{"id":20222,"date":"2015-02-13T13:16:44","date_gmt":"2015-02-13T16:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=20222"},"modified":"2016-01-28T17:54:34","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T20:54:34","slug":"cerro-cora-inauguration-of-the-community-library-and-photography-exhibit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=20222","title":{"rendered":"Launch of the Community Library and Memory Exhibit at Cerro-Cor\u00e1"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

For the original in Portuguese, published in Ag\u00eancia de Not\u00edcias das Favelas, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

This December,\u00a0Cerro Cor\u00e1<\/a>, a favela located next to Christ the Redeemer\u00a0in Rio’s\u00a0South Zone<\/a>, launched\u00a0the Cerro Cor\u00e1 Community Library. The initiative was led by Cerro Cor\u00e1 Residents in Movement<\/a>, a group formed by young favela residents, supporters and activists.<\/p>\n

\"Cerro-Cor\u00e1<\/a>
\n<\/a>Despite lacking\u00a0a headquarters, funding and registration as an official organization, since 2012 Residents in Movement has carried out a range of activities from\u00a0clearing garbage to creating a community museum. The group typically uses the Residents’ Association’s space as well as public spaces on the hill.<\/p>\n

One of the group’s aims is to document and preserve\u00a0community memory, and it conducted an inventory of existing photographic records. Many residents donated family photos for reproduction. The resulting product was the “Memories of Cerro Cor\u00e1<\/a>” project, a pilot of the community museum the group wants to create on the hill.<\/p>\n

In addition to the memories project, Residents in Movement\u00a0has been working for almost two years to establish\u00a0a community library–receiving book donations, evaluating the donated materials, and sanitizing and cataloguing books. The cleaning and cataloguing processes are\u00a0ongoing. The library space was recently renovated by the group and it is\u00a0expected that the\u00a0cataloguing service and book borrowing system for\u00a0residents will be up and running sometime during 2015. Since members of the group have no formal training in library science, some are participating in training workshops run\u00a0by Conex\u00e3o Leitura<\/a> (Reading Connection), which functions as a network for community libraries.<\/p>\n

\"Reading<\/a>
\n<\/a>Over the\u00a0last two years, Residents in Movement has held reading afternoons with storytelling and painting for children, who are the library’s biggest fans.\u00a0And although children constitute the\u00a0library’s most frequent visitors, there are also reading afternoons for\u00a0older residents. At one event participants read excerpts from Child of the Dark<\/em>\u00a0(1960), by the writer Carolina Maria de Jesus<\/a>. Dona Antonia, a 63-year-old resident of Cerro Cor\u00e1, was touched by the story of the ex-waste-picker turned writer:<\/p>\n

“I found her love beautiful, the way she looked after the children,\u201d noted Dona Antonia. \u201c[The children] have to take good care of their mother. I don\u2019t think she’s alive anymore… is she still alive?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Dona Antonia, like many favela residents, had not previously heard the story of Carolina Maria de Jesus, whose 100th<\/sup> birthday took place this year.<\/p>\n

On December 20, the official opening of the community library included several activities: storytelling, painting, games, film screenings and an exhibition of “Memories of Cerro Cor\u00e1.” Mariana Aquino, 26, resident of Cerro Cor\u00e1, was thrilled to recognize her brother in one of the exhibition photographs. She said her brother, Demetrios, was murdered 14 years ago and her family has no picture of him.<\/p>\n

“The only picture I have of my brother is a 3\u00d74 and it is already fading,\u201d said Mariana. “It moved me a lot to remember his face, his color… it was very good.” Mariana wrapped up her visit to the exhibition by requesting\u00a0a copy of the photo of her brother.<\/p>\n

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

In these times of\u00a0memory expanding through digital tools, Mariana’s testimony reminds us that it wasn’t always that a\u00a0majority of favela residents had\u00a0easy access to phones with cameras. Before this technology, both the camera and\u00a0the development of film were expensive and rarely accessible to the working class. In this sense, the “Memories of Cerro Cor\u00e1” exhibit underlines\u00a0the cry that the “favela has the right to memory,” and affirms that preserving local history is a means of strengthening the emotional and identity-based ties of residents to\u00a0their territory.<\/p>\n

Another initiative of\u00a0Residents in Movement is Cine Morr\u00e3o, a series of film screenings and discussions with residents of a diverse age group. On December 6, 2014, the group screened the film O Estopim<\/a><\/em>. The film recounts the disappearance of the bricklayer Amarildo<\/a> from\u00a0Rocinha<\/a>\u00a0in July 2013, and critiques Rio’s state government’s public security\u00a0policies and the implementation of the Pacifying Police Units (UPP)<\/a> in the favelas. Cerro Cor\u00e1, which has about three thousand residents, received its UPP on\u00a0June 3, 2013.<\/p>\n

Learn more about\u00a0Residents in Movement<\/a> and\u00a0the “Memories of Cerro Cor\u00e1<\/a>” exhibition\u00a0on Facebook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas For the original in Portuguese, published in Ag\u00eancia de Not\u00edcias das Favelas, click\u00a0here. This December,\u00a0Cerro Cor\u00e1, a favela located next to Christ the Redeemer\u00a0in Rio’s\u00a0South Zone, launched\u00a0the Cerro Cor\u00e1 Community Library. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":20304,"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":[1271,1503,329,1330],"tags":[1098,756,771,258,364,221,170,188,716,1292,172,1403,156],"writer":[1532],"translator":[946],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-favelaqualities","8":"category-opportunities-to-support-favelas","9":"category-solutions","10":"category-translation","11":"tag-cerro-cora","12":"tag-community-organizing","13":"tag-community-pride","14":"tag-community-solution","15":"tag-community-based-organization-cbo","16":"tag-favela-culture","17":"tag-historic-preservation","18":"tag-history","19":"tag-museum","20":"tag-organizing","21":"tag-santa-teresa","22":"tag-solution","23":"tag-south-zone","24":"writer-miriane-peregrino","25":"translator-amanda-bradshaw"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20222","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=20222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20222"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=20222"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=20222"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=20222"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=20222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}