Quilombo Caveira Botafogo São Pedro da Aldeia, Lowland Coastal Region
Roberto dos Santos, 58, president of the Association of Community Quilombo Caveira Botafogo, zealously keep a documental collection consisting of written articles and oral reports. On a sunny afternoon on the porch of his house, he told about the origin of the name of the community: "[...] the slaves came from the ocean and docked here in Rasa beach in the Una river. Then came from Una river canoeing and went to Campos Novos farm [...] and as the slaves came already debilitated from a long time on the sea [...] In this long journey, they arrived here already weakened, dying, died there and there was that skeleton, that skull.”
Currently, in the space that, in the seventeenth century, was part of the Jesuit Campos Novos farm 160 families live. In 1998, the group was recognized as a remnant of a quilombo and since then has struggled to get the final title of the land where their ancestors lived.
Regarding this culinary legacy, Claudineia Silveira dos Santos, 42, is an indication of how new generations come updating the knowledge built by earlier generations. Claudineia works in the school office and invented recently, along with a co-worker, a recipe that has become known both inside and outside the community. About the process of creation, narrates: "[...] we would have a party here, it would join a party, that every year Cabo Frio does the feast of the flour, and the school was going to put a tent there in the party and every dish is made with cassava. Then I sat with my colleague who likes the kitchen [...] then we thought: let's make a broth. But what? Let's invent a broth? Come on! And then we started, paper and pencil in hand, and began assembling the broth.”
In the large kitchen of the house of their fathers, Claudineia prepared the marron broth. Meanwhile, Mr João and Mrs Almerinda, 72, highlighted the importance of the land to the cuisine of past generations. Mrs Almerinda comments: "[...] we did not buy beans, our beans here lasted from one year to the other. We made that bean. It was .. what else? Cassava, beans, sweet potatoes. Ah, yes, we also had vegetable, cabbage, those things. We almost did not buy things, but today we buy everything.”
As you can see, this family is an excellent example of how the old culinary practices, updated by new generations, keep alive the traditions among individuals.
