Porto Alegre, March 3rd, 2023.
I don't know if you're in charge.
They just called me, okay, and asked me to come here
because you would be trespassing.
The party that probably called you
broke in through the museum yesterday.
- Yeah...
- They destroyed this whole area here which was a forest
with a machete.
- And do you know who did the...? - Yes, I know who he is.
- Is he, the so-called owner, something like that?
- He claims to be the owner.
Jiboia is a cultural squat.
An urban squat.
And we are located in the central area of Porto Alegre,
in Cidade Baixa neighborhood.
It is a squat that is exclusive for women
and sexual and gender dissidents.
And it ends up being a space for housing,
a space for shelter,
but it is also a space for political activities.
Last night, they broke inside the house,
the supposed owner
who left this space abandoned for a long time.
Like, more than 10, 15 years.
We got here and someone had broke in.
They put another lock, a new lock.
And through the little window of Jiboia's gate
you could see that all the trees had been cut down.
They destroyed most of the vegetable garden
and the fruit trees.
This area behind me,
was full of trees.
This building had almost no view to this side of the house.
And now it's like this.
He invaded
with the support of the Museum of Porto Alegre,
Joaquim Felizardo Museum.
He warned neighbors that he would be back this morning.
So we kept vigil all night
and this morning.
We will probably be on vigil for a couple more days.
It was a clear threat
against our existence,
against our resistance here.
But we are not going to lie down.
We are going to continue planting trees.
We will clean all this,
we will bring more plants, we will paint, we will bring more life.
We are going to keep on doing activities.
Since last night
there has been solidarity from small collectives.
We ask that the community, at this moment,
get to know the space.
Come to know us.
Come and keep vigil together with us.
There will be some more joint efforts
to revitalize the space.
But also activities.
There will be slam and meetings of other collectives.
We ask people to come to the space.
Get to know the history.
It's a space of resistance of the LGBT population
that has no similars here in Porto Alegre
in the way that Jiboia operates.
We are also accepting
donations of non-perishable food,
hygiene material, tools...
...cat and dog food,
construction material is very important
at this moment when the house is weakened.
But the main thing is presence.
And if you want to bring seedlings too,
to help in reforestation. That's cool.
We will stay. We'll occupy.
And we are not going to lie down.