Anonymous

A man interviewed on a farm in a remote region of Brazil:

"Six months ago we were all working in this camp, but we had a different gato [overseer]. This man was very bad [the other men all murmured their agreement.] He has run away now with all the money. When we got here from Minas Gerais he taught us how to do the work by beating us. We were scared to say anything, as it was clear he would do anything he wanted to us. Very soon we realized that he wasn't going to pay us. When we asked for money he would beat us. Some of my friends from Bahia ran away, but the gato chased after them with dogs and caught them. He brought them back at gunpoint and beat them in front of us. He kept the dogs around us at night so that they would bark if anyone tried to leave. Finally my friends from Bahia managed to slip away at night and escape. Not long after that the goat disappeared, then in a few days the empreitero [the man who had subcontracted the charcoal making to the gato] came and it turned out that this gato had stolen his money as well."

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