The revolution will not be televised: how a Guaran tribe got So Paulo's attention

[Judi Lynn]

Driven to the brink by poverty and governmental double-crossing, São Paulo’s indigenous people seized the local TV antenna – and that was just the beginning
Piero Locatelli
Tuesday 28 November 2017 03.00 EST

No one took much notice when a group of 150 disgruntled Guaraní tribespeople took control of the highest point in São Paulo, the peak of Jaraguá. The takeover, just before 4am on 13 September, was met with no resistance: one group seized the park gates and closed access, while another surrounded the TV antennas and allowed the security guard to leave at the end of his shift.

For two days the Guaraní sat in the same place that their ancestors had fled from slavery in the construction of the city, more than four centuries ago. They claimed that more of the land surrounding the peak should be theirs and want to stop privatisation of state parks – but no one was listening.

That was, until they turned off the TV signal. Reports differ on how many channels went off-air, but when a large number of Greater São Paulo residents turned on their televisions that morning, expecting the usual diet of daytime chat shows and rolling news, all they got was static.

The Guaraní people of Jaraguá are squeezed into the smallest parcel of indigenous land in Brazil, two tiny villages, Tekoá Pyau and Tekoá Ytu, in the far north of Latin America’s largest city. About 700 people live in tiny dirt-floor houses on an area the size of four football fields.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/nov/28/guarani-indians-sao-paulo-protest