Dona Ivete do Salgueiro

> I think, that we should be respected. Everybody should be respected as he is.< Dona Ivete.
Dona Ivete, the sixty-year old Favela-resident, who accompanies us through the documentary, is an Umbanda Mãe-de-Santo, a priest of the most popular Afro-Brazilian religion. This function makes her unassailable inside the social Favela-structure.
She is the grandchild and spiritual successor of one of the first Salgueiro Residents, Dona Euzébia, who celebrated her 100^th. Bithday in 1985 together with the 100^th. Jubilee of Morro do Salgueiro.
Dona Ivete's spiritual mission is to improve the conditions of life for the youth of Salgueiro. And she does it with a very practical approach: she organizes social projects, such as the afro-hairdresser trainee course Nika Jaina. Her next project will be an English- and informatics course (but the necessary money is still missing).
In her work, she unifies her religious, ritual and cultural knowledge, the transmission of African and Afro-Brazilian traditions, with concrete, cultural and political basics. Thus she has been cultural director of the residents association and still is cultural president of the carnivals group and an active member in the political movement "Rio mulheres".
She is a fascinating personality, who surmounts, with the help of her faith, social borders and replaces missing formal education with spiritual values and visions.Jan

Januario Garcia

"Culture is - first of all - a weapon for liberation. Culture forms life-attitude, it gives people the possibility for self-reflection. It enables the resumption of dignity. Through culture, the development of self-esteem is advanced. Through culture, ones citizenship can be built."

In 2001, during the filming, he was the director of the only Afro-Brazilian museum in Rio de Janeiro, the Centro José Bonifacio. For many years, he was Rio de Janeiro’s city-secretary for Afro-Brazilian affairs, working to improve the condition of the Afro-Brazilian population.
He is one of the representatives of the Afro-Brazilian movement and has documented, during the last 40 years, the "black" history of Brazil. His photographical archive includes over 10.000 images.
His biography is impressive: he came as a street-child to Rio de Janeiro, learned reading and writing in the streets, and was admitted in the Movie-Academy, where he was always confronted with the existing racial prejudices. Persecuted and tortured during the military regime, his life is a symbol of unbroken resistance and the fight for human rights.
In the documentary "Rainhas do Salgueiro - cidadania relativa", Janúario Garcia introduces us Europeans into the mystical thinking of the Afro-Brazilian and shows the cultural and social connections. He explicates the background of poverty and discrimination of the Afro-Brazilian population. He is an explaining commentator, translating Afro-Brazilian thinking into a western concept.