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“Now there are two: Southern Mato Grosso and the real Mato Grosso. But it’s all the same”, say the elders. The polemic division, created for political and economic reasons, took place in 1979 but it is now a thing of the past. Mato Grosso now lies to the North, with the Pantanal, and is a transitional area between the cerrado and the amazonic forest region. But it still retains the stories that are responsible for the unity with its Southern sibling – the exuberant fauna, the cerrado, the legends, the cattle and the thick accent that comes from the frontiers with other countries, mixed with Northeastern and immigrant accents. Clay and wood are the main materials that are transformed by sensitive hands. The local folklore is rich and little known, with many dances, festivals and regional musical instruments. In the words of Professor Elias Alves de Andrade, in the preface of the book “A Historic Melody” by Abel Santos Anjos Filho, they are “the purest, most authentic and legitimate cultural manifestations of the poor, the slave and the river dweller, who identify themselves with the viola-de-cocho (a regional guitar) land and the river”. The hard life in the countryside is not always easier in the cities but when art becomes an expression of freedom, life seems to flow with more kindness, and with less cruelty. |
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