Distant cousins.

There are people who don't even suspect it, but they are distant cousins. One is much older, but it is the other who feels cold. One has rocks and slopes, the other has glass and wood. One is impulsive, the other is completely planned. In one of them it rains without warning, in the other one prays for rain. One has the scent of the forest, the other has flowers, one wears a lace dress, the other wears clothes of all colors. One is pork ribs, the other is goat ribs. One is a crow, the other is a caracara. What unites the distant cousins is that they were both born in arid lands. It is in aridity that we uninvent and reinvent ourselves with ease, transform hardship into abundance, see the horizon that, despite being distant, is present to remind us that our new day always begins right after the night ends. Austin, a cool girl, had a guitar leaning against her. Garanhuns, a modest girl, had an accordion stored away. On the same day, the two decided to go out to play. Without really knowing what to do, they did what no one expected, leaving the older people, who had never seen so much new things in those parts, at that crossroads, slack-jawed. From Austin's side, a hoarse sound came out; from Garanhuns, an analasated sound. The entire neighborhood was silent and saw the pact the cousins had made. To command respect, beating his chest and playing loud and clear for anyone who wanted to listen. A guitar, an accordion. Every idea deserves to be respected. They say it in the same tone.
When the projector turned on, everything changed in the room at the Stateside Theater on Congress Avenue in Austin. It was as if everyone, Brazilian or not, had been transported to a room in the house of their distant cousin, Garanhuns. The movie Dominguinhos is a slingshot app. It pulls us into the past, suddenly throws us into the future. A game that we should install in our chest, so as not to forget where we came from and why we are arriving in this other place. While the festival transforms – and the audience changes radically, Mariana Aydar calmly sings and expresses a feeling.
– It’s as if we have the time here that we don’t have when we’re there. Because here everyone is open to feeling, listening, exchanging.
Garanhuns and Austin are cousins. Arid, but very fertile.

*Pedrinho Fonseca is a special guest of Update or Die and Banco Santander during SXSW and came to Austin with a mission. Bring a red bench and invite people to sit on it. Telling their stories. And thus discover a # bank of inspirations.