{"id":19370,"date":"2014-11-25T13:31:45","date_gmt":"2014-11-25T16:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=19370"},"modified":"2014-12-02T19:17:25","modified_gmt":"2014-12-02T22:17:25","slug":"homeless-workers-movement-celebrate-black-awareness-day-in-leblon-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=19370","title":{"rendered":"Landless Workers Movement Celebrates Black Awareness Day on Leblon Beach [VIDEO]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of people from the Landless Workers Movement (MTST)<\/a> celebrated Black Awareness Day<\/a> in the very wealthy neighborhood of Leblon. Along with celebrating Afro-Brazilian\u00a0culture<\/a>, the event sought to challenge city boundaries that marginalize\u00a0Afro-Brazilians to the peripheries of Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n

The families who took part in the event came from S\u00e3o Gon\u00e7alo<\/a>, where the MTST has recently struck a deal with the city government after a 12 day-long occupation of an empty, unused lot in the neighborhood of Santa Luzia<\/a>. The occupation, named after Afro-Brazilian leader Zumbi dos Palmares<\/a>, was comprised of 700 families and demanded public housing. The city of S\u00e3o Gon\u00e7alo has promised to build Minha Casa Minha Vida<\/a> housing complexes to serve over 1,000 people in need of a home in the area.<\/p>\n

On November 20, Black Awareness Day in Brazil, families of the Zumbi dos Palmares occupation got onto a bus to Leblon, an affluent beachfront neighborhood in the South Zone<\/a> of Rio. Around 700 families squeezed into ten buses, with many people sitting on the floor, singing MTST\u2019s anthem, \u201cMTST A Luta \u00c9 Pra Valer\u201d (MTST Our Fight is to Win).<\/p>\n

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According to Eny Rodrigues, people who were at the beach got scared when the families came out of the buses and started singing loudly and playing music.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came here because this is the place that accepts us the least, you see?\u201d she said. \u201cHere we are nobody, here we are nothing. When we got here, you had to see what happened, people started running and we were singing, lifting up our clothes. [They said:] \u2018How awful! They\u2019re dirty!\u2019 But that\u2019s not true. We are not worse than them, we are the same. Everyone feels pain, everyone is the same so why do they do this to us?\u201d<\/p>\n

The alleged reaction of those at the beach epitomizes the veiled racism that lingers in Brazilian society. Still according to Eny, their occupation was named after Zumbi dos Palmares exactly to follow his legacy of struggle, in a society where it is “the black people that are abandoned, with no roof to live under. You can look at most of us here–the majority is black, and why? Because everyone attacks the black person.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Following the maroon society\u2019s leader tradition of seeking justice through direct action, the occupation is part of a broader movement that demands popular urban reforms. The people who were part of the occupation described how they built makeshift shacks with plastic canvases and lived in the pouring rain and the scalding sun for 12 days to get a house through the federal program Minha Casa Minha Vida. Many of them have paid rent all their lives which makes social mobility difficult as housing prices soar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaying rent is hard for me, I have two daughters, two granddaughters,\u201d said Laura Silvia Barros, who was promised an apartment after taking part in the occupation. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to to pay R$500 (US$198) of rent when you get R$1,000 (US$393) a month and I have to work Saturday and Sunday so I can buy everything properly, so I can pay for education for [my daughter]. I have to work from Monday to Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barros, along with 1,000 other people, has been promised an apartment through the federal MCMV program after the Zumbi dos Palmares occupation deal. Lucineide Maria de Souza, another Zumbi dos Palmares occupier, said the 12 days\u00a0spent living in tents\u00a0taught them \u201cto fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnited we will win,\u201d added Barros, while De Souza nodded, \u201cNo one will ever hear a lone voice, but a group screaming will be heard. That\u2019s it. No one is alone.\u201d<\/p>\n