Beyond Fordlândia

David Hildner is Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at UW-Madison. His special interests include: Renaissance / Baroque drama and poetry of Spain, Luso-Brazilian literature before 1800, philosophy and literature, religion and literature, advanced language practice. His publications include “Poetry and Truth in the Spanish Works of Fray Luis de León” and “Reason and the Passions in the Comedias of Calderón”. His narration of “Beyond Fordlândia” was a major contribution to the documentary.

Barbara Weinstein is professor of Latin American and Caribbean history at New York University. Her research interests include race, gender, labor, and political economy, especially in relation to the making of modern Brazil. Weinstein has extensively studied the post-colonial roots of Brazil, particularly the progressive São Paulo region, racial identity, and wealth inequality. In her first book, “The Amazon Rubber Boom, 1850–1920” (Stanford University Press, 1983), Barbara sought to understand the extent to which neocolonialism and imperialism affected the relations of production in a region that exported a single commodity for the international market. Her latest book “The Color of Modernity: São Paulo and the Making of Race and Nation in Brazil” was awarded, 2016 Roberto Reis Book Prize, presented by the Brazilian Studies Associate (BRASA).

Joe Jackson is an author and professor of creative writing at the Old Dominion University. He has written seven works of nonfiction and a novel. “Black Elk: The Life of an American Visionary” was released by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in October 2016; it chronicles the life of Oglala Lakota holy man Black Elk, best known for his 1932 Black Elk Speaks, written in collaboration with the Nebraska poet-laureate John Neihardt. Jackson’s biography received the following honors and awards in 2017 as recipient of: the PEN/ Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography; Best Biography of 2016, True West magazine; Winner of the Western Writers of America 2017 Spur Award, Best Western Biography; Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography; and One of the Best Books of 2016, The Boston Globe.

His book “The Thief at the End of the World: Rubber, Power, and the Seeds of Empire”, was one of Time magazine’s Top Ten Books of 2008 that describes the quest of Henry Wickham and Henry Ford for rubber in the Brazilian Amazon

Greg Grandin is Professor of History at New York University. He is author of a number of books, including “Fordlândia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City”, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for History, as well as for the National Book Award and a National Book Critics Circle Award. A more recent book, entitled, “Who Is Rigoberta Menchú?” focuses on the treatment of the Guatemalan Nobel Peace Prize recipient. His latest book, “The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World”, is a study of the factual basis for the novella “Benito Cereno” by Herman Melville. “Fordlandia” was named a best book of the year by The New York Times, The New Yorker, NPR, The Boston Globe, The San Francisco Chronicle and The Chicago Tribune.

Marcus Barros is a specialist in tropical medicine, a university professor and researcher of Amazonian culture. He installed and directed the original nucleus of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) in Manaus, which is now the Research Center Leonidas and Maria Deane. He was Rector of the Federal University of Amazonas and created the Amazonian Museum for the Preservation of the Culture of the Peoples of the Western Amazon and the Center for Environmental Sciences. He directed the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) and served as the Secretary of Government of the city of Manaus.

Lúcio Flávio Pinto has been a professional journalist since 1966. For 18 years he was a reporter in O Estado de S. Paulo. In 1988 he left the big press and dedicated himself to the Personal Journal, biweekly newsletter that he writes alone since 1987, based in Belém. He has 21 individual books published, all about the Amazon, the last of which are “Amazônia Decifradada” and “A questão Amazônica”. He is the co-author of numerous other publications dedicated to the Amazon. He has received the 2012 Wladimir Herzog Award, and was nominate by the NGO Reporters Without Borders, based in Paris, as one of the most important journalists in the world, the only Brazilian nominee for this honor. Currently, among other activities, he is a columnist for theAmazoniareal.com.br environmental web portal.

Jesus Paes Loureiro is a poet, writer, essayist and Professor of Aesthetics, History of Art and Amazonian Culture at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA). He was Secretary of Education of Pará from 1987 to 1990. He received his Doctorate in Sociology of Culture at the Sorbonne with the thesis, “Amazonian Culture: a poetics of the imaginary”. His poetic work has its universality constructed from icons of the Amazonian world — culture, history, imaginary — providing a worldview and particular reading of the contemporary world. In dialogue with the main literary sources and currents of today, Paes Loureiro realizes an original work, almost a poetic sum of sensible understanding of the world through the Amazonian sources, in which the myth reveals itself as a metaphor of the real.

Hélcio Amaral is a researcher of history and economics of the Brazilian Amazon since its occupation in the seventeenth century. He resides in Santarém. Results of his research and extensive knowledge of the bibliography of literature about the region have been in demand - both nationally and internationally. His archival resources have contributed to the researches of many scholars, including Professor Anna C. Roosevelt (University of Illinois) and Dr. Denise Cavalcante Gomes (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) . The wide range of Hélcio’s activities include Councilor, Secretary of Culture of Santarém, and founding member of the Historical and Geographical Institute of the Tapajos. His concern about current political-economic problems will be the theme of his forthcoming book, "The Keeper of Memories - Historical Fragments of the Amazon", scheduled to be released in November 2017.

Erik Jennings is a Neurosurgeon based in Santarém, Pará, where he practices at the Regional hospital. For more than 15 years he has directed a clinic in the recently contacted Zo’é community where he provides for their medical needs. His surgical skill has been the subject of a Discovery Channel documentary. Dr. Jennings has also been active in environmental issues of the Tapajós river region and in 2016 he campaigned successfully to prevent the construction of the São Luís do Tapajós dam.

Carlos Correia Santos is from Pará, native of Belém. He holds the degree Bachelor of Law and is a poet, short story writer, playwright, screenwriter, musician and novelist. The plot of his novel “Velas na Tapera” was centered in Fordlândia at the time that the Ford rubber experiment was floundering . The work was awarded the Prize Dalcídio Jurandir 2008. His other published works include the award-winning book of poems “O Baile dos Versos”, a work that won a special salute from the Brazilian Academy of Letters, in 1999, and the “Poeticário” (poems) “No Último Desejo a Carne é Fria” (Compilation of short stories), “Nu Nery” (play), Opera Profano (play / Award City of Manaus) and “Batista” (play).

Kalysta Borges is a physician and medical specialist in Hematology and Oncology. She is medical residency program coordinator for Clinical Oncology of the Pará State University (UFPA), and director of the Tapajós Oncology Department at the Regional Hospital of Lower Amazonas. She holds a Master’s Degree in Process Engineering of the Postgraduate Program in Process Engineering (PPGEP) at the Pará State University.

Fr. Sidney Canto holds degrees as Bachelor of Science of Religion and as postgraduate specialist in History of Amazonia, from the Integrated Faculty of Tapajós (FIT). He is currently presides over the Catholic Church in Fordlândia. He is author of several books on the history and culture of the region of the Lower Amazon and Tapajós, and founding member of the Historical and Geographical Institute of Tapajós (IHGTap).

Fr. Edilberto Sena is a native of Belterra, formerly home of the Henry Ford Company. Fr. Sena is a Catholic priest and disciple of the Liberation theology. He has worked in rádio communication for the last 40 years which includes 12 years as director. Fr. Edilberto Sena has written three books on the history of the Amazonia regional popular movement. Currently he leads a movement called “Tapajós Vivo” in defense of the Tapajós River in response to the official territorial invasion by agrobusiness, mineral companies and hydroelectrics projects in the region.