Young peasants and the struggling for land: memories from the landless rural movement formation in the piauí

Historically, the Brazilian countryside has been constructed as a space of conflicts, in turn, in the state of Piauí, such a reality is not very different. In light of this situation, the Landless Workers Movement (MST- Portuguese abbreviation) has become one of the largest and most important social movements facing the large latifundium in Brazil. Thus, this research is aimed at analyzing and discussing the profile and performance of the landless peasant youth in the process of struggle for land, the formation of the MST and the construction of the first settlement in the semi-arid region of Piauí in the second half of the 1980s. The analysis started from the young leadership’s memories who helped to establish the MST in that period. The work is constructed from the theoretical postulates of E. P. Thompson, considering the concept of experience, and Halbwachs, with the concept of collective memory, in addition to other authors who discuss the theme. For the development of this work, first we used bibliographical research and documentary research, as well as conducting interviews with the first MST leaderships in the Piauí state. The research allowed to observe that during this process and through interlocutors like the Land pastoral commission (CPT - Portuguese abbreviation), peasant youth became the main driving force that led the peasant struggle for "a piece of land" in the semi-arid Piauí.