{"id":22545,"date":"2015-07-14T08:30:02","date_gmt":"2015-07-14T11:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=22545"},"modified":"2017-08-11T08:00:14","modified_gmt":"2017-08-11T11:00:14","slug":"rio-the-reluctant-metropolis-introduction-to-the-baixada-fluminense-part-2-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=22545","title":{"rendered":"Rio, the Reluctant Metropolis: Introduction to the Baixada Fluminense, Part 2 of 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

This is the second\u00a0article in a series\u00a0by researcher Stephanie Reist,* on Rio\u2019s Metropolitan region. It is part 2 of 2 articles introducing the Baixada Fluminense. For part 1 on the region’s history and economy, click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Culture and Activism in the Baixada <\/b><\/h3>\n

The characterization of the Baixada Fluminense<\/a> as a violent and poverty-ridden periphery fails to recognize the economic, historic, and cultural significance of the region in shaping Rio de Janeiro and Brazil as a whole. Due to the large number of mostly black migrants from Brazil\u2019s Northeast, the Baixada has one of the highest concentrations of Candombl\u00e9 and Umbanda terreiros, <\/i>or Afro-Brazilian religious sites, in the State of Rio<\/a>. Casa-Grande de Mesquita is the continuation of one of the oldest terreiros<\/i> in the region, and important candombl\u00e9 priestesses like M\u00e3e Meninazinha de Oxum<\/a> in S\u00e3o Jo\u00e3o de Meriti and M\u00e3e Beate de Iemanj\u00e1<\/a> in Nova Igua\u00e7u<\/a> have been practicing in the Baixada for decades. Famed Afro-Brazilian poet and artist Solano Trindade also called Duque the Caxias<\/a> home and one of the most successful occupations<\/a> in the city is named after him.<\/p>\n

The Baixada is also home to a host of other important cultural producers. The anti-sexism collective Roque Pense!<\/a>\u00a0organizes an annual festival of female rock bands that coincides with International Women\u2019s Day in order to combat violence against women. Territ\u00f3rio Baixada<\/a> is a series of debates and exhibitions involving\u00a0cultural producers, activists, and researchers that seeks to integrate and reshape the region.<\/p>\n

Many local community leaders\u00a0and organizations are also working to reshape the image of the Baixada. After one of Rio’s most violent massacres<\/a>,\u00a0in which Military Police indiscriminately killed 30 people on the night of March 31, 2005 in Nova Igua\u00e7u and Queimados,\u00a0the Dioceses of Nova Igua\u00e7u and Duque de Caxias came together with local activists to form F\u00f3rum Grita Baixada<\/a>\u00a0(Scream Baixada Forum) to denounce violence and monitor human rights abuses in the region. Casa Fluminense<\/a>, established in 2013, advocates for public policies that contribute to the \u201cstrengthening of democracy and sustainable development\u201d in the Baixada and Greater Rio as a whole. The two organizations recently joined forces\u00a0during the month of April to offer a course on public security<\/a> taught by local activists and researchers.<\/p>\n

Regional Integration: A Path Forward? <\/b><\/h3>\n

Many activists and policymakers see greater regional integration as the path forward in the Baixada Fluminense. In August 2014, Rio de Janeiro State Governor Luis Fernando Pez\u00e3o signed a decree creating the Metropolitan\u00a0Council for Governmental Integration<\/a> (CIG) for the Rio Metropolitan area. Representatives from all 21 municipalities in Greater Rio will come to discuss and advance public policies that impact the entire metropolitan area.<\/p>\n

To jumpstart its work, the Council, together with VozeRio<\/i><\/a> and the Institute for the Study of Labor\u00a0and Society (IETS) held a series of open debates called Rio Metropolitano: Desafios Compartilhados<\/i><\/a> (Metropolitan Rio: Shared Challenges) that invited municipal officials and civil society to discuss regional integration. Four debates were held in four different municipalities in the region: sanitation was discussed on May 5 in Duque de Caxias, transportation on May 11 in Nova Igua\u00e7u, public security in Niter\u00f3i on May\u00a020, and health on May 28 in S\u00e3o Gon\u00e7alo. The series closed on June 1 at the Federation of Industries (FIRJAN) headquarters in the center of Rio.<\/p>\n

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

The push for integration, however, is almost as old as calls for urban reform that take into account Rio\u2019s favelas. Rio has been attempting to integrate the governance of the region since its capital city status was transferred to Bras\u00edlia in 1960, and more so since 1975 when the state of Guanabara, which previously contained only the capital city of Rio, and the state of Rio de Janeiro, which previously contained all other municipalities in the state with\u00a0Niter\u00f3i<\/a> as its capital, merged together.<\/p>\n

Though the transition from national capital and\u00a0state,\u00a0to state capital and regional metropolis happened over 40 years ago, Rio de Janeiro continues to struggle with its role as metropolis. Even the planning of mega-events like the Olympics is concentrated in\u00a0the city, and some argue only in the city’s wealthy South Zone<\/a>\u00a0and gated community-modeled\u00a0Barra da Tijuca<\/a>, rather than<\/a> across the metropolitan region as a whole<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For part 1 on the region’s history and economy, click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

*Stephanie Reist is pursuing both a Masters in Public Policy and a PhD in Latin American Studies at Duke University. In Rio, she has been working as a Felsman Fellow at Projeto Ra\u00edzes Locais, a community-based project run by Associa\u00e7\u00e3o Terra dos Homens,<\/a> in Mangueirinha, Duque de Caxias. Her research looks at center-periphery dynamics, belonging and citizenship, and land rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas This is the second\u00a0article in a series\u00a0by researcher Stephanie Reist,* on Rio\u2019s Metropolitan region. It is part 2 of 2 articles introducing the Baixada Fluminense. For part 1 on the region’s […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":22550,"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":[662,460,1500,1713,504,694,2496,1197,25,576,1360,996,551,122,1292,809,120],"writer":[1716],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22545","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-baixada-fluminense","12":"tag-candomble","13":"tag-casa-fluminense","14":"tag-culture","15":"tag-duque-de-caxias","16":"tag-forum-grita-baixada","17":"tag-greater-rio","18":"tag-human-rights","19":"tag-integration","20":"tag-mage","21":"tag-metropolitan-region","22":"tag-niteroi","23":"tag-nova-iguacu","24":"tag-organizing","25":"tag-public-security","26":"tag-sao-goncalo","27":"writer-stephanie-reist"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22545","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\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22545"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=22545"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=22545"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=22545"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=22545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}