressively changing, mainly through their processes of mobilization and organization towards social change. This paper aims to highlight the processes of self-organization of rural women as instruments of socialization, strengthening and awareness of the processes of oppression, inequality and invisibility to which they are subjected. Through the Oral History methodology, part of the story about the life of a rural woman living in a rural community reminiscent of a quilombo from the Jequitinhonha Valley of Minas Gerais is presented. Based on her life history and the trajectory of participation in social movements, rural women have been reinventing their stories over the last few years through different organizational forms, experiencing empowerment processes, defying social standards, and gradually recognition of their specific rights and demands. The work comes from an already completed research, which aimed at the reconstruction and analysis of life trajectories, struggles and work with the land of a group of women from the countryside of Minas Gerais.