Tiririca dos Crioulos



 

Tiririca dos Crioulos is a community located at the foot of Serra de Arapuá, rural area of Carnaubeira da Penha, in the Pernambuco backcountry, 500 km from Recife. They have lived for many years with the Pankará indigenous community, from who they are descendants, and with black families that were enslaved in the recent history of our Country.

The Tiririca people call themselves an “indigenous quilombo,” and they represent a basis for the formation of the Brazilian population. Their 60 families are divided into groups. In one of them, Riacho do Olho D’Água [Olho d’agua Creek], lives Douglas Bandeira do Nascimento.

Born on November 19, Brazil’s Flag Day, Douglas loves football since he was a child. He chose the position of goalkeeper, which was also his father’s, and decided to create his own team so the new generation could play football.

Getting to know the community and the Bandeirante F.C. team is finding new meanings for several stories. Firstly, about the famous bandeirantes of the past, pioneers of the backlands, whose conquests of territories were marked by extreme violence against the natives. Another meaning is the emblem of our Republic, our green-yellow flag, which have been present among the crowds on the streets of the main cities in the last five years. The football of the Tiririca allows us to think about what we were and what we could have been.

The Football Museum in their city, created by Douglas and his friends, confirms the power of this sport as a cultural heritage, driver of passions, and a symbol of resistance. The Museum teaches us all to value their memories and to recognize the importance of narrating our own history.

Tiririca is a common weed that stays always green, no matter the drought.

The Tiririca people is, above all, a fortress.