Sara Goes: Trump, who are you to shed my mungunzá?

In the powerful voice of Flávio José, this question gains northeastern trumpet tone, when Trump and his disciples try to impose his bitter taste on the Latin American people’s pan, the question comes out of the clay stove and echoes on the geopolitical board

Chamber Cascudo already taught that making mungunzá is to celebrate memory, a liturgical rite in which each aroma is portal to the earth. But beware, Mungunzá is not hominy, it is resistance in each grain.

In Cariri, Mungunzá Salgado (my favorite) brings corn, beans, sun meat, sausage, bacon, mocotó, ribs, onion, garlic and spices, identity concentrated in a pan. Download the meat, soak the corn and take care of the fire requires patience. The hurry transforms the dish into a soulless porridge.

It was this spirit that Petrúcio Amorim translated into question: Who are you to shed my mungunzá? And who dared today to spill the broth? Donald Trump, the man who follows the tide, trying to put out Latin American fire with tariffs, punishments and coercion.

By announcing a 50 percent tariff in force from August 1, about honey, fish, juices and coffee, Trump wanted to double Brazil even before the rates come into force. In Ceará, fifteen containers with honey and carnauba wax stopped at the port of Pecém. About 1,000 tons of fish and juices had suspended exports, threatening the entire production chain of the northeastern agro.

In Piauí, the impact fell on the organic honey produced by semiarid cooperatives, the result of a project that values and empowers the southern global south. This caatinga honey, cultivated by more than twelve thousand beekeepers, is not born of monoculture or poison, but from the collective intelligence of those who transform aridity into livelihood, and support into sovereignty. When American importers realized that the political and economic cost of boycott surpassed the benefit of blackmail, they retreated and released honey, although uncertainty about loads that came out after August 1st continue in the air.

Trump, who are you to shed my mungunzá? The answer came from the stoves of the backlands, the coastal boats and the base cooperative hives, the Northeast does not bow to collective punishment. In Ceará, juices and fish now seek new markets, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and the internal consumption of honey increased during the crop. Diversification became a civilizing strategy and horizon

But the side effect was another. According to the Atlas/Bloomberg research (2,841 interviews with national sampling, RDR methodology, two percentage point margin, held July 11 and 13, 2025), 64% of Brazilians consider unjustified taxation. For 58%, the measure represents a threat to the sovereignty of Brazil. Most approve the Lula government’s response and argue that the country adopts retaliation. Trump did not convince either as a statesman or a dealer, and his image collapses along with the containers locked in the ports.

Brazil reacted. He went to the WTO, prepares retaliation, mobilizes vice president and ministers. But the real answer is in the pan, sovereignty is not decreed, cooking. Trump can throw stone, can try to knock curd, but here corn, honey and mungunzá follow in the fire, investigating resistance.

Trump, who are you to shed my mungunzá? The pan is ours, the spice is ours, the honey of Piauí is ours, and the Northeast continues to boil. In a barrel of clay, in South America, in the trash can, in the luxury of the village, in the southern Global South.

(Text update published on June 29, 2025)