{"id":29572,"date":"2016-10-04T07:30:43","date_gmt":"2016-10-04T10:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=29572"},"modified":"2020-08-19T11:39:19","modified_gmt":"2020-08-19T14:39:19","slug":"a-dive-into-history-the-formation-of-complexo-da-mare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=29572","title":{"rendered":"A Dive Into History: The Birth and Formation of Complexo da Mar\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Time of fear<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

What are our fears?<\/em>
\n In the time of fear there were rotten planks,<\/em>
\n Children falling into the water, gales, storms, rats, removals…<\/em>
\n In the time of fear there is the stray bullet,<\/em>
\n Violence, brutal death…<\/em>
\n The fears that haunt us\u00a0can paralyze us<\/em>
\n As well\u00a0as motivate us to fight<\/em>
\n For the transformation of reality.<\/em><\/p>\n

Poem on the wall at Museu da Mar\u00e9<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Today, Complexo da Mar\u00e9<\/a> is an agglomeration\u00a0of 16 favelas in Rio de Janeiro’s North Zone<\/a>,\u00a0the largest\u00a0complex of favelas<\/a> in the city. Its geographical delimitations are defined by the Guanabara Bay<\/a> and three intersecting highways: Linha Vermelha, Linha Amarela and Avenida Brasil. Home to approximately 130,000 people according to 2010 census data<\/a>, Mar\u00e9 was\u00a0officially recognized as a neighborhood in 1994. Though those 130,000 individuals have unique stories<\/a> and perspectives, the president of CEASM<\/a> (Mar\u00e9 Center of Solidarity Studies and Actions) Louren\u00e7o Cesar da Silva asserts<\/a>: \u201cThere is something universal in the [complex’s] history that\u00a0runs\u00a0through all of the communities of Mar\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in the pre-colonial era, this region was a quiet, tranquil place: home to an archipelago of nine islands in the Guanabara Bay where\u00a0fishermen had resided for over 8,000 years. Their ancestral memories are still reflected\u00a0in neighborhood names today, like Inha\u00fama, Timbau and Pinheiro.<\/p>\n

In the first half of the 20th century, the Brazilian Estado Novo<\/em>, the “New State” formed under President Get\u00falio Vargas,\u00a0had visionary projects for this wetland: a large industrial ring.\u00a0In 1946 the highway Variante Rio-Petr\u00f3polis, later named Avenida Brasil, was built\u00a0to improve the connection between the center of the city and its suburbs. This vast endeavor brought many industrial projects to the region creating an industrial zone offering ripe conditions for people to move and inhabit the area.<\/p>\n

Both the expansion of the southern region of the city, around Copacabana<\/a> and Botafogo<\/a>, and the construction of the Cidade Universit\u00e1ria, a university campus envisioned for an island that didn’t yet exist, demanded a lot of manpower. Between 1949 and 1952, in order to construct that campus, the Fund\u00e3o archipelago was drained and the original islands were annexed to form what is currently known as Ilha do Fund\u00e3o, located east of Mar\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Hence, the construction of Avenida Brasil<\/a> is fundamental to understanding Mar\u00e9, the way it evolved and the way it appears on the map today. Not only does it indicate one of its geographical boundaries, but more importantly it was the main reason for people to settle in the\u00a0vicinity and it provided the means for people to get building materials to construct their homes. Avenida Brasil symbolized work and progress. Even today, Avenida Brasil connects many\u00a0workers\u00a0and students of Mar\u00e9 to their jobs or universities in the South Zone<\/a> or city center. The highway\u00a0is always present<\/a> in the lives of residents.<\/p>\n

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

These large industrial projects happened at a time of severe drought in Brazil’s\u00a0northeastern region. This stimulated an exodus from the rural northeast to the southern cities of Rio and S\u00e3o Paulo. In Mar\u00e9, these domestic migrants joined local fishermen on the coast. Back then, Morro do Timbau<\/a> was the only mainland area, surrounded by water and swampland. As migration intensified, people built\u00a0stilt houses, known as palafitas<\/em>, on the water, creating the community of Baixa do Sapateiro<\/a> by 1940.<\/p>\n

These communities expanded\u00a0rapidly during the 1950s and 60s, as\u00a0more and more stilt houses occupied sandy, shallow banks. The communities of Parque Mar\u00e9, Parque Rubens Vaz<\/a> and Parque Uni\u00e3o<\/a> began to develop. Those were the days of the rola-rola<\/em><\/a>, crossing the newly built Avenida Brasil with large wooden barrels to get water in Bonsucesso. It was the epoch of the first category of fear according to this article’s opening poem: a\u00a0time of drowning,\u00a0gales and storms,\u00a0rotten wood, and\u00a0evictions.<\/p>\n

The favelization of the area reflects a large national trend of urbanization. Between 1950 and 1991 the percentage of Brazilians living in cities increased from 36.2% to 75.2%. The 1950s and 60s also coincided with modernization projects in the South\u00a0Zone and large removal processes in favelas<\/a>. Former president of the Timbau Neighborhood\u00a0Association<\/a> Ant\u00f4nio Carlos Pinto Vieira recalls: \u201cFrom that time, there\u2019s news about the removal process of those residents. Nevertheless it was also a process of resistance<\/a>. Mar\u00e9 is built on that basis<\/a>. The oldest Neighborhood\u00a0Association\u00a0emerged at that time too. Residents started to form local associations and demanded their rights be respected. The Timbau Neighborhood Association was formed in 1954 and Baixa do Sapateiro’s in 1956 or 1957.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the 60s’ military regime, under the authority of governor\u00a0Carlos Lacerda<\/a> (1961-1964), a grand modernization project swept through the city. Tunnels, viaducts and parks, concentrated in the South Zone, inaugurated the new postcard image of Rio de Janeiro. Many favelas in the South Zone\u00a0underwent forced evictions<\/a>, with residents moving to poorer and more remote areas like Mar\u00e9. The community Nova Holanda<\/a> was specifically constructed on a large landfill as a temporary housing project in 1960 to house those evictees. Until the early 80s, these six favelas\u2014Morro do Timbau<\/a>, Baixa do Sapateiro, Parque Mar\u00e9, Parque Rubens Vaz, Parque Uni\u00e3o and Nova Holanda\u2014formed the original configuration of Mar\u00e9.<\/p>\n

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

In 1979, during the dictatorship<\/a>, Project Rio was implemented by the National Housing Bank<\/a>. This project, established by the Ministry of the Interior, envisioned creating\u00a0another big landfill in the Guanabara Bay region. This time its focus was not the Fund\u00e3o archipelago but the communities of Mar\u00e9 itself. The project proposal entailed removing the favelas in Mar\u00e9 and importing a “modern” and “civilized” lifestyle.<\/p>\n

The different councils of the communities opposed this threat. The\u00a0eventual compromise allowed residents to stay\u00a0in the region but with\u00a0the palafitas<\/em> removed. Residents from those shacks were moved to housing complexes on other nearby landfills\u2014Vila do Jo\u00e3o<\/a>, Vila do Pinheiro<\/a>, Conjunto Pinheiro<\/a> and Conjunto Esperan\u00e7a<\/a>\u2014which each form one of Mar\u00e9’s favelas today. One could argue that this housing removal project in fact furthered the growth of favelas.<\/p>\n

Some residents today still recall the days when they would walk down the hill of Timbau and then pass streets of\u00a0stilted houses, or the time when they had to move from Baixa do Sapateiro to Vila do Jo\u00e3o.<\/p>\n

Four new communities were created in the 1980s while Nova Mar\u00e9<\/a> was built in the 1990s, when residents were removed from the last palafitas<\/em> standing on Ramos<\/a>\u00a0and Roquette Pinto<\/a>. Finally, Conjunto Salsa e Merengue<\/a>\u00a0was built by the government to house, primarily, residents affected by heavy rains in the 1990s. In 1994, the City\u00a0of Rio officially declared Bairro da Mar\u00e9 to be the 30th administrative region of Rio de Janeiro, establishing it as a\u00a0recognized neighborhood<\/a> like\u00a0Rocinha<\/a> and Complexo do Alem\u00e3o<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Each community in Mar\u00e9\u00a0has\u00a0its own history, yet the narrative of\u00a0communities forming quite literally out of the water, simultaneously through informal and formal processes, and welding into the existing favela complex, shapes a shared unique narrative for the neighborhood at large.\u00a0A gradual process of urban consolidation spanning\u00a0over 80 years does not hide the heterogeneities, complexities and identities working within this vast district. However, faced with processes of military occupation<\/a> and police interventions<\/a>, this historic diversity is suspended in the voice of resistance<\/a>. The universal element which binds Mar\u00e9, apart from its geography, and ties it to other favelas, is the right to resist and the claim for a voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Simon Marijsse is pursuing an\u00a0Advanced Masters degree in Conflict and Development at Ghent University, conducting ethnographic research\u00a0on contemporary religious narratives and changes. He is Editor for International Affairs for <\/em>Politheor: European Policy Network<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas Time of fear What are our fears? In the time of fear there were rotten planks, Children falling into the water, gales, storms, rats, removals… In the time of fear there […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":29809,"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":[1162,2362,1552,1144,280,1572,2264,1382,674,11,531,188,282,654,693,2265,511,1105,545,1143,618,37,281,1643,2262,2263,1147,362,2137,1952,2267,1142,1321],"writer":[2199],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-29572","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-army-occupation","11":"tag-asphalt-obsession","12":"tag-avenida-brasil","13":"tag-baixa-do-sapateiro","14":"tag-complexo-da-mare","15":"tag-conjunto-esperanca-mare","16":"tag-conjunto-pinheiro","17":"tag-development","18":"tag-memory","19":"tag-forced-evictions","20":"tag-guanabara-bay","21":"tag-history","22":"tag-housing","23":"tag-lacerda","24":"tag-landfill","25":"tag-linha-amarela","26":"tag-linha-vermelha","27":"tag-military-dictatorship","28":"tag-mobility","29":"tag-morro-do-timbau","30":"tag-neighborhood-association","31":"tag-north-zone","32":"tag-nova-holanda","33":"tag-nova-mare","34":"tag-palafitas","35":"tag-parque-mare","36":"tag-parque-roquette-pinto","37":"tag-parque-uniao","38":"tag-ramos","39":"tag-rubens-vaz","40":"tag-salsa-e-merengue","41":"tag-vila-do-joao","42":"tag-vila-do-pinheiro","43":"writer-simon-marijsse"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29572","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\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29572"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=29572"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=29572"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=29572"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=29572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}