{"id":27945,"date":"2016-04-06T02:23:13","date_gmt":"2016-04-06T05:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=27945"},"modified":"2016-04-06T02:26:54","modified_gmt":"2016-04-06T05:26:54","slug":"favelas-in-the-news-march-2016-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=27945","title":{"rendered":"Favelas In the News: March 2016 Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"

“March Madness” is typically associated with basketball in the United States but it’s an apt term for the past month in Brazil as well. In addition to the\u00a0country’s\u00a0political scandals, protests, and economic crisis, March in Rio<\/a>\u00a0also featured the single most intense day in Vila Aut\u00f3dromo’s struggle to date, escalating\u00a0eviction threats across the city, a spike in\u00a0tension\u00a0with police\u00a0in a number\u00a0of favelas, and innovative community media.\u00a0To help our readers digest the major news\u00a0and themes of the past month, we\u2019ve summarized the stories we published here on RioOnWatch<\/em> along with a few other must-reads in the media on favelas. Access past\u00a0monthly summaries\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and full digests here<\/a>.<\/h4>\n

A major highlight of the month was International Women’s Day\u00a0on March 8. RioOnWatch<\/em>\u00a0featured an interview<\/a> with M\u00f4nica Cunha,\u00a0a leading activist for penal reform and an outspoken critic of the systemic violence that killed\u00a0her son in 2006,\u00a0profiled a video<\/a> on a women’s baking and skill-share collective based in Baixada Fluminense, and\u00a0celebrated the inspiring warrior women<\/a> of Vila Aut\u00f3dromo.<\/p>\n

On International Women’s Day itself the home of Vila Aut\u00f3dromo activist Maria da Penha was demolished in the morning<\/a>, only hours before the Rio State Assembly honored her with a\u00a0Woman Citizen\u00a0award<\/a> for\u00a0her\u00a0fight for housing rights. On the same day, Mayor Eduardo Paes finally presented a plan for\u00a0upgrades<\/a>\u00a0to Vila Aut\u00f3dromo, a top-down proposal in stark contrast to\u00a0the community-developed\u00a0People’s Plan. The time and location of Paes’ press conference were changed last minute, preventing residents from attending<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Residents wrote publicly about the emotional and psychological exhaustion<\/a> they experienced through the drawn-out process of demolitions. Candombl\u00e9 practitioner, activist, and former Vila Aut\u00f3dromo resident Heloisa Helena published a letter calling on the United Nations<\/a> to recognize the neighborhood’s story as a case of human rights abuse. The community continued\u00a0to organize\u00a0creative resistance events,\u00a0hosting the launch<\/a> of Raquel Rolnik’s new book<\/a>\u00a0and later a race and ceremony with the Olympics Poverty Torch<\/a>, which has been passed between activists at Olympic host cities since Vancouver in 2010.<\/p>\n

Evictions in Vila Aut\u00f3dromo and\u00a0other\u00a0communities were highlighted in an open letter produced by street children from around the world\u00a0who participated in the\u00a0Street Child Games and\u00a0General Assembly<\/a> in Rio. Eviction threats have intensified in\u00a0favelas<\/span> including Babil\u00f4nia and Horto, where residents organized a march<\/a> to fight the removal of their homes from\u00a0the edge of the Botanical Garden.<\/p>\n

In other housing news, the Vito\u00a0Giannotti occupation in the Port Zone\u00a0continues to renovate and negotiate<\/a> to transform the site into public housing. Urban occupations and housing social movements were the focus\u00a0of recent events at Studio X<\/a> to celebrate the space’s five years in Rio.<\/p>\n

Community media was an important topic this month\u00a0as local platforms continue to democratize communication<\/a>. The GatoM\u00cdDIA media collective hosted a media and technology residency<\/a> in Complexo do Alem\u00e3o to\u00a0empower favela<\/span> youth to develop\u00a0their\u00a0natural creativity. Photography collective Imagens do Povo uses\u00a0art to engage in\u00a0a political struggle<\/a>\u00a0over portrayals of\u00a0favelas<\/span>, while in Complexo da Penha resident Cl\u00e1udia Sacramento Mathias\u00a0runs a community Facebook page<\/a> with daily information about security and local news.\u00a0Meanwhile, The Guardian<\/em> continued its series of articles written by favela\u00a0<\/span>journalists from Rocinha<\/a>, Complexo do Alem\u00e3o<\/a>, and Complexo da Mar\u00e9<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The newly launched N\u00f3s Por N\u00f3s<\/a> (Us for Us) app is designed to help individual citizens document police brutality. It exemplifies the potential of local media and technology, especially at this\u00a0moment when tension and conflict involving police in favelas is intensifying. Local, real-time documentation of violence is revolutionary given the long\u00a0history of outside actors producing, portraying, and commodifying violence in Rio’s favelas<\/span>, as highlighted in the book\u00a0Spectacular\u00a0Favela<\/span><\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Community media also creates new spaces to recognize community memory, and a new documentary<\/a> about City of God’s 50 years offers a view of the favela<\/span> that differs from the famous\u00a0City of God\u00a0<\/em>film. Favela<\/span> memory was the subject of an exhibit<\/a> in two of Rio’s metro stations in early March. In the Port Zone, the Museum of Tomorrow<\/span><\/span> remains controversial<\/a> as an installation that disregards the area’s\u00a0Afro-Brazilian memory.<\/p>\n

Finally, in a month of nationwide protests responding to ongoing\u00a0investigations into Brazil’s\u00a0political corruption,\u00a0many favela<\/span> residents\u00a0did not take to the streets<\/a> for or against the current government. More local-level\u00a0organizing, however, is thriving in places like Madureira Park, which has emerged as a center for mobilization<\/a>\u00a0in the North Zone.<\/p>\n

Look out for our next summary of articles from April\u00a0as we\u00a0enter the final 100 days to go until the Rio 2016 Olympics. For more information and links to favela news from the month, see our full Favela Digest for March\u00a02016<\/a>\u00a0here. You can subscribe to receive the\u00a0Favela Digest straight to your inbox each month here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Finally, we’re celebrating the first birthday of our English-language favela news wire,\u00a0RioONWire<\/a>, with a push to double its reach in April, so follow it<\/a> if you’re not already! RioONWire is just part of our compilation of Olympics Resources for Journalists<\/a>, now in soft launch, designed to facilitate productive reporting ahead of Rio 2016.<\/p>\n

Watch our\u00a0video of the emotional day for\u00a0Vila Aut\u00f3dromo on March 8:<\/h3>\n