{"id":17647,"date":"2014-09-15T14:00:35","date_gmt":"2014-09-15T17:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=17647"},"modified":"2015-12-23T20:24:18","modified_gmt":"2015-12-23T23:24:18","slug":"the-miracle-of-resistance-lessons-from-rios-successful-urban-quilombos-indigenous-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=17647","title":{"rendered":"The Miracle of Resistance: Lessons from Rio’s Successful Urban Quilombos & Indigenous Groups"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Brazil\u2019s colonial past has created a socio-political landscape in which issues of race<\/a> and ethnicity remain\u00a0problematic. Today, indigenous and black groups continue to resist the discriminatory social order left by the colonial encounter. Brazil\u2019s 1988 Constitution, and\u00a0international instruments such as the ILO Convention 169<\/a>, ratified by Brazil in 2002, offer protection to indigenous peoples and\u00a0quilombola groups. These laws\u00a0form a\u00a0framework through\u00a0which such\u00a0groups organize autonomously to decide their futures. However, legal provisions do not easily translate into policies that improve these groups\u2019 socioeconomic situation, making the implementation of Constitutional rights a continuous struggle. The lived struggles of ethnic groups in the city provide a window into\u00a0persisting ideas on race and ethnicity, which hinder their recognition as ethnic groups.<\/p>\n

Rio\u2019s Urban Quilombos: Culture and Resistance in Sacop\u00e3 and Pedra do Sal<\/h3>\n

Colonial Rio de Janeiro, as a major slave port, was the site of a great number of quilombos<\/a>, some of which still form part of the city\u2019s landscape and geography. As Brazilian scholar and activist Kabengele Munanga explains, quilombo is a word of Bantu origin<\/a>, a language family spoken by peoples located between what is today the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola. The word was taken to Brazil during the period of formal colonialism through the forced migration of African slaves. Quilombos are today not only a historical fact but a socio-political reality in the country. They are popularly represented as rural communities of runaway slaves, who have remained in their territories since the abolition of slavery\u2013epitomized by the most famous,\u00a0Quilombo dos Palmares<\/a>. However, this colonial and narrow definition fails to grasp the complex and dynamic realities of Brazil\u2019s contemporary quilombola groups. In fact, quilombos emerged wherever African slaves were, in urban and rural contexts, as well as in other countries such as Colombia or Ecuador.<\/p>\n

The outcome of the mobilizations of Brazil\u2019s black movement in the context of re-democratization was Article 68 of the Transitory Provisions of the 1988 Constitution that guarantees quilombolas the right to titles of\u00a0their land. In 2003, Decree 4887 named the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) responsible for the demarcation of quilombola lands. Since then, the required anthropological report for the titling process has set off significant research in the broadening of the concept of quilombo, as consolidated by the 1994 definition of the Brazilian Anthropology Association<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“Today, the term refers not to residues or archaeological remains of a temporal occupation or of biological evidence. Nor are quilombos isolated groups or a strictly homogeneous population. Likewise, they were not always the result of rebel or insurgent movements, but mainly consist of groups that have developed practices of resistance in the maintenance and reproduction of their characteristic ways of life in a determined place.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is as such that one should understand Rio de Janeiro’s\u00a0urban quilombos<\/a>, namely Sacop\u00e3<\/a> and Pedra do Sal<\/a>. They are respectively located in the upper-class neighborhood of Lagoa (alongside the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon in the South Zone) and in the city center by the Port region<\/a>. Both are still in the long and bureaucratic process of land titling. After years of fighting to obtain their land legally, urban quilombos carry an important message of endurance for other groups resisting displacement and eviction<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What these urban quilombos share is their importance as spaces of black resistance and samba. Sacop\u00e3 became famous for its samba and pagode parties\u00a0in the 1970s and 80s. The members of Pedra do Sal were protagonists in the creation of samba itself, and schools such as Imp\u00e9rio da Tijuca. Pedra do Sal also holds historical and contemporary significance for Rio\u2019s port area and Candombl\u00e9<\/a> terreiros<\/em> (Afro-Brazilian religious sites), having been recently recognized<\/a> as an area of cultural protection.<\/p>\n

Both these communities bear witness to the historical presence of blacks in neighborhoods today disputed by real estate speculators<\/a> and are located in areas that have undergone complex processes of gentrification<\/a> and whitening. During\u00a0the aggressive policy of favela removals during the military dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, Lagoa\u2019s landscape radically changed with the forced removal of\u00a0communities such as the Favela da Catacumba\u2013today Parque da Catacumba<\/a>–and Praia do Pinto, today the\u00a0Selva de Pedra<\/a>\u00a0condominiums of Leblon.<\/p>\n

Today, Lagoa is an upper-class neighborhood. The port area, where Pedra do Sal is located, is part of a redevelopment and revitalization project<\/a> that has significantly increased the real estate\u00a0value of the surrounding area. In this respect, economic interests have translated as\u00a0racial discrimination. Both\u00a0quilombos\u00a0have thus\u00a0incessantly resisted attempts at removal<\/a> and not without losses. As such, whilst the area around them has gradually whitened, the quilombos have remained a physical reminder that resistance is possible.<\/p>\n

Their identity as quilombos was central in their success to date. Due to their determination to stay<\/a> where they have been for generations, their cultural identity and the possibilities afforded by Article 68 and Decree 4887, they were able to gain recognition for their legitimate right to the lands in a context of mass displacement. What others\u2013such as the residents of Favela da Catacumba\u2013were not able to do, they have achieved. As Luis, the leader of Sacop\u00e3,\u00a0puts it:<\/p>\n

“Maybe we are one of the number one resistance movements in the country due to the location in which we find ourselves, due to the economic value of this location. Therefore, racism is not that strong, because we fought against economic power and the ability of the powerful to influence all matters of politics\u2013and managed to win…\u00a0We must have been helped by the Orix\u00e1s<\/em><\/a>. After everything we have been through, people wonder: ‘How are they still there?'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In a city like\u00a0Rio, this is an important message of strength and hope. The quilombo hope\u00a0in the everyday activism of resistance groups.<\/p>\n

The Aldeia Maracan\u00e3 Indigenous Association<\/h3>\n

Ethnic rights are also important for Brazil\u2019s native population, which is today composed of 305 different ethnic groups, according to the Brazilian government’s statistical agency IBGE’s 2010 census, and speak around 150 to 180 indigenous languages. Brazil\u2019s re-democratization period witnessed the increased protagonism of its indigenous peoples, who secured the end of formal tutelary power in the Constitution and the recognition of a number of rights, such as the right to their cultures and differentiated education.<\/p>\n

Due to the hardships of living in rural areas, especially those where neighboring farmers threaten native communities, many indigenous peoples have chosen to migrate to urban centers in search for better living conditions, education and employment. The IBGE estimates that around 324,000\u00a0ind\u00edgenas<\/em> live outside of the terras ind\u00edgenas<\/em> (indigenous lands, or TI by the Portuguese acronym), 80% of these in the Southeast region of Brazil. The city of S\u00e3o Paulo<\/a>, for instance, has a population of around 13,000 urban indigenous peoples, and has had a well-articulated indigenous movement since the 1980s. In the city of Rio de Janeiro, where the IBGE counted 6,000 urban ind\u00edgenas<\/em>, the phenomenon is much more recent.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2006, the Aldeia Maracan\u00e3<\/a> movement occupied the abandoned building of the Antigo Museu do \u00cdndio<\/a> (Old Indigenous Museum), located next to the Maracan\u00e3 Stadium<\/a>. This was done with the aim of\u00a0giving greater visibility<\/a> to Rio\u2019s indigenous movement. They stayed in the building until 2013, holding monthly storytelling events. That year, Rio\u2019s government decided the site should serve the needs of the upcoming World Cup and evicted its indigenous residents<\/a>,\u00a0threatening to tear it down to build a parking lot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gathering popular support and media attention<\/a>, the group managed to protect the building, which is now protected. Nevertheless, the residents were forced to relocate to temporary housing, where they lived for over a year.\u00a0This year,\u00a0they finally moved into the block of flats reserved for them in a condominium of the Minha Casa, Minha Vida<\/a>\u00a0public housing program. The building of the Antigo Museu will now be renovated in partnership with the State Secretariat of Culture and become a Center of Reference for Living Indigenous Culture, functioning as a living museum and as an embassy for other indigenous peoples when they come to the city. The members have now officially formed the Aldeia Maracan\u00e3 Indigenous Association as well as an Indigenous Regional Council aiming to secure public policies\u2013such as housing and health care\u2013for indigenous peoples living in the state of Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n

The presence of indigenous peoples outside formally designated indigenous lands\u00a0is still an idea many need to accept, including the general public. But even\u00a0government\u00a0institutions such as the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI)<\/a>\u00a0responsible for Brazil\u2019s indigenous policies is in need of adapting its understanding. When\u00a0many agencies, including federal\u00a0and state ones, did not recognize members of the Aldeia as legitimate\u00a0<\/i>indigenous, they were left institutionally helpless.<\/p>\n

Despite the absence of state support, however, they were successful in gathering others and achieving their goal of securing the Antigo Museu\u2019s building as a place for\u00a0indigenous resistance. When groups such as Aldeia claim rights in the city, indigenous peoples are putting the colonial understanding of ethnicity and indigeneity on its head. Similar to quilombos, this understanding associates indigeneity with geographically distant, rural communities as pre-modern, radically different identities. When these identities surface\u00a0in the city, when indigenous peoples wear jeans and drive cars and continue to self-identify as indigenous, the prejudices against\u00a0them\u00a0become more\u00a0apparent. They struggle to assert themselves as equal and legitimate citizens who, despite being in the city, are no\u00a0less indigenous. In the words of cacique<\/em>\u00a0(indegenous chief) Marcos Terena: \u201cI can be what you are, without ceasing to be who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Miracle of Resistance<\/h3>\n

On the one hand, ethnicity is an enabler, for it makes it possible for ethnic groups to claim a number of rights based on cultural alterity, as guaranteed in the 1988 Constitution. On the other, it is also limiting, because it repeatedly and constantly maintains\u00a0them in the colonial, expected form of ethnicity. This\u00a0prejudice limits such\u00a0ethnic groups to rural, distant, less influential and\u00a0pre-modern communities. Therefore, ethnic groups in the urban context such as Pedra do Sal, Sacop\u00e3 and Aldeia Maracan\u00e3 struggle against such attempts to keep them \u2018in their place\u2019\u2013geographically as well as socially. In resisting, these groups\u00a0mobilize their cultural and ethnic differences to assert their equality as citizens. The new notion of civil rights that formed the base for the 1988 Constitution has created many possibilities for groups who self-identify within ethnic categories, either as quilombolas or indigenous peoples.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, it is important to stress that these groups\u2019 achievements are more often than not the outcome of their own stubborn militancy<\/a>, forcing the state to deliver the promises it makes. Without these groups\u2019 persistent activism, ethnic rights would be yet another lifeless constitutional clause or law. Among the many obstacles these groups face is the state\u2019s slow and time consuming bureaucracy, which becomes clear in the quilombos\u2019 titling process. Bureaucracy, together with economic interests, functions to conceal racial discrimination, because wealthier individuals are able to circumvent the state apparatus\u2019 bureaucracy with economic resources and power to influence the judicial system. In this context, when Luis from Quilombo Sacop\u00e3 spoke of the many reasons they managed to stay when\u00a0so many others were forced to leave, he uttered: \u201cAh, the miracle of resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n

It seems that in Brazil, despite the existence of an\u00a0inclusive legal framework, only the miracle of resistance can\u00a0guarantee\u00a0ethnic rights.<\/p>\n

D\u00e9sir\u00e9e Poets<\/a> was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro and has been undertaking her Ph.D. at the University of Aberystywh, Wales, where she also completed her Masters in Postcolonial Politics. Her interests lie in urban political mobilizations, currently with a focus on race and ethnicity in urban spaces.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas Brazil\u2019s colonial past has created a socio-political landscape in which issues of race and ethnicity remain\u00a0problematic. Today, indigenous and black groups continue to resist the discriminatory social order left by the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":17654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1282,328,1329],"tags":[662,646,1261,756,11,65,282,26,25,715,129,1036,148,450,270,1034,156],"writer":[1317],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-research-analysis","8":"category-understanding-rio","9":"category-by-international-observers","10":"tag-afro-brazilian-culture","11":"tag-aldeia-maracana","12":"tag-central-rio","13":"tag-community-organizing","14":"tag-forced-evictions","15":"tag-gentrification","16":"tag-housing","17":"tag-housing-rights","18":"tag-human-rights","19":"tag-indigenous","20":"tag-leadership","21":"tag-pedra-do-sal-quilombo","22":"tag-port-region","23":"tag-quilombo","24":"tag-resistance","25":"tag-sacopa-quilombo","26":"tag-south-zone","27":"writer-desiree-poets"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17647"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=17647"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=17647"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=17647"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=17647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}