Sister Dorothy Stang: Angel of the Amazon by Tina Neyer

Sister Dorothy Stang: Angel of the Amazon

by Tina Neyer A version of this article appeared in the February 2012 issue of St. Anthony Messenger

Angel of the Amazon is an American opera written and composed by Evan Mack, a young man who exhibits great zeal for Sister Dorothy Stang, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur who was assassinated in 2005 in the Amazon rain forest.

Sister Dorothy worked for 40 years defending the rights of poor farmers who had been granted land by the Brazilian government. The farmers struggled to gain access to the land, though, due to the greed of a small number of wealthy cattle ranchers and loggers. She was murdered for her stand.

Heroic Life From 1966 until her death, Sister Dorothy championed the cause of peasant farmers who have

been denied land for decades. She taught farmers how to preserve the land while growing food to sustain themselves. Her focus on the importance of community helped her to develop plans in each settlement to build a school, a chapel and a gathering place for adults along the Trans-Amazonian Highway.

The opera embodies Sister Dorothy’s struggle, portraying one logger in particular and the government officials charged with overseeing land grants to populate the highway.

Throughout the opera’s 90-minute journey, Sister Dorothy’s mission is clearly spelled out. Mack has focused on the last six days of her life, with flashbacks to bring the audience along, exposing the complicated nature of the struggle between the wealthy ranchers and the poor in Brazil. He shows how Sister Dorothy worked every day to empower the poor to own their right to the land. She struggled to work with the government, the local bishop, and the loggers and ranchers.

Mack says the production reflects grassroots efforts to fight to save the Amazon rain forest.

Sister Dorothy’s Mission By the 1990s Sister Dorothy had fought—with some success—malnutrition and poverty in her area. Meanwhile, though, loggers clear-cut the land for industrial-export agriculture, hiring thugs and bribing local police, threatening anyone in their way. The local farmers’ living standards became more developed. There was limited electricity, a school building and a fruit factory in the town ofBoa Esperanza.

Though the local power brokers considered it a failed experiment, Boa Esperanza, which means “good hope,” was working and growing, taking up viable land and profits from loggers and ranchers. That settlement is one setting for Angel of the Amazon. Sister Dorothy was shot six times by two men on the road to Boa Esperanza. The night before she died, she had met with her wouldbe assassins, trying to reach the basic good she believed was in everyone and everything. She offered them food and kindness, trying to reason with the two men.

Inspired by Sister Dorothy A young Brazilian woman watches a gray-haired woman in a T-shirt and long skirt from a window deep in the Amazon. The older woman is in the forest dancing—something very odd to the young woman. Suddenly, as if she could not contain herself, the older woman hugs a tree. Then, turning toward the building where the young woman stands, she hollers, “You must hug someone every day, Tecla. And if you can’t find a person to hug, hug a tree.”

Maria Tecla di Silva Gaia is evidence of the continuation of the song of Sister Dorothy Stang. Tecla is a Brazilian who entered Sister Dorothy’s order, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, 10 years ago. She is a joyful, earthy presence, with a laugh as light as sunshine on the forest floor.

“She was the simplest of the simple, transparent,” Tecla says of Sister Dorothy. The bubbly sister, who is in the United States for an immersion experience, speaks in broken English, jabbing at the air as she paints a picture of her mentor.

“She was very lovable and dear.” Quickly her expression turns to a childlike sternness. But then she laughs again, saying, “Irma Dorothy [Portuguese for Sister Dorothy] was very stubborn, determined.”

Tecla, in a sweater the jeweled blue of a macaw, speaks through Sister Joan Krimm, as her English is not as good as Tecla hopes it will be someday. She grew up in Bragancia, Brazil, as one of the people Sister Dorothy served.

With a broad smile she says, “Irma Dorothy saw injustices and fought for a life of dignity for the farmers.” Tecla folds her arms in her lap as Sister Joan says that Sister Dorothy loved the people of Brazil so much that she had dual citizenship. Tecla exudes a serene joy with a voice as rhythmic as a Brazilian samba, recounting the favorite qualities of Sister Dorothy: “Her smile was her greatest asset.”

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