Chico Mendes started work as a virtual slave bound to do the bidding of his master at the age of 9. Instead of learning ABC, he learned how to extract latex from a rubber tree. He said from the last century until 1970, Schools were forbidden on any rubber estate in the Amazon. He also said if rubber tappers children went to school, they would learn to read, write and add.

So for many years, the great majority of them could neither read or write. The rubber tapper worked all year hoping he would finally make a profit but always remained in debt. As he couldn’t count, he couldn’t tell wether he was being cheated or not.

But something out of the ordinary happened to him. One afternoon in 1962, someone new passed his house on the rubber estate where he lived. He was a worker for the rubber tappers, he just looked and speaked differently from the rest. He called when we had just got back from tapping and were busy curing the latex. He began to chat and the way he spoke intrigued him. He brought newspapers along with him. At the time he didn’t even know what a newspaper was, but he showed an interest in them and he thought he realized he was keen. Anyway, Chico’s father and Chico arranged to go and see him.

Chico said the rubber tappers aren’t saying nobody should lay a finger on the Amazon.

By Roy Millward 9OA