LYDIA BRAZILIA: THE OLD AGE OF THE SERTÃO AND THE DECOLONIAL PELEJA IN THE PANDEMIC

Abstract

The text describes the filming of the documentary “Lydia Mão-molenga Brasileira”, which deals with the last puppet workshop of Master Lydia Brasileira, held in the Sertão of Rio Grande do Norte, in the city of Caicó, in the first six months of 2021. Between modeling and fabrics, joys and sorrows, encounters and disagreements, the aim of the article is to discuss the care, autonomy and control of the elderly considered a risk group, especially rural women, in the health crisis at Covid-19. The narrative it becomes stronger based on the Master's reports, in the course of the Workshop where the documentary takes place. Still in the workshop, Lydia, in her 84th year, develops the work of remembering her life and the facts that oppressed her as a woman: first, in childhood in a backcountry family that owns land for cattle raising, centered on patriarchal and Eurocentric customs; then, on the marital arrangement with a violent military man, their separation during the chumb years o, the encounter with the art of mamulengos and the loss of autonomy during the pandemic. The Covid-19 Pandemic lays bare authoritarian care practices for older women.